A/N: When I started this adventure, I didn't really have a story in mind. I just thought it was a little strange how almost all of the fanfics portraying Kel have her as someone who detests dresses. I remember her quite willingly wearing them as a page, if only to remind the rest of the boys more forcefully that yes, she was a girl. I'm not sure how many people picked up on it, but just because someone doesn't do something all the time doesn't mean they don't like it. I may continue this as a single contiguous plot, but I think each of the chapters is going to bring some trait about kel that I (personally) think is there, and that most of her squire friends don't realize. The first was femininity. In this one, I'm going for restlessness or frustration. Thank you for all your lovely comments. I'm not sure this fic is going to be K/N, but there will probably be K/[someone] eventually. I'm rather afraid this chapter ran away with me, but I like where it went. -Kaia
Whenever Kel's thoughts would get too much for her, she became incredibly restless. Therefore, after the past few weeks of being occupied mainly by balls and dancing, her mind was divided and her body completely unsettled. She was beginning to understand Raoul more and more as the progress continued. Doing a duty to the crown called for complete attention, and it left very little time for other distractions to set in, 'Like my friends being idiots,' she mentally growled. Not thinking was looking more and more appealing by the second, as opposed to simply attending more balls and parties.
Much to Kel's chagrin, after her first couple nights of companionship with the Queen's Ladies, her year-mates refused to see her as anything other than a Lady; a court lady who knew only how to flirt and dance well. Kel did manage to put and end to the girly treatment by trouncing all of them on the practice courts, but they didn't forget anytime soon that she was a girl. Kel no longer fell into the simple category of 'year-mate', but rather someone who was a potential love interest, and who was completely unexpected. All of them who were attending the progress had shifted their attitudes toward her. As time moved on, they gradually returned to joking and gossiping in her presence, but it was more than a few weeks coming.
Unfortunately for Keladry, Neal had seen fit to mention to his cousin that Kel knew how to dance, and that she also happened to know most of the Queen's Ladies quite well. Telling Dom that was like telling him that Kel had gotten a shiny new toy (or perhaps Kel herself was the new toy). Once the men in Third Company realized what Dom was bothering Kel about, he wasn't her only headache. Neal had paid for that slip of the tongue dearly on the courts when Kel found out exactly what he had told Dom.
Kel's ever shortening temper boiled over after she had been talking to Learant on the practice courts. He had asked her if she would tell one of the Queen's Ladies who he was and pass on a flower for him. She had simply growled at him in frustration and shouted,
"I am a warrior who just happens to be a girl, and don't forget it. I will not put in a good word for you to the ladies. I will not be the messenger in your little courtly displays of affection, and I do not want to hear about any intimate details concerning my friends. You and all the rest of you," Kel yelled, poking Learant in the chest and then gesturing around her, at all the men who had poked their head out and were looking for the commotion, "had better remember it unless you'd like to spar." With one final shove, Kel stormed off towards the stables, growling "I'm going to massacre you Nealan. It will be the end of the Queenscove line. There will be no small meatheads around. Duke Baird may be upset with me, but it will finally give me peace of mind. There will be brimstone..." and with that she was out of earshot. The men nervously glanced at one another, never having seen that from Kel before.
Two hours later, Kel found herself wandering around the markets of Corus, calming down from her earlier rage. She had gone from the courts to the stables thinking about taking Peachblossom or Hoshi out for a ride. However, once she made it to the stables, she had run into some more of the Kings Own, and had promptly turned on her heel and left the barracks. Wandering around the grounds on foot hadn't seemed like a good idea, so she went to the only place where she was sure she wouldn't run into any high concentration of soldiers from third company: The Corus Markets in the city.
Kel sighed as she wandered from stall to stall, and thought about how she would apologize for her unseemly behavior earlier. Learant hadn't deserved the brunt of her anger. Kel was astounded that she had lost face in such a manner. Nothing had pierced the Yamani calm that she held in a long even during all of her tormenting during the Page years had she reacted to badly. She supposed it was because these men were her friends and comrades, and she had expected better of them.
