Hey, before we start, I just want to explain something. Kay? *Readers
chuck dictionaries, scissors and gigantic geography map books at Maddy*
Meep! *Ducks as an Encyclopedia Britannica flies over her head* Geez! I
just want to say that whatever's happening with Me'n Meron is starting at
the same time that whatever's happening with everybody else starts. One
isn't after or before the other. Got it? Goody! On with the show! Erm,
story.
~*~
"OUCH!" Cat shouted. "Could you tie me any tighter?" She added sarcastically.
"Substantially, yes." Raoul said.
Cat glared at the large man and lashed out at him with her foot, hitting him squarely in the shin. She smiled triumphantly and blinked at Raoul as if to say, 'it wasn't on purpose, I swear!'
Raoul pulled the rope extra tight, binding Cat to a large tree, and tied the knot. "There," he said, "That should keep you."
"Meanie." Cat muttered, trying futilely to kick Raoul again.
Rosefyre groaned. "Are we going to get help or what? Because I'm not really up to bleeding to death here."
"You're going to die?" Asked Krizsta. "Oh no! Rose's going to die! Somebody save her before she croaks!"
"I'm not going to die." Rosefyre said, softly.
"You're going to die?" Maria asked, overhearing. "Oh no! Why hasn't anybody helped you? Because it's not good if you die!" She screamed and attempted to run around, but fell over because of a huge gash from her knee to her ankle.
"I'M NOT GOING TO DIE, DAMMIT!" Rosefyre yelled.
"Now what did I tell you about screaming?" Lady Light asked.
"I can see to a few people," said Neal, he picked up Kate. "Could you grab Olivia, Raoul, and Rosefyre, can you walk? I heard somebody say you were dying."
Rosefyre glared daggers at Neal and stood up, wobbling slightly. "I can walk." She followed Raoul, Olivia, Neal and Kate, leaning on Raoul for support.
"Shouldn't you see to Kaitlin?" Diana asked. "As she's fainted!"
"She's not hurt, though." Numair said. "It's best if she regains consciousness on her own, instead of with magical aid."
"I get a word of that." Cleon said. "Do you have a translator button or something?"
Numair pursed his lips, looking more like an old lady than a middle-aged man.
"Hahaha!" Laughed Peter, "You look more like an old lady than a middle- aged man! Hahaha!"
"You look like someone though," Kathryn said. "I'll think of it later."
"Hey guess what!" Liney exclaimed.
"What?" Raganas asked, bored, just barely staying awake. Occasionally she closed her eyes and drifted off slightly.
"You know, I thought of something, but then I forgot." Liney said sounding disappointed. "So, the end I suppose."
Alanna frowned and looked like she was eating something sour, "Why can't you ever remember these things? It was probably something important."
"That's who you looked like, Numair!" Kathryn yelled triumphantly. "You looked like Alanna!"
Numair and Alanna looked at Kathryn sourly. Kathryn looked at them and scuttled over to hide behind Marc. "Could you loosen up on my kidneys, Kath?" Marc asked.
"Sorry," Kathryn said loosening her safety grip on Marc's middle.
"Hold that thought," Marc said, turning and running off, "I really need to take a piss now!"
"Thanks for that wonderful little tidbit of information." Caprice said, grimacing.
"Ooh, I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach by a horse, or a rather large dog." Kaitlin said, blinking several times in rapid succession to clear her vision. She turned to Diana, "now who are you?"
"I'm-um-the angel of death." Diana said, thinking quickly. "You're dead. So sorry about that."
"This is heaven?" Kaitlin asked. "What a disappointment."
"Don't make me sit on your head." Maria said. "It's as clean as I could get it."
"I'm not insulting your cleaning, marm," Kaitlin apologized quickly, "just that I thought heaven would be more, you know, snazzy."
"SOCK PUPPETS!" Yelled Kate, still unconscious.
"Nothing's wrong!" Neal shouted, "everything's perfectly under control! Kate is not going absolutely loony and I don't need any help!"
"You're not actually dead, Kaitlin," Kaytee said, "but you were knocked out for a bit."
