It was worse than Jillian could of imagined. She went white with fear. These nymphs did this to her friends? She stepped back fearfully. "Why would you do this?" she demanded furiously.

The nymphs stared at her in puzzlement. Alayla laughed. "Dear girl," she said. "Magic folk do not usually interact with the other sort. Until you told me these were friends of yours, I assumed they had kidnapped you. Ah, well. Shall you come with us to our home?"

Jillian could not belive how little they cared. "No! I can't! I have to find someone! Its very imprtant."

"A quest!" Damara mused. "This sounds highly intriguing."

"Highly false if you ask me," Marilee grumped. She glared daggers at Jillian.

"Who must you find?"

"My brother." The words sounded strange in her mouth. "We have been separated for a long time."

"I see," the leader frowned. "Is he of magical blood?"

It actually hadn't occured to her. But if he caused that blizzard Merko told her about, then it must be. "Yes," she said confidently.

"Exellent!" Alayla beamed. "Then you can bring him here and you both can live with us. We usually only let magical maidens live here, but we have made exceptions over the centuries."

Jillian shook her head. They didn't get it. " I'm not doing that! My friends and I must see the Snow Queen afterwards."

It didn't have the effect she was hoping. The nymphs were now staring at her with murderous expressions. "You work for the Snow Queen?" Marilee thundered.

"That traitor!" Calliah spat.

"Why would you do something like that?" Damara demanded.

Out of the other four nymphs, Sandi was the only one who remained quiet. She stared pitingly at Jillian and then at the pirates.

"The Snow Queen goes against all our sacred oaths," Alayla said sternly. "She is meddling with non-magical rulers, caused a crusade agaisnt magic, and even married a non-magical male. You, Jillian, will stay with us."

Jillian panicked, obviously. As they surrounded her, she sent blasts of icy magic at them, but she was quickly subdued. Damara pinned her dress to the ground with an arrow and Calliah lept on top on her. Now she was being marched through the forest, her wrists bound with vines, farther and farther from her friends. After nearly twenty minutes of walking, they arrived in a large clearing full of hollowed-out trees.

There were about a hundred nymphs walking about and doing many tasks. Some were cooking strange foods over campfires. Others were reaparing and sharpening weapons. Whatever they were doing, the place was bustling with activity. A strange thing she noticed that none of them were older than Alayla, who appeared to be eighteen.

Speaking of the leader of the nymphs, when she came into view, all the girls stopped what they were doing and bowed. She absently waved her hand at them and they resumed their work. As Jillian was dragged by, some gave her a curious look but didn't inquire. She assumed this had happened before and was nothing new. Damara was ordered to take Jillian into a knarled-looking tree. When they were inside, Jillian realized it was their prison. There were roots covering the windows and it was dark and damp.

Jillian was shoved rougly inside. Damara snapped her fingers and the vines slipped off her wrists.

"You will stay in here until you make the right descison," the nymph said coldly. "The tree has been enchanted by Alayla herself so any magic inside won't work. Good day."

She snapped her fingers again and roots covered the entrance like prison bars.

Jillian was at first terrified that the nymphs were going to hurt her, but no torture followed her imprisonment. Every morning Damara or Calliah would come and ask if she was ready to live with them. And every morning she gave the same answer. "No."

After her routine refusals, she was left alone in the tree except for mealtimes, which were small portions of fruit or wheat bread. Her prison was very dark and not much sunlight filtered through. She didn't know how long they would keep her there and the shortage of food and loneliness made Jillian feel as is she would wither away into nothingness.

Her saving grace was, surprisingly, Sandi. Early in the mornings, the young nymph would sneak over to Jillian's prison to talk. Crouching on the other side of the roots, she would slip extra food through and ask Jillian about herself and her past adventures. She seems especially interested in the pirates and would question her about them constantly, to the point that Jillian had to inquire.

"Don't nymphs not like boys?"

"Oh, we like them just fine," Sandi replied, blushing furiously. "But if we marry, we will age, so we usually don't interact with them much." She looked away. "I saw you with your friends when they arrived. They seemed nice. Especially the one with the eye patch. He's cute."

Jillian snorted in surprise. "Eye-Eye?" She guessed he was as nice-looking as guys go, but she never saw him that way.

Sandi was the closest thing Jillian had for a friend at the nymphs' camp. But everytime Jillian mentioned escaping, Sandi would quickly leave. Anxious for company, she stopped bringing it up though she assumed the girl could tell it was never far from her mind.

"How long have I been here, Sandi?" she asked one morning. Her voice came out raspy and weak. She was given plenty of water but was always thirsty.

"A nearly a week."

"What!" Jillian shrieked, sitting upright in her dark prison.

"Shhh!" Sandi's eyes widened fearfully from the other side of the roots as she looked around to see if anyone had awoken. "Its been a long time, Jillian," she said seriously. " There are a few other enchantresses that live here, you know. You will be happy here. I've been taking care of the horses. They can stay here too."

