Holy guacamole, Batman! Over 110 reviews! Booyah! Just for you all, TWO chapters! Yes, count them, one, TWO! Although, the first one's a little short, so, meh. ANYWHO...
Tiger Lily21: I love plot twists. Thanks for the well wishes!
livingdead2010: K!
wishingIcouldthinkofsomething: Thank you! I'm glad my forshadowing worked. I think I've gotten better at it.
fell4adeadguy: Aw, lol. Don't you hate that? They almost need a button at the top of the screen too. Hooray for cliffies!
Princess of Rain: ((hands you overly large sunglasses)) Don't want you to get too blind.
panemonium: My friend went to New York for Spring Break. She had a great time. Anyways, Jarrod is quite shocked, I'm sure. I will totally use this time to type some more chapters out.
Areida Rivers: Yup, I'm a senior, and we are extremely busy. But I love writing so much that I make time for it. Thank you very much. It's totally my pleasure to write it. Ah! Don't die! I'll make it better, I promise!
Dreamer at Heart: Yay for band trips. Here you go!
Sirenic Griffin: (1)Heehee! Yup!The sisters seem to like taking things into their own hands. It'sprobably because there are so many of them. (Siblings) I don't have a little brother, but I have a little cousin who is extremely annoying. My sister often doesn't hold back either, but you can't beat your sister into submission, or else you get the 'You're the biggerperson' type speech. I kid. I love my sister very very much. (School) :c( That's sad. My schoolwork usually sucks the life out of me, (especially calculus) but seeing all my friends make it all better. (2) Aw, but your stories are very good. And to quote Jean de la Buyère 'It is the glory and the merit of some men to write well, and of others, not to write at all.' (3) Okay!
Kimmy7: Thanks!
CharlyB: I love cliffies. Probably too much Nancy Drew when I was young. Thank you!
Dragonblade Goddess: Nope. I had the utmost trust that you wouldn't say what I thought you were going to say. I'm glad I surprised you. :cD
littlelambug: Okay! Here you go!
rainkisser: It's okay. This is about the time of month where everyone is busy, myself included. That is scary! My choir is preparing for this huge festivalinthebeginning of July, and we haven'teven gotten half of our music yet. It's still in transit. And it's hard stuff too. I'm glad you like this story. It does have a bit of a melancholic element to it, doesn't it? One of the many secrets out in the open.
naughty little munchkin: Hey! Long time, no write! I understand totally about the reading and not reviewing. Sometimes, you just don't have the time. I should whip you back to your studying, but I have been guilty of being sucked into Fanfiction when I'm supposed to be doing homework. Oh, the poor (kinda) earl. Yes, all the sisters are involved. I will explain more in detail later in the story, but, as mentioned in the chapter below, it's not just Fiona. That might be fun! Kidnapping Jarrod, I mean. Oh, Jarrod, Jarrod, Jarrod. It's very strange when your stories almost take themselves over. I mean, I was thinking, 'Well, they are both attracted to each other, without the other one knowing it, but they haven't even kissed since Chapter Eight! What up with that?' I fixed that. :cD Thank you very much for the compliments! Honestly, even if I recieved no reviews, I would still update, just because I love writing so much. Reviews are just like icing on a chocolate cake. Anyway, I always love your reviews, and hope you like the next couple of chapters!
Uruviel Tinuviel: No problem! I know you're busy. What musical are you guys doing?
Phillipa of the Phoenix: Oh, I was wondering if anyone was going to say that.They were just teasing Fiona is all. It's hard to write inflection, but basically, she was saying, 'the road Fiona told us...' as if Fiona were a title instead of her name, or something. It's really hard to explain, but my sister does it to me all the time.
little miss tiny shoes: All the sister have an input in the bandits, yes. It'll be explained a little more fully later. Your wish is my command!
Thank you for all the reviews. You guys make me feel all bubbly inside!
Lulai
ChapterThirteen: Fight
Jarrod lowered his bow in shock as Dagger, Axe, and Sword pulled back their hoods as well to reveal Genevieve, Nia, and Daphne respectively.
"You?" he asked incomprehensibly. "Why?"
Fiona had the stubborn look to her jaw again. "Because we could not just stand by and see our friends starve."
"Are things really that bad?" Jarrod asked, stepping farther into the clearing.
Fiona nodded. "Yes. The worse part of it all is that Uncle Edward isn't even really evil, merely ignorant."
"Ignorant in such a way as to be ignorant to his ignorance," Genevieve interjected dryly.
Fiona nodded again. "So we can't really get rid of him." She turned to Jarrod with a plea of understanding in her eyes. "We aren't really that bad. We only steal half of his money. We never kill anyone."
"So the only way that you would stop would be if the Earl would stop taxing the people?" Jarrod asked. All four women nodded. Jarrod sighed and pressed his finger and thumb into his temples. It would be a hard time convincing the Earl of anything, especially that.
"I imagine it was you two in the Earl's room that night," he commented, looking at Fiona and Genevieve.
"Yes," Genevieve answered.
