Hello? Is anyone still out there? *Russet dodges the throwing of tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables.* I am SOOOOOOOOOO sorry. I have had a hell of a time working on my story, at all. There was about a whole month where I could not get a single word out. I know you've all heard it before, but I swear I am truly sorry. I will stop blabbing on and now get on with it, as you have waited long enough. (btw- all reviewer recognitions will be held at the end of last chap, as I don't have time to do them right now. Got dance class in a bit. Thanx…)

Chapter Twelve:

Escape From Underground

The whites shown all the way around River's eyes, as well as his siblings, even Willow, who lost hold of her power at such a shock. The soldiers brushed past them to rejoin the ranks. Behind the pit, over four thousand other black-dressed rebels stood at attention as random officers walked among them, doing what appeared to be an inspection. Their mouths must have been hanging open in astonishment because one of the soldiers turned around and whispered to them, "If you like that, you'll enjoy that this is only four companies. We have 10 here, a thousand to each, with 20 officers per, too." They noticed that it was a female voice from behind the black mask. She walked away to join another group of rebels standing in line to a side cavern. One came out every once in a while, holding a plate of food, a brown mush that steamed.

After a moment, they snapped out of their stupor to calculate what Corus was up against. Enough liquid fire to fill a lake, which is what Corus would me reduced to, about 10,200 warriors trained well, and an unknown plan.

And even if they miraculously escaped to warn someone, who could they warn? And who would believe them? They were in elbow deep in the compost heap.

The crossbred divine being returned to them and looked down into three pairs of amazed, yet terrified eyes. For that brief, horrifying moment, the world stopped for the thing to see their souls that feared what would become of them. He, it, or whatever waved with his gigantic hand to follow him. Meekly, they became his small shadow, following behind without any protest. Even with all they knew, they were wise enough to know when they were beaten. And they were also a outnumbered by a few men.

Eventually, they stopped in front of a woman. She wore all-black too, but no mask. And she needed one the most. Burn scars covered her neck, chin, cheeks, and left ear. Probably once a beauty, it now it hurt to look at her for too long. She turned to smile at them, white teeth showing in a broad smile. She seem to study them for a moment too long, and then she spoke, harsh voice barking orders too often.

"So," she rasped, almost like an evil cat purring, "these are the cause of all the trouble? I would have expected something…well, bigger." She sounded almost disappointed. Willow glanced at Wind out of the corner of her eye. Normally, being called small would have spurred him into an argument, but luck was in, and his wits had yet to go begging. "Put them in a holding tent, and guard it. Fail me, and let them get away, I'll have your heads for my collection." The soldiers looked to one another, unsure if she was serious. She looked down at a bunch of papers in her hands, and when they were still there as she looked up, she barked, "Now!" They escaped from her cold stare at a run, prisoners and captors both.

~*~

Three hours and many complaints later, Willow and her brothers sat, miserable, tired, and angry, in a large tent, tied to the support pole in the center.

"Willow, River, I'm hungry," Wind informed his siblings.

"For the thousandth time, do you see anything around here to eat?" River bitterly answered.

"No, but I thought-"

"That's a stretch, Willow interrupted.

"Guys, how many times have we had this exact same conversation? Four? Five?" River inquired.

"Try seventeen." sighed Willow.

"Really, I wouldn't have guessed it has been that excruciating." River thoughtfully replied.

"So have either have you figured a way for us to get out of here?" Wind persisted.

"Wind, we didn't have a plan the last time you asked, and no, we don't have one now."

"Well, it never hurts to ask, now does it?"

"Considering it's you, yes, it can hurt to ask- over and over and over again!" River tried to strangle his brother, but all his attempts were in vain for his hands were tied with clever, intricate knots. "What I wouldn't give for a glaive. I'd rip them up from top to bottom!" he passionately exclaimed.

"Too bad they took your daggers. How are we gonna get those back? They aren't exactly replaceable." Wind sighed. River's head snapped up.

"Not all- they missed the one at my lower back! But I just can't reach it…Can you move it Wind?"

Wind tried to see the bulge where the hilt would be under River's clothes. Unfortunately, he couldn't twist around the pole that way. "I'm sorry, I can't see it."

"SO?" River demanded hotly.

"You know I can't move things If I can't see them!" Wind replied, equally cross. River rolled his eyes.

"That's all in your head. You only think you can't move it because you think you have to see it. You don't! Now try again!"

Wind twisted in several directions, trying his hardest to see it, but he gave up. "I can't do it!" he exclaimed, frustrated.

