Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce's characters.

After the war was over, Keladry of Mindelan, Nealan of Queenscove, Merric of Hollyrose, Tobeis Boon, and Domitan of Masbolle's squad from third company were riding to Corus. They were no longer needed at New Hope so the King requested them to return to the palace.

Keladry, known as Kel to her friends, was thinking about if any of her old friends have changed. Most of the knights from her page years were returning from the border. Seaver of Tasride, Faleron of Kings Reach, Owen of Jesslaw - a green knight -, Prosper of Tameran, and even Roald of Conte. Cleon of Kennan and Esmond of Nicoline were the only ones not to make it because Cleon was still helping repair his fief, and Esmond was off roaming Tortall's allies.

Kel noticed someone was calling her name so she turned her head head to be meet a blue eyed sergeant. A year ago she would of been excited to be riding with him. Now, it was just annoying. She lost her attraction for him when she met him at Fort Steadfast for Raoul's wedding. He gave her a lot of attention. But not the kind she wanted.

Apparently Sir Raoul of Golden Lake and Malorie's Peak had a very pretty neice. In fact she was completely beautiful. Well, in Dom's head at least she was the 'sole core of the world's beauty'. He fell head over heals in love with her. And so he decided to share how much he admires her to Kel. In poem.

Kel thought Neal was annoying with weekly infatuations and daily poems. And Neal's poems were just bad. But Dom's poems were completely horrible. They sounded ok at first, but after the twentieth one about how she laughs makes them all sound terrible. Kel had had begun to get dreams about different ways for shutting him up on the second night. All of them having to do with harming him.

Lucky for him, she valued his friendship. Although she did help Neal and Wolset out once by distracting Dom so they could put some kind of potion that made it so he couldn't speak for a week. But that just made it so when the week was over he had 10 times as many poems ready to recite.

Later they found out that she liked him too so they started courting. Kel was estastic thinking he'd stop with the poems. She was almost right. He only recited them when he was away from his 'Tortall Blossom' - he stole it from Neal but denies it -.

As they ride to Corus he just continues to recite his poems, while she tries to ignore them. It works out for her until he asks her a question, and then when she doesn't answer he starts to wonder if she's even listening.

"Oh, hi Dom. What did you say?" Kel replies after he caught her attention.

Dom, looking quite flustered at being annoyed, replied "I said, do you think these two lines rhyme?:

Her beauty is greater than solar,

She's so slim I want to roll her."

Kel almost fell off her horse laughing. She was already clutching her stomache and small snorts were coming out every minute into her laugh. After she finally composed herself she turned to look at him but found that he was riding behind with his face held down.

In one moment her face turned from one that has been laughing for ten minutes to one of mere pity. Sure, his poetry stinks, but he's just trying to show his admiration. So she did what the caring part of herself told her to do, she slowed Hoshi into a trot until she was right next to him.

"Dom, I'm sorry about laughing."

Dom looked at her with a sheepish grin. "It's ok. I would of too if I had to listen to someone who writes poetry as bad as me." Dom finished the sentence with his bottom lip sticking out and pouting.

"Your poetry's not that bad..."

At that Dom perked up. "So will you tell me how you like these new poems?"

"I'm so-" Dom drooped low as he knew what she was going to say next. Kel knew she'd regret it later, but she already made him feel bad by laughing. "I'd love to."

Dom could of jumped ten feet in the air if wasn't on his horse. "Okay, this first one's called 'Toenails'."

"Her toenails are so curvy,

Two together look like a w so they are wurvy,

The sunlight makes them all shiny,

And little kids stop to stare even if the were being whinny,

She has five toenails on each foot,

I hate it when they're wearing a boot-"

"Boot doesn't ryme with foot." Kel interrupted. Although his poetry stunk she had on a straight face.

"Oh, yeah. Better change that."

"She has five toenails on each foot,

I hate it when she wears soot,"

"That better?"

"mmhmm." Kel was pressing her lips together so she didn't start laughing again.

"They're all-"

"Icky and gross. Now let's go Kel. I can see Corus over the hill." Neal interrupted, in a hurry to see his Yamani Blossom.

Kel, seeing that Dom was too busy glowering at his cousin to notice her, rode ahead to go check if Neal was right. After commanding the group into faster pace she went to ride next to him.

"Looking forward to seeing Yuki?" Kel asked. As Neal nodded a little over enthusiastically she continued. "Do you want to race?"

"Yes. On the count of three. One... Tw- Hey!" Kel had already began and was racing toward Corus, followed shortly after by a Knight who looked like he had just been cheated.

When they reached Corus, Kel obviously in front with a solemn Neal behind her, they identified themselves and were let in by the guards. They then continued on their way to the palace where they were again had to go through guards.

Even though the war was over the king still didn't trust the Scanrans. So there are more guards at every fief, fort, and refugee camp.

When they got to the stables Kel dismounted Hoshi and was heading toward his stall when she heard someone shout "Kel!". When she turned to see who was calling her she saw four of her knight friends heading for her.

When they were in front of she heard a "Jolly to see you Kel." from Owen before being squashed into one of his huge hugs. While he was hugging her he was saying "I'm a jolly knight Kel! Can you believe it?"

She pulled away so she'd be able to answer. "Yeah, I can. So, is being a knight as jolly as you thought it would be?"

"It's even jollier!" With that said Owen backed away so the others could greet her too.

Seaver put out out his hand for her to shake then thought better of it a gave her a one-armed hug. "Glad to see you survived Neal's poems."

"It wasn't Neal's I had to deal with. You don't want to be around Dom when he's in love."

"I heard that!" shouted Dom who was brushing his horse in a stall.

Over with Seaver's greeting, she turned to Roald. Slightly unsure of what to do, she held out her hand for him. When he took it she said "Nice to see your Highness is still alive with Shinko's pregnancy."

He pulled her in so they were grabbing forearms, then told her "It's Roald to my friends. And I barely missed the shusuken she threw at me last week."

With a small laugh Roald and Kel let go of each other. She then turned to face the last of her friends that has come to greet her. Looking up at Faleron she noticed that he is a lot more handsome than he was as a page. Even as a squire.

They stood there for a couple moments. Kel getting use to Fal's looks, and Fal was looking nervous like he was being introduced to the new court beauty. Without them noticing, the three other knights sneaked off somewhere to give them some privacy. Obviously knowing something that Kel didn't know.

After about a minute Fal finally got up the courage to speak. "It's nice to see you Kel." He then moved to hug her, but tripped over his own feet in his nervousness.

He fell right into Kel so that when they had fallen her body was pinned down under Fal's. When Fal recovered, he looked down to see Kel blushing slightly. Then he saw that she was blushing at their chests smashed together and blushed himself.

He put his hands on each side of her and pushed himself up so that his chest was off of hers.

"Nice to see you too Fal. But as much as I'd love lay on the stable floor all day with you on top of me, I have to tend to my horse." Kel said, noticing the blush that covered Fal's face.

As Fal rolled off of her he muttered an "I'm Sorry". He then stood up and held out a hand for her. she took it and he pulled her up into a hug.

"I really did miss you Kel." Fal whispered in her ear in a way that Kel thought only a reunited lover would use.

When they released Kel was going to return to Hoshi when she saw her saddle bags by her side and Hoshi in his stall with Tobe brushing him. Fal saw this too and asked if he could escort her to her rooms. She accepted and he took her saddle bags and they walked side by side to Kel's room.