Well here it is. The second chaper of my newest story. Hope you like it. Don't forget to review when you reach the end. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The light was just entering the room when Jenny opened her eyes. She looked around her and found that she was alone in a room with two doors. She climbed out of the bed that she had been sleeping in and walked over to the window. She wore a white night gown and white slippers. A very cold wind flew around her when she opened the shutters to admit more light, confused that the room lacked any light switches or light fixtures. The only source of light that might brighten the room at night were candles and a fireplace, who's fire was currently banked.
Gazing out the window and into the court yard four stories below, Jenny saw that the ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow. Wasn't it June? What the hell is going on here? she thought, desperately searching for some clue as to where she was and what had become of her friends.
She took a deep breath and shut her eyes, praying that when she opened them, she would be back at the library with Nicole, Brenna, and Katlin. Her hopes were dashed when she opened her eyes once more to discover that her surroundings had not changed. Fearful of what was happening, Jenny cautiously explored the rest of the room. The wooden floor was covered by an oriental style looking rug, and her bed sheets were made of a warm fabric that she couldn't name, but when she examined the workmen ship, she knew that something so finely made must have cost a fortune. Next to her bed was a small table with a candle on it. On one wall was a wooden desk with a sturdy chair. Another wall had a wooden closet and a door. Opening the door, she found what she thought was a bathroom. Turning around she noticed the other door, which she figure lead out of the bedroom. She went over to the desk and noticed a small book on it. Jenny picked the book, and saw that the cover was blank. She didn't want to read it, but it was right there. If it was a diary, wouldn't the owner try and hide it? She flipped through the pages. Half way through the book, something caught her eye:
Papa and Mama were buried today. Lofin pretends it doesn't hurt. He doesn't cry. I believe he's afraid that if we see him cry, we'll cry too. I'm the same way with my sister. She's only nine, after all. I have to be brave, for her sake, but I wish I could tell someone how I feel. It's so lonely here, now that Mama and Papa are gone. Lofin's not around either. King Jonathan sent him to do patrol on the southern boarder. I miss.........
Just then the door she hadn't examined opened to reveal a young women about a year or two older than Jenny's eighteen years.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Does this belong to you?," Jenny asked the woman as she went fireplace and started a fire. Then she put a bucket on it and filled it with water from the piture she carried.
"Mine? Oh, my lady. Surely you jest. You know I can not read or write. All the people knows only nobles may learn such things, and indeed not many do," she said she ran around the room cleaning.
"Nobles? What are you talking about?," Jenny asked the woman. Had she just been called a lady? Nobles in America? Sure she had studied about medieval England in British History just last month, but wasn't that just it, History?
The woman looked at her as if she was crazy. "Lady Jolin, should I fetch a healer? You don't seem well. I know they found you out in the snow with your sister last night exhausted and asleep on your horses, but they said you were fine," she said with tears in her eyes. Obviously, Jenny had upset her in some ways.
Healer? Wasn't that something that Brenna and the others were talking about? Yes, they were the doctors in another world "No, no, I'm fine really. Um... what did you say your name was?"
"My lady?"
"Never mind."
"Very well," the woman told her as she took the heated water and another piture into the washroom. The warm water was poured into a large tub, and the piture set on the table next to it. "Your bath is ready Lady Jolin," she said, rushing out of the room as fast as she could. It was apparent that she thought that Jenny was crazy, and Jenny thought she might be right. After all, how many people woke up and had no clue where they were.
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Dawn was fast approaching when Katlin finally opened her eyes. She felt as if someone had dragged her around and then beaten her over the head. Nowhere near awake, the sixteen year old stumbled out of the nice soft bed she had spent the night in. Her bare feet rubed against the brightly colored carpet on the floor. She shivered in her white nightdress, and went to close the shutters. Katlin peared out into the court yard. Snow? In June? Weird! She was so tired, she didn't realize that something very, very strange was going on. Instead, she just examined the rest of the room. Two doors were set into the walls. One was on her right and the other was on the left. Besides the light that came throught the open shutters, a single candle was lit beside her bed. The fire had been banked in the fireplace, and someone had left the door to the wardrobe slightly ajar. A sturdy desk stood in one of the corners, with a small wooden chair, and there was a brightly colored cusion on it. The fact that her suroundings were very strange finally began to effect her; the suns rays had begun to appear. Katlin went to one of the two doors and opened it to reveil a small washroom, the type from books she had once read. Turning around, she moved to open the other door. All of a sudden the door knob turned and the door opened. Startled, Katlin screamed and fell backward, landing on the nice plush rug.
