a.n.: i know this chap. stinks but you’ll get the vaaaague idea. lol 
aaaaaaaaand wow. this is 4, 323 words long!!!!! WOW THAT IS LIKE THE LONGEST CHAPTER I’VE EVER WRITTEN!! yeah, most of it stinks, but wow. sorry for hogging up the home page :*) *sheepish grin* lolllll 
Aiah and Ari were a few days old now. Most women would up and about by this time, but my back and arm were still healing – at least my back was. My arm was still healing stubbornly slowly.
I couldn’t lift the babies at all though. My back still hurt too much. I couldn’t lift really anything. Sitting and laying down were both agonizing, and standing was just out of the question.
Right now I was – as usual – lying in bed, although I wasn’t completely bored out of my mind because Adan was talking to me.
I still could not get enough of Adan’s face. I hadn’t seen it for such a long time…now I was afraid if I looked away from him he would just disappear.
“Aaleyah?” Adan said suddenly. His face was concerned as he looked at me. “Are you alright, love?”
“Hm?” I said, pulled from my reverie.
“You were just staring at me, not really moving or blinking,” Adan said. “Are you alright?” he repeated then.
“Oh…yes,” I said sheepishly. “I’m sorry…but it’s just that I haven’t seen you for so long…nearly a year…and I can’t stop looking at you. That’s all.” I looked down at the floor.
“Hey,” Adan said softly, stroking my face. I looked back up. “I can’t stop looking at you, either. I missed you, sweetheart…you have no idea how much.”
I reached up and took his hand. “I missed you too,” I said, my throat closing up with tears.
“But we’re together now,” Adan said, his eyes looking misty. “And I’m not leaving you again – not while I have breath left in this body. And even when I don’t, I’ll still be here – in your heart, love.”
I kissed his palm. “I love you, Adan,” I said softly.
“And I love you, Mrs. El’Hara,” Adan said, smiling and finally looking like his old self again. He leaned down and kissed me. When we drew apart he sat back and chuckled. “Look at the two of us. We’re like weepy old women.”
I laughed then, and my heart sang inside me. I was so glad to have my husband back.
~
The next day I finally felt strong enough to get up. The pain in my back wasn’t as bad as usual and I wanted to take the chance while I could.
“Adan, help me up,” I said once both babies were asleep with full tummies. It was the afternoon, and it was a rather chilly day. (i know i always get my seasons in AKF mixed up…lol i’ll fix em sometime/change em 
) This was our second real month of winter, and we could get a snow storm any day now.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” Adan said, crossing his arms.
I sighed. “Adan, this is the best I’ve felt in days. My pain isn’t bad and I don’t feel so weak…please. I don’t how much more I’ll feel like this – it could be a one-time thing. I promise to take it easy, but can I please get up for a bit?” I pleaded.
Adan stared at me for a moment – he was thinking about it.
“Alright, Aaleyah, but I’m staying with you the whole time,” Adan said. “And if I notice you start to look in pain or feel weak, you are laying down right away.” I knew he was only being this firm because he loved me and didn’t want anything to happen to me.
“Fine,” I said. “I don’t object to that. I just want to get out of this bed.” I smiled sweetly to try to get Adan happier about this whole situation.
It only half-worked.
He didn’t really wanting me getting up at all.
Still, he came over and bent down. Carefully and gently, he helped me get up.
I wasn’t expecting the bout of dizziness that accompanied my getting up – though I should have expected it – I’d been hurt and confined to a bed enough times to know that when I got up I would feel incredibly dizzy – but it went away quickly, and, leaning on Adan, I finally left the room.
“Aaleyah!” Mara exclaimed happily. Tess and Janai were playing on the floor, and Mara was preparing lunch – something that smelled like a sort of chicken soup.
“Mama!” Janai shrieked, running toward me.
“Carefully, son,” Adan warned just before Janai nearly plowed me over in his eagerness to hug me – which involved throwing his arms around my legs and holding on tight.
Adan kept one arm around my waist while I leaned down slightly to kiss Janai, who had very carefully wrapped his arms around my legs. “Hello, sweeting,” I said, stroking his curly dark brown hair. “I miss holding you, Janai.”
