A/N: Haha. I took a line from 'what I like about you.' lol. Funny.
Disclaimer: My goodness. Lets make this simple. I'll write caveman. This. Not mine. No recognize? Mine.
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Arra tried to regain compsure. Prying her own fingers from the cloth they so clung to. She wiped away her tears with her sleeve but had trouble controlling her shaky, uneven breath. "I need some water." She croaked, not really expecting anything to be done but more for her own assesment of her condition.
The girl closed her eyes, rubbing her temples and forcing her lungs to accept the air in deep calm breaths. When her clear blue eyes reopened water awaited her. She took a sip and mumbled, "Thank you."
"Your welcome." Came the expected response from an unexpected person.
"Liam?" Arra's shocked expression couldn't be hidden. "What are you doing here? Speaking of here where am I?"
He grinned, not bringing up the tears shed only moments ago. "I see you dropped the titles."
"I said so many other relevant things." She scowled.
"The morning of our first stop we couldn't wake you and some even thought you were dead. Your heartbeat had been so hard to hear. But eventually we found it. Lord Padraig asked me to bring you to the closest place around with a healer." Liam contnued on to answer her previously asked question. "So you're in a hut I found with some healer I've never met."
"And where is this healer?" Arra raised a brow, her melodious voice playing with the words.
"He said you were doing fine, perfectly healthy for all you weren't awake. So he went out hunting with the three pages they sent along with me." His voice turned bitter at the end of his statement. "Three pages! Like I can't take care of myself! I'm a squire!"
"Yes, yes. You'r a squire and almost a knight. How long was I out?"
"The rest of the day and through then night. Its almost dawn now."
"They went out hunting this early?" She inquired.
"The man said it was the best time to go." Liam shrugged. Then he looked at her closely squinting his eyes to be sure of what he saw. "You look different. I can't quite place it though, you sound different too."
Arra, quickly realizing that of which he spoke, jumped out of the bed cursing. "Is Ghost here?"
"Couldn't stop her from following, why?"
Arra didn't answer as she lunged out of the room with a burst of speed. As soon as her feet left the housing her faithful mare stood before her ready to meet her. Arra searched her packs until she found the small mirror she kept. She frowned deeply at what she found. Her high elegant cheek bones could be perfectly seen and her eyes shone with an almost too bright clarity. And if her voice did sound different that meant the spells on her vocal cords had also been done away with. That's what happens when I don't reaply them for at least twelve hours.
Arra spun to face the prince. "You tell no one you saw me like this. They may already know I put spells on my face but they don't have to know why."
He reached out his hand to touch her cheek. "But why? Your --"
"Nothing." She finished slapping away his hand without a second thought. Arra then proceded to ingore the pressure pulse through her head as the cracked voice of the old Fate echoed around her mind. Accept.
Arra spent another small amount of time reaplying the spells. They were more for shielding how much people could she or hear rather than changing anything.
Digging into her packs again she found something to munch on which would hold her until other food could be produced. She offered some to Liam who accepted gratefully. The sun was rising over the horizon, hardly seen through the many trees when someone came stumbling through the forest. He sported many cuts and forming bruises, on particularly deep gash was the most worrisom.
"Temann!" Liam said.
"Who?"
"The healer." Liam managed to say before he ran to the man's help.
The man's words were hard to hear but couldn't be misconstrued. "No, I can deal with these wounds they are all within my reach. The three pages you brought with you --" He coughed, a horrid racking sound. "They got them."
"Did they follow you?" Arra questioned taking 'them' as something not so good.
The healer turned and met her eyes he smiled weakly. "Your awake. No they didn't follow. I don't know why though."
Arra thought for a moment. "It's because their baiting us."
Liam and Arra settled Temann into the bedsheets with the best possible combination of care and speed. They mounted and rode off in the direction he had come from with unbridled haste. "Liam do you have your weapons?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"What about you?"
She smirked. "Don't need them. I haven't had nearly enough practice. This should prove interesting."
Liam frowned only a bit wishing he had the luxury of such a solid words. Though he wasn't nearly dumb enough to run into battle without any weapons when his skills at hand to hand weren't top notch. Arra held up a hand for a halt.
"This should be a good area to put the horses. If we want to get close we've got to leave them behind." She said sliding down from her own mount.
"Are you going to tie her?"
She shook her head. "Not neccesary. She'll stay." He didn't question just acted as he clipped his sword into place and tethered his own horse. They wasted no time in continuing the search. Arra found a trail of blood that was probably made by Temann. She followed it until it pooled in a certain area. They've got to be close. If only one of them would give us a hint . . . something.
In answer to her silent prayer a muffled cross between a scream and groan was hear from not too far away, it sounded like a voice she knew. One of the pages. Noticing Liam's neccesity to act at that moment she grabbed his arm and shook her head no.
