Jester walked out of his room to see Jane coming down her staircase. Dragon was pulling his head out a Jane's bedroom window.
"Morning Jester!" Jane said cheerily. She was now standing right next to him. "You are up early." Jester tried to smile a little just so she would not get suspicious.
"Yes, I had trouble sleeping. Probably just cause the Prince hit my nervous system while attacking me yesterday!" He said trying to make himself laugh. Jane suddenly loked at Jester with wide eyes. "What?" Jester worried she could tell he was lying.
"Did you have a major growth spurt in the middle of the night?" Jane said shocked. Jester remembered that he was still taller than his normal self.
"Umm, what?" Jester said pretending to look at himself. "Wow, guess I must have been building up after all these years of being short." He said hoping Jane would not ask anymore questions. Jane looked at him oddly.
"Maybe, but you should talk to Sir Theodore about it. You might have some sort of weird…"
Dragon had pulled his head out of Jane's room and had flown down to the ground next to Jester.
"Greetings floppy hat. You coming to see Jane practice fighting? Wow, whats with the stilts?" Dragon asked while picking at his ear. Jester thought about it.
"Jane thinks it might be some sickness. And sure I'll go see Jane fight!" Jester wanted to think about anything but what had happened. He suddenly felt a lump in his throat as he remembered the night before. He swallowed trying to push the thought out of his mind but he could still feel the shock of the pain. The teeth going into his neck, the blood, 'Jester, stop! Just keep smiling you fool' He told himself and turned towards the Kitchens. Rake was already up and checking the vegetables.
"Hi there Jane, Jester, Dragon. I think a new plant grew in my garden last night. Would you like to see?"
"Yes!" Jester said to Rake almost too soon. He wanted to be distracted by anything. Even plants! He walked over to when Rake was standing and looked at the spot that he was looking at. Rake was obviously to busy talking about his plants to notice Jester great hight.
"Very nice. Very odd as well." Jester said inspecting the unusual plant. Rake kneeled down and delicately touched the plant.
"Is it not beautiful!" Rake said looking at the leaves. "New life has happened in my garden! There is so much studying to be done! I have to see what plants formed it, or maybe it was a seed blown in from far away! Maybe there are more in the garden! I need to test it so see if it is a weed or if it is OK to eat and I need to"
"Yes that is fantastic! How wonderful!" Jane said cutting Rake off. Jester smiled a little. 'He means well, but he can get a little bit insane about his greens. And reds. And oranges. Ha, that works both ways.' Jester felt a little better. He looked in through the window that held Pepper's bed and saw Pepper was already cooking breakfast. Pepper saw Jester and called
"Oh, good morning Jester. Is that Jane by you? Is Rake showing you his new plant?" Jester walked over to the Kitchen window and crouched by it.
"Yes he is. Have you seen it yet?" Jester knew that Pepper had probably been woken up at 4:00 am and listened till' morning while Rake told her all his thoughts on it. And she had most likely enjoyed it.
"Yes I have! Is it not amazing! I love the thought of new life!" Pepper said going over to the oven to check if it was hot enough.
"Ever thought about creating your own "new life" Pepper? Rake could help…" Peppers head swerved to face Jester and Jester turned around walking back to Rake with a stupid grin on his face. He was always trying to push Rake and Pepper together. Though he thought that comment crossed a bit of a line, but he did not care. 'If it gets them together, then it will be worth it. Though I am probably not going to get any breakfast for it. Again!' Jester walked back up to Jane and Rake.
"What did you say to Pepper?" Jane said looking through the window to see Pepper's beet red face. Jester could hardly hold back a snicker.
"Just talking about life." Jester looked back at Pepper to see she had turned back to the oven. Jane shrugged and went back to her conversation with Rake.
"So, do you think it is edible?" Rake was apparently delighted by Jane's interest and gladly answered
"I think it is! I tasted a bit of it after checking my book to see if it showed traits of poison." Rake raised his left hand which was holding an old tattered book. Rake had written the book himself. It held all the plants he had in his garden and ones he had studied. He had written all the species down and held onto the papers forever. It was sort of creepy the way he hung onto it. But they had all gotten used to it.
"It tasted quite good. A little strange, but Pepper says that she thinks it will taste fantastic in soup!" Rake turned to Pepper "Right Pepper?" Rake turned towards Pepper. Pepper turned and called out
"I am sorry w-what?" Pepper was still embarrassed by Jester's comment. Just then Gunther walked over to the garden area. He walked up to Jane and said
"So, I see you finally got up." Jester could see he was smirking. Jane looked at him distastefully
"Practice is not until quite later."
"Yes, but I been getting up early to go practice before the actual lessons start." Jane flared up
"What!" Jane looked like she was ready to pummel Gunther. Gunther was obviously enjoying it.
"Yes. Sir Ivon and Sir Theodore are very proud of my eager interest in improving my fighting skills!" Jester could not help but cut in
"Wow, those are a lot of big words. Do you understand what you just said, I mean, smart is another language to you." Everyone laughed. Except for Gunther. Gunther stormed off into the practice yard. "I think he is upset by the fact that he does not understand what the word language means. Or the word understand." Jane laughed again.
"I should go to. I shall have to find a way to get some extra credit in for Sir Theodore this afternoon. Good-bye! And Jester remember to talk to Sir Theodore about your height." She called as she ran off to the practice yard to join Gunther followed by a rather bored Dragon. Jester turned and saw Rake and Pepper were talking. 'Well seeing as I am not going to be getting any breakfast I shall have to fend for myself I guess.' Jester turned to go watch Jane beat up a practice dummy. 'Otherwise known as Gunther!' Jester said laughing a little. 'Maybe it all was just an odd dream.' He said feeling the necklace through his shirt.