Hey look I'm back peeps!
Okay, so I said that the move would back me up some, and now I've lived here for about six months and haven't gotten around to doing anything for this, but..............
Well, let's just say that I had a lot of homework, most of which was math that I didn't understand, and school didn't get out until June 16, and this is a run-on sentence and I need to get to typing chapter five.
And now school's back in and do you have any idea how many times I've updated these author notes before posting??
Well, I started writing it before we left, but then I got stuck. And then we left that computer in Nevada for my sister who put in storage for now. So I get rewrite everything, hoping that I remember everything. Oh well. And maybe my author's notes'll get shorter, who knows....?
And just to point out to Enchantress Sun, Dom and Yuki already know she's gone.
Sorry if my writing made that unclear. I'll try to remember to go back and fix this later.
legofiance, Kel had been talking to Neal for a while. Even though I didn't write out the whole conversation, as that'd get tedious, it was implied. Again, sorry if my writing failed to reflect that.
And thank you to everyone else who's stayed on my case about updating, but the stuff before the story is way too long already to mention everyone. But I promise that everyone will get thank you's by the end of the story!
Oh, and for those who're interested, I found a great home for my rabbit, and from what I hear, she's happy. My dog was killed by a school bus shortly after we moved into our new house (actually it's pretty old). I am now even more resentful of school busses than I used to be.
And if anyone has read through all of my author notes, I'm not sure whether to say thank you, or you're crazy! Probably both, but crazy's not necessarily a bad thing.
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything that you recognize from the books. I won't say that I own the plot, 'cause I don't. Many people have used it before, and will yet use it. Anyway, onto the story that is by no means original.
CHAPTER 5
Neal woke to the sound of Tobe moving around, and, by the sound of it, starting a fire.
"You awake then, Sir Meathead?" came a mocking voice.
He sat up and looked around. The voice, though very familiar, was not Tobe's. He saw Alanna standing, hands on hips, next to Tobe, who was indeed starting a fire.
Rolling her eyes, Alanna stared at the pile where violet flames sprang to life, changing quickly to ordinary orange flames.
"He needs the practice," Neal grumbled.
"He can get the practice later, Neal. Right now we need to hurry. I'm here to assess the situation so that we can set up a rescue plan. Is that alright with you, Sir Healer?" Alanna said impatiently.
"Yes. I'm up, really I am." Neal insisted as he stumbled over to the packs, pulled out a fresh shirt and changed, back turned to them. He could worry about other clean clothes later, but his shirt was really dirty from yesterday's jolly battle, and it stunk rather awfully.
Tobe was fixing their breakfast. (Neal was glad that it was him and not Alanna. It had a much better chance at being edible that way.) After rolling up the bedrolls, Neal went about packing up everything else that could be packed before they cleaned up after eating. There wasn't much, and he soon sat down to eat.
'A lovely breakfast, really' he thought, but said nothing out loud. 'Couldn't ask for more than melted cheese on toast, with some water to compliment it'
Sitting in silence, Alanna knew that she should explain things further, but she was no more of a morning person than a bat.
Being the first to finish, Tobe went to groom the horses, who had started wandering over after grazing, that too-smart look in their eyes.
There were too many horses with them now. They no longer needed Aiden's mount, and there were the pack horses to consider. And Alanna just had to bring Peachblossom along for the ride.
"How quick do you think this will be?"
"I don't know yet. That's what I'm here to figure out remember? How long do you think it'll take?"
"If all goes well, it should be fast; they won't know she's gone until we're far away. But since when does all go well?"
"Good point. I want to check it out, then I'm to report back to Steadfast in person, as they're paranoid about having a communication spell being intercepted, so there's no point in arguing this. I'll bring back anyone necessary for the rescue, and, then, we'll go in."
"When you go you can take some of the horses." As an afterthought he added, "And you can bring monster boy back with you."
"No, I think that you could really use Tobe's company," she answered, knowing full well who Neal meant.
"Very funny," Neal said dryly. "No really it is," he insisted at the look on her face.