"Oww..." Katlin pouted as she stood up rubbing her hip that had collided with the unforgiving floor.
"Milady, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," said a man who looked like he might have been her father's age. However, unlike a father, the man refused to meet Katlin's eyes. He started to heat water over the fire and clean the girl's bedroom.
"I'm no lady. I'm just Katlin," she told him, as she backed up to let him do his work. "And if I was a lady, why would there be a man in my bedroom?"
"Lady Kyli, are you ill? Why did you call yourself "Katlin"? Why just last week you were running around the palace making sure that everyone from the lowest servant to the King himself would remember your name when you returned from visiting you brother." The man busied himself with straightening up her bed and then sweeping the floors.
"Um.... well.... um... can we play a game?"
"A game milady? You haven't wanted to play a game with old Qusin since you was little?"
"Well I do now," she told him definantly. She needed answers and she needed them now. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer them as fast as you can and as accurately as you can no matter how stupid."
"Yes, milady."
"What color is the sky?"
"Blue, today, Lady Kyli."
"What month is it?"
"Just the start of January, milady."
"Where are we?"
"The royal palace of Tortall." HA, HA, just the answer she was looking for. Now either she was dreaming, or she was insane.
"What is the air speed velocity of a swallow carrying a coconut?" (I don't own anything from Monty Python; don't sue me.)
"Beg your pardon milady?"
"You got one wrong, I win!"
"Yes, Lady Kyli."
"Thank you, um.... Qusin. That was... fun... yeah... fun. We should play again later."
"Of course, milady," He told her as he went to the washroom to fill her bath with warm water. Katlin just sat in the window seat, terribly confused. Hadn't she just been in the library with her friends? Had she dosed off? Did something hard hit her in the head and take away all her sanity?
"Hum... what?," she said, realizing that Qusin had said something to her.
"I said do you need anything, milady?"
"No thank you. I'm fine."
"Very well, milady. You should go bathe before the water gets cold. Good day, Lady Kyli," Qusin told her as he bowed and left the room, leaving a very confused little sophmore behind and very alone with her thoughts of insanity.
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"Did anyone get the license plate number of that truck that just hit me?" Nicole mumbled as she sat up on a cot and looked around the tent she was in. There was a wash basin in one corner, a mirror in another and a weapon stand in a third. Her cot and saddle bags occupied the fourth. She got off her cot and went to the mirror. Looking in it she noticed that she wore a blue shirt and a pair of forest green breeches. What had happened to her gray t-shirt and jeans? What happened to the library? What had happened to her math book? What had happened to her friends? What had happened period? Thoughts were spinning around her head so fast, Nicole couldn't concentrate on any of them. All she knew is that she wasn't dreaming. She had had dreams about imaginary places before, of rooms like the one she was in now, of cloths that she currently wore, and none of those dreams had felt like this one. In her dreams, everything on the edges of her vision, everthing she wasn't focusing directly on was blurry. Now the entirerty of the room was crystal clear. Some how, she wasn't in the library anymore.
A sudden noise behind her almost made Nicole fall over. She turned around and found that she was facing a small girl, around age seven years younger than the seventeen year-old senior.
"Lady Nira are you alright?" The girl was dressed very similarly to Nicole, but she had a red waist length tunic over her royal blue shirt and breeches. There was a familiar insigna on her left shoulder.
"Huh... Lady Nira? What?," she said quietly to herself. If she was going to find out where she was she had best play along. "Yes I'm fine. You just startled me, that's all."
"Do you remember me?," The girl asked Nicole with a hopeful look on her face.
"Um... no, can't say I do. Should I?"
"No, we've only met once before. You and your sister stayed at our fief last year. My name is Rika of Tirragen. I'm a royal page now."
"Oh, now I remember," Nicole lied. "Congratulations on becoming a page."
