Chapter 9

Disclaimer: As always everything belongs to Tamora Pierce.

Alanna was looking at the familiar view of Jonathan's back covered by a tunic in the colour of his favourite royal blue. He was riding in front of her together with Gary, Raoul, and their squires. It almost felt like she was home, riding in the Royal Forest with her friends. Except this wasn't the Royal Forest and the others weren't her friends anymore.

The court had decided to spend the day hunting and so all young men and ladies had saddled up and ridden out into the nearby forest. Not long into the hunt, Simon's horse had started limping and when he couldn't find the cause, he had fallen behind, riding slowly to spare the horse. Alanna had joined him. For some reason Alanna's former friends had slowed down as well and was now mere yards away from them.

When Alanna had fallen behind the hunting company, riding alone with another man, Jonathan couldn't help but wonder why. He felt the jealousy come creeping up and, determined not to leave her alone with this unknown man, he'd asked the others to fall behind with him, keeping the two within sight. Now they wouldn't have their privacy and he might even hear what they were saying.

Geoffrey made a remark of how appalled he was that she, the woman who ignored them all and who presumably had disliked Alan, should have gotten Alan's treasured horse. In response he received a cold stare from Jonathan, and wisely chose to shut up.

"So what is it with you and the Tortallan prince?". Alanna looked up, startled. They had been quiet for a while and now, all of a sudden he asked her of that.

"There's nothing with me and the prince!" She said, frowning.

"Yeah, I've noticed. Whenever he's around you act all weird and disappear. And he never misses a chance to be near you, even now" Simon supported this statement by raising his hand in the direction of Jonathan riding still closer to them. Alanna shifted her gaze to look up into his brown eyes, trying to read them and deciding he might give up the subject if she was stubborn enough.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she snapped and raised her chin. Apparently she'd been wrong, for he said;

"Were you two lovers or something?" Alanna completely missed the fact that he was joking and gasped. Taking a minute to compose herself, she said;

"What kind of question is that?"

Simon grinned and brought a hand through his sandy blonde hair. "A question like any other."

"Not one you'd ask a Lady!"

"You expect me to treat you like a Lady? Well, that's a first."

Alanna glared at him and was about to make a rude comment on his sanity when she was cut short by Gary yelling something.

They turned their horses around in order to see what the Tortallans were looking at. Coming straight at them were seven or so warriors with their weapons raised, ready for an attack. In the distance Alanna could see a small village in flames. That explained the presence of the warriors; they were robbing the village for food, men, and whatever riches those people possessed. It wasn't to say whether the warriors riding towards them had decided to leave their group because they wanted whatever money and jewellery the nobles bore or because they wanted to keep them from alarming the King's soldiers of the attack. Alanna was betting on the latter, which meant that the warriors would see them dead.

She and Simon positioned themselves closer to Jonathan and his friends, all the men forming so as to have Alanna behind them, protectively. It was annoying as hell. Though, she didn't have a weapon, so she internally agreed that standing in first line might not be wise.

Soon all that could be heard was the sound of metal hitting metal and Alanna found it difficult to make up what was happening around her. She managed to keep close to Jonathan, though. It must have been a reflex. Suddenly, a big man with an axe appeared behind Jonathan. For a terrible moment she felt her heart stop, when she realised that Jonathan had not noticed his newest attacker. He was occupied fighting off another warrior to his right.

She couldn't let him die. It was not the fact that Jonathan was the sole heir to the Tortallan throne or that she thought he would become a great king one day. It was that she couldn't let him die, imagine a world without him. So she jumped, crashing into Jonathan, pushing him down, away from the dangerous axe, which swung over them in chest height. But they were already on the ground, safe. The only problem was just that they kept falling! Frantically, Alanna realized that Jon had been standing on the edge of something. Sure, there had been trees to that side, though they were lower down. They must've fallen down a ledge. Luckily, but also rather painfully, they kept rolling into smaller trees and bushes, which took some of the speed. Finally, they had stopped falling, caught by a big oak tree. Alanna was sure that she'd get a huge, ugly bruise on her entire left side, where she had hit the oak.

She opened up her eyes and found that she was staring directly into Jonathan's bright blue ones. He was lying on top of her. Slowly, his hand came up and took a strand hair away from her face. Alanna held her breath. He left his hand there, on her jaw, and started stroking her chin with his thumb. Alanna cursed her racing heartbeat. She couldn't just stop loving him – even if she wanted to. She slapped him on the shoulder. "Get off of me," she snapped. Jonathan did as she said, and she hurriedly sat up.

"You saved my life," Jonathan said with a grin.

"Yeah well, bad habits die hard", she said, emphasizing 'bad'.

She turned around and started climbing up, placing her feet at the trees and roots, and using said items to hold onto with her hands. Jonathan knew better than to help her, so he just followed her example. When they reached the top, the fighting had ceased, and they saw that their group had come out as the victorious part. Their friends who had minor injures, but nothing fatal, moved toward them.

Jonathan leaned in close to Alanna. "I am going to keep trying," he said quietly, so that no one else could hear, "what you just did, tells me that you're not as indifferent as you try to make me believe." That he could see through her like that, annoyed her. It was just a little more than she could take that day without her temper flaring to life.

"Yes, so I did save your stupid life. Again! And all I ask in return is that you leave me alone! That's not too much now, is it?" she all but yelled at him, forgetting her surroundings. Alanna knew she shouldn't care. Jonathan wasn't going to stay in Galla forever – it was only a matter of weeks that she had to put up with him. Then she'd never have to see him again. But that was the problem exactly. In spite of what he had done to her, she did not want to see him go, did not want to be without him. And this discovery scared her the most.

Meanwhile Gary, Raoul, Geoffrey, Douglass, and Simon all watched astonished. First the two of them acted like they did not know each other, when they clearly did, and now the girl saved the life of the handsome prince, just to turn around and yell at him to stay away from her! There was going to be some explaining to do when they got back at the palace for sure. However, Alanna was wrapped up in her own thoughts and did not notice anyone around her. She got up on Moonlight and started for the palace. Simon hurriedly got up to follow her.

Jonathan on the other hand knew what was awaiting him. His friends were not going to let this go over unexplained. He stood and watched her riding away before he too made ready to leave.

Author's note: So, this was a long one! But I feel it all needed to be in one chapter. Besides I have been away on holiday for two weeks – where no computers were allowed! – and thought I'd make up for it=)