"I'm sure," was all the answer he got.
Tobe came back leading two horses, Neal's and Alanna's mounts.
"I'm not so sure that bringing Neal is such a great idea," Alanna said to Tobe. "I think that we'd be less likely to get into trouble if you came along instead."
"An' leave poor old Peachblossom 'ere with Neal? I think not."
Alanna smiled. "Good point."
"Oh shut up you two," he grumbled as he stood in one stirrup and swung right leg over the saddle less gracefully than usual.
Alanna too mounted, more gracefully than Neal, and as Tobe walked to take care of the other horses he called, "If either o' you two git killed, I ain't talkin' to ya again!"
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"I think we should leave the horses here."
"Why, do you think that they won't be careful?"
He shot her a look, and they dismounted. Neal took the lead, being careful not to be too loud, picked his way along the trail, Alanna close behind. "Stay here," she whispered to them, and they understood. Alanna mentally shook her head. Yes, she was used to their strange intelligence, but it was still just that: strange.
Neal paused and looked around, then continued on until he noticed that Alanna was no longer right behind him. He turned. "What's up?"
"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?"
"Yes. Can't you just sense a whole group of big barbarians with hangovers?" he quipped.
She rolled her eyes. "Ha-ha, very funny." She didn't question him out loud again, though she did have her reservations.
But soon Neal stopped again, looked over slightly to his left, then pointed. "Do you see that wooden hut over there?" He paused and she nodded. "That's where they're keeping her."
"Isn't this a temporary camp?" she hissed. "Why in the world would they have an actual hut to put her in?"
"I don't know! Maybe they wanted to make her feel more at home, you know, protect her from the elements."
Ignoring the last comment, Alanna, stepped in front of Neal a bit to get a better view. What she saw didn't make her feel too great about the situation, but at the same time it wasn't as bad as it could be. She guessed that there were about fifty or so men, barbarians being a pretty accurate description.
They were sprawled out in no particular order, without tents. (So why did they have a hut?) The smell coming from that direction told her that there had, indeed been too much drinking the night before, and it probably happened as often as they had the drink.
The few who weren't still dead out weren't fully conscious, let alone in any position to be an immediate threat.
She looked over at the hut, and had seen what Neal had seen the night before. It was wooden, the craftsmanship not too bad, not terribly short, and fairly new. It still baffled her. Why the hut?
She studied it a bit further, and Neal whispered, "It's got spells all over the locks that're going to take a while to figure out. We could just blast the lock off, but that'd get too much attention, and neither of us is in the position to be that drained right now."
"The spells are really that strong?"
"Yes, they are, but I'm not sure if the mage that set them up is still around."
"That's good. I want to go over there and check on Kel."
"Um, Alanna..."
"What is it?"
"She won't know you."
"I know. Do you want to come with me?"
"No, just point me out if you need to, but I think that I'll stay back here, play lookout sort of."
"Lookout for what?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Right."
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Kammal watched the camp's visitors, everyone but himself and the trees completely unaware. He was the only one awake, and it was early. 'Those stupid Scanrans' he thought. 'If they were awake enough they would realize that opportunity was knocking.'
But he didn't do anything about it, except watch. He took in the view of the young man who had been there the night before. He was called Neal. And now there was someone else with him. Short, red haired. This was the Lioness. Oh, the havoc he could wreak, if he so wished. But he like the calm. Or however close a bunch of snoring Scanran ruffians were. How had he been mixed in with this lot anyway?
Oh, reflection on opportunity turned wrong would be saved for another time. That mage had been wrong when he said that Kammal had a strange magic. His Gift was just small, and the mage was really old. He didn't know what he had been talking about.
But for now he needed to get to making up some hangover remedies. He couldn't treat everyone, of course, but there were still quite a few he would have to attend to if he planned on surviving this bunch for a while longer.