"Everic and his scouting party found you yesturday. He said you must have fallen off your horse. I didn't know knights fell off their horses?," Rika explained. Then she blushed when she saw Nicole's look of absolute confusion. "Oh, Lady Nira, I meant no disrespect. I was just saying so because, I fall off my horse all the time, and I was worried it would keep me from becoming a knight like you and Lady Brya."
"That's ok, Rika. So... yeah... my head kind of hurts and my memory is a little fuzy, could you tell me where we are, and why its so cold?
Rika giggled, "It's cold because its the middle of winter. And we're just between Trebond and Amber Hill, also called the Fox's Den (you're welcome Brenna), your fief."
"Pages!" said a loud commanding voice outside her tent.
"I've got to go," Rika said jumping to her feet and rushing toward the exit.
"Bye Rika, it was nice seeing you again (little white lies couldn't hurt). Maybe we'll talk later," Nicole told the young page. Rika just nodded and ran out of the tent.
"So I'm in Tortall? Well that makes absolutely no sense," Nicole said to herself. She sat down on her cot with her head between her hands. Of all the times for something crazy to happen, why did they choose to happen when she had finals?
Nicole leaned over her bed and opened the saddle bags next to it. Inside she found more cloths like the ones she was wearing and one gown. All of the tunics inside the bags had the same insignia: A bright golden sun on a blue and green field with two arrows: one in the upper left corner and the other in the lower right corner, and two griffins in the remaining corners. The badge had a two strips for a boarder. The inner strip was cream colored and the outer was blue. A distaff boarder signifying she was a female knight. "So I really am a knight," Nicole said to herself in amazement. Nothing wrong with that?
Nicole looked across to the other side of the tent where her weapons stand was located. It held a long bow, and a quiver full of arrows each with griffin feathers, a smooth wooden staff, a lance, three daggers, an ordinary battle axe, as well as a mace. On a smaller separate stand was the most beautiful sword she had ever seen, not that she had seen many. The hilt was inlaid with blue and yellow topaz stones, and the image of two fighting griffins was pressed into the black leather sheath. Nicole picked it up and drew the blade out from its sheath. Blue light shimmered under the silver surface. Nicole smiled to herself. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
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Brenna woke up with the gentle shaking of her body. A small amount of weight rested on her left shoulder, and a voice called quietly in her left ear.
"Lady Brya? Please wake up. Come on Lady Brya, your needed.
Brenna opened her eyes slowly, every muscle in her body ached as she tried to sit up. When she finally managed to see what was around her, she found that she was staring at a young boy with purple eyes. Behind him were five other children. Startled she screamed. Then realizing this had to be the person who had taken her away from a most wonderful thing, sleep, she reached forward and grabbed the boy around the neck, shaking him roughly.
Why did you wake me up! I'm going to kill you, you little brat, she screamed, scaring the other young children in the room.
. Brya . I'm. Sorry. Please. Let. Me. Go the boy pleaded. He tried to pry her hands away from his neck with his small fingers.
Brenna asked. She liked the sound of the word, and she immediately let go of the boy. The boy, Everic, fell gasping for air on the floor. Sorry kid. I'm just a little grumpy when I first wake up.
A little!, said one of the young girls in the room. She was quickly silenced by a glare from Brenna, and she ran to help her friends with Everic who was still having a bit of trouble breathing.
Brenna looked around her surroundings. She had been sleeping on a makeshift bed, and wearing a pair of tan breeches and a lavender shirt. She looked under her cot in an attempt to find her jeans and T-shirt that she had been wearing at school and then the library, but they were not there. In fact they were no where to be found. The tent she was in was barely furnished. The only pieces of furniture she saw were a mirror, a wash basin, and a weapon's stand. There was also a group of saddlebags directly beside her bed. Opening them she found many cloths similar to the ones she was wearing in all different colors. There was also a simple violet gown inside, as well as a few tunics. Each tunic had a badge on it. The badge displayed a coat of arms: a bright golden sun on a field that was blue on top and green on the bottom. In the upper right corner and the lower left corner there were pictures of arrows, and in the remaining two corners there were detailed images of dragons. Around the whole display there was a double striped boarder. The inner stripe was cream and the outer was blue. This Brenna immediately recognized as being the distaff boarder that was awarded to female knights in Tortall. But as far as she knew, only Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, the main character of the Protector of the small series, ever claimed one. Brenna pulled out a brown tunic and laid it on her cot as she stood to go admire the weapons stand.
