Hey. A new fantasy story. I'm still writing I was a Princess too. Too much time on my hands :) enjoy.

Night time in the walled town of Eloria. Good citizens were wrapped up snug in their beds. Less well behaved ones were in their local speak-easy. One such illegal tavern was well hidden in the back of a stable. The street outside was dark and silent. A rat scuttled away as a door was opened suddenly. Raucous music and light reached the rain-slick cobbles.

"And come back when you have coin you pair of thoara!" The noise stopped with a door slam. Two men stumbled out onto the street. The shorter one looked crookedly up at his friend. "Whass a thoara?", he slurred. The other shrugged. "Who knows." The tall one had dark hair and eyes. He wore all black and normally would have been affecting an air of distance if he wasn't swaying so.

"Rob?" He shook his dark hair to focus. "Are you OK man?" Rob was currently doubled over a horse trough. He stood, wiped his mouth and pushed his short blonde hair off his face. "Oh .That stuff was evil. Wha was it?" He got no reply. "Dave ?Hello!" Dave hushed him with a wave of his hand. He was listening intently to a sound nearby. It seemed like running feet. "Oh shit!" he said. "Its the fuzz!" He grabbed his friend by the back of his shirt and dragged him around a corner.

A few seconds later a green cloaked figure raced around too. It hesitated when it saw them. They saw a flash of brown hair and eyes before it ran off. Dave glanced at his companion. "Did that person look familiar to you?" Rob shrugged. He was paying more attention to the advancing racing footsteps. "Who cares! Lets get outta here."

A few minutes later they careened about the slippery streets followed closely by the patrollers. "What's the penalty for drinking hooch?", Rob gasped. "Tongue cut-off." Dave glanced behind and increased speed. "But its OK, the penalty for breaking curfew is beheading. You won't miss your tongue much."

They gained a little distance only to run face first into a wall. THE wall.

"How the hell do we get outta this town!" A rope hit Rob in the face. He jumped and looked up. The cloaked figure was on top of the wall.

"Grab on!" She said. Rob wasted no time. With help from Dave he scrambled up the stonework. He sprawled panting on the narrow wall-top. The cloaked woman heaved Dave up. Rob reached down and aided Dave up the final few inches. Dave rubbed his head wincing. "Thanks," he snapped. Both turned to their rescuer. "Where've you been?" She said lightly, and grinned at their astonished faces. "What ?Forgotten me already?!" "Kate?!" Rob gaped. She winked and spun on her heels. She ran along the wall, keeping low. "Come on!" she hissed over her shoulder. They moved with a start and stumbled after her.

Kate glanced behind and stifled a laugh. Those two were exactly the same as always. It had been months since she had seen them last. She knew she had changed. She reached the rope ladder and waited for the two of them. Dave reached her first. She pointed down.

"Ladder." Dave climbed it easily, while Rob made it half way before tumbling down the rest of the way. Kate sped down it next and folded it up. "Follow me." She strode across the grass to the edge of the forest. "The patrollers won't bother to follow us in here."

Dave and Rob walked, a little nervously, behind her. "She's come over all native." Rob confided in a whisper; taking in the short sword at her side, the soft brown leather trousers she wore with boots laced to her knees, and the green cotton shirt she wore under her cloak. Dave glanced at Rob's trousers: he still wore the jeans he had been wearing when they first came here.

"Hmmm."

Ahead, Kate was slashing at tangling brambles. She climbed over them and entered the forest. She deftly swung on a vine over a fallen tree. She glanced back at the boys. They were watching open-mouthed. Grinning, she continued on. Kate knew she was showing off, but she didn't mind.

Behind her they were making so much crashing noise. She hoped feverently that there were no arachnids nearby. Kate ducked under a low hanging branch- that was one benefit of being shorter than everyone else, she thought. And she had lost a lot of weight since she had seen the 'boys' last. That came from living on the run for months. She had lost count of the times she had eaten Lenna's tasteless rations and slept under the stars.

"Ow!" she muttered and untangled her hair from a branch. She hoped they hadn't seen that. Her hair was braided and reached all the way down her back. She hadn't cut it since she had got her. Here, being Meddia. She glanced back. Dave and Rob were slowly making their way behind her. She quirked her soft mouth and continued walking. Her chin was pointed and her eyes large: which would have given her a mystic look in the moonlight if not for the light dusting of freckles over her nose and the cheeky grin she wore all too often.

