Along with the warning horn, howls of dogs and cries of women and children
in the camp, there was a knock on Kel's door.
The sun was just rising as she swung it open. "Fhire!" She instantly turned back around. She didn't have time to talk, she needed to put her armour on. Fhire ran in and helped her. She had been on patrol, so she was already in her fighting clothes when she heard the men yell, which was even before the horn went off.
"Lady Kel, are you almost ready?" She asked impatiently.
"Almost. You were on watch, tell me what's going on!" Kel said, as she pulled her armour on.
Fhire reached forward and helped her latch it up, so it went quicker. "There are at least five hundred men advancing, if not more. As far as we know, they have about a hundred archers, a hundred and fifty riders, and two hundred and fifty footmen. They are advancing fast."
Kel nodded. "Let's go." She sheathed her sword, grabbed her glaive, and ran outside the door.
She sprinted up the steps of the wall, and found herself beside Walford and Merric. "Walford!" She said, "I want two of your units on the walls. The best archers you have, but I want them ready with their swords, just like we planned." She turned to Merric. "The refugees are scared. They think this is going to be like it was last time, and they are going to get killed, so they're not ready to fight. Get them ready and into positions, I want them on the wall!" Merric nodded and ran down the stairs, calling his soldiers to help him, before they themselves got into position.
"Dom!" She yelled. She couldn't see him anywhere. She looked around the wall, and down in the square. The Scanrans were getting closer, and she wasn't ready. The horn was off, Merric had calmed the women and children, and the dogs were quiet. The Scanrans were now almost at shooting distance. The soldiers were still running to their positions, and the refugees were running around the square, getting children to safe places, and getting themselves into fighting positions. "Dom!" Kel yelled again, her voice carrying through the quiet. She finally saw him, sprinting across the square towards her.
"What?" He yelled back, as he ran.
"Where the hell were you? Your men need to get into position, you should have been here for commands!"
Dom frowned. "I ran a bit late. I saw that the refugees and the soldiers were in their normal positions, so I sent my men to theirs. That is where you were going to send them, is it not?"
Kel was slightly taken aback. "I- well, yes. Sorry about that."
Dom grinned. "No problem." He turned and ran along the wall, sprinting to the other side, where his position was.
Before Kel had time to think about their conversation, she realized she was waiting to go into battle. Feeling exceedingly stupid, she picked up a bow and got ready to aim. The Scanrans were getting nearer and nearer. But now, Kel was ready.
She was standing atop the wall, and from the Scanrans view, she was the only person there. It must have looked like that, because they were making no moves to hide or retreat.
They were almost in range for her archers. Kel stood there, a lone figure on the wall, bow raised, arrow ready to fly.
"Ready!" She cried, and all of the archers pulled back their bows, still hidden. The Scanrans were almost there. . .
"Aim!" She cried, paused and shouted again. "Fire!"
Before the Scanrans could even put up their shields, they were showered with arrows.
Almost fifty men fell, mostly archers, with a few riders and one or two foot men dropping as well.
"Ready, aim, fire!" Kel yelled again, and they fired again, this time shooting down much fewer men, as the Scanrans had realized that Kel was not alone.
"They're in shooting distance!" She yelled, as arrows flew around her, men shooting whenever they had a clear shot.
She shot an arrow, hitting a rider square in the chest. The Scanran archers raised their bows.
"Archers!" She yelled, and everybody leaned under the turrets. "Aim for the archers!" She yelled. She leaned out and shot an archer. His bow flew out of his hand, and his arrow hit another Scanran in the shoulder. Kel laughed.
"What's so funny?" Dom appeared at her side.
"We're winning." Kel shot a man, on a horse, in a generals colours.
* * * * *
The sun set on a bloody plain that night. The Scanrans had retreated out of shooting distance from New Hope, but they didn't leave. Kel knew what they were doing. They were running out of men, so they were lying in wait. When anyone tried to come out to hunt, they would get killed.
They were cutting New Hope off from it's resources.
Kel called a meeting atop the wall. Kel, Fhire, Dom, Walford, Merric, Neal, and Owen sat under a torch on the wall.
"Alright," Kel said, "they're trying t cut us off from our resources, which means that we are not dealing with any of the same Scanrans as last time." Kel started. "We have the well, which will hold us for approximately two weeks, under good conditions. We also have the chickens, pigs, and cows. The animals all got in side through the escape holes, just like Daine trained them to.
"We can't get to the crops, but we have our stores, and a few small vegetable gardens in the walls. Basically, we can outlast them. They have the stream and our crops, but that's it. They are injured, and their numbers are few. I need an update on our injured."
