Set right in between Kel's talk with the Monarchs about Joren's case and Kel's kiss with Cleon. Like right in the middle so that Kel is free to think of other men and she has lots of money ^_^

Kel reached up to twirl her fingers in her mouse-brown hair only to find that it was absent. She sighed.

You're the one who agreed on letting Neal cut your hair, she scolded herself mentally. You're not allowed to miss it!

But she did and she couldn't do anything to bring her brown locks back.

Finishing off the last problem given to her by her Knight Master, Sir Raoul, she put the quill down with a sigh of relief. Math happens to get boring as time goes on and she was getting restless. Looking around, she spotted her old cloak and her purse of gold nobles she got from Joren's fine. Lalasa would not accept the last twenty-five gold nobles and Kel had no use for them. If she turned them into copper nobles, then she might be able to distribute all her unneeded money amongst the houses in the lower city. Yes; that is what she was going to do.

Kel dressed as a commoner in a blouse which was fastened with a belt and some short trousers. She slipped ten silver nobles in her shoes in case she got hungry and put a dagger on her belt in case she got into trouble. She thought about bringing a leather thong and remembered: her hair wasn't long enough to tie up. She sighed as she threw on her cloak and stuffed the bag of gold nobles in her pocket.

Maybe Neal has enough change, she thought as Jump barked at her. She pet the dog as a good bye and walked out of the door. Crown flew out of the room just in time for Kel to close the door without squishing her and began to chirp angrily. Jump also continued to bark even with the door closed. "What's wrong, Crown?" she asked. Kel had learned to listen to animals when they wanted to be heard, especially the ones that had been in the presence of Daine the Wildmage. But she couldn't understand her sparrow right now and she didn't know what she should do. Daine was not present at the moment and there was no one else who could understand birds.

Crown continued to cherp angrily as Kel stroked her head and walked down the hallway. She gave one loud trill and bit the finger that kel was stroking her with as if to say "I don't want to be pet!" Kel's finger instantly snapped back. "Ow," she said, licking the blood. "What was that fow?" she mumbled with her finger in her mouth. Crown flew off her shoulder and went back to her door. The sparrow's stare snapped from door to Kel as if she wanted Kel to stay inside that day.

"If you want to stay, stay," she said. "Surely you'll find a way inside. You're brilliant."

Crown flew swiftly to Kel and held onto her hair with her beak. She tried flying back to the room, pulling Kel's hair with her. "Crown!" she exclaimed. "What do you want me to do? Open the door?"

The bird let go and nodded. Kel obeyed and unlocked the door. "There. Now stop injuring me."

She cherped and proceeded to try and pull Kel inside the room. "What do you expect me to do all day? Laze around? I can't do that, Crown. You know me."

The sparrow finally gave up on her mission to keep Kel inside and resolved to perch on her shoulder once more.

"Gosh," Kel muttered, locking up the door again. She saw that Jump looked at her anxiously, wagging her crooked tail. What was wrong? She wondered. It's probably a storm coming.

True, there were clouds outside but they weren't that dark enough to produce a storm. Maybe a few drops but not a storm. It bothered her that her animals were acting this way as there was no threat coming. She walked down the hallways reluctantly, thinking.

Finally, she came to the familiar door that led to her friend's chambers. Kel rapped on the door and a response came immediately.

"Oh, Kel. It's you," he said, disappointed. "I was expecting my Lady Knight to come by. She says that she's got something special for me."

"Oh," she said with a tinge of envy. To think that the Lioness might've been Kel's squire… But that was just it- a thought. Kel shoved it away and focused on the purpose of her visit. "I'm going to go down to the Lower City to distribute my unneeded money to the poor," she said with a smile. "Would you like to accompany me?"

Neal's eyes went wide. "Distribute unneeded money to the poor?" he asked to confirm her words. She nodded. He opened her mouth to speak and closed it again. "I forgot. You're Kel. The Kel that would go to the ends of the world if it meant the safety of commoners," he said. "No. I would like to stay here and wait for the Lioness."

Kel nodded in recognition. "Of course," she said. "But I don't happen to have enough change for the whole lower city…"

"And you thought that I might," he finished her sentence. Kel smiled sheepishly. "Just wait," he said, disappearing into his rooms. "How much do you need?" His voice was a bit distant.

Twenty-five times one hundred copper nobles… Kel calculated in her mind. "Two thousand and five hundred copper nobles," she replied. No one else was in the hallway so she found it safe to yell out the large sum of money. Neal whistled in awe but Kel could definitely hear the jingle of a lot of coins.

