(-a/n- Yay an update! It's a Christmas present for all of you people out there who celebrate. For those who don't, it can be a Midwinter gift, although I'm not entirely sure when Midwinter is…Anyhow, I'll stop waffling. This is the second of what I hope will be five updates (or at least that is my aim) of the Christmas holidays. It would be more, but I have exams to revise for…:S )

Thanks for all of the awesome reviews :D

SarahE7191geka0taitsume0taikaiyouBrokenflamesrebelmountainelementsNotAfraidToLiveSkyline RomanceCheeseycrazinessSeriousPiperx17SkmBdrchiczxxGrace of MasbollepinnapleonpizzaObSeSsEd WiTh ROXASkilling u with umbrellasKage Kitsun, Jasmin Elliot, LadyKnightSusanIkarusCazadoresSavingSaturnVenuspixieFaia Sakuraemerald ladyTransfigurationviolingrl07Dom-Basher CHAMPIONsoupcanepobbptruffletruffle01lady kight jacky cullenYabberliErynfaerForget Me Not Blue, Kelly, Stoned LorikeetHasamaki13.shimer.13jesi ki kageErytha, Hunchbook, Jaden ScorpioAly the SpyMint Tea RoseOn top of cloud 9Guitar-Blonde-Is-A-BakaDrunken Little Monkeysky7228Evil Bunny of Death, tomboy, MysticMoonEmpress, Google it!, ankhsenamun256, stardust718stoictimerSandrilene LaterneamitaiNight-PlayeruntamedspiralLady SapphireaPie of DoomehLil' Miss All datAnzymandywong94, Me, blackwidow12, Lady Knight KeladryUncertian Destinyerin-walkerelfie-maybrezzybrezMagickless SorceressSaoirseWaveglowkatiebug123Pepper LemonElavie, clurr, princessofcrown101DOKIDOKIpanicKyubbi-Sama, puddytatt, ThJaFl & Lady Mage

Cede How's the drawing coming along?

Right or RynHmmm.. on average about 2200 hits a chapter and about 78700 hits overall :D

Sunkissed Guacamole How're your teeth? (Or lack of them!) hehehe I know it is rather long now! You should get back into writing :D It's very therapeutic sometimes :D Anyway hopefully I'll talk to ya soon x

oirishgoddess Yeah, my favourite is Kel/Dom too, I wish TP would write a follow up to PoTS :D (with that pairing :P)

Aly We should make a club: The student/athlete/worker/sleep-deprived individual protection society! SAWSDIPS for short! Lol :P

Confusedknight xxx

As the days lengthened and summer truly began to rear it's head, Kel's work changed and she was assigned to a group responsible for clearing the irrigation ditches. It was early June and little rain had fallen over the previous few weeks, leaving the top layer of soil dry and dusty.

According to Idan, the plantations, because they were inland received little or no rainfall in the summer. However, lakes and rivers to the north had been diverted to fuel an irrigation system. Kel now spent her day's knee deep in muddy water, clearing debris from the ditches.

This however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As the sun grew ever stronger, the temperatures soared and even the cool water of the ditches didn't stop Kel from sweating profusely.

Once all the ditches had been cleared, and each field had a water supply came the laborious task of distributing the water across the huge fields. Each slave was handed two buckets hung across a central pole. In the bottom of the buckets were series of holes. The idea being that as the slave walked between rows of shoots, the water would drip out, steadily watering the plants. It was strenuous work that Idan said would occupy the majority of their summer.

The buckets of water were extremely heavy and Kel's shoulders quickly became bruised and sore. This didn't help in the evenings when she determinedly practised her swordplay with the makeshift weapons.

On her long evenings spent in the forest, Kel had also fashioned herself a staff and began to practise some simple pattern drills. After so much work with a sword, a staff felt clumsy and awkward, but Kel knew that all warriors must be able to use all sorts of different weapons.

One day in mid-June, Kel left the field tired and dirty as always and alongside Idan she walked down to the river. She jumped in, and sat in the knee-deep water, cherishing it's cool embrace on her angry, sun-burnt skin. Her face was peeling from where she had burnt it two days previously and her arms were just as bad.

Idan didn't fair as badly; his skin had quickly turned brown on exposure to the sun. Not for the first time in her life, Kel envied the fact that boys could remove their shirts when it got hot, whilst she was forced to swelter, rolling her sleeves up as high as they would go.

'Why is it so hot?' moaned Kel.

'You just wait until winter,' replied Idan, 'then you'll be longing for some summer sun.'

