Disclaimer: I do not "own" all the people/places/things/ideas/whatever in
this story. Duh. If I did, it wouldn't be in the 'Tamora Pierce' section
would it? What's the ppoint of having it in the Tamora Pierce section if it
has nothing to do with it.
Note: Things in stars * are emphasized words, ~ are book titles, and things
in { } are thoughts. My word program doesn't work with FFN, so italicized
doesn't work. Neither does tab, so I just push enter, move it down a line.
Note: I've only read up to Squire. My local Library doesn't have Lady
Knight yet, so if some facts are off, give me time, I'll probably change
them eventually.
Chapter One: Pirate's Swoop
The stranger looked up at the sky. It was a gray and cloudy evening. It was
cold, too. She hoped they would let her inside. She looked at the building
with her almost-almond shaped lava green eyes. It was just as the thirteen-
year-old girl had pictured it. Suddenly the wind picked up and her emerald
cloak was spayed with salt water from the sea. There was going to be a
storm that night, she could tell it. She looked at the castle again. Now
that the wind was blowing the flags on the towers fanned out, so she could
see them. Kenret frowned, the expression looking strange on her pale face,
for she seemed like one who always smiled. Only one flag was up. It was the
one with a golden key on a brown field. That meant the Lioness was away
again. Oh well. Ken could still ask George. Maybe they just haven't put the
flag up yet. She hoped that was it. She knocked on the door.
A woman answered. " Hello?" the maid asked. This, however, was not how she had expected it, for some reason the girl had always imagined Alanna or George would answer. "Hi." She answered, "May I speak with the Baron, please? It's, sort of important."
"And whom shall I say is calling?", the servant asked. "Just tell him an old friend has come to met him," she said, smiling. The woman disappeared. Shortly after she came back. "He will see you." She said, and beckoned her inside shutting the door behind them. She led Ken to a library with comfy looking chairs and left, shutting the door as she went.
The girl in the cloak let her hood fall so the man could see her better. Her dark wavy hair fell unbound onto and past her narrow shoulders. She looked at the man at the desk. He had broad shoulders that were lighted by the fire from the fireplace and lamps. She could tell he was tall even though he was sitting. His nose was too big for good looks, but he appeared handsome when he smiled because of his twinkling large green hazel eyes. Now she smiled. "Hello George. Is Alanna in residence?" she asked.
"No she's off adventuring," he answered. "Are you a friend of hers? I don't believe we've meet."
"We haven't," she replied. "But I know you well enough all the same. My name is.". She thought for a moment. "Kenret. My name is Kenret. I just." another quick decision, " I was wondering if you could teach me a bit on how to use knives? I know you used them all the time, you know, being an ex- king-of-thieves and all. All I know is where to hide them. {I can tell him when I tell Alanna}, she thought. {It will be easier that way.}
"You're a mighty strange younglin', bein' bold enough to go blurting out accusations like that." He said, not truly denying it. "I don't know of many your age who'd know that about me. I suppose I might teach you a bit. I'm getting out of practice anyway. I just know I'm going to regret this though. Either that or Alanna's going to yell at me. Or both. You said you could hide them well enough, how many knives do you have on you now?"
"Twelve." "I should start telling the guards to search all the strangers that come in my home." The pale girl laughed. "Don't worry, I'll make sure the lioness doesn't yell at you. And I promise you won't regret it. Please?"
"All right, all right. When do you want your first lesson?"
"First, I need a place to stay. Could I pay you rent? And stay here? Just for a while."
"It takes a brave lass to come to a Baron's home and after accusing him of treason, then demand rooms and lessons. Yeah, I suppose you could stay here, for a while, but I'm not certain on how long. Just so long as you behave. And don't be tryin' to kill me in my sleep or anything." He said laughing. "Don't worry, I won't," she assured him. "Besides, you have the Site. I'd probably fail and get caught." She replied, eyes twinkling, much as his did.
"Smart lass. When do you want your first lesson?"
"No time like the present." She replied. He nodded and striped off his boots. Kenret was there for almost three weeks, learning knife and hand-to-hand combat tricks and hints from George. She spent her most time earning her stay, though, for she had run out of money. She was hired on as a stable hand, for they had to fire the last one, he wasn't well enough trained. Ken on the other hand, seemed very well trained in horses and acted as if she had spent plenty of time with them in her relatively short life. She enjoyed her time at Pirate's Swoop. During her afternoons she spent her time with the Baron of Pirate's Swoop and the King's Champion's children. Some of them were close to her age, the oldest being eleven. The day before what would be the last day of her third week, she was in one of many libraries, trying to learn about the history of Tortall. Kenret heard voices outside and in the hall and decided to investigate. When she came out into the hall, through the crowd, and out the front door, she saw between all the warrior horses' that Alanna had returned. {Finally!} She thought. {I was tempted to just tell George, and have him explain it to her.} She went back to her library, waiting for everything to calm down, and was back to her studying, but at magic this time, not history. She never liked history. She didn't even bother trying to talk with Alanna, she knew Alanna was busy and assumed she would be summoned sooner or later. Sure enough, a servant soon told her she had been 'summoned' by George, who was in the Okamura Library. When she had arrived there, Alanna started to say something when she spotted her. "Is that? No of course not." "What?" George asked. "Nothing, she just reminded me of some one I met once." George glanced at Alanna before introduced Kenret to her and her to the other, and explained to Alanna why she was here, or at least as much as *he* knew why she was here. George expected the girl had other motives, and she did. Alanna cocked a slender copper eyebrow at the story, but said nothing. She probably *was* going to chew George's head off later. The girl made her move. "Actually, truth be told, I came to ask Alanna and you, George, about something. I did want to learn knife fighting though. That was fun, thanks." "Oh? What were you going to ask us?" Alanna inquired, speaking over George's 'your welcome' so that it seemed barely audible. "Well, first I think I need to explain some stuff. But don't interrupt me, 'cause I lose my train of thought often enough as it is, so if you stop me, I'll never be able to find it again, most likely. And here's the story that she told, word-for-word: Well, uh, I had normal life, it was pretty cool. Then when I was about ten, oh, and I lived on a horse ranch, a good one, if not a big one. We only had thirteen or so horses. I mean, there were people who have, like, thousands, but they didn't get to spend time with all of them. I would hate that. Just having tons of horses you lend to camps in the summer of whatever. Not cool. But I only have a few, nothing wrong with that, right? At least I know all my horse's names. And I train them, I make sure they're happy. I scoop up their poop. Oh well. Can't have everything. I don't know why not, but you just can't. I was decently popular in school. I had enough friends. Well, actually just a few close ones and a couple of acquaintances that I barely knew the names of. Though that's not unusual. I'm really bad at remembering names. And I think a few of them were only my 'friends' so they could ride horses, 'cause not many places in my people- uh, not many people in the place I live have horses. I never invited those ackquaintanceseses- whatever that word is, I can't say it more than once, I never invited them over to ride. That'll teach 'em. Well, actually it won't, they really didn't do anything, but. Yeah. My favorite hobby-type-thingy was learning about medieval and renaissance and junk. I studied their swords, armor, that kinda stuff in my free time. I also read a lot. I was a bookworm. My favorite author's are Tamora Pierce and Piers Anthony. Tamora first. Not that I *had* any free time mind you, but when I did. Well, sorta. I had a good life. Which is *boring*! I mean, how could some one stand that? Never anything new... *I wish I could get out of here*! I had often thought. I often thought of how *cool* it would be to visit Tortall and Xanth. If I fell into, like, a portal or something. Now, you know where I'm going with this, obviously. Something strange happened, and my entire *life* changed, yada, yada, yada. All that junk has been *so* over done. But unlike I all those books I've read, it wasn't really this big horrible thing that made me regret my wish. It wasn't all good, but it wasn't all that bad, either. It was pretty cool.-
Anyway. It happened when I was ten. In our house (us, well our, being Mom [a.k.a., Salina], Dad [a.k.a., Darek], Billy [the youngest], Jack and Jake [twins, forth and fifth oldest] Dan [oldest], and Sakura [second oldest] and, of course, me, stuck in the middle.), we have a closet. In the attic. We have a closet in the attic. Whose ever heard of a closet in an attic? I don't think the attic was ever a room, but it's there. Anywho, we're not allowed to look in that closet. Got me why. You know. It's just a rule. It's totally easy to cope with, 'cause generally we don't go up there much, so there's not a lot of temptation to deal with. When we were little, we thought of reasons that it might be, all kids would, right? Things like, Mom and Dad are spies, Mom and Dad are aliens, Mom and Dad are mad scientists, all three, even things like there's a body up there and they don't want us to be traumatized for life. That one was Dan's ideas, and it really helped us girls restrained from looking. Ugh. Could you imagine? Well probably, you've both seen plenty of dead people, but *anyway*, my parents said that, when I was ten, maybe, *maybe*, they would show me what was in there. Dan and Sakura were *so* incredibly jealous! Dan has long since moved out, and Sakura is working on it, and *they* never got to look in it. I thought it was so cool! Then, when I *was* ten, they wouldn't let me go in there. I cried and cried, but they just wouldn't let me. They seemed really upset about something. I couldn't think of what. But I didn't really care. They said I could so I was going to. That was that! So, of course, when Mom and Dad were asleep, I snuck up to the attic. I pulled the string, rope, type thingy-majig with the wooden handle that was hanging from the ceiling, and the stairs came down. I made sure I made as little noise as possible. I got up there, turned on my flashlight, and walked over to it. As I stood before the closet door, I reconsidered.