"Stop trying to see it with your eyes! See the dagger in your mind. Like you do when you move fire! You can't stare straight at that! Close you eyes," he ordered. Wind resisted. "Close them!" Wind closed his eyes, but not without a scowl. "Now, picture my dagger. Call it to you or whatever you do," River told him

Wind clenched his eyes, much like Willow did. He pictured the dagger in his mind, and ordered it to come out of the sheath. Wind felt it struggle, trying to pull out, but it was held in by a strap with a buckle. "River? Since when do you buckle in your daggers?" he asked, angry at his brother's folly. However, as he spoke, he masterfully started to undo the buckle, happy that this was working.

"Well sorry. Geeze- you'd think he was perfect…" River mumbled. Willow chuckled quietly. Such bickering between them amused her.

Wind slid the knife from its sheath, careful not to nick his brother. He brought it up the length of the pole and around to get right in front of him.

Then of course, someone barged into the tent, just in time to see a dagger float in midair and fall to the ground, burying itself halfway to the hilt in loose dirt and churned up stones. The shocked young sergeant scrambled free of the tent's flaps, which he tangled himself in.

They could hear his report to a superior officer. "And then it fell to the ground, it did," he finished. They saw a silhouette of a woman nod her head, deep in thought.

After a moments pause, she told him, "Good work. Now see to it that the troops are warned." He saluted her and then walked past her, only to meet his death on the dirty, stony floor, decapitated. The woman, the one from before they realized, took out a bit of cloth and ran it down her sword, tossing the bloody handkerchief down on the corpse when she was done.

"Dispose of that." she growled, and the outline of a soldier dragging what was the body, severed head in his or her hands, vanished into darker parts of the cave. The woman turned towards the entrance of the tent.

"So, is what the, uh, ex-officer reported true?" purred the sinister lady.

She glanced to the dirt floor and the dagger confirmed it. "Either it must be, or you've had a unauthorized visitor." She glared at them, but they never looked higher than their laps. "From your faces, I'll have to go with the Power." She moved herself to be right in front of River. "Now, who did this?" she coaxed, trying to sound friendly, but failing miserably.

River looked away from her, at his sister's shoes. The woman patiently waited, staring at him, as if trying to read his soul, but eventually, someone called out a name, and she flinched. "So you're going to be a tough pony to break, aren't you? We'll see how you fare after no food for about…..let's see….three days?" Wind felt his stomach growl at the thought. She smiled menacingly. "Give that a once-over and I'll be back for your answer in a bit." The woman walked out, leaving dread in her wake.

They waited until her shadow was out of sight. Willow made double sure. Then the hysterics began.

"No food?! No food?! Three days?! Three days?!" Wind exclaimed, jerking himself left and right with panic.

"Wind stop it!" Willow cried. He was moving the wooden post they were lashed to. It would collapse if he kept on like this.

"Willow, I can't see you!" he started to twist left and right, trying to see his sister. "Where are you?"

"Wind calm down- I'm right here!" she called, trying to reassure him.

"WHERE?" Wind turned over his shoulder with all his might and felt the support pole lose ground and slide from under them.

"Wind!" Willow and River's voices were muffled by the huge tent crashing around their heads.

~*~

Bowen slouched by Fall's empty stall, muttering to himself about one thing or another. Kit and Brock sat by, mournfully witnessing their friend go nuts. "Pull yourself together man!" Brock scolded. "They'll be back in a few days."

"An' wha' 'appens after tha'? They'll be leavin' forever! Wha' if she never returns? Wha' if I never-" Bowen rambled, completely distraught.

"What if! What if! Stop this nonsense!" Kit exploded. She crossed to him and sat herself right beside him. Making their face inches apart, she caught his eyes and made the gaze hold while she said "Look at me. Your are sounding like a drunk in the street," she yelled at him. "Like it or not, she's leaving, probably not so happily now, but it's her dream. Now perk up- there's plenty of hay to pitch and I know some stalls that could stand a good mucking. Hop to it!" She pulled him to his feet, forced a shovel into his grip and pointed him in the direction of some dirty stalls.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" Brock inquired.

"Yea, I think so. What a woman to have an impact like that…" Kit walked away, thinking that Willow didn't know how lucky she was, and how stupid for leaving someone behind that was so devoted to her.

" He'll be fine...Lucky bastard," Brock murmured angrily.

Bowen took his time cleaning and mucking, then grooming and working the horses a bit, just to keep himself occupied for as long as

possible. The day after that, he spent doing the same thing, keeping himself busy to keep his mind off Willow.

It wasn't working.

At dawn of the third day, he awoke with a start, hearing something banging wildly on one of the doors. They were keeping them closed and locked, for the winter winds kept bursting the doors open scaring the horses and the hostlers for that matter.

But this was no wind. It sounded almost like…horseshoes? Bowen threw off his blanket and climbed down a ladder. Carefully, he moved towards the door and gripped the lock uneasily. Lifting it with haste, hoping his traitor body would listen to his head that kept telling to stop, he set the board aside and clenched the handle.