Sometimes he wished that he could do more than simple remedies, but he always pushed those thoughts aside quickly. That would be his old self talking. The self that thought that doing good was the right thing, that there was some good in everyone. Oh, how naïve he had been. No, he could have been great, even without those great morals, but then Prince Kaddar had become Emperor Kaddar, and he had fled. That had been his mistake. He still wondered who he hated more, the Tortallans, or the Scanrans. Well, didn't matter. He was on the Scanran's side of this war now.
As he walked out he admonished himself for his continuous train of thought. He had other things to think about, like, how could he make sure he got his pay for this expedition instead of an arrow in his back when they were through with him.
He walked out to get some of the supplies he had left over on the far side of the camp, and realized too late that he was too much into the habit of expecting no one to notice him. He had let himself be seen. But he was at least smart enough to make sure he wasn't identified.
Letting his guard down was not something he often did, but he had slipped this time and he cursed himself for it. He wouldn't let it happen again; he couldn't afford it.
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"Hey! Alanna!" He half whispered, half yelled to get her attention.
But Alanna had noticed it too. Someone was awake and moving around. And she had only had time to get a vague idea of the extent of the spells. Oh well. There was enough information to bring back her report. They would need backup, but if they snuck in, as apposed to a full out attack, they shouldn't need to take too many people away from their posts. Of course there would be a lot of protests, as the Scanrans were much too close to being inside of Tortall for most people's taste. But she would deal with that when she came to it.
As they slipped back into the forest, she thought that she heard Kel rustle in her sleep. Or maybe she was waking up. All that Alanna knew at the moment was that she really hoped that they didn't do too much to Kel before she could be rescued. But she also knew that she could only hope.
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"Hey! Yuki!"
She spun around to see Dom approaching her.
"Hey, what're you doing?"
It was an innocent question, but it must have been obvious that she was practicing with her glaive. Honestly, what else would she by doing in the closet thing Fort Steadfast had to a practice court, in practice clothes, with her practice glaive??
"Practicing," was the brief reply.
She didn't want to talk to him, not now. Ever since Neal hadn't shown up, Alanna told everyone what had happened to Kel, and she and Dom had used hunting as an excuse to go out and had ended up talking for over an hour, then they had gotten back late and she had resolved to stay away from him for awhile, she had found it rather difficult to stay a safe distance form him. And it was still only the next morning! Less than one day and she couldn't keep him from getting near enough to speak to her. Maybe the gods were mad at her, or maybe they just wanted a good laugh at the expense of a mortal. Unfortunately, she knew that this predicament most likely had nothing to do with any god.
Oh, all she had wanted to do was to keep herself from worrying too much about her friends. Alanna had gone after them, but that was only to get a general idea of what type of trouble they were dealing with, which didn't help much. If she could just get into the movements with weapon, she would be able to concentrate on that, but no. She had to be able to talk herself through this sticky situation, and she wasn't even sure what 'this sticky situation' was yet.
"I could see that. Can we talk?"
"About what?"
"I don't know, just stuff."
"Just stuff?"
"Look, I have to get going; they want me to go out hunting with them."
"I thought that we did that yesterday... They want you to go hunting right now?"
"And look how much we got done, and yes, we're going now."
"I thought you said that you wanted to talk."
"I do, just not now. I lost track of time just now. Sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted you."
As Dom walked away, Yuki couldn't but think about how nervous he had seemed, completely not like him. But she didn't let her confusion show on her face. Becoming soft was a bad thing, one should never show much emotion on one's face, and lately she had been becoming soft.
Well, now she had a reason to go back to practicing, but she was so used to every move that she would always fall into some kind of pattern and her mind would wander. But it was still better that sitting around and doing nothing.
xxxx
It had gone horribly wrong, and he'd lied. It was a stupid excuse, 'they want me to go hunting'.
'Well, I may just as well go out now and try to figure out what went wrong, besides absolutely everything.'
He left and wondered if he would wake up and find out that this was all just a really bad dream and he hadn't just made a huge fool out of himself.
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"Well, I'm heading out now."
