"We're free!" Yelled a happily dancing Maddy, grabbing Meron and giving
him a rather large smooch right on the lips. "Yippee, we're free!"
Nell picked up the jar filled with magic and, with all possible care, uncorked it and chucked it out the window. A loud boom could be heard as Maddy, Meron and Nell grinned as they felt things go back to normal all over Tortall.
"Race you?" Maddy asked, gesturing at the door.
"For once," Meron said, "I would. Nell?"
"Already there!" Nell cried, running down the hallway.
"No fair!" Maddy exclaimed. "You cheated! Cheater, cheater you're name's not Peter! Woah!" Meron had scooped her up and was carrying her down the hall, which Maddy enjoyed. Very much so, in fact. Who wouldn't?
Nell was waiting for them at the gate. "Took you long enough." She said, and yipped for no apparent reason.
"Well, open the door already." Maddy said, hopping around as if she had to go to the bathroom. "Hurry! Hurry!"
Meron grinned. "With pleasure, my queen," he said, sweeping a mock bow and kicking the door open.
Maddy screamed in glee and tore off, head down, racking toward the camp with amazing speed for someone so small.
"What's that dust cloud coming toward us?" Diana asked.
"Not more enemies, I hope." Maria said, fingers crossed and eyes shut tight.
"No, guys!" Marc cried. "It's Maddy!"
Cat looked up from chewing through the ropes that bound her to the tree. "Maddy?" She asked. "Yay! Now somebody untie me before I get out and chew your bloody arms off! Which, I might add, I don't particularly want to do at this time."
"Don't yell at me!" Raoul said as Buri untied the ropes.
"Yes," Buri agreed. "He's got a rather low self-esteem." She lowered down and whispered to Cat, "Don't make it any worse for me, please."
Cat popped up, nodded, shook off any remaining ropes and sped off to reunite with her friends. Maddy unfortunately didn't see her coming and heat butted her in the stomach. Causing her to double over, completely winded.
"Whoops, sorry there." Maddy said. Then she saw who it was. "CAT!" She grabbed Cat in a tight hug, squeezing her tightly.
"Can't...Breathe!" Cat gasped.
"Sorry again." Maddy said, giving a little bow, for no real reason. "Ta!" She nodded and ran down only to collide with Liney and Gregory.
"Can't you run anywhere without a collision?" Meron asked, coming up behind Maddy as Nell and Cat made a series of excited gestures and began yelling at each other. ("Hi!" "HEY!" "Oh my gods!" "Oh my gods!" "How are you?" "How are YOU?")
"Nope!" Maddy said happily, swinging her head around smacking Liney in the face with her strawberry blond hair.
"Ow!" Liney said massaging her nose. "What is your hair made of? Bricks?"
"I don't know..." Maddy pondered aloud. "Maybe! But how would I fit bricks into my hair?"
Meron laughed while Liney and Gregory rolled their eyes. Suddenly Meron cried, "DAD!" And ran off to give a huge hug to Cleon. "What's cooking?"
"Food?" Cleon asked, wide-eyed.
"We're surrounded by idiots." Murmered Olivia.
"But they're OUR idiots!" Rosefyre cried hugging Maddy, Meron and introducing herself to Nell.
Kate grinned quite happily and said simply, "happy."
"We all are I think." Alanna said. "Happy indeed."
"Let's go somewhere to celebrate!" Maria said. "Now that everybody's together again."
"Not everybody!" Meron said. "Where's Anne Marie?"
Everyone looked down at their boots. "Don't tell me..." Meron said, "She's gone? That's horrible."
"It is." Raganas said. "But we'll always remember her, right?"
"Well, naturally!" Samkin said. "Let's roll!"
"Wait," Kathryn interrupted. "Where are we going?"
"I've got a place." George said, grinning.
~*~
Two hours later at the Dancing Dove, a small tavern in Tortall's capital, everyone happily celebrated their victory and the returning of all the magic to its rightful owners. The adults were sipping beer and wine, while the teenagers were sipping an assortment of juices, with the exception of Peter, who had charmed the tavern maid into thinking he was old enough to have beer.
