Author's Note: Hi, I'm new here and this is my first fanfic! Please, feel free tocall me Maj! please remeber to R&R.
Disclaimer: All this is Tamora Pierce's, except for my original characters. Anything you recognize TP's
Aynalee of Cavere just knew she was ugly, hideously so. Maybe people were too polite to say so, but it was true. The looks on their faces when she lined up with her family said it all. Of course, being of Cavere only emphasized her looks, or lack of them. They were the ladies of Cavere, renowned for their amazing beauty, flowers of the court and all proper ladies.
That was another problem. Aynalee just couldn't act lady-like. Something always happened, embarrassing her family often. No, she was probably the first tomboy in the history of Cavere. Just her luck. At least her parents had given up on the etiquette lessons years ago.
She was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of the main gates opening. That in itself wasn't odd. It was the sound of visitors being greeted that drew Aynalee's attention. After all, Cavere was a remote fief. Curiosity aroused, she got up from the place on the wall above the gate where she had been hiding away. Being as unlady-like as someone in a pink, beribboned dress can be, she clambered down the wood ladder near her.
As she had been on the wall so close to the gate, the visitors were immediately in view. When she saw them, Aynalee gasped. They were knights! Because of her behavior, she had never gone to Corus and met knights. Excited, when she got a little closer, Aynalee saw something amazing. She recognized the one in the front by her flaming red hair and lioness rampant shield. It was the Lioness! (Also known at Cavere as Aynalee's idol.)
Well, she had never been shy, so she ran up to the knights. Stopping short, she thought for a second, and then curtsied awkwardly. Spotting her second youngest daughter attempting to curtsy, Lady Rosaria of Cavere grimaced slightly. Then she resumed her cheerful expression and put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"This is my second youngest daughter, Aynalee. She's leaving for the convent this winter," she said, by way of introduction. The Lioness grinned when she spotted the pained expression on the ten-year-old's face.
Then, looking at the Lioness, a legendary knight and a woman, Aynalee had a great idea.
"No Mother, I'm afraid I'm not. I'm going to be a knight."