"Oh." Kaitlin said. "That just dries the fun outta everything, don't it?"
"Yes, it does." Lady Light agreed, "but on recent news I hear that Kate has gone absolutely loony and Neal needs some help."
"Why didn't he say so?" Alanna exclaimed.
"Well, with him, you haveta read between the lines a little." Peter said. "Boy, do you ever. It drives Mom up the wall."
"Yeah," Samkin said, "it's fun to watch."
"Yeah, I would like to see Yuki go crazy." Raganas said, nodding.
Kate regained consciousness immediately. There was a faint but constant growling noise coming from the back of her throat and if she were a dog she might have frothed at the mouth. "Did somebody say 'Yuki'?" She asked slowly but in a deadly tone, raking glares over everyone.
"That was me." Raganas said, happily oblivious.
"What's the matter with my wife?" Neal asked Kate softly, stroking Kate's hair out of her eyes.
Kate was instantly subdued. "Nothin'."
"Are you okay?" Peter asked walking up behind his father, accidentally trodding upon Olivia's uninjured arm.
Olivia awoke with a start. "Don't make me eat you," she said to Peter, smacking his leg with her still injured arm.
"Don't move that arm anymore!" Alanna cried. "You'll only make it worse. I'll help you as soon as I'm done with Rosefyre."
"Yeah," Diana said, "because if Alanna doesn't help Rose, Rose's gonna die!"
"Serious?" Olivia asked. "Can we burn her carcass if she does croak?"
"That's just gross, Snolive," Liney said. "Besides, we don't have any more flint."
"I'm not going to die!" Snarled Rosefyre.
"One can never be sure about these things." Marc said.
"Well that's you done, Miss." Alanna said, patting Rosefyre's leg on which there was only a long scar extending from her thigh to the middle of her shin. Alanna gestured for Olivia to step over and get her shoulder healed.
"Wow, I didn't even feel it!" Rosefyre exclaimed.
"Yeah and I didn't hear and screams of intense agony!" Cleon cried.
"And I didn't even know you knew those words!" Kel called out.
"I didn't either." Cleon said. "I surprise myself sometimes."
"That's okay," Caprice said twirling her finger in a circle around the left side of her head to imitate just exactly what she thought of Cleon.
"Well, what do we do now?" Dom asked Numair. "We aren't supposed to fight anymore, are we?"
"No," Numair said, "I don't think so."
"Then what do we do?" Lady Light asked. "The suspense is tearing me apart!"
Krizsta yawned. "Not me," she said, "I'm going to sleep, see you tomorrow."
"But Kriz, it's the afternoon!" Samkin told her.
"I know that." Krizsta said back, "but I'm tired. So, toodles!" She stood up, brushed imaginary dirt off her breeches and walked to a tent. She opened the flap and crawled inside. After a few minutes her snores could be heard, slow, easy and unconcerned.
Gregory snickered. "Krizsta snores."
"No?" Kate asked sarcastically, "Really?"
"You really can't hear her?" Gregory asked, completely serious. "Wow, it sounds like somebody's pulling down a bridge!"
"I think she was being sarcastic." Samkin said.
Gregory did some quick thinking. "Yes...I was just, erm, testing you! That's it. Testing you."
Amy opened one eye from her meditative state. "Could you all possibly squabble over there?" She asked. "I'm trying to concentrate."
"It's that inner chi thing all over again, isn't it?" Maria asked. "Great."
"That's you done, too!" Alanna said to Olivia. "Be easy on that arm for a day. No heavy lifting, no sling-shooting, things like that."
"No sex." Dom said, with all seriousness.
"Damn." Olivia said, grinning.
"Who else is hurt?" Neal asked. "Lady Light, pop on over here for a sec."
Lady Light walked over to Neal and removed her hand from a bleeding part of her stomach. Her hand was vivid red from the blood that had flowed onto it. She grinned sheepishly at Neal, "It doesn't hurt. It's just not very stylish."
"I can help somebody, as well." Alanna said. "Caprice? Are you hurt?"
"Yessum." Said Caprice. She turned her face and showed Alanna a rather large, but shallow, cut from the middle of her right cheek, over her eye, and to right above her nose.
