Okay, so, here is chapter three!. Also an edit. Janner's body is in the Hollows currently. So, just so you know why he won't be mentioned very much anymore...anyways, please enjoy this chap =D

CHAPTER THREE: AN UNEXPECTED GUEST

                Nia and her small group, who had been running for ages, finally stopped. She turned around and looked at everyone with a smile, but then she paled. “Kalmar!”

                A panic ensued over the whole company. “Uncle Artham is gone too,” Leeli said, looking up worriedly into the sky, hoping to see her uncle with Kalmar in his arms above them.

                But she didn’t.

                Nia sank down on a nearby rock. She wrung her hands, unsure what to do. Leelie came and knelt at her mother’s feet, and she laid her head on her mother’s knee. Leeli began to quietly hum something, and Nia closed her eyes and let tears slip down her cheeks.

                Sara and Oskar stood by awkwardly, and eventually Oskar sat on a log, and Sara sat beside him.

                For two hours they sat like that, Nia with her eyes closed and softly crying, Leeli leaning upon her mother and humming, and Sara and Oskar sitting opposite on a log, sending up whispered prayers to the Maker for their safety.

                Finally, Nia opened her eyes. She stroked Leeli’s cheek. “We have to go back and see if we can find them.”

                No one objected, or rather, no one dared to object. Nia stood up; her eyes were still red with tears. Just as she was about to rush everyone up, she heard a branch crack in the forest.

                Everyone froze. They hoped it was Kalmar or Artham, but the step was too heavy for them. They all were terrified. Who or what could be there?

                They did not expect who they saw. Out stumbled a man, a big, burly man, with a wooden peg-leg, a big bushy beard, and two bushy eyebrows drawn down so they nearly covered his eyes.

                Everyone gasped. Nia was the only one with a voice. “Papa!?”

                The man looked up, and his jaw dropped as well. Without another word, Nia rushed forward and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck, and Podo Helmer, who else could it have been, caught her in his arms, and he growled affectionately.

                Leeli burst into tears. She couldn’t help it. She cried and cried, she sat down on the rock, and she buried her sweet little face in her hands.

                Podo put his daughter down, and walked forward towards Leeli. He lifted up her face in his hands, and almost breathlessly the little girl whispered, “Is it really you, Grandpa?”

                Podo smiled, and he hugged the shaking little girl to his chest and said, “Aye, my little lass. It’s me, with a story you will never believe.”

 Hope you all liked it! ArthamFanGirl out .^-^.