“I miss you too, Mama,” Janai said sadly. Then his eyes lit up. “But dis time you’re staying – you not going to anodder places!”
Adan and I smiled. “That’s right, my darling – Mama’s not going ‘to another places’,” I said, gazing at my adorable son.
“Well, see you laters, Mama!” Janai said. He seemed to be adding ‘s’ onto the end of most of the words he said these days. He spoke in the cutest way.
He scampered off then, off to play with the wooden horse Adan had carved for him quite some time ago…probably around the time we had been told that we were needed to fight the Rennians. I shivered at the thought. I was so sick of war…why couldn’t things just stay good for a few years?
“Hello,” Tess said shyly, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Hello, sweetheart,” I said, smiling at her from across the room. “Are you having fun with Janai?”
“Yes,” she said quietly. “Are you feeling nice now?”
I held back a chuckle. The way little children worded things…”No, I’m not feeling so nice yet…but I’m feeling a little bit better. Thank you, Tess,” I said as cheerfully as I could.
When Cozar had been here – Mara had gotten him to stay the night when he had escorted us all home a few days ago – we – Adan and I – had spoken to him about Tess. We had wanted to know if we were allowed to basically keep her as our own daughter. Cozar had said that he thought it would be a good idea…there was no way her father had survived the massacre in her town. His scouts had gone ahead to that town and given credibility to that belief. Apparently no one but Tess and her mother had survived.
And, since there was no one else to take her – unless there were other relatives that we just didn’t know about – Cozar thought it would be a good idea for us to keep her. She would be safer that way, and we could also help her understand about being a Chosen One, and help her develop her powers.
Still, it would be up to her. If she didn’t want to stay with us, Cozar would go home, get his wife, and then both of them would come back to get Tess. Cozar and his family actually lived quite close to us, so the trip wouldn’t be that long.
So, the night before Cozar left, we had Tess come into the room where I was resting. “Tess,” I had said, “there’s something we want to ask you.”
“What?” she said, perching herself on the edge of my bed and looking at her with her inquisitive eyes.
“Well, Tess, we want to know if you would like to stay here with us,” Adan said. “And we could be your new mama and papa.”
Tess’s face had lit up. “Really and truly?” she’d exclaimed.
“Really and truly,” I said, smiling.
“Yes! I do want to stay here! I was hoping you would ask me!” she said happily. She ran over to Adan and hugged him tightly. “Thank you so, so, so much!”
Adan and I had smiled at each other. Tess was really coming out of her shell.
I was brought back to the present by – and by one of the babies crying. Even though they were only a few days old I could distinguish their different cries – and that sounded like Ari. Aiah seemed to sleep better than him, for whatever reason.
I sighed. “I suppose that ends my big expedition,” I said.
Adan chuckled. “Just sit down, love, and I’ll go get him,” he said. He, too, could tell which baby was crying just by their cry.
I sat down carefully, then, in the comfortable rocking chair that was near the fire. I soaked in the warmth, only just realizing how cold I had been. Surprisingly my back didn’t protest as much as it usually did when I tried to sit.
Mara chuckled in the kitchen, having returned from putting Tess and Janai down for a nap. “I know that look,” she said. “It’s the tired-mother-of-a-newborn look – except in your case, you feel it double the amount other women do, because you have twins.”
I chuckled too. “You’re right on that count. I swear, I don’t believe Ari slept for five minutes straight last night. Adan and I were so tired – we were both almost completely out of energy. And Ari, when he wakes up in the middle of the night, seems to think he shouldn’t just wake up, but be wide awake, like there are things to discover at four hours before dawn,” I said.
“For him there are new things to discover at any hour – but his discovery time just happens to collide with Mama and Papa’s sleeping time,” Mara said, smiling.
Adan walked out just then, cradling a beautiful little Ari in his arms. Ari was gripping Adan’s fingers tightly and staring up at him with his big eyes.
My heart swelled with love at the sight of them. “He looks surprisingly happy for having just been screaming a few minutes ago,” I remarked wryly.
