Disclaimer: These character do not belong to me, they belong to Tamora Pierce.

A/N~ the hardest part about coming back so long after I stopped writing, I was only part way through the idea and me being the brilliant person I am I didn't write down how I wanted to continue the day. And the few notes I do have are absolutely nothing to do with this chapter, and are pretty pointless over all... Anywho I don't know if anyone really reads my random notes, but once again I apologize for the long wait for this chapter.

Chapter Ten

Kel's POV

As we walked to the fire I saw looks of surprise. I know Wyldon warned the group, but now I was curious as to what exactly he had told them. The news of a guest who was to be left alone wouldn't have clued them into the fact that she was a young girl. I led her straight to the pots off to the side of the fire to get some boiled oats for breakfast. She smiled as we were served our share. "Do you like boiled oats that much?" I asked her.

"No, but back home I would be lucky to get half this amount. It's not very often that we had much food. Although being used to less made it much easier to survive in the forest."

I nodded at her and led her to where Joren and Theo were sitting. Theo looked at her with quite the curious look on his face. Joren glanced at her then turned his attention to me. "When did she arrive?"

"Early this morning, she was actually in our tent when you two left. What did Wyldon tell you?"

"He said that training was being cut early do to a guest whom he doesn't want to keep in the woods with us long. There was nothing to worry about but just to keep our eyes open for anything suspicious looking. And now I'm really curious."

"She has a missing sibling and it seems quite serious. I'm not even sure that he would still be alive from what she relayed to Wyldon, but tell no one this, if he didn't share it, it doesn't go past your ears."

He nodded and turned back to his bowl of food and began eating again as Wyldon made his way to the fire. "Everyone listen up. Today we are doing as small exercise in tracking. Now I don't want anyone wandering away from their group at any point and time. We will have to different sets of teams running. The first set will be given a map with an outlined and they will go out first, while moving I want you to cover your tracks to the best of your ability. The following team will have the same starting point but will only have a map of the area, no path to follow. The second team is going to try and track down the first, when you do so both teams are to return to this area. If you have not found anyone by noon I want you to return to the camp. I plan on leaving before tonight and would like to make it to the clearing from last time as soon as possible after that. Everyone clear on that?"

"Yes sir" chimed the group still clueless as to what about the appearance of such a girl could cause all of this caution. I looked for Raoul for a sign as to whether or not our group would be leaving later for the exercise. He shook his head. Knowing him even if he can't get around the exercise he would have some idea to manipulate things so that it would work for his plans. I finished my own food and looked over at Alyxina, "If you don't feel like you can eat it all, don't worry it's more than your used to."

"Yes, Kel. I just want to be careful though. I know it's nothing rich, but after living on plants and what I managed to bring with me, I'm scared eating this to quickly will hurt my stomach."

"You really do speak well. I'm surprised to hear such from you."

"It was my mother. She had hopes that being able to speak well would help my brother and I. She learnt from a friend when she was younger. She also taught me how to read a little. I can't read much, but I know enough to understand some things."

"Your mother must have been a great woman, to have taught you these things in hopes for your future."

"She was, but yours must think something great of you, I mean you are training with these men. It's not something everyone can do."

"No, but if you can put your mind to it, and don't give into the problems from all the hard work, you can do it. Plus it's what I want to do, and it will help prove the will power of girls. Not only can we do a lot within our own homes, but we can do much for the country."

"Maybe, but it takes a lot to make a stubborn man think that way."

I held back some laughter, she may only be eleven, yet some of what she said was true and beyond her years. She had basically stopped touching her food, so figuring she was done I asked her so. She nodded her head in response. Leading her over to the dish washers I looked around for Raoul. I spotted him near Wyldon speaking, not so much away from the camp completely but more so away from the pages ears. I could tell their discussion was coming to an end as they both started nodding in agreement about something.

I was about to look away when I saw Raoul looking around the camp. When he spotted me, he held up a finger and then waved me over. I led Alyxina back over to where Joren was sitting by the fire before going to him. "Instead of doing the exercise, the pages in your group will be split up amongst the others and we shall start clearing the camp. You can take Alyxina down to the river with you to get some water and to wash her dress in the same time."

I gave a curt nod and responded with a 'yes sir' before heading back to the fire. I put a smile on my face as I got closer. Tracking exercise would've been better then cleaning if you asked me, but I couldn't go against orders, and can't put any blame on Alyxina, it's not her fault. My group was huddled around Wyldon, "I expect Raoul told you everything already Kel," I nodded, "Well then, I expect proper work from all of you and no complaining. All tents will have the bags of those sleeping in it next to them. I hope I can trust you enough to just take down the tents and make sure they are properly packed."

