I awoke to Leah sitting on my bed and filing her nails using a... knife? When she saw that I was awake, her eyes lit up. "Finally! I was begining to get a bit worried. It's nearly noon, and you still hadn't awoken."
"I was awake."
"But then you fell back asleep, and Jacob said to let you sleep."
"That was sure nice of him."
"Yeah," she paused. "It was. So, you ready to start your day?"
"Sure," I respond nervously, watching her tuck away her knife.
"First we have a few quick stops to make before we can get to dinner [Note: Dinner is lunch. Supper is... well, dinner, or the last meal of the day]. So we should hurry, because the food here is amazing, and it would suck if we couldn't make it." Her eyes glimmered with mischievousness.
She grabs my hand, and pulls me to my feet. She grimaces at the dress I wore to bed. "First we need to get you more suitable clothes. We need to get you clothes, period." She leads me out of my room and down the hallway. The hallway had striped wallpaper, and was carpeted. The carpet was so soft on my feet that I would sleep on it. Wait! My feet?
"You do realize I have no shoes, right?" I ask.
"Of course, we are stopping by my room for something nice for you to wear before we make the rounds." She answers, before turning down another hallway. "Here. This is my room." She unlocks the door, and my eyes widen as I took in her suite. The room right in front of the door was her livingroom. The walls were a fern green, and a white couch lay before the fireplace. Several comfy-looking chairs sat randomly around the room. Leah smiled, and led me to a room on her right. "This here is my bedroom" she said before opening that door.
"This is your bedroom?"
"Yep," she says, chuckling at my expression.
"But... but... There's makeup on this side" I gesture to my right where shelves of eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, foundation, nail polish-you name it, it was there- lay. On that same wall was a desk and a closet. The desk was a giant mirror and even more makeup. Through the closet-the door was open- was hundreds of clothes- dresses, shoes, pants and shirts. I look to my left. "And on this side... weapons?"
She looks in the direction I was looking. "Is there a problem?"
"Do you have a multiple personality disorder, or something?"
"No. Why would you think that?"
"Most people don't have the biggest collection of makeup and uh... weapons in their room."
"Biggest collection?" Leah snorted. "Just wait till you see Madam Alice's collection."
"Who is Madam Alice?"
"She is our shall we say... beauty styler? She is the one who dresses us up for our roles in court, mainly. She also sometimes makes our clothes. Oh! And Madam Alice is our 'womaly arts' instructor."
"You said 'us', but I thought Jacob said you and I were the only females here."
"Yes, that is true. But not at the same time. You see, we are the only female trainees here. There have been other females before. Alice was actually on one of them. She decided to stay back for the time being and help train you and I instead of going out on missions. You have heard of the fourteen who hadn't passed the trials, correct?"
"Yes. Were you one of them?"
"No, I wasn't. My family has a long tradition of sending their first-born daughter to train here, but that is beside the point. The point is, every girl who had not passed the Ceremony ended up here eventually. You are, of course, the fifteenth. Anyways, let's get you dressed appropriately."
The next half hour flew by as Leah made me try on several of her dresses. All of them were too formal, too large, or too revealing, before she found the perfect one for me. It was light blue with cap sleeves. It fell around my calves. The neckline was a scoop, and ended a couple inches below my collarbones. Then, she sat me down in her makeup-chair, and went to work with me. By the time she was finished, I could barely recognize myself. My eyes are boring, drab brown, but she made them look glimmering and warm. My face looked slimmer, and my lips slightly larger. My cheekbones were more apparent. She smiled at me through the mirror.
"You ready?"
"Yes. Two more things, though."
"I'm listening."
"If Alice is the make-up artist, then what do you call this?" I point at my face.
"Madam Alice teaches us how to put on makeup. After all, sometimes when on missions, we need to take care of ourselves. That includes make-up. And your next question?"
"When can I meet her?"
"Who? Madam Alice? You will meet her today, so she can take your measurements. You will see her nearly everyday, actually. Some days, you will be learning 'womanly arts' and some you will be choosing dress, and such. Madam Alice is one the most social person out there. You ready to go get things done?"
"Yes," I smiled.
"Then let's go tackle the world!"
Leah hands me a pair of six-inch pumps. "I can't wear these! I will stumble and break my neck!" I say in shock, looking at the shoes I hold in my hand.
"Another thing Madam Alice will teach you- how to opperate in heels. But I guess, since you haven't had a class with her yet, that you can just have theses." She sighs, and takes the heels out of my hands, and gives me a pair of black flats.
"Thanks."
With a nod, she leads me out of her room and down the hallway. We makes a couple of turns, and go down two floors before coming to a door. The door was painted bright pink. Leah turned to me. "Here we are. Madam Alice's workshop. As you will see, she is a bit... excited."
"What do you mean?" I felt that I had been asking a lot of questions in the last couple hours.
"You will see," was her only response before raising her hand and knocking on the door.
The door was opened by a pixie-like woman. Her black hair was short, and spiked. And she seemed so energetic and happy. I didn't see how she could kill. Before I had a chance to speak, Alice grabbed my hand and fairly bounced me into the room. She smiled warmly at me. "Come," she said. I followed her into the next room. She took out a tape measurer, and asked me silently with her eyes if I was okay. I nodded, and she went to work measuring and recording.