“He does indeed,” Adan said, looking down at him. I could see in Adan’s eyes that he loved our new son just as much as I did…it was a special thing to watch. His eyes seemed to say, Hello, son. Do you know how much I love you? Very much.
Suddenly someone began to pound on the door. Adan looked at me and frowned slightly before handing the baby to me and, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, going to answer the door.
He opened it cautiously, ready for anything.
A man who looked half-frozen nearly fell to the ground at Adan’s feet. “Pl-please,” he stammered. “I n-need…” He collapsed then, and Adan caught him just before he hit the ground.
“The cot, Ma!” Adan said, picking the man up.
Mara pulled the cot that they kept in their sitting area over to the fire, and Adan laid the man on it.
They worked quickly to get his frozen coat off and get him covered with blankets, and then Mara hurried to get some of the soup she had prepared for lunch.
The man woke up and was able to sit up facing the fire to eat it, blankets wrapped tightly around him. He gobbled it down like he hadn’t eaten in days – and he probably hadn’t. Meanwhile Mara went to put Ari back in bed and get him and Aiah calmed down, seeing as it was getting increasingly harder to hold him with just one arm.
When he finished he hopefully looked over at the soup pot, as if hoping there was more. Mara got him another bowl of soup, which he devoured as quickly as he had the first.
Finally he finished his second helping. Setting the bowl down, he held his palms up and toward the fire so he could warm his hands.
“So…what happened to you? How did you come to be trapped outside in this weather?” Adan asked. The man had his back to him, and he pulled his blanket tighter around himself, as if just the very mention of the bad weather we were experiencing was enough to make him colder.
“I…” the man began. It was if he either couldn’t remember or he was trying to make something up on the spot. “I…don’t have a home…exactly,” he finally said.
“You don’t have a home?” Adan asked. “How long have you been without proper food and shelter?”
“I have not drunk water or eaten food since three weeks ago,” the man said. “Not one sip, and not one bite. As for how long I’ve been without shelter, it’s been about a year. I’ve slept under the stars all that time.”
Adan’s and my eyes met briefly. Surely the man must be confused. No human could go three weeks without water. Food, maybe – but water, no.
And how on earth had he survived outside in weather like this? Had he really slept outside for nearly a year? It didn’t seem probable. Surely he would have begged help from the owner of a farm or an inn at least once.
But in temperatures like this, he would freeze at night.
This man must be very confused. I was sure that even if we asked if he had any family members in the area we could take him to he wouldn’t know.
“You’ve slept outside every night?” Adan asked. “But how did you survive the snow and the cold?”
“I…ah…” The man seemed to search for something to say again.
“Sir, can you tell me your name?” Adan asked slowly.
“Melfis…ah…Elfin…Finn…Treaty,” he finally said.
Adan looked at me again, his eyebrows slightly raised. Then he looked back at the man (or rather, at the man’s back). “Finn Treaty?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s it,” the man said, rubbing his hands together.
Something was clearly not right in his mind.
“May I ask you…Finn…who is king of Kiria right now?” Adan asked curiously.
“That fool, Queren – where have you been these past few years?” the man said, turning to look at Adan for a moment before turning back to the fire.
Adan chuckled, as if at himself. “Sorry…my mind seems to be…going. One more question. You call Queren a fool…if he is ever captured, what do you think should be done to him?” he asked. The man had called our beloved king a fool.
“I think he should go through the most horrific death the Great Sorcerer – as we’re all calling him now – can think of, and at the end of his torturing he ought to have his head chopped off and put on a pole. Yes…that’s what I think,” the man said.
Adan clenched his jaw. I could see Mara struggle to restrain herself from screaming at the man – he had just greatly insulted our king. Furthermore, he had just proved himself to be a hater of our king.
But Adan casually held up his hand to his mother, telling her to wait. He had more ‘investigation’ to do.
“And the Dark One…what do you think of him?” Adan asked.
“I wish desperately he was still alive,” Finn said, turning to look at Adan. “Yes, I know he was technically on the Dark side, but maybe we all ought to be on the Dark side. It is, after all, winning…the Light doesn’t really have a chance. Besides, those two witches – excuse me, I mean the oh-so-great Twins and ‘Protectors of Kiria’ – are just hindering Kiria from the comfort and luxury it could have if it joined the Dark side. They’re keeping us from fame and glory – power.”
