Lady Gabrielle of Pirate's Swoop:   I do really understand you. To be honest, if it were me one reading this I would have already killed the author. But if I reveal too much I'm afraid that there could not be much suspense anymore. For myself its difficult to say this, because I only can imagine what you get out of my hints. I can't help with the length, I never thought it would go so long. I've already seen fanfics with over 60 chapters, although they are rare. Hey, when I started this I thought I would be kicked out for my horrible story or my horrible way of writing or for not being able to write a proper English. And I never said something about this story being short. I thought it is better to make my story as good as possible and not to rush things only to finish it quickly.

OMG. I'm on the verge of a panic. Next week, NEXT WEEK the A-Level will take place. I'm doomed, I'm dead, I'm a bundle of nerves. Heaven help me. I try to write to get loose of some of my tension. So, what you read here is me when I'm a nervous wreck.

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Chapter 34:                                           The lost princess

Sam felt the pain hammering in her head, but at least her vision was clearing slowly. One of the first things she noticed was Lee, being hold back by  a few villagers. Sam felt anger building up within her. She slowly got up, straightening her back and stared at the people surrounding her.

"Let. Her. Go." Her voice was harsh and cold as ice. The men holding Lee stared at her in shock and quickly released their captive.

Lee stumbled towards her friend, concern shining in her eyes. "Are you OK?"

Sam gave her a sharp nod in reponse and shot a last death glare at the men. Then she turned towards the old woman, anger burning in stomach, waiting to be set free.

"What is the meaning of this?"

The old woman gave her a confident smile and started. "It was a simple test, your highness … "

"Don't you 'your highness' me! Damn, why is every time I meet some of my people a near to death experience. Why does everybody always expect something extraordinary from me? The Clerical Clan wants me to be some kind of magical instrument, the Worker Clan wants me to start a revolution, half of the Warrior Clan wants to see me dead, the other half wants me to kill those who want to kill me. I'm just waiting for the Scholar Clan to come out and demand its wishes. I've been nearly killed, kidnapped, magically overloaded on several occasions, and now I've had enough. If this goes on in this rate the Royal Clan will be eradicated by its on people. Now would you please tell me what's the meaning of all this, and don't tell me that it's just 'a simple test'. Adrian never mentioned something like that was going to happen. I demand an explanation!"

The old woman chuckled, not at least impressed by the harsh words of the young girl. "Well, your highness, you are right. This test wasn't as simple for you as it was for me. Please forgive me if I've offended you, but we had to know on which side you were standing and if we could trust you. Master Adrian trusts you already, but we had to be sure."

Sam frowned angrily. "Sure about what? Did you really think I would form an alliance with the one who killed my family? Is this what you were thinking about me?"

The woman stared intently at her and answered carefully. "It is not the Warrior I'm concerned about. Your relationship to him is more clearly for me to see than even for yourself. An alliance with him isn't as horrible as you might think. What I … what we were wondering about was your relationship to the other clans, your highness. As you can see the times have changed, but not everybody seems to accept this. Your father was always very close to the Priestress, but even closer to the Warrior. But you, who are you close to?"

Sam eyes shone in confusion. "My father has been a king like all the others before him. His closeness to the Warrior and the Priestress was somehow … traditional. But I … who can I still be close to? The Warrior has turned out to be our worst enemy, the Priestress has her own plans for our people ... plans she doesn't tell me about." She shook her head and continued quietly. "There are only two clans left. I think I could trust Adrian. I haven't met the Scholar yet, so I can't say how my relationship to him or her will be. But I don't feel prepared for a confrontation of any kind yet."

The old woman nodded. "Yes, you are right. You are not ready yet. But the confrontations will take place. One by one. And it depends on you and your boundaries to your world how the conflicts will settle down. You have the second sight, little Oakswood, like all of your kind. It'll help you, from time to time. But in the end … it's only you and him. This is where it all ends. Only you and him."

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It was dark all around her. She didn't know where she was.

She turned around … and found herself face to face with a woman.

A woman with long golden hair, and deep moss green eyes.

'It's … me?'

Suddenly the eyes turned black, starting to glow darkly.

Sam gasped, jerking back.

In the woman's hands there were two swords, black like the darkness itself.

Then suddenly the woman spoke, with a dark harsh voice that was not her own.

° You may have escaped me once, but you won't escape me twice. I will find you, know matter how hard she tries to hide you. You. Are. MINE! °

Sam woke up with a start. She panted heavily, not knowing if she should be terrified about the dream, or happy that her powers seemed to come back.

OK, terrified was it.

'What is the meaning of this? I … I changed. But … I'm under the protection of the oak. The Cursed Swords can't harm me, can they? And that voice … '

She embraced her knees, shaking with fear. 'Will it be me who will destroy my people? Am I the bad guy in this war? Is the way I'm taking the wrong, the dark one? Oh, damn it. I'm only a child. Why do I have to carry this immense burden? If I risk my life and die, it's wrong. If I don't risk my life, it's wrong as well. Galina is still sending me these damnable letters, telling me what to do, how to act, what to think and what to decide. I could make my life easy, just following her advice. She's a chosen one after all. But … I doesn't feel right. The queen is just as strong as her keeper. So this it the final question. How strong am I?'

She shook her head unhappily. 'And in the end, it's only me and him.'

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Lord Padraig woke up quite angrily. He wasn't very content with his current situation. That strange distaste for alcohol, not matter what kind was really not good for his temper. He wasn't an alcoholic, but he liked a glass or two every once awhile. But now he felt like gagging from even looking at the stuff.

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. His vision was still blurred, strangely everything seemed to be pink. He jawed again and stretched. Then he opened his eyes again. And froze deep in shock.