{What if there really is a body or skeleton in there? And I'll certainly get in trouble when Mama and Daddy find out! But then, why would they have said I could go up when the others couldn't?} I didn't think of *if* Mom and Dad found out, because I knew they would. Parents always knew. Especially Mothers with their mommy-radars and the eyes on the back of their heads. *Yeesh*. I opened it of course. But who wouldn't? When I opened it, I saw all that swirly stuff you see when you eyes are adjusting to dark light. You know what I'm talking about, right? Then I realized that it wasn't my eyes, it was what I was actually seeing, they were actual color spots. Well, I guess that *would* count as my eyes, because I see with my eyes, but you know what I mean. Then I noticed a sorta burning type thing goings on in my stomach. I thought that I was sick, like with heartburn or something, except I'm way too young t' be getting heartburn. Eventually, my brain acknowledged the fact that I was being pulled in by the closet. My first instinct was to resist, but then I let it. It took forever to suck me in. I had enough time to think, rethink, and triple think about turning back. If it took one more think longer, I would have turned back. I have a short attention span, after all.
When I finally appeared somewhere, I looked around. It looked like the priesty place where the Academy of Magic or whatever from Tamora's books. The City of the Gods or some crap like that. Or the student library from J.K. Rowling's ~Harry Potter~ books. Or a library at Castle Roogna, or, uh, something. I was, like, *cool*! But then I was thinking, {I wonder where I am though? It would be so cool if I was, like, in one of Tammy's books or something, so long as I don't get attacked by Immortals.} There was some old guy at a desk, a few feet away. I suppose he was a priest, or a sorcerer-to-be, or a magic teacher, or- I decided to ask where I was. "Excuse me," I said. "Cou-" "Go away, child. I'm busy." He interrupted me. Very rude, even if I do it all the time myself. Okay fine. I would just look around for a while. I poked at the bottles of things on the walls. There was gross slimy stuff in most of them. It looked like a witch's house or somethin'. It was so cool. I couldn't get any of the jars open though, and soon tired of looking at them. So then I started to look at the papers on the table. One group of them looked sort of like a test. I started looking at it. I Thought I knew the answers to some of the questions, which was cool. I knew the answers, because like I said, I'm a bookworm, and some authors are very creative. They wrote the words to spells in their books, and formula's to potions, and description on how to use the 'Powers Within' yourself. So I found a quill, and was all {a quill? Nobody uses real quill! They use the ones with pen inside of them. Or a normal pen, duh. I wonder where it came from?} and a bottle of ink, which unfortunately, the lid wasn't on tight and I had to clean up the spilled drops with my shirt. The shirt was already stained, so it didn't matter. Oh, and some how, very sloppily, managed to learn to write with one. It was hard! So then, I took the test. A few I didn't know the answer to, so I just made something up that sounded like it made sense. I'm pretty good at that stuff, like, using common sense (which is pretty uncommon) to figure out math and science. The guy at the desk glared at me a few times, but I just smiled back. I think he even rolled his eyes once, 'cept I'm not sure you invented that yet. When I was done, I put the finished, ever-so-blotted papers on the table nearest the man, because I had been writing on the floor, but knew I shouldn't keep them there, 'cause I'd probably forget they were there and slip on them, and the floor was made of stone, so couldn't possibly be that soft to fall on. Then I poked around at the books on the selves of the Ether library, which is where I finally discovered I had been playing. I think curiosity came over the man, because he finally looked at the test thingy I had done. As he reviewed it his eyes widened. He gradually flipped though all the pages. I think he was a slow reader, 'cause it took him way long. When he was done, he was, "You, child. What did you say your name was?" And I was "I didn't. But it's at the top of the page, mister." I was trying to sound polite, even if I didn't like him very much. "Yes, it is. Ken-ret. You." He dwindled off like my mom does. I was waiting for him to finish his sentence, like I do with mom, so that I could correct him on his pronunciation. Usually if mom doesn't sound like she's gonna finish her sentence, I finish it for her because I already know what she's going to say, but I didn't have a clue what *his* point was, so I said "It's pronounced Ken-Ray, sir. It's like, French or something." Instead. "Yes, yes of course it is. Kenret." I know he didn't know what French was, or that my name was pronounced like that. I know now, I mean. I didn't then. I hated that he ignored me a pretended to understand. He was like "H- how--where did you learn this?" All stumbling and junk. "I'm not sure, sir, I just-I don't know. All over." "Do you know what these papers are? Do you know what this means? You got almost every question right! You missed only one, no wait, two, but you got close on those. That would most definitely mean you pasted! These are the final exams in mastery! How- no, I studied my whole life. I only past five years ago, and the youngest sorcerer ever was eighteen. A mere child like you could never accomplish something such as this! Who gave you the answers? Who?!" He demanded, a bit over dramatic if you ask me.
So I said "I didn't cheat! You saw me sitting there the whole time! Wait, are they really the final exams? Does this mean I'm a sorceress? Cool!" I mean, that's just coo'. "I can't believe it." He said, mostly to himself. Then he looked at her again. "No, you still have to take the Ordeal first." Then I was, like, all scared and crap, 'cause they ain't called ordeal for nothing, and I said, "I do? Do I have to? I'm scared, I don't want to. But I do get to be a sorceress, if I do, don't I? I could be the youngest one ever, right? Now that'd be cool!" And then he was a greedy and junk and was, like, "Yes, it would do wonders for the academy's popularity. No one has been sending their boys to us to learn magic any more. Not since-never mind. Will you do it? You couldn't do until All Hallow's Eve, but that's not too far from now. I shall need to talk to the other master." He was thinking put loud to himself more than to me. Then what, again? Oh yeah, I asked, "When is Halloween?" And he didn't know what Halloween was, so he was, "Halloween?" "Oh, um, er. All Hallow's Eve, I mean." Is what I said. I think it confused him. "It's in a month in a half. Not much time at all" "But, I need to go home! I miss my cat already, and I'm hungry!" "Where do you live? Yes, I suppose we *would* have to talk to your parents about this first." He sad, *finally*, remembering all those silly things called laws. "I had forgotten. Where do you live?"
