(A/N:) It's me! Again! I know how you've all come to either love or hate me, so maybe I should shut up.

But that's not my style. I like to talk, see, so this is going to be an unusually long Author Note that has a bunch of usless Shit it it. Just a bunch of Fucking useless Shit. Understand? Do you Fucking understand? Good.

Funny story, today at lunch we had hamburgers in school. My friend Dan took Zac's burger while he wasn't looking and threw it like outside. It was funny, but Zac apparently didn't think so. I guess he was hungry of something.

Anyway he Fucking spazed his Fucking head off, and actually screamed the following:

"Give me my FUCKING burger!"

Even funnier was the fact that the cafeteria person was like right there. And then the cafeteria person heard him, as well as half of the Fucking lunch room. She sent him to the office, and he got detention, and we all laughed our Fucking heads off. It was so Fucking funny.

So, was that funny or what? Answer this question now in your heads and later in your reviews. And you better be reviewing. It's only right. I've probably reviewed half of your stuff... or not. But that's not the point! The point is that you really shouldn't read something on fanfiction without reviewing it! Understand? Good.

And yes, I realize I may have a teensy problem with swearing. I'm working on that. Don't give up on the reading, okay?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh, now I'm just babbling.

More action ahead. Keep reading!

(End of A/N)

5. Tortall Strikes Back

Daine dropped the blanket from around her shoulders, turning into an owl, a perfect form for night-time flying.

Taking wing, she flew strait toward the enemy fort, using the silence of the owl's wings to her advantage. Owls were made to be silent, as hunters of the smallest rodents, then needed to be quiet.

She was flying over the enemy's defenses now. The crosses set to gut horses, the pits filled with sharpened spikes, and the fireweed. The thick liquid called fireweed sizzled loudly in the ears of the owl, who had exceptional hearing.

Nearing the fort, Daine looked for the wall she was to land on. Having a crazy idea, she morphed to a dragon.

Now if she could work the invisibility... yes! She was now a dragon, invisible to a man's eye, and on a dangerous mission. Daine landed on the solid wall of Fort Drell, seeing her first target.

A whip of her powerful tail finished off the first two catapults; she wouldn't use fire until she had to start the fire. Taking flight again, she hit another of the catapults with a steel coiled leg. It broke into peices.

Finding two more, she destroyed them quickly, and moved on to the last one. Hitting this last one would allow her to return to Fort Tortall. Suddenly she felt her power drain. She returned to her human shape, falling the few feet that had separated her from the top of the wall.

Swearing, she got up. How could shape-shifting have worn off so fast? Sure she was injured, but she was still as strong with her magic as ever. It was insane!

Staggering she made her way over to the last of the catapults. How would she destroy this last one? She couldn't leave it; she'd seen first-hand the damage one catapult could create.

She remembered the elephants that had been in Ozorne's mangarie two years earlier. They were huge animals, with tough, grey, skin and powerful muscles. Focusing, she became the elephant.

After her transformation, the floor beneath her creaked threateningly, but didn't break. Walking slowly and with great care, she snuck to the catapult.

Lifting her muscular trunk, she slammed it into the launching part of the catapult, breaking it to peices. Suddenly the floor beneath her gave sligtly! Her back left leg had fallen through the floor.

Praying to the Mother Goddess, she turned into her human self, and when no screams invaded her ears, she knew that no one had seen her leg. Jumping up, she ran to the firebin in the corner of the fort.

Looking around desperatly, she saw a torch, with cloth wrapped at the end, soaked in gasoline. Seeing a torch, she put it inside the fire. It flared to life, and she dropped it into the bin.

Shouts arose from behind her, and she ran to the edge of the wall. With great fear, she jumped, trying to shape-shift into the first bird that came to her mind --- a sparrow.

Stupid! she screamed at herself. The sparrow was meant for quickness and agility, it was no good for slowing a fall. She'd have to work with it, though, she was to close to the ground to shape-shift again.

Flapping crazily, she leveled off an inch from the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief, she shape-shifted to a owl once more, and landed in the forest.

"Raoul?" she asked once she'd became a human again.

"Daine? Where's the signal?" Raoul demanded from the darkness.

Daine smiled. "Oh, trust me. You'll see it right about... now."

Behind her the entire left side of the fort burst into flame. She'd sprayed gasoline all down the side of the wall while she'd been looking for the torch, and it seemed it'd worked.

"Go!" Raoul screamed. "Go! Go!"

Hundreds of men swarmed from the woods to the fort, where the men were frantically throwing water on the fire, as the mages tried desperatly to blow it out with wind, and summon rain.