Neal spoke up. "We've had almost twenty fatalities, and about fifteen people with small injuries. A few arrows in shoulders, legs, and grazing shots. In other words, we are doing very well, compared to the enemy."
Kel nodded.
"I don't know if we can outlast them." Said Dom. Everyone looked at him. "Although we have watches, they could send someone at any time to call for reinforcements. They can also destroy all of our crops, which will mean we won't last very long once they're gone. We need to send a party out to knock them off."
Merric shook his head. "We can't put our men in unnecessary danger."
"You have to sacrifice. Put those few lives in danger, save the rest."
Kel sat back and listened to the arguments. She was tired, and she couldn't think of a better plan than Dom's. she was just going to go to sleep, and hope she could come up with something better.
"I like it." She announced.
Everyone looked at her.
"We send a few people out soon, while it's still dark. They knock off as many men as they can, while the Scanrans are still recuperating. They only have about a hundred men left. If we stay above them, we can probably kill about twenty in one go, if we have enough men."
Dom nodded. "We send out our best archers, the Own. That way, if they get advanced upon, they can handle themselves until they get inside."
Kel stood up. "It's agreed, then. Dom, I don't want all of the Own out there, just in case. Take fifteen men, plus ten of Walford's men." She turned to Walford. "Tell them to accept orders from Commander Domitan."
Walford nodded.
"Dom, I'm going to come with you."
Neal frowned. "Don't you think you should stay here?"
Kel looked at him. Why shouldn't she get to fight? Did Neal, after all these years, think she was inadequate?
"Kel, you're the commander of this camp. If something happens to you, we're at a loss."
Kel shook her head. "Nice try." She grinned. "I was kidnapped, remember? You did plenty fine without me. Besides, I'm a better archer than anyone of Dom's men."
Fhire also stood up. "So am I!" She elbowed Kel lightly and muttered, "I do get to come, right?"
Kel smiled weakly. "Sure."
Almost two hours later, Kel galloped back into the camp. "Perfect!" She yelled. She looked behind her at the victorious party. A few men were bleeding profusely, looking pale. Fhire had a long scratch across her face.
"How'd it go?" Neal asked, as he cleaned up Fhire's scratch.
Kel was leaning against the doorway to the infirmary. "Quite good, actually. We did better than we expected, we got them all. We brought two back for information. We only lost three men, out of the entire party of twenty-eight."
Neal smiled. "Only you could pull that off."
Fhire winced. "I could too."
Neal looked at her. "I wasn't this rude to my elders when I was a squire." He frowned.
Kel smiled weakly. "Yes you were."
"Oh. Right."
Kel said goodbye to them and went to look for Dom. She didn't find him in the camp, so she looked outside. She found him helping Merric's men clean up the bodies and burn them.
"How's this fun job going?" Kel asked.
Dom smiled and stood up, stretching. "Great fun." He looked her in the eye. "You did a great job yesterday. Last night. This morning. Whatever."
Kel smiled. "I always do." She laughed. "And so do you." She kissed him. "
"Hey you two, there's work to be done!" Merric yelled, making Kel blush, and making all the men laugh.
"I'll get you, Hollyrose!" (A/N I think that's his fief) She cried. She ran over to him. He dropped the wood he was carrying and ran. Dom followed them.
Kel caught up with him at the stream and pushed him into it. She stood there, laughing, as Dom ran up.
Merric looked at them, trying to frown, but not able to. He looked Dom in the eye.
"Sorry, mate," said Dom, "but I'm far more afraid of what she'd do to me if I helped you."
Kel laughed. She wrapped her arms around him. "Who said you had to help him?" She whispered. His eyes grew wide, and she pushed him in too. But not before he could grab her wrist and drag her in as well.
She shrieked. "How dare you! I'm your superior!" She cried, as Merric scrambled out of the way.
They sat there in the water, unable to move, they were laughing so hard, until all of them were soaked through, cold, and ready to fall into warm baths.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Huzzah for finishing another chapter! Wow, I love you guys! I have almost 90 reviews, and I'm only up to thirteen chapters posted! Wow!
PoisonMoon: glad you enjoyed it. I think it's hard to say that someone's story isn't original on fanfiction. Isn't it sort of the point that it's not? The plot should be, but think about it: there are almost 4000 stories for Tamora Pierce. Think about how hard it is to think up new ones. I think I did a pretty darn good job.
Rora Kuusou: that makes sense! Thanks for explaining that to me. It made perfect sense both times, don't worry.