Then I was, "Um, I came through a closet. Mom didn't want me to, but she said I could, years ago, so I did.", 'cause I didn't know where I was, so I couldn't exactly give directions. It was funny, because then he was all "You what?" and everything. The looked so funny when he was confused. "I came through a closet. Were you keep clothes? It's kind of like a wardrobe that's built into the wall. I don't know what I was doing in an attic, 'cause that's where it was. I mean, who's ever heard of a closet in an attic? That's the stupidest place ever. No one going to go marching up to the attic to get their clothes every morning." (Did I mention I also talk a lot? Well, I do. Okay, so after a while we finally understood each other. He didn't seem very disappointed that we couldn't find my Mom. So, I'll skip all that and just say that I stayed the for about a month, and then got ready to take my Ordeal.)
"Okay, Kenret. Tomorrow will be your Ordeal. Now, we don't make as much fuss as they do in the castle, for the Ordeal of Knighthood. You'll be waken up at dawn. You'll take a purifying bath, watched over by some of the sorceresses. We don't have many, but. They will instruct you in what to do. Then you will be taken to the chamber of the Ordeal. Then you'll take the Ordeal, and if you pass, you'll finally be a sorceress." The old guy, whose name was Geligan, as I had come to learn, said as he was steering me back to my rooms after dinner. "Okay." I said, even though I wasn't looking forward to people watching me as I bathed. Then I thought, {You know, I just realized it, but I don't have any magic, as far as I know. Even if I do, I don't know how to use it. And do I really want to take the Ordeal? I read those books, and Alanna and Keladry really didn't seem to like their ordeal very much. I know their Ordeals were for knighthood, not sorcery, but still. I don't know what happened to Thom, but it can't be good. If it were good, it wouldn't be called an ordeal. He didn't seem to mind it much, but he was, like, nuts. Kel and Alanna hated theirs. And I can't blame them, after all. I don't want to go through that! But I don't know anything about the magic one. I'll just tell them I don't want to. Simple.}
Just as I was about to tell him that I didn't want to go through with it, when we reached my door. "Now," he said. "Remember not to say anything until you come out of the chamber tomorrow, okay?" Then I tried to tell him and was, "But, I don-" But that's as far as I got, 'cause interrupted me again with, "Good, good. Get some sleep. You've got a big day ahead.", and then he shut the door behind me. Oh well, I would have to do it then, right? But first, before I went to bed, I wanted to see if I even really *did* have magic. I mean, I couldn't very well be a sorceress if I didn't have magic. So, reading enough Tamora Pierce books to know how to light a fireplace, I concentrated on an imaginary fire with in me, but I pretended it was real. I thought I felt some thing! I nudged it harder, feeling it. I called upon it, and tried to concentrate it on my fireplace. I felt like a fool. Especially when nothing happened. But I kept trying, after awhile I was smart enough to add *wood* to the fireplace, just in case it would help. Novel concept, huh? After many more tries, and a long time after the sentry called the hour of Midnight, it worked! I was so happy! But I was tired too, so I immediately dosed the fire I worked so hard on and went to bed. In the morning, everything happened as it should. After my ceremonial bath they lectured me in what it means to be a sorceress, yada, yada, yada, and then they took me to the chamber the Ordeal was in. It was a tiny room, with a huge door in the wall opposite of me. The walls were plain stone, the door iron. It looked sorta rust to me, but I was told that it was just reddish iron. Everyone stood very still for, I don't know, about five minutes. It felt like forever. I thought I was going ta pee my pants, really. It was cold to. I mean *freezing*. It was probably the fact that it was so cold that kept me from wetting myself. It'd probably all turned to ice. *I wish they would hurry it up, already*. Then, the eternity was over, and the servants began to open the door. There before me, past the open door, was the next plain stone room I was supposed to go in. Then I was wishing the eternity had never ended. I stepped forward, into the Room of the Ordeal. I looked around. Big room, black opal walls were all around me. Man! Black opal were supposed to be very rare, according to, uh, ~Emperor Mage~, I think it was. The room was octagon shape. Okay, so I was wrong, it wasn't a plain stone room, oh well. I heard the door shut behind me. I continued to look around nervously, wondering what was going to happen. I heard a strange noise behind me. Like a staticy channel or sizzling bacon. Instead of turning around to face it, like a normal person, I cowarded and scrunched down on the floor, covering my head with my hands. I did that for about an hour, I think, not moving, barley remembering to breath. I never opened my eyes, but unfortunately, there's no such thing as earlids, so I heard *ever* so many terrifying noises. I wondered if I was even still alive, or if I had really already been hit with a bolt of lightning and my body was already being burned or buried or whatever it is that is done to people who die in their Sorcerer's Ordeal. I heard so many moans and screams in the background, I could be in the dark tower where the Black God keeps his new souls and not even know it. I sounded like a Halloween tape. Like that really cool one I got two years ago, though that was a year after my Ordeal. I got it 'cause it reminded me of it. It's really cool, it- nevermind. {All right, thirty more seconds and I'll have to open my eyes.} I thought. But before the thirty seconds were up, the noises stopped and the chamber door opened. "It's alright to get up and open your eyes now, Kenret. You did it." Said a voice that sounded suspiciously like Geligan's. I did. Geligan directed me to my chambers, which was good, 'cause I think I would've gotten lost if I tried to on my own. Or I would've fallen asleep half way there. As it was, I fell asleep before I hit my bed. Then I woke up when my head hit the bed all hard, and then I fell back asleep.
I felt horrible. Everyone kept saying what a great Magician, er, Magicianess/Sorceress/Magicess/whatever I must be, to be able to get through the Ordeal with out a scratch. They all kept saying how I must've passed with flying colors. Well, they didn't say that exactly, but whatever the equivalent was in Tortall speech. I think the truth is I barely passed. I decided then to become a great sorceress, so as to (kind of) justify it.
Eventually, I learned how to make a portal, so I could go home. Okay, it only took two weeks, but I had some one help me. It was a really hard spell, and even harder to find. I came home, walked down the attic stairs (I appeared in the attic closet), and went to bed. The spell took a lot out of me. But it was night, so no one noticed me. In the morning, I woke up and got dressed in normal clothes, for I was still wearing medieval junk, then went to the breakfast table, 'cause that's where every one was. I ran to Mom and Dad and gave them a big hug. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them. "Well what's this about?" asked my Dad. "I missed you! Didn't you miss me?" I asked.
"Uh, well, sure honey. I, guess. Of course we missed you. We haven't seen you since you went to bed last night, after all." He said, jokingly, like always. {Oh,} I thought, {did he see me come out of the attic or something?}
"Don't be mean, honey." Mom scolded Dad. "She's just sorry about the fight we had last night, because we wouldn't let her in the attic. We didn't say good night like we usually do, and she misses us." Okay, was there some one here in my place, so that no one would find out that I was gone? Like what's-his-face from ~animorphs~, the little droid guy, Eric or something, taking the place of Jake or who ever when they have a long mission? I don't want any one pretending to be me!} "It's okay sweetie, we're not mad at you. Have some breakfast. I knew you'd be down here in the morning, so I made you some." Mom said, scooting a plate of waffles and bacon to me. I sat down and thought as I ate.
