Snow
Chapter one: Surprises
By Aeris
I don't own these characters Tamora Pierce does, I would like to but I'm poor. *Sob* I'm just a person writing fan fiction because I have nothing to do! Okay, okay.
The winter snow fell briskly onto the ground. The frosty winters night made the palace a chilly place to be. Fires burned in the hearths in the many rooms. Pages, and Squires served the new Knights and nobles at the mid-winter feasts. Tortall was a winter wonderland not an inch of land had not been covered with snow.
"You know Kel," Nealan of Queenscove said. "I like being on this side better."
"Maybe you do," Owen of Jesslaw, a squire, muttered.
"I like it better here to Neal." Kel agreed with a cheerful smile. I wonder where Cleon is. He's been gone for so long now I really miss him. Kel though grimly.
"I think out friend has been hit by a horse." Neal remarked with a half smile trying to cheer up Kel. "I'm sure lover boy will be home soon."
"Are we a worst kept secret then Raoul and Beri?" Kel asked dryly as she looked at her food.
"About as bad as a ten foot bear trying to hid behind a tree." Neal told her. Kel sighed and returned to picking at her food. "You really love him, don't you." Kel chocked on her food, the "l" word. The unspoken word, but known, she hoped. Truth be told she liked Cleon a lot but wasn't sure if she loved him. She didn't get those feelings in her stomach like she used to for Neal or did for Dom. She tossed around several ideas like this.
Hum, maybe she doesn't love him. Neal though as he looked at Kel's face. "Kel?"
"Huh?" Kel said jumping in surprise. Neal was about to answer when the next course came. Oh well, next time. Neal promised himself as the dinner continued.
*~*
"You look beautiful my lady." Lalasa told Kel that night.
"You know I hate balls," Kel scowled as Lalasa did her hair, "And why is it that knights just have to go?"
"You've became more like your former knight-master," Lalasa teased her. "And balls aren't that bad my lady." Lalasa patted Kel's shoulder. "Now you look like a lady knight should. Be feminine, yet strong, spirited, yet kind, be a lady, but a knight as well." Kel smiled at Lalasa and thanked her for the new dress. It was a red dress that befriended Kel's figure. "That dress looks good on you my lady."
"Oh Lalasa, you could make Lord Wyldon look good in a dress." Kel told her and thanked her again and Lalasa laughed.
"I'm not so sure I could make Lord Wyldon look so good in a dress, he has no figure." Lalasa told her.
"You'd be amazed," Merric said as he, Neal, and Owen came in for their inspection.
"You couldn't get The Stump in a dress for his life. Even if you did Kel's very beautiful red dress would not suit him, no he needs a spicy purple dress, to really bring out his feminine side." Neal said as he looked at his lady knight friend. She looked very beautiful, he noted.
"I'm sure a spicy purple dress would look lovely on you too Neal." Kel said as she shock her head at Neal. "Honestly, you look a mess. Did you even bother to comb your hair?"
"Yes, but my darned fingers just mess it up again," he replied grinning. Lalasa, too, shock her head at Neal's messy hair. Other then that he looked rather attractive in his tunic and formal breeches. Lalasa and Kel straitened out them, eventually. "What would we do without you Kel?"
"Be dirty." Kel replied as she and he friends made her way to the royal hall. Merric went to find his date, a short and scrawny blond with mysterious brown eyes. Owen's date was a tall red head with several freckles and a bewitching smile. Neal had no date, nor did Kel. She hopped that Cleon would be back by now, she mentally sighed.
"Shall we go in?" Neal said offering her his arm. Kel stared at him. "I don't bite, and besides it's just as friends. You don't have anyone to go in with, I don't have anyone to in with."
"We both win then, huh?" Kel said smiling at him.
"Besides, what fun is it alone?" Neal asked as they went in. "Doesn't the queen look simply marvelous tonight?"
"You know she is taken." Kel said sighing at her friend's behavior around beautiful women.
"Ah, yes but it is fun to dream." He told her.
"You never aim to high, do you?" She asked mocking him.
"Me, I aim for the starts and higher!" he said with a laugh making Kel laugh.
"You know Neal, you never cease to amaze me." Kel remarked dryly.
"I do know! It's dull in here, people dancing that's all, not even good music." Neal said with a sigh of boredom. "The king should do away with these retched things." He waved his hands.
"If you were with a beautiful woman you'd be giddy as well." Kel pointed out to him.
"I am, and I'm not." He said with that grin that could be a smirk. "Let us go outside, so we may be free of this horrible blood wrenching experience that has been shoved toward us."
"You sound as if you are a dieing cow." Kel said as she followed Neal outside.
"Don't say that in front of Daine," he told her. The garden of the palace was covered with lairs of snow that hasn't been stepped on. The trees supported the snow that lay on the branches were leaves once had been. Icicles hung off rooftops and gave the palace a spectacular radiance. Few patches of green grass shown through the very white flakes from the horses that carried the pages. "I like winter when I'm not being forced by the Stump to ride or run in it." Neal said as he and Kel looked at the work of Jack Frost had done.
"You like everything better as a knight." Kel pointed out.
"Yes, yes I do." He said nodding causing Kel to laugh. "So much more freedom as a knight, you still have to obey orders from someone though." He sighed. "Kel, you really do look really beautiful tonight." A faint blush crossed his cheeks.
Kel smiled, "Thank you Neal."
*~*
A week passed by and there was still no sign of Cleon or the other knights. King Jonathan decided against sending out more knights. The king sighed and turned in his bed, Thayet sound asleep next to him. He hated war no he loathed war. He sighed and finally went to sleep.
In his dreams there stood a Goddess, no a Demon in the mist of the night she shimmered with beauty. Her face was cold as night and as pure as the moon. She had wings that were of bats and ears too. Her cloth was nothing more then a simple black dress that showed her stomach, arms, and a majority of her legs. She smirked and laughed a cruel high-pitched laugh as her small callused hands into a tight fist. A simple black rose appeared in front of her she grasped it and a white power fell over her. She chuckled and clenched the power in her hands, it gave her ever more eerie glow the memorized her features. She lowered down, as if she was bowing laughed and flu away.
Jonathan woke with a jolt and started panting; he looked over at his Queen and gaped. "Thayet." He cried.
~*~
Hahaha! I will only continue if I get good reviews.
Preview of next chapter:
The war at the north is over-- to lead to more war-- with a cretin group of demons.