Maddy however, was not drinking anything. She was happily munching away on a stick of butter that she had "borrowed" from a man eating toast. Meron and Kaitlin, who were sitting on either side of her, had scooted over a little, as it was rather disgusting.
Cleon was no better. He had put jam in his beer and was digging it out with a spoon. After a while, he and Maddy switched, so she was eating the jam, and he had put the butter in his beer.
After a few minutes Peter got sick from drinking his beer, and threw up on Kate. Kate, disgustedly, asked a few people working at the Dancing Dove to carry him up to a room.
"Sure!" The barmaid said. "If you need anything else we're here." She gave a wink at her companion, a thin, well-muscled brunett, with piercing black eyes. "I'm Alli, and that's Blair!"
"Gotcha." Lady Light said. "Call ya if we need ya!"
With that Alli and Blair proceeded to carry Peter off to a back room where he could get well laying down on a bed. Alli and Blair came back in a few moments.
"Sorry." Blair said, "But you're actually going to have to call somebody else if you need something. We're going off on our brake."
He and Alli skipped happily off to do only the gods know what. Everyone stared at them for a bit, before going back to their drinks, or in Cleon and Maddy's case, lard and marmalade.
"I couldn't have another sip of apple juice." Krizsta said, pushing her mug away.
"What about lemonade?" Neal asked.
"Sure!" Cried Krizsta, grabbing Raoul's lemonade jug away from him.
"You're so mean to me!" Raoul cried as Buri glared daggers at Krizsta.
Krizsta took a long gulp of Raoul's "brew" and handing it back to him, giving him a little pat on the arm. "That's good stuff, boy," She said grinning.
"I need to get some air." Numair announced, standing up and brushing imaginary specs of dirt off his pants as he strolled toward the exit.
"What?" Maddy asked. "Is there not enough air in here?"
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Screamed Cleon. "HELP!"
Maddy got up and began to run around the tavern, followed shortly by Cleon. This went on until Meron decided that his father and friend were making complete and utter fools of themselves and had Alanna, George, Buri and Raoul go over to knock them unconscious. Olivia followed and had a bit of fun tying Maddy and Cleon's bootlaces together.
Cat sauntered over to a particularly attractive male and fluttered her eyelashes. He grinned at her and said, "May I help you, gorgeous?"
Cat grinned and blushed before saying, "Do you have soup here?"
The man stared at her for a second, before grinning and saying, "Certainly miss, right away!" He hurried off to get some from the chef.
Nell chuckled at her friend and focused her flirting skills on another rather handsome staff member. She walked over to him and struck up conversation, "Hey, sexy, what's cooking?"
"I'm Kent!" Said the bartender. "Who are you." He grinned widely, showing very, very white teeth.
"I'm Na-Nahhhh. . ." Nell started getting lost in Kent's smile. She shook her head a bit and said, "Nell! I'm Nell!"
"Hey, Nell," Kent said, flashing Nell another smile. Nell absolutely melted.
Numair strolled back in, noticing Cat who was slurping her soup between seductive glances at a male bartender, Nell turning to butter, and taking a quick glance at Cleon and Maddy, who were lying on the floor, both sporting large bumps on the tops of their noggins. He blinked, nodded, and figured they had probably all gotten themselves into it, and it was their fault. He walked over to Daine, Alanna, and Kel and whispered to them. Alanna grinned from ear to ear and rushed outside, followed by Daine and Kel.
"What?" Kate asked. "Who's there?"
"Just some friends." Numair said.
"Friends?" Kate exclaimed. "Cool! Come on Neal." She grabbed Neal by the cuff of his sleeve and dragged him outside after her.
Meron walked over and calmly sat on Maddy's stomach. Maddy gave a little 'oomph,' but didn't do anything more. Cleon woke up suddenly, sat straight up and hit his head on the edge of a table, knocking him back out.
Raganas pointed at Cleon and laughed outright as Rosefyre sighed and went off to get something for the huge purple and red bruise that was appearing on Cleon's forehead where it had hit the table.
