Chapter 1.

Jane worried her lip as she glanced down thoughtfully as she sat on her bed. Her mother had just informed her of the large upcoming ball, but had promptly exclaimed with annoyance that Jane 'wouldn't be there anyway, so why was she telling her?' With that she'd gone to find her sixteen-year old sister, Kate and Princess Lavinia. Kate had been living with her aunt by the seaside for most of her life, as when she was younger she'd been quite ill and the doctor had ordered rest.

Her aunt was well known for her extremely good methods for training young ladies in etiquette and manners, and this was also the reason as to why hardly anyone had known or spoken of Kate in Kippernium Castle.

Kate had initially grown up with a strong will to follow her older sister into knighthood, but as she grew, she started to like the more girly aspects of life. It started with the large shopping trips with her friends, the clothes, the make-up and the want to go to any parties neighbouring families were throwing. Now, Kate was perfectly happy to be groomed into the next lady in waiting… Or snagging herself a nice, wealthy husband with honours and a knighthood… Or a kingdom.

Jane however, had always been perfectly clear in what she wanted; a knighthood, no distractions. That included missing out on balls, as she had to prove that she could be a knight; heart and soul, and not some weird hybrid of warrior and flouncy female. True, she'd missed the fun she'd had of dancing in the corner with her friends; as children weren't allowed to fully participate in balls. But she would have been expected to fully attend balls as an adult for at least three years by now, as she had just turned her nineteenth summer.

Now, nonetheless, everyone had gotten used to Jane not attending and simply assumed that she'd miss this one as well. But... this time Jane actually did want to attend. She wanted to dress up and look nice and dance all night and flirt with handsome boys. Being a knight was great, she felt like her life had a purpose and it wasn't to make someone else's life nicer. But every once and awhile she'd look at the village girls giggling together as they watched the strong farmer boys at the market and feel like she was missing out on something.

Usually she'd cheer herself up by saying 'at least Gunther has the same problems as me!' but that wasn't the case. More and more often the village girls would stop and giggle at Gunther too, as he went by to help the Merchant. Gunther had developed into the strong body of a twenty-one year old with a handsome face that the girls swooned over. Gone was the lanky, snivelling, greasy haired little boy and in its place was a tall, lean, charming man with an easy grin. He and Jane had out-grown their mean, petty rivalry and now had friendly banter. Of course their arguments frequently got heated, which was not unusual for them, but they still managed to be good friends.

Gunther was a now a member of Jane's group of friends, having been 'sworn in' at about sixteen, when he had to do a dare to be accepted. In this case it was to wake the Wizard in the middle of the night.

The Wizard was notoriously grumpy if awoken and it had ended up with Gunther being bald for about a month and a constant stream of 'baldy' jokes that continued long after his hair had grown back.

Jane sighed and looked out her window at Dragon snoring on the castle wall. If she even went, what would she wear? What would she say to everyone's shocked faces? 'What? I suddenly decided after 7 to 8 years of absolutely refusing to go to a ball that I decided to go now?'

It had nothing, whatsoever, that she wanted to surprise a certain someone with her (maybe) good looks (if a dress couldn't do that, Jane was starting to think that nothing could). It had nothing to do with the fact that, now, suddenly she wanted someone to notice that she just wasn't a knight in training, but a girl. And as such, allowed to dress-up and 'wow' everyone. It also had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to dance with someone, have them whisper her praises all night long and find out that that someone was a someone to love (because what was the use of a life, if you couldn't share it?).

And it had nothing to do with the fact that those handsome farmer boys would talk with her as if she was one of the guys and not show a tiny bit of interest in her romantically.

Jane was now faced with a dilemma; either, not go to the ball and satisfy everyone's accepted view of her (a lady knight, crusading for the rights of her land and country, a beacon of hope for all other females!) as it was this image that Jane wanted, what she had wanted to build up for herself, she had fought so long for that image! or, go to the ball and listen to everyone's whispers of surprise and amusement that she'd finally attended and maybe enjoy herself, but even more possibly, never able to live down that moment of weakness?

Jane whirled around and sprinted out her door and down the steps. She had to find Smithy and Jester, now! They would know what to do and not spread it like dragonfire all over the castle.