Drifting off in the clouds, she felt the slightest tug at one of her pockets. Snapping her hand down to her purse, she encountered a small, thin wrist. She grabbed it in a vise-like grip and turned to face the owner. A grubby little girl who couldn't be more than eight or nine glared back at her as she attempted to free her wrist from Kel's grasp.
Great. Lovely. Marvelous. Just what she didn't need now. A pickpocket. Kel bared her teeth in a silent snarl that made the girl flinch away from. Could this day get any worse? As the unknown girl's struggling increased, Kel locked her wrist up with one of the more complicated Yamani moves she had attempted to teach Lalasa. The girl, with her wrist now in imminent danger, held perfectly still and simply contented herself with glaring at Kel.
"Your name?" Kel demanded, not in the mood to be nice.
"Leifa," the girl spat, and struggled to be free once more. Kel gave the wrist a warning shake and the girl once again held still.
"Your home?"
"The pits," she nearly snarled. "What are you going to do about it, moneybags?" Grimacing, Kel thought for a moment, and began to stride purposefully around the marketplace with the girl in tow. It was packed with life, and she squinted against the cold winter sun until she encountered the uniform of a provost's guard. Walking up to him, Kel began
"Good sir, where might I find your nearest guardhouse? I have a young lady here in need of assistance." She simply received a glance in return.
"Down Canal street, and to your left on Hare's way," He replied in a bored voice, pointing off to the left. He obviously did not want to deal with the problem that Kel potentially posed to his simple duties of the day.
"My thanks," Kel replied. As she began to haul the girl after her, Kel noticed the struggling became more and more pronounced. The girl was looking fearfully at Kel now, and Kel was beginning to feel a little bad about turning her in. She was obviously dirty, and probably hungry as well. Looking more closely now, Kel also noticed that even though it was nearing Midwinter, her slippers and clothes were not in any shape to be outside, let alone protection from Midwinter chills.
Struck by her conscience and changing her immediate plans, Kel turned instead and dragged the girl to the nearest bathhouse. After leaving instructions with the mistress of the house that the girl was to wash and not leave until she came back, Kel tipped the busy matron generously and made her way back to the market. She purchased a sturdy pair of boots and a warmer set of clothes she thought would roughly fit the girl. Kel was soon back at the house where her surly new companion was just leaving the baths in a towel.
"Dress." Kel said shortly, dumping the package at her feet. The girl, Leifa, was now looking more than confused, and simply stared at the clothes.
"I'm not kidnapping you. I'm not going to hurt you, and I'm considering not turning you in as a pickpocket. Just dress and don't question or I may change my mind." Bewildered, but not unhappily, the girl put on the clothes cautiously. Kel was glad that the girl had stopped struggling, hopefully realizing that whatever Kel wanted would happen.
"Why?" was the only word that she uttered.
"You remind me of someone I knew," Kel muttered, not entirely sure herself why she was helping the girl. "It seemed like you needed it more than I did." Not daring to question her newfound good luck, Leifa just nodded and said no more.
Just saying, "Keep up if you want food," Kel strode back into the marketplace to a kabob stand with lovely aromas coming from the grill. Looking behind her, Kel saw that the girl was indeed following her, and didn't look quite so miserable as before. Now that she was clean, Kel could tell the girl was tanned with dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She could have been from anywhere. Sighing, Kel looked for a while at her small captive-turned-follower. The girl just stared back. She was no longer completely hostile, but there was no friendliness in that gaze. Perhaps there was a little curiosity, but Kel wouldn't bet on it.
Thinking out loud, Kel muttered "What am I going to do with you now?" Turning to face the vendor, Kel bought three Kabobs and an apple that looked mostly unbruised for a few silver crescents. Handing the apple behind her, the girl ravenously dug in while still eyeing the kabobs. Kel slowly began to eat one of the sticks of meat, and once the girl had finished the apple Kel passed across one of the kabobs. The girl was beginning to slow her eating, but the meat had her hooked and she finished long before Kel. While looking at the girls hands, something caught her eye, and she snatched Leifa's right wrist out of the air.