Kate skipped back into the tavern singing happily, "Guess who's here! You can't guess who's heeeeeeeere! And I'm not going to tell you who's heeeeeeere!"
"Who is it?" Maria asked immediately.
"It's Tammy and the KING!" Kate exclaimed. Then she realized what she had just said, and grinned impishly. "Whoops."
Rosefyre came back with a bucket of water. "Tammy's here?" She asked. "Yay!" She hurriedly threw the water on Cleon and rushed outside.
Cleon blinked, blurry eyed and sat up slowly. "Where am I?"
"A bar, Da." Meron said.
"Goody!" Cleon said, clapping his hands. "Would somebody get me a beer?"
"I've got it under control." Buri said, handing Cleon a beer with extra foam on top.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to give him beer?" Asked Marc.
"Yeah," Kathryn added, "If he's like this when he's sober, I hate to think what he's like when he's drunk!"
The door of the Dancing Dove opened once again to reveal a very pleased looking King Jonathon, a happy Tamora, and several assorted others.
"TAMMY!" Liney yelled leaping up from her seat and hurtling over Gregory, Meron and Maddy to get to Tammy. "How ya been, woman?"
Tamora grinned at the way Liney said 'woman' and gave her a little hug. "Great, girl." She looked at Cat and Nell, who had abandoned their flirting to join the ring of people around Tammy and the king. "And who are you two? I don't recognize you."
"I'm Cat," said Cat. "And that's Nell. We're the bad guys."
"But not any more!" Nell said. "No, no, no, no, we're good now."
"You were the bad guys?" King Jonathon asked sternly, causing Nell and Cat to give little shakes of fear. "That's no good girls, as the king I..."
"Give it a rest, Jon!" Alanna said. "They're good now. Let's just leave it."
"Meanie." Jon said, glaring at Alanna. "Why must you always be like that?"
"Like what?" Alanna growled.
"Nothing, Ma'am!" Jonathan said, saluting. "Just reporting for orders, Ma'am. Ma'am, yes, Ma'am!"
"Don't make me cause you bodily harm." Snarled Alanna.
"Uuuuuhm." Maddy groaned, rubbing her eyes. "My brain hurts."
"Woah!" Tammy exclaimed. "What happened to you? There's a bump on your head the size of Denver! I mean. . .a camel."
"What's a camel?" Samkin asked.
"Food." Peter said.
"Sounds good." Samkin said.
Maddy stood up with a bit of help from the Meron, but mostly help from a table, and staggered over to give Tammy a hug. She then joined the circle with everybody else, sitting down, though, as her legs were still a wee bit weak.
"We're all one big happy family once again." Kel said.
"This pleases Maddy." Maddy said.
Everyone smiled. Everyone was happy. Finally.
~*~ Five Years Later ~*~
~Extract from the diary of Maddy of Kennan ~
Dear Diary,
Life in Kennan is all I wanted when I was little; exciting, exotic, wonderful, and with someone as crazy as myself. My parents live in a lovely little cottage in Kennan. I'm so happy that they actually believed me when I went home five years ago and told them that I had met the man of my dreams in an alternate dimension and that we were getting married. If they had been me I wouldn't have believed me. Or would it have been them? Now I'm confused.
I've still kept up with all the old gang, whether in the earth world or this one, even Anne Marie, who sadly has no recollection at all of Tortall (or being in it) and believes it to be only a dream. Poor lass.
Liney, now Liney of Wingstouch, married to good old Gregory is coming in a bit, maybe I should get ready, put on a decent dress instead of the breeches I'm wearing now. . .NAW! Why bother?
I think I hear our son calling. No, that's Meron, got his finger caught in the door again. Hopefully young Kent will get him out. Kent's certainly grown! He's 2 years old and he's already running to walls. I'm proud. My two favorite men in the world.
I must be going!
CARPE DIEM EVER AFTER
~*~
MY MASTERPIECE IS FINISHED! Aren't you pleased! I sure am! Haha! *Giddy* I can't believe I actually finished. I love all of you guys, stay in touch! I'm FieryCatDemon!