Katie: thanks. I don't email people when I update, if you want to know, you can sign up and put me on your authors alert list (which I proudly say 25 people have done).
Wake-Robin: not sure how to answer this. Thanks, I guess.
Treanz-alyce: darn right I'm evil! I've been saying this forever, but no one ever seems to believe me!the whole thing about it coming to a close, I don't actually plan on ever doing that. I'm never, EVER happy with the endings of books, stories, movies, etc. I also enjoy writing them. So, I plan to keep coming up with new things for Kel to do, until I either get bored of this story, or feel I've exhausted the characters, as I've developed them. (i.e. I decide I want a story where Dom and Kel are not together. YEAH RIGHT! That's like my favourite thing ever)
Helsuzaba: Thank you. I guess I can answer your query with the previous thing I wrote. I don't plan on anything. I just let it happen. Sometimes they're amazing, sometimes they're okay, and sometimes they suck. It all depends. I'm not great at writing romance as stuff (oh yeah, cuz I'm a real expert on romance) so I try to not write too, too much on it, and that's basically what their relationship is, right?
Dancerkel12: thanks!
Molly:I'm fine, thank you. I'm just getting a lot of work right now. I take some grade twelve courses that are getting serious, and various other school work to do, so I don't have time to write that often. When I do write, I write what comes into my head, because I write because I like to. Essentially, I don't have anything planned, which may mean that this isn't the story for you. I'm for the person who likes continuing story lines, that don't just have a start or finish, but chronicle Kel's life, including the less adventurous bits. I don't really understand what you mean by my style. My writing style? Because that's just me, so it's kind of hard to get sloppy in it, I think. My story itself? I'm not sure. But I do my best anyway!
Lady Bee: I'm so glad someone feels my pain! Hope you enjoyed it!
AJ 4EVA: don't worry I did, and I will.
Legofiance: I love the name! (is that Lego, or legolas? Cuz either is great) oh don't worry, this will be long. There is no foreseen end, it's like the energizer rabbit. It keeps going, and going, and going. . .
Wow. . . I went a little overboard on the notes there, sorry to the people who don't like those. That's why I write them all at the end. I hate having to scan through dozens of personal notes just to find the story! With me, I'm right up front, but you can still find any notes, and I've taken to writing to every person who reviews, not just the people who ask questions!
Happy reading!
-unolimbo
The sun was just rising as she swung it open. "Fhire!" She instantly turned back around. She didn't have time to talk, she needed to put her armour on. Fhire ran in and helped her. She had been on patrol, so she was already in her fighting clothes when she heard the men yell, which was even before the horn went off.
"Lady Kel, are you almost ready?" She asked impatiently.
"Almost. You were on watch, tell me what's going on!" Kel said, as she pulled her armour on.
Fhire reached forward and helped her latch it up, so it went quicker. "There are at least five hundred men advancing, if not more. As far as we know, they have about a hundred archers, a hundred and fifty riders, and two hundred and fifty footmen. They are advancing fast."
Kel nodded. "Let's go." She sheathed her sword, grabbed her glaive, and ran outside the door.
She sprinted up the steps of the wall, and found herself beside Walford and Merric. "Walford!" She said, "I want two of your units on the walls. The best archers you have, but I want them ready with their swords, just like we planned." She turned to Merric. "The refugees are scared. They think this is going to be like it was last time, and they are going to get killed, so they're not ready to fight. Get them ready and into positions, I want them on the wall!" Merric nodded and ran down the stairs, calling his soldiers to help him, before they themselves got into position.
"Dom!" She yelled. She couldn't see him anywhere. She looked around the wall, and down in the square. The Scanrans were getting closer, and she wasn't ready. The horn was off, Merric had calmed the women and children, and the dogs were quiet. The Scanrans were now almost at shooting distance. The soldiers were still running to their positions, and the refugees were running around the square, getting children to safe places, and getting themselves into fighting positions. "Dom!" Kel yelled again, her voice carrying through the quiet. She finally saw him, sprinting across the square towards her.
"What?" He yelled back, as he ran.
"Where the hell were you? Your men need to get into position, you should have been here for commands!"
Dom frowned. "I ran a bit late. I saw that the refugees and the soldiers were in their normal positions, so I sent my men to theirs. That is where you were going to send them, is it not?"
Kel was slightly taken aback. "I- well, yes. Sorry about that."
Dom grinned. "No problem." He turned and ran along the wall, sprinting to the other side, where his position was.