"And I'll leave my friends to crumble away," Jillian said stoutly. She was not about to abandon them, despite how enticing freedom sounded.

Sandi shifted her weight unconfortably. "I know you're upset, but there is nothing I can do. Alayla will banish me or worse if I did anything against her wishes. I will not defy my sister."

Jillian paused and stared into her gold eyes. "Wait, is Alayla actually your sister?"

Sandi nodded mutely. "She is a kind sister, but a stern ruler. I am treated like any other nymph and they would be punished if they disobeyed her. I'm sorry." She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Jillian was running out of options. She had to find a way to convinve Sandi to release her and she had a big card to play. "You have to let me go."

The nymph sighed. "Why won't you let that go? Alayla will never release you."

"But you can. I need to see the Snow Queen because....becuase she is my mother." She waited for a moment in the shocked silence and continued. "I need to find my brother so we can be reunited with her. She is trying to help magical folk and there are some important things I have to do." Jillian decided against mentioning the giants becuase she had no idea if nymphs liked them or not.

"You wouldn't want to keep family apart, would you?" Jillian asked, staring her right in the eyes. She held her breath and waited.

She had won. "I'll help you escape," Sandi said finally, not looking pleased about it one bit.

But Jillian's face split into a wide grin. "Thank you!"

"We'll do it tonight," the girl said, standing to leave, still not smiling. "When everyone is asleep."

It was hard to behave normally when she knew her freedom was coming in a few hours. When her pitiful dinner came, shoved at her by a scowling Marilee, Jillian ate it quickly and waited for darkness to come. She should have slept, but she was too nervous.

When the moon was high in the sky, Sandi slipped over to the knarled prison. Her dark hair framed her pale face. She looked terrified.

Sandi snapped her fingers and the roots covering the door receeded sliently. Jillian took a deep breath and stood up. Her legs were stiff from misuse and she felt incredibly weak. Jillian took a few shaky steps until she found her footing and walked out of the prison. The fresh night air was so refreshing she felt like she stepped into a cool bath. She sighed in relief.

The two girls walked in silence to the campsite. It was pitch black but Sandi seemed to know where they were going. Perhaps nymphs could see in the dark. Before long, they reached the pirates. Seeing them again after so long made Jillian's heart ache.

Robinson, Eye-Eye, Sparky, Smalls, and Boulder were still around the long-gone fire. Roise was curled against the log where he had kept watch all those nights ago. Jillian felt tears pool in her eyes. "Can you bring them back?" she croaked.

Sandi's eyes flashed gold momentarily and she snapped her fingers six times. A wooshing sound filled the clearing and Jillian knelt next to the pirates to see if anything would happen.

And something did. The sound of breathing filled the air as six pairs of lungs started working again. Gradually, like ice melting, the stone figures began softening into flesh. The pirates shifted as they began to move once more. Robinson groaned weakly as he struggled to open his eyes that were still partially made of stone.

Jillian rushed over to comfort him. "Its okay," she whisphered softly. She watched as his hair turned blond and soft again. His eyes finally opened and he seemed not to know her or where he was. He tried to speak but he just spluttered incoherently.

"Its me, Jillian," she said softly, touching his arm.

"Jill...?"

The others were not doing so well either. Half of Rosie's body was still stone and he could hardly move. Sparky had patches of stone on his face, lincluding one over his left eye. He shouted that he couldn't see and Jillian went over to comfort him. "Its going to be alright," she told him soothingly.

She looked over and saw Sandi stroking Eye-Eye's forehead tenderly with a gentle expression as he let out moans of relief as he was able to strech his stiff limbs.

In a few minutes, the pirates were fully alive again and aware of their surroundings.

It took a bit of time for them to comprehend what had happened. They gave out shouts of outrage as they learned what had become of her during their time as stone.

Smalls said some very unkind things about nymphs that made Jillian's hair stand on end. "It wasn't just me," she said loudly. She turned to Sandi, who had retreated into the shadows after they had gained full consciencness. She beckoned to her and the nymph stepped out to where they could see her.

"Sandi helped me. She reversed the spell."

The gold-eyed girl blushed bright red and stared at the ground shyly. Jillian suspected it was partially because of the fact Eye-Eye was smiling at her.

Robinson cleared his throat. "We must leave quickly before the other nymphs find out you're gone."

"Too late," said an all-too familiar voice.

Jillian felt a flash of fear shoot through her stomach. Sandi let out a squeak of terror and fell to her knees, trembling. The pirates whireld around, holding their weapons ready. Alayla and the all of the nymphs, by the looks of it, had surrounded the group on all sides. They were all armed and looked mutinous.

The leader's eyes glowed gold. "Well, well, well. Aren't we in deep trouble?"