^_______________________________________^ (The very, very, extremely happy smiley)
Luv,
Maddy
Nell picked up the jar filled with magic and, with all possible care, uncorked it and chucked it out the window. A loud boom could be heard as Maddy, Meron and Nell grinned as they felt things go back to normal all over Tortall.
"Race you?" Maddy asked, gesturing at the door.
"For once," Meron said, "I would. Nell?"
"Already there!" Nell cried, running down the hallway.
"No fair!" Maddy exclaimed. "You cheated! Cheater, cheater you're name's not Peter! Woah!" Meron had scooped her up and was carrying her down the hall, which Maddy enjoyed. Very much so, in fact. Who wouldn't?
Nell was waiting for them at the gate. "Took you long enough." She said, and yipped for no apparent reason.
"Well, open the door already." Maddy said, hopping around as if she had to go to the bathroom. "Hurry! Hurry!"
Meron grinned. "With pleasure, my queen," he said, sweeping a mock bow and kicking the door open.
Maddy screamed in glee and tore off, head down, racking toward the camp with amazing speed for someone so small.
"What's that dust cloud coming toward us?" Diana asked.
"Not more enemies, I hope." Maria said, fingers crossed and eyes shut tight.
"No, guys!" Marc cried. "It's Maddy!"
Cat looked up from chewing through the ropes that bound her to the tree. "Maddy?" She asked. "Yay! Now somebody untie me before I get out and chew your bloody arms off! Which, I might add, I don't particularly want to do at this time."
"Don't yell at me!" Raoul said as Buri untied the ropes.
"Yes," Buri agreed. "He's got a rather low self-esteem." She lowered down and whispered to Cat, "Don't make it any worse for me, please."
Cat popped up, nodded, shook off any remaining ropes and sped off to reunite with her friends. Maddy unfortunately didn't see her coming and heat butted her in the stomach. Causing her to double over, completely winded.
"Whoops, sorry there." Maddy said. Then she saw who it was. "CAT!" She grabbed Cat in a tight hug, squeezing her tightly.
"Can't...Breathe!" Cat gasped.
"Sorry again." Maddy said, giving a little bow, for no real reason. "Ta!" She nodded and ran down only to collide with Liney and Gregory.
"Can't you run anywhere without a collision?" Meron asked, coming up behind Maddy as Nell and Cat made a series of excited gestures and began yelling at each other. ("Hi!" "HEY!" "Oh my gods!" "Oh my gods!" "How are you?" "How are YOU?")
"Nope!" Maddy said happily, swinging her head around smacking Liney in the face with her strawberry blond hair.
"Ow!" Liney said massaging her nose. "What is your hair made of? Bricks?"
"I don't know..." Maddy pondered aloud. "Maybe! But how would I fit bricks into my hair?"
Meron laughed while Liney and Gregory rolled their eyes. Suddenly Meron cried, "DAD!" And ran off to give a huge hug to Cleon. "What's cooking?"
"Food?" Cleon asked, wide-eyed.
"We're surrounded by idiots." Murmered Olivia.
"But they're OUR idiots!" Rosefyre cried hugging Maddy, Meron and introducing herself to Nell.
Kate grinned quite happily and said simply, "happy."
"We all are I think." Alanna said. "Happy indeed."
"Let's go somewhere to celebrate!" Maria said. "Now that everybody's together again."
"Not everybody!" Meron said. "Where's Anne Marie?"
Everyone looked down at their boots. "Don't tell me..." Meron said, "She's gone? That's horrible."
"It is." Raganas said. "But we'll always remember her, right?"
"Well, naturally!" Samkin said. "Let's roll!"
"Wait," Kathryn interrupted. "Where are we going?"
"I've got a place." George said, grinning.
~*~
Two hours later at the Dancing Dove, a small tavern in Tortall's capital, everyone happily celebrated their victory and the returning of all the magic to its rightful owners. The adults were sipping beer and wine, while the teenagers were sipping an assortment of juices, with the exception of Peter, who had charmed the tavern maid into thinking he was old enough to have beer.
