Disclaimer: There are characters that are not mine and will never be unfortunately L but are the of course the Goddess's Tamora Pierce. Anything that is new and you have heard of before is mine.

Lizzie's new life: Chapter one

She sat alone, watching the sun drop lower and lower in the sky, turning the sky from orange to bright pinks. She had long black hair that was woven back in tiny plaits joined together in one big plait, with delicate dainty facial features, and a tiny bright red rosebud for a mouth. She was slender and dressed plainly in sand coloured cotton trousers, top and brown boots. As she sat she thought about the life she had now, the life she had once and the life she might have had, if her parents hadn't of died.

That fateful morning, six years ago now, had been dark and gloomy. A dense grey fog had settled over the motorway. As her parents went out the door, she stopped them and hugged them, telling them that she loved them. It was almost as if she knew what was going to happen to them. That night she had returned from school to find a message on the answering machine from the hospital, telling her to go to there as soon as possible.  She hurried to the hospital to find that her parents had been involved in a car accident.

A lorry driver had lost control of his truck and pulled over to the side- straight into her parent's car. Her father had been killed instantly. At hearing this, the girl slumped into a chair, tears brimming in her eyes, her bottom lip quivered and her face was an unearthly shade of white. "And of my mother?" she asked; her quiet voice shook.

She learned that her mother would be in surgery for about another two hours, after that, she would know if her mother would live or die. Two hours passed, then three and four, when the fifth hour was near, she was found by a doctor staring into space, tears streaming down her face like a burst water fountain. Her hands had torn a plastic cup to shreds, its pieces littering the floor. Her bottom lip was bleeding, as if she had been biting it in order to refrain from screaming out loud. He delivered her final blow to her; her mother had died in surgery. A blood clot had worked its way free and blocked up the heart, killing her instantly as surgeons fought to save her. The girl collapsed in a heap on the floor, sobbing and crying. She sounded like a wounded animal howling. Her body was shuddering with sobs.

Chapter two

The sun had gone down leaving the room with long dark shadows. The girl realised that she was stiff and cursed herself for letting memories flood her brain. She recalled being sedated after she found out about her mum at the hospital, being numb with grief at the funeral as her parent's coffins were placed in the wet, cold, sickly smelling soil side by side. Lots of people had offered her condolences that day and had said how awful she must feel. Lizzie said nothing. Grief eating away at her, emotionally and physically, like maggots attacking rotting flesh.

She had nothing left. Her parents were dead, she lived with an aunt that hated her and all other relatives were dead, or so she thought. She had nothing or no one to turn to now except her horse. It had a black coat with a black mane and tail. The tail and mane had blonde bits in the tips, like it had been dipped in peroxide. It had two white socks and a white blaze on its face. She had saw it at a local horse show when she had gone with her parents, when she saw it, she knew that this was the horse she had to have. After weeks of badgering and persuading, her parents had relented and bought her the horse. She named it Blaze due to the markings on its face.

She hated living with her aunt. Her aunt was a cruel hard woman who had neither a kind, compassionate nor a pleasant bone in her body. Her aunt forced her to work in the house; the place was to be kept tidy at all times. She was discouraged to have friends and the only fun Lizzie was allowed to have was to keep Blaze, so whenever it was possible, Lizzie was at the stables, grooming, tidying, riding, anything as long as she wasn't at her aunts. Lizzie longed to run away or to find a relative that would take her and blaze away.

 It was out riding Blaze that she had found the place she was now, a place that seemed a million miles from a place that she had never called home.

She had made up her mind to leave her aunts after her aunt had been especially nasty and had hit Lizzie across the room for not cleaning one of her silver candlesticks properly. Lizzie was often beaten, often over the most stupid things like being alive, and the fact that the courts placed her in her aunt's care. Now, Lizzie had had enough. She was sick of being treated like a servant and not doing the things she wanted to do. She was leaving, she didn't care how or where she would go, all she knew was that she was leaving the next night.

The day was hot and had blue skies for miles around. Lizzie had rushed home from school that day in order to get a ride in before she left Her aunt wasn't in. She got changed and raced to the stables, with a bag containing all her special and prized possessions.

