Disclaimer: This is where myPG rating comes in. There is some light swearing and a little killing. Consider yourself warned. Oh, and while I'm at it, everything that you might recognize from coming from a movie, I probably got the inspiration from said movie. All the characters, though, are mine.

I've been chasing cars all day, and boy am I exhausted! (Larf, larf) But seriously, I got in at 1 am this morning and I'm very tired. But I finished the chapter and here it is!

TrudiRose: Danke.

Tiger Lily21: Sometimes my chapters are a little short because it's kind of where they end. This one is a fairly long one becauseit takes a bit longer to tell. Oh, and I called Claire poopy because she's an evil character and I used to call mean people 'poopy' all the time.

fell4adeadguy: Wee!

UruvielTruviel: Bam. That's right. I tried to incorporate little things in my story from the movies.

EreshkalgalGirl: Me too.

Sirenic Griffin: Well, here it is!

mistyqueen: Thanks!

violingirl7: Ah, romance. The affliction we all seem to share. :cD

I loves you all, preciouses!

Eager to get the third extended edition LOTR

-Lulai.

Chapter Thirteen: Rescues

"An' now I'm gonna lower ye out tha window!" an older woman's voice bellowed from inside the princess' tower.

"Shite!" the guard cursed loudly, quickly unlocking the door. If he let the princess escape, he'd probably be turned into a chair, or a chamber pot, or something else equally unpleasant.

"Princess?" the guard asked in a low voice, holding his spear in front of him. There seemed to be no one in the room, but there was a bed sheet tied to the bedpost.

"Shite," the guard swore again, lowering his spear and heading towards the window.

He heard a creak behind him, but before he could turn around, something crashed over his head and everything went black.

"Did I hit him too hard?" Lia asked, still holding the top of the chair in her hands. The other half of the chair lay broken around the unconscious form of the guard.

"Nay, lass," Guthra said. "But ye had better tie 'im quick before anyone else shows up."

Lia nodded, throwing the other half of the chair away. Before she tied him though, she removed his armour. With a great deal of grunting and cursing, she managed to get one of her dresses on him.

"Annalia!" Guthra admonished. "Where did ye learn such language?"

Lia looked up with a generally disgruntled look on her face, but then grinned at her friend. "I've healed a lot of people in the village in the last two years. Most of them were farmers. I must have picked up some of their more volatile phrases."

She tied his hands and feet and, half pushing-half rolling him on the bed, threw the covers over him.

Her next task was to try and reassemble the armour on herself. With a lot of stripping back down and some advice from Guthra (only about half of which was helpful), she finally managed to get most of it on.

"How do these knights do this everyday?" she fumed, buckling on the chest plate.

She coiled her braided hair around her head and tried to jam on the helmet. After a few tries, she gave up.

"This isn't going to work," she said, glaring at the helmet as if it had somehow offended her.

"You might have to take out your hair," Guthra suggested, "and just pile it inside the helmet."

Lia sighed. "Probably." She undid the ribbon and undid the plait with her fingers. She twisted her hair into a messy sort of lump on top of her head and held it with one hand. Then in one fluid motion, she managed to get helmet on her head with the majority of her hair inside.

"Umm, Guthra?" Lia asked, looking at her. "Could you, like, turn into a mirror for a couple minutes?"

"Sure," Guthra said, disappearing. Lia tucked at her hair, making sure every fiery lock was hidden underneath the helmet.

"There," she said, sliding her hands into the gauntlets. She looked in the mirror. She was a little short for a guard, but if no one actually looked very closely to her, she might pass for a man.

Grabbing the keys and the spear from where the guard dropped them, she closed the door and locked it.

"Good luck," Guthra yelled. "An' donna be gettin' yeself killed!"

"No worries," she called back. Unfortunately, the she did not completely feel the bravado her voice implied.

She began to march down the steps. The armour was slightly too large causing her movements to be slightly stiff and disjointed. It was a long way to the dungeon.

"Robbie had better be alive," Lia muttered irritably to herself.

Robbie was in fact very much alive, although he felt as though he would rather be dead. His head was pounding. He sat up off the dingy floor of the dungeon he was lying on. Gingerly touching his head, he couldn't help but wince when he found the small lump on the top of his skull.

The last thing he remembered was the soldier holding Lia then… nothing.

"Lia?" he asked.

"Ye're tha only one 'ere," a voice said, "well, besides me an' tha guards."

"Who are you?" Robbie asked, holding his head as he stood up.

"I use ta be tha prison ward," the voice said mournfully, "but now I'm trapped 'ere, same as ye."

Robbie looked around, confused. He seemed to be the only one in the cell.

"Where are you?" Robbie asked.

The voice sighed. "Look at tha lock."

"What?"

"Just look at it," the voice snapped.

Robbie shrugged and leaned in to the lock that kept the bars of his prison closed tightly. A gruff face adorned by a large beard appeared suddenly. Robbie gave a little bit of a shout and fell backwards.

"'Ey!" one of the guards shouted, "shuddup in there!" He gave Robbie's cell a good whack with his spear.

Robbie shut his eyes tightly, counted to ten, and opened them again. The face was still there.

"I must still be suffering from that blow to the head," Robbie muttered to himself.

"Ye're sufferin' from nothin'," the lock said irritably. "I've been enchanted. Half tha castle is enchanted."