He didn't have time, however, to open the door, as it burst open and a huge form came rushing past him. Icy winds ripped at Bowens old breeches and snow and sleet bit his bare chest, arms, feet and face. Steeling himself from retreating to the loft, he grabbed the doors and pushed against the blasts of wintery air. With a lot of force, and much colorful language, he succeeded in closing them and slammed the lock into place. He almost forgot about the source of it all. Whatever had opened the doors so fiercely now prowled the stall isles. He could hear the hoof beats on the well-packed earthen floor. Chasing the noise, and being followed by Kit wrapped in a sheet and little else and Brock in breeches who were awoken too, Bowen discovered Falcon's Fall. (A/N: nothing in the k/br folks, don't read into that too much or you'll start seeing things that aren't there)

"Wha' in tha…" he mumbled to himself. Giving an earsplitting whistle, he summoned Fall to him. Fall had come to accept all the hostlers, even if he only liked Willow. The horse sped to him, nearly knocking him down in search for something. He stamped and whinnied and tossed his head back, rattling his bridal. For a second Bowen thought he wanted his tack to come off, just before realizing that it was still on, and Willow was no where to be seen. Bowen stood up, carefully as to avoid Fall's hooves, and placed his hands on the horse's bridal, bringing him down and making him look into his eyes. "Something happened to them," Bowen realized. Before he knew when he was doing, he cast his wild magic onto the animal, hoping this would work like the Wildmage made it work. Never before had he tried this, and with such a small amount of magic in him, less even that his father, there was no reason for it to work. The minutes painstakingly passed as Bowen formed his magic with Fall's, hoping to get into his mind. At last, he felt himself sink into the last bit of Fall, and when he opened his eyes, he saw himself. Now he was inside Fall, who didn't appreciate it much, but didn't have much of a choice. Luckily, he didn't have search for what he wanted. It was all at the very surface of the stallion's mind. But what he saw, he wasn't completely prepared for.

'Fall saw a man dressed in black from head to hoof. He snuck around. Luckily, with the light snowfall, the darkness of night, and brown trees, the stranger couldn't see them. Which was odd, given three horses in the woods without riders is not common. Then, the stranger left and his Girl and the two boys crawled out of their den. They took something out of it and all the snow on top collapsed. Glory, the nice mare on his left, got a rush of icy wind and whinnied. One of the boys tried to quiet her, but before he could do anything, Nightengale, the other mare, started up as well. Fall was too clever to get all jumpy over some snow, so he kept his cool and kinda just laughed at them, in his own horse way.

The masked man snuck up behind them, bringing others and there was struggle. The masked men grabbed Glory and Nightengale and took them away. Someone tried to get him but he wasn't going to stand for that. Instead he ran away, running here. It started snowing too much to see anything, so it took far longer than he hoped. At least he didn't have a rider. But he kept going because his Girl needed help, and she seemed to fancy this human well enough…'

Bowen snapped back into his body and felt for his magic, realizing his Wild Magic drained. His reserves were gone. But that didn't matter.

"They 'ave been kidnapped. We 'ave to save 'em." Kit and Brock looked to one another wide eyed, and then watched Bowen collapse, physically and magically exhausted.

~*~

Struggling with the heavy canvas folds draped over them, the triplets desperately tried to get untied from the pole and get out of the tent Wind so masterfully brought down on them. They began to hear footsteps of the soldiers that were all around. Willow Saw them and got the knots undone as fast as she could, finishing as the "owls" straightened things out and almost had the tent lifted off them. Just as they were fully uncovered, Willow shot out and grabbed the dagger, sticking it in her boot.

"What happened here?" demanded a soldier who wished to keep his head on.

"We don't know. It just fell. Shoddy tent if you ask me," Willow insolently replied.

"Little miss, you had better hope that tongue of yours doesn't get cut out one day-" snapped an advancing soldier wielding a knife recognized by the triplets as one of River's. He was stopped by the one who asked them what happened.

"Compose yourself Jaifos. They'll get theirs soon enough, if Commander Williams has anything to do with it. She's with the Bosses. She'll take care of them when she's done." This soldier was a bit too self-assured for Willow's taste. She gave him a sour look and inched as close to Wind as she could. She got right next to him as the Self-Assured soldier talked to the Angry one with River's dagger. He looked down at her and she pointed to her boot. Wind saw the top of the hilt and a bit of the opal flashed with the torchlight. He nodded slightly and the corners of his mouth shifted upwards for a brief moment. Willow looked to keep an eye on the guards, and River, know magically wise to the situation, helped her. Wind slowly watched her boot's bulge move. He may have been able to move things without looking at them now, but he still preferred to see them. The dagger hilt was completely out now, and the blade was showing. Once it was out of the boot, he brought it carefully up her leg, where the soldiers couldn't see it. Once it was right at the small of Willow's back, Wind stopped it and River inched slowly to her. Instead of having a dagger float in the air between, this was the better plan.