"I only have two thousand copper nobles" he said, emerging from his room. "Here." He handed Kel two purses filled with money.

"And this is for you," Kel said, popping out twenty of her twenty-five gold nobles. "I'll look for the last five hundred somewhere else."

"On second thought, I'll go to the library for the day. Whatever my Lady Knight wants to give me can wait," he said, accepting the coins. "I'd like to feed my brain some knowledge before I'm dragged away to heal a village or slay immortals."

Kel chuckled. "I'm afraid that I can't relate," she said, smiling.

"Knights barely can," he sighed.

"Well, enjoy your day at the library," She said. "And thank you, by the way."

"No, thank you," Neal drawled. "Now, I don't need to carry all those heavy coins."

Kel smiled and turned to leave. She had walked quite a distance when she heard footsteps run to catch up with her. "Take care of yourself, Kel," Neal said, gravely serious. "The lower city is a dangerous place."

By now, he was walking alongside her. "Of course," Kel snorted. "I can handle myself. And when Raoul asks where I am, tell him that I'm visiting a friend."

"Of course you can," Neal said. "Just be careful." He murmured a good-bye, picked up his pace and turned in the direction of the library.

Kel began to feel wary of her endeavor. Maybe today wasn't the best day to do this. She shoved the thought away. Was there a difference between this day and any other?

She walked down into the lower city and looked around. Children were chasing each other under the afternoon sun gleefully, unaware of the world's horrors. Blacksmiths were hammering away at hot metal, determined to shape them into one thing or another. A vendor dozed on a hammock inside their shop as he waited for customers. A sign hung on the wall that read:

Wake me up if you require assistance.

Kel laughed inwardly. Weren't they afraid of being robbed? A little more walking led her to a series of houses that were not in bad condition. They actually just needed new paint and they would've looked much nicer. This is where Kel began to slide three copper nobles under each door. Whenever someone passed by, she stopped and pretended to stretch or fan herself because of the heat. It wouldn't do good for someone to find her with all this money.

As she progressed, she noticed that the houses started looking worse and worse. By then, she decided on five copper nobles for each household. Near the end of the houses, she decided upon six because the houses looked like they with in such bad shape that they could fall in at any moment.

Putting the empty purse in the pocket of her cloak, she surveyed her surroundings. It was well near sunset and surely, sir Raoul was looking for her. She noticed her stomach growl.

"I'll need to find some food," she said to herself. "I'll buy some fruit from that sleeping vendor." She walked back up the path with her hood down. A voice from behind her made her jump.

"Excuse me miss," it said. "But you don't happen to have a map, do you?"

She spun, ready to attack and noticed that it was just a teenage boy. "No, why?"

"I seem to be lost in your eyes," he said with a smile.

Kel laughed. "That's not the first time I've heard that."

"Nor do I expect it to be, my lady," he said, noticing cheesy lines wouldn't work on the mysterious girl. "I'm sure that you've had many swoons before me."

Kel blushed at the comment. "Well, you're wrong," she said modestly. "Only a blind man would be interested in the girl who was built on the lines of a cow"

"Well then I seem to have lost my ability to see because you are very beautiful in my eyes," he said.

Kel laughed. She was about to point out that she couldn't be beautiful in his eyes if he'd lost his ability to see when he spoke again. "What's your name?"

"Kelly or Kel if you please." Her eyes flicked to the brown-eyed boy. "Yours?"

"Damean." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with suspicion. "You must be a thief."

"Why? Because I've stolen your heart?" Kel guessed.

"No, but that's a good one," he said with a smile. "I mean how else would you have gotten all that money for those people?"

"Oh," she said. "You saw that?"

He nodded. "You did a wonderful thing, even if it was done by thievery."

"I do what I can to help other people," she said as if what she did was nothing at all. Actually, it wasn't much considering that she didn't actually need the money. But she couldn't tell him that. If Damean was what she thought he was, then telling him that she was a noble would make their relationship... complicated. He might use her for money or even rob her on the spot. Not to mention if he was a conservative, he would surely treat her differently. It was just as good that she didn't plan on telling him much about herself for they probably wouldn't meet in the future.

"I also noticed that you gave away all your loot," he said.

She nodded. It was okay. She still had ten silver nobles in her shoes and the five gold nobles left over.

"So let me buy you dinner," he suggested.

Kel started to walk back towards the palace. "You can't possibly be serious," she said, shaking her head.

"Well I am and I won't take 'no' of an answer," he said, catching up with her. He turned around to start walking backwards. "Just one meal," he insisted.