"Hmm," Robbie said noncommittally. It was nice to know that he wasn't going crazy, but still. An enchanted castle? It sounded like something out of one of his books.

And where was Lia?

He turned to the lock. "Do you know where Lia is?"

"Lia? Ye mean tha Princess Annalia?" the lock asked in surprise. "I think I heard tha guards talkin' about puttin' her up in tha South Tower."

"I have to rescue her," Robbie said. "She's in deep trouble."

"An' ye're not?" the voice asked, dryly amused.

Robbie glared at the lock. "See here, Master Lock-"

"Deggory."

"Master Deggory," Robbie continued, "I will not leave Lia in the hands of her sister. I promised to protect her."

Deggory was silent for a few moments. "Very well, then," he said finally. "Here's what ye can do. In an hour or so, one o' tha guards will bring ye yer food for tha day. I'll distract 'im, an' ye can steal his sword." Deggory looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Ye can fight with a sword, right?"

Robbie knew he couldn't, but his pride wasn't about to take that blow. "Of course," Robbie snorted indignantly.

"Then ye just need ta sneak up tha' secret passage behind tha picture o' tha dragon. It'll lead ye ta tha library. Ye're on yer own from there."

"Thank you," Robbie said.

Just as Deggory predicted, an hour later, one of the guards came with a giant bucket of slop. He unlocked the cell door and stepped inside.

"Oy! Look-y here!" Deggory yelled. The guard took the bait and turned to see who it was. Robbie grabbed the man's sword and pulled, but was only halfway out when it became stuck. The guard was halfway turned around.

"Oof!" the guard moaned. Robbie had punched him in the nose, still trying to pull out the sword. Robbie put his foot on the man's chest and pushed.

The sword gave suddenly and Robbie went flying into the back wall. The guard had gotten pushed out of the cell. The guard gingerly touched his nose, trying to asses the damage, then he rushed at Robbie. Robbie held the sword with both hands out in front of him.

The guard hid the sword with the back of his hand and the sword went flying out of Robbie's hands.

"Crap," he muttered.

"I thought ye said ye could fight!" the lock howled.

"I can," Robbie growled back, "with my sword."

"Well, what are ye goin' to do now?"

"Improvise," Robbie said, grabbing the bucket of slop and hitting the guard a neat uppercut with it. The guard flew back again, but this time his head hit the wall with a sickening thud. Robbie dropped the bucket. He could already hear the other guards coming.

"Where's the weapons closet?" Robbie asked hurriedly, grabbing the sword from where it lay.

"To your left," Doggery yelled.

Robbie found the closet and jammed the sword in. He leaned on the sword with all his weight. The door creaked, then gave around the lock. It swung open.

Robbie sighed with relief. There, on a peg, was his sword. He pick it up and faced the oncoming guards.

With the sword, fighting the guards was almost ridiculously easy. He made sure this time to keep them all in front of him. No one was going to hit him on the head again.

He parried with one of the guards, hitting him in the face with the flat side of his sword. He punched another in the nose. Another soldier came down the stairs with a spear.

Robbie disarmed his opponent just in time to see the one soldier punch the smaller soldier in the jaw. The soldier's head jerked back and his helmet flew off. A wealth of red curls came cascading down.

Robbie groaned. He only knew one person with hair that colour.

He hit his current opponent over the head with the hilt of his sword and the man dropped like a stone.

The soldier fighting Lia laughed cruelly and raised his sword. Lia closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable. When the killing stroke didn't come, Lia opened one eye slightly.

Robbie stood there, his sword driven through the other man's armour. The man fell to his knees. Robbie pulled his sword out. The man fell over.

Robbie sheathed his sword and stepped over the dead man. He helped Lia stand and pulled her close into his arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

"I think so," Lia said, touching her jaw with her hand. She looked at him shyly. "I came to rescue you," she said, "but I guess you ended up rescuing me."

"I was coming to rescue you," he said with a smile, "but you already escaped. So I guess neither of us needed rescuing."

Lia smiled at him. Robbie dropped his forehead to hers and smiled back.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said softly.

"Me too," she said. Robbie lifted her chin and kissed her.

Lia forgot her sister, her father, all of her problems, even herself when Robbie kissed her. All she knew was that she didn't want it to end. She tightened her arms around his neck.

It was Robbie who broke off first. "Lia," he said, kissing the corners of her mouth.

"Yes?" she asked breathlessly.

"Marry me?"

Lia looked at him with such joy that it almost filled his heart to bursting.

"Of course!" Lia pulled him back to her happily.

Their second kiss was interrupted by a loud clearing of a throat. Both Robbie and Lia looked up.

"If I may be first ta offer ye and yer lass congradulations," Doggery said dryly, "but I think ye had better get outta here before every soldier in tha castle comes down here."

Robbie nodded. He turned and nearly fell over a chair.

"What the?" Robbie asked. Piled around the chair was various pieces of armour and a green surcoat.

Lia looked at the chair curiously. "Oh, I see. I had wondered why Claire had so many soldiers as most of them were deadly loyal to my father." She looked up at him. "She must have turned some of my father's soldiers into chairs, and turned some chairs into soldiers."

Robbie shook his head. "This castle is crazy."

He grabbed her hand and pressed the eye on a mosaic of a dragon that was placed beside the now broken weapons locker. The entire wall swung outward.

"Come on," he said, pulling her in. "Let's go."

They plunged into the darkness.