Maddy however, was not drinking anything. She was happily munching away on a stick of butter that she had "borrowed" from a man eating toast. Meron and Kaitlin, who were sitting on either side of her, had scooted over a little, as it was rather disgusting.
Cleon was no better. He had put jam in his beer and was digging it out with a spoon. After a while, he and Maddy switched, so she was eating the jam, and he had put the butter in his beer.
After a few minutes Peter got sick from drinking his beer, and threw up on Kate. Kate, disgustedly, asked a few people working at the Dancing Dove to carry him up to a room.
"Sure!" The barmaid said. "If you need anything else we're here." She gave a wink at her companion, a thin, well-muscled brunett, with piercing black eyes. "I'm Alli, and that's Blair!"
"Gotcha." Lady Light said. "Call ya if we need ya!"
With that Alli and Blair proceeded to carry Peter off to a back room where he could get well laying down on a bed. Alli and Blair came back in a few moments.
"Sorry." Blair said, "But you're actually going to have to call somebody else if you need something. We're going off on our brake."
He and Alli skipped happily off to do only the gods know what. Everyone stared at them for a bit, before going back to their drinks, or in Cleon and Maddy's case, lard and marmalade.
"I couldn't have another sip of apple juice." Krizsta said, pushing her mug away.
"What about lemonade?" Neal asked.
"Sure!" Cried Krizsta, grabbing Raoul's lemonade jug away from him.
"You're so mean to me!" Raoul cried as Buri glared daggers at Krizsta.
Krizsta took a long gulp of Raoul's "brew" and handing it back to him, giving him a little pat on the arm. "That's good stuff, boy," She said grinning.
"I need to get some air." Numair announced, standing up and brushing imaginary specs of dirt off his pants as he strolled toward the exit.
"What?" Maddy asked. "Is there not enough air in here?"
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Screamed Cleon. "HELP!"
Maddy got up and began to run around the tavern, followed shortly by Cleon. This went on until Meron decided that his father and friend were making complete and utter fools of themselves and had Alanna, George, Buri and Raoul go over to knock them unconscious. Olivia followed and had a bit of fun tying Maddy and Cleon's bootlaces together.
Cat sauntered over to a particularly attractive male and fluttered her eyelashes. He grinned at her and said, "May I help you, gorgeous?"
Cat grinned and blushed before saying, "Do you have soup here?"
The man stared at her for a second, before grinning and saying, "Certainly miss, right away!" He hurried off to get some from the chef.
Nell chuckled at her friend and focused her flirting skills on another rather handsome staff member. She walked over to him and struck up conversation, "Hey, sexy, what's cooking?"
"I'm Kent!" Said the bartender. "Who are you." He grinned widely, showing very, very white teeth.
"I'm Na-Nahhhh. . ." Nell started getting lost in Kent's smile. She shook her head a bit and said, "Nell! I'm Nell!"
"Hey, Nell," Kent said, flashing Nell another smile. Nell absolutely melted.
Numair strolled back in, noticing Cat who was slurping her soup between seductive glances at a male bartender, Nell turning to butter, and taking a quick glance at Cleon and Maddy, who were lying on the floor, both sporting large bumps on the tops of their noggins. He blinked, nodded, and figured they had probably all gotten themselves into it, and it was their fault. He walked over to Daine, Alanna, and Kel and whispered to them. Alanna grinned from ear to ear and rushed outside, followed by Daine and Kel.
"What?" Kate asked. "Who's there?"
"Just some friends." Numair said.
"Friends?" Kate exclaimed. "Cool! Come on Neal." She grabbed Neal by the cuff of his sleeve and dragged him outside after her.
Meron walked over and calmly sat on Maddy's stomach. Maddy gave a little 'oomph,' but didn't do anything more. Cleon woke up suddenly, sat straight up and hit his head on the edge of a table, knocking him back out.
Raganas pointed at Cleon and laughed outright as Rosefyre sighed and went off to get something for the huge purple and red bruise that was appearing on Cleon's forehead where it had hit the table.
Kate skipped back into the tavern singing happily, "Guess who's here! You can't guess who's heeeeeeeere! And I'm not going to tell you who's heeeeeeere!"
