Author's Note: I have conquered the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvviiillllllll bane of the writer's existence. Nevermore shall I suffer under the yoke of curbed creativity! I have killed the beast! ::thinks about this for a second:: Well, maybe I haven't destroyed the dams of my creative channels forever, but it'll be a while before they dare show their ugly faces around here again. ::glares at writer's blocks::
Yes, this is my new chapter! Whooppeeee! I finally wrote it, and here it is for your reading enjoyment! Read on, dear readers!
Chapter 14: Unexpected ResourcesAlanna bit her lip and opened her eyes again. Her mind was still completely blank. The two Ysandir laughed nastily.
"Don't know what to do, little mortal child?" They'd finished their chanting and now were simply waiting to humiliate their victims as much as possible before crushing them like a bug. "Maybe you should go home to your mother, like the weak little girl you are."
Alanna glared pure hate. "You may be about to kill me," she snarled, "but if you do, I'm going to scream my way back to life and vanquish your demonic hide into the after-afterlife, so help me Goddess. And you will never get me to cry home to my mother!"
The immortals cackled even louder at Alanna's outburst. Through an angry red haze, something in Alanna's mind clicked. So help me Goddess, cry home to my mother… The Great Mother Goddess!
"This is no ordinary sword…" spoke a voice out of memory.
Alanna suddenly grinned, a threateningly feral smile. "Highness," she whispered. "I know what to do. Take care of our shields. I'll do the rest." She gave the last of her magic to her companion and drew her sword. The blade flashed in the magical light and the crystal blazed a clear bright white-amethyst. The two Ysandir drew back and hissed at the crystal's glow.
"Like to challenge me, Ylon? It should be easy to beat a weak little girl, right?" Alanna taunted the male Ysandir. He snarled and a black, two-edged blade appeared in his hand. Like the altar, the sword absorbed all light, sucking up the brilliance of Lightning's crystal.
Ylon stepped forward, Ylanda a step behind him, still grasping his hand. The dark blade shrieked down through the air in a ferocious arc. Alanna brought her sword up to block the strike, arm muscles screaming as she stopped the down-sweeping blade. Lightning blazed, and miraculously, did not break. The dark sword drank in Lightning's fire as Ylon backed away, Ylanda retreating a step behind him. His big chest was heaving, and there was perspiration on his face.
Alanna circled him, eyes never leaving his body. Her perception narrowed to the sheen of the blade in his hand, the strain of muscles in his abdomen. She disregarded the prince's encouraging squeeze, the evil chanting of Ylanda in the background. All that mattered was the weapon in Ylon's hand.
He struck at her again; Alanna easily deflected the blow, her confidence increasing. His strike was clumsy, his strategy flawed. He was sweating profusely, and some of it bore the unmistakable tang of fear-sweat. He may have been immortal, but he was definitely no swordsman.
The prince was speaking softly behind her, uttering unfamiliar syllables she paid no attention to. The fire surrounding him and Alanna blazed, and the girl yelled with triumph. She swung Lightning up and around in a complex move that brought the swords together, hilt to hilt. The black sword shattered with the impact.
Alanna slashed at the immortals' linked hands. The globe of sickly yellow-green light exploded, and the two Ysandir screamed with rage and fear. The prince uttered a word of command, throwing the last of their magical reserves into the spell. Blue-violet light flooded over the immortals. They flared up like giant twin torches as everything went black.
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Whooppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! I have lots and lots of reviewers to reply to! Ain't that grand? It shouah is. (Translation: Isn't that great? Darn right it is.) Let's get to work on all my happy review replies! Here we go…
Neona: How do you know I won't kill Alanna and Jonathan? Oh wait, ha ha. You read this chapter. But they could still die. The blackness could be death. They could be dead. But if it was, I wouldn't say that, now would I? ::thinks about this for a minute, then gives up and scratches head:: I don't know. I might. But maybe I wouldn't. But maybe I would…
Keziah: Indeed, writer's block is the pits. But I have slaughtered the beast! It's dead! Dead dead dead! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Starfire: As you see, I have added more, but I'm afraid it will not be A/J. I've already stated my reasons why it won't. I'm sorry if you're upset about that, but I just can't see her with him. They're not meant to be. I hope the Jon bashing doesn't make you unhappy, but it's just so much fun to write. I derive such enjoyment from it.
Temptress: Wow, you could write a nine-step plan for vanquishing writer's block. You've got mad skills. But actually, my blockage was specific to this chapter. I even knew what was going to happen, but I just couldn't find the words. I had the whole thing planned out, but I couldn't make it flow, so I didn't write it, because I was sure it would be bad if I forced it. It always is. But I have killed the beast, and now the chapter's up! ::cheers wildly and dances around::
Morrigan: ::stares in slack-jawed amazement at the sheer volume of that review:: Holy crap! Don't DO that to me! Long does not mean never-ending, Morrigan! Long means under a page, if put into twelve point font and pasted into a word processor program. For experimental purposes I copied your review and pasted it into Microsoft word, put it in 12 point and Times New Roman, and checked the pages. TWENTY-FOUR PAGES, MORRIGAN! TWENTY-FOUR! And then, to further illustrate my point, I just deleted all the useless blank lines. That reduces it to only three. Now we'll get rid of all the pointless meanderings. That makes it eleven lines, which is what your review SHOULD have been. Yes, I like long reviews, but only when they include stuff of substance. Pointless ramblings completely irrelevant to anything and everything is NOT my idea of a review. ::glares:: I hope you've learned your lesson.
Barrannilwen: Haha. Senior year. I'll bet you're having fun filling out college applications and everything. My sister's having a terrible time with them. She filled out one application about twenty times because she kept messing up. Pathetic, ne? But studying is so much unfunness. Like me, I have a lot of pointless homework due tomorrow, (tomorrow being Monday) that I haven't even started. The only thing I've done this weekend related to school is to wash my gym uniform. It's going to really suck once I decide to start doing it.
Lady Arianna: What Bazhir dude? You mean Itar, one of the other apprentices? He's too much of a little boy. I definitely don't think she'll end up with him. I don't know who the someone else will be, she could easily end up with George too. I have no idea yet. Her love life is currently nonexistent. Don't worry, it would be very hard to get me to stop writing. You'd have to be my math teacher to be able to do it. (God, I HATE her. What kind of sadist gives homework the very DAY she gave an impossible test, which, by the way, I got a 67% on. Grrrrrrrr, I hate her. But that's beside the point.) I think I've kind of lost the point of this answer, so I'll just stop talking now.
Bookwom: You meant worm, right? Or are you really a bookwom? Well, anyway, I know I'm mean, and it was an evil cliffhangar, but it makes it all the better now that I've updated, right?
Maria: Alanna's love life hasn't gotten started yet, and will eventually, but not in the foreseeable future, and definitely not in THIS story. Chances are she WILL be hard to get, and that she WON'T end up with Jonathan. I'm open to practically anyone but Jonathan. And Roger, and Alex. Don't like them either. Never liked Alex. Not even before he was evil.
Magelet: Thank you! That is the nicest thing I've ever gotten in a review! ::sobs happily and tearily reaches for the Kleenex box::
Yay! Now it's time for everybody to REVIEW! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!