Kate thought of herself as brave- Corbin said she was foolhardy. She believed herself to be mature and even-tempered: Lenna had bore witness to Kate's temper many times (Usually when someone had pointed out something less-than-wise that Kate had done). Kate admitted she was stubborn. No one disagreed.

At the moment she was having trouble finding Corbin and Lenna. Lenna, as usual, would have bespelled the campsite, and of course that meant that Kate couldn't see it. She was probably right beside it now. Suddenly she realised something and spun around to give a warning. She was too late.

Dave and Rob both had swords at their throats. They looked at Kate terrified. She sighed. "Guys !I brought them! Let them go!" Corbin and Lenna stared at them. "You brought these ...Thoara here?!" Corbin glared at her over Robs shoulder. "There's that word again." Rob muttered.

Kate sniggered. It was fitting...they were a pair of drunken clowns. The grip on Robs throat tightened. "Are you being funny boy?" Corbin said in his gravely voice. Rob shook his head rapidly, then froze when he remembered the sword. Lenna turned her large green eyes to Kate.

'Do you really know these?' She asked in mind-speak.

Kate nodded and said aloud. "They're from my world."

Lenna took her sword away from Dave and bowed apologetically. She was as tall as he was with a hint of green in her brown skin. Her hair was cropped short showing the delicate points at the tips of her ears. She sheathed her sword at her slim side and stepped back. She ignored Dave's bemused stare at her beautiful face and glanced amused at Kate.

'Is this young human a friend of yours,' she said only to Kate.

Kate grinned and half-shrugged. 'I went to college with him...'

Corbin was less likely to give up a good fight.

"You know what we do to intruders here?" he said menacingly.

With a glance at Robs white face, Kate decided enough was enough. "Corbin !Leave it!"

With one last glance at the younger man, Corbin turned his blue eyes to Kate and sheathed his sword. He was about Robs height, but stockier. His black hair was jaggedly cut with a few small plaits at uneven intervals. He narrowed his eyes.

"Where the hells where you?!" She folded her arms crossly. "I was out getting firewood."

"Then where the frick is the wood?!" he said marching over the fallen leaves to her. "I was rescuing them from the patrollers!"

"I'm not going to ask what you were doing over the wall," he said slinging an arm around her in a brief greeting. Lenna walked over and gave her a warmer hug. "What were you doing over the wall?" She asked with a slight grin, "We were about to go search for you."

"I was just teasing the patrollers," she lied, and looked at Rob and Dave.

"Come on, lets get to camp."

Lenna and Corbin exchanged glances and followed them.

The moon was higher in the sky now, and a chill wind was whipping up dark feathery clouds. Everyone sat as near to the fire as possible, hunched up against the wind. Kate sat wrapped in her green cloak, her plait around her neck like a scarf. Corbin was staring into the fire moodily, the flame's dancing reflection on his face.

Lenna glanced occasionally at the newcomers, who sat nervously on the other side of the fire. Rob was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

"So what have you been doing since you came to Meddia?" Kate asked curiously.

"Discovering a new world of alcohol." Rob said with his eyes closed.

"For four months?!"

Rob looked at Dave," Pretty much," he said.

Lenna shook her head slowly, while Corbin nodded approvingly.

Dave added, not wanting to look like such a waster. "We worked in a few stables, did some odd jobs, travelled a bit, spent some time in gaol in Seria..."

Rob's head snapped up,"What did you do Kate?"

She shrugged. "Um, I wandered around a bit, got a few jobs, found these two and been wandering around with them ever since."

"That's much more interesting," Rob said sarcastically.

"Mmmm hmmm." Kate feigned disinterest (She knew she couldn't win this argument)

Lenna slapped her thighs. "I'm sealing up the camp now. Once its sealed, no one can leave, so if you two boys want to use the latrine, do it now."

They both stood and trooped in the direction Lenna pointed in. They left the clearing and entered the forest.

Cries reached their ears. "But its just a hole in the ground!"

Kate snickered.

Corbin yelled out to them." Use it, ladies!" He glanced sideways at Kate.

"Why did you bring them? Are we taking them with us now?"

She shrugged. "I suppose we should. After all they'd be just as interested in it as me. We all want to go home."

Corbin sighed. "Great .Maybe we can tie them to the back of the wagon."

Kate made a face and stood up. She kicked off her boots, belt and sword and unrolled her bedroll. She wrapped herself in her blanket and closed her eyes. Corbin met Lenna's eyes.

"Coincidence, huh?" He prodded down the fire with his boot. Lenna stared into the trees and sighed. "No such thing."