With any luck, I won't be here in winter, thought Kel, wondering how much more of plantation life she was able to take.

That night, instead of practising her fighting for several hours, Kel went for a wander. She was determined to find something that might be of use to Alex. She scouted about before strolling over to the guardhouse.

There outside, sat five officers, all sweating in the heat and sharing a mug of what was undoubtedly Taqwr, the favoured Scanran ale. Kel saw the opportunity and took it, spurred into action by months of achieving nothing.

She crept around the back, and after listening carefully at the door, crept inside. It was dark compared with the brilliant sunlight outside and Kel's eyes took a few moments to adjust.

She could here the officers outside talking-

'Don't wanna be workin' in a pissin' slave plantation all me life-'

'You mayn't 'ave to after what boss's sayin' week before las',' replied another guard. 'Twas sommat 'bout greater movement or some daft thing, I dunno, but he's thinkin' th' army'll be lookin' for young sods like you soon enough.'

Kel's heart hammered in her chest, but as quickly as the conversation had swung to a useful topic it deviated off into speculation about how many new slaves would be bought over the coming weeks.

She began to rifle through the drawers of a cabinet, desperately seeking the confirmation, the proof that Maggur was in negotiations with the Gentlund clan. A door creaked and Kel turned, instinctively thrusting the piece of paper she was holding up her shirtsleeve.

'Whatch'you doin' in 'ere?' roared a burly man with a moustache.

Kel dropped the other oddments that she was holding and her eyes darted for the exits. She made a dash for it, diving between the man's legs and tripping him over in the process. Elated, she sprinted for the door, she was free –but another guard appeared out of nowhere and caught her arm in a vice like grip, wrenching Kel around.

'Why you little-' said the first guard, the one that Kel had tripped over, and he punched her in the face.

Kel heard bone break as her nose erupted in agony. Blood began to pour down her face and onto her clothes. Dazed she blinked, her eyes watering madly.

'What's the problem here?' enquired a well-spoken voice, the owner of which Kel couldn't see through her watering eyes.

'This rat was pilferin' our draws.'

'Probably looking for food,' dismissed the well-spoken man. 'Give her a beating so she'll remember not to do it again in future. But you should've been more watchful.'

'Sir,' replied the guard dutifully.

The next thing Kel knew, she had been dropped to the ground and blows were raining down upon her. She curled her arms over her head protectively to stop any further damage to her throbbing face.

Someone kicked the wind out of her and she lay gasping, she was straining for air, her vision blurred with tears when a voice said-

'Alright that's enough; don't kill her, I think the message will stick.'

The guard gave Kel a final kick before turning away. Somewhere, in the pain-filled depths of her brain, Kel realised that they had stopped beating her. She staggered to her feet and ran, not caring in which direction, just to get away from the jeering guards.

She followed the track up further still and came to another set of buildings. Unlike the slave barracks, these were actual cottages and workshops. Kel stared about, breathing hard and desperately trying to stop the blood that still trickled from her nose.

She could hear a clanging from one of the workshops to her left, and she staggered over, peering around the door, frantically forming an idea.

'Is that the blacksmith?' she called.

'Who's asking?' demanded a rough country voice.

'I've got a message,' she called, stepping inside the smithy.

'From who?'

'From me, to a certain friend of ours,' said Kel carefully, not sure that this was the blacksmith that Rhonda had meant.

'Ah,' said the large man, appearing from behind a shelf of assorted metal objects.

'So ye're that one,' he looked her over, and Kel could almost imagine the state she must be in. 'I've been wondering when ye'd turn up.'

'Well it's taken me a while to find anything relevant,' replied Kel thickly in a voice distorted by her swollen, bleeding nose.

'Yeah well I told him it'd be a long shot.'

'The guards reckon that Maggur'll be recruiting for his armies soon, which makes it sound like the Clan chief, whatshisname is allied to Maggur.'

'Hmm,' the blacksmith seemed to mull this information over, 'and what do the slaves think.'

'The slaves?' asked Kel questioningly, 'what would they know about politics?'

'A good deal,' retorted the man. 'They'll all be from different places, they'll share news they've overheard or events witnessed. If you can make inquiries…'

'I'll see what I can do,' said Kel, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid that she had been wasting months trying to sniff out information from the wrong people.

She left the smithy soon afterwards, leaving the blacksmith deep in thought.

Kel limped to her usual bathing spot to try and rinse the blood off of her face and out of her clothes. As she rolled up her sleeve to examine the bruises on her wrist a piece of paper fell out. Kel caught it deftly. It was the letter that she'd managed to steal before she was caught.