Before Kel had time to think about their conversation, she realized she was waiting to go into battle. Feeling exceedingly stupid, she picked up a bow and got ready to aim. The Scanrans were getting nearer and nearer. But now, Kel was ready.
She was standing atop the wall, and from the Scanrans view, she was the only person there. It must have looked like that, because they were making no moves to hide or retreat.
They were almost in range for her archers. Kel stood there, a lone figure on the wall, bow raised, arrow ready to fly.
"Ready!" She cried, and all of the archers pulled back their bows, still hidden. The Scanrans were almost there. . .
"Aim!" She cried, paused and shouted again. "Fire!"
Before the Scanrans could even put up their shields, they were showered with arrows.
Almost fifty men fell, mostly archers, with a few riders and one or two foot men dropping as well.
"Ready, aim, fire!" Kel yelled again, and they fired again, this time shooting down much fewer men, as the Scanrans had realized that Kel was not alone.
"They're in shooting distance!" She yelled, as arrows flew around her, men shooting whenever they had a clear shot.
She shot an arrow, hitting a rider square in the chest. The Scanran archers raised their bows.
"Archers!" She yelled, and everybody leaned under the turrets. "Aim for the archers!" She yelled. She leaned out and shot an archer. His bow flew out of his hand, and his arrow hit another Scanran in the shoulder. Kel laughed.
"What's so funny?" Dom appeared at her side.
"We're winning." Kel shot a man, on a horse, in a generals colours.
* * * * *
The sun set on a bloody plain that night. The Scanrans had retreated out of shooting distance from New Hope, but they didn't leave. Kel knew what they were doing. They were running out of men, so they were lying in wait. When anyone tried to come out to hunt, they would get killed.
They were cutting New Hope off from it's resources.
Kel called a meeting atop the wall. Kel, Fhire, Dom, Walford, Merric, Neal, and Owen sat under a torch on the wall.
"Alright," Kel said, "they're trying t cut us off from our resources, which means that we are not dealing with any of the same Scanrans as last time." Kel started. "We have the well, which will hold us for approximately two weeks, under good conditions. We also have the chickens, pigs, and cows. The animals all got in side through the escape holes, just like Daine trained them to.
"We can't get to the crops, but we have our stores, and a few small vegetable gardens in the walls. Basically, we can outlast them. They have the stream and our crops, but that's it. They are injured, and their numbers are few. I need an update on our injured."
Neal spoke up. "We've had almost twenty fatalities, and about fifteen people with small injuries. A few arrows in shoulders, legs, and grazing shots. In other words, we are doing very well, compared to the enemy."
Kel nodded.
"I don't know if we can outlast them." Said Dom. Everyone looked at him. "Although we have watches, they could send someone at any time to call for reinforcements. They can also destroy all of our crops, which will mean we won't last very long once they're gone. We need to send a party out to knock them off."
Merric shook his head. "We can't put our men in unnecessary danger."
"You have to sacrifice. Put those few lives in danger, save the rest."
Kel sat back and listened to the arguments. She was tired, and she couldn't think of a better plan than Dom's. she was just going to go to sleep, and hope she could come up with something better.
"I like it." She announced.
Everyone looked at her.
"We send a few people out soon, while it's still dark. They knock off as many men as they can, while the Scanrans are still recuperating. They only have about a hundred men left. If we stay above them, we can probably kill about twenty in one go, if we have enough men."
Dom nodded. "We send out our best archers, the Own. That way, if they get advanced upon, they can handle themselves until they get inside."
Kel stood up. "It's agreed, then. Dom, I don't want all of the Own out there, just in case. Take fifteen men, plus ten of Walford's men." She turned to Walford. "Tell them to accept orders from Commander Domitan."
Walford nodded.
"Dom, I'm going to come with you."
Neal frowned. "Don't you think you should stay here?"
Kel looked at him. Why shouldn't she get to fight? Did Neal, after all these years, think she was inadequate?
"Kel, you're the commander of this camp. If something happens to you, we're at a loss."
Kel shook her head. "Nice try." She grinned. "I was kidnapped, remember? You did plenty fine without me. Besides, I'm a better archer than anyone of Dom's men."
Fhire also stood up. "So am I!" She elbowed Kel lightly and muttered, "I do get to come, right?"
Kel smiled weakly. "Sure."
Almost two hours later, Kel galloped back into the camp. "Perfect!" She yelled. She looked behind her at the victorious party. A few men were bleeding profusely, looking pale. Fhire had a long scratch across her face.
"How'd it go?" Neal asked, as he cleaned up Fhire's scratch.
