HOORAY! YAY! OH HAPPY DAY! JOY! HUZZAH! I'VE GOT OVER 100 REVIEWS! I'M SO HAPPY! I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME! (Ahem) Thank you so much all of you, faithful or reviewers and random or new reviewers! A big thanks to andreaatf (your question is answered in this chapter), Lela-of-Bast (North Carolina, eh? Cool.), Smitten by Marauders (question also answered here), flammingirl (you'll see!), Mellem, bratbrain, jubli pebble (your review made me laugh!), Anony (Narnia stuff rocks! lol), Tami (hmm… I wonder if you want me to update soon… lol), JamSack (Wow, what a compliment! Yay!)! ONTO THE STORY!

John found the situation amusing. I found it annoying and terribly frustrating.

"We are running away from the same people she just went galloping off to see!" I yelled. I paced around the campsite, fuming, but refraining from any cursing.

John was still laughing, holding the note in his hands. "What I liked the best," he paused to laugh again, "was her closing: 'Your sister forever (fortunately or unfortunately), Emma.' That was great!"

I waved the remark off. "We always signed any notes or letters to each other like that. But I can't believe she'd do this to me! I mean, just run off without us! And her whole idea of seeing Prince Caspian at the Annual Kyrrian Ball! Is that what she's thinking? What's she going to do, show up as the same royal mail carrier? By the Creator, how foolish is she!"

"Well," John said, becoming serious, "you sort of did the same thing to her. At least she let you know about it."

"But – but this is entirely different! We were in danger so we ran away from the danger, and now she's going back to the DANGER!"

"Oh, stop ranting and take a deep breath." John rolled his eyes.

"I'm going after her," I told him, and I began to saddle up my horse.

"Okay, first thing," John said angrily, coming between me and Moonlight. "You are not going without me. Second, you are going off without a plan. I don't know Emma as well as you do so I thought you would've figured out by now that she had already been planning this ever since you told her of your little 'adventure' on your own. Third, LOOK AT ME!" I had stormed off, and he grabbed me by the shoulders. He was slightly taller than I was, and his beautiful gleaming eyes flashed with annoyance. "Now, as I was saying, third, I would suggest just leaving her alone and let her have her own adventure."

"Oh, John, that's a great idea," I said sarcastically. He frowned. I continued with even more sarcasm, "Let's see. If she gets found out they will know that she's deceived the royal family, and at the very least she's going to get an extremely long prison sentence, and the worst is that she could be killed for it!"

"They won't kill her for it!" John shouted, frustrated by my sarcasm. "But yes, it is dangerous. Just like it was dangerous for you to have these secret meetings with Rilean! Elisa, she's going because she's in love. Don't you get it? Although I'm sure you do because you did something foolish because of your love, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know! You kept seeing Rilean because you were in love with him! It was dangerous and there were plenty of consequences but you liked him so you didn't care about the danger and the consequences!"

"You don't know who I did like or who I like!" I glared at him, careful not to show my true emotions on this touchy subject.

"Oh, I do know! You know exactly how I know? Because I went to come find you and saw you and Rilean kissing in that clearing!"

For a moment I just stared at him with my mouth open, not sure whether to deny it or simply continue staring at him stupidly. I chose neither.

"All right. Would you like to here the truth? Without interruptions?" I asked, trying to calm down slightly.

"Please do! I have all day!" John was neither calming down nor trying to calm down.

"Fine! Yes, I did like Rilean, but I never loved him. At least, I thought I liked him, but then I realized that I didn't like him like that… he was just a friend. Of course, it was exactly at this point in time (when I realized I didn't like him) that he confesses to liking me! Then he kissed me, and, um, well…" I stopped rambling on, and stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to say next. I could tell John didn't believe me. So I exploded, "So is that it! You knew about my secret, and you waited for the opportune moment to have me tell you guys about my meetings with Rilean just to tick Emma off! Were you that mad at me? You act like it's the end of the world or something!" I held my tongue for once and didn't finish, "Or are you just plain jealous and can't get over the fact that I was kissed by another guy!" He wasn't jealous. He had told me so himself. Why would he be anyway? It would be too close to a dream come true. Knock it off! He's your friend, remember! I yelled at myself in my head.

"Yes! I was angry with you, but no, it's not the end of the world! Emma and I trusted you and your big mouth told the prince our whole secret! What kind of a friend would do that?"

"Why are you continuing to forget that I was ordered to tell the truth and I also had a sword against my neck!" I yelled out in frustration. I added with much sarcasm, "By the Creator it is the end of the world! I broke your trust because I was ordered –"

"Shut up Elisa!" John snapped. Immediately my lips locked together and I couldn't open them at all. For a long time we just stared at each other because I couldn't say anything and John didn't know what to say.

"Now," John began slowly, "Let's, um, call a truce and talk this over quietly and like civilized elves- er, people – shall we?"

I folded my arms over my chest and gave him my evil glare, which I had perfected over the years.

"All right! All right! Talk, speak, do something other than glare at me!" John gave in.

"Thank you," I replied. "Very well. We'll call it a truce and talk this over quietly."

I could sense that there was still resentment and a slight bit of anger towards each other, but we settled down considerably.

"I'll make a deal with you about our 'issue' of Emma running away. We go after her, disguise ourselves at the Annual Kyrrian Ball, and watch over Emma while she has her fun. It'll be our adventure, I suppose. We'll leave before she does, and no one gets angry, upset, or hurt. Of course, we won't tell her we were there, so she can be content to think that she got to have some fun on her own. At the same time, we can make sure nothing goes wrong, or at least if something goes wrong, we'll be there for her. Plus, you'll be content and not biting my head off just because your sister ran away. Deal?" John looked at me expectantly.

I didn't have to consider the offer long. "Deal," I agreed and we firmly shook hands. "All right then, now what?"

"Well, we'll have to have a disguise. What if we disguised ourselves as courtiers from some far away country or something?"

I shook my head. "Rilean would recognize me, and Emma would recognize both of us. Couldn't we just hide from view?"

"No, the soliders and guards are everywhere and that would be even more dangerous."

"What about a knight?" A voice said. I jumped, startled, because it wasn't John making the suggestion. John and I both spun around. A gnome (or a dwarf, I couldn't tell at the time), stood on the small road leading into the city. He was short (about 3 feet tall) and wide, with a muscular build. His face was hardened to leather and his hands were big and calloused.

"And – and what are you doing eavesdropping?" John asked in slow, rough Gnomic. "This is none of your business."

"I can speak Elfian, so please spare me from having to decipher your awful Gnomic," the gnome/dwarf snapped. His voice was deep and made him sound like a much bigger man. "And I wasn't eavesdropping, well, at least I wasn't trying to but your conversation was pretty loud for a while there. I found it fascinating that you didn't notice me."

John and I looked down sheepishly. Then I sighed and said to John, "Oh good. Yet another problem to add to the mountain of issues to be resolved: some random dwarf or gnome – whatever he is – knows of our plans and our secrets, and now is giving us suggestions. Could it possibly get worse?"

Thunder rumbled. It began to rain. Hard. I looked up towards the Creator in heaven and cried, "Oh, come on!"