She scanned it's contents. It was absolutely useless, just a letter from one of the other slave barracks requesting the loan of some cattle. She was about to cast it away when she caught sight of the date at the top of the letter.

16th June. Her birthday. Kel wasn't sure exactly how old the letter was, but by the look of it, pretty recent. She was thirteen and she hadn't even realised.

It was a while later that Idan found her, sitting in the stream, letting it's coolness sooth her bruises.

'What happened to you?'

Kel shrugged, not looking at him, but watching the water swirl past her.

'Come on,' said Idan, 'it's getting colder, you need to dry off.'

He waded into the stream and helped Kel up. She hissed in pain as his strong hands touched her bruised side. Once she was standing, Idan lifted up her shirt at the side to reveal an array of rapidly purpling bruises.

Idan swore, his normally cheerful face troubled as he examined Kel's side.

'Someone gave you a pretty thorough beating,' he observed, 'get on the wrong side of the guards?' Kel nodded again, not in the mood for conversation. 'Well, we'll have to set your nose right,' Idan replied, 'otherwise it'll set off-centre.'

Seating Kel on the bank, he knelt in front of her and placed two calloused thumbs either side of Kel's throbbing nose. Without warning he pushed it to the left. The pain was unimaginable as Kel's nose grated and began to bleed again.

'Mithros that hurts,' whimpered Kel, her eyes blurry with tears again.

'It's all done,' said Idan, examining her nose carefully. 'When all of this swelling dies down, it'll be straight, though maybe with a slight dent.'

Kel, who was having difficulty thinking straight –pain was distracting her, allowed Idan to lead her back to the slave barracks and bed.

The next few days were extremely painful for Kel, whose bruised body made labouring three times as worse. She also had two black eyes to add to her assortment of injuries and altogether looked a complete wreck, or so she had been informed by Idan.

The summer days grew hotter everyday and the slaves regularly collapsed through dehydration and heat exhaustion. By far the worst part of the next few weeks was seeing a boy beaten to death, a scant twenty metres from where Kel and Idan were working.

He'd just sat down, unable to do any more. When the guard tried to get him working again, he'd said something rude and the guard had beaten him there and then until the life fled from his broken body.

Kel, unable to remove her eyes from the scene, watched horrified as the boy died. The only consolation was that he only suffered for a minute or so before falling unconscious. He never woke up.

That night no one missed or mourned the boy and Kel thought numbly, if I die out here, no one will know, except for Alex. My parents, Neal, Lucie, they'll never know. I'll just simply disappear like that boy and no one will care. It was not a pleasant thought, but it reminded Kel that one day she was going to return to her homeland.

…a massive beast, seven feet tall stood in the doorway. He had a bull's broad neck, large eyes and on top of his head were two broad horns. His nose almost resembled a human's but his jaws were large, slathering and his face wore an expression of undeniable triumph…

…the tauros let out a deafening bellow, and lurched forward…

…the sword was too heavy and her arms too weak. Her third swing was too slow and the beast lurched forward twisting the weapon from her grip in one fluid motion…

…she was jerked forward by the unexpected attack, and the beast second horn gouged her. Scarlet blood began to seep from the long wound which extended the full width of her chest, just below her collarbones…

…the force of the blow had tossed her clean off her feet. The ripped material of her dress around the wound was already stained red…

…it was upon her before she had time to think or scream for help, its huge mass bearing down on her. It ripped at her underskirts…

…Kel began to scream as it continued its merciless attack…

The familiar nightmare woke Kel with a start and she sat bolt upright. It had been a while since she'd last had it, but it was still as vivid as the day that it had happened. Kel shivered despite of the heat and hugged her knees to her chest, letting her racing heart calm down.

It was silent except for one person's deep, chesty cough further down the barracks.

'Are you okay Eli?' asked Idan sleepily, snaking an arm around Kel's waist.

Kel flinched, still remembering the attack that had happened just under a year and a half previously. Eventually she calmed down enough to lie back down and attempt to catch some more sleep before their early start the next morning.

As she lay staring out into the dark, she could hear people fidgeting in their sleep and the horrible coughing and wheezing of the ill slave but she gradually drifted into uneasy slumber, by now used to the fact that it was never silent in the barracks.

Making enquiries among the slaves was more difficult than Kel had previously anticipated. She had to ask subtle questions, in the right tone of voice, so as to make it sound like a casual enquiry. Mostly no one knew a thing about what was happening in the rest of Scanra.

