A/N: Oh yay! It's chapter 10!! No worries though, it's not the last chapter. We have three more to go! Anyway, I'm glad you all are excited about the foodfight... I decided that the New Hope kids deserved a bit of pointless fun - they are kids after all, not the evil masterminds they seem. But breakfast isn't until 9, so we have a little wait... and a little filler-fluff.
The New Hope Players
Chapter 10
--December 21- 7 am--
Daine slid the new nameplate into the name-plate holder on her door quietly; she then twirled around and nearly ran into Buri.
"What?" She whispered, "I have a plan to keep to!"
Buri glared at Daine and then pulled her down the stairs and outside so they could talk normally.
"What?" Daine said again, but worriedly, Buri didn't look good, "Buri... are you okay?"
"Yeah... I'm fine, just worried," she threw her hands into the air and continued, "How am I going to tell Raoul?!"
"Oh that." Daine sighed, "Well... just tell him. And if I were you I wouldn't tell him it was twins... it'll be so funny to see his expression when the babies come!" She said the last bit evilly, trying to make Buri laugh.
It half worked, Buri snorted, then said "You are just as bad at those kids you know that? And I guess you're right I should just tell him..." she sighed, "So anyway I can help with your plan?"
"Actually... Yes." Daine smiled, "When Numair comes tearing outside in fifteen minutes, tell him when he asks you, that I'm at the stream meditating."
"Alright, go. Scat!" Buri waved Daine off, smiling at the whole situation.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Numair awoke to a sparrow pecking his nose. Daine was gone, and this bird was not leaving. He sat up suddenly and near threw the bird across the room. It peeped angrily at him and dropped a note in his lap. He looked at it and then sighed heavily, apparently Daine wouldn't let him sleep in today after all; he tore open the letter and read quickly.
"Look at the door?" he said, puzzled, "why?" Numair got dressed, and following orders, studied the door closely, looking for anything abnormal. It took him at least five minutes to think to look at the outside of it, rather than the side facing the room's interior, and then another few momenths to notice the new nameplate. His eyes grew round and he tore back inside, and just as fast ran out of his room, a little box in hand. He paused again in front of the new door sign, just to be sure, but there was no mistaking what it said. He turned and ran out, a little ring box in hand.
On the Nameplate:
Room 3
Numair Salmalin,
And
Soon to be Veralidaine Salmalin,
As He's been good, and Today is Someday.
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--December 21- 8:00 am--
Tobe yawned loudly and slouched in his chair by the door, "Ump, guys why did we hafta' get up so early?"
Loey glared at him, "To exchange midwinter gifts you butthead." she said irritably... she was exhausted too, "We just gotta wait for Gydo to find her basket of presents."
"Found it!!" Gydo's voice came out of her closet... which was spewing clothes and the like all over her wooden floor. She crawled out, holding a fairly large basket filled with packages wrapped clumsily in cloth.
"Good!" Loey sat up, "And I have the presents from Kel and Yuki and friends here in this basket, so lets open!!" Within seconds the floor was littered in paper, cloth and twine and each child had a nice pile of gifts next to them.
"Oh! Loey!! This is so cool!" Tobe flipped through an official looking copy of their script.
"No problem," Loey replied, fingering a nice woolen coat, "Look at what Lady Kel got me! A coat, you know how much I needed one!"
"Yes, she was really thoughtful, wasn't she?" Irnai sighed, flipping through her copy of A Child Prophet's Guide to Dealing With Visions, her gift from Kel.
Gydo laughed when she saw what Irnai had gotten, "Gods know you need that! But look at this!" She snapped out a Yamani fan.
"Oh you got a shukusen from Yuki too?" Loey said happily, pulling out her own deadly ornament.
"Wait," Tobe looked wary, "You two have those scary sharp fan things now? Rats! All she gave me was a belt buckle with a mini-knife in it!"
"At least she gave you a weapon!" Interjected Irnai, "All I got was a brick of green tea! And what did Daine and Numair and Raoul and Buri give you guys? I got a ball and a hat box."
"Fun," said Loey distractedly, sorting through her small pile, "Oh, they gave me a silk hair bow and a nice bag."
"I got a pair of riding boots and gloves!!" Tobe looked elated by this, "Real leather and all... wow!!"
Gydo looked up from the dress she was examining (a gift from Kel) and smiled wickedly, "This has been an amazing gift morning!! And the day has just begun... the best part hasn't even started yet. AND we haven't got Kel and Dom's real gift to us have we?"