Adan was suddenly rushing forward, hauling the man backwards off the bed by his collar, and roughly turning him around so he could look him in the eye. “Guess what, Finn?” Adan said. “One of the ‘witches’ you mentioned is sitting just there – and you also made the great mistake of taking my bait. We happen to be true Kirians, and we are loyal to King Queren and the Light. You are in deep, murky waters speaking the way you just did.”
Suddenly the man was whipping a knife out of his belt. “Adan!” I screamed. Somehow I pointed my hand at his knife. The handle soon began to glow red, and he screamed in pain, dropping it.
But he wasn’t done yet. He was determined to kill Adan.
He lunged at him, wrapping his fingers around Adan’s neck and cutting off his air supply.
Adan quickly delivered a hard punch to the man’s gut. His breath left him with a Whoosh! and he doubled over, wheezing.
Adan took that opportunity to start punching and kicking the man so hard I knew he would be dead within a matter of moments – Adan was one of the strongest people I knew.
But somehow the man swung his legs around, tripping Adan and sending him sprawling on the floor. Before going to start beating Adan up, he looked around frantically for his knife.
What do I do? WHAT DO I DO? I thought, panicked.
A plan quickly formed in my mind, and, somehow getting up, I stooped down to get the man’s knife. I had to bend at my waist to get it, which was complete and total agony for me…but it would be nothing compared to the pain of losing Adan.
I ran over to the man – who was now kicking and punching Adan mercilessly – this man seemed to have inhuman strength – and pressed it roughly against his throat. “Stop hurting him or I will slit your throat!” I shouted. Where was Mara?! Had she really not heard?
The man was suddenly grabbing my arm and twisting it in so that my back was up against him and I felt like my arm was going to break. This was meant to make me drop the knife…but I hung on for dear life – literally.
I managed to wriggle out of his grasp and spin away from him. Turning, I jabbed the knife toward him…
He made a sort of choking sound, looking down at his stomach. I felt like throwing up as I saw the knife protruding from it…
He fell to the ground, convulsing for a few moments before his eyes rolled back and he died.
I had just killed someone.
So what? He deserved it! He was going to kill Adan! my mind screamed at me.
Suddenly the front door of the cabin flew open. I bit back a scream, instead hurriedly going to stand in front of Adan, who lay clutching his ribs and moaning on the floor, and pointing my hand at the intruder.
“Come a step closer and I will roast you alive,” I said in a low, threatening voice…but it was also a trembling voice. I was in so much and I was so shaken up…if this person did prove to be an enemy I wasn’t sure I could go through a struggle like that again.
“Aaleyah?” a familiar voice said.
I nearly fainted at the sound of it.
“Japheth!” I cried.
Suddenly Mara walked into the room, somehow managing to carry both Aiah and Ari in her arms. “I-I heard what was going on out here, but I couldn’t help,” she said. “There was a man in your room too – he must have climbed through the window – he was standing over the babies when I turned around, thinking I had heard something…he was going to…to kill…” She couldn’t finish.
Japheth in the meantime had gone to his son, picking him up and sticking him on the cot near the fire. The man who had nearly killed him lay on the floor, his blood gushing everywhere. I felt so sick at the sight and smell of death…
Suddenly my heart skipped a beat. “Tess and Janai!” I exclaimed. I rushed through the cabin, throwing open the door to the room they had been sleeping in.
I was able to breathe normally when I saw both of them still sleeping, completely unperturbed by anything.
Someone entered the room from behind me, and I jumped, startled. Turning, I found Aaliyah, of all people, standing there. “Shastara and I came to help you two out – we knew it couldn’t be easy with the babies. Thankfully we left Ilana and Kai with friends…they didn’t have to see…see what’s out in the other room. Shastara’s tending to Adan now,” she said, speaking in a surprisingly calm voice. This was what I needed – someone to just calm me down right now.
“Thank you so much, Aaliyah!” I said, stumbling over to her and putting my arms around her. “I don’t know what I would do without you!”