We all gave him as yes sir before splitting up to start our assigned tasks. Since the first thing to be done was getting Alyxina's dress washed, I led her back to the tent to grab it before heading down to the stream to wash it. I was about to place the dress in the water when Alyxina stopped me. "I can do this myself. This dress is getting old so washing it to hard will probably cause it to fall apart. I'm used to doing this myself anyways. "

I stepped back to let her wash the dress herself. I kept an eye out scanning the woods for signs of anyone appearing. I didn't think anyone would try and get near the camp with the King's Own and pages spread out in the forest, but then again no one would have expected the bandits in the hills when I was just a page.

I didn't move until Alyxina stood back up. "I'm done it just needs to dry some now."

"Well we'll let it dry out for now. If it's not dry enough to wear back we'll pack it with my stuff. You might prefer my clothes anyways for the walk back since they are a little better made for the woods."

"I don't mind as long as the pants agree to stay up."

I laughed slightly. The others may be used to seeing my so called Lump face, but for a girl who's been through so much recently I don't think it would help at all.

When we reach the camp again, every tent left standing hand bags next to it. Quite a few of the tents were already down. And the clean up staff had already dealt with everything from breakfast. Knowing my tent would be one of the last ones to be taken down I brought Alyxina's dress over to it, and used one pole to help keep it up so that it could dry in the sun. I spotted Raoul and Wyldon easily taking down a tent by themselves. Wyldon had given instructions if help was needed to give some form of signal since he was not going to check on any groups due to the fact that each group had experienced members with it this time.

I walked over to where Joren and Merric were taking down a tent. Alyxina followed me, but stayed out of the way while we took down the tent. I wanted to talk more about my thoughts on Alyxina's brother, but didn't want to do so just in case she could hear us.

We worked steadily, finishing all taking down all the tents before the teams came back. Wyldon walked out to see how everyone was doing while the rest of us took a break. "Well now that we're done we'll be heading back as soon as all the groups gather. Lunch will be eaten on the road; we won't stop until we reach the clearing. One night there since it's clear out we will only be using partial tent forms for a quick set up and take down. Alyxina you're going to have to stay close to Kel. For sleeping I want you between Kel and the bags."

Alyxina nodded her reply, closing in on me as Wyldon and the others began to return. Once everyone was accounted for we began to track through the forest working our way back to the first clearing we spent the night at on this outing. Alyxina stayed close to me nervously looking about at the trees. I smiled down at her and took her hand, "There is nothing to worry about. You are travelling with three squires, four pages, and with a company of the Own and two knights close by. Nothing will happen to you."

She gripped my hand and smiled slightly. I've been travelling for days through this forest I guess I've gained a few habits."

I brushed her hair back off of her face. "Well as long as we keep moving we will be back in the castle by tomorrow. There you will be safe for sure, and from there we can search for your brother."

"You mean you will help search too?"

"As long as I'm in the castle and am given enough time to help I will. And if we aren't being called away from the castle I think Raoul will give me some freedom to help. It might help me with some other work anyways. I will make sure that if you need me you will have the ability to find me. See the boys up there," I said pointing to Merric and Joren who were walking slightly ahead, "Even if you can't find me go to one of those two and they will help you."

She nodded looking slightly scared of the idea of having to talk to either of them. This wouldn't work well if she didn't know that they were friendly enough to talk too. I picked our pace a bit so we would catch up with the pair. "I don't think you guys really were introduced well enough this morning. This is Alyxina , her brother received a job in Corus and went missing shortly afterwards. Wyldon offered her protection to the castle and help afterwards."

Joren and Merric both smiled at her and started introducing themselves. Merric started first, "'I'm Merric, you probably saw me going to get people this morning. I've been Kel's friend for years and would be happy to help you as much as I can. Although I'm afraid I won't be around the castle as much as Kel will be."

As soon as Merric finished talking Joren started, "I've not been friends with Kel as long as Merric has been, but Kel and I have become god friends recently," he moved to put his hand around me as he said it but I moved out of his way. Merric stifled a laugh at this. "Although I will be happy to help you as much as I can. I do have a question for you. Who hired your brother? He must have told you something."

"I'm not sure. I have the letter that was delivered to him though. I was going to show it to Sir Wyldon when we reached the castle."

"Where are you hiding it?" I asked, curious that I had not yet seen this paper.

"I had it tied under my dress with a piece of ribbon. I made sure that this shirt was hiding it when you came back into the tent to help me."

She was a smart girl for sure and a careful thinker which was helpful to her, she might even find a place for herself within the castle if we didn't manage to find her brother. "Would you mind if I carried it for you. I can put it in with some of my more precious items when we reach the next camp so that we can be sure nothing happens to it."

She looked a little reluctant, probably battling with the idea of losing it because she gave it to me. "I guess that will work, but I will need it back once we reach the castle. I want to hand it to Sir Wyldon myself so he doesn't think I had been planning on hiding it from him."