Ten minutes later, Leah and I walked out of her workshop.
"I see what you meant about her," I said.
"I expected that. Now we have to go get weapons for you."
"Weapons? For me? But I have never even held a kitchen knife."
"You will soon."
We entered a room at the end of the hallway.
"The weapons master is Jasper. He is like Alice in a way... and isn't. He also instructs about combat and stuff."
"Hi." A guy with curly blonde hair walks up to me. He does a once-over of me before leading me over to a wall. "This is the knives wall." No kiddin', I think to myself. The wall held every knife, stiletto, dagger, and blade imagineable. And more. He selects a couple thin knives and hands them to me.
"Um... what do I do with these?" I ask.
Jasper looks at Leah in surprise. "Has she not been taught?"
"No. I suppose we should probably let her learn a couple things now, shouldn't we."
Jasper turns to me. "How about tomorrow morning at around eight-thirty we learn the basics?"
I look towards Leah. "Sure," she says, before taking me out of the room.
"How will I ever find where to go to meet him?" I am completely lost without her.
As if sensing my thoughts she responds. "That's what I am for."
I look at her and smile.
"Now for more exciting things- dinner. And then we can go out and get you aquainted with some nobles of very high status that know us, and what we do. Try not to screw up".
"Thanks for the encouragement, Leah," I say, rolling my eyes.
"What?" she shrugs. "It's true."
We walk down the hall and up a staircase. To the direct left of us was a large dining room. The tables were set up in two long rows spanning the room. Covering the tables were pristine white table clothes emborderied with gold lining. Shining goblets already dotted the tables. Past the tables lay a long countertop. On top of it lay enough food to fill someone for a month. There was pre-made sandwiches and fillings to make your own sandwich. There was turkey and mashed potatoes. There was soups and there was salads. And there was a drink bar.
"Wow," I say, taking it all in.
"I know."
"Where do I start?"
"Well seeing that we have maybe an hour and a half to eat, I would recommend soup and a sandwich." She strides over to the food-ladden tables. "Here."
I accept the bowl she handed me, and went to dish up some soup. But paused when I saw all the different flavors. Tiny name cards sat besides to pots of soup. I turn to look at Leah. "What's the difference between tomato soup and rich and heart tomato soup?"
She laughs. "I don't know- you will have to ask the chef. I would recommend broccoli cheddar or potato soup, though."
I reach for the broccoli cheddar soup, when suddenly a large arm knocks mine out of the way. A man at least six feet tall glares down at me. I shrink back against Leah.
"Back off, Jared," Leah says, staring him straight in the eyes.
"Well she shouldn't have cut me in line!" he protests.
"We both know you got in line after us. Now please get lost."
"Fine. But this isn't over," he glares daggers at me.
"Who was that?" I ask Leah as soon as Jared was out of earshot.
"That, my new friend, was Jared Cameron. He is basically the big macho macho man of this guild. Everyone knows he has this thing for me." She giggles. "Anyways, look at the time! We need to move! Grab a sandwich and follow me."
I jog over to the sandwich area and grab a Swiss and ham sandwich, before turning and following Leah. She dashes out the door and up the hallway. I follow suit, and soon we are winding through more long hallways. Finally, we reach what I assume to be the main foyer, and stop. The foyer was large and open. It had a white marble floor, and a small balcony looking over it. Leah leads me out a side door. We step out onto a small courtyard leading to a barn. As we enter the barn, I inhale deeply.
"We house the finest horses here," she says proudly. She snaps at a stableboy who was gawking at me. "Saddle up Wanderer and Spirit, will you?"
The stableboy rushes to go get the horses ready.
"The horse's names are Wanderer and Spirit?"
"No, actually, they are With Wanderer's Magic Nothing Will Go Awry and A Spirit's Revenge Is But For The Hopeful. But that's a mouthful. So we call them Wanderer and Spirit. They are our finest mares, which means perhaps they are the finest mares in the country. They hail directly from Only Wings Can Carry Me Swiftly Away, or Wings, as we call him. He was the king's greatest pride. We got him in exchange for some... favors. Ah! Here the horses are now!"
I turn to look. A dapple grey horse about 15 hands [NOTE: 1 hand is 4 inches, so 15 hands is 60 inches, measured at their withers (shoulders)] tall greetes me. The other one, a black with a white star on her forehead tosses her head, pins her ears, and prances in place all at once. Both horses are built beautifully with perfectly shaped backs, and long, lithe legs.
"The grey is Wanderer. She will be yours, I think. Wanderer is the calmer one, but you may have Spirit, if you wish."
"I'm good with Wanderer," I say, boosting myself into the saddle.
Leah thanks the stable boy, and soon we are trotting out of the stable. Leah turns onto a road, and I stare in amazement. This is the road I grew up on. My house is situated less than a quarter mile away. Leah, sensing my thoughts, turns to smile at me, before cantering away.
Thanks for reading!
Please please please review!
Sorry this chapter was a bit slow, and that you still haven't met Edward. I swear you get to meet him within 4 chapters or so.
Songs:
Dangerous- David Guetta featuring Sam Martin
Uptown Funk- Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
Fireball- Pitbull featuring John Ryan