She studied the young man. He was dressed as she was in a shirt and trousers. He had only a dagger to defend himself but Kel guessed that a dagger was all he could afford. His arms showed evidence of hard labour- probably on a farm or in a blacksmith. His light, brown hair was cut short, covered his forehead and seemed to have a habit of sticking up in all directions. He had pink lips, pale blue eyes and a pert nose. Freckles were dusted across his face from one rosy cheek to the other. His left eyebrow was cut in half- probably from a recent fight. Even though he had muscles of his own, Kel knew that she could probably immobilize the youth in a few minutes if she wanted to.

Heck, Raoul won't miss me. And besides, I hardly ever go down here, Kel thought. But then, she realized that it would do no good to lead the boy on.

"No," she said firmly. A frown marred his features.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Kel nodded. "So you do want to go eat dinner with me?" Kel shook her head vigorously. "So you're not sure."

Kel sighed in exasperation. "Stop putting words in my mouth."

He put on a half smile. "Then start talking to me."

"No, I do not agree to eat dinner with you and yes, I'm sure."

"Then how about a conversation over tea?" he suggested.

She shook her head. "No."

"A walk by the lake?"

Again, she shook her head. "Nope."

"A discussion on a bench."

She looked at him. "Really," she said in an 'is-that-the-best-you've-got' tone. "I mean: Really?"

He shrugged.

What a poor man, she thought. Kel truly pondered the possibility of accepting. And in the end, she did. "A walk by the lake and that's it." Her voice was serious.

"Of course, milady." He took her hand. "Let's go."

She let herself be pulled through dark alleys and in between laughing children. They stopped at a big blue lake that resembled the one in her head that she went to so that she could calm down. The lake was not distorted in the slightest, not even one wave. It resembled glass so much that Kel felt that she could step on it and she wouldn't fall in.

"This is la lac calme," he announced. She blinked at him. What did you say? she thought. "It's Tusaine for The Calm Lake."

Kel nodded, understanding why it was named so. "Why didn't they just name it the calm lake?" she asked.

"Because the Calm Lake in common sounds so corny," he said as if she should know.

Kel laughed. "Of course."

"Wait here," he instructed. "There should be a few fishing rods in the cabin."

She nodded and watched him disappear into a small house-like structure by the lake. Kel took off her boots and rolled up her trousers. Gingerly, she dipped her sore feet into the water and gasped at the temperature. You'd think that after a day of sun that the lake would be warm, she thought.

All of a sudden, something sharp stung in her arm and she gasped in shock at the sudden pain. She looked at her forearm to see something sharp and deadly-looking buried in her arm. There was a much bigger part sticking out and Kel guessed that it was some sort of compartment to hold poison of some sort. She took it out of her skin and the hole started bleeding sluggishly. Her mind raced with thoughts of regret and she scolded herself for her stupidity. Even after all those signs, she didn't listen and now, she's in a very bad position. She started to feel light-headed and dizzy and swayed.

"Help!" she called, swaying on the bank of the lake. "Help!"

No one came. Kel felt helpless and she hated the feeling. She was supposed to be a great warrior and one mistake could take much more than just her dream away. "Damean!" she called in vain. Damean was standing behind her already, whispering in her ear.

"Shh. It'll be quick, I swear," he said softly into her ear.

She tried making herself awake, very alarmed by his words. What was he planning on doing?

But he tied up her hands behind her back and hefted her onto his shoulder, wondering how a village girl could get so heavy.

She felt very sleepy and her eyes began to droop as Damean carried her to the other side of the lake where there was a bigger house. She told her body to kick, thrash, do something to get out of this situation. Her body wouldn't listen. All it seemed to want to do was sleep or rest at the very least. Kel kept her mind awake, trying to remember all the alleys that they passed on their way to the lake. She just couldn't remember them all. He had been running too fast and Kel didn't get a good look around while they ran. She kicked herself mentally. What had you been thinking! she thought. What were you drinking to make such a reckless decision!

Now was not the time to scold herself, however. She had to keep herself awake! Kel started to have an idea of what they planned on doing with her and she wanted to vomit at the thought. Her body and her eyes felt so heavy that they could fall onto the ground and well past that. She decided to sleep. If death was to come, then she would rather spend her last moments dreaming happy dreams.

(A/N) As always, I'd love reviews and any critique is welcome as well. This will be Kel/Neal eventually. My decision about the paring doesn't waver in the slightest. This will have 2+ chapters and 5 will most likely be the most. I hope you enjoy the story ^_^

The warmest regards,

Nell