Chapter 8
Kel woke up and shivered- she had kicked off the sheets in her sleep. She moved to quickly cover herself- for she was afraid that Neal would notice that she was wearing only a shirt and loincloth.
As she was pulling the blanket over the sheets, she took a chance to look out the window. Dawn was coming over the horizon.
"Bugger," muttered Kel, lying back down, "Just for once I would love to sleep in."
A soft snore made her look down over the edge of the bed. There was Neal, curled up into a tight ball with only a thin blanket for covering. He didn't even have a pillow.
Kel felt sorry for him, for his manly pride of not showing much weakness to cold or heat. She reluctantly took her blanket and gently covered Neal up to his chin. She grabbed her pillow and, careful not to wake him, slipped out of bed, kneeled beside his head and eased her pillow under his neck.
Might as well get ready for the rest of the journey. Kel thought, making her bed and grabbing her tunic and tooth-cleaning powder.
Fifteen minutes later, Kel came out of the bathroom to a Neal who had moved his sleeping position to her bed. She shook her head, then sat down in the disturbing way that would wake the sleeper.
"Huh? Wa?" Neal said sleepily, turning over to face Kel.
She smiled at him. "Hello sleepy-head. Breakfast is in half an hour, so you'd better get ready." She patted his knee. "I'm really sorry about making you sleep on the floor."
Neal rubbed his eyes and sat up, leaning against the backboard. Then it came to Kel's realization that he didn't have a shirt on. She blushed- he was very well toned.
"We could've just shared the bed you know." Neal said, shrugging his shoulders.
"What are you on about?" asked Kel, bewildered. "We're best friends- best friends who are a boy and a girl don't share the same bed. It would've been too weird Neal. What if something happened?"
Neal raised an eyebrow. "And that would be…?" The sides of his mouth moved up into a slight smile.
Kel rolled her eyes. "Don't be thick Nealan- you know what I mean." She crossed her arms and got onto her feet. "I'm going down to breakfast." She slammed the door behind her.
"Men!" she muttered, "You think you know them".
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The group continued their journey as they had the day before. They only had three hours of traveling to go before reaching the fief.
To Kel, Pirate's Swoop looked like a smaller version of Corus- it even had it's own small castle where the Baron and his family lived.
"Kel?" said a voice to her left. She turned and saw that it was Neal.
"Yes?" she answered stiffly, turning her gaze to Peachblossom's mane.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I acted. It was stupid and you didn't deserve the type of message I gave out."
Kel nodded, then she looked at Neal.
"Just promise to never do that again, OK? We're just friends, not lovers. I can't see us lasting even if we were." She smiled, "We'd be too busy showing off to each other, trying to out do the other."
Neal grinned back. "How about we make a pact? We shall promise each other, that in your third year of your Squire training, if we're both available, we'll court. How about it?"
Kel bit her lip, thinking it over. This seems like a pretty good pact. There seems to be no flaws. She smiled. What an opportunity! Neal is very handsome and he's just given me an opening.
"All right Neal," she said. "You got yourself a pact."
"Excellent!" said Neal, shaking Kel's hand. "Hope you keep up your end." He winked.
Kel rolled her eyes for the second time that day. "Yeah, yeah."
She glanced up and saw, on the flagpole, the Lioness' shield design. It flapped gently in the breeze as Kel thought about her own shield design. She shrugged. She didn't have to worry about it right now.
They finally reached the stables where Stable Hands took their horses off them and a servant led them to their rooms.
The servant eyed Neal and Kel once the Own had separated into their allocated rooms. "I suppose you want a room with a double bed?" he asked, a cheesy grin on his face.
Kel frowned, then grinned. "Oh yes, Neal and I would just love to have a room with just us two." She shook her head. "He's my Knight Master, so that means, unfortunately, that our rooms have to be conjoined by a doorway that locks." Kel added that last bit in just to add security to her personal space.
Then, much to her annoyance, Neal slung and arm around her shoulders. "Yes good man. Show us to our rooms so that we may get our rest."
He kept his arm around her until they were inside one of the rooms they were assigned.
