Chapter Fourteen: The Past
Two weeks later, Kirsten, Nicholas, Carly, Shakil, and Zahara were coming back from the beach by Pirate's Swoop, when they heard what sounded like Kaiya yelling.
The five of them wandered over to where the yelling was coming from, and saw Kaiya and Caden were with the trainees, Thayet, Sarge, and Evin.
"I am seeing air between your butt and saddle, trainee!" Kaiya was yelling at a trainee as she circled him. "Connect yourself to the horse. I want to mistake you for a centaur!" Kirsten, Carly, and Zahara recognized him as the trainee who had used the pick-up line on Zahara. Ever since then, whenever Zahara was alone, or just with the girls, he would smile, and wave at her. Kaiya had once commented by saying "I think he returns your crush, Zahara, even if he thinks you are taken"
The trainee glanced over and saw it was Kaiya talking, then went back to looking ahead, where he was riding. Kaiya yelled for him to fix it a few more times, but the boy didn't respond. Finally, Kaiya dismounted, found a smooth stone, then remounted before riding after the trainee, who still was ignoring orders to lower his butt. Kaiya got within range of the boy, and threw the rock in between the saddle and his legs. The rock hit him in the back of the upper thigh, right below his bottom. The boy, who had traveled over closer to where Kirsten, Nicholas, Carly, Shakil, and Zahara were standing, yelped, and turned to glare at Kaiya. She rode up to the trainee
"That hurt!" the trainee snapped
"Take it from someone with personal experience, an arrow there hurts a hell of a lot more. Now, make me think you are a centaur!"
The boy sat back down on the saddle, and rode off. Kaiya nodded to Kirsten, Nicholas, Carly, Shakil, and Zahara, and then took off to get back to helping the trainees.
Kirsten felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw Alanna behind her...with her naked sword
"Oh no" Kirsten said "A naked sword in your hands means one of two things, either someone ticked you off and you are about to them, or-"
"Sword practice, my dear former squire" Alanna said, smiling "Let's make sure you weren't lazy while you were in the desert"
"I am not your squire anymore" Kirsten said "I can turn down the challenge"
"That's right, you can" Alanna said, looking at the Riders "And I can then proceeded to follow you around with my sword until I intimidate you enough to just practice with me so I will put my sword away"
"How do you know that will work?"
"It worked up until the day before your Ordeal" Alanna said
Kirsten groaned, and Alanna grinned "I have the practice court all set up. Carly, Nicholas, you two can come with us"
"That's alright" Carly said "We'll pass"
Alanna smiled again "Let me rephrase that...Carly, Nicholas, you are coming with us. After I am convinced she is in good shape, I will make sure the two of you are in good shape"
"Lady Alanna, you were not my knight-master" Carly said
"Or mine" Nicholas said
"No, I wasn't" Alanna agreed "However, Carly, I will just tell Raoul you refused and I assumed you knew you were out a practice, so he had better get you back into practice...perhaps with tilting?"
Carly glared "You are evil"
"And proud of it" Alanna said "So, Nicholas, are you coming? Or-"
"No, I'm coming" Nicholas said "If you ware down Kirsten and Carly, I know you can ware me down."
"Smart man" Alanna said "Come on, you three"
(Later that afternoon)
Kirsten, Nicholas, and Carly groaned as they got to collapse onto some chairs in the front room of the Swoop. Alan, Thom, George, Shakil, Zahara, Caden, and Kaiya looked at them with surprise.
"What happened to you three?" Alan asked as Alanna came in
"Your mother made us go through an intense sword practice" Kirsten said
"It was not that bad" Alanna said "And it was good for you to get the work-out. For a knight to get out of shape is-"
"to ask for death at the hands of a stranger on a lonely road" Kirsten finished "You drummed that into me when I was your squire"
We interrupt this story for a very important note from the author.
Just so none of y'all sue me, that was a direct quote from Alanna: The First Adventure on page 49. (with the exception of Kirsten speaking...)
Now back to our regularly scheduled story
"You'd be smart to remember that, Kirsten. I tend to like my squires to live to a ripe old age." Alanna said
Carly turned to Kaiya just as Thayet, Sarge, Onua, and Evin walked in. "Hey Kaiya, what was that you told the trainee today?"
"What? I told a lot of trainees a lot of things today" Kaiya said
"The one you threw the rock at. He told you it hurt, and you said take it from personal experience, an arrow hurts more...what was that about?"
"She never told you that story?" Evin asked "Oh, it was hilarious...you know, once we knew she was alright and everything."
"No one asked for your commentary, Evin" Kaiya said, turning red
"Come on, Kaiya, tell us what happened?"
"I was careless, I got hit, got injured, met Caden, the end" Kaiya said, her face now the color of the red of Alanna's hair.
"Come on Kaiya, either they have to hear the story in whole, or not at all"
"I vote not at all"
"I vote in whole" Kirsten said
"I second that" Carly said "All in favor?"
Kirsten, Carly, Thayet, Sarge, Onua, Evin, Alanna, George, Nicholas, Alan, and Thom all raised their hand.