Much to Kel's chagrin, she noticed the two tattooed X marks that marked this girl doubly as a previous thief. Sighing, she met Leifa's eyes and looked steadily at her until Leifa looked away blushing.
"I don't have any other way to eat," the girl said quietly. "My Da left, and Ma can barely feed herself and the baby, let alone me and Shem. What else was I supposed to do?" Once again wondering why she was spending time and money on this girl, Kel simply headed back toward the Market. Turning to look at Leifa, she simply said,
"Think of me as your fairy godmother. This is your one chance to do something with your life rather than go to the docks or the mines." She then turned and resumed dragging the girl behind her. After about ten more minutes of walking with Leifa in tow, she stepped into Lalasa's shop.
As soon as she was in the door, Kel heard, "Oh, milady, how are you? Oh look at your seams. You're still so hard on your clothes. At least you're spending a little time with some women, instead of just those loud men of yours. Even if your men are nicer than the rest, it's still a good thing." And after her initial outburst, she noticed the girl standing behind Kel. "And who do you have here?"
"Lalasa, I'd like you to meet Leifa. Leifa, this is Lalasa Isran. Lalasa used to be my maid, but now that she has her own shop here, I thought you may be of use to her." As Lalasa opened her mouth to protest, Kel interjected with, "Please hear me out." When Lalasa nodded, Kel continued,
"I found this lovely little lady on the streets, and her situation probably couldn't be much worse. I know you're getting much busier here with all of the balls going on, and the Queen asking about your stitching. She can be a footrunner or an errand person. It would help you out so much. And it would be somewhere warm to go for her if it got too bad outside." Leifa was just staring at Kel now, rather openmouthed. "You want me to work here?" she asked in disbelief? "Why?"
"Well, you could use the money, and Lalasa could certainly use the help." turning to Lalasa, she asked, "Will she do?" After staring at the girl for a while, Lalasa only asked, "are you willing to run errands for pay?"
"How much?" After a moment's thought, Lalasa came back with,
"Five copper crescents every errand, maybe maybe more or less, depending of the difficulty."
"Deal. Should I come back tomorrow?"
As negotiations between the two continued, Kel waved a goodbye to Lalasa with a promise to return later that evening and strolled out the door. Her afternoon adventure had taken no more than an hour, and she was still feeling incredibly restless. Not wanting to go back up to the palace, lest she be set upon by her friends, Kel resumed her wandering in the downtown market.
After about half an hour of browsing the market stalls, a stroke of inspiration hit. Looking around for Canal street, Kel made her way to the guard house that she had opted not to give Leifa over to. There were men practicing in the three courts behind the house, but one bout caught her eye particularly. There was a ring of children and guards crowded around two fighters. Curious, Kel approached and saw what appeared to be a duel or a spar between two rugged looking guardsmen. After observing what was quite a good match for five minutes, Kel determined that she was probably as good as them with the sword, and started to walk away. However, before she had gone 2 steps from the fence, a voice called back to her,
"What's a young lass like ye'self doin' down here? You're too old to be fascinated by the bouts anymore."
"I was just watching the spar. They're quite good," Kel replied, as she turned around.
"And whadda' you know about swordfightin', lassie?" The man who spoke was a grizzled old man in a guards uniform. He had a worn, rugged look about him, and was staring at her in a way that was less than comfortable.
"Quite a bit, actually. My brothers are good with swords, and I've picked up some tricks here and there." Kel told herself that this wasn't technically a lie, and grinned as the man glared at her and replied,
"You any good with one of 'em?" She just laughed and said,
"I'm not too shabby, if I do say so myself." Pointing over to the two men, she said, "I'm not sure I could beat one of them, but I could sure give the loser a run for their money." The old man was laughing a bit now as he said, "Lass, those are two of the best we have here at the house. How bout you try me, and we see how you do."
"My name is Kel," she said to introduced herself.
"Doran," he said, and offered her hand. They shook, and then Kel grinned.
