//Flashback//
"Thom. That's it!" From the look on her face, Thom knew his sister had just come up with yet another crazy idea. "What's it?" he asked suspiciously.
Alanna looked around and checked the hall for servants. "Tomorrow he gives us the letters for the man who trains the pages and people at the convent. You can imitate his writing, so you can do new letters, saying we're twin boys. You go to the convent. Say in the letter that you're to be a sorcerer. The Daughters of the Goddess are the ones who train young boys in magic, remember? When you're older, they'll send you to the priests. And I'll go to the palace and learn to be a knight!"
"That's crazy," Thom argued. "What about your hair? You can't go swimming naked, either. And you'll turn into a girl - you know, with a chest and everything."
"I'll cut my hair," she replied. "And - well, I'll handle the rest when it happens."
"No Alanna! This is different to when we made Lady Catherine see ghosts and the cook have hallucinations. What you are talking about is lying to all sorts of important people like King Roald and the Mother Superior and I shall not play a part in such treachery." He scolded her. "As much as we both dislike it, I shall leave to become a knight and you shall leave to become a lady. That is the end of the story Alanna." Thom told her before leaving the room.
Alanna kicked the wall angrily causing several books to fall off a nearby shelf. She swore at her twin, the one person she had trusted to always watch her back and support her. She walked purposely towards her room, having made her decision and once in it withdrew from her drawers several items of clothing, yet unpacked for her trip to the convent and shoved them irritably into a small bag, followed by a large amount of coins and jewellery. She snuck out of the house when the bell chimed signalling the onset of nightfall.
Alanna managed to creep past the man standing guard and was away, off to make her fortune as a Shang warrior.
**
Thom knocked timidly on his sister's door. Her purple eyes had blazed in defiance when Thom had refused to go along with her plan and he had wisely decided it best to leave her to calm down.
When he didn't get a response he opened the large oak door, still cautiously, to find that his sister was not there. He searched the house in its entirety, beginning to feel very worried.
**
A yell went up that vibrated through the whole of Trebond estate; everyone cringed apart from a short red haired girl who continued to pick her way through the brambles.
//End Flashback//
Alanna stretched against the wooden seat and grimaced. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to come meet Thom after all this time. She loved her twin; her animosity towards him had gradually faded away as she came to the conclusion that in the event of things, she had got the better deal; but what would she say? It had been over ten years since she had last seen her twin; it was not that she had not wanted to visit, assure him of her safety, it was just that she was Shang. When you practised the art of Shang, there was room for nothing else.
This was the first time she had ventured out of the Shang Citadel and only because it was required of her. She would spend one year among the normal population and then return to receive her Shang title. After the meditative state all Shang reached within the quiet of the Citadel, she felt almost lost in this bustling city full of noise, thievery and trickery.
She had listened for all information related to Thom though and found out quite a lot about her twin's latest antics that way. It was said that he had befriended the prince and other very high ranking nobles and that he had fought in the battle against Tusaine. He was to enter the Chamber this week to undergo his Ordeal. Alanna had been released a couple of months before and thought that she owed it to her twin and to herself to at least turn up and see him through that; she could go afterwards, he needn't even know that she had been there at all.
She felt eyes boring into the back of her head and slowly turned her head to see a tall man with hazel eyes staring at her from amongst a large group of others. She returned to her original position and finished her drink. She signalled the bar man for another tankard while she pondered over the oddness of Corus.
(A/N: First part of the prologue is a direct lift from the original novel Alanna: The First Adventure.
The ** marked above two of the paragraphs signify a change in time or place or point of view. I did use a funny little infinity sign but it didn't show up on the site.
Hmmm. Not bad, looks much smaller than it did when I wrote it. I shall probably update this chapter later if I decide to continue on with this story - I have many of my own original work to do but I felt like doing a fanfic for some reason today)
"Thom. That's it!" From the look on her face, Thom knew his sister had just come up with yet another crazy idea. "What's it?" he asked suspiciously.
Alanna looked around and checked the hall for servants. "Tomorrow he gives us the letters for the man who trains the pages and people at the convent. You can imitate his writing, so you can do new letters, saying we're twin boys. You go to the convent. Say in the letter that you're to be a sorcerer. The Daughters of the Goddess are the ones who train young boys in magic, remember? When you're older, they'll send you to the priests. And I'll go to the palace and learn to be a knight!"
"That's crazy," Thom argued. "What about your hair? You can't go swimming naked, either. And you'll turn into a girl - you know, with a chest and everything."
"I'll cut my hair," she replied. "And - well, I'll handle the rest when it happens."
"No Alanna! This is different to when we made Lady Catherine see ghosts and the cook have hallucinations. What you are talking about is lying to all sorts of important people like King Roald and the Mother Superior and I shall not play a part in such treachery." He scolded her. "As much as we both dislike it, I shall leave to become a knight and you shall leave to become a lady. That is the end of the story Alanna." Thom told her before leaving the room.
Alanna kicked the wall angrily causing several books to fall off a nearby shelf. She swore at her twin, the one person she had trusted to always watch her back and support her. She walked purposely towards her room, having made her decision and once in it withdrew from her drawers several items of clothing, yet unpacked for her trip to the convent and shoved them irritably into a small bag, followed by a large amount of coins and jewellery. She snuck out of the house when the bell chimed signalling the onset of nightfall.
Alanna managed to creep past the man standing guard and was away, off to make her fortune as a Shang warrior.
**
Thom knocked timidly on his sister's door. Her purple eyes had blazed in defiance when Thom had refused to go along with her plan and he had wisely decided it best to leave her to calm down.
When he didn't get a response he opened the large oak door, still cautiously, to find that his sister was not there. He searched the house in its entirety, beginning to feel very worried.
**
A yell went up that vibrated through the whole of Trebond estate; everyone cringed apart from a short red haired girl who continued to pick her way through the brambles.
//End Flashback//
Alanna stretched against the wooden seat and grimaced. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to come meet Thom after all this time. She loved her twin; her animosity towards him had gradually faded away as she came to the conclusion that in the event of things, she had got the better deal; but what would she say? It had been over ten years since she had last seen her twin; it was not that she had not wanted to visit, assure him of her safety, it was just that she was Shang. When you practised the art of Shang, there was room for nothing else.
This was the first time she had ventured out of the Shang Citadel and only because it was required of her. She would spend one year among the normal population and then return to receive her Shang title. After the meditative state all Shang reached within the quiet of the Citadel, she felt almost lost in this bustling city full of noise, thievery and trickery.
She had listened for all information related to Thom though and found out quite a lot about her twin's latest antics that way. It was said that he had befriended the prince and other very high ranking nobles and that he had fought in the battle against Tusaine. He was to enter the Chamber this week to undergo his Ordeal. Alanna had been released a couple of months before and thought that she owed it to her twin and to herself to at least turn up and see him through that; she could go afterwards, he needn't even know that she had been there at all.
She felt eyes boring into the back of her head and slowly turned her head to see a tall man with hazel eyes staring at her from amongst a large group of others. She returned to her original position and finished her drink. She signalled the bar man for another tankard while she pondered over the oddness of Corus.
(A/N: First part of the prologue is a direct lift from the original novel Alanna: The First Adventure.
The ** marked above two of the paragraphs signify a change in time or place or point of view. I did use a funny little infinity sign but it didn't show up on the site.
Hmmm. Not bad, looks much smaller than it did when I wrote it. I shall probably update this chapter later if I decide to continue on with this story - I have many of my own original work to do but I felt like doing a fanfic for some reason today)