A/N: Wow, this was SO late. I can't believe I took this long to update; sorry. (okay, I guess I can believe it, since I tend to procrastinate, lol) I've been kinda busy, 'cause I'm building a website, and I've got a job, and I'm trying to put together an online/offline party planning with some friends. I probably explained a lot of this in the A/N after the story, which I wrote before this one, but oh well. I would have updated sooner, but I keep forgetting that I had one of the chapters posted as two, so when it says 32 chapters, it's only 31 chapters that are actually up. glares at self So anyways, because of the long delay, I actually have Chapter 33 ready for Betaing, so I'll be sending that out, and it should get posted sooner than this one did. ;)
Chapter Thirty-two: News Flash
"Val?" To my surprise, it sounded just like she was standing in front of me. After a moment of silence, she burst out, "Oh, my baby! Are you all right? Are you safe? Why aren't you where I sent you? Is Relakk still with you? Where's your friend, Shean? Why didn't you tell me -?"
I put a hand over the ball for a moment to stop the flow of questions before removing it again to reply.
"Let me see… um, I'm fine; I'm safe; I wanted to do something to help, and besides, the mountains are usually boring, unless I got to explore, which I knew I probably wouldn't; Relakk's still with me, and so is Shean –" They both poked their heads over my shoulder to prove my point. "– And I didn't tell you because I knew you'd stop me. Anything else?"
"Yes." This time, her words didn't tumble head over heels in their rush to escape. "I have news, but I have a couple more questions. First, when are you coming back?"
"When we find all the Stones."
Her face contorted into something between rage and exasperation. "I want you home now, Avalla Shirra Fealla Charlla, but since I can't physically drag you home, and I suspect Relakk and Shean won't help me-" They popped their heads over my shoulder again to shake them. She sighed. "Then I guess I'll have to abide by your wishes. But the moment you get home, young lady…" I smothered a grin, knowing she'd just be overjoyed again and forget punishments for at least a couple days. "Well, second, I want to know if you even know what you're doing."
I rolled my eyes. "Mom, if I didn't know what I was doing, I wouldn't be here, would I?" She raised an eyebrow and I sighed. I'd forgotten that my personality hadn't changed much in the time I'd been away, so she still knew me too well. "Yes, I know what I'm doing. Now will you please tell me the news?"
She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure. Maybe I shouldn't. Since you didn't tell me what you were doing, so maybe I shouldn't tell you what we're doing…" I glared at her.
"Mom, if it's anything I should know, you have to tell me and you know it."
She stuck her tongue out at me. I hoped no one was there to see the queen stick her tongue out at a shiny black ball. She must have seen my expression, because her next words were, "No, no one's here."
"So what? Come on. Tell me."
"Well, aren't we pushy? Where are the manners I taught you?"
By now, I was completely fed up.
"Mom. If you don't tell me now, I'll – I'll stay away for another three years."
She frowned. "And you'd probably do it, too," she murmured, then sighed. "Fine. We have received word from several of our allies that with the success you three have had, their champions and knights are willing to find the other Stones if we help to plan their quests."
I sighed. "Mom, I already wrote up a list of what we'll have to do to get the Stones and I want to do this."
"Yes, but now we have another project no one wants," she replied nervously. I saw the side of her mouth twitch anxiously and I guessed that she was probably playing with her fingers like she usually did when she was upset. But now I was interested.
"Come on, Mom; what is it? I know you want to protect me, but I'm willing to take on pretty much anything no one else wants; you know that. I didn't train for all those years for nothing."
She bit her lip. "But this is much more complicated and dangerous than I want you to be involved in…"
"Hang it, Mom, just tell me." What was it that she was pussyfooting around? This wasn't like her. She was usually one of the most forthright people I know.
"We've received news that could unravel everything. You obviously know the legend of the Stones, right?" Of course I knew them. I wouldn't be out here if I didn't, would I? Besides, she was the one who'd told me all of them about ten times each when I was little, so she should know. I nodded anyways just so she'd hurry up and get whatever awful news she had done with.
"Well, you remember that the Lord Sselth made the Stones before he became evil, correct?" I nodded, not remembering the last time my mother had been so exasperating. "Well, we've heard that… he's come back and is allied with Ferrel." Her voice was just barely a whisper.
I rocked back so hard that Shean had to catch me to keep me from falling onto my back. I had to shake his arm off my shoulders so that Mom didn't get suspicious.
"He's – he's – he's –" I stuttered. Shean, who didn't know the legend as well as me and thus still had a level head, took over.
"Val's still a bit shocked, ma'am. If you would continue…"
She nodded. "I think we're all still a bit shocked. Well, to resume, we've gotten more news than that from our spies. We've also discovered the reason why he didn't technically die…" She trailed off into a whisper
I had recovered by now and took the Stone back from Shean, but he still hung over my shoulder, though Relakk simply sat nearby where he could still hear.
