"Celi!" She turned around. Two boys were running up the hill towards her. She grinned and waved at the two boys. They both looked very similar, with their dark skin and black curly hair, though Vasin, the quieter, more solemn of the twins was slightly taller than his younger brother. "Celi!" Kasi shouted again.
Celi smiled. "How was your summer?" She asked, hugging them both.
"It was great, we didn't get to go home, we didn't have enough time; but we stayed with our mother's cousin down south. It was great!"
Celi smiled. "That's wonderful. Have you been practicing? Are you ready to come back for another year's training?"
Kasi made a face at her. "Come on, Celi, is anyone ever ready for it?"
Celi grinned. "Good point. Come on, I was just on my way back up to the palace for lunch. You coming?"
Vasin nodded. "I hear they're making new changes. Taking out some of the normal training practices, putting in some new ones. Master haMinch didn't want them, but he's retiring after this year, and they wanted to start making changes now."
Celi was a bit surprised. "He's retiring? I didn't know that. Who's supposed to replace him?"
Vasin shrugged. "Who knows. I guess we'll find out next year."
"It seems that everyone is retiring these days!" A voice said from behind Celi. An arm wrapped around her shoulders.
Celi looked up and grinned. "Well, well, James of Goldenlake! What brings you to our quaint little palace?"
James grinned back. "Just thought I'd pop by and say hello, maybe get a cup of tea with the queen this afternoon. And I might have a nice little fencing practice with the king. You know, same old, same old."
Celi rolled her eyes. "Of course. How could I think anything otherwise? What were you saying about retiring?"
"My father's retiring too. Not quite yet, though, he's going to be here for two more years." James said as the four of them walked back up the hill together. It had been a long summer. They had been away from each other a long time, and they were happy to be back together again. They were a team, their group, and even when they weren't all there, it was still right. Their end-of-the-year trip the past spring had taken a toll on them, but it had made them stronger, too. They had seen battle, they had felt pain. They were ready to take on their second year.
-----
As her friends had warned her, the second year of training was much harder. She had trained during the summer, but she knew almost right away that she didn't train enough. She struggled to maintain her speed during their runs with the weights around her waist baring down on her, and found it difficult to succeed in her tilting as the target got smaller and smaller.
"Why do they insist on making us improve?" Kasi said with a sigh as they sat down to lunch one day after new weights had just been added to their belts. "Why can't we just stay at a nice, quiet level of ineptitude?"
Celi laughed. "I don't think we'd make very good knights if we had a quiet level of ineptitude."
"Yeah," added Seamus, "but we'd be happy."
Celi rolled her eyes as she as she began to eat her lunch. Someone knocked her from behind as she bit into her roll, and she coughed.
"You alright?" James asked, otherwise ignoring her ailment.
She took a swig of water and nodded, unable to speak. "I'll be fine," she squeaked, coughing once more, and feeling the colour leave her face. "I'll live to see another day."
Vasin slapped her on the back. "That's always a good thing."
"What happened?" Kasi asked.
Celi shrugged. "I choked a bit. That's all."
James raised his eyebrows. "Come on, Celi, what do you take us for? We're not idiots. Someone is doing something to you. Don't think we haven't noticed."
Celi shrugged. "It's fine. They're just hazing. They do that to everyone."
Leroy shook his head. "They're picking on you. You shouldn't let them do that."
Celi frowned. "Really, it's alright. They're too stupid to do any real harm, let them have their fun." She knew it probably wasn't the best idea to let those bullies do what ever they wanted, but she'd rather deal with their silly shoves than get in trouble with Master haMinch for retaliating.
The mood was tense after that. Celi didn't want people thinking she was weak and couldn't handle a bit of hazing, but she also didn't want people to think she couldn't stand up for herself. She settled on just ignoring her bullies. If they asked her to do something, which they rarely did, choosing instead to trip her and embarrass her, she would simply walk away. Hopefully they wouldn't be smart enough to come after her.
"Come on, we've got to get to class." Celi stood up with the rest of her friends as they left the dining hall. As Celi walked back her rooms to pick up her books for the afternoon, she heard footsteps behind her. She ignored them. There were fifty boys living in that corridor, there was always someone walking.
"You're lucky they didn't put you on probation like your precious hero."
Celi sighed. "They didn't put me on probation because Lady Keladry proved that girls didn't need to be on probation."
The boy shrugged. "Lord Wyldon was smart enough to put her on probation. If only Master haMinch was smart enough to do it for you. You wouldn't have made it past a month."
"Malory of Runnerspring. You should have learned from your fathers lesson." The boy who had been speaking to her sneered at Leroy as he stood behind Celi. "Come on, Runnerspring," Leroy continued, "think about it. Of your father and his three best friends, one is dead, and one is in jail, and when he gets out, he'll have no reputation. And look at Lady Keladry and Lady Alanna. Two of the most celebrated and renowned knights in the realm. I think maybe you should learn to pick your fights. Besides, there is no way the three of you could win against us. Goldenlake and Denaia could take you by themselves."