He turned to Fiona. "This is why you couldn't tell me who the bandits were. How much of what you told me is untrue?" He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Fiona winced slightly. "I never outright lied to you," she said. "I just sometimes… didn't tell the entire truth."
"The calluses?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Fiona gave a small shrug. "I did burn my hands when I was younger. However, that's not what the calluses are from."
"The sheep?"
"I did go out and help save them," she replied. "After stealing the money of course."
"Of course," he said, his voice sharply sarcastic.
She took a step towards him. "I wanted to tell you so many times," she said. "I just wanted to shout it to you, to try and make you understand, especially after our, er, discussion in the garden, but I didn't know how to. I hoped that you would see that Uncle Edward's taxes were unfair and stop them. Then the bandits would fade into obscurity."
Jarrod opened his mouth to reply when the snap of an arrow being released interrupted him.
"Jarrod, watch out!" Fiona shouted, jumping at him. A sharp burning shot up his arm and an arrow lodged in the tree behind them. He landed on his side, Fiona hugged around his middle. The sound of yelling men filled the clearing.
All the women snapped into action. Fiona picked up his bow and stood in front of him, an arrow knocked and searching. She obviously found who she was looking for and let the arrow go. A man hidden up in a tree toppled to the ground.
Genevieve scooped up her daggers with a roll. The sword and axe seemed to leap into Daphne and Nia's hands as they engaged the rough looking men.
Jarrod shifted and hissed in pain. He noticed the pin on one of the men's cloaks. It was a snake swallowing a tree from the top down. "These are the wild men of Drewery Forest," he said to Fiona. "What are they doing here?"
"Perhaps they're here to exchange recipes," she replied sarcastically, letting another arrow fly. He stood behind her, holding the long gash in his arm tightly so he wouldn't bleed to death.
He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a man with a long dagger coming up behind them. As soon as the man realised that his sneak attack had been discovered, he let out a fierce cry and leapt forward towards them. Jarrod managed to pull out his own dagger fast enough to block the attack.
Jarrod clenched his teeth against the jarring in his arm. Kicking the man away, he switched his dagger to his left hand. The man sneered, revealing a mouth full of rotten teeth, and charged again.
"Those pieces is mine," the man snarled before taking a large swipe at Jarrod. Jarrod skilfully blocked the man's blade, and stabbed him in the arm. The man cried out and dropped his weapon. Jarrod punched the man in the face, and he fell back, unconscious, or worse.
"Fiona, look out!" Genevieve's voice rang through the clearing.
Fiona whirled to her left. A man baring two small hand axes was running towards her. Before she even had time to draw her bow, the man fell down, a dagger in his throat.
She looked behind her. Jarrod stood there, clutching his arm, panting slightly. She knocked an arrow and fired it, hitting the man coming up behind Jarrod in the shoulder. Jarrod didn't flinch, even as the arrow whistled past his ear.
He looked at her quiver. There were very arrows few left, so he added the ones from his quiver to hers. "We have to get out of here," he said, noticing the tiring of the sisters. The wild men were not necessarily skilled, but strong and numerous.
"You're right," Fiona agreed before firing off another arrow.
"But the castle is at least an hour's ride from here. And we can't exactly take the carriage." He was wracking his brain for an escape plan. "We'll have to take the horses."
He saw Fiona's face blanch, although she didn't say a word and still wasn't looking at him. She was down to five arrows. Already he could hear the reinforcements crashing through the brush.
"We'll have to make a break for it," she yelled to her sisters, quickly firing off her least three arrows and taking down the men that surrounded her sisters. Jarrod noticed that none of her shots were lethal; instead she took out the men's legs and arms.
As Jarrod watched, Genevieve picked up the bags of money and ran over to a large oak tree. She pressed one of the knots and the entire trunk of the tree swung open. She stuffed the coins inside and shut it.
"Okay, let's go," she said.
"This is wrong," Jarrod said, as they crashed through the brush towards the horses. "Why are they even here? Drewery is a full day's ride from Havara. It doesn't make sense."
"Can we discuss this later?" Fiona asked, pushing a branch out of her way. "Possibly when we aren't running for our lives?"
The sisters and Jarrod ran to where the carriage was still broken down in the road. The unconscious guards, the horses, and the money were gone.
Jarrod swore. He forgot that he had told Linden to take all the extra money back to the castle.
"What now?" Daphne asked, panting, her dripping sword still clenched in her right hand.
Fiona sighed, hearing the crashing that signalled the men were coming. "We'll have to take him into the tunnels," she said.
"Can we trust him with that?" Nia asked.
"What choice have we?" Fiona replied angrily. "I'm out of arrows. You're all tired. They're not going to stop until they kill him."
Genevieve sheathed her daggers. "Let's go then."
Jarrod ran behind the sisters, his arm throbbing in pain. He gritted his teeth against it and continued on in silence.
"In here," Fiona said, pulling back a bush to reveal a small trap door hidden by a patch of grass. Genevieve pulled the rung and Daphne dropped in. Jarrod climbed in next, followed by Fiona and Genevieve.
They waited, crouched in the darkness, until the thunder of the men's feet were far off in the distance. Daphne signalled for them to continue on.