"Get off me Neal or I might do something that might damage you for a while." Kel said, her voice in false calm.
"Like what?" Neal asked, still keeping his arm around her.
"Something like this." Then Kel kicked her foot backwards towards Neal's crotch. Neal slumped onto the ground, groaning.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Kel asked.
Neal nodded, glaring at her from the floor.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
After dinner, Kel made her way up to her room. Glaive practice might make me feel better from a long trip. She thought
She unlocked her door, entered and locked it again. She checked that the door joining her room with Neal's was locked also. She picked up her practice glaive and walked to the center of the room. Just as she was about to lunge the glaive into attack, there was a knock on her door. Kel sighed, and opened the door.
Dom stood there with a bunch of flowers in his right hand. "Evening Kel," he said, a small smile on his face. "I was wondering, since its such a beautiful night, would you like to go for a walk in the gardens?" He held out the flowers for Kel to receive.
Kel took them, forcing herself to prevent another sigh to escape her lips. She looked at the flowers, then to Dom. "All right Dom. I need the fresh air." She placed the flowers on a table near her bed and closed and locked the door behind her.
Dom was right- it was a beautiful night. The moon was full and the stars seemed brighter than ever. But Kel didn't feel very comfortable. Sure, Dom was a nice guy- he was good-looking and had a sense of humour, but he wasn't Neal.
As they walked around the rose bushes, they ran into Neal.
"Kel! I was looking everywhere for you!" he said. "Dom! What are you doing here?"
Dom raised an eyebrow. "I'm taking Kel for a walk around the gardens dear cousin," he replied. "And what is the excuse of yourself being here?"
Neal rolled his eyes. "What do you think? I was looking for Kel."
"Well Kel is with me and we're on a date at the moment-"
"Hang on!" interrupted Kel, "What do you mean 'on a date'? You never said anything about a date!"
"I-er-was just joking Kel." Said Dom, "Just trying to humour you and Neal-"
"Oh ha ha ha funny-man Domitan thinks that he can crack jokes?" Neal said in a mocking tone. "You'd think if he knew what a joke was."
Kel glared at Dom. "Goodbye Dom." She muttered. She turned to Neal. "You needed to see me? Well, here I am. You just need to follow me back inside for I am not spending any more time in the garden." She turned around and started to walk away.
Neal jogged up to catch up. "Are you all right?" he asked, as Kel slowed down enough for him to stop jogging.
Kel stopped walking and turned to Neal. They just looked at each other for a minute before Kel spoke. "Is that what men do? Take advantage of women just because they want to become something that men want to be? It's not fair Neal. I'm the one who has to put up with the most problems that no boy has to put up with in their training." She took a breath, looked around her to see if anyone was around to eavesdrop and then continued, in a much quieter voice. "You males don't have to put up with monthlies, breasts and mood swings. You get the high life. What about us females? We bear children, but we have no say in naming the child. Try a day in my shoes Neal, I'm afraid you would feel the same thing."
Neal stood there, his mouth hanging open. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. "I've never heard you talk like that before Kel." He turned slightly pink. "Or talk about women's private business."
Kel rolled her eyes and hooked her arm with Neal's. They started to walk back to the castle. "You're my best friend Neal," she said, placing her head on his shoulder. "Who else am I to talk to? I'm the only girl amongst this group. Until we meet Lady Alanna, I'll only have you to burden my girl stories to."
Neal forced himself not to roll his eyes. "And I'll talk to you about my boy stories?"
Kel grinned. "Why not? Makes the conversation more interesting." She craned her neck to get a better view of Neal. "I'll tell you about private girl stuff and you do the same with boy stuff."
Neal looked down at her. "Sounds like a lesson in the birds and the bees again."
"Almost- but on the facts of life with both sides of the story."
(A.N. Sorry for the lateness. I was just enjoying my last weeks of school before Winter Vacation. Busy on Chap 9. Thanx for reading! This Chapter is a beginning of something. Can't say, but in my next few Chaps, you'll see what I mean. If you want to correct me, please do so- I'd appreciate it the same as a nice review.)