The stand held an average mace, recurve bow and quiver full of arrows each fletched with griffin feathers, three daggers, a lance, a smooth wood staff, and a sword. They were all finely made but plainly ordinary. However the weapon that was set in its own stand was anything but ordinary. It was a beautifully crafted battle axe. Fine leather was wrapped carefully around the handle. There was an amethyst set into the end, and a two inch golden chain the hung from the end and finished with a golden dragon charm with tiny rubies for eyes. The double blade was amazing. Brenna could see the bluish light shimmering under the silver surface. Brenna plucked a single strand of hair from her head and dropped it on the blade. The hair was sliced in two.
Brenna whispered, to herself more than the young children in the tent.
Lady Knight? one of the braver children dared to call the eighteen year old from her trance.
Brenna asked startled. Could all these things really belong to her?
My lord wishes to meet with you and your sister when you are decent.
My lord? My sister? Brenna said, getting looks from the six youngsters in the room.
Everic spoke up, "My Lord Raoul of Goldenlake, the training master for the pages and squires, he sent us to ask you to meet with him as soon as you can. He wants you to bring your sister. She is in the tent next to this one.
"Um.... ok. Just one thing first."
"Yes Lady Brya?"
"Where am I?"
"Don't be silly. You know better than I that we are just north of the Fox's Den."
"Fox's Den?"
"Yes, your fief, Amber Hill."
"Right. My fief. Located in Tortall?" Brenna asked hopefully. At least then she would have something familiar to go on.
"Of course. Did you think we lived in Galla?"
"No. Just playing. Thank you. Tell Lord Raoul that I'll be with him shortly, and I'm sorry for hurting you.. um.. Everic," she said as she ushered them toward the exit of the tent, barely remembering the boy from when she had first woken up and thought he was Thom of Trebond. Once the children were gone, she went to the wash basin and cleaned her face. Finding a brush, she got her hair under control and then pulled on the brown tunic she had laid out on her cot.
"No use keeping Raoul waiting. But its funny. I don't remember him ever being in charge of the pages and squires," Brenna said to herself as she walked out of the tent.
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Melissa shut the car door and waved goodbye to Nicole's mother. Her own mother had arranged for Melissa to get to her best friends house a week early so she could spend time with her best friend before Nicole's graduation. Nicole had no idea that Melissa was coming that day, and her mother thought that Nicole was studying at the school library that afternoon instead of the public library, so Melissa found herself infront of Nicole's high school.
The New York senior with dirty blond hair and glasses, walked in the front doors of the North Carolina high school. Nicole's mom had given the girl directons to the media center, so Melissa knew exactly where to go. She climbed up the stairs and walked all the way to the rear of the main building. Quietly she entered the library and began to scan the large room searching for her friend. Nicole was no where in sight. In fact there were very few students left in the building.
Melissa went over to the fiction area of media center, remembering her best friend's love of fantacy stories. However she did find another student. Hoping that maybe the other high schooler might know who Nicole was, Melissa walked over and taped the student on the shoulder. The girl she taped turned around reveiling a familiar face to Melissa.
"Um... Hi... You're Amanda aren't you."
"Do I know you," the senior asked.
"Yeah, we met at Nicole's sweet sixteen. You were the one that made her promise she would never mention you wearing a dress by threatening to kill her. I'm her friend Melissa from New York."
"Oh, now I remember. Sorry. It's been a long day. So, what are you doing here?"
"Well I flew in to surprise Nicole. The rest of my family arrives next week for her graduation, but we thought it would be cool if I came early. Her mom aid she was staying late to study at the library."
"Oh, she is. But not the school library. She, Brenna, and Jenny left to study at the public library a little while ago. I'm headed there myself in a little. I'll give you a ride, if you've got time to wait."
"Sure. Thanks." Melissa knelt down to examine the books on the shelf. She found an old ripped up one. "I guess your library doesn't pay to have books re-bound, huh?," she said as she handed the book to Amanda.
