Disclaimer: I own all.

Author's note: I typed two chapters yesterday so you get one now and one in a few weeks after finals. I hope to have another chapter by then but studying gets in the way of that sometimes. I hope you like this chapter and since I didn't get a response to the question in the last chapter I guess y'all don't mind if I introduce a new character who may change the story.

Thanks to those who reviewed.

Reminders:

It has only been about three weeks since Melena became human.

"/Words/" = Common/ English.

"Words" = Melena's home language - Athenian

{Words} = Written words in Athenian

{Words} = Written common/English.

~Entertainment worthy of a prince~

Days passed and still Melena's condition stayed the same. Elesea had decided after many hours of debate that it was not Oxygen-poison as they had originally thought. In fact it turned out to be fever-vain; a plant that when used correctly broke a fever but when taken by a healthy person, induced an almost deadly fever.

Deacon was still at a loss as to how she might have ingested it though Elesea was not. She kept this knowledge from everyone knowing it had to have been either Tianine putting it in her food or Robert when they were alone. Elesea told the twins and Rowan that it was only a chill and that she would be alright in a few days. She felt horrible for lying to them but she knew she would feel worse if she told them Melena might die.

Rowan especially would be traumatized. He insisted that they let him sit with her almost constantly.  Though he was only six he was very protective of her. Yvenne and Ilane deemed it 'sweet' and 'endearing' begging Elesea to allow him to stay with her.

Laughing and smiling she had allowed it for the first few days but when Melena's condition did not change she stopped it. This had caused a temper tantrum. The small boy had flung himself at poor Melena, who had been placed in her bed, and refused to let go of her.

At first the family had been afraid that he would choke her and Ilane rushed forward. She was stopped abruptly by the sight of Melena's pale, thin arms coming to rest on Rowan's back completing the hug. "/Hullo./" She whispered turning her head to look at the rest of the family.

A cheer when up around them. Until that moment Melena had been asleep. All were happy she was finally awake. "/Mel! Mel! Mel!/" the small boy cried. "/You've been sleeping an awful long time. How could you sleep so much? I know I can't./" He asked, his voice bouncy.

"/I do not wish to sleep anymore. Yet I am so tired. I missed you…/" her eyes closed and her breathing slowed.

Elesea felt her forehead and smiled. "/Her fever has broken. Rowan, please let her go now. If you wish her to get better you must let her rest./" She lifted the little boy from his new found pillow.

"/Nay, mama. I want to stay with her. I won't leave her./" He pouted and stamped his foot. "/I want to tell her stories. She promised she'd tell me stories but she got sick. Please?/" he gave her an innocent-cute-as-kittens look.

"/When she wakes up I know she will want to hear stories from you but right now she needs her rest. Come everyone; Melena needs her sleep./" They all left the room aside from Ilane who sat in the chair to await Melena's recovery.

"/You will call if she wakes up? /" Deacon asked worried. Unknowingly he had come to think of Melena as a daughter and he was very protective of all his daughters.

"/Of course papa. I will. Now go, sleep./"

~*

Melena had finally started to recover and was sitting out side in the warm afternoon sun playing her harp gently while Rowan sat in the grass near by watching her. She began humming lightly along with the song.

Finally, drawing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she silenced her harp and rested her head on her arms. This day her dark hair was loose aside from two good chunks in front of her ears that were pulled back to hold the rest of her long mane out of her face. Her cheeks had gained a light rose glow and her eyes were no longer dazed though their color had diminished slightly. Instead of a brilliant gold, they were now a very flattering light brown. Her hair had also changed slightly. In the sun it no longer shown with green highlights as it had. Though still shinning it was no longer green but a rich black. 

Melena looked to her right with out removing her head from her arms and saw a quiet creek ran not twenty feet from her. She smiled lazily. When Rowan suggested they go outside she had agreed instantly and had followed him with out looking where they were going.

Rowan noticed that Melena had stopped playing and was looking away from him. Frowning the six year old ran over to the girl and sat by her right side where she was looking. "/Mel, are you not going to play anymore?/"

Putting her arm around him she replied,"/Of course I will. I merely wished to look around at this beautiful spot./"

"/Good./"

She picked up her harp again and began playing a song she had learned from a book she had found in Deacon's forge. So engrossed in the music were both girl and boy neither noticed the group of soldiers on horses that silently encircled them.

When she was finished with the song Melena opened her eyes and looked around her again. With a small shriek she was on her feet, her harp in hand like a weapon. The soldiers laughed seeing this.

"/So, we've stumbled upon a singing tigress now have we not?/" the commanding officer commented.

"/What do you want?/" Melena asked with more confidence than she felt. She had never been around that many men in her life and they were slightly intimidating. There must have been twenty of them.

"/We serve Prince Julius of Carthan. He is in search of new entertainment and I believe you are just what he's looking for./" The one who had spoken first snickered.

"/Mel? What do they want?/" a sleepy voice asked. Melena sank to the ground where Rowan had fallen asleep.

"/They want me to play the harp for their Prince, sweet./" She hugged him lightly.

"/But you can't! What about us? You promised to tell me stories!/" He was outraged. How dare those men come here and take Melena away from them.

"/I know, but there are so many of them and only two of us./" She reminded him sadly.

"/Get the brat./" One officer said to another. They had mistaken his question of 'Mel?' for something along the lines of mother. "/If we take her brat then we have her for sure./"

The officer quickly did as he was told and rushed over to Melena and Rowan, grabbing the small boy by his arm and dragging him away from the girl. "/You must come with us now little tigress. We have your little brat and we are not afraid to harm him./" The commander chuckled.

^*^*^*^

I don't know if fever-vain is a real plant but to my knowledge it isn't so if it is let me know. I'd love to know if it really is. Tell me if there is anything confusing in this too. I love constructive criticism.