Elwing; of course I respond to the people who review! That is, when people actually review… :(

Oh, and by the way, she didn't morph, she shape-shifted. Different thing…

LittleMidgett; thankyou (takes a bow) and I must say so can you. I didn't expect what happened last in your story!

Oh, and if I get any…. language… wrong, just ignore it. I'm not really that good with French.

You know how they say don't stick your arm out the window of a car, or look before you leap?

Well, I should have looked.

"OW!" I yelped as I was slammed in the face by something, and fell back into the pit the others were in, being caught by Jake and Robert. Whatever had hit me barrelled past, apparently unharmed, and me…

"God dammnit!" I snapped, feeling my nose had been broken. I pulled my hand away from my face, and blood seeped down.

"We're not going to last long if we keep getting injuries like this" Cassie commented as she came to check what she could do for me as Jake set me gently on the ground. Suddenly…

"It's gone!" She cried as I let go of my face, feeling a whole lot better than I did just seconds ago. Ithiell looked at me, then removed his bandages. Gone! Like mine!

"Great. So now we're impenetrable to danger?" Rachel asked, a little shocked still. Who wasn't?

We heard something, and all of us fell silent. Something thundering across the mud-packed ground. Then… a horse whinny!

"Qui tu?" We looked up to see an armoured horse and its rider, staring down at me. I think I saw another one behind him, but I couldn't be sure. It was too dark to see anything…

That was French!

"Jade?" Jake whispered.

"What am I? An international translator? I'm only half French!" I hissed in his ear, then jumped as the soldier slammed a spear or whatever into the ground, repeating the question with force.

"Ami" I blurted "Bonjour!"

The knight… because that's when it hit me… seemed to be looking at me.

At least, I think.

Hey, who could tell with all that body armour on!

"Féminin? Voici?"

"Nous perdu. Aide?" I asked.

"Sorcellerie!" He snapped.

"Non! Nous perdu!" I tried again, but he just didn't seem to believe me.

He let out a string of curse words in French, a lot of which I'd heard my cousin Luke say quite a few times. By then, I was just sick to death of all this crap, and added to his collection of French curse words. He looked stung.

"Nice going Jade" Marco muttered "Now we can die faster"

"One, it's not like I didn't try, and two, I don't see you helping!" I snapped as the knight turned and talked to his buddy, who probably rode off to get more help.

Now I was mad. Couldn't he see we were just a bunch of lost teens, dirty and hungry, and trying to find a way out of this place?

Wait a second… why hadn't he gone running when he'd see Ithiell? Or better yet, Ax?

Then it hit me. Of course! It was too dark, and if they stayed hidden…

"Time to show him why he shouldn't mess with a French girl from the future" I muttered, focusing. Before Jake could do anything, or Ithiell could order me back, I was already halfway to a tigress, and it would both take them too long to catch up if they tried.

I saw the knight was getting worried. Good for him.

I was almost fully tiger when the horse must have caught smell of me. It started rearing up on it's hind legs, going berserk!

Poor horse, but…

I powered my legs, leaping almost effortlessly out of the ditch. The horse and rider stumbled back, both in shock.

(Go sorcer this!) I let out a roar, making the horse loose its rider and run. The night itself was scrabbling across the ground, crying out in French. Some of it I understood. Most of it I didn't.

But hey, I didn't need to. I was a fully grown white tigress with PMS and an attitude.

And being whacked in the face didn't really help much either.

But it was the knights lucky day. I let him go.

"Gee, that was a bit much Jade" Rachel said as they all climbed out of the ditch, with Ax having slightly more trouble than the rest of them.

(Sure, you try being whacked in the face, then made to translate for the rest of us. See how you like it!) I snapped, growling a little.

"I think she has a point there" Ithiell said, brushing himself off. Mostly just to busy himself.

(All right. What now?) Tobias asked as he landed on my shoulder. I had to resist the urge to bite him. I was in an extremely foul mood…

"Let's take to the air, get out of range of these guys, and find out where we are" Ithiell said, looking around.