River reached them, grabbed it, and in a swift motion reminding Willow of lightening and molten metal all at once threw it into a group of soldiers where it lodged itself into the neck of the Angry soldier. The room seemed to explode…

~*~

They tried their best to revive their comrade, but in the end, only Fall was able to. Bowen sat up, nursing what felt like 3 broken fingers, and glared at the horse, who he swore wore a smug expression.

That smugness turned to impatience as the two-leggers weren't going near fast enough to make Fall happy, however. Didn't they understand that his Girl was in danger? He snorted and stamped to show that he meant business. They noticed him after that, and things got going a bit faster. Not much, but a bit anyway. Finally, they were ready to go. Bowen stood nearby, while 4 other two-leggers were mounted on some other poor People. (Fall still pitied other horses for their easiness with others. If pity is an emotion he can have.)

"Thank you for coming, Masters." Kit said. Eda and Hakuin nodded, rather sleepily.

"Let's just get this going. It's too early to be talkative," Eda yawned. Bowen inched towards Fall, in hope of keeping him calm by not making too sudden a movement. Fall saw his motive and snorted. After the initial struggle Bowen sat atop Falcon's Fall with a triumphant grin on his face. The search party got moving shortly thereafter.

"Does Falls know where he's going?" Brock asked after about 3 hours of riding in a snow flurries. "My fingers are getting numb."

"Getting?" Kit mumbled.

"Look- I don' know. I'm no' leadin' this beast. 'E's jus' walkin' on 'is own." Bowen grumbled. Kit and Brock weren't the only ones miserable. They all were. And to top it off, Fall was taking them in what appeared to be circles. They were closer to finding The Goddess' Forest Temple, a place of Myth, than finding Wind and the others. It wasn't until they had been riding for another three quarters of an hour that anything had looked like people had been there.

And had they!

The remains of half a teakettle, a stack of wood, and the wooden poles of a tent, broken in several places of course, laid on the ground around a mound of snow rather out-of-place. "Their snowdrift cave fell in, probably as they took out their tent."

"But this was done hours ago. Why would they be taking apart camp in the middle of the night?"

"Maybe they didn't do this. Maybe it was their captors."

"If it was, they sure didn't clean up very well. They left a trail to follow too. Look at the broken trees, and the unusual tracks in the snow……"

"Hey, what is that. I've never see those tracks before. They're…..HUGE."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a giant…..with webbed feet?"

"This gets stranger and stranger. They wouldn't run off in the middle of the night unless they suspected something foul."

"Bowen, what did you say Fall saw?" Bowen and the other two had to get yanked out of their trance. The Shang Warriors had dismounted and masterfully deduced what might have happened to them, with just looking at the campsite. Bowen stumbled with his tongue for a moment while he remembered how to speak.

"S-Sir? 'E, um, saw a man dressed in black come an' look aroun', an' then go away. After a few seconds, Willow, River, and Wind came out of their tent an' tried to pull it ou' of the snow, but the cave collapsed and' scared the other 'orses. Then, more soldiers came an' took em away- but no' withou' a fight! An' then they tried to grab Fall an 'e ran to us. I dunno wha' could've made those footprints, bu' tis no' natural, no' in these woods" The Shang trusted his judgment. He did know Corus like the back his hand.

They remounted and circled the campsite a few times before hearing a deafening "BOOM!" It shook the very ground. Snow fell from tree branches. The horses, even Fall, whinnied in terror. Not far ahead, in the dim dawn light, they saw people emerging…..from the ground?

A war cry sounded out of the rumbling. It was actually three cries. Willow, River, and Wind burst up through the snow, billowing smoke emerging after them. They were filthy, sweaty, and most of all, angry. Each held a knife, one of River's in the hands of each, and charged at the Black-dressed soldiers, all mercy non-existent. In a matter of about 6 swift movements, they had all the men, or women, pinned in the snow. The whole group, Shang and all, merely sat atop their horses, breath taken away at the fury emitting from them.

Willow was the first to notice them, sitting in the clearing where the remnants of camp lay scattered on the snow. She poked her brothers, and they smiled.

"So, what took you so long?"

A/N: sigh……and that's it, for now anyway. Ok, please don't get angry, but I will have an explanation of all the events I know you are dying to hear about in the next chapter. And I promise it will be up FAR sooner than this one was. I cannot believe it too this long. So sorry. Please forgive by giving russet a nice review? Please? Thanx…..