Suddenly I stepped back from her embrace. “Adan…I need to go to him!” I exclaimed. “Will you please stay in here with them…just in case there are more…men…hiding…”
“I’ll stay in here,” she said softly. While I couldn’t believe Tess and Janai were still asleep, my heart was singing for joy. “Send Mara and the babies in too – it will be easier that way.”
“Alright,” I said. What I really needed – and Aaliyah and I both knew this – was to lie down. My back and arm were screaming in pain, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay on my feet.
“And Aaleyah,” Aaliyah said. “Make sure you sit down for a bit…please.”
“I will,” I said wearily, trudging – while at the same time unable to go any faster – from the room.
I sent Mara and the babies back to the room where Aaliyah was before pulling up a chair and sitting down next to Adan. Shastara had already done his best for him…from here on Adan’s body was just going to have to heal itself.
I sat holding his hand and stroking it. Don’t die, Adan, I thought. Don’t leave me this soon after getting back…don’t leave me at all.
He was asleep now, and Shastara came over to me, leaning down and hugging me gently. “Aaleyah…I’m so sorry about all of this,” he said softly. He and Japheth had taken the bodies out already, and wiped up some of the blood on the floor…but most of it was still there.
He then tried to heal both my back and my arm again – trying especially hard on my back because the surface wound had reopened in my struggle with that man. His efforts did help the pain a little bit, but I knew it probably wasn’t really going to go away for quite some time.
“Is Adan…is Adan going to…make it?” I asked quietly, struggling not to burst into tears.
“Yes,” Shastara said firmly. “He’s as tough as a bull – he’ll be fine, Aaleyah. Don’t you worry about that.”
I sighed. “Alright,” I said.
“And what you need to do right now is lie down,” Shastara said. “Although there is something I need to tell you first.”
“What is it?” I asked, worried.
“That man that you killed…he wasn’t a man, Aaleyah. He was some spawn of the sorcerer’s, made to look like a man until he died. He was rather like a messenger…just one who had form and was able to morph into different things – like a weak human in need of shelter. He changed back a few minutes after you killed him. He was black and didn’t have a face…but he was shaped rather like a man. Not that it matters. The point is, if he wasn’t acting very human-like that was probably why,” Shastara said.
“That makes sense,” I said. “When Adan asked him his name, he had to invent one. When he asked how long the man had gone without food and shelter, he said four weeks – four weeks without a sip of water or a bite of food. Maybe you could go four weeks without food, but certainly not water. And he was also on the side of the Dark, saying Kiria should just side with the Dark – saying it would give us power and comfort…freedom, I suppose. We thought something seemed strange about him.” I shuddered.
Shastara squeezed my shoulder. “Well, it’s all over now. That…thing…was probably on a mission to kill all of you…but he failed, Aaleyah. He failed. You’re safe,” he said encouragingly. “Now, while Japheth and I keep watch for a bit, you need to go rest.”
“But I have to be here when he wakes up,” I said, looking at Adan. My eyelids felt heavy though, and I knew I couldn’t stay awake much longer. Usually being healed by a healer tended to make you sleepy, and Shastara’s healing was doing that to me. It was strange, but that was how it was.
“No, you have to be awake and rested when he wakes up,” Shastara said. “Both of which you currently are not. Now, go on. I’ll stay with him.”
Japheth came back out then, having just comforted his wife for a bit. His face was haggard and grim, and I knew he must feel guilty for not having known was going on inside the cabin while he was just out in the barn.
“Don’t feel guilty, Japheth – it’s not your fault,” I said, standing slightly on the tips of my toes so I could kiss his cheek. “It’s no one’s fault by the sorcerer’s. He’s behind this.”
“Thank you, Aaleyah,” Japheth said softly, and I knew my assumption had been correct. He had been feeling guilty. “Now, you’re going to rest aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m going to go rest now,” I said. “Right after I do something.” I went back to Adan and cautiously leaned down so I could kiss his forehead. “I love you, Adan…I’ll be back in a little while,” I whispered as if he could hear me.
Then I went to Mara and Japheth’s room, where Mara, Aaliyah, and all the children were. I lay down on the bed between Tess and Janai and was soon asleep, utterly shaken and exhausted.
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