Chapter 16 – The Road Home

We travelled on towards Home. We made pretty good progress; on our third day
we crossed the border and were halfway to Frell. Nothing else happened, ogres
didn't bother us. Father and his knights did a good job of driving them back to
Fens.

On the way, John told me more about his life. He learned to read and write from
his grandfather. He was lucky, not many people his rank could read and write. He
also told me that he wanted to raise horses as a job someday. He was just starting
out as a stable boy.


On the fourth day of our journey, we met up with some bandits. We tried to run,
but there were too many of them, they surrounded us. I wanted to get my bow and
arrows, but they were packed up in my saddlebag and were too hard to reach
unless I dismount. I didn't have time for that. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the
sword John gave me; it was strapped onto my saddle. Lightning snorted, she was
afraid but didn't panic like Hotspur. Soon, John and I were separated

I calmed Lightning down and held out the sword while advancing. My hand was
shaking. John only taught me a little about how to wield my weapon. If it really
came to it that I had to fight, I was much better using my bow. I hoped that the
threat of the sword was enough.

But the bandits kept on advancing. What did they want? I'd be willing to give
them what I had. They had silver daggers with them. Lightning saw the glint of the
weapons and reared up. I was caught by surprise and slid off her back. I stood up
quickly but I realized that my sword flew from my hands in the fall and landed
somewhere behind me.

Suddenly I heard yelling behind me. I turned slightly to look out of the corner of
my eyes; I knew better than to turn my back on the bandits. I saw John fighting a
small group of them using a dagger that he carried, but there was too many of
them. My sword was by his feet; he bent down in one swift motion and picked it
up. With the sword he was able to hold off some of them.

I grabbed my bow from my saddlebag that was dropped onto the ground and
strung it quickly. I brought it up and aimed it at the closest bandit.

They looked at me, realized that I was a girl, and laughed because not many
women can shoot an arrow properly. They thought I was just threatening them,
but they were so wrong. I was one the best archer in Kyrria, but I'd never hit a
moving object before, I'd only practiced on wooden targets.

Despite knowing my skills, I was still scared. There was many of them and only
one of me. I gathered up my courage and yelled to them: "Don't move or I'll
shoot."

"Go ahead," one of them laughed. I just hoped my archery skills wouldn't fail me
after months of not practising. I held up my arrow and aimed at him. But my
hands were shaking; I'd never hurt a living thing before.

Just as I was deciding on whether to shoot or not, I heard a cry of pain behind me.
I turned cautiously and saw that John dropped the sword and doubled over in
pain.

I needed to act right away. To shoot or not to shoot? My mind pondered. I realized
I could never kill a person, whether they were bandits or Counts. I'll threaten them
instead.

I took aim at the head of the tallest bandit. Steady, my aim needed to be very
accurate. I let go of the arrow and heard the twang of the string. True to its mark,
the arrow neatly clipped his hair and lodged itself in the tree behind. I strung
another arrow just in case I needed it. The other bandits who saw had their mouths
gaping wide.

"See that?" I told them triumphantly, "My marksmanship is very accurate. I don't
want to shoot anybody, but I will if you leave me with no choice. Leave us alone
and I will spare you." With that I aimed my arrow at the crowd of bandits. They
backed away while eyeing me with awe and went out of sight.

After I retrieved my arrow from the tree, I bent down to help John. He was
wounded in the arm that held the sword.

"Are you okay?" I helped him up. The wound was quite nasty.

"Yeah I'm fine." He replied.

The horses came back calmed by the fact that the bandits were gone.

"That was awesome with the arrow. Ow, that stings." He winced as I cleaned his
wound.

"Thanks." I took some bandages from the saddlebag and carefully wrapped John's
arm. "But must I save you from everything?" I teased and looked up to meet his
laughing eyes.

"Hey, you are the one who was professionally trained." I let go of his arm and put
my hand on my saddle to get ready to mount. He put his hand on mine, and I
looked to him. "Dee, thanks." he said softly. I turned away and muttered "Your
welcome" in reply while blushing furiously.


That night I decided to read Mother's book to see who knew of my disappearance.
There was a picture of Edward and a diary entry to accompany it:

I hope Dee is alright. I haven't seen her for a week. People told me she is in good
hands and is on her way home.

I was enraged that, that, evil Count would scheme something like this. I heard he
disappeared about the same time my sister did. I reported him to the sovereigns of
Ayortha, and they are doing their best to locate him. He'd better not do anything to
Dee, if he did, I'll personally cut off his head and feed it to ogres!!!

