Jillian'n heart was beating so fast, she felt that everyone could hear it. She swallowed hard. Her throat seemed to have stopped working.

Robinson stepped forward. He was still a bit pale from reccently being transformed but held a dangerous expression and his gleaming sword aloft. "Who are you?" he demanded, pointing his sword at Alayla.

The leader of the nymphs laughed coldly. "I'm the last thing you are going to see before we end your miserable life, mortal! If it were me, I would show my superior with a bit more respect!"

The captian swelled with anger. "Superior!?" But Alayla had turned her gaze onto Sandi, who had let out a noise of protest.

"Stay out of this, Sandi," Alayla snarled. "You have already casued enough trouble. Consider yourself lucky that I won't banish you....yet." Sandi was still kneeling on the ground, shaking all over.

She moistened her lips and raised her head. "Yes, sister," she whisphered meekly.

Jillian tried to think but panic was surging through her. The pirates were prepared to fight, she could see that, but these nymphs were highly skilled warriors. She was afraid what would happen if they lost. These girls were not against killing. Her magic. Could she use her magic to let them get away? The last time, she was quickly overpowered but it was a chance.

Rosie was standing next to her. She leaned over and was about to whispher her plan when to her surprise, Sandi stood up. The young nymph stood tall and strong between her sister and the pirates. Jillian could see her hands shaking. "No," the nymph said in a low voice. "I will not let you harm them."

Alayla's eyes widened, then contracted in anger into a twisted sneer. Somehow, it made her less beautiful. "You don't mean that, " she hissed, her eyes flashing. "You would rather side with these mortal fools and a failure of an enchantress?"

Jillian's face burned bright red with fury and shame. The pirates shouted their protest at these words and they advanced closer. The surrounding nymphs tightened their grips on their weapons.

"Stop." Sandi's voice was still quiet, but it carried power. "Sister, you are a strong ruler that wishes to uphold our most sacred beilefs, but they have blinded you from the other parts of life, such as compassion and understanding."

The nymphs began whisphering to one another. The pirates warily wacthed this unfold. Rosie leaned over. "What do we do?"

Jillian had no idea. "Ummmm..."

Robinson answered for her. "We need to wait for the right moment to escape. If we fight, I don't like out odds."

Sparky scratched his head. "This sounds like a family problem. We could just go-umph!" Eye-Eye and Smalls both punched him in the stomach to shut him up. Luckily none of the nymphs noticed.

"You dare question me?" Alayla was saying, her voice dangerous. Her eyes falshed and her dark hair began whipping around her face, though there was no wind.

"Yes," Sandi replied hotly, her hair and eyes doing the same. "And I will tell you this: I believe in love and I have found it!"

All the pirates looked at Eye-Eye, who flushed but he kept his gaze on Sandi.

If it was possible for Alayla to look any angrier, now was the time. "TRAITOR!" She swung her spear at Sandi, who was unarmed.

Eye-Eye yelled, "Catch!", and threw her his dagger. Sandi caught it with one swift stroke and caught the shaft of the spear with the blade. The two nymphs were nose to nose and it was hard to tell who wanted to end the other more.

"GO!" Robinson bellowed. The pirates and Jillian jumped and ran for it. It took a moment for the other nymphs to get over their shock but they quickly took up the chase.

Jillian crashed through brushes and branches and lept over logs. She could see the pirates sprinting ahead of her as she fell behind, still a bit weak form her imprisonnment. She ducked behind a tree and saw flashes of gold and green light emitting from where Sandi and Alayla battled. With a twinge of fear, she hoped the young nymph would be alright.

Robinson appeared out of nowhere. "Come on!" Jillian snapped out of her mind and continued running. They caught up with the others who were trying to catch thier breath. "The trees!" Smalls gasped, clutching his side. In the distance, Jilliancould see the trees shaking slightly as the nymphs lept form one to another, like squirrels. She saw a familiar auburn-haired nymph, rasie her crossbow and take aim.

"DUCK!" she screamed, shooting a blash of icy magic at the oncomming arrow. It intercepted it and she saw it spinning towards the ground, encased in a block of ice. Jillian aimed for a tree branch that the nymphs were about to land on and coated it with ice. The girls slipped with shrieks but more kept coming. Damara raised her crossbow again but Jillian sent a blast that knocked it out of her hands.

The nymph screamed something but it was lost as a BOOM! sounded. Even being so far away, Jillian had to sheild her eyes as an enormous blast of green light shot into the air, from where the sisters had been fighting.

"Alayla!" Damara shouted. She and the others turned on their heels and ran to the aid of their leader. In a moment, they were gone.

Jillian nearly collapsed in relief, breathing hard. "Good work, men," Robinson said. "And women."

"Do you think Sandi will be okay?" Jillian aksed worriedly. "What did that green light mean? We should go back and help her!" She stood up, ready to go.

"Even if she did win," Boulder said, in his rumbling voice, "we can't go back and check. Its too dangerous."

Jillian knew he was right, but was still a bit angry. As they caught their breath, Sparky stared at Eye-Eye curiously. "Now what are you going to do without your dagger? Why did you give it to her?" He made it sound as if giving a weapon away was breaking a pirate law as he glared at him.

"So what if I did?" The first mate snapped, turning red. "It saved that nymph's life and let us all escape. I don't see why its bothering you so much." He looked away.

Robinson glaced back and forth at the two, as if wondering who was going to fight first. "Lay off him, Sparky," he said sternly.

Jillian spoke up. "It was the right thing to do. You an always get another one."

"It was either very smart or very idiotic but it saved our necks in the end, so lets just drop it."

Eye-Eye smiled but still looked uncomfortable. Sparky looked like he wanted to punch someone.

Rosie had not said anything for quite sometime until now. He stood up. "Now what are we going to do?" he asked moodily. "We don't have the horses anymore."

"We can just walk," Jillian answered, trying to keep things light. "It won't kill us."

Rosie's expression became stonier. "No, I mean all my maps were in my horse's saddlebags. I have no idea where we are or anything else is."