Here's the update :D Steal this and I may steal something important to you...like a kidney.
Enjoy!
Five Jaragon warriors ringed the children; in their excitement, no one had noticed their arrival. Their captain marched forward, his curved blade resting in his hand.
"Why are you here? What claim do you have to this treasure?" Lana exclaimed, her face reddening angrily as George hauled her to her feet.
The captain's proud, olive skinned forehead wrinkled in anger, his dark eyes narrowing. "What claim? Do you not know that your 'Good King' gained his fabled wealth from destroying my lands? Jaragon gold is buried beneath this soil. And we are going to return it," he said, his mouth widening in a dangerous grin. He held out his hand for the map while his men tightened their hands on their swords.
Robbie extended the map slowly towards the captain. Lana sneezed.
Captain Kelior snatched at it greedily, unrolling it in triumph. His face fell as he scanned the vellum, his expression riffling slowly through the spectrum until it settle on barely-suppressed rage.
"What manner of enchantment is this! The lines are moving!" He looked up at the children, an angry vein pulsing above his eye as he thrust the map forward. "Remove this spell before I kill you!"
Robbie and George's eyes widened as the formerly stationary lines of bloodink scuttled across the page like so many red-brown worms. Lana looked on in confusion.
"What are you talking about? The map's perfectly fine!" she scoffed, trying to take a step forward but collapsing into George instead. "Face not the wind's southerly blows…"
"Witch! You can read this?" the Captain spat, pointing to the map, which to everyone but Lana was now a mass of wriggling lines.
"Of course," Lana said, beginning to wonder what was going on. She gripped Robbie's shoulder tightly, glancing at her cousin in confusion.
"Lana…you've done magic!" he whispered in awe.
"Seize them! This witch will lead us to Opialus…or her friends will die."
"Hey!" George cried. Two burly Jaragons grabbed him by the shoulders; two others held tightly to Robbie. Kelior closed his thin fingers tightly over Lana's wrist.
"Lana! Do something!" Robbie yelled, gasping as he struggled against his captors.
"We only need one friend to carry out our threat. The other will only be a nuisance. Kill the redhead," the captain said calmly, pulling Lana closer to him.
"No!" she shouted. Just as the Jaragon warrior prepared to slit George's throat, she sneezed.
George vanished, reappearing high above them in the upper branches of an Elanwood and looking thoroughly surprised.
"If you harm either of them, I'll kill you all where you stand," Lana proclaimed angrily, wiping her nose. Kelior laughed.
"Why don't you just kill us all now, little witch?"
"I want to get to Opialus, too. It's underground, you realize. I figure I might need someone to do some heavy lifting." She eyed Kelior over her nose. He chuckled, releasing her wrist.
"Indeed. You may lead the way."