--December 21- Breakfast--
Daine and Numair were very happy looking when they joined the other guests, and New Hope's homeless children for breakfast. Of course, it was rather obvious to the other ladies as to why Daine was beaming and near-skipping to the table. They flocked around her, demanding details and to see the ring, cooing over it as though it was a newborn babe, whilst the men just nodded at Numair and returned to watching the door for Sam and the food. It had been the childrens' idea of course, to seat all the guests together in the town's only formal dining hall rather than with the rest of the town's inhabitants.
Finally when everyone was settled down, the food arrived, great big platters heaping in eggs, bacon, toast and an a general assortment of breakfast. Each visitor was given first choice of the meals, forcing the children and regular inhabitants to wait quietly for their turn. If anyone noticed the fact that the children were extra antsy, they put it down to nerves about the night's events, and ignored it. They shouldn't have.
Once everyone was served, Kivik looked nervously to Tobe, who sat next to Neal. He nodded. Kivik looked over at Neal, took a deep breath and then began to hum. Most eaters ignored him until Tobe took the harmony, and then Jasson, Marco, and even Meech joined in. It was a simple tune, one of the more soppy love ballads, commonly heard sung by minstrels in town squares, but as soon as they heard it, Merric and Kel whirled around, dropping their utensils, eyes wide, trying to remember... and then Kel placed the tune in her memory. "Oy," she whispered to Merric across the table "Isn't that the tune that we used to sing to---"
Out of no where it seemed, a big glob of porridge landed on Kivik's forehead. Everyone, most of whom had been smiling at what they thought was scheduled entertainment, fell silent, mouths open. Neal was half-standing, spoon still smudged with porridge in his hand. He glared at Kivik, who merely blinked up at his attacker, a slow smile blooming across the child's face as he silently congratulated himself on a plan done well.
"You hit him!!!" cried Loey, breaking the silence and leaping onto her chair, pointing her spoon threateningly at Neal, a look of pure vengance upon her face.
"How dare you?!" Gydo stood up as well, and picked up a hardboiled egg in her hand... at least the adults thought it was hardboiled. She flung it at Neal who ducked... which caused the egg to hit Sir Dom by mistake. The egg splintered onto his tunic, splattering him with egg gunk. Laughing, he discarded the toast he had previously been munching on, and threw some of his food at Kel, who glared at him, "You're gonna pay for that Masobole."
"Food Fight!!!" one of the children called. And next thing the adults knew, all of the children and some adults were flinging food at everyone. It was all they could do to fight back. No one ever found out where the rotted fruit came from, or how the children where so well armed and shielded, but it turned out to be the most eventful breakfast New Hope had ever seen... and ever wanted to see. Many decent clothes were ruined that day... in fact; the children were the only clean ones there!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
--December 21-11 am--
"Neal!" Yuki snapped her hand out and grabbed her husband, who had been attempting to sneak by without being noticed, by the collar, "There you are! You're going to miss the skating. Come on!" She pulled him onto the sleigh and nodded to Raoul, who drove the whole gang off.
There was a large frozen pond only a half-a-mile from New Hope, so they made good time getting there, the children, who, since they were clean, had gone ahead earlier, had already set it up, with warnings against weak ice, and benches to put on skates. Tobe, Loey and Gyod were skating around the edge, keeping an eye on the proceedings. They did that for about half an hour, until they sat on a bench with Irnai, who couldn't skate at all.
"How goes it?" Tobe asked her, as he sat down.
"Good... Look," Irnai pointed to Neal, "Poor Sir Neal, he keeps falling down! Oh look there he goes again!" She laughed at the spectacle the tall Neal was making of himself.
"I'm glad, though I feel rather bad for him... I mean first the food fight, then this, and the play tonight..." Gydo sighed.
"Don't worry; we'll make it up to him." Tobe said confidently, "I have a plan... but now it's time to put this plan into action, with our Dom-and-Kel relay!" He got up and skated over to Yuki, and whispered something to her. She nodded and then blew a long note on her whistle, the symbol to get off the ice.
Once everyone was congregated on benches, Yuki began to explain the next part of the day, "Okay, to add some flavor to the ice, the young'uns thought it would be nice to have a race. So it's a Yamani styled. There are six teams, two people per team, they stand on opposite ends of the ice. One of them holds the team Baton, and when I blow the whistle, they both start skating fast as they can, and try to meet in the middle where the person with the baton gives it to the other person. They skate to the opposite side that they started from. Then they turn around and do it again... three more times. Whoever finishes first wins! Any questions?"
"Yeah!" called Raoul, "What do we win?"
Yuki smiled, "It's a secret worth waiting for Raoul. Now teams, okay, the kids are done setting up, I'll let them say who goes where."
"Hi!!" Gydo called, the picture of an innocent child, "Umm okay, first lane will be Kel and Dom...
To Be Continued