Daine followed them forward, grabbing a sword from a dead solder as she ran. A full grown knight, with plate armor stepped in her path. Using skills taught to her by Alanna and Tknombi Deminio, she attacked ruthlessly, remembering Alanna's saying of "Staying on the offense is the best Defense."

The knight blocked half of her blows with his shield, the few that got through his defense only hit plate armor. Angered, Daine attacked in earnest, switching to using both hands instead of just one.

The knight stepped back with each powerful swing of her arms, and she caught him off guard as he stumbled over a fallen companion. She plunged her sword into his shoulder, cutting up and out.

The knight stared bleakly at his stump of an arm, then collapsed on the ground.

Daine saw Jakkar nearby, and joined him in fending off three men. As she ran up, he downed two of them, and began work on the third, his mouth in a grim line. Daine turned away, attacking a new opponent.

Her opponent was but a footsolder, with none of the strong plate armor of a full knight. Ducking under his badly placed and slow swings, she hit him with the flat side of her blade on the top of the head. He fell like a sack of bricks.

An arrow lanced by her shoulder, missing her by millimeters. She glanced up, and stared at the burning wall of the fort. There! Hidden behind the flickering flames, were three archers.

Daine glanced up at the trees, seeing one of their own archers. She signaled frantically up toward the wall of the fort.

The young man she was guestering to looked up, and drew his bow. Daine turned back to the fight, just in time to parry a powerful swing by an enemy. Thank the Gods that her sword held against his unbelievably powerful swing!

He muscles screamed, the head throbbed. Her sword was quivvering dangerously, shaking almost uncontrollably. Remembering the two daggers she always kept at her back, Daine quickly grabbed one, and flicked it into the eyeslits of her enemy, just as George Cooper had taught her.

From somewhere behind her she heard a battle cry, and looked back to see her mentor, Tknombi, down a knight in full armor with a simple roundhouse kick. Turning, he caught an arrow in midair, breaking it with a squeeze of his powerful fingers.

Daine turned back to her fight. Blood was oozing out of the helmet of her opponent, but he wasn't dead. Reaching up, she tugged her dagger out of his eyeslit, horrified to see an eye pinned to the end of it.

She dropped the dagger in disgust, stabbing the man in the stomach, she turned again. She rolled to the ground just as a huge knight, about the size of Raoul swung a giant double-headed battle ax at her. It hit the ground an inch from her head.

Rolling again, she evaded another swing of his second ax. Kicking out with a trained leg, she brought him to the ground. He threw his battle-ax at her. Leaping to the side, she got nicked in the arm by the sharp blade, and it bled.

Coldly, she picked a discarded bow up off the ground, along with an arrow. The knight was sturggling to get up, and was the victim to his own battle-ax, which was pinning down his upper body.

Daine stepped onto his chest, pulled back the bow so that the tip of the arrow was actually inside his eyeslit, and fired. He screamed painfully, then lay still.

Sensing someone behind her, Daine grabbed the battle-ax off of her victory, and swung in a compete circle.

Hitting something, she let go of the ax, and grabbed her sword up off the ground once more. Her attacker, the one she'd injured by swinging the ax, was bigger than the knight she'd just beat.

He swung his longsword at her with deadly accuracy, hitting her sword, which she brought up to block just in time, with a brain-rattling hit. She fell to the ground, and he advanced on her, swinging viciously. She had no time to get up off the ground or attack, only defend.

Out of nowhere, Raoul jumped on top of the knight, dragging him to the ground. The knight was bigger than Raoul, but that didn't mean he was stronger!

They wrestled for a few minutes, and somehow Raoul got his enemy's helmet off. He stared into his eyes, and then hit him in the temple with his sword.

"Thanks, Raoul!" Daine called, allowing him to help her to her feet.

"Can't let my favorite little friend die in battle, can I?" he asked, laughing.

An arrow lanced into his back. He fell to the ground, swearing. Daine grabbed up the bow she'd used on her last opponent, hunting for an arrow. She found one, and jumped to the side just as an arrow would have struck her.

Looking around, she couldn't see any archers. Frantically, she fitted the arrow to the bow and looked. There! He was behind a wood pile, on the ground.

Setting her face in a grim line, she fired her arrow. And she missed. It was impossible! Daine, possibly the best archer in all the Eastern Lands, had missed! Angrily, she fitted another discarded arrow into her bow and fired again.

The arrow went right through the archer. But it didn't hurt him at all!

"Sorcery," Daine whispered, whipping around in time to shoot another arrow at the woodpile opposite the one she'd been shooting at. Her target fell this time.

"Raoul!" she screamed, falling to her knees near her friend. "Are you okay?"

"Um... do I look okay?" Raoul demanded. "Pull the arrow out of my back," he ordered, "Then moisten this cloth with brandy and stick it in the wound."

