Rana Kane:
Yeah, stupid Orcs :P
Venger better shouldn't trust them if he wants to keep his prisoners ;)
ah, was it too easy to free Bobby (and to get the Club) without Venger appearing? oh, he was there somewhere but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - unfortunately for him; fortunately for the Young Ones hehe
Thanks for your nice reviews.

D.B. Cooper:
Oh, yeah, it really was sad - it was supposed to be ;) or rather he was. Damn illness :(
well, I'd be glad if I had such a caring and loving sister (brother in my case)
When I was in Bobby's age my brother didn't want to have anything to do with his 'annoying little sister'.
ah, I claim that mostly sisters are more sensitive with such things ;) (but I don't say that brothers generally aren't capable of it - I experienced that personally when we both got older)
Ok, so much for that. Back to the story since I noticed that I'm rambling again...
Thank you for reviewing.

9.

They kept on running into the arising night, followed by raging Orcs.

"In there!" Hank ordered and pointed to some high and thick-grown bushes.
They crawled into them and crouched on the ground as far as possible.
Hoping the bushes and the upcoming darkness would shelter them from the guards, they were holding the breath and cowered together for some time.

They could hear the Orcs coming closer. Their footsteps even made the earth tremble slightly.

"Damn! Where the hell are those accursed kids? They simply can't vanish into thin air, right?" one of the guards huffed angry.

Another one stopped directly in front of the protecting bushes and peeked through the darkening forest.
Then the creature shook its head and grunted, "They can't be that far. Let's look over there. We must find them. What do you think what's about to happen to us if they really got away from us?"

So the Orcs set off into the other direction searching for their evaders.

In the distance they could hear an furious scream coming from the castle: Venger!

The friends remained there another moment, until Hank gave the all-clear signal and came out of his hideout.

"Phew, that was a close shave." Eric gasped.

"What are we gonna do now? We can't go on at night after all..." Diana noticed.

"Wait a minute. This seems to be a cave over here." Presto remarked and pushed the bushes aside. There really was a small cave behind it.

"Well, that's what I call luck!" Diana grinned and stepped beside Presto to view the cave.

"Looks a bit tiny to me. It's not enough space for all of us." Eric stated disappointed.

"That's no problem. I like to sleep under the open sky and gaze at the stars." Diana declared.

"Oh, and I always get claustrophobia in small rooms." suddenly occurred to Presto after that.

"Great! Two down, four to go. Well, then it could be sufficient with the space like that." Eric rejoiced, rubbing his hands with glee.

"Don't you wanna watch the starry sky with me, Eric?" Diana objected firmly.

"Well, actually..." the Cavalier started but was cut off by Diana.

"Aw c'mon Eric, I need a strong man by my side protecting me bravely from the dangers and noises of the night!" Diana said winking and linked arms with Eric.
Sheila smiled shortly at Eric's bewildered, embarrassed face.

"Ok, and I'm staying in front of the cave and take first watch." Hank offered.

"Thank you, guys, that's very kind of you." Sheila said relieved and attended her brother into the cave.

The others gathered grass and a few leaves from the bushes and spread them onto the hard and cold stone floor of the cave, so that the two - above all Bobby - were lying softly.

Sheila gently bedded her brother on the provisional mattress and covered him with her Cloak.

"Thanks, Sis." the young Barbarian's voice softly sounded again for the first time since his outburst.

Happy about this reaction, Sheila smiled at her brother full of affection and love.

While the others were searching stuff for the cave's floor, Presto tried to double the apples they still have with magic.
He has laid the three remaining apples in front of himself, closing his eyes and concentrating on a spell, when he suddenly heard a smacking noise.

He opened up his eyes immediately and saw the source of those noises: Uni had just eaten one of the apples.

"Oh Uni, how am I supposed to duplicate the apples if you're eating all of them up?" he admonished the small unicorn, which was immediately bleating an excuse.

"Yeah, it's all right. There are still two left. But please let them be now, ok?"

Uni nodded obediently, gazing yearningly at the juicy apples.

After that the Magician concentrated again on a spell and closed his eyes.
When he reopened them, he pulled his Hat off and let the two apples slide into it, while quietly reciting his spell.