{Hmmm, maybe I used the wrong spell. Since when does Mom make breakfast? That's what cereal is for. Maybe I did the spell wrong, and I was in an alternate universe, or something.} I looked around to see if anything else was different. Nothing was, everything was exactly as I had left it. Wait, it *was* exactly as I had left it. Same number of days marked on the calendar, same dirty dishes, well, a few new ones too, same everything. No time had passed when I was in Tortall! Everything was back to normal! Thank the Goddess. Oh, wait, I'm not in Tortall anymore, it's thank Goodness here. I knew that. It's only two letters difference. While on the subject, I better say thank you to Mom for breakfast, huh? I did so. Now that I had it all figured out, and was done eating, I went back up stairs into my bedroom, because I had gotten syrup on my third favorite shirt, (whish was the one I was wearing) and had to soak it, so it would come out. I put on a different shirt, then went to the bathroom to put my old shirt in the sink to soak. When I came back, I looked at the bag I brought with me as a souvenir from Tortall. I couldn't resist bringing home *some*thing, after all. I had a spell book in there. I decided to study it. I was bummed when I found out my magic didn't work in the real world. After a month or so, I thought I had figured out what spell was used on our closet. It was a powerful spell. But when I went in the attic to examine it (at night while my parents were asleep, of course), it was gone! I thought it might be. That meant it was either done in a hurry or by an amateur, or even maybe by a sorcerer, or sorceress, was weak. Of course I wondered why the person put a spell on the closet anyway, and stuff like that. But I don't like wondering about things that long when I'll never get the answer, so I didn't worry about it much. Anyway, after a while, I discovered that I could use magic when I was close to the closet. Probably the side affects of a poorly done spell, but I wasn't complaining. Probably the magic seemed out from the spell, like the magic dust in Xanth. So I used my magic to search it. I was right when I guessed what spell it was. The spell did make time freeze on whatever side I wasn't on. And was only meant to last for ten years a few days, or a one-way trip. So after I used it to go to Tortall that first time, it disappeared. It was getting late, and I had a test tomorrow morning, so I gave up then, and got some sleep whilst I still could. Like, six months later, I was brave and confident enough to make another journey to Tortall. And that's what I did. Nothing bad happened. From then on I went whenever I was bored. I sold things from my world in Tortall, so I could have money to pay for things. I really didn't go that often though. I always froze time when I wasn't somewhere. Very important detail, if you ask me.
Anyway, this story is getting long, so I'll skip that part. Blah, blah, blah, I learned about magic and took up several careers over the years, like being a scholar, marketplace person (selling things from my world for high prices), stable hand, lots of stuff. It's dull. Nothing really happens. Oh yeah, and I learned how to make it so that I had a different body in each world, so that I didn't have to worry about changing clothes when crossing worlds. Also, It didn't bother me then, but I knew that if I kept using the same body, instead of two, then It would appear that I aged twice as fast, and that might bug when I'm older. Anyway, I'll skip to a little while after my thirteenth birthday. I was I my room, reading, like I always do after dinner, when I heard Mom and Dad downstairs in the living room, I knew it was the living room because the living room was just beneath my room. Anyway, Mom was talking to Dad about something, and Dad was reassuring her, she was crying. I couldn't imagine what over. Nothing happen recently enough. Some times she cried because she thought maybe some of her kids didn't have a good birthday, but she only cried that same night, or maybe the next morning. Well there was this one time, that she took us *all* to- oh, wait, nevermind.
As I was saying, I heard them talking, and suddenly Dad called for me to go down stairs. When I came down, he said, "Kenret, we need to talk about something. Now, you may not believe us at first, but bear with us. We can prove it."
"Sure Dad." I said, somewhat worriedly. They were acting strange. It couldn't be a divorce or anything bad like that, 'cause Dad was comforting Mom. And they wouldn't need proof. "Okay, then. We didn't want to tell you this because we didn't want to lose you, but you deserve to know. Just don't interrupt, because we may not be able to continue, okay?" "Of course, Daddy." No doubt where I got my genes from. "Okay, thirteen years ago-" He Dad started, but her Mom shook her head and put her hand on his arm. "I want to tell it." I thought I heard Mom say, but Mom was whispering, trying not to cry. "You want to tell it? Okay, go ahead, dear." Mother coughed to clear her throat, so that I could here her better. "It was before we had you. We just moved here, in this house. We-we heard a- a noise, upstairs. We thought either-either a box had fallen, or-or something. Bu-but then we heard foot steps and-and thought it was a burglar, o-or a drunk or something, breaking in." She started the tale, stuttering much from the effort to not cry. What was wrong? "Your father went to investigate, to check out what was-what was up there. A.a woman looked down the stairs, as Darek pulled them down. Sh-" she choked up again. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer me-" "No." Mom interrupted her Dad. "I can tell it. She had a baby girl with her. She said, she said that she was from a different land, called Turtle. A different world. She said her home was under attack, and-and she was afraid for her child. She asked if we would protect her. The baby girl. She said she was busy fighting of raiders or something, she couldn't watch over the baby. She looked very weak, covered with blood. Your Father and I were very worried for the woman, I can't remember her name. We wanted to get her to a doctor, but she said she had to go. She-she left a portal, using the last of her strength. It was to her world. She said that, because she was weak, she the portal wouldn't work until the baby was ten. Something about it slowly taking magic from her over the years. She said that she didn't want to-to leave her child here, but she had to. She left us with instructions to send the child through the portal on her tenth birthday, and she gave us the baby's birthday. What was her name, Darek? I forget." "The woman's name was Alanna. She was short and had red hair. And purple eyes, I think. Her home was called Pirate's Swoop." Dad supplied, he was also choked up a little. "I don't remember the little girl's name." Mom nodded, remembering this to be true, and she refused to look up at me, though she glanced at Dad a few times. "So, we keep the child and took care of her. We built a wall around the portal, leaving a door, a closet, to get to it. We named the girl Kenret. And when her tenth birthday came around, we couldn't bear to give her up. But now we decided that, Alanna must miss the child, as well. And that girl deserves a chance to decided what she must do." I, who had been quiet all that time, which isn't the easiest task, even though my story is longer than their's, obviously, 'cause their story was in my story, and your still quiet, oh, but I couldn't be quiet any longer. Nobody was saying anything. "And I, of course, am that girl." My parents nodded. "You mean Alanna's my real Mom? The Lioness Alanna? Whoa, I didn't expect that! So she's who made the portal! All this time I should've meet her." She rambled on.
"You mean, you knew all this?" Her father asked, surprised. "Er, sort of. You see, I got mad when you didn't let me look in the closet, so I snuck up to the attic when you were asleep and went in. Sorry. I've been going to Tortall for years!" "But you were never gone!" Kenret's mother protested. "You've always been here, with us!" "No, I learned to freeze time in whatever world I'm not in. So it would be like I was always in both worlds." "Oh, so you can be with Alanna, and us? Neither of us have to miss you?" Mom, fighting hysteria. She never acted like this. "Nope! I mean, yep. Wait. whatever! I know what I mean. You two don't have to feel guilty." After a lot more talking and hugging, they watched me go into the closet. Well, they watch me step towards the closet/portal, and open it up, but then they were frozen in time with the rest of the world. Next thing they saw was me coming out. And anyway, here I am. I came to ask if it's true. If it's true that you lost a little girl thirteen years ago, while trying to protect her? Well, that's thirteen years *my* time, I suppose it could be more or less for you. The lioness and the Baron had been quiet through the whole story. They didn't understand some parts, for they didn't have as advance technology or the same sayings as the real world, but they understood well enough, using context clues.
"Yes. Yes I did send my baby into another world. When she didn't appear on what would have been her tenth birthday, we assumed that my spell went wrong, for my gift was drained at the time I did it. Are you our little girl?" Alanna asked, tears in her eyes. Kenret thought it seemed very out of character. Kenret nodded, and Alanna scooped her up in her arms, and hugged her. George followed suite. Kenret hugged them back, though not because she had missed them, but because they needed it. It was very hard losing a child, as far as she understood. Plus, how many times do you get to hug your favorite book characters?