"You're lucky this didn't hit your eye!" Alanna said. "There wouldn't be much I could do. I take it somebody did this with a rapier. Never liked those things myself, they don't cut as deep as regular swords."
"Will you leave a scar?" Caprice asked. "I think it looks stylish."
"I would have said the same thing." Alanna grinned. "It's quite dashing."
"Say, I just remembered something!" Kate exclaimed. "I can heal, too!"
"Heal me, Nurse Kate!" Diana said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Okaly-dokaly, patient Diana." Kate said, gathering blue fire in the palm of her hand. "I hope I don't kill you by mistake."
"Me too." Diana said, beginning to have second thoughts about this whole operation.
"I believe I could heal somebody, too." Numair said. "Diana, you can try as well."
"What about me, Numnums?" Raganas asked.
"Well for one thing," Numair said, "we're all out of injured people. And second, your magic is best for war purposes and can sometimes go haywire when it's used for healing."
Maria and Krizsta ambled up. Numair said a word and the gash on Maria's leg rippled like water and disappeared.
"That was awesome!" Maria cried. "Can I learn to do that?"
"No." Numair said. "It only works for me, as I made up the spell. Sorry."
"Those of us who have to do it the long way," Diana said, "We shun you. We cast you from our intimate circle."
"You're done, Caprice." Alanna said. "I left you the scar like you asked. The swelling will go down in less than an hour."
"Swelling?" Caprice asked, nervously, feeling her face.
"She's jokin'." George said, leaning on his wife, who was almost a foot and a half shorter than him.
"Don't lean on me 'home boy'," Alanna growled at her husband.
Liney fell over. "HOME BOY!" She then commenced to laugh hysterically as people slowly inched away and Gregory sat on her stomach. "Uuf. Get off me, kumquat."
"You're done, Lady." Neal said to Lady Light, giving her a hand up.
"You, too." Diana said to Krizsta, brushing off her hands, making sparks of green magic fly off of them.
"And you." Kate said to Diana. "And I believe you are still alive."
Diana crossed her arms in mock irritation. "Good, because if I'm dead, I'm suing."
~*~
"Well," Maddy asked. "What are your questions?"
"Firstly, I want to tell you that if you can somehow get a Mister Arram Draper in here you will be free." Jillian said. "Now, I would like to ask you-"
"Wait!" Maddy said. "I need to ask you something first."
"Not the time, Maddy," Meron hissed in her ear.
"What do you want, girl?" Jillian growled.
"Could you make me a sandwich?" Maddy asked. "I haven't had anything to eat today but a pear, and that might have been yesterday."
Shaking with anger Jillian pulled an expensive-looking dagger out of one of the folds in her dress. "If you are going to fool with me I'm going to fool with you." She said slowly. "Now it only takes one idiot to answer a few questions, doesn't it? Now which idiot will be the one to stay and which will be the one to go?" She grinned at Maddy and said, "I think I know who will be the one to go."
Maddy yelped and scurried to hide behind a table, she tripped on an unevenly placed floor stone and fell behind Nell.
"Move aside, Nell." Jillian growled. "I've almost got her."
"No." Nell said softly, and then louder. "No, Jillian."
"Ex-excuse me?" Jillian stuttered, throwing the dagger to the ground, where it clattered loudly and skidded to Meron's feet. Jillian, however, did not notice. "You dare stand up to me, Nell? How d-dare you!"
"Your reign of terror here is over, Jillian." Nell said. "And I will put an end to it myself."
"You wo-wouldn't." Jillian said, grabbing for something on a table at her back without letting her eyes off Nell who was advancing slowly. "Not after all I've done for you."
"Like bossing me around while you laze about?" Nell asked, almost unsure of what she was hearing.
Jillian had found what she was looking for: A large glass bottle with a multicolored liquid in it. The liquid glowed, not one color, but seemingly every color imaginable and it did not reflect light, but drew it in and absorbed it. "Take one more step toward me and I'll do it!" Jillian threatened, waving the bottle about by the neck. "I'm warning you."
