Chat room adventures

"Alice," Lionel said a smug grin on his face. All the color fled from Alice's face and she felt like she was going to throw up. Abruptly she freed herself from Scipio and ran behind a tree, where she abruptly lost her lunch.

Scipio followed her and pulled her hair back from behind her face. "Are you okay?"

Alice leaned back against the tree and shook her head, "no."

"What's wrong?" he asked, "are you ill?"

"Don't do it," she begged, "Don't joust with him."

he leaned back a little bit, "why not?"

Tears built in her eyes, "I just want to be as far away from Lionel as possible. Please, lets leave before the joust."

"What has he done?"

"Nothing," Alice lied, "I just don't like him."

"Okay then," Scipio agreed, guiding her back to the picnic blanket with a steady arm around her waist. There he sat her down and took one of the serviettes from the basket.

"Here, clean your mouth and have a drink. That should help."

"Is she okay?" Lionel asked, his voice leaking concern.

"She's fine," Scipio informed him, "but we must be on the way."

"On the way? Why the sudden haste?" Lionel demanded as Scipio began to pack away the food and plates.

"We miscalculated how long the journey will take by a whole day. I just realised," Scipio replied lamely.

"Oh. Well then you must be on your way. Come back with me and I'll get you supplies for the journey. It's the least I can do after delaying you so long and then you will not have to pause along the road to perform."

"No, that wont be necessary," Alice said.

"I insist," Lionel replied, taking them both firmly by the hand and leading them back.

Alice's stomach recoiled at the feeling of his skin against hers, and she felt as if she had anything left in her stomach that she would lose it. Somehow she managed to free herself from his grasp and went back to Scipio, who had also freed himself.

"Are you sure you cannot stay another night?" Lionel asked.

"Absoloutely postive," Alice assured. "We must make all haste, and leave immeadiatly."

"At least stay until you are better," Lionel begged. "In fact, I will not hear of you leaving until your color has returned."

"I am fine Lionel, I can assure you of that."

Lionel, looking rather forlorn, remained silent after that until they had reached his home at which point he led them up to Scipio's room where they collected the money they had left there.

"Wait here while I go and have some food brought for you," Lionel instructed, leaving them. And then Scipio heard the key turn in the lock. He hurried across to the door and tugged at the handle to no avail.

"Lionel, let us out!" Scipio shouted.

"Relax, go and sit you down. We shall joust tonight. If you win then you and Alison may take your leave and if you lose, Alison will remain here with me and you will spend the rest of your miserable existence in this room. Until then I bid thee farewell."

"We have to get out!" Alice said. Scipio nodded and took out his sword, already striking at the door.

Alice opened the window looking out, trying to find a way to climb down. But there was nothing, no ways to get down, no hope of excape.

"Maybe I can contact Bella or something! and she can come and get us!" Alice said franticly.

"Does your telepathy work throught time too?"

"I don't know, I've never tried it before."

"I doubt it would."

Alice sighed, "me too. Oh Scipio what are we going to do?"

He wrapped his arms around her, "we'll joust, I'll win, we go."

"But what if you don't win? What if Lionel fights dirty and cheats?" She hugged him "I don't want you to be locked in here forever, and I don't want to have to be any closer to him than necessary."

Scipio hugged back, "we'll figure out something."

"If he wins, I'm going to kill myself," she warned, "I am as serious as he was when he locked us in here."

Scipio drew back, shaking his head violently.

"No you will not. What would Adam and the crew say if I let you do that? Don't fear, Alice, they will come for you no matter what happens."

"For us. They will come for us," Alice corrected.

"Yes, that's what I meant. Now come on, let's make preparations. If I fail, I can create a distraction and you can get out."

"Not without you," Alice protested. Scipio did not reply. Rather he squeezed her shoulder gently and then began to clear an area of the room where he could practice with his sword.

"Just in case something goes wrong," he explained.

Alice didn't like this plan, not at all. She had to figure out something to do. Having no ideas she simply sat down on the bed and

*BELLA! ADAM! SOMEBODY!*

*Alice?* Adam's voice rang in her head and she right out sighed, *oh thank god! where the hell are you?*

*England! sometime in the middle ages! Oh adam please hurry and get us! We're trapped in a room by a psychopath who wants to marry me!*

*well we've got a few problems here ourselves, how long do you have?*

*i don't know, until nightfall here, I don't know how long that is for you.*

*We'll do our best.*

*Good*

Alice opened her eyes and looked at Scipio, "they're going to try to get here before tonight, no promises. But they are coming, which gives me an idea."

Heather!!! its your turn!!!