"We need to do this carefully. We don't know how many there are." They snuck up and found the campsite. A total of six men she counted, then there was the matter of the three pages. Two male pages and one female. She studied the five men calculating in her head if she could take them all at once. Two of them were smaller but the other three were much larger than she was. Liam noticing a certain look in her eye looked at her sharply.
"You are not taking them alone. I'm here and I can help." He whispered. Arra was snapped out of her thoughts. Whispering in response she spoke.
"But we need one of us to let them go. Things will go smoother if we untie them first. They can also fight. Let me hold them off until you untie them. Then join. Make sure they have some kind of weapon." His look spoke volumes but she ignored the dislike. "Go around to the opposite side of their camp and try to untie them without being noticed. I'll pull the focus away. Give me some sign when you get there."
They agreed and split. Arra listened carefully to the conversation.
"Why did we take them? I don't understand." One of the thin ones asked.
"For fun. Remember our real goal is the other girl." A big one said showing all of his rotten teeth in a grin.
Other girl? The thought was cut short when Liam signaled from the opposite side. Time to act. She pulled out a concealed dagger and found her target. A man standing farther away from the main camp. Arra aimed and threw it hitting her target in the intended area. His sounds of pain attracted the other men. When they found him he was writhing on the floor trying desperately to reach for the hilt in his shoulder blade.
"Oi, are you alright?" Before she moved she nodded to Liam. Then climbed a tree close to where they clustered. Looking down she assesed the situation. Six men. One down for now. Five to worry about. All larger than me. This should be fun.
"What happened?"
"I don't know!" The man shrieked. "Just help me!"
But they had not time to comply because Arra came out of the tree upon them in a flash of intense fury. Upon her fall to the ground, she tripped one man then, in the same movement, kicked another in the temple effectively placing him into a vegetative state.
Four.
After the initial shock one man was the first to regain composure. The knife he held slashed with trained hands at their command. With deadly accuracy she dodged the blade till the right moment then snatched his arm from mid-strike. Arra twisted his arm till his hold loosed then spun to gain momentum and with a down and up strike stabbed him in the chest. The blade sunk till it hit the heart.
Three. No, where's the third one?
But Arra's time for such thoughts was limited as two men loomed. The one who had fallen first was up now. But where was the third one? The next man took care but when faced with a Shang there is little you can do. Arra fell into another round of punches and kicks. I need one to question. This one will do. Arra thought. She tapped his shin in between the major hits and dodges then tapped his shoulder for distraction purposes. She took her chance. Arra's elbow flew up and hit his jaw sideways in his moment of disorient she jumped. Remembering how her teacher said she would never be able to perform this move because of her size she smiled. She had improvised.
Her knee came down first on his chest then, not a split second in between movements, her elbow hit and the final blow with her fist. The man sputtered and fell to the ground in a shellshocked heap. Two, but where did the other one go? Not wasting time she spun ready for the last man but found Liam already ingaged with him. No wonder there was no interferance. With a jolt she remembered the last person who had gotten away. Arra ran back to check on her charges.
A yell of fury sounded behind her.
"Arra watch out!" It was the page Fianola.
Arra had no time to spin and face the danger behind her instead she tried to anticipate where the blow would land. But it came into contact with her anyways though because of her movements it landed a bit lower than intended. The pain seared but she didn't cry out only clenched her teeth.
"That's payback wench."
Arra had had enough. She punched then spin kicked him to the ground face first. In his back protruded the blade she had first thrown. Then this isn't the one who's missing. Where is he?
"Are you all alright?" Arra asked in a strained voice.
The three pages nodded with a mumbled 'yes'. Each held a spear or sword they must have found. Arra fell to her knees. "Can one of you pull this blasted blade out?" The pages looked at each other unsure of what to do.
"Hold still." Liam's voice, breathy with his fight.
Arra forced her body to be realaxed as to not clench the blade which could result in cutting more muscles than was neccesary and also more pain. Liam placed his warm hand on her upper back, clutched the blade tightly and pulled as fast as possible. More blood spilled onto her shirt and down her backside. She gasped but stood back up.
"Thank you." Arra closed her eyes took one deep breath then reopened them. "One got away. I don't know where he went. But at the moment I want some answers." She turned to go back to the one she'd left behind. They watched her walk away with the same question in mind. 'How can she still be walking as calmly as she is?'
"Wha-what did you do to me!" He yelled. He was in the same position she'd left him.
"I wouldn't try to move too much you might kill yourself, literally." Arra advised. "All of your ribs are broken. Now I want answers or I will have no mercy."
"They'll be angry. Gods, they'll be angry." He rambled.
"Who were you trying to get?"
"They never told us you were a Shang."
Arra cursed at her nonexistant progress. Liam intervened. "Why did you take our pages?"