Nell stopped in her tracks. Maddy almost ran into her. "What's in there?" Maddy asked Nell. "That colored stuff."
"It's all the magic from all over Tortall." Nell said, shuddering. "If she uncorks the lid that little bottle has enough power to destroy all of Tortall."
"Could have fooled me." Maddy said. "It looks like booze."
Meron chuckled despite the current situation, and then he noticed something. He bent down slowly, as to not attract attention and picked up the dagger at his feet. He then slowly arose and caught Nell's eye. "Catch!" Meron yelled as he threw the dagger at her, the handle first.
Nell caught the dagger and plunged it into Jillian's stone cold heart. She smiled triumphantly as Jillian tried to scream but couldn't. Jillian fell to the ground with a flop and stopped moving, still glaring at Nell, the one who had betrayed her. The one who had betrayed her to her death.
"Say," Nell said, "that was enough adventure for one day. Let's say we go back to your camp. Are there any cute guys there?"
Maddy winked at Meron and said, "Yeah sure, but then we got Meron, and well- "
"Hey!" Meron said, crossing his arms. "Women."
~*~
WOOT! I'm finally almost done. Aw, I'm sorry, I know that probably doesn't overwhelm you. But think of it this way, the sooner I'm done, the sooner you get to read the sequel! Hehe. Now you see it my way. Actually I'm looking forward to taking a break. Whoo.
What'll happen in the next chapter, roughly:
We all go somewhere to celebrate! I'm not sure if it's just going to be somebody's house or a tavern or something, but we'll go somewhere! Hehe.
There'll be a lot of pairing off and stuff like that. *Wink, wink*
And finally, we'll make a few decisions. Like, who wants to go home, and who would like to stay. Tell me in a review whether you want to stay. If you don't review, I'm sending you home, Missy! Hehe. That sounds like something Grandma would say.
So, I hope you liked it! I expect maybe there's only one more chapter and the epilogue left. *Dances around* This is so exciting! I'm finally finishing something I started. *Frolics around* Please review! Any things I should improve? Am I a horrible speller? Do I have bad "sentence structure"? I hate English class for teaching me about that. *Shudders* Evil. Well, toodles!
Luv,
Maddy
P.S. CRACKERS!
~*~
"OUCH!" Cat shouted. "Could you tie me any tighter?" She added sarcastically.
"Substantially, yes." Raoul said.
Cat glared at the large man and lashed out at him with her foot, hitting him squarely in the shin. She smiled triumphantly and blinked at Raoul as if to say, 'it wasn't on purpose, I swear!'
Raoul pulled the rope extra tight, binding Cat to a large tree, and tied the knot. "There," he said, "That should keep you."
"Meanie." Cat muttered, trying futilely to kick Raoul again.
Rosefyre groaned. "Are we going to get help or what? Because I'm not really up to bleeding to death here."
"You're going to die?" Asked Krizsta. "Oh no! Rose's going to die! Somebody save her before she croaks!"
"I'm not going to die." Rosefyre said, softly.
"You're going to die?" Maria asked, overhearing. "Oh no! Why hasn't anybody helped you? Because it's not good if you die!" She screamed and attempted to run around, but fell over because of a huge gash from her knee to her ankle.
"I'M NOT GOING TO DIE, DAMMIT!" Rosefyre yelled.
"Now what did I tell you about screaming?" Lady Light asked.
"I can see to a few people," said Neal, he picked up Kate. "Could you grab Olivia, Raoul, and Rosefyre, can you walk? I heard somebody say you were dying."
Rosefyre glared daggers at Neal and stood up, wobbling slightly. "I can walk." She followed Raoul, Olivia, Neal and Kate, leaning on Raoul for support.
"Shouldn't you see to Kaitlin?" Diana asked. "As she's fainted!"
"She's not hurt, though." Numair said. "It's best if she regains consciousness on her own, instead of with magical aid."
"I get a word of that." Cleon said. "Do you have a translator button or something?"
Numair pursed his lips, looking more like an old lady than a middle-aged man.