For quite a while, nothing at all happened, but then a bright light shone out of the Hat.
Presto reached curiously into his Hat and pulled out an apple pie.

"Oh, well, that's not exactly what I've imagined with 'duplicate' but this result is something you won't dismiss by any means, will you?" he noticed being proud of himself and his Hat.

Uni neighed in agreement.

He shared contented his conjured pie with the others.

He was carrying two pieces into the cave, when Sheila covered Bobby.

"Hey, I bring something to eat for you." Presto explained and handed Sheila two slices.

"Thank you, Presto." Sheila replied smiling and took the pie.

"Bobby? Presto has brought apple pie for us. Look, this surely will be tasty." Sheila turned to the youngest.

He just shook his head and said weakly, "Ain't hungry."

"Come on, Bobby, you have to eat something." Sheila tried again.

"Um, I've heard that you have to give milk to poisoned ones. Dunno if this is right.
Shall I try to conjure milk? It worked with the apples after all..." Presto offered.

"Kind of you, Presto, but you don't need to. Thanks, anyway.
I know Bobby's stubbornness.
If he has taken something into his head, it's hard to put him off from doing it.
Well, you've already witnessed it after all...
He had always been like that.
Oh, well, maybe he wants to eat something later on." she added hopefully.

"Ok, I'll go to the others again. Goodnight!" Presto waved at them and left the cave.

Inside the cave Bobby snuggled down in the Cloak and fell asleep a few moments later.
Sheila laid down next to her brother and soon drifted off to sleep as well.

Hank kept watch in front of the cave. In about an hour, Presto would take his turn.

The others were already sleeping. You could hear Eric grumble in his sleep every now and then.

They woke up early in the next morning. After having eaten the last pieces of cake they set off again.

They already were some time on the way, when Bobby, who was supported by Sheila, stopped abruptly and broke away from her.

"What's the matter, Bobby?" Sheila asked.

"Wanna... walk... alone..." the boy just gasped out.

"Are you sure you can do that yet? You're still weak..." Sheila pointed out worried.

The Barbarian nodded defiantly and walked slowly a few steps until he suddenly collapsed.

With a shocked outcry, Sheila raced to her completely exhausted brother.

"Oh no. Bobby, please, you have to hang on. We're almost there." she implored him.

Behind her Presto shook his head discouraged and muttered, "We ain't gonna make it. The disease has won. We have lost. It's too late..."

"That's really gonna be when we stand here around much longer." Eric chimed in.

"Can't you see that Bobby isn't feeling well? He can't go on any longer!" Sheila snapped at Eric with tears in the eyes.

"Eric's right, Sheila." Hank turned to Sheila. "We have to keep going."

"But Bobby's exhausted. He needs a rest." the Thief tried to convince the others.

"The longer we wait, the worse Bobby's condition will get. I'm sorry but we must not take a rest now." Hank explained.

He still felt responsible for the current situation and didn't want to extend Bobby's suffering unnecessarily under any circumstances.

They already had spent too much time to free their youngest member from the claws of his captor.
And with every moment they waste, the chances of the Barbarian's complete recovery were fading away rapidly.

"But..." Sheila started to protest again, but the Ranger just shook his head.

He held his Bow out to her wordlessly, knelt down and lifted the boy up carefully.

"As much as I wish for a longer rest for all of you, we're not allowed to take one - not as long it's still bright day.
It's a very serious matter.
But I promise you, as soon as we got the cure and Bobby's well again, we can and we will rest as long as we like." he declared stony-faced.

Sheila nodded in silence, took Hank's Bow, Bobby's Club and his helmet and rose as well.

So they moved on.

"I hope he's not too heavy for you to carry..." Sheila turned to Hank.

"No, don't worry. He definitely isn't." he assured her.

"Good." she replied and looked worried towards her brother, who meanwhile was hanging limp in Hank's arms with half-opened blank eyes, feverish blushed cheeks and heavy, irregular breaths.

His condition got worse noticeably but nobody dared to mention this obvious progression.

The worst part about all this was that there was nothing they could do for him and the desired remedy still seemed to be beyond reach.