I had decided that instead of running around, trying to get myself killed, I should hide. So I found a crevice in a tree and tucked myself away in it. After a few hours of stiffness, I decided that every single person playing this game was probably doing the exact same thing as me right then. Hoping they could surprise attack me. "Yeah, well that's not gonna happen." I whispered to myself.

I was frankly getting bored. And I may have started going slightly insane. Some excitement finally presented itself, when a whole pack of men came crashing through the trees all around me. They were all going in one direction, and I knew they couldn't see me, but I couldn't stop myself from trying to sink further into the hollow of the tree.

The stream of men slowly started to dwindle, and soon there were only the weaker men at the tail of the procession. Some of them stopped, and bent over as they tried to catch their breaths. There were only five that I could see, but I was sure there were more on the side of the tree I couldn't see out of, so I guesstimated roughly ten.

I could take ten. All the rest of the group had run on ahead… They were going to miss out on the fun.

I adjusted my sword in my hand. It made a slight clinking sound, which drew the attention of one of the closer soldiers. He looked into the shadow of the tree, holding his sword out in front of him. He was only about sixteen or seventeen. And his expression showed extreme fear.

Suddenly, one of the older men laughed. "No human could fit in there, Harry. Not even the girl. Your nerves are taught from that last encounter. Calm yourself, or you will get gutted while looking in the bushes for bunnies." The man turned around, but the boy held his ground.

I felt sorry for the kid, he was the type that no one listened to, even though he may be more right than anyone else. I didn't move a muscle, and he eventually turned around, but it was hesitant.

They decided that taking a small breather there would be fine, since the rest of the group was too far to catch up on. I wasn't sure whether to be upset or not about that.

It was getting darker, Matthew had also proposed the rule that we wouldn't stop the game till one whole team was counted as dead, or, of course, I had died.

So… I was stuffed in a tiny opening of a tree, mushy wet stuff was pressing up against me from all sides, something hard and poky was stabbing into my back, my legs were getting cramped, a musky pine smell was suffocating me, I was surrounded by an unsuspecting enemy, the enemy had a warm fire that was just far enough away that I didn't benefit from it, it was past the time that I'm usually in my warm bed sleeping, something was crawling on the side of my head and I couldn't risk moving and swatting it away, and on top of all that, It was still my birthday which was supposed to be special.

In light of all that, I decided getting out of there was my best option. I slowly began trying to pull a piece of the tree's bark off. It hurt, wood was getting wedged between my fingernails. I had a grip on a reasonably sized chunk, but it wouldn't come unattached from the tree. I couldn't pull back on it, because my elbow was up against the back of the hollow, there was absolutely no room to move around.

I finally shoved down with my hand, it broke away with a small cracking sound. I was grateful for the fire, it was crackling as well, so it disguised the noise. I winced as a sharp piece of the tree sunk into my palm and broke off, but I didn't make any noise.

I positioned myself to where my throwing arm was able to maneuver properly. Then I chunked the piece of wood over the men's head's into the brush behind them. It shattered against a tree, making way more noise than I had dared to hope.

They all immediately shot up from their seats around the fire and pointed their various weapons towards where the noise came from. They began shouting in the direction of the noise, I decided that they thought it was a wild animal or something.

While their attention was diverted I slipped out of the tree and silently moved to the edge of the ring of light. I easily took out three of the guys that were closest to me. But their cries of alarm got the attention of the others.

That's where it got hard.

They all ran at me, swinging blindly. They couldn't see me because I was in the darkness, and they had been staring at the fire for awhile. I dodged them, and was able to stab a few. There were four left, the ones counted as dead sat where they were, watching tensely as we attacked each other.

I was facing off against one of the men, wondering where I had seen him before, when one of the other men attacked me from behind. He managed to get my sword away from me, because he had seen how well I handled it. And how I had killed half of them with it. We somehow ended up rolling around on the ground, grappling for it. All the while I was wondering why I was trying so hard to keep it when I had a perfectly good bow, and also a knife strapped to my hip.

We were in mid roll when I reached into my sheath and stabbed the man in the chest with one of the arrows. It didn't cut him, but the force I had put into it had been bad enough to bruise him.

He rolled away, onto his hands and knees, gasping to get his breath back. I pulled myself up, and waited for the next attacker. I didn't pick up my sword, I felt lighter without it, and I knew I could always get it later.

The kid that had heard me in the tree came at me first. He was holding his sword all wrong. It was like he had barely had any training. He swung the sword at me, but at the same time, I dove for his legs, knocking him off balance. We both landed hard, he lost hold of his sword, and my arrows all fell out of my sheath.

I grabbed at the knife on my hip, and brought it to his throat. But I didn't cut, instead I stood, and ran at the last two guys.

