'Ahhhhh! She's going to kill me!' Neal screamed as he ran down one of the many halls of Pirate's Swoop.
Aly poked her head out of the room she was in and saw Neal running towards her. She had been working on a report for George and was rather annoyed at the interruption. Aly hadn't been in a good mood recently and her mother being home was not helping her cause.
As Neal ran past she put her foot out and he fell onto his face. Trying to regain some dignity, with much difficulty, he stood up and faced her.
'What was that for?' he demanded.
'You were running around screaming. What do you think it was for?' she asked him wryly, one eyebrow lifted.
'But she was trying to kill me!' Neal protested and tried to run off again before Alanna appeared.
'Who's trying to kill who?' George enquired as he came up the steps reading paperwork. 'Aly, have you finished the report yet?' he asked his daughter.
'Well I would have, if I hadn't been interrupted,' she said and gave an evil-looking death-glare in Neal's direction.
'What was the interruption about, Nealan? We all have very important work to get done here,' George said.
'My knight mistress is trying to kill me,' Neal explained and glanced around the corner he came from.
'Now why is my lass trying to kill you this time?' George asked, looking up from his paperwork.
'I don't know! I didn't say anything! I even submitted to a fencing match with her!' Neal said, paranoid.
'That's a first,' Aly muttered, and at the look on her father's face, disappeared once more.
'Come on. I will go talk to her. Stay in this room while I try to talk her around into not killing you,' he said, showing Neal which room to hide in.
Neal slowly opened the door…
Splash! A bucket of mud was tipped on his head.
Neal took two minutes trying to get all the mud from his ears, eyes and nose. Basically his whole face needed to have mud removed. He opened his eyes and took in the room he was meant to go in. His eyes widened.
His knight mistress, the Baroness Alanna, known for her sharp tongue and short temper, was rolling on the floor in laughter.
The sound of more laughter behind him made him turn around. Aly and Alan were there as well, laughing their heads off. George had vanished, grinning.
'And he didn't even realise,' Alan managed to gasp before laughing again, this time hitting the floor. Aly nudged him with her foot.
'Seriously, Alan?' she asked and walked off, but her laughter was easily heard throughout the castle.
'I thought you wanted to kill me,' a terrified Neal said and Alanna patted the chair next to her in an obvious invitation to sit down. Neal backed away, wary of more tricks the Lioness might pull.
'No. I needed a laugh and this is what I came up with,' she said and started laughing again.
'Evil woman,' Neal muttered.
'Nealan, I'm not as scary as most people say I am.' Neal stared at her. 'Just because I know how to swing a sword better then most does not mean that I am a crazy sword swinging goddess who is likely to try and kill you. And as for my temper… it has gotten better. You should have seen it when I was younger,' she said.
'Please, my lady, don't call me Nealan. Only my least favourite Aunt and the Stump call me that,' Neal said in reply.
'Who's the Stump?' Alanna asked and watched Neal's face turn interestingly pale.
'No one,' he squeaked and tried to run off again. Unfortunately for him, being married to a former King of Thieves turned spymaster didn't leave you without fast reactions.
Alanna grabbed him by the back of the shirt and dragged him back down.
'Who is the Stump?' she asked him again.
'Wyldon,' Neal muttered back. He was surprised to say the least when Alanna looked fit to die with laughter.
'That is the best nickname I have ever heard for him. I don't believe it!' she said in between bouts of hysterical laughter.
'Oh no,' Neal heard someone mutter from behind the now closed door. 'She's lost it again.'
'Really? How?' asked another voice this one was definitely one of a young boy. The other was of a young girl. The twins! He thought.
'Neal. You don't have to worry. I am not going to bite your head off anytime soon. I might if you do something to provoke my temper but I have the feeling that we are going to get along just perfectly.'
Neal grimaced, wondering what her version of perfectly was. 'Now go and change out of those muddy clothes and then come to the library. I have a book which I think you will enjoy,' she said, getting up and leaving the room.
Neal sat there staring. Did the Lioness really just say what he just heard? Or was his selective hearing coming into play there. And wasn't the Lioness known for hating speeches?
Wait. She said she wanted to show a book to me, he thought and ran off to go and get changed.