"I don't believe he will. If you want we can even talk to him tonight about it. He should be able to find some time to talk to you alone tonight."

Nervousness crossed her face as I mentioned talking to him alone. "I can go with you if you want. We can even talk to Raoul after we reach the camp site since it will only be our groups there for a short while."

She nodded at started looking back the forest once again. The four pages were walking ahead. Theo was ignoring the group of three and the three were ignoring everyone. I felt something hit my hand. I began to pull my hand closer to me when Joren grabbed it. "Feeling a little jumpy Kel?" he asked while holding back a laugh.

"No," I said pulling my hand out of his, "But this isn't a nice little stroll through the woods. We have to be aware of everything going on, and remember what kind of people might be watching."

I was trying to remind Joren of the three pages attitude but Theo had heard the last part of what I said, "What do you mean the kind of people that might be watching Kel?"

"Just because the forest is quiet it doesn't mean there aren't other people out there. We are a large travelling group and split up the way we are just talking normally won't carry to the next group even if a shout will. So what's to keep there from being others in hearing distance that we can't hear because they are being silent? They might just travels staying off the road, or they could be bandits looking for those who aren't on the road, or are pulling back from the road since they've attacked someone and need to escape and are using the thickness of the forest to hide them. We can't just slack off on watching just because it seems safe, or because there are many others nearby."

Alyxina's hand tightened on mine as I spoke. I looked down at her. Her eyes had opened wider in fear as she looked at the trees around her. I would have tried to reassure her, but I couldn't do much without going against the last bit I had said. I looked at Joren walking next to me. He took my hand again and leaned forward a little to get a better look at Alyxina, "You don't have to worry about that though, Alyxina, not when you have strong men like me around. I'm here to help as much as I can."

He had turned away from her and towards me as he said the last line. I gave in and let him continue to hold my hand until we were coming up on the clearing. In the clearing Raoul's group had begun to set up tents. We walked over to the space next to his as a group to set up our own tents. Once we placed our packs on the ground I took Alyxina over to where Raoul was helping drive in the last of the stakes. Only the top of the tents were to be put up tonight. I asked Raoul if we could speak to him alone for a minute. He agreed to it and led us a little ways off. Alyxina explained to him about the letter. He said she had nothing to worry about not telling them right away and that he would talked to Wyldon about it tonight after everyone was settled so that she didn't have to think about it again until after we reached the castle where she could safely give it to him to read without worrying about others seeing it.

Even though our conversation with Raoul was a short on the boys had the tent set up for the night by the time we got back. The boys had placed our bags under the covering in the middle of the tent making sure they were set up for the night. I opened my pack and took out Alyxina's dress and hung it off one of the strings holding up the tent so that it could continue to dry. I dug deeper into my pack and pulled out the book from its place. I turned to Alyxina who was sitting by the edge just inside the tent watching the sky. "Is there any way you think you could get the letter out now with no one seeing it?" I asked.

She nodded and moved between me and the packs. She began fiddling with the shirt in what appeared to be an attempt to undo the ribbon that held it to her. She smiled as she stood up to let the letter fall out. I carefully picked it up and placed it with the papers I had inside the book. Merric came over after noticing I had the book out. "Planning on doing some work Kel?"

"No, I don't think I will until we get back to the castle. I have something else that I want to ask someone else at the same time."

He seemed to pick up at the fact that I wanted to talk to King Jon about something even if he wasn't sure what it was I wanted to talk about. I began to think that there was a chance that Alyxina's brother might become the next victim of these cases of disappearing people. I wanted permission from King Jon to follow the case as closely as possible in case he really was because I could gain so much information first hand which would become very useful. Even if I couldn't figure out who it was any information would be useful. If not, maybe Alxyina's brother would be willing to become a contact of mine in the city which would be very useful.

The camp had started to fill up by this time so I put the book back into my pack and pulled out my comb and ran it through Alyxina's hair. I took the ribbon she had used to tie the letter to herself and used it to pull her hair back. She gave me a weird look when I finished her hair and began running the comb through my own. I smiled, "Sometimes it's fun to remind the boys of the fact that there are girls among them." I put the comb back in my pack, "Come, let's go see when work there is for us to do." I said as I wandered out into the camp that was slowing being put together.

A/N- Another chapter done YAY! I don't know if I want to write another Camp Night chapter or just go into the next day. If I do write another night chapter I know it will mainly be Joren and Kel. But I'm not sure yet. Although I know how I'm going to be using Joren for sure now :) Reviews are always loved even if it is just yelling at me for slow updates. And reviews always make me smile and want to write more :) I will try try try try try to update more often and hope school will leave me sometime to do so (third year university, please don't stomp out all my free time ) until the next chapter then :)