"Technically?" Now I was confused instead of exasperated.
"Yes. You see, though he was defeated, he didn't die."
"How is that possible? His body was recovered by his cronies and was reported to be entombed."
"Yes, a body was seen to be entombed by our spies, but it wasn't his."
"But that was at least a century or two ago. He couldn't still be alive."
"Except that he is. And we know why."
"Why?" Now I was a bit suspicious as well as confused and exasperated.
"Because, when he betrayed us, he had a dark mage remove his heart and encapsulate it in crystal so that he couldn't be killed unless his heart was destroyed."
This time Shean only caught me because his arm was already around my shoulders and he had frozen. Even Relakk jerked. Shean and I stared at her. I'd read about that sort of things in some of the weirder fantasy and sci-fi novels I'd read, but I hadn't thought it could actually be done. But then again, I lived in a fantasy world, and I still didn't know its limits.
"Are you sure?" I finally managed. She nodded. "How do we defeat him, then? And how do we defeat Ferrel if they've got a powerful dead guy who's not really dead on their side?"
"The crystal can be broken, if it can be found, and if you have the Hekhzervon."
"The what-a-what?"
"The Hekhzervon. It was made by the Dwarves of Syulikhung Mountain."
"Where's that?"
"It's a mountain that is in the deep north. It was only found once and there is only a general location indicated on the maps. And a very wide general location at that."
"So how are we supposed to find it?"
She sighed. "I don't want you to have to do this, but if you still think you can, I supposed I'll have to let you, since no one else will do this. If you could send me the list you made to recover the Stones the same way you sent this one, would you be able to bring that bag back with a map and instructions that I had made?"
I glanced at Relakk, who nodded, so I nodded to her.
After some final detail hammering, we arranged it so that I would send the bag with the plans, and she would put her papers into it and let me know that she was ready via the Stones. The plan worked well enough and I got the map and instructions straight away.
I opened the bag and carefully pulled out two pieces of paper, one long one that was rolled into a scroll and a smaller one that was handwritten.
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A/N: Sorry I didn't update sooner. I've been kind of busy getting my job prep stuff ready for the skate rink I applied to (I hate having to get work permits. ), which, now that I have finished getting everything ready, I started on 6/17.
And I'm going to be working at VBS at my church, which will most likely include a bunch of skits I will have to memorize my lines for (well, hopefully, since I volunteered, so I'm hoping to be in them).
And I'm going to be getting Dramatica Pro to help me develop this story a bit better (if the stinkin' people will ever get back to me about what I can do to get the student discount, since, being homeschooled, I have no student ID to prove my age! ).
So, in light of all that, I'm going to be a bit overwhelmed for a while until I settle into my new routines. So I hope all of you will bear with me while I get everything worked out and do my best to get Dramatica Pro to help with outlining, etc.
On another note, I'm going to be learning PHP/mySQL (hopefully), so the website may get spruced up if I can find some way to make either Bravenet or Freewebs work. Speaking of that, I have the forum up on the website. Which would be preferable: using the Bravenet forum that's up at the moment, or if I made a ProBoard instead? I've made ProBoards before, so it wouldn't be a real big deal. :) Just let me know either way (if you're even interested in using the forum, anyways). I'm probably going to opt for ProBoards, though, 'cause I've used them a lot, and I can actually make separate categories for the threads, which will make it much easier to navigate. Anyone interested?
I'm also hoping to schedule a Live Chat session soon, once I find out if anyone's interested, and if you are, when you'd want it to begin. Does July 12th sound good? It would be about 9pm-10pm, East Coast time.
Quick note before I go: if names change, that's on purpose. I'll go back and change it in the previous chapters for when I repost. :) Also, don't worry, all will (hopefully) be explained in Chapter Thirty-three. ;) Hey, what would people think if I put up a special page on the website that will display the first paragraph of each new chapter or something, and you will only get the password to open the page at the end of each chapter on here, so you can only read it if you read Fast Forward? Kind of like a lot of published authors who have websites (or blogs in people like Meg Cabot's case) do when they post an excerpt from their upcoming books. Oh, I have too many questions for you guys, so I'll post them again on the Blog, and if you care to reply, you can have the choice of doing it here or on the blog, lol. Thanks.
Also, thanks to my three Beta Readers, and to my other readers, I'm hoping to put up a Beta Readers page to explain what it is, so if you think you might be interested in Betaing, let me know in your review and I'll do my best to get started on the page. :)
P.S. In the words like 'Hekhzervon' and 'Syulikhung', the 'kh' is not pronounced like the C in 'cat', it is pronounced gutturally, like in 'ach'. (I couldn't find a word in English off the top of my head that has a guttural 'kh' sound. Suffice to say that it's pronounced gutturally, lol)