"Hahaha!" Laughed Peter, "You look more like an old lady than a middle- aged man! Hahaha!"
"You look like someone though," Kathryn said. "I'll think of it later."
"Hey guess what!" Liney exclaimed.
"What?" Raganas asked, bored, just barely staying awake. Occasionally she closed her eyes and drifted off slightly.
"You know, I thought of something, but then I forgot." Liney said sounding disappointed. "So, the end I suppose."
Alanna frowned and looked like she was eating something sour, "Why can't you ever remember these things? It was probably something important."
"That's who you looked like, Numair!" Kathryn yelled triumphantly. "You looked like Alanna!"
Numair and Alanna looked at Kathryn sourly. Kathryn looked at them and scuttled over to hide behind Marc. "Could you loosen up on my kidneys, Kath?" Marc asked.
"Sorry," Kathryn said loosening her safety grip on Marc's middle.
"Hold that thought," Marc said, turning and running off, "I really need to take a piss now!"
"Thanks for that wonderful little tidbit of information." Caprice said, grimacing.
"Ooh, I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach by a horse, or a rather large dog." Kaitlin said, blinking several times in rapid succession to clear her vision. She turned to Diana, "now who are you?"
"I'm-um-the angel of death." Diana said, thinking quickly. "You're dead. So sorry about that."
"This is heaven?" Kaitlin asked. "What a disappointment."
"Don't make me sit on your head." Maria said. "It's as clean as I could get it."
"I'm not insulting your cleaning, marm," Kaitlin apologized quickly, "just that I thought heaven would be more, you know, snazzy."
"SOCK PUPPETS!" Yelled Kate, still unconscious.
"Nothing's wrong!" Neal shouted, "everything's perfectly under control! Kate is not going absolutely loony and I don't need any help!"
"You're not actually dead, Kaitlin," Kaytee said, "but you were knocked out for a bit."
"Oh." Kaitlin said. "That just dries the fun outta everything, don't it?"
"Yes, it does." Lady Light agreed, "but on recent news I hear that Kate has gone absolutely loony and Neal needs some help."
"Why didn't he say so?" Alanna exclaimed.
"Well, with him, you haveta read between the lines a little." Peter said. "Boy, do you ever. It drives Mom up the wall."
"Yeah," Samkin said, "it's fun to watch."
"Yeah, I would like to see Yuki go crazy." Raganas said, nodding.
Kate regained consciousness immediately. There was a faint but constant growling noise coming from the back of her throat and if she were a dog she might have frothed at the mouth. "Did somebody say 'Yuki'?" She asked slowly but in a deadly tone, raking glares over everyone.
"That was me." Raganas said, happily oblivious.
"What's the matter with my wife?" Neal asked Kate softly, stroking Kate's hair out of her eyes.
Kate was instantly subdued. "Nothin'."
"Are you okay?" Peter asked walking up behind his father, accidentally trodding upon Olivia's uninjured arm.
Olivia awoke with a start. "Don't make me eat you," she said to Peter, smacking his leg with her still injured arm.
"Don't move that arm anymore!" Alanna cried. "You'll only make it worse. I'll help you as soon as I'm done with Rosefyre."
"Yeah," Diana said, "because if Alanna doesn't help Rose, Rose's gonna die!"
"Serious?" Olivia asked. "Can we burn her carcass if she does croak?"
"That's just gross, Snolive," Liney said. "Besides, we don't have any more flint."
"I'm not going to die!" Snarled Rosefyre.
"One can never be sure about these things." Marc said.
"Well that's you done, Miss." Alanna said, patting Rosefyre's leg on which there was only a long scar extending from her thigh to the middle of her shin. Alanna gestured for Olivia to step over and get her shoulder healed.
"Wow, I didn't even feel it!" Rosefyre exclaimed.
"Yeah and I didn't hear and screams of intense agony!" Cleon cried.
"And I didn't even know you knew those words!" Kel called out.
"I didn't either." Cleon said. "I surprise myself sometimes."
"That's okay," Caprice said twirling her finger in a circle around the left side of her head to imitate just exactly what she thought of Cleon.