 Before long she had Blaze groomed and tacked up, ready for a hack around the nearby fields, she had taken her bag with her. Somehow, she didn't know how, she got lost. The track that she had ridden across, just days before was different and strange. The day turned into night and Lizzie found she didn't know where she was.

Chapter three

People that passed by were dressed in richly, but in a strange style. The style looked rich with clothes cut to fit the persons shape and the fabrics dyed elegant colours like gold, and crimson but they were unlike any clothes they had seen before. Passers by stared at her; some pointed and called out that she was the one the king had spoke about, a person that was not from this world but a different one, she was the one that the fore seers had described.

After stopping at a local tavern, Lizzie found out that the country she was in was called Tortall; the city she was staying at was called Corus, at the other end of the city lived the king. She stayed at the tavern for three months.

Chapter Four

During this time she learnt that there were many types of magic's; water, flame, thread, seeing of the future, weather and healing to name a few. The people that had magic were called Mages and were taught at the university in Corus. People could have magic and not know it, these people had to be found and learn to control this magic otherwise terrible things could happen.

Lizzie helped behind the bar, the landlord had offered her a job after she had burst into tears and blurted out her entire story. Thom, the landlord, felt the least he could do for her was offer a job and a warm bed. In return, Lizzie helped out in the tavern. She had got new clothes and had learnt an adequate amount about Tortall; it's language and its people.

Lizzie remembered giving a sigh, that night was especially busy and her feet were killing her. She longed to sit down and rest a while but knew that she still had another hour at least of her shift. Suddenly, the noisy drunken rowdiness died down and a hushed whisper swept through the crowd. "The king" was the whisper. This passed from person to person. The room was completely silent, you could of heard a pin drop.

Chapter Five

The crowd parted like a crowd disbanding away from someone that had a contagious disease. True to the hushed rumour, the king was indeed in the tavern.

He was tall and had a muscular build. He had smoky brown hair and brilliant green eyes. His eyelashes were so long that on any other male they would of seemed feminine but somehow they looked right on him. " I'm looking for a girl called Lizzie. I was told she works here, does anyone know her?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at Lizzie, who in turn blushed and said aloud "I am her, I mean, I am she" the king turned to look at her and immediately bore her off to talk to her alone. During their talk, Lizzie discovered that the king had been looking for her ever since she had arrived and that she had a strong magical power that had to be kept under control quickly because she was close to losing her control.

The next day, after her talk with the king, Lizzie moved into the palace. Here she would receive training to help with her magic. As she packed, Lizzie recalled the previous nights talk with the king.

"I understand that you have been with us for about three months now Lizzie. Where are your parents?" This was that first thing the king had asked her. Lizzie had told him the truth about where she had come from and what had happened in her life, all except one secret that she had kept from everybody. The only person to know about this secret was her aunt. Someday she might tell him, but for now, she kept it to herself. After that, the king, having realised that she didn't want to talk about herself, changed the subject and asked her about how she was finding Tortall and asked her to come live in the palace in order to learn about her magic.

Magic, one thing that as a little girl, Lizzie had always wished she had. The ability to magic herself away from the room when her parents started one of their fights or when she wanted to get away from her aunt. Now, she knew she had magic and she was determined to learn how to use it quickly. "Perhaps", she silently added to herself, "If I learn to use my magic good enough then the king won't send me back to my aunt". With this comment, Lizzie allowed herself a grin, something that was rare to see since the day her parents had died.

Thom was sad to see her leave and told her if she ever needed a friend then he was there. Lizzie was surprised at how much she was going to miss him, she enjoyed staying up late talking to him, learning about life and hearing funny tales from his childhood. But life at the palace, where she would learn magic, wild magic- the ability to talk and heal animals, and if she was strong enough, also change into animal form, was what she was looking forward to. She couldn't wait. All day, while she had been packing and saying goodbye, she had kept seeing flashes of copper, sometimes on people handling animals, and on the animals themselves.