It is? Heh.

"What idea?" Scipio asked.

"Two plans. The first is we stall. Pretend to be ill or something and then you can't possibly duel tonight."

"Somehow I don't think that would work. In fact, Lionel would be all for fighting me when I'm ill."

"I suppose. Then we have to stay together no matter what. We have to both be in the same place when Adam comes for us," Alice said.

"Agreed and we will be if I win this joust."

"You're not seriously thinking of competing, are you?" Alice began to pace nervously but Scipio placed a firm hand on her shoulder and steered her across to a chair.

"Of course. Why shouldn't I?"

"He has experience! And he'll cheat," Alice protested.

"Well what else can we do?"

"You haven't asked me about part two of the plan yet," Alice said smugly.

"What's part two?"

"Part two includes not jousting. In order to joust you'll need a horse right? As soon as you mount I shall run away, and you follow through a different mount, then we meet up somewhere in the woods and then we're all good."

Scipio smiled, "brillant, I love it. Where should we meet?"

"there's a river in the woods, on the far side of that is a cave, we should meet there."

Scipio leaned back a curious look on his face, "how do you know that?"

Alice shrugged, "i just know that its right."

"Okay."

Alice still fidgeted nervously. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I like you okay? I know I shouldn't but I do, I can't help it!"

"Well of course you like me. Hell, we've been through a lot together," Scipio chuckled.

"No, I mean, I like you," Alice said. Scipio paused, unsure of how to respond.

"That's um... encouraging."

"You don't like me," Alice sighed, deflating visibly.

"No. I mean yes. Yes, I like you but... I don't know if I'm ready yet. I'm not great with girls," Scipio admitted, nervously counting the tapestries on the walls.

"Oh." Scipio turned to see Alice running her fingers across the patterned quilt on the bed, her eyes cast down and her bottom lip trembling just a little. He moved closer and took up her hand and brought it to his mouth so he could kiss her fingers lightly.

"Just give me some time?"

Alice sighed internally but didn't respond. She couldn't tell if she was upset or relieved at what he had said. She wasn't sure how much time she had left, but she wouldn't push him. It wasn't fair for her to do something like that to him, but at least if all went well tomorrow she would have more time.

If she was lost to Lionel, she would hold on her promise and kill herself, she hadn't said she wouldn't. She could only pray that everything would go according to plan, and she would be able to live.

"Darn it!" Adam slammed a fist on the table. Heather who knew where. Or when for that matter. And now the timeline was flipping out again. They had to rescue Alice and Scipio before they destroyed the time and space. "All hands, "Adam called through the comm, "prepare for temporal shift."

The Highwind's shields fluxed with energy as it phased into the future. With a burst of light she made a line for Earth. A new line had formed on the timeline. It was Heather. Wherever she was, it wasn't normal.

"Adam," Bella asked form the doorway, "Are we going to save Heather?"

"Of course we are," Adam held his breath a moment, lost in his own worried thoughts. Wondering what they were doing to Heather. "Once we get Alice and Scipio, We're going for her. Maybe once we're all together we can get some answers."

Scipio

Time seemed to leak out of the room and the two sat in silence, they stood in silence, they paced in silence. In fact they were silent in silence. Every time Scipio thought of something to say and summoned the breath with which to speak, it was swallowed by the void that lay between him and Alice who lay brooding on the bed. Scipio paused in his pacing, to slice the air with his sword and then back two steps and forward again, trying to keep himself actice, trying to prevent his limbs from falling asleep from lack of use. And then he tripped, the sword crashing to the floor and effectively splintering the barrier of silence.

"Are you okay?" Alice demanded, drawn to his side as if she were a moth and he the flame. The dangerous, all consuming fire that would burn her if she got too close and yet he was so elusive, so charming that the temptation was almost worth the consequences.

"Fine," Scipio replied. "I just slipped. Pins and needles." He stood and flexed the joint before resuming his movement around the room but then he reached the window and paused.

"It's so beautiful," he whispered, letting out a soft, rumbling laugh. "I should very much like to be out there exploring. There's so much we could see. Down in the square there will be fire eaters, there will be acrobats and jugglers. In the houses there will be mothers, children, fathers. Out in that field over there, a peasant's working to earn his bread and water..."

Alice joined him at the window placing a comforting arm on his shoulder, "you'll get the chance."

"Not the way things are going," he pointed out.

"You know Adam's storage room? He's bound to have something there that will let you go back."

There was a knock on the door and the sound of a key turning in the lock. Alice's breath caught in her lungs and the room started to swim. She had to grip onto Scipio's shoulders to keep from collapsing.