One thing I realized about these men, they were easy to trip. They had little to no grace and balance. The next guy I attacked I went for his legs again, he fell back into a tree, I was about to punch him, but he ducked. I skinned my knuckles on the rough bark. I cradled my hand to my chest, and grabbed my knife with my left hand.

I aimed, and flung the knife between the head of the last two enemies. They both stared at me in shock. I stepped past them, and went in search of my knife. When I found it and came back into the light, I expected the men to be gone, but they were still sitting there.

Their expressions were ranging from failure, to disbelief. None of them noticed that I had come back. I sat down near the fire, I was shivering. My clothes were still wet from the strange mushy stuff in the tree. At least in there I had a block from the cold wind. There was suddenly a weight on my shoulders. I looked up into the guy named Harry's eyes. He had just given me his coat.

I suddenly wanted to hug the kid. He had sacrificed his own warmth for mine. I snuggled deeper into the jacket, and smiled at him. "Thank you." I said.

He smiled back, "No problem."

"You guys should head on back. Mrs. Jackson should be at my house, ready to bandage any wounds you might have. And it's getting cold, I don't want you all getting sick." I said, as I watched the flames licking at the logs.

"Are you going to be okay out here?" One of them asked.

I looked up in surprise, the man that had spoken looked so familiar.

He suddenly laughed, "I'm David. You met me, my wife and my new baby boy, Caleb, a few months back…"

A light went off in me. "Oh! Sorry, it's nice to see you again!

"We can't get over the fact that you're doing this. You seemed so normal and… fragile when you visited us. Now I'm getting an arrow shot at my head by you." He chuckled, but he then turned serious. "When I look at you, all I can see is Jessica. I can't imagine letting her spend the night in this weather without protection."

"That's why you weren't trying very hard to kill me." I laughed. "You kept seeing me as Jessica."

He ducked his head, "Yeah."

"Well, I thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine." I said.

One of the other men suddenly spoke up, "I agree with him, I wouldn't ever let my daughter stay outside alone at night. Maybe we should stay with her till morning."

"Yeah, we don't want our future commander freezing to death just because we didn't stay now do we?"

I couldn't believe the loyalty I was hearing.

"And that other group could come back any minute during the night." Someone said.

"They wouldn't hesitate really to hurt her." Harry said. "I heard the leader of that group talking. He was saying some really brutal stuff."

There was a thoughtful silence, then, "We'll stay." Someone decided for me.

I rolled my eyes, "I guess I don't have a choice?"

"Nope." David said with a smile.

We all settled down around the fire, a few more of the men offered their coats, but I declined, saying that I was warm enough. And in truth I was okay. The men had enough insight to lay down to where their bodies blocked me from the wind. And I was close enough to the fire to be toasty.

"Hey, Harry?" I asked, watching him from across the fire.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you didn't follow your instinct." I said, referring to when he was staring straight at me in the tree.

He laughed, "No problem."

"Oh, and when this is over, I'm going to teach you how to hold your sword properly." I said in a teasing voice.

"That bad, huh?" He asked in exasperation.

"No, you just need a little help is all."

He just laughed.

"Good night everybody." I said a little louder.

"Good night." They all replied.

Nothing else happened that night. I was able to get a good, albeit cold nights sleep. And the men were at rest about if I was warm enough or not. I was glad they stayed. That night could have been much more miserable without them.

A/N

Hey everybody!

I'm sorry this chapter took so long, I finished it almost a week ago, but my internet was out. :( Needless to say, I was panicking.

I kept thinking that all my reader were gonna hate me, track me down, and demand the next chapter... I only wish someone would care that much whether or not I updated.

Please review. That means you too, person that isn't planning on reviewing, that means you too.

If ya'll want, I could promise a thousand words for every review I get from people who don't usually review. Yeah, I'll do that, bring it on.

Okay, I'll stop blah blahing, and I'll get to something good.

Smiley (guest) ; I'm really glad you liked the fighting scenes, It's easier for me to write those than it is to write romance. I guess I just have a lot of pent up violence, Haha. Woah, I can't imagine not having romance in my life till twelve. I practically ate up all the Disney movies. I still love watching romance, but when writing it, I'm kinda awkward. :) Oh, were you the guest reviewer on chapter fifteen too?

Pokemonchen; Your review was awesome! I had to go back and reread the chapter to know what you were talking about, but it really made my day. XD

Booksnake; I didn't have any romance in this chap for you, but if some more people review, I'll finally get on with the story, get to the real war, and I will most definitely have some sweet bits of stuff between Rachel and Nick! :) I'm not sure if it would have worked any other way other than to have all of them fight. They should be meeting up sometime soon so that they can all kick butt together. :)

Please review, I will add a thousand words on for every review from someone new. :D