(-a/n- Wow! Thanks for all the amazing response :D You've really no idea how happy it makes me. And look at the result…an update on a school night!!! I've had a bit of a crazy day today, which involved burnt toast, dancing penguins, a lot of rain and weird jelly balls that we made in chemistry…but anyway. This chapter is going to go back to where the story officially starts; when Kel gets kicked out. The first chapter was just a tantalizing snippet of what's to come, so hopefully you'll enjoy the story of how exactly Kel ended up their. So it will cover the four years after she was kicked out, and about 2/3 months after the tournament. Well that's the plan anyway… This chapter will start with quite a lot of text from the book, changed slightly so please bear with me, and I will enforce yet again that all the characters and the places yada yada, do not belong to me, but to Tamora Pierce.

Do you know Emily Davison, manicpony24, Crazy Lady Knight, Anon i mous, shamrockgirl07, Mrs. Dom Masbolle, kayla ryan, Me, On top of cloud 9

ErythaYou're officially my first reviewer! Yay go you! Lol! Thanks :D

Luna Dustlol it was only a matter of time! Fanfiction is addictive :D

nativewildmageI love the song too, it's quite embarrassing if I look on my play count for it on my mp3 350 plus times! Lol! Glad you're interested.

SarahE7191yeah, just to clear this up. She left the palace when she was eleven. Then when she was almost 12 something happened…and she ran away…lol that's all I can say…

x17SkmBdrchiczxxlol! Jon definitely isn't one of my favourite characters :D lol!

EclipsaThanks! That's exactly the effect I was hoping for!

Aly the Spylol! No I was just having a rest :D hehe

Confusedknight xx


Lord Wyldon came to the lectern. 'I know you all wish to pack. Get to it. Keladry of Mindelan, report to my office at the next bell.'

'I'm sorry,' whispered Merric. He got up awkwardly and fled the room.

'You saved my life,' Seaver added, his voice cracking. He hugged her one-armed around the head as if she were one of the boys, and followed Merric out.

When none of her other friends moved, Kel forced herself to rise and pick up her tray. 'Have a good summer,' she whispered, and took her things to the servants for the last time.

She had thought she'd resigned herself to being packed off for good. From the way her food turned to a lump in her belly as she trudged back to her room, she hadn't done it as well as she'd imagined.

There was a letter from her mother on her bed. With all the preparations needed for Kel's older sisters Adalia and Oranie to be presented when the court social season began that autumn, her parents had come to stay at their Corus town house for the summer. They looked forward to seeing Kel there. As Kel read the letter, her gloom deepened. She could not stay in town with her parents and sisters. She might encounter people she knew from the palace. How could she live in the city, watching knights come and go knowing she would never be one of them?

I'll ask them to send me home to Anders at Mindelan, she thought sadly. They'll understand. It was a good idea, but the thought of the 'I told you so's' that her sisters-in-law would hurl at her made her cringe.

Her sparrows were nowhere to be seen as she entered her room. They had rejoined the flockmates who had stayed behind, whilrling round the courtyard to celebrate their return. Now they chattered as they perched in the small tree in the courtyard.

'I'll miss you,' whispered Kel. She would ask Daine if she would still take Peachblossom. With two daughters to present at court, her parents would be hard pressed to buy a warhorse as well.

Thinking of the birds and Peachblossom, she felt her eyes sting with tears. I am not going to let him see I've been crying, Kel told herself. Fetching her glaive, she did an exercise dance to pass the time.

The dreaded bell finally rang. Kel put her glaive down, combed her hair and washed her face. Then she walked to Lord Wyldon's office, feeling like a prisoner on the long walk to the gallows.

The servingman bowed to Kel, then opened the door and announced her. She entered the office, listening to the door as it closed at her back.

Lord Wyldon stood with his back to her, staring through a window that opened onto one of the palace rose gardens. Was he looking at the flowers, she wondered, or maybe at the nobles who lingered there as skies grew dark?

'You sent for me, my lord,' she said.

Lord Wyldon sighed and turned. 'Sit down, girl.'

Kel hesitated, then sat.

Wyldon absently massaged his right arm. 'I want you to listen to me. I speak to you as I might to one of my own daughters.'

Kel blinked at him startled.

Lord Wyldon noticed Kel's surprise with an inward grin, despite himself. She probably thinks that I'm a miserable old man who lives alone. Not a married man with four daughters. He sighed, she will hate me for what I'm about to say. But I believe that it's the right thing to do, someday she's going to wake up to the reality that the Lioness was extraordinary, once-in-a-hundred-years person. And that if she carries on in this way, one day she is going to get hurt, badly hurt.

'Now that you have made your point, consider the future. Soon your body will change.'

Mithros above why was he doing this?

'The things that you will want from life as a maiden will change.'

If Lord Wyldon had had less control over himself, he would be flushing red with embarrassment right now. He didn't discuss things like this even with his own daughters, he left that to his wife!

'Pursue the course you have, and you might be crippled by an accident. What if you should fall in love? What if you came to grief, or caused others to do so, because your thoughts were on you heart rather than on combat? This year was easiest.'

He noticed the slight change in Keladry's expression as she obviously fought to control her anger. Again he sighed, he was not happy with himself for doing this, but he felt that someone should. She might be innocent of seeking affection, but he'd seen the way that some of the boys looked at her when she wasn't looking and he wouldn't permit distractions of any form.

'Do not answer me now. Go home and think about it. You will someday see that I am right.'

'I can't come back then?'

The training master shook his head wearily.

'No, you can't.'