Author's note: Okay, the next chapters aren't quite as long, but close. I suggest that if you don't have enough time to read all of it, you copy and past it to a word program so you can read it off-line. Just don't copy- right or plagiarized with it. And don't forget to come back to Review! Oh, and don't worry, there won't be anymore long narratives on Kenret's part. It'll all be third person. Notice! Vote!!!!: How do you think Kenret's name should be spelled? Kenret, or Kenrea. Both are pronounced ken-ray, but mom thinks Kenret looks too much like ken-ret and the Kenrea sounds like diarrhea. Please vote in your reviews. Oh, and any other was to spell it would be fine, except for Kenray. I don't want to spell it that way.
flag up yet. She hoped that was it. She knocked on the door.
A woman answered. " Hello?" the maid asked. This, however, was not how she had expected it, for some reason the girl had always imagined Alanna or George would answer. "Hi." She answered, "May I speak with the Baron, please? It's, sort of important."
"And whom shall I say is calling?", the servant asked. "Just tell him an old friend has come to met him," she said, smiling. The woman disappeared. Shortly after she came back. "He will see you." She said, and beckoned her inside shutting the door behind them. She led Ken to a library with comfy looking chairs and left, shutting the door as she went.
The girl in the cloak let her hood fall so the man could see her better. Her dark wavy hair fell unbound onto and past her narrow shoulders. She looked at the man at the desk. He had broad shoulders that were lighted by the fire from the fireplace and lamps. She could tell he was tall even though he was sitting. His nose was too big for good looks, but he appeared handsome when he smiled because of his twinkling large green hazel eyes. Now she smiled. "Hello George. Is Alanna in residence?" she asked.
"No she's off adventuring," he answered. "Are you a friend of hers? I don't believe we've meet."
"We haven't," she replied. "But I know you well enough all the same. My name is.". She thought for a moment. "Kenret. My name is Kenret. I just." another quick decision, " I was wondering if you could teach me a bit on how to use knives? I know you used them all the time, you know, being an ex- king-of-thieves and all. All I know is where to hide them. {I can tell him when I tell Alanna}, she thought. {It will be easier that way.}
"You're a mighty strange younglin', bein' bold enough to go blurting out accusations like that." He said, not truly denying it. "I don't know of many your age who'd know that about me. I suppose I might teach you a bit. I'm getting out of practice anyway. I just know I'm going to regret this though. Either that or Alanna's going to yell at me. Or both. You said you could hide them well enough, how many knives do you have on you now?"
"Twelve." "I should start telling the guards to search all the strangers that come in my home." The pale girl laughed. "Don't worry, I'll make sure the lioness doesn't yell at you. And I promise you won't regret it. Please?"
"All right, all right. When do you want your first lesson?"
"First, I need a place to stay. Could I pay you rent? And stay here? Just for a while."
"It takes a brave lass to come to a Baron's home and after accusing him of treason, then demand rooms and lessons. Yeah, I suppose you could stay here, for a while, but I'm not certain on how long. Just so long as you behave. And don't be tryin' to kill me in my sleep or anything." He said laughing. "Don't worry, I won't," she assured him. "Besides, you have the Site. I'd probably fail and get caught." She replied, eyes twinkling, much as his did.
"Smart lass. When do you want your first lesson?"
"No time like the present." She replied. He nodded and striped off his boots. Kenret was there for almost three weeks, learning knife and hand-to-hand combat tricks and hints from George. She spent her most time earning her stay, though, for she had run out of money. She was hired on as a stable hand, for they had to fire the last one, he wasn't well enough trained. Ken on the other hand, seemed very well trained in horses and acted as if she had spent plenty of time with them in her relatively short life. She enjoyed her time at Pirate's Swoop. During her afternoons she spent her time with the Baron of Pirate's Swoop and the King's Champion's children. Some of them were close to her age, the oldest being eleven. The day before what would be the last day of her third week, she was in one of many libraries, trying to learn about the history of Tortall. Kenret heard voices outside and in the hall and decided to investigate. When she came out into the hall, through the crowd, and out the front door, she saw between all the warrior horses' that Alanna had returned. {Finally!} She thought. {I was tempted to just tell George, and have him explain it to her.} She went back to her library, waiting for everything to calm down, and was back to her studying, but at magic this time, not history. She never liked history. She didn't even bother trying to talk with Alanna, she knew Alanna was busy and assumed she would be summoned sooner or later. Sure enough, a servant soon told her she had been 'summoned' by George, who was in the Okamura Library. When she had arrived there, Alanna started to say something when she spotted her. "Is that? No of course not." "What?" George asked. "Nothing, she just reminded me of some one I met once." George glanced at Alanna before introduced Kenret to her and her to the other, and explained to Alanna why she was here, or at least as much as *he* knew why she was here. George expected the girl had other motives, and she did. Alanna cocked a slender copper eyebrow at the story, but said nothing. She probably *was* going to chew George's head off later. The girl made her move. "Actually, truth be told, I came to ask Alanna and you, George, about something. I did want to learn knife fighting though. That was fun, thanks." "Oh? What were you going to ask us?" Alanna inquired, speaking over George's 'your welcome' so that it seemed barely audible. "Well, first I think I need to explain some stuff. But don't interrupt me, 'cause I lose my train of thought often enough as it is, so if you stop me, I'll never be able to find it again, most likely. And here's the story that she told, word-for-word: Well, uh, I had normal life, it was pretty cool. Then when I was about ten, oh, and I lived on a horse ranch, a good one, if not a big one. We only had thirteen or so horses. I mean, there were people who have, like, thousands, but they didn't get to spend time with all of them. I would hate that. Just having tons of horses you lend to camps in the summer of whatever. Not cool. But I only have a few, nothing wrong with that, right? At least I know all my horse's names. And I train them, I make sure they're happy. I scoop up their poop. Oh well. Can't have everything. I don't know why not, but you just can't. I was decently popular in school. I had enough friends. Well, actually just a few close ones and a couple of acquaintances that I barely knew the names of. Though that's not unusual. I'm really bad at remembering names. And I think a few of them were only my 'friends' so they could ride horses, 'cause not many places in my people- uh, not many people in the place I live have horses. I never invited those ackquaintanceseses- whatever that word is, I can't say it more than once, I never invited them over to ride. That'll teach 'em. Well, actually it won't, they really didn't do anything, but. Yeah. My favorite hobby-type-thingy was learning about medieval and renaissance and junk. I studied their swords, armor, that kinda stuff in my free time. I also read a lot. I was a bookworm. My favorite author's are Tamora Pierce and Piers Anthony. Tamora first. Not that I *had* any free time mind you, but when I did. Well, sorta. I had a good life. Which is *boring*! I mean, how could some one stand that? Never anything new... *I wish I could get out of here*! I had often thought. I often thought of how *cool* it would be to visit Tortall and Xanth. If I fell into, like, a portal or something. Now, you know where I'm going with this, obviously. Something strange happened, and my entire *life* changed, yada, yada, yada. All that junk has been *so* over done. But unlike I all those books I've read, it wasn't really this big horrible thing that made me regret my wish. It wasn't all good, but it wasn't all that bad, either. It was pretty cool.-
Anyway. It happened when I was ten. In our house (us, well our, being Mom [a.k.a., Salina], Dad [a.k.a., Darek], Billy [the youngest], Jack and Jake [twins, forth and fifth oldest] Dan [oldest], and Sakura [second oldest] and, of course, me, stuck in the middle.), we have a closet. In the attic. We have a closet in the attic. Whose ever heard of a closet in an attic? I don't think the attic was ever a room, but it's there. Anywho, we're not allowed to look in that closet. Got me why. You know. It's just a rule. It's totally easy to cope with, 'cause generally we don't go up there much, so there's not a lot of temptation to deal with. When we were little, we thought of reasons that it might be, all kids would, right? Things like, Mom and Dad are spies, Mom and Dad are aliens, Mom and Dad are mad scientists, all three, even things like there's a body up there and they don't want us to be traumatized for life. That one was Dan's ideas, and it really helped us girls restrained from looking. Ugh. Could you imagine? Well probably, you've both seen plenty of dead people, but *anyway*, my parents said that, when I was ten, maybe, *maybe*, they would show me what was in there. Dan and Sakura were *so* incredibly jealous! Dan has long since moved out, and Sakura is working on it, and *they* never got to look in it. I thought it was so cool! Then, when I *was* ten, they wouldn't let me go in there. I cried and cried, but they just wouldn't let me. They seemed really upset about something. I couldn't think of what. But I didn't really care. They said I could so I was going to. That was that! So, of course, when Mom and Dad were asleep, I snuck up to the attic. I pulled the string, rope, type thingy-majig with the wooden handle that was hanging from the ceiling, and the stairs came down. I made sure I made as little noise as possible. I got up there, turned on my flashlight, and walked over to it. As I stood before the closet door, I reconsidered.