"Well, what do we do now?" Dom asked Numair. "We aren't supposed to fight anymore, are we?"
"No," Numair said, "I don't think so."
"Then what do we do?" Lady Light asked. "The suspense is tearing me apart!"
Krizsta yawned. "Not me," she said, "I'm going to sleep, see you tomorrow."
"But Kriz, it's the afternoon!" Samkin told her.
"I know that." Krizsta said back, "but I'm tired. So, toodles!" She stood up, brushed imaginary dirt off her breeches and walked to a tent. She opened the flap and crawled inside. After a few minutes her snores could be heard, slow, easy and unconcerned.
Gregory snickered. "Krizsta snores."
"No?" Kate asked sarcastically, "Really?"
"You really can't hear her?" Gregory asked, completely serious. "Wow, it sounds like somebody's pulling down a bridge!"
"I think she was being sarcastic." Samkin said.
Gregory did some quick thinking. "Yes...I was just, erm, testing you! That's it. Testing you."
Amy opened one eye from her meditative state. "Could you all possibly squabble over there?" She asked. "I'm trying to concentrate."
"It's that inner chi thing all over again, isn't it?" Maria asked. "Great."
"That's you done, too!" Alanna said to Olivia. "Be easy on that arm for a day. No heavy lifting, no sling-shooting, things like that."
"No sex." Dom said, with all seriousness.
"Damn." Olivia said, grinning.
"Who else is hurt?" Neal asked. "Lady Light, pop on over here for a sec."
Lady Light walked over to Neal and removed her hand from a bleeding part of her stomach. Her hand was vivid red from the blood that had flowed onto it. She grinned sheepishly at Neal, "It doesn't hurt. It's just not very stylish."
"I can help somebody, as well." Alanna said. "Caprice? Are you hurt?"
"Yessum." Said Caprice. She turned her face and showed Alanna a rather large, but shallow, cut from the middle of her right cheek, over her eye, and to right above her nose.
"You're lucky this didn't hit your eye!" Alanna said. "There wouldn't be much I could do. I take it somebody did this with a rapier. Never liked those things myself, they don't cut as deep as regular swords."
"Will you leave a scar?" Caprice asked. "I think it looks stylish."
"I would have said the same thing." Alanna grinned. "It's quite dashing."
"Say, I just remembered something!" Kate exclaimed. "I can heal, too!"
"Heal me, Nurse Kate!" Diana said, grinning from ear to ear.
"Okaly-dokaly, patient Diana." Kate said, gathering blue fire in the palm of her hand. "I hope I don't kill you by mistake."
"Me too." Diana said, beginning to have second thoughts about this whole operation.
"I believe I could heal somebody, too." Numair said. "Diana, you can try as well."
"What about me, Numnums?" Raganas asked.
"Well for one thing," Numair said, "we're all out of injured people. And second, your magic is best for war purposes and can sometimes go haywire when it's used for healing."
Maria and Krizsta ambled up. Numair said a word and the gash on Maria's leg rippled like water and disappeared.
"That was awesome!" Maria cried. "Can I learn to do that?"
"No." Numair said. "It only works for me, as I made up the spell. Sorry."
"Those of us who have to do it the long way," Diana said, "We shun you. We cast you from our intimate circle."
"You're done, Caprice." Alanna said. "I left you the scar like you asked. The swelling will go down in less than an hour."
"Swelling?" Caprice asked, nervously, feeling her face.
"She's jokin'." George said, leaning on his wife, who was almost a foot and a half shorter than him.
"Don't lean on me 'home boy'," Alanna growled at her husband.
Liney fell over. "HOME BOY!" She then commenced to laugh hysterically as people slowly inched away and Gregory sat on her stomach. "Uuf. Get off me, kumquat."
"You're done, Lady." Neal said to Lady Light, giving her a hand up.
"You, too." Diana said to Krizsta, brushing off her hands, making sparks of green magic fly off of them.
"And you." Kate said to Diana. "And I believe you are still alive."
Diana crossed her arms in mock irritation. "Good, because if I'm dead, I'm suing."
~*~
"Well," Maddy asked. "What are your questions?"