The entry ended there. I was relived; Edward knew and was not in danger yet. But
I was worried; Edward wrote that Count V "disappeared" as well. I had a sinking
feeling that he might be looking for us.


I woke up the next day and screamed as soon as I opened my eyes. Standing in
front of our campsite, with an evil sneer, was Count V.

"Surprise!" the Count said in a too sweet voice.

"W-What are you doing here?" I stuttered.

"I feel so lost without you Princess, so I decided to find you." He used that sweet
tone again, "Now I've found you, we can live happily ever after." Ugh, it was even
worse, no, much worse than the way ogres talked. And about what he said, I felt
like puking.

"Come with me, sweet Princess." He continued. I couldn't take it anymore and
threw a fist at him. Unfortunately, I missed.

"Here, let me – ow!" the Count yelled suddenly while holding his head in pain.
Behind him, John stood with the butt of the sword inches from Count V's head. I
let out a sigh of relief.

But I let down my guard too soon. As soon as I stood up, the Count advanced
towards me. I panicked for a moment, for he had a dagger in his right hand.
Before I could react, John was in front of me in a flash.

"Don't you dare touch her!" he spat in the Count's face.

"Oh, and why not?" Count V said in a sarcastic tone that made me loath him even
more.

"Because, because," John suddenly went red, "Because I–"

"John, look out!" I interrupted him.

Count V advanced again, holding his dagger above his head, ready to strike. John
held up the sword and in one quick swift move, knocked the dagger from Count
V's grip. Count V bend to get the dagger, but John held the sword against his
neck, forcing him to freeze.

Thinking about the Count's tone of voice, I suddenly got an idea. I stepped out
from behind John and spoke in an oily sweet voice. Hey, if I could tame ogres, I
should be able to tame the ambitious Count. I addressed him directly and hoped so
that it would not affect John. Luckily, it worked perfectly. I wished I thought of
using it on the bandits.

Soon we had the Count bound from ankle to wrist. I wanted to leave him to the
ogres and bandits, but John decided to take him with us and let my parents deal
with him.

"Thanks." I whispered softly.

"It's alright. I'm just paying you back for saving me." John looked down at his
feet.

"Where did you learn to wield a sword like that?" I said more cheerfully.

"Oh, from here and there." He replied

~*~

It took us seven days to reach home. We tied the Count on Hotspur's back while
John and I rode on Lightning. Hotspur seemed to hate the Count as much as we
did and tried to make the ride as miserable for him as possible. Whenever the
Count gave us trouble, John would threaten him with the sword or I would tame
him or point an arrow at him.

I had to admit that I liked John a lot. I felt my cheeks glow when he put his arms
around me to keep from falling off Lightning. Once his lips accidentally brushed
my ear, I blushed furiously and almost fell off the horse. What was wrong with
me?

When we were close to Frell, we stood on a hill overlooking the city. I saw the
castle in the mist and was almost cried. I missed home so much even though I was
gone for only a couple of months, but it seemed like forever. We galloped through
the streets to the castle, attracting strange looks from the citizens with Count V
being tied to Hotspur.

I could see Mother who was standing at the entrance to the castle waiting for me. I
headed straight for her, jumped off Lightning and hugged her tightly.

"Oh Dee, we were so worried about you!" Mother drew back "When the castle
lookout saw you coming, I was so worried. Is there something wrong? Why aren't
you in Ayortha like you are supposed to?"

"I ran away." I answered nonchalantly.

"Ran away? But Ayortha isn't finishing school." Mother teased.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure Ayortha's much worse than finishing school." I muttered
under my breath, but I think Mother heard me because she laughed.

"Who are your friends?" Mother asked.

I looked back and saw the horses, John, and Count V waiting patiently. Well,
actually Count V was squirming.

"Come on, Mother, I'll introduce you." I pulled her towards Lightning.

~*~

Don't be mad at me because I haven't updated for so long, my reasons were
explained in the last chap.
Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed.
And thanks to jelie36 for the suggestion of Count V being involved, except I
didn't want to have them being kidnapped because it would make the story too
long and I'm too lazy and I want to get to the good stuff with the ball (oops giving
away info).
Olenochka: thank you for reviewing after like every chapter!
WindPrincess1: thank you for that enthusiastic review. can't wait for the next chap
of your story. now all you have to do is update. (hey, i updated)
To Samantha, don't worry, it's long from over.
I think I'm getting better at making longer chaps!!
REVIEWS PLZ!!!!!!!!! (I'm begging here, so be nice and review k? thanx)