{What if there really is a body or skeleton in there? And I'll certainly get in trouble when Mama and Daddy find out! But then, why would they have said I could go up when the others couldn't?} I didn't think of *if* Mom and Dad found out, because I knew they would. Parents always knew. Especially Mothers with their mommy-radars and the eyes on the back of their heads. *Yeesh*. I opened it of course. But who wouldn't? When I opened it, I saw all that swirly stuff you see when you eyes are adjusting to dark light. You know what I'm talking about, right? Then I realized that it wasn't my eyes, it was what I was actually seeing, they were actual color spots. Well, I guess that *would* count as my eyes, because I see with my eyes, but you know what I mean. Then I noticed a sorta burning type thing goings on in my stomach. I thought that I was sick, like with heartburn or something, except I'm way too young t' be getting heartburn. Eventually, my brain acknowledged the fact that I was being pulled in by the closet. My first instinct was to resist, but then I let it. It took forever to suck me in. I had enough time to think, rethink, and triple think about turning back. If it took one more think longer, I would have turned back. I have a short attention span, after all.
When I finally appeared somewhere, I looked around. It looked like the priesty place where the Academy of Magic or whatever from Tamora's books. The City of the Gods or some crap like that. Or the student library from J.K. Rowling's ~Harry Potter~ books. Or a library at Castle Roogna, or, uh, something. I was, like, *cool*! But then I was thinking, {I wonder where I am though? It would be so cool if I was, like, in one of Tammy's books or something, so long as I don't get attacked by Immortals.} There was some old guy at a desk, a few feet away. I suppose he was a priest, or a sorcerer-to-be, or a magic teacher, or- I decided to ask where I was. "Excuse me," I said. "Cou-" "Go away, child. I'm busy." He interrupted me. Very rude, even if I do it all the time myself. Okay fine. I would just look around for a while. I poked at the bottles of things on the walls. There was gross slimy stuff in most of them. It looked like a witch's house or somethin'. It was so cool. I couldn't get any of the jars open though, and soon tired of looking at them. So then I started to look at the papers on the table. One group of them looked sort of like a test. I started looking at it. I Thought I knew the answers to some of the questions, which was cool. I knew the answers, because like I said, I'm a bookworm, and some authors are very creative. They wrote the words to spells in their books, and formula's to potions, and description on how to use the 'Powers Within' yourself. So I found a quill, and was all {a quill? Nobody uses real quill! They use the ones with pen inside of them. Or a normal pen, duh. I wonder where it came from?} and a bottle of ink, which unfortunately, the lid wasn't on tight and I had to clean up the spilled drops with my shirt. The shirt was already stained, so it didn't matter. Oh, and some how, very sloppily, managed to learn to write with one. It was hard! So then, I took the test. A few I didn't know the answer to, so I just made something up that sounded like it made sense. I'm pretty good at that stuff, like, using common sense (which is pretty uncommon) to figure out math and science. The guy at the desk glared at me a few times, but I just smiled back. I think he even rolled his eyes once, 'cept I'm not sure you invented that yet. When I was done, I put the finished, ever-so-blotted papers on the table nearest the man, because I had been writing on the floor, but knew I shouldn't keep them there, 'cause I'd probably forget they were there and slip on them, and the floor was made of stone, so couldn't possibly be that soft to fall on. Then I poked around at the books on the selves of the Ether library, which is where I finally discovered I had been playing. I think curiosity came over the man, because he finally looked at the test thingy I had done. As he reviewed it his eyes widened. He gradually flipped though all the pages. I think he was a slow reader, 'cause it took him way long. When he was done, he was, "You, child. What did you say your name was?" And I was "I didn't. But it's at the top of the page, mister." I was trying to sound polite, even if I didn't like him very much. "Yes, it is. Ken-ret. You." He dwindled off like my mom does. I was waiting for him to finish his sentence, like I do with mom, so that I could correct him on his pronunciation. Usually if mom doesn't sound like she's gonna finish her sentence, I finish it for her because I already know what she's going to say, but I didn't have a clue what *his* point was, so I said "It's pronounced Ken-Ray, sir. It's like, French or something." Instead. "Yes, yes of course it is. Kenret." I know he didn't know what French was, or that my name was pronounced like that. I know now, I mean. I didn't then. I hated that he ignored me a pretended to understand. He was like "H- how--where did you learn this?" All stumbling and junk. "I'm not sure, sir, I just-I don't know. All over." "Do you know what these papers are? Do you know what this means? You got almost every question right! You missed only one, no wait, two, but you got close on those. That would most definitely mean you pasted! These are the final exams in mastery! How- no, I studied my whole life. I only past five years ago, and the youngest sorcerer ever was eighteen. A mere child like you could never accomplish something such as this! Who gave you the answers? Who?!" He demanded, a bit over dramatic if you ask me.
So I said "I didn't cheat! You saw me sitting there the whole time! Wait, are they really the final exams? Does this mean I'm a sorceress? Cool!" I mean, that's just coo'. "I can't believe it." He said, mostly to himself. Then he looked at her again. "No, you still have to take the Ordeal first." Then I was, like, all scared and crap, 'cause they ain't called ordeal for nothing, and I said, "I do? Do I have to? I'm scared, I don't want to. But I do get to be a sorceress, if I do, don't I? I could be the youngest one ever, right? Now that'd be cool!" And then he was a greedy and junk and was, like, "Yes, it would do wonders for the academy's popularity. No one has been sending their boys to us to learn magic any more. Not since-never mind. Will you do it? You couldn't do until All Hallow's Eve, but that's not too far from now. I shall need to talk to the other master." He was thinking put loud to himself more than to me. Then what, again? Oh yeah, I asked, "When is Halloween?" And he didn't know what Halloween was, so he was, "Halloween?" "Oh, um, er. All Hallow's Eve, I mean." Is what I said. I think it confused him. "It's in a month in a half. Not much time at all" "But, I need to go home! I miss my cat already, and I'm hungry!" "Where do you live? Yes, I suppose we *would* have to talk to your parents about this first." He sad, *finally*, remembering all those silly things called laws. "I had forgotten. Where do you live?"
Then I was, "Um, I came through a closet. Mom didn't want me to, but she said I could, years ago, so I did.", 'cause I didn't know where I was, so I couldn't exactly give directions. It was funny, because then he was all "You what?" and everything. The looked so funny when he was confused. "I came through a closet. Were you keep clothes? It's kind of like a wardrobe that's built into the wall. I don't know what I was doing in an attic, 'cause that's where it was. I mean, who's ever heard of a closet in an attic? That's the stupidest place ever. No one going to go marching up to the attic to get their clothes every morning." (Did I mention I also talk a lot? Well, I do. Okay, so after a while we finally understood each other. He didn't seem very disappointed that we couldn't find my Mom. So, I'll skip all that and just say that I stayed the for about a month, and then got ready to take my Ordeal.)