"Firstly, I want to tell you that if you can somehow get a Mister Arram Draper in here you will be free." Jillian said. "Now, I would like to ask you-"
"Wait!" Maddy said. "I need to ask you something first."
"Not the time, Maddy," Meron hissed in her ear.
"What do you want, girl?" Jillian growled.
"Could you make me a sandwich?" Maddy asked. "I haven't had anything to eat today but a pear, and that might have been yesterday."
Shaking with anger Jillian pulled an expensive-looking dagger out of one of the folds in her dress. "If you are going to fool with me I'm going to fool with you." She said slowly. "Now it only takes one idiot to answer a few questions, doesn't it? Now which idiot will be the one to stay and which will be the one to go?" She grinned at Maddy and said, "I think I know who will be the one to go."
Maddy yelped and scurried to hide behind a table, she tripped on an unevenly placed floor stone and fell behind Nell.
"Move aside, Nell." Jillian growled. "I've almost got her."
"No." Nell said softly, and then louder. "No, Jillian."
"Ex-excuse me?" Jillian stuttered, throwing the dagger to the ground, where it clattered loudly and skidded to Meron's feet. Jillian, however, did not notice. "You dare stand up to me, Nell? How d-dare you!"
"Your reign of terror here is over, Jillian." Nell said. "And I will put an end to it myself."
"You wo-wouldn't." Jillian said, grabbing for something on a table at her back without letting her eyes off Nell who was advancing slowly. "Not after all I've done for you."
"Like bossing me around while you laze about?" Nell asked, almost unsure of what she was hearing.
Jillian had found what she was looking for: A large glass bottle with a multicolored liquid in it. The liquid glowed, not one color, but seemingly every color imaginable and it did not reflect light, but drew it in and absorbed it. "Take one more step toward me and I'll do it!" Jillian threatened, waving the bottle about by the neck. "I'm warning you."
Nell stopped in her tracks. Maddy almost ran into her. "What's in there?" Maddy asked Nell. "That colored stuff."
"It's all the magic from all over Tortall." Nell said, shuddering. "If she uncorks the lid that little bottle has enough power to destroy all of Tortall."
"Could have fooled me." Maddy said. "It looks like booze."
Meron chuckled despite the current situation, and then he noticed something. He bent down slowly, as to not attract attention and picked up the dagger at his feet. He then slowly arose and caught Nell's eye. "Catch!" Meron yelled as he threw the dagger at her, the handle first.
Nell caught the dagger and plunged it into Jillian's stone cold heart. She smiled triumphantly as Jillian tried to scream but couldn't. Jillian fell to the ground with a flop and stopped moving, still glaring at Nell, the one who had betrayed her. The one who had betrayed her to her death.
"Say," Nell said, "that was enough adventure for one day. Let's say we go back to your camp. Are there any cute guys there?"
Maddy winked at Meron and said, "Yeah sure, but then we got Meron, and well- "
"Hey!" Meron said, crossing his arms. "Women."
~*~
WOOT! I'm finally almost done. Aw, I'm sorry, I know that probably doesn't overwhelm you. But think of it this way, the sooner I'm done, the sooner you get to read the sequel! Hehe. Now you see it my way. Actually I'm looking forward to taking a break. Whoo.
What'll happen in the next chapter, roughly:
We all go somewhere to celebrate! I'm not sure if it's just going to be somebody's house or a tavern or something, but we'll go somewhere! Hehe.
There'll be a lot of pairing off and stuff like that. *Wink, wink*
And finally, we'll make a few decisions. Like, who wants to go home, and who would like to stay. Tell me in a review whether you want to stay. If you don't review, I'm sending you home, Missy! Hehe. That sounds like something Grandma would say.
So, I hope you liked it! I expect maybe there's only one more chapter and the epilogue left. *Dances around* This is so exciting! I'm finally finishing something I started. *Frolics around* Please review! Any things I should improve? Am I a horrible speller? Do I have bad "sentence structure"? I hate English class for teaching me about that. *Shudders* Evil. Well, toodles!
Luv,
Maddy
P.S. CRACKERS!