Kel was leaning against the doorway to the infirmary. "Quite good, actually. We did better than we expected, we got them all. We brought two back for information. We only lost three men, out of the entire party of twenty-eight."
Neal smiled. "Only you could pull that off."
Fhire winced. "I could too."
Neal looked at her. "I wasn't this rude to my elders when I was a squire." He frowned.
Kel smiled weakly. "Yes you were."
"Oh. Right."
Kel said goodbye to them and went to look for Dom. She didn't find him in the camp, so she looked outside. She found him helping Merric's men clean up the bodies and burn them.
"How's this fun job going?" Kel asked.
Dom smiled and stood up, stretching. "Great fun." He looked her in the eye. "You did a great job yesterday. Last night. This morning. Whatever."
Kel smiled. "I always do." She laughed. "And so do you." She kissed him. "
"Hey you two, there's work to be done!" Merric yelled, making Kel blush, and making all the men laugh.
"I'll get you, Hollyrose!" (A/N I think that's his fief) She cried. She ran over to him. He dropped the wood he was carrying and ran. Dom followed them.
Kel caught up with him at the stream and pushed him into it. She stood there, laughing, as Dom ran up.
Merric looked at them, trying to frown, but not able to. He looked Dom in the eye.
"Sorry, mate," said Dom, "but I'm far more afraid of what she'd do to me if I helped you."
Kel laughed. She wrapped her arms around him. "Who said you had to help him?" She whispered. His eyes grew wide, and she pushed him in too. But not before he could grab her wrist and drag her in as well.
She shrieked. "How dare you! I'm your superior!" She cried, as Merric scrambled out of the way.
They sat there in the water, unable to move, they were laughing so hard, until all of them were soaked through, cold, and ready to fall into warm baths.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Huzzah for finishing another chapter! Wow, I love you guys! I have almost 90 reviews, and I'm only up to thirteen chapters posted! Wow!
PoisonMoon: glad you enjoyed it. I think it's hard to say that someone's story isn't original on fanfiction. Isn't it sort of the point that it's not? The plot should be, but think about it: there are almost 4000 stories for Tamora Pierce. Think about how hard it is to think up new ones. I think I did a pretty darn good job.
Rora Kuusou: that makes sense! Thanks for explaining that to me. It made perfect sense both times, don't worry.
Katie: thanks. I don't email people when I update, if you want to know, you can sign up and put me on your authors alert list (which I proudly say 25 people have done).
Wake-Robin: not sure how to answer this. Thanks, I guess.
Treanz-alyce: darn right I'm evil! I've been saying this forever, but no one ever seems to believe me!the whole thing about it coming to a close, I don't actually plan on ever doing that. I'm never, EVER happy with the endings of books, stories, movies, etc. I also enjoy writing them. So, I plan to keep coming up with new things for Kel to do, until I either get bored of this story, or feel I've exhausted the characters, as I've developed them. (i.e. I decide I want a story where Dom and Kel are not together. YEAH RIGHT! That's like my favourite thing ever)
Helsuzaba: Thank you. I guess I can answer your query with the previous thing I wrote. I don't plan on anything. I just let it happen. Sometimes they're amazing, sometimes they're okay, and sometimes they suck. It all depends. I'm not great at writing romance as stuff (oh yeah, cuz I'm a real expert on romance) so I try to not write too, too much on it, and that's basically what their relationship is, right?
Dancerkel12: thanks!
Molly:I'm fine, thank you. I'm just getting a lot of work right now. I take some grade twelve courses that are getting serious, and various other school work to do, so I don't have time to write that often. When I do write, I write what comes into my head, because I write because I like to. Essentially, I don't have anything planned, which may mean that this isn't the story for you. I'm for the person who likes continuing story lines, that don't just have a start or finish, but chronicle Kel's life, including the less adventurous bits. I don't really understand what you mean by my style. My writing style? Because that's just me, so it's kind of hard to get sloppy in it, I think. My story itself? I'm not sure. But I do my best anyway!
Lady Bee: I'm so glad someone feels my pain! Hope you enjoyed it!
AJ 4EVA: don't worry I did, and I will.
Legofiance: I love the name! (is that Lego, or legolas? Cuz either is great) oh don't worry, this will be long. There is no foreseen end, it's like the energizer rabbit. It keeps going, and going, and going. . .
Wow. . . I went a little overboard on the notes there, sorry to the people who don't like those. That's why I write them all at the end. I hate having to scan through dozens of personal notes just to find the story! With me, I'm right up front, but you can still find any notes, and I've taken to writing to every person who reviews, not just the people who ask questions!
Happy reading!
-unolimbo