This is a new story… I decided not to continue Kalica, I started writing that one a few years ago and my writing has grown since then. It would be hard to continue that story, so I started a new one.
A black-haired, nine year old streaked through the palace. Bare-footed, she ran with the wide strides of someone who was trained how to run. Her sarong hitched up so that the bottom, which normally hit mid-calf, was at mid-thigh. She laughed when a group of luarin nobles pressed themselves against the wall to get out of her way, they yelled after her to slow down and walk like a lady.
The girl slipped behind a tapestry. The hidden passage behind it led to her rooms. She had her own bedroom, walk-in closet, sitting area, study and bathroom. When she had turned seven Queen Dove had given the girl the rooms, before she had had a room connected to her parents'.
The sitting area was painted tan with two black leather sofas arranged around a fire place with three matching cushy chairs. Bookshelves lined two of the four walls. The third wall was painted with different forest and animals, from the smallest of the winged-horses to the biggest of the bears. They looked real enough to be real. And if you watched very carefully you could see kits rolling in the shadows, a mother bear leading her cubs threw the trees, and a herd of winged-horses grazing near the lake. Things were rarely the same from day to day.
Off of the sitting room was her bed room. The walls were made from a wood so light that it was almost white; it also had gold vine-like designs. The bed was made from a black wood and had silver and sapphire sheets and quilt on it. A robe hung next the bed. One wall held a huge weapons rack. The rack had many different weapons on it; a short blue tinged sword with a sapphire in the hilt hung from two hooks above a long black sword with royal blue patterns on the blade also with a sapphire in the hilt, which in turn, lay above a plain looking medium length sword with a brown hilt and no jewels in it, and at least fifty different daggers of all shapes and sizes and different designs in their hilts from jewel incrusted to plain as can be hung in their sheaths in straight lines. Also there were four different bows from all over the world; a Yamani bow that was made from a cherry sapling was a beautiful red color, a traditional short bow of a dark wood, a long bow of a light colored wood, a bow made of a special horn that was soaked first in a special potion then enchanted so it would be flexible but very strong, and the last bow looked very delicate and precious, and it was, the girl had made it by herself with her magic. They too lay on two hooks each in a straight up and down line. Matching quivers hung next to them. A naginata or glaive that was as beautiful as it was deadly lay on three hooks, also a 'seemingly' innocent staff lay next to it, 'seemingly' being the keyword because when twisted in the middle two one foot blades extended from the handle.
A chest of drawers sat beneath the weapons rack, in it there was the quivers that matched the bows above it and different bow strings of varying strengths that were organized in their own box that were numbered, the higher the number the stronger the string. Sheaths for daggers that could be placed anywhere on the body sat in a different drawer, all organized in a way that only the girl could figure out which sheath matched which dagger and spot on her body. The last drawer held all the different cleaning and sharpening materials needed.
The closet sat between her bed and weapons rack. In the closet there were many clothes. Dresses, shirts, and trousers from Tortall, and a few different styled burnooses. Tight and loose fitting kimonos and menswear from the Yamani Islands and different covers for her shukusens, the deadly fans that the ladies carry. Flowing dresses and menswear from Carthak and many other designs from the surrounding countries.
The bathroom was behind the closet so to get to the bathroom you had to walk through the closet. It had a bathtub that was built into the floor. The vanity with a small tub sitting on it for washing hands sat in the corner with a towel warmer next to it. The room was a blue color and had paintings of fish and oceans on every wall.
Back to the girl, she raced through her bedroom to her closet and pulled trunks out from beneath the hanging clothes in there. The clothes were sorted by what country would wear them and then by gender if there were too many to fit in just one trunk. Then she pulled the six trunks into her bedroom and then grabbed two more trunks. She carefully wrapped up two of her swords and put them in patted wood containers that she placed in the bottom of one of the trunks, but kept the black one out. All of her knives but two wrist blades, two daggers that fit in her boots, a belt knife, a small thin dagger that would fit into a barrette, and a blade that had a long leather cord that would slip under her shirt, were carefully wrapped up and each one was put into it's own patted wood box and stacked up inside the other trunk. There were so many daggers that they got their own trunk. Three of the four bows were put into boxes and packed on top of the swords, the bow that stayed out was the delicate looking one. The three quivers matching the bows were topped and placed on top of the bows, the last quiver was placed on the bed next to its' bow. She carefully picked out one bow string and put it on the bed, the other strings were packed into the trunk over the quivers. Those almost finished filling that trunk. What finished it were the tools used for taking care of all the weapons the girl used. The glaive and double-bladed staff were slid into long tubes that were made of a thick but light bark, the same bark made the top that was put on it. Those were put so that they rested on the tops of both the trunks.
She giggled quietly to herself; her mom had finally agreed to let her go to Tortall and live with her grandmother and namesake, Alanna the Lioness. Alanna the Younger, or Lanna as she was often called, glanced around her room.
AN: I know that this chapter is mostly description but I think it will be necessary for later…I think, not completely sure since I have no clue where this story is going, it seems to be writing itself and I'm just the one that's typing it… and posting it.