The trip to the palace was fun, mainly because she hadn't explored this part of Corus yet. "Someday" she told herself, "someday." The view from the hill looking down at the palace, with the town and market surrounding it, was a sight that Lizzie was never going to forget. The sun was setting behind the palace giving the palace a golden glow. There was a bridge at the bottom of the hill, crossing to a bustling market place, where everyone was packing up for the day. Woman held baskets of food and clothes. Men were taking down stalls. Children ran underfoot, playing and joking with one another. The market place smelt of honey and sweet tasting foods. It had flowers, roses, lilies and other exotic flowers, dotted about near to seated areas, their fragrance refreshing and cool. The market place ended and made way for houses. Most were flat roofed, with rope ladders hanging down that people could climb; street gangs used them for climbing up so they could spy and hang around on top of the houses. These were poorly conditioned homes, for people with not a lot of money. These also gave way, this time to better houses, many had enormous gardens that stretched out the length of a football pitch and contained flowers, trees, fountains. Lizzie soon left all this behind and found herself at the palace. This contained about 1000 servants. There was also mages and students, noble families and pages, squires and knights stationed at the palace. Lizzie couldn't believe how big it was. She settled in quickly, and as the sun gave its final glow of light before giving way to darkness, her stomach gave a rumble, reminding her that she hadn't eaten for a while.

Chapter six

The king himself came to she her, and asked her how she was settling in. He said that if she was up to it, then she could start lessons straight away. Lizzie stomach stopped rumbling and she eagerly accepted with a delighted look on her face.

The first lesson was meditation. Lizzie had to tidy her mind up –spring cleaning, the king called it, in other words, store things in order so that she could find her magic quickly if she needed it. She learnt quickly and within the space of three hours, had stored everything neatly. The king was surprised at how little time it had taken her. " Perhaps you are stronger than I thought" To save her from answering, Lizzie's stomach rumbled, causing them both to go into fits of laughter. "Come on my little magelet, let's get you something to eat" Lizzie continued to smile as she thought to herself "maybe life at the palace is going to be fun after all"

The lessons started to fly by, days at the palace turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, before she knew it, Lizzie had been at the palace for a year. During this time, Lizzie had visited Thom whenever she could, and helped villages around the country fight against bandits, pirates, and people determined to go to war against Tortall. She helped by telling animals how to fight, where to hit the enemy, by doing such things like spoiling their food and keeping them up all night. "An enemy that is weary and hungry is an enemy half beat, after all an army marches on its stomach and everyone needs sleep", she had been told this by Jonathon once at Port Legann. She had also learnt everything that she could from king Jonathon.

Chapter seven

She dreaded the meeting she was going to have with him this afternoon. She had grown to love Tortall, its culture, people and Jonathon. She decided that if Jonathon was going to send her back, then she had better go and pack now, taking her bag with her to the meeting.

"Come in and have a seat" King Jonathon was unusually formal with her. "Ok, as you know, we have come to the end of our lessons together. I wonder if instead of going back, as I can see you want to do by bringing your bag with you to this meeting…. No don't say anything I haven't finished yet. As I was saying, if instead of going back you would perhaps stay here and become my wife?"

Lizzie was speechless, she loved the king, but she had no idea he had even a tiny bit of the same feelings as her. "Lizzie?" Jonathon had got down on one knee now, " Will you marry me and let me spend the rest of my life with you?"  " Yes, Oh I've loved you for a long time now, are you sure you want to marry me? What about the fact you're the king, doesn't that mean that you can only marry other royalty?"

"Well technically yes, but I have asked everyone their opinion, and they all agree that you are suitable so really its up to you, its fine if you don't want to and want to go home" At this Jonathon looked sad. " You didn't listen to my answer a minute ago did you?  Of course I'll marry you, I've been madly in love with you for ages now and I only bought my bag with me because I thought you was going to send me back" By the time, Lizzie had said this, Jonathon had come over and kissed her on her lips and hugged her tightly. When what she said sunk in, he spun her round and round laughing.

The wedding was held in the palace grounds at the god of weddings temple. They were blessed and when it was over, they danced under the stars until they could stand no more, and when they could no longer stand, they sat hugging, each of them wanting to stay awake as long as possible in order to remember that moment for the rest of their life.