"Who is it?" Maria asked immediately.
"It's Tammy and the KING!" Kate exclaimed. Then she realized what she had just said, and grinned impishly. "Whoops."
Rosefyre came back with a bucket of water. "Tammy's here?" She asked. "Yay!" She hurriedly threw the water on Cleon and rushed outside.
Cleon blinked, blurry eyed and sat up slowly. "Where am I?"
"A bar, Da." Meron said.
"Goody!" Cleon said, clapping his hands. "Would somebody get me a beer?"
"I've got it under control." Buri said, handing Cleon a beer with extra foam on top.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to give him beer?" Asked Marc.
"Yeah," Kathryn added, "If he's like this when he's sober, I hate to think what he's like when he's drunk!"
The door of the Dancing Dove opened once again to reveal a very pleased looking King Jonathon, a happy Tamora, and several assorted others.
"TAMMY!" Liney yelled leaping up from her seat and hurtling over Gregory, Meron and Maddy to get to Tammy. "How ya been, woman?"
Tamora grinned at the way Liney said 'woman' and gave her a little hug. "Great, girl." She looked at Cat and Nell, who had abandoned their flirting to join the ring of people around Tammy and the king. "And who are you two? I don't recognize you."
"I'm Cat," said Cat. "And that's Nell. We're the bad guys."
"But not any more!" Nell said. "No, no, no, no, we're good now."
"You were the bad guys?" King Jonathon asked sternly, causing Nell and Cat to give little shakes of fear. "That's no good girls, as the king I..."
"Give it a rest, Jon!" Alanna said. "They're good now. Let's just leave it."
"Meanie." Jon said, glaring at Alanna. "Why must you always be like that?"
"Like what?" Alanna growled.
"Nothing, Ma'am!" Jonathan said, saluting. "Just reporting for orders, Ma'am. Ma'am, yes, Ma'am!"
"Don't make me cause you bodily harm." Snarled Alanna.
"Uuuuuhm." Maddy groaned, rubbing her eyes. "My brain hurts."
"Woah!" Tammy exclaimed. "What happened to you? There's a bump on your head the size of Denver! I mean. . .a camel."
"What's a camel?" Samkin asked.
"Food." Peter said.
"Sounds good." Samkin said.
Maddy stood up with a bit of help from the Meron, but mostly help from a table, and staggered over to give Tammy a hug. She then joined the circle with everybody else, sitting down, though, as her legs were still a wee bit weak.
"We're all one big happy family once again." Kel said.
"This pleases Maddy." Maddy said.
Everyone smiled. Everyone was happy. Finally.
~*~ Five Years Later ~*~
~Extract from the diary of Maddy of Kennan ~
Dear Diary,
Life in Kennan is all I wanted when I was little; exciting, exotic, wonderful, and with someone as crazy as myself. My parents live in a lovely little cottage in Kennan. I'm so happy that they actually believed me when I went home five years ago and told them that I had met the man of my dreams in an alternate dimension and that we were getting married. If they had been me I wouldn't have believed me. Or would it have been them? Now I'm confused.
I've still kept up with all the old gang, whether in the earth world or this one, even Anne Marie, who sadly has no recollection at all of Tortall (or being in it) and believes it to be only a dream. Poor lass.
Liney, now Liney of Wingstouch, married to good old Gregory is coming in a bit, maybe I should get ready, put on a decent dress instead of the breeches I'm wearing now. . .NAW! Why bother?
I think I hear our son calling. No, that's Meron, got his finger caught in the door again. Hopefully young Kent will get him out. Kent's certainly grown! He's 2 years old and he's already running to walls. I'm proud. My two favorite men in the world.
I must be going!
CARPE DIEM EVER AFTER
~*~
MY MASTERPIECE IS FINISHED! Aren't you pleased! I sure am! Haha! *Giddy* I can't believe I actually finished. I love all of you guys, stay in touch! I'm FieryCatDemon!
^_______________________________________^ (The very, very, extremely happy smiley)
Luv,
Maddy