'Am I drunk?' He frowned at that thought. 'Hardly. But … pink. Pink!' He shook his head and wondered if he started to hallucinating. Then a thought hit him. 'Crystal Lake. These damnable little brats. If they think they can get away with it …'

Suddenly the door was open and a maid entered the room. "Sir, your wife wanted to let you know that she will be visiting her aunt today." The maid waited for a reponse and was slightly taken aback when she didn't get one. "Uhmm, sir? Don't you feel well? You seem kinda pale."

Lord Padraig stared at her like she had grown a second head or something. 'Doesn't she see? She's always cleaning up this room, she should know that it isn't used to be pink.' "Uhmm, Ada, do you see something … strange in this room?"

The maid frowned. "No, sir. Nothing out of order." 'Except for you.'

The lord seemed to pale even more. "You can go now."

The maid nodded confused and left the room, wondering what was wrong with her master.

Lord Padraig closed his eyes and rubbed them tiredly. After some minutes he opened them again. The room was normal again. All the pink … was gone. 'I'm really loosing it now.'

The training-master's day went on as strange as it has started. From time to time something within his view turned pink without anybody except of him noticing it. He held himself up until the evening, after dinner. When he was about to retire in his quarters a mouse crossed his way. A pink mouse. He closed his eyes and stared to count from ten downwards, trying to calm himself down. 'I simply don't see this. If I don't see it, it isn't there. Right?'

He never saw the figures in the shadows watching him.

"I feel sorry for the old guy." Ria stated.

Her siblings nodded.

"We will stop this. Tomorrow we will give the antidote for the powder in his food. We can't spoil Midwinter for the poor man." Sam kneeled on the floor and picked the 'pink' Ti up, putting the little mouse on her shoulder. She turned around to face her accomplices.

Aaron scratched his head. "Yeah. It was fun as long as it lasted. But with phase two we didn't even get the right public attendance. I would have loved to see his face."

The three siblings snickered at that thought and sighed.

Sam smiled weakly. "That's true. Well, sorry guys but I have some chores to do. See ya!" And with that she was gone.

The triplets looked after her, frowning deeply.
Danny was the first to speak it out loud. "She's acting strange lately. Or should I say again. Seems like her good times are over for now, going back to her old brooding self. What happened to her?"
Ria felt some sort of sting in her heart. She felt like knowing something, without knowing it. She shrugged it away and turned to her siblings. "Well, how do we get the antidote into his food unnoticed?"

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Sam was training like mad. It was over a month ago since the incident at the village. The only things she did all day was training and learning, until her body and brain screamed for mercy. She only retired to fall into a deep, hopefully dreamless sleep. She tried to avoid all unpleasant thoughts, all frightening dreams. Trying was the word. The success wasn't how she would have liked it.

She had been so happy about meeting her people again, about finding a place like those she spent her early childhood in. She had loved the peaceful atmosphere of villages like that. It was like a memory coming back to life. Like she was finally able to find a place where she could feel save and protected, like before her family died. But the dream had been shattered immediately. Here she was again, having more questions than answers. Everything had been turned upside down again, leaving her struggling to find out what to do. She was alone again, unable to talk to anybody, unable to explain herself. How was she supposed to explain something she didn't understand herself.

Even the little trick with Lord Padraig couldn't lighten her mood. Here was she, playing childish tricks to a man that was supposed to teach her how to survive, while at the same time her people where dying. She was helpless against destiny. She felt like being tied down, struggling like crazy to get free, only to be chained down even more with each day passing. No one to save her, no one to protect her, everything expecting her to be the solution to all problems and dangers, no matter what sacrifice it would request from herself. Nobody cared. Nobody wanted to know. And those who might have wanted to help were silenced and suppressed by the oak. Sam felt bad for the people around her to be manipulated because of her.

Midwinter would be there soon. Then Nat would return. He had left with his master shortly after Sam's visit at the village. Maybe he would be able … maybe there was still hope for her. Maybe he would be able to stop the darkness that seemed to consume her more, day by day.

Maybe Nathan of Malven would be able to stop her from going to a place she couldn't return from.

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Well, that's it for today. Hope you like it. ^^

You might wonder why a pink mouse has startled Lord Padraig more than everything else. Well, in Germany there is a saying that if you start to see pink mice you are turning completely crazy/ insane, whatever. Or was it white ones? Umpf, I don't really remember. I don't know if this exists in other countries as well, so if not, now you know it.

For all who are interested: I have a mailing list and due to the fact that my updates are rare at the moment you might want to be informed as soon as a new chapter is up. So if you want me to e-mail you just give me you E-Mail address in a Review or an E-mail.

Oh, please review me a lot. I really need support at the moment. I really can't believe it. I'm 21 years now, about to (hopefully) pass my A-level, the one thing I fought to achieve since I got into school. Do you know that my former French teacher at my old school once said that I have no sense for languages at all? I mean, no matter what happened to me in my life until now (which was quite a lot), it hasn't been so worse that I didn't get through it, although I thought it was unbearable at that time. I guess this is one of my last big fears I have to face right now. (To understand this you have to know that there were some things and events I was unbelievably afraid of. But I got control over most of my fears, and I managed to survive all the events without much humiliation. But this is the last for now. Or at least I hope that.) Where has all the time gone to? I think I will need some time to find myself and to find out who I've really become over all those years. I wonder if I'll like what I see. OK, that's enough. I think I drink a little bit beer (my teacher said it would calm me down and make me sleepy. I hope it. But it tastes like crap.) and try to sleep that melancholy off. Damn, I have moodswings like being pregnant. (I wonder how bad my temper will be when I'm really pregnant one day. *frowns* Hopefully the father will survive this. *shrugs*)