The two boys surrounding Malory didn't flinch, but Malory gave one more glare to Celi and skulked away, his cronies following quickly behind.
Celi frowned. "Why did you two do that?" She demanded. "Now they're never going to leave me alone."
James raised his hands in defence. "Hey, don't look at me, I only stood by and looked menacing."
Celi sighed. "Yes, and you did a bloody good job of it. Please, those three were harmless. They wouldn't dare pick a fight with me."
Leroy shrugged. "And now we know they won't."
Celi shook her head and sighed again. Still, she couldn't help but smile. They knew perfectly well she could handle those three, but they still tried to protect her. They were good friends. "Thank you for your consideration, boys, but next time, let me deal with it myself."
James grinned. "I suppose that's fair. We've got to hurry or we'll be late for class."
Classes that afternoon induced sleep more easily than they usually did. More than one person found themselves with a detention for dozing off in class. Celi was able to keep herself under control and awake, but a few of her friends ended up with detentions, Seamus and Gregory included.
"I don't know how anyone can manage to stay awake through an entire class on etiquette," Gregory grumbled sleepily as they walked from one class to another. "It seems like the most pointless thing in the world to me."
Angus grinned. "Come now, you won't feel that way when you start courting ladies."
Gregory shrugged. "If she cares about all that stuff, I don't want her."
Angus laughed. "Greg, old chum, every woman cares about it to some degree. Isn't that true, Celi?"
Celi smiled. "Why yes, Angus. Gregory here is certainly at the bottom of my list."
Gregory glared at her. "Fine. I'll shut up. Let's just get to mathematics, shall we?"
Celi sighed dramatically. She hated math. "I was hoping you weren't going to bring that up."
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Finally! It's been what, a month and a half? Almost. About three days short of it. I'm so sorry it took me so long, but what with the end of the school year and preparing for my wonderful adventures of the summer and a pesky thing called writers block, I took a while to write this. The problem is, I have great material (as I've mentioned before) for when she becomes a squire (it sounds suspiciously like a soap opera, but that's not important) but nothing for when she's a page. Maybe sometime I'll get fed up and just skip a few years. Just joking. I'm thinking of using the page years as character development for Celi and her many friends, most of all, and those pesky enemies I so easily ignored in the first few chapters (I especially love how they didn't get names until this chapter – and still only one of them did!). Anyway, it will be over a month before you get another chapter, because I'm afraid I am going to be away from the computer for a while. But don't worry, when it comes back, it should be good.
Alenor: he he, that didn't work so well, did it… oops. Give me a few months, and then I'll be churning it out like nothing else.
Atlanta Enchanted: oops again.
Skysong: spelling, not grammar, but yes, I understand. I do go over my chapters, but it's usually around two o'clock in the morning, so I tend to miss a few things. And I didn't say Ella went when she was a teenager, I said she went when she was seven or something like that. And again, I have found NOWHERE that says Shang only accept children four or younger. Unless it is in the new Trickster series, which I have not read, then it is something you people have made up. I have checked and checked again, and it only says 'young children,' it never specifies an age. So unless someone can give me a book and a page number where it says 4 or under, I'm not going to pay any attention to you people. Not you, personally, Skysong, just in general people complaining about that specific point. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that you guys care that much, but I am getting a little tired of that particular complaint. But don't let that stop you from complaining about whatever your little heart desires!
Maliaphire: how did she do exactly what Kel did? Other than everything, of course.
Skysong: yep. I find that happens a lot in my stories, what with my lack of creative writing skills and all.
Skysong: true. And at the same time, not. I put Stripe in because TP always has an animal in her stories, and the only basic ones are cat and dog, so it's obvious they are going to be repeated. I actually took the inspiration for Stripe from a mix of my own two cats. Maybe I could change Stripe into a hedgehog or a pot-bellied pig or something entertaining like that.
Skysong: wow, they really keep coming from you. Actually, Kel's books came about two, maybe three years at the very most after the Immortals. Prince Roald is in the first book, and says he is going to be a page the next year, making him nine or ten, and he's a year or two older than Kel. While yes, I probably did make some pretty major mistakes in the ages (if you ever try it, you will find it is extraordinarily difficult), I am pretty sure that one is write. Besides, I don't think someone is old until they feel old. If she still acted like a young lady (which I believe is something Daine would do) then I would call her a young lady. Unless she was like eighty or something, because that would just be weird.
Pussin Boots: thanks!
Wow, I wrote a shitload there. Don't you love how my notes are half the size of my chapter? I sure do. Now I'm leaving, I need to go to bed.
"Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, we should be thinking about getting more use out of the ones we already have."
That is just horrible. Good night, folks!
-unolimbo