"Okay, Kenret. Tomorrow will be your Ordeal. Now, we don't make as much fuss as they do in the castle, for the Ordeal of Knighthood. You'll be waken up at dawn. You'll take a purifying bath, watched over by some of the sorceresses. We don't have many, but. They will instruct you in what to do. Then you will be taken to the chamber of the Ordeal. Then you'll take the Ordeal, and if you pass, you'll finally be a sorceress." The old guy, whose name was Geligan, as I had come to learn, said as he was steering me back to my rooms after dinner. "Okay." I said, even though I wasn't looking forward to people watching me as I bathed. Then I thought, {You know, I just realized it, but I don't have any magic, as far as I know. Even if I do, I don't know how to use it. And do I really want to take the Ordeal? I read those books, and Alanna and Keladry really didn't seem to like their ordeal very much. I know their Ordeals were for knighthood, not sorcery, but still. I don't know what happened to Thom, but it can't be good. If it were good, it wouldn't be called an ordeal. He didn't seem to mind it much, but he was, like, nuts. Kel and Alanna hated theirs. And I can't blame them, after all. I don't want to go through that! But I don't know anything about the magic one. I'll just tell them I don't want to. Simple.}
Just as I was about to tell him that I didn't want to go through with it, when we reached my door. "Now," he said. "Remember not to say anything until you come out of the chamber tomorrow, okay?" Then I tried to tell him and was, "But, I don-" But that's as far as I got, 'cause interrupted me again with, "Good, good. Get some sleep. You've got a big day ahead.", and then he shut the door behind me. Oh well, I would have to do it then, right? But first, before I went to bed, I wanted to see if I even really *did* have magic. I mean, I couldn't very well be a sorceress if I didn't have magic. So, reading enough Tamora Pierce books to know how to light a fireplace, I concentrated on an imaginary fire with in me, but I pretended it was real. I thought I felt some thing! I nudged it harder, feeling it. I called upon it, and tried to concentrate it on my fireplace. I felt like a fool. Especially when nothing happened. But I kept trying, after awhile I was smart enough to add *wood* to the fireplace, just in case it would help. Novel concept, huh? After many more tries, and a long time after the sentry called the hour of Midnight, it worked! I was so happy! But I was tired too, so I immediately dosed the fire I worked so hard on and went to bed. In the morning, everything happened as it should. After my ceremonial bath they lectured me in what it means to be a sorceress, yada, yada, yada, and then they took me to the chamber the Ordeal was in. It was a tiny room, with a huge door in the wall opposite of me. The walls were plain stone, the door iron. It looked sorta rust to me, but I was told that it was just reddish iron. Everyone stood very still for, I don't know, about five minutes. It felt like forever. I thought I was going ta pee my pants, really. It was cold to. I mean *freezing*. It was probably the fact that it was so cold that kept me from wetting myself. It'd probably all turned to ice. *I wish they would hurry it up, already*. Then, the eternity was over, and the servants began to open the door. There before me, past the open door, was the next plain stone room I was supposed to go in. Then I was wishing the eternity had never ended. I stepped forward, into the Room of the Ordeal. I looked around. Big room, black opal walls were all around me. Man! Black opal were supposed to be very rare, according to, uh, ~Emperor Mage~, I think it was. The room was octagon shape. Okay, so I was wrong, it wasn't a plain stone room, oh well. I heard the door shut behind me. I continued to look around nervously, wondering what was going to happen. I heard a strange noise behind me. Like a staticy channel or sizzling bacon. Instead of turning around to face it, like a normal person, I cowarded and scrunched down on the floor, covering my head with my hands. I did that for about an hour, I think, not moving, barley remembering to breath. I never opened my eyes, but unfortunately, there's no such thing as earlids, so I heard *ever* so many terrifying noises. I wondered if I was even still alive, or if I had really already been hit with a bolt of lightning and my body was already being burned or buried or whatever it is that is done to people who die in their Sorcerer's Ordeal. I heard so many moans and screams in the background, I could be in the dark tower where the Black God keeps his new souls and not even know it. I sounded like a Halloween tape. Like that really cool one I got two years ago, though that was a year after my Ordeal. I got it 'cause it reminded me of it. It's really cool, it- nevermind. {All right, thirty more seconds and I'll have to open my eyes.} I thought. But before the thirty seconds were up, the noises stopped and the chamber door opened. "It's alright to get up and open your eyes now, Kenret. You did it." Said a voice that sounded suspiciously like Geligan's. I did. Geligan directed me to my chambers, which was good, 'cause I think I would've gotten lost if I tried to on my own. Or I would've fallen asleep half way there. As it was, I fell asleep before I hit my bed. Then I woke up when my head hit the bed all hard, and then I fell back asleep.
I felt horrible. Everyone kept saying what a great Magician, er, Magicianess/Sorceress/Magicess/whatever I must be, to be able to get through the Ordeal with out a scratch. They all kept saying how I must've passed with flying colors. Well, they didn't say that exactly, but whatever the equivalent was in Tortall speech. I think the truth is I barely passed. I decided then to become a great sorceress, so as to (kind of) justify it.
Eventually, I learned how to make a portal, so I could go home. Okay, it only took two weeks, but I had some one help me. It was a really hard spell, and even harder to find. I came home, walked down the attic stairs (I appeared in the attic closet), and went to bed. The spell took a lot out of me. But it was night, so no one noticed me. In the morning, I woke up and got dressed in normal clothes, for I was still wearing medieval junk, then went to the breakfast table, 'cause that's where every one was. I ran to Mom and Dad and gave them a big hug. I hadn't realized how much I had missed them. "Well what's this about?" asked my Dad. "I missed you! Didn't you miss me?" I asked.
"Uh, well, sure honey. I, guess. Of course we missed you. We haven't seen you since you went to bed last night, after all." He said, jokingly, like always. {Oh,} I thought, {did he see me come out of the attic or something?}
"Don't be mean, honey." Mom scolded Dad. "She's just sorry about the fight we had last night, because we wouldn't let her in the attic. We didn't say good night like we usually do, and she misses us." Okay, was there some one here in my place, so that no one would find out that I was gone? Like what's-his-face from ~animorphs~, the little droid guy, Eric or something, taking the place of Jake or who ever when they have a long mission? I don't want any one pretending to be me!} "It's okay sweetie, we're not mad at you. Have some breakfast. I knew you'd be down here in the morning, so I made you some." Mom said, scooting a plate of waffles and bacon to me. I sat down and thought as I ate.