A couple of people had overheard guards talking about various alliances, but nothing at all specific. One person had even come from Hastanne and spoke bitterly of Maggur's takeover.

'He'd taken prisoners; friends and family of the Chief. Kept 'em hostage in that castle of his, so the Chief practically let Maggur waltz through the door,' the woman spat on the floor. 'Some of us were taken as slaves, others as warriors to swell that dog's army.'

Kel had thanked the woman for telling her story, but she still wasn't any closer to working out Maggur's plans. It was pretty obvious that Maggur and the Chief of Gentlund were allies, but Alex already knew or suspected that. Kel had wanted to discover some top secret plan and ride off with Alex like she had done last time. But it was not to be.

She had exhausted her list of people to ask. Kel could carry on making enquiries, but she seemed to be going round in circles, it was very frustrating. Kel was venting her annoyance in her daily combat work, practising not only her swordplay and staff work but also the punch and kick that Fassin had taught her.

'Eli?' called a voice from somewhere in the woods. Kel froze and threw her wooden "sword" into the bushes.

'Idan is that you?' she replied.

'Yeah, where are you?'

Kel exited the clearing and headed in the direction of Idan's voice. Gradually Idan appeared through the thick trees.

'What were you doing?' he asked.

'Just walking like I normally do,' Kel lied.

They shared a brief kiss, Idan's hands resting on Kel's lower back whilst Kel's own hands played with the hair at the back of his neck.

'Mmm,' Idan murmured into Kel's hair, 'we haven't done that for a while.'

'I know,' Kel replied sadly.

It'd been hard trying to keep a relationship going in their present circumstances. Everyone was hot, dirty and tired. Once or twice they'd even snapped at each other, but made up soon afterwards.

'Another woman died this afternoon,' said Idan heavily as he let go of Kel.

'Like the first two?' asked Kel.

'It looks like it,' he replied.

'They wouldn't die if there was just a healer, and if they were actually fed,' said Kel angrily, 'it's murder.'

'There's nothing we can do,' said Idan, recognising the glint in Kel's eyes all too well.

'We can try to get people to bring food to those who are sick.'

'No one will listen,' warned Idan, 'people barely survive on their own food ration.'

'Some might,' replied Kel desperately.

Alex was dabbing at a wound on his forearm which was bleeding sluggishly when a knock resounded upon the door.

'Come in,' he called, instinctively double-checking that his sword lay within reach.

'I was told I could find Alexei here,' ventured a lad, no older than eighteen with a soft country accent.

'Your information was correct,' said Alex, scrutinising the stranger.

'I've a message from Gentlund.'

Alex jumped up, dropping the bloody cloth and the boy handed him the message. His fingers shaking slightly, Alex tossed the boy a small purse full of copper coins. The youth checked the coins over before nodding and departing.

The letter which Alex held, had upon it a wax seal –and as far as Alex could tell it hadn't been tampered with in any way.

He slit the envelope open and unfolded the letter within. It took him a few minutes to decipher the code onto a spare sheet of paper. When he was done, he read the message through.

Dear Sir,

Your "worker" visited me yesterday, she was a bit roughed over when I saw her. What she'd found matched with the rumours that I've been hearing for a while. Allied status seems imminent. Get her out soon before we're overrun by you-know-who.

It was short and factual, it told him what he needed to know, but not what he wanted to know. He wanted every detail of how she was coping; Alex didn't like the sound of Kel being "roughed over". But at least he knew she was still alive, or at least alive when the message had been sent.

Alex stood up and peered out of his window into the late evening sun that hung over Tinei. His work here was nearly done. Alex tightly bandaged his forearm and strapped his sword to his waist.

As soon as he was done, he'd ride North-West and go and rescue Kel from the Plantation, he hadn't liked the idea in the first place, and the quicker he could get her out of there, the better.

(-a/n- So this isn't all that long, but next chapter will be very action-packed and I didn't want to just write stuff for the sake of making it longer. As it is, I've spent the whole afternoon writing this (it's hard to concentrate on Christmas Eve!)

I know this chapter isn't particularly essential to the plot, and not much seems to be happening, but it's important for Kel's character. I didn't want to have her suddenly unearthing top-secret information like last time, because I want to keep this as real as possible. I also want to keep her character real, and after all, she's only human, I would imagine that a lot of spying work is just meeting dead-ends. What do you think?

I would love reviews from all who've read this, especially as it's Christmas time! So go on, click the little button and spent a minute leaving me some feedback.)

Have a wonderful Christmas,

Confusedknight xxxx