Kel was about to say something, make him change his mind, but she stared into his cool brown eyes and saw that he'd made his decision. She got up and left without a word. This unnerved Lord Wyldon, who'd been expecting her to shout or cry or do something, instead of just looking at him with those piercing hazel eyes.

A barb of doubt flickered in his will, but he pushed it aside. She was a distraction. She'd caused too many fights. She had to go.

Once outside Lord Wyldon's office Kel rested her head on the hard, cold wall, her head a mass of swirling emotions, numb with shock. The finality, her dreams crushed, all ended in a single moment. Her dreams had shattered around her, and what could she do? Pick up the pieces? Carry on trying? Give up? Accept it?

Somehow she made her way back to her room, and curled up on the window seat, her head resting on her knees, arms clasped protectively around her. She wasn't crying. She was too numb to feel anything much at the moment. She had considered not being allowed to stay, even planned for it, but the reality had hit her far harder than she had expected

She heard a knock on the door and with a jolt realised that the sun had truly set. How long had she been sitting here?

Just then Neal's tentative voice called;

'Kel, are you in there?'

She remained motionless, not deliberately ignoring him, but merely frozen in indecision. Several minutes later he called out again.

'Kel, I know you're in there. Please let me in, I'll sit out here all night if I have to, but I really don't want to as this floor is rather uncomfortable.' Still Kel ignored him, looking out over the city, dark but for the lights that found their way around cracks in the curtains or doorframes.

'I'm coming in, Kel.'

There was a glowing around the door, and the magical protection vanished. The door swung open to reveal a tousled-haired Neal.

It took Neal a moment to adjust to the near pitch darkness of the room, but soon he spotted Kel, still seated on the window frame.

'Kel?' he ventured.

'I can't stay,' she said softly, in answer to the unspoken question.

Neal kicked the door shut behind him and used his gift to light a lamp that sat on Kel's small desk. Blinking in the sudden glow of light, he surveyed his friend. Neal was five years older than Kel, but despite the considerable age difference, he'd never found a truer friend. He felt a lump forming in his throat. Kel still stared out of the window.

Seeing that Kel wasn't moving, he went and sat down next to her, searching his best friend's face for some sign, some hint as to how she was feeling, but her face was as blank as an empty canvas. Her eyes however, portrayed a different story as she stared out into the night, lost and confused.

Neal reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. They sat there for what seemed like hours. Saying nothing, both comforted by the other's presence.

He didn't ask what she was planning on doing, and for that Kel was extremely grateful. She didn't know herself and sitting here in the dark alongside her best friend, prolonged the time when she could put of that decision, so she said nothing.

Eventually Neal stood up and bustled around behind her back. Kel thought he was going to leave. But instead she felt a pair of strong arms, lifting her eleven-year-old frame off of the windowsill and placing her gently on the bed.

Neal tucked her into her bed, and then sat down on the covers reaching for her hand which lay beside her. His green eyes brimmed with emotion and yet still he said nothing.

'Neal?' said Kel eventually.

'Yes?' he ventured.

'Oh… I don't know what to say,' she said in a whisper.

'Neither do I…except Kel, never give up.'

Kel looked up in surprise.

'Don't you understand, I can't come back. Not ever. How can I not give up?' she said, her voice breaking slightly.

Neal looked at her helplessly, 'Knighthood isn't all. You can still help people in other ways.'

'How?'

'You'll have to decide that yourself,' he said quietly. 'But the Stump won't get away with this. This is unfair. Knight's are meant to fight for justice…'

Kel snorted slightly, 'Since when has Lord Wyldon ever treated me fairly?'

Neal shrugged. They sat in silence for a while, lost in their thoughts.

'I'm going to miss you,' said Kel heavily.

'Me too,' said Neal his voice choked, 'You're the best friend I've ever had. You've taught me so much…'

'I just wish…' Kel started but trailed away.

'What?'

'Never mind…don't let Joren and his gang bully the new pages next year.'

'I won't, I'll never let anyone bully someone else in front of me ever again,' Neal said fervently.

'Well at least I've made a little difference…'

'Kel, you've made all the difference and I won't forget you, not ever.'

'You make it sound like I've died,' said Kel in a lame attempt at a joke. In truth it felt like a part of her had died.

'Sorry,' mumbled Neal.

Kel climbed out from under her blankets and sat beside Neal, dangling her short legs off the edge of the bed, next to his long ones. Neal put his arm around her in a friendly hug and rested his head on top of hers. They sat there for what seemed like forever, savouring their last moments together.

'You'd better go,' said Kel eventually.

'Will you still be here in the morning?'

She shook her head, 'Explain to the others, they won't understand. But...I don't think I could face them.'

'You shouldn't be ashamed Kel…' started Neal.

'I'm not ashamed, I tried to make a difference, change something and I did my best. No, I'm not ashamed. I'm just not sure what to do now.'

'Will I ever see you again?' he asked, his voice cracking.

'Someday, I'll return. I promise. I swear that one day I'll return to the palace, and I'll show them that they were wrong. I'll never give up fighting.'

'I know you won't,' said Neal, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

'Goodbye Neal.'

They hugged one last time and then parted.

Kel sighed and turned back to her room, her eyes still dry and her face emotionless.

One day, she thought, they'll regret this day, the day they took my dreams away. But they'll never make me stop, I'll never give up. I'll keep on fighting, just to make the smallest of changes, I'll never give up. And although she didn't know it then, it would be this attitude that kept her alive over the coming years.


(-a/n- So…what did you think? Please tell me, I'm dying to know! What did you think of Kel and Neal's reactions? Please review, it was a long chapter after all :D )

Confusedknight xx