Chapter 10
The two musicians were in the gardens: the jester with his lute in hand, and the girl, dressed in rather strange attire, was pacing along the sides of a vegetable patch. It was early morning; the best time in their opinions, to write a song, as ideas were fresh and opportunity had so amiably made itself welcome. The carefully tended plants around them were shining with beautiful drops of water laid on their leaves, and the soil was very moist from a rain shower the night before. Pepper's wonderful cooking was in the air, delighting the two with its mouth-watering aromas. "It's just rain, just water, some precipitation," Kayla was singing, in a lame attempt to compose a tune.
"That is a bit redundant," the blue boy responded, absently plucking a simple riff on his lute. Kayla scowled and whined, "It is not!" Jester, not one to get annoyed too easily, replied, "No, actually, I would say it is redundant."
Kayla put her hands on her hips and retorted, "Well, you can say what you want; it don't mean you're right." Jester cocked his head to the side upon hearing those words, and began to have a nagging suspicion that he had encountered Kayla's manner and way of speaking before, but he could not lay his finger on it. "Anyway," she continued. "Music is supposed to be redundant sometimes. Not too redundant but a little…" Her argument was failing, so instead of protesting on a weak, destined to fail debate, she asked, "What do you think it should be like! You're probably a much better songwriter." Kayla humphed and sat down on the wet grass. She sat up straighter upon feeling an awkward wet sensation on her pants, but was not in the mood to get up in any event.
"Frustration makes it even harder to write," Jester said sweetly. "See the good in your mistakes, and take the wisdom you get from them and use it to your fullest potential."
"Whatever," Kayla said. "I don't see why we're writing a stupid song about rain anyway. I mean come on, it's rain!"
"It's just rain," Jester said.
"Yeah, just rain. Just boring, boring rain."
"Though it is rather important." Jester began mumbling phrases that came to him, ausual method of his for writing songs. "Just rain…come on, come on, just rain…just rain, just rain, just rain…I think I'm getting somewhere!"
"Amazing," said Kayla sarcastically. "It's just rain, just rain, just rain. Just stupid water falling from the sky."
"It's just rain, just rain, just rain. Just water falling from the sky." Jester was coming up with a melody for the lyrics. "Getting stuck in a rainstorm. Hmmm." He paused, trying to think of a suitable rhyme for "sky." "The wind's howling sounds like a cry."
Kayla stood up. "Now we're getting somewhere. So that sounds like a good chorus. We can harmonize it, too." She sang the chorus they had decided upon and nodded her head in satisfaction. "Now how should we start it? The first verse, I mean."
"Walking through a meadow," Jester sand beautifully. "Just wishing for some rain."
"What rhymes with rain? Mane, lane, plain, insane…oh! Walking through a meadow, just wishing for some rain. It's not coming, I think I'm going insane!"
Jester shook his head. "How about vain?"
Kayla shot him an unpleasant face and said, outraged, "Vain? Vain! You have confuzzled me brain!" she said in an exaggerated accent.
"Why are you acting so strangely?" Jester asked.
"Sorry," Kayla said, waving her hand. "I get this way when I'm frustrated." She was hoping he would begin to not like her. "Anyway, I should go. The king wanted me to perform something, so we can work on this later, okay?"
"Fine," Jester said, and he sat his lute down on the table by the kitchens, and then started towards the entrance of the place to help Pepper. Kayla had decided upon which song she would sing for the king; a song she liked entitled My Happy Ending. Jester turned around and saw Kayla leave the gardens and enter the Throne Room, and after a moment's hesitation decided to go and watch her performance. Entering the room, he saw a few people had gathered there, including Jane, to see Kayla's second performance, and first performance on her own, though not nearly as many people were there as when she and Jester had performed Mean. Hearing as Kayla sang it, Jester was reminded, as he was by any break-up or sad love song, that he missed Jane. They had drifted apart and Jester had realized that Jane was interested in Gunther. She spent so much more time with him, after all. When the song was over, he saw Jane look in his direction, and knew it was purposeful, as he was almost hiding in the entrance to the Throne Room. Overcome with sadness and perhaps embarrassment, the blue boy, rushed out of the room and went to help Pepper in the kitchen.
After helping Pepper, he disappeared to his room and did not leave for the mid-day meal or for dinner. The rest of the castle staff was busy as ever with their jobs, and Kayla was sitting on one of the swings in the practice yard, watching Jane and Gunther as they fiercely battled each other.
The next day the king announced to be an official day off.
