A/N- I apologise profoundly for the lack of updating- I've had a busy half term, and the following weeks hereafter, and haven't gotten around to it yet. I expect I'll update The Nealan Show tomorrow.

Disclaimer- is as always; I own the plot, the characters aren't mine (apart from Kai) and well bits and pieces may be taken off of movies, TV shows, or randomly made up by yours truly.

Chapter 29: News, Arrows and a Barrel of laughs

Recap in the castle: "The rope ladder I keep under the desk would be good."

Recap in the woods, aka Game show: They all simultaneously gulped in fear.

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"Did you just say you had a rope ladder?" asked Daine.

"I have a rope ladder?"

"You just told me you had one under a desk!"

"A what now?"

"A rope ladder!" shouted Daine, as she began pulling out her beautiful brown locks.

"What a brilliant idea Daine! I have one just under that desk over there!"

(5 minutes later, after repeating the whole scenario twice more)

As Jonathan scrambled up the fraying rope ladder, he made a mental note to himself- don't pace anymore, or if unavoidable, at least get that hole filled up.

"Rightio my lady, I believe we have some business now to get down to. No more procrastinating- I know what you're like Daine."

She tended to ignore his insults towards her, when in fact they were better aimed at him. "I'll call the council together sir, and then you can tell them the happy news."

"I don't believe a war is very 'Happy' news, Daine. You should be more careful about what you say in future."

"I'll be sure to do that." Daine walked out the door, and down the corridor, making a list in her head about who needed to be informed. Duke Baird should be, and Lord Wyldon of course. We'll need to tell the rescue party, that'd be George, Alanna, Numair, Dom and Neal covered. Hopefully that would be Kel as well.

She rounded the corner, and strode into the mess hall. She expected to find Lord Wyldon here, bossing about some first years.

"Now when I say you need to work in the blacksmiths for two bells every Sunday, I expect you to be there on time!"

"but-" stuttered the poor boy, who resembled a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"Its now 5 bells and you're still not there! This is just not acceptable for a first year; in fact, it's definitely not acceptable for any year!"

Daine hurriedly walked towards the flame-red Lord, who looked to be near bursting with fury.

"- and when I say to look at me when I'm talking, I want your full undivided attention! Have you got it?"

The unfortunate page nodded.

"Then be off with you!" The boy scrambled away, and learned never to cross Lord Wyldon.

"Daine, how may I be of service?"

He motioned for them both to take a seat, towards the front of the hall, where the professors and King usually sat.

"Well I'm slightly worried about Jonathan..." Daine took a long breathe, and decided to start from the beginning, relaying the events to Lord Wyldon.

"Ah."

"That's all you've got to say?"

"Well there's not much more to it…"

"You could say 'Ah, we're all going to die.' Or 'Ah, I'll take care of this' or even 'Ah, I don't worry, this is all a horrible dream and you'll wake up when I pinch you.'"

He pinched Daine. "Still awake?" he asked.

"Damn, let's get the council together then…"

(In the Game)

"O crap. This isn't looking good," said George, as it suddenly dawned on him that their chances of coming out of this alive were less than none.

The group turned to face the demon who apparently was having an obviously fake coughing fit, to try and get attention.

"Well," started the demon, after miraculously recovering from his fit, "I see no reason why we shouldn't start the show, both players are here and are ready to go. But first- the rules. Each player will spin the wheel, with my lovely assistant Kel, who is also tonight's prize, in the middle of it. It will land on a segment, and the player has to choose either themselves or some other team mate to attempt the task written on the segment. There will be five tasks in all, and the 5th will be extra special, where everyone is involved. There is a crystal at the end of each task, which needs to be collected. The more you collect, the higher your chances are of winning."

"One more thing before you we start, every task will be played by a member, or two depending, of both teams. That means you will be competing against each other- I want no cheating or foul play," the demon winked, "Ok, we'll toss a coin to see who spins the wheel first, call it while it's in the air. Let's get ready to play the wheel…of…misfortune!"

A sign hanging from the cave's ceiling lowered, and an applause sign lit up.

The coin flipped around and around in the air, while Neal shouted 'Tails!' at the top of his lungs. It landed on the floor, and everyone rushed to crowd around it. The crazed presenter picked it up, and called, "Heads! It's the Spidrens to go first!"

"So, first up, go and give the wheel a spin!" A spidren with a silver stripe of fur down its back, crawled to the front, and pushed down on the side of the wheel, with surprising force.

It slowly came to a halt, passing by the cauldron of tar, the maze of no return and finally landed on a red and white task, labelled Bullseye.

"Oh no…"stated Numair, "If it's what I think it's going to be, this isn't going to be good."

"And now," interrupted the demon, "Since we have our player from the controversially named 'Evil' team, we'll need a person from the 'benign' side. Any volunteers or will I have to pick for you?"

"Just give us a sec, will you?" Neal ran back and joined in with the huddle. "Who wants to go up first?"

"I'll do it," said Dom, "I think it may have to do with shooting arrows, and I'm not bad with a bow. Although my gut feeling is this isn't going to be a barrel of laughs…"

"Really, it's taken you this long to realise that, has it?" asked Alanna, as she watched a barrel of flaming arrows and a wall size target appear from nowhere. "Well it's sure going to be a barrel of something…"