Daine did as she was told. She walked around, straddled Raoul's back, and pulled with all her strength. The arrow came out easily. Raoul had been waring plate armor, but the archer had hit him in a softer spot in the armor. The archer must have been good.

Daine wet the cloth that Raoul gave her with brandy, and plugged it into the wound. Raoul climbed to his feet slowly, testing his back.

"Not bad, Daine," he said, and picked up his fallen sword. "Now back to buisness."

Daine laughed, and picked up her own sword. She glanced around, looking for her next opponent. Instead she saw Duke Gareth screaming at the men to retreat.

"RETREAT!" he screamed riding by Daine and Raoul on his mare. "They've moved the other three catapults to this side! They're loaded with liquid fire! RETREAT!"

Daine didn't have to be told twice. Dropping her borrowed sword, she ran into the forest with the other men, to return to Fort Tortall.

"You have redeemed yourself, Ozorne," King Ain drawled. "I'm so proud of you."

"It was a great victory, sire," Ozorne said, playing the obedient servant-boy for the time being. He didn't want a trip back to the torture master any time soon.

"No, Ozorne. It was a lucky victory," King Ain said coldly. "You cost us the lives of many troops. They will be replaced, our main army is riding to Drell as we speak, but still, if they get held up, we may be outnumbered. You won, but an entire wall of the fort was burned by a singal girl."

"No!" Ozorne screamed. "Was it her?"

"Yes."

The doors opened, and Duke Hilam entered, followed by Count Jemis.

"Brother," Jemis said, bowing. "The main army sends word that they will arrive within the next day. Our spy in the Tortallan fort reports that there are no plans of battle being made for the time being. They are recouperating."

"If I may make a suggestion?" Duke Hilam asked.

"Go on," King Ain replied. "Put your military genius to work, brother."

"If we perhaps used the immortals, then they would be more fearful of the Tusaine forces," Hilim replied. "The Ogres are just waiting to be set loose. Tortall denied them the right to farm in the plains beyond the vally. They would like nothing more than to show their support for a King who will give them farmland."

"An interesting proposition..." King Ain considered. "We'll use them when the main army arrives."

"I have a suggestion," Ozorne said loudly. "I know a handful of people that will wet their pants to see me come back to life and scorch their front lines. Two in paticular."

"No. The spy says that the girl, Daine says that she saw you in a vision. She suspects something," Jemis replied smugly. "I think we will wait to play the 'back from the dead' scene."

King Ain raised his hand for silence. "Hilim? You have something to say?"

"Yes," Duke Hilam said thoughtfully. "If we were to attack the Queen's Rider's barracks in paticular, the army and archers of Tortall may not get there in time to stop us from at least burning down some of their barracks... if we attack the barracks, the men from Fort Tortall will not reach us in time to stop us from destroying the Rider camp! They are further away then they look on the map, or so the spy says. The Rider camp is actually fifity yards from the fort. If we can attack swiftly..." he let his thought trail.

"Wait a second!" Ozorne cried. "What if both the fort and the Rider camp were to be attacked at the same time? The army cannot be two places at once. And which building will mean more to them? The fort, of course! They will abandon the Rider camp, and the men with it!"

"That just might work!" Hilam yelled. "That's ingenious! A perfect plan. Idiot. The plan will work for a while, but do you think that King Jonathan will throw his wife's precious 'Riders' into the wind? No."

"Don't be so quick to judge," King Ain warned. "That plan just might work. If the fort was to be attacked slightly before the Rider camp..."

"Of course!" Jemis cried. "Why didn't I see it! We attack the fort, wait for most of the men to get to that side of the fort to defend it, then we raid the Rider camp. It's perfect!"

"What of our catapults?" Hilam demanded. "The Rider buildings will fall much faster if liquid fire is burning them to the ground."

"We are reconstructing them," Jemis replied. "They will be done by the time the main army arrives."

"Then we will strike when the main army arrives," King Ain said. "Until then, we rest and relax, as Tortall does now."

Daine trudged back into the fort with the rest of the men, throug the main gate. They had won, in her eyes, but in the eyes of Duke Gareth they had lost. He had done an honorable thing, by retreating his men when he saw they had loaded the three remaining catapults with liquid fire.

"Why does King Ain toy with us?" Raoul muttered. "We were nice enough not to go into their country and slaughter them. He makes me mad."

"He wants the vally for some reason," Daine replied. "I can't understand why. It's just like the Dunlath river vally, nothing much different. It isn't that great."

"Are you kidding?" John asked. "To lose that piece of land would be to lose hundreds of resources. Such as ---"

"Yeah, we already heard it," Daine cut him off. "Raoul hasn't though."

Raoul glared at her as she made her escape from John and his speech of why the Drell River Vally was so great, and how many "resources" it gave us.