The knights helped him set up in the gardens, putting his throne adjacent to the fountain to calm the sovereign. After her initial duty of helping the king was completed, Jane went to the practice yard where Dragon was sitting, looking for shortlife activity. Seeing Jane, he began to talk excitedly about some incident involving a cow. Gunther stood by the stable, watching Jane and Dragon talk, as he was completely petrified to perform any other activity. His feeling were split, for one part of him was jealous and resentful, for he personally thought Jane did not deserve any friends and that he should have some, and another part of him was hyper observant and somewhat paranoid. Ever since the incident with the king's crown a few years prior, Gunther had hated days off, even though they meant he could relax. He was hardly relaxed. He feared something would happen, causing him to get in serious trouble with the king. Gunther had barely escaped horrible punishment for invading the king's property and touching a royal object without permission. Putting the king's crown on one's head called for serious punishment: with King Caradoc, maybe a year's worth of extra duties or even taking of his knighthood. With a harsh king, he could have been sent to the dungeon. With a really harsh king, maybe he would even have been beheaded. Gunther shuddered at the thought, and he looked around, fearing a royal object would somehow find its way to him, as if he were a trouble-making magnet.
Smithy, Rake, and Kayla entered the practice yard and greeted those who were already there. Kayla smiled at Gunther, who seemed terrified, and went up to Jane and Dragon, who had stopped their conversation. Jane seemed to be in the midst of making a decision, and she looked around and asked, "Where's Jester?"
"Right here, m'lady." Jaen whirled around in surprise and saw Jester happily striding towards her and Kayla. She had not heard him call her that in a while. "May, I be of assistance?" He bowed to Kayla, and Jane noticed that he did not do the same for her.
"I was thinking we could play bandyball, like we always do."
"I'll get the ball," Smithy offered and he went to the forge to retrieve it.
Rake pointed at Kayla and asked, "How should we split the teams?"
Kayla saw this as a chance to get Jane and Jester together and so she said, "How Jane, Jester, and Rake on one team. And me and Smithy on the other." She smiled at her teammate, who had once again joined the group, absently tossing the ball in the air.
"But the teams are uneven," said Rake. "And there's no way Dragon can play."
Dragon glared at the gardener, getting closer to him, and said, "You had better be careful about what you say to your harmless referee." Rake opened his mouth, then shut it again and cowered behind Smithy.
Jane laughed and, noticing Gunther by the forge, called to him, "Would you like to play, Gunther?"
To everyone's amazement he said, "Yes," and came over to the group.
"Are you feeling alright?" asked Jester. Gunther only nodded and asked, "Whose team will I be on?"
Kayla was somewhat delighted that Gunther would be on her team and said, "Ours." The other still stood dumbfounded as Gunther took his place between Kayla and Smithy. After a moment of waiting, during which no one spoke or even moved, Gunther complained, "Well, are we going to play the game or not?" Jane responded, assuring him they would indeed play the game, and she looked at Kayla and asked her, "Do you know how to play bandyball?"
Kayla shook her head. "Never heard of it before."
So Jane and the others went to explaining the rules of the game, showing Kayla which target belonged to her team and how to properly wield the stick. After demonstrating a few ways to play the game and showing her examples, Kayla noted, taking a stick for her own use, "This game seemed like a mix of hockey, lacrosse, and tennis," she laughed, holding the stick up and forcefully waving it like a tennis racket, almost whacking Rake in the gut. Dragon laughed at the sight of the nervous gardener crying out and dodging the stick, but Kayla seemed to take no notice. "Did I mention I play lacrosse? And I'm quite good at it."
"I've never heard of any of the sports you just mentioned," commented Smithy.
"Pity," responded Kayla. "You look like you'd make a nice hockey player." The two teams then divided up and the players stationed themselves as Jane had explained to Kayla. The game began with Jester whacking the ball with the stick as Dragon did his best to "quietly yell" as a referee. Smithy then aimed the ball, as it was coming towards him, in Gunther's direction. The raven-haired squire took aim and knocked it against the target with a loud plonk. Kayla and Smithy cheered, and Jane, Jester, and Rake, still a bit dumbfounded, scowled simultaneously. The ball then came over to Kayla, who whipped it up with her stick similar to how one would do in lacrosse, and sent the ball hurtling over to Gunther again. They continued for a while, with Kayla's team beating Jane's team, and Gunther seemed to be enjoying the game, thoroughly surprising all of them. Then, when the ball came over to him, Gunther forcefully sent it flying towards Dragon accidently. Dragon had begun to daydream, and as he was not prepared for the ball to come his way, he fell over the side of the wall in surprise and swat the ball away as he fell. Jane yelled and raced up the stairs and up to the wall, so that she was able to see the ball sail over into the gardens and hit Sir Ivon none too gently on the head.