Tobe had gotten everything all packed up and ready to go. He wanted Kel out of her prison as soon as possible, and had made it known.
Alanna was bringing all of the horses back with her, save Peachblossom and Hoshi. Tobe could work with them the best, and Hoshi at least was tolerant of Neal. Jump, who had disappeared for awhile after returning Neal to camp had reappeared and was curled up taking a nap by a tree. He looked like he had had more than enough to eat and looked thoroughly smug. There were sparrows here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary and nothing much to speak of.
"Have fun; I'm sure you will without having to be with an insane horse that likes the way you squeak!"
"Actually, I wouldn't know. I've never had the misfortune to have a horse like the way I squeak."
"You'll be back soon, though, with a bunch o' people to git Kel out of her box, won't you?"
"Of course I will! Oh and Neal, by the way, I'll tell Yuki that you love her and can't wait to see her!" With that Alanna was off, leaving Neal not sure he like her tone of voice with that last comment.
Turning, he noticed Tobe grinning, and growled, "What?"
"Nothin'. Just found out I ain't the only one who isn't completely blind. But then I should'a known she'd already've known."
"Known what?" But Neal thought that he had a faint idea of what they were both talking about. And he wasn't so sure that he liked it.
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Luke paced his room. His studies had been incomplete before his master had died. He was almost finished, but almost no one knew of his existence, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to make them become aware.
He knew that he should get the rest of his master's notes out to finish his studies, but he also knew what would happen to the person that tried to get them. It wouldn't be pretty. He was still trying to figure out a way to get someone else to get them out with making himself become know. It wasn't exactly an easy task.
There was a knock on the door and Luke was startled from his thoughts. Before he could say anything the door opened and a giant frame outlined the door.
"Do you have them yet?" the person asked harshly.
"No." Luke was slightly unnerved by the figure, but he also knew that he wouldn't do much damage to him. He was also impatient. "If you could just get me someone to open that stupid door, I could do the rest."
"Well, you should know enough by know to be able to open it. He didn't keep everything in there."
"Well, he kept enough in there. The counter curse is in there too. I don't have a way around it."
"Well fine. This is getting old. I'll see what I can do for you as far as getting that door open. Then you had better come through for us. If not, you'll die a slow and painful death."
"Well, that might have some effect on me if you didn't threaten me with the same thing without any detail nearly every day. If you really do come through with a person, then I really will come through with my promise."
"I think that we can this time." The large man's voice took on an amused and haughty tone. "We have just the lady to do it. They call her the Protector of the Small."
"You actually got her?" There was now a hint of surprise in Luke's voice.
"Yes, we did indeed."
"You mean you really did." Luke was actually starting to believe it.
"We did, and if she doesn't do it, you'll have to."
"If I do it it'll take me at least a fortnight to recover, if I survive it!"
"Well then we'll just have to make sure that she does it, won't we?" He turned to go and Luke heard him say "Oh the irony of her being the one to make it all possible again. It'll be because of her that we'll be able to win this war!"
It would be ironic if she was the one to open the door. Luke knew, but he didn't really care who did it, so long as it wasn't him. King Maggur could do it for all he cared. Just so long as it wasn't him.
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Okay, here it is. Chapter five. I would have made it longer, but I needed somewhere to end.
Ya know, I complained about Trickster's Choice a chapter or two ago, and Trickster's Queen is out now. I still haven't been able to get it. I can't wait to read it though. I feel kind of bad though, I started this before TC came out, and I'm only five chapters into it.
I know that my portrayal of Dom and Yuki is kind of off, but they weren't very developed characters in the book, so it's even more difficult to try to keep them in character than it is for the other characters.
Writing Tobe is not easy either. Other's slang is simple enough, but his is a little different, and I know I kind of screwed it up for him. So, if you have any advice, I'm more than willing to listen.
But please review; tell me what's good, what's bad, if you want me to continue.
--sunstorm
AND MAKE THE FLYING GRAY SPACE MONKEYS STOP POKING ME WITH CELERY! I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY WON'T STOP!