"Let's do this then," she said, and took the man up on his offer. He led her to the sheds where the equipment was stored, and waited for her to choose her weapon.
Spread about the room were live weapons, bokken, and wooden practice blades. Kel carefully inspected what her options were, and finally settled on one of the heavier wooden swords. Grinning, the man followed her lead, and they went back outside to wait for a court to open up. After about 5 minutes of stretching and chatting with Doran about swords and guards in general, Kel was ready to see how she could do. He was beginning to guess from the way she talked that she actually knew how to handle a weapon, and was rather curious to see what would happen. After stripping off her coat and wincing at the cold, Kel walked into the center of the ring.
The bout started out slowly, each fighter testing the other. The old man wasn't the most spry opponent, but his sword moved quickly and precisely. He wouldn't be winning this bout on stamina, but he might win it on speed and dexterity. As a minute passed, they started speeding up, looking for weaknesses in the other's guard. Kel began to press the attack a little more, and his eyes narrowed in concentration. He blocked her with a reverse six sweep, and pressed his own attack. Nearly caught off guard, Kel's grip slackened momentarily, but she danced out of the way just in time to avoid losing her sword.
By this time, the bout two courts down was finished, and the crowd was dispersing, filtering out to watch the other matches taking place through the yard. Slowly, the ring around Kel and Doran grew, and she heard some heckling from the crowds. Catcalls to both of the fighters were slowly increasing in volume and frequency.
"Ay Doran, you going to let yourself get bested by that slip of a girl," and "You show him Lass" were only the beginnings of what was shouted at them.
Doran himself only grinned at Kel and said, "You really weren't boasting, were you?"
"No, sir," And pressed on the attack. After another two minutes, Kel once again left a tiny opening in her defense, and found the wooden handle yanked from her grasp with a neat disarm. When the tip of Doran's sword found her collarbone, she said softly, "I yield," and then looked up startled at the cheering crowd. Clapping her on the shoulder, Doran steered Kel into the shade of the guardhouse, and someone passed her a water skin.
"Well fought, lassie," he said, "I wasn't expecting that at all. You gave me a run for my money." Kel grinned bashfully, and the two continued to talk about swords and swordplay. It turned out that Doran was the desk commander of the district watch, and had quite the swordsmanship background here on the watch. Eventually a few younger guards worked up the nerve to come and ask a few questions. Kel eventually found herself in a rather heated discussion about a few of the new laws the Queen was trying to pass with schools and orphanages open to all who want or need them. Eventually the discussion moved inside due to the chill, and Kel went to fetch her coat.
Once inside, Kel realized that time had flown swiftly by, and she needed to return to Lalasa's shop and make it back to the palace by supper. Making her excuses to Doran and the other guards, Kel was about to leave when a voice behind her said,
"You're welcome to come spar with us whenever you like Lassie. I'm not too sure where you've been practicing, but I think it would do my boys some good to have you beat their pride down a bit." Kel just grinned and said in reply,
"I'm not sure when I'll have the time, but I'll make a stop by here the next time I'm in the neighborhood."
As she made her way back to the palace after talking to Lalasa about a few future ball gowns, Kel finally realized that this was the first time in weeks that she was really happy about something. Maybe the commoners have the right idea about life. If you can do something, then you can do it. None of this frippery and court lady nonsense. She really did want to get to know Doran better. He seemed like an interesting fellow.
Back at the palace, not too much worse for wear, Kel sighed and headed towards the King's Own mess hall for supper. She really should apologize to Learant for shouting him down that afternoon. 'Well,' she told herself grimly, 'you had a good afternoon, but it's time to face the music.'
Much to her relief, it turned out that Learant also wanted to apologize for pushing her to the bursting point. Word of her outburst had spread pretty rapidly though, and the men were generally tiptoeing around her and apologizing. After about 10 minutes of tense conversation with Qasim and his squad, things were finally getting back to normal, and Kel breathed a sigh of relief. The same time the next week, she resolved, she would go visit Doran and fine tune her sword work with him.
A/N: Hope you liked it, and if you have any comments or thought, just leave me a review ~ Kaia