"Feran, will tell them. You didn't get him. We were only after one person. "
"Who!" Arra said frustrated.
"You." In attempt to get up he spasmed and died.
"Me?" Arra was confused. "Why?" She whispered. She shook her head. Now was not the time to think about that.
"We have to leave." Liam stated. "Now."
"Do you know where your horses are?" Arra asked.
One page spoke up. "They took them over there." He said pointing to the opposite side of their camp.
"Go get them and meet us behind that brush." Liam said.
They obeyed and Arra leaned against a tree and cursed.
"What is the problem?"
The Shang girl rubbed her eyes. "If my teacher would have seen that I would be doing extra work for weeks. In a fight against six men. I let one get away and another wound me." She cursed again.
The prince could only stare. "You also took down four of them singlehandedly. Your still standing even though you have a deep gash in your back. On normal standards your doing pretty well for seventeen."
Arra smiled at his attempt to raise her spirits. "I think we can all agree, Shang are never on normal standards." He laughed and Arra noticed his face was too pale. When he turned to walk to the meeting place she frowned a bit. There was no reason she knew of for him to be that sickly pale.
The pages awaited them when they arrived.Arra named them off in her head just to be sure she knew them. The first she already knew, the female page Fianola. One had light brown hair and coal black eyes. Fourth year page, Edmund. The next one was a Bazhir third year with defined features. I think his name was . . .Semrak.
Mounting, they rode for a while getting in a good distance until Arra's head fell against Ghost's neck the wound becoming a heavy throb on her back.Liam was the first to notice. "Stop." his voice commanding. "We're stopping here."
Arra shook her head. "No, we've got to keep going."
Liam shook his head, hazel eyes determined. His paleness still troubles me. "We're going to get your wounds tended to. And if anyone else had any we'll see to them also." The dark-haired prince stared at the blood sluggishly oozing down her backside, staining her mare red. "You." He pointed to Semrak. "Get a fire going. And you--" He motioned Edmund. "--we're going to be setting up camp here find some kind of water supply--" There was no one left but Fianola. "--get plenty of wood for the fire." Everyone went to work at the prince's command.
"Come down Arra."
"No."
"Arra, come down. That's a command."
"I don't belong to your country your commands mean nothing to me."
He darkened at her stubborness. Carefully he reached up and slid her off the saddle, hands at her waist. Pulling her off her head lulled against him. "Sorry." She murmured. "I can stand. I think I have some ointment or balm in my packs." He made sure she had a firm hold against a tree before she helped direct him in the right packs.
He settled her down with gauze and ointment in his hands. Arra noticed sweat on his forehead causing confusion in her mind. Sweat from what? "Um, ah. . . Arra, your going to have to take your shirt off."
She nodded in understanding trying to stay calm. It made sense she had to take her shirt off. The dagger wound was high up enough on her back that trying to uncover just that area would be hard. She shifted uncomfortably ignoring the pain from the bloody injury. She took off her shirt and surprised herself with how much blood painted it.
He cleaned her back to the best of his ability. Liam's eyesight started to blur and he swayed. The prince shook his head to rid himself of it and put the ointment on as Arra cringed and fought not to writh away. He swayed again, keeping his eyes open suddenly becoming a task. Liam pressed gauze to Arra's back and with the bandages he began to wrap it around her. Black leaked into his eyesight again. Lethargically, he wrapped the bandage around her once.
Arra could feel something was not right. Why was he moving so slowly. His arm came around in front of her with the bandage then suddenly it just fell into her lap. Liam's forehead fell against her back. She panicked when she realized he was burning hot. What happened?
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A/N: Yup, it's a cliffy. And I know you peeps hate 'em. But this chapter was getting long. I think the next one is a bit shorter. Lots happened in this chapter! Wow. She goes from waking up. . . straight to wounded. And, to be honest, I seriously didn't think the last one was a cliffhanger. Sorry 'bout that.
Well guys I'd love to answer all of your reviews but that alone takes up another page and it could get misleading when you looking at the chapter thinking 'hey this one's pretty long!' then you read it and find out it isn't long, most of it is review answers. So unless there is a question that wasn't answered in the chapter I won't be writing them anymore. (Like those that wanted to know if it was Liam. . . . well I don't have to answer that now do I? Lol.)
So unless no one cares about the length problem I could do it next chapter, but other than that I won't be. Sorry guys.
Please read: I had a bit of writer's block for chapter ten. I finished it (In the middle of the night. I have the best inspiration at like one in the morning) but as you can now see, I'm currently on chapter eleven and doing the math you can see that it is only three chapters away from this one. Meaning if I want to stay ahead of you readers I need time, so the next chapter (9) won't be out for at least a week, I think. Let's just go with 6-8 days, that's when the next one will be out. Maybe later if there are no reviews. . . (Hint hint) So PLEASE REVIEW!