"Normally they do. I've never seen a book in such bad condition here before." Amanda examined the book cover. All she could read was the author's last name, Pierce, and the title It Should Have Happened Later. Curious, she turned the book over to see if there was a plot summary. The only two words that were even slightly legible were Tortall and Johnathan. "Never seen or heard of this book before, " she said, "But I though I'd read all of Tamora Pierce's books. Amanda opened the book to flip through the pages. Instantly a cyclone of swirly colors lept from the pages and pulled the two girls into the book, leaving the library two teenagers short.
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Katlin left her bed room through the outer door, after she had bathed and put on a red gown that she found in the wardrobe. Her hair hung loose, gently brushing her shoulders.
The main room had a couch and a few chairs, positioned artistically around a solid dark green rug. Near the window there was a dining table with two chairs. There was also a book shelf stacked with boks alng one wall. The room had three doors. One which lead to her bedroom, one which probably lead to a hallway of the palace, and one which she had no idea about. Suddenly that door began to open. A girl slightly shorter than Katlin stepped out of the room. The girl was dressed similarly to Katlin, except her dress was a deep shade of green. Katlin rubbed her eyes.
"Jenny?," she cried in utter amazement. If she had to be crazy, at least she wasn't crazy alone.
"Katlin?," Jenny said just as shocked as her younger friend was. "Oh, thank heavens. I thought I was here alone." The two friends quickly embraced and then sat down on the couch to talk. "By the way, do you have any clue where here is?"
"Yep. Apparently, we're in Tortall in the middle of winter."
"Tortall, as in the books?"
"Yep. Strange, huh?"
"I don't think strange is the right word. How many people do you know that can honestly say they lived in a book."
"None, but there could be lots. After all, maybe they didn't come back."
"You know you really shouldn't have told me that. Now I', really scared."
"Just doing my job," answered the crazy little sophmore with an innocent smile.
Suddenly there was a knock on the third door of the room. Jenny cautiously went to answer it, with Katlin right behind her. Just as she opened the door, she heard a young mans voice cry with excitement, "Jolin!" Before she knew what was happening she was pulled into the arms of a very handsome young man who immediately kissed her, while an equally hot guy did the same to Katlin.
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Outside her tent it was freezing. Brenna looked around the clearing in front of her. "Why did it have to be snow?," she asked anyone who was listening. She spotted the tent next to her's, the one that supposedly held her sister. Wondering how her little sister Gwen had gotten Tortall, Brenna walked over to the tent. She knocked, as well as one can knock on fabric.
"Come in," said a familiar voice. It was familiar but it definately wasn't Gwen.
Brenna stepped inside the tent and found a girl who was a few inches shorter than she was standing with her back to the opening looking in the mirror. The girl was dressed similarly to Brenna, and when she saw what her visitor looked like in the mirror, she jumped in surprise ang urned around so quickly, that she nearly fell.
"Brenna," she cried with delight. Brenna, too stuned to speak just nodded and sat down on the cot in Nicole's tent. Things were too wierd. First she was no longer in North Carolina, second it was snowing, and third her sister was Nicole not Gwen. "You ok?" Nicole asked, handing the taller senior a flask of water.
"Yeah, just a little confused. They said your my sister."
"Vixey, we're in a book. Anything could be true. Heck, we're both knights and I'm only seventeen."
"You're right, I guess. And I think I could get used to living a fief called the Fox's Den."
"Oh, you heard."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Just thought that it suits you perfectly, oh glorious Queen Vixen."
"Watch how you speak to you queen, Nymph. Or there will be pain. I promise you that."
"Sure what ever you say."
"Come on. Lord Raoul wants to see us."
"Raoul? But I thought we were with pages not the Kings Own."
Brenna just shrugged her shoulders. "Some of the pages told me that he was in charge of their training. Anyway, what ever he's in charge of, I don't think we should keep him waiting, do you?"
"No, your right. Lead the way, of Ruler of Fox's."
"Hush you," Brenna told her scowling at the smaller girl. Together they left the tent to go find Lord Raoul of Goldenlake.
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That's all for chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review. It would mean so much to me. By the way, the contest from chapter 1 is still on since the person who won hasn't gotten back to me. Good luck.
~shadowkitten2