The burly knight let out a loud cry of pain, and fell to the ground. Apparently not very hurt, he came storming back up angrily and began spitting out curses and cries of disgust. He looked up the wall to see Jane staring at him, who was not sure whether to be holding back a burst of snorts and laughter, be horrified, or be concerned for Dragon, who was moaning and getting up from a pile of rubbish. "You!" the angry knight yelled. "Did you do this, squire!" The king looked very shocked and upset, partly from being awoken from such a lovely nap. Sir Theodore looked as calm as ever, and the staff in the practice yard now joined Jane atop the wall to see the commotion. Jane opened her mouth, but nothing came out, so Kayla spoke for her. "No, sir!" she yelled down.
"The who!" Sir Ivon yelled in a thick Scottish accent, clutching his head. "Who for the love of Pete did this!"
No one spoke or moved. "Wasn't me," Dragon murmured. Jane climbed over the wall and onto his friend's back to see if he was alright. They all turned to look at Gunther, who had begun to back away. Sir Ivon looked shocked as he saw his own squire's guilty face. "Did you send the ball over here?" Sir Theodore asked.
"It was an accident," Kayla said, coming forward to defend Gunther.
"Yes," the raven-haired boy guiltily said.
"Can you explain yourself?" Gunther shook his head.
"Very well," the king said for the first time since the incident happened. He stood up and said," Gunther, Jane, Sir Theodore, please join me in the Throne Room." Jane said something to Dragon and the beast took off, still in a daze, and flew to the other side of the wall. Had he not been so confused, he would have been very amused, laughing for all he was worth, against his own good. Kayla, Smithy, Jester, and Rake all left down the stairs to the practice yard in silence. They could still hear Sir Ivon's yells and curses.
An hour passed before Jane or Gunther was seen. Smithy had begun to work in the forge, despite the day off, for he did not fell like doing anything else. Rake went to tend his vegetables, and Jester had asked Kayla if she would like to continue working on their song, but she refused. Jester had then gone off sulking to his room and left Kayla to sit on the swings, which was now becoming one of her favorite places to sit. The she saw Gunther. He looked terrible, his face full of guilt and despair. He passed Kayla and Smithy without acknowledging their presence and headed for the gate. Kayla and Smithy glanced at each other in silent worry, and then Kayla followed Gunther to the gate where she stopped him. "Gunther?" she asked. He ignored her and continued through the gate. She followed him and grabbed his hand, sending a bright red color to his tanned face as he turned around. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"I have to go get my father," he murmured, taking his hand away from hers and leaving the castle premises. Kayla continued with him to the path that led to the town and asked, "Why?"
Gunther sighed. "I'm in a bit of trouble, and since my father pays for my knight's training, he must speak with the king." They walked in silence for a few minutes, worry settling in Kayla's stomach. How much trouble was he in, exactly? Finally she spoke up. "Are you going to lose your knighthood because of this?" She instantly regretted saying that, for she feared what the answer would be.
To her relief, Gunther shook his head. "No, no, not for that. I've done much worse things than accidently hit a knight with a ball. Much worse things."
"Like what?" Kayla asked quietly. Then she laughed, "What did you do that's worse than hitting that poor knight on his precious noggin?"
"Oh, just things my father made me do. He always gets me to do his dirty work, and threatens to take my knight's apprenticeship if I don't."
"He doesn't sound very nice," Kayla commented.
"He isn't." The raven-haired squire's voice was rather bitter as he spoke of his father, and Kayla imagined him to be a horrible man who treated his son like a slave, and used him for the worst possible things for his own greed. She was not very far from the truth. Kayla took a breath and laid a hand on Gunther's arm. "No matter what happens," she said in a reassuring voice. "Everything will be alright. And even if you feel no one likes you, remember people do. Or at least one person does." She then left Gunther to stand alone on the path to watch the blonde girl return to the castle. A slight smile danced across his face, and though simple her words may have been, he suddenly felt more wonderful than he had in a long time.
So, what did you think? Sorry if the last part is a bit rushed or confusing- I was pressed for time and I needed to update. So go ahead and review and all that stuff. Sbohem!