"I think we've been here before. Hey, Jake-"

Jake frowned at Rachel "I remember. When you decided to turn into an elephant and stomp people into the mud. But… when did he say the time was?"

"Fourteen hundreds" Cassie said "I think"

"Could be earlier, for all we know" Robert put in.

"He's right" Ithiell sighed, then looked at me "Are you ever going to come out of that form?"

(Sure. When I'm back at home, and not being HIT IN THE FACE!)

"Come on. Let's just fly" Jake sighed, looking at me like he couldn't figure me out. I suddenly felt really bad, and really silly. I sounded like a spoilt kid!

We all either morphed or shifted to owls or birds of prey, then took off into the black sky.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I guess I'd just become a sucker for Jake. In a sense.

Truthfully, I didn't know where we were going. Were we friends, or more than? I couldn't tell.

I thought about all of this as we glided over towns and villages, not really knowing where to go.

(Why don't we just go ask?) Rachel wondered (I mean, maybe we can get some food while we're at it)

(Don't you dare try to get me to translate again)

(How long are you going to hold this over our heads for?)

(Until I don't feel crummy anymore)

(It's an idea. How about just me and Jade go? It'll be safer, and I know at least a little French to keep us going ok?)

There was a sort of strained silence, until I realised they were waiting for me to say something.

(All right, all right! I'll do it!)

(Thanks Jade) Jake said privately, then to the others (We'll find a place to set down, just outside of the next town, then go ask)

(Sounds like a plan) Ithiell said (All right, lets go for it)

(He-oh wait, you didn't say it) Rachel stopped herself. I couldn't help but laugh.

(What the heck!) Marco wondered, and I just laughed more. I couldn't help it! I was just going crazy!

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Once human, Jake and I made our way carefully through the underbrush. Jake, taking my hand, led me to the closest hut we could find, hoping we weren't about to rob some needy beggar or anything.

Jake knocked on the door, and soon a fairly young woman, probably only two or three years older than us, answered the door.

"Holà?"

"Holà madam! Boîte tu aide nous?" I asked, hoping I got the pronunciation correct. I think she asked us what we wanted, or needed. I couldn't be sure.

"Um… lequel année je celui?"

"La année? il je treize- vingt"

"Merci madam" I then… somehow…managed to ask her if she could spare a little food. She could. In fact, she had just finished cooking two entire bread rolls, and was making two more. We thanked her, and left without much incident. I guess seeing us dressed in barely anything was too much for her to bare (I'd temporarily gotten rid of my jeans and jacket, leaving my bike pants and shirt) and I guess she pitied us.

We held one each as we made our way back to where the others were waiting. And, hopefully, making a fire for us. We'd taken each others spare hand to stop ourselves from getting lost.

Before I knew it, Jake had pulled me in close, wrapping his free hand tight around me and kissing me deeply.

"You did great" he said huskily.

"Thanks. Always knew Luke would come in handy some day" I smiled up at him.

"Come on, lets-"

"Jake?"

"Hmm?"

"Are we… you know. Dating?"

"As far as I know, yeah. Unless…"

"No, no, that's ok. It's just… maybe we should tell the others soon"

"Soon. But not just yet"

"Well… all right. You're the boss" I pulled away from him, and we continued to walk through until we found our friends. I gratefully shoved my clothes back on, glad to be at least slightly warmer, and guilty that the others weren't as lucky.

"Which year did she say this was?" Robert asked as I went to warm myself by the beautifully warm fire.

"Thirteen-twenty"

"So, we were about a hundred years out of date" Cassie muttered, not looking please.

"Hey, at least she gave us food. I'm not complaining" Rachel said, giving me an encouraging smile.

"With many thanks" Amanda said. She always believed in saying thankyou, even if she'd never met a person face-to-face. Weird habit, but then again… look where we were!

With Ax's help, we split the bread as evenly as we could between us, all of us glad to at least have something in our bellies, and took up another night of the two-hour watches.

That's it! If I don't get more reviews… NO MORE OF THIS!

NO JOKE!