{Hmmm, maybe I used the wrong spell. Since when does Mom make breakfast? That's what cereal is for. Maybe I did the spell wrong, and I was in an alternate universe, or something.} I looked around to see if anything else was different. Nothing was, everything was exactly as I had left it. Wait, it *was* exactly as I had left it. Same number of days marked on the calendar, same dirty dishes, well, a few new ones too, same everything. No time had passed when I was in Tortall! Everything was back to normal! Thank the Goddess. Oh, wait, I'm not in Tortall anymore, it's thank Goodness here. I knew that. It's only two letters difference. While on the subject, I better say thank you to Mom for breakfast, huh? I did so. Now that I had it all figured out, and was done eating, I went back up stairs into my bedroom, because I had gotten syrup on my third favorite shirt, (whish was the one I was wearing) and had to soak it, so it would come out. I put on a different shirt, then went to the bathroom to put my old shirt in the sink to soak. When I came back, I looked at the bag I brought with me as a souvenir from Tortall. I couldn't resist bringing home *some*thing, after all. I had a spell book in there. I decided to study it. I was bummed when I found out my magic didn't work in the real world. After a month or so, I thought I had figured out what spell was used on our closet. It was a powerful spell. But when I went in the attic to examine it (at night while my parents were asleep, of course), it was gone! I thought it might be. That meant it was either done in a hurry or by an amateur, or even maybe by a sorcerer, or sorceress, was weak. Of course I wondered why the person put a spell on the closet anyway, and stuff like that. But I don't like wondering about things that long when I'll never get the answer, so I didn't worry about it much. Anyway, after a while, I discovered that I could use magic when I was close to the closet. Probably the side affects of a poorly done spell, but I wasn't complaining. Probably the magic seemed out from the spell, like the magic dust in Xanth. So I used my magic to search it. I was right when I guessed what spell it was. The spell did make time freeze on whatever side I wasn't on. And was only meant to last for ten years a few days, or a one-way trip. So after I used it to go to Tortall that first time, it disappeared. It was getting late, and I had a test tomorrow morning, so I gave up then, and got some sleep whilst I still could. Like, six months later, I was brave and confident enough to make another journey to Tortall. And that's what I did. Nothing bad happened. From then on I went whenever I was bored. I sold things from my world in Tortall, so I could have money to pay for things. I really didn't go that often though. I always froze time when I wasn't somewhere. Very important detail, if you ask me.
Anyway, this story is getting long, so I'll skip that part. Blah, blah, blah, I learned about magic and took up several careers over the years, like being a scholar, marketplace person (selling things from my world for high prices), stable hand, lots of stuff. It's dull. Nothing really happens. Oh yeah, and I learned how to make it so that I had a different body in each world, so that I didn't have to worry about changing clothes when crossing worlds. Also, It didn't bother me then, but I knew that if I kept using the same body, instead of two, then It would appear that I aged twice as fast, and that might bug when I'm older. Anyway, I'll skip to a little while after my thirteenth birthday. I was I my room, reading, like I always do after dinner, when I heard Mom and Dad downstairs in the living room, I knew it was the living room because the living room was just beneath my room. Anyway, Mom was talking to Dad about something, and Dad was reassuring her, she was crying. I couldn't imagine what over. Nothing happen recently enough. Some times she cried because she thought maybe some of her kids didn't have a good birthday, but she only cried that same night, or maybe the next morning. Well there was this one time, that she took us *all* to- oh, wait, nevermind.
As I was saying, I heard them talking, and suddenly Dad called for me to go down stairs. When I came down, he said, "Kenret, we need to talk about something. Now, you may not believe us at first, but bear with us. We can prove it."
"Sure Dad." I said, somewhat worriedly. They were acting strange. It couldn't be a divorce or anything bad like that, 'cause Dad was comforting Mom. And they wouldn't need proof. "Okay, then. We didn't want to tell you this because we didn't want to lose you, but you deserve to know. Just don't interrupt, because we may not be able to continue, okay?" "Of course, Daddy." No doubt where I got my genes from. "Okay, thirteen years ago-" He Dad started, but her Mom shook her head and put her hand on his arm. "I want to tell it." I thought I heard Mom say, but Mom was whispering, trying not to cry. "You want to tell it? Okay, go ahead, dear." Mother coughed to clear her throat, so that I could here her better. "It was before we had you. We just moved here, in this house. We-we heard a- a noise, upstairs. We thought either-either a box had fallen, or-or something. Bu-but then we heard foot steps and-and thought it was a burglar, o-or a drunk or something, breaking in." She started the tale, stuttering much from the effort to not cry. What was wrong? "Your father went to investigate, to check out what was-what was up there. A.a woman looked down the stairs, as Darek pulled them down. Sh-" she choked up again. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer me-" "No." Mom interrupted her Dad. "I can tell it. She had a baby girl with her. She said, she said that she was from a different land, called Turtle. A different world. She said her home was under attack, and-and she was afraid for her child. She asked if we would protect her. The baby girl. She said she was busy fighting of raiders or something, she couldn't watch over the baby. She looked very weak, covered with blood. Your Father and I were very worried for the woman, I can't remember her name. We wanted to get her to a doctor, but she said she had to go. She-she left a portal, using the last of her strength. It was to her world. She said that, because she was weak, she the portal wouldn't work until the baby was ten. Something about it slowly taking magic from her over the years. She said that she didn't want to-to leave her child here, but she had to. She left us with instructions to send the child through the portal on her tenth birthday, and she gave us the baby's birthday. What was her name, Darek? I forget." "The woman's name was Alanna. She was short and had red hair. And purple eyes, I think. Her home was called Pirate's Swoop." Dad supplied, he was also choked up a little. "I don't remember the little girl's name." Mom nodded, remembering this to be true, and she refused to look up at me, though she glanced at Dad a few times. "So, we keep the child and took care of her. We built a wall around the portal, leaving a door, a closet, to get to it. We named the girl Kenret. And when her tenth birthday came around, we couldn't bear to give her up. But now we decided that, Alanna must miss the child, as well. And that girl deserves a chance to decided what she must do." I, who had been quiet all that time, which isn't the easiest task, even though my story is longer than their's, obviously, 'cause their story was in my story, and your still quiet, oh, but I couldn't be quiet any longer. Nobody was saying anything. "And I, of course, am that girl." My parents nodded. "You mean Alanna's my real Mom? The Lioness Alanna? Whoa, I didn't expect that! So she's who made the portal! All this time I should've meet her." She rambled on.
"You mean, you knew all this?" Her father asked, surprised. "Er, sort of. You see, I got mad when you didn't let me look in the closet, so I snuck up to the attic when you were asleep and went in. Sorry. I've been going to Tortall for years!" "But you were never gone!" Kenret's mother protested. "You've always been here, with us!" "No, I learned to freeze time in whatever world I'm not in. So it would be like I was always in both worlds." "Oh, so you can be with Alanna, and us? Neither of us have to miss you?" Mom, fighting hysteria. She never acted like this. "Nope! I mean, yep. Wait. whatever! I know what I mean. You two don't have to feel guilty." After a lot more talking and hugging, they watched me go into the closet. Well, they watch me step towards the closet/portal, and open it up, but then they were frozen in time with the rest of the world. Next thing they saw was me coming out. And anyway, here I am. I came to ask if it's true. If it's true that you lost a little girl thirteen years ago, while trying to protect her? Well, that's thirteen years *my* time, I suppose it could be more or less for you. The lioness and the Baron had been quiet through the whole story. They didn't understand some parts, for they didn't have as advance technology or the same sayings as the real world, but they understood well enough, using context clues.
"Yes. Yes I did send my baby into another world. When she didn't appear on what would have been her tenth birthday, we assumed that my spell went wrong, for my gift was drained at the time I did it. Are you our little girl?" Alanna asked, tears in her eyes. Kenret thought it seemed very out of character. Kenret nodded, and Alanna scooped her up in her arms, and hugged her. George followed suite. Kenret hugged them back, though not because she had missed them, but because they needed it. It was very hard losing a child, as far as she understood. Plus, how many times do you get to hug your favorite book characters?
Author's note: Okay, the next chapters aren't quite as long, but close. I suggest that if you don't have enough time to read all of it, you copy and past it to a word program so you can read it off-line. Just don't copy- right or plagiarized with it. And don't forget to come back to Review! Oh, and don't worry, there won't be anymore long narratives on Kenret's part. It'll all be third person. Notice! Vote!!!!: How do you think Kenret's name should be spelled? Kenret, or Kenrea. Both are pronounced ken-ray, but mom thinks Kenret looks too much like ken-ret and the Kenrea sounds like diarrhea. Please vote in your reviews. Oh, and any other was to spell it would be fine, except for Kenray. I don't want to spell it that way.