"All apposed?" Kaiya asked. She raised her hand. She then turned and glared at Caden, clearing her throat. Caden slowly raised his hand.
"That leaves Evin's story with nine votes, Kaiya's story with two"
"Wait! Shakil and Zahara didn't vote!" Kaiya said
"Doesn't matter, we still win" Carly said "Evin, why don't you tell us the story"
"Alright" Evin said leaning against a wall "Let's see, it was went Kaiya was on her trial year, so it would have had to have been...gods, three years ago. She was with my group, and we were chasing after bandits. I thought we had caught all of them, but I wanted to be sure, so I told everyone to mount up, and we rode out. Well, Kaiya was riding in the front with me, and I told the Riders to move out and search the area. Caden, Kaiya, and a few other Riders stayed with me while we searched one section. One bandit rode right out into the open, and Kaiya immediately charged after him. I think she was trying to prove to us that just because she was young, that didn't mean she didn't know her stuff-"
"Keep in mind she was the youngest to finish training ever, and so she was the youngest to start her trial run." Caden said
"Let's also keep in mind her butt was way up in the air as she rode after him." Evin said "I was thinking the whole time 'If only Sarge was here to see this, she'd be getting an earful from him'"
"You're right, she would have" Sarge said
"I think I'm going to make sure the trainees aren't getting themselves into mischief" Kaiya said, getting up "You know, we can't leave them unsupervised"
"No" Thayet said "You are staying right there"
"Come on Kaiya, be a good sport about it" Kirsten said "We all have our moments"
Kaiya grumbled, but sat back down, and buried her face into Caden's chest.
"Continue with the story, Evin" Thayet said
"Well, like I said, her butt was just flying up in the air" Evin said "She followed the bandit down the path we were on a bit, and suddenly, a second bandit rode out with his bow and arrow set and ready. Before I could even get my bow into my hand, the bandit fired, and the arrow went right below her butt. Well, she of course started screaming and cursing in pain, and alerted all the other bandits who were hiding, because they wanted to see what happened. We didn't miss a single one when we rounded up the bandits" Evin said, finishing the story
"I was the laughing stock of the group for the rest of the year" Kaiya said, her cheeks bright red
"Wait, in your little wanna-be version, you said you met Caden during this. What was that all about?" Carly asked
"Caden pulled the arrow out. The healer we had with our group was busy, and so Evin asked Caden to take care of me"
"I would have bet money that people in the palace could hear her scream when Caden broke the arrow to get it out" Evin said
"It was not that bad!" Kaiya said
"You nearly made me deaf" Evin said "And I was outside the tent"
"Let's think of it this way, Kaiya." Caden said "If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have gotten as close as we did as soon as we did, you wouldn't have been able to tell that one trainee to lower her butt-"
"And I would have never gotten the pure entertainment I just got from telling that story" Evin said
Kaiya glared at Evin
"You see, Kaiya" Sarge said, a smile on his face "When I told you to keep your butt in the saddle, it was good advice"
"Can I go now? I want to practice my archery, and imagine the bull's-eye is Evin's head" Kaiya said
"Tell you what, Kaiya. Since we got to hear an embarrassing story from you, I'll tell you one of Kirsten's moments as my squire" Alanna said
"I had no 'moments' as your squire" Kirsten said
"I beg to differ" Alanna said "I'd say that the incident with the shukusen would classify as a 'moment'" Alanna said
Kirsten's eyes grew wide "No! Alanna, you can't tell them that story!"
"Try me" Alanna said "Ok, so this was during her first year as my squire. She had been working really hard, and was doing well, plus I needed to go into the village to do some healing, and her gift just wasn't strong enough to need much training. So, I gave her a break. When I was coming back from the village about an hour later, Kirsten was exercising with her shukusen. I told her she had five minutes until we began training again, and she nodded. I walked into the house, and saw Alan coming the opposite way. I needed to talk to him, so I called for him. He turned to look at me, and the next thing I knew, there was a crash, and Alan was ducking down to avoid being beheaded by something that had flown through the window. I ran over to see what it was, and, care to guess what I found?"
Kaiya turned to Kirsten "You threw your shukusen threw a window?"
"It was an accident!" Kirsten said "Alanna had me clean up the class, and then help repair the window and the wall.
"Wow" Carly said, laughing hysterically "You two just can't be left alone, can you?"
"Just wait until the next time you we see Raoul or Dom. I am sure they have something on you from your squire years"
"No, they don't" Carly said "But go ahead an ask them anyway"
"Fine, we will" Kaiya said
Attention Reviewers!
I enjoy having you all contribute to this story, and I am now giving you a chance to do that. You have been given a embarrassing story from Kaiya and Kirsten's past, now I want you to give me an embarrassing story for Carly. Who knows? You're idea might be in the story!
Review Reply
xxTunstall Chickxx: I am glad you enjoyed it. I am still debateing over the whole Evin/Zahara thing, so you'll find out how that works out later.
spazzysassyangel: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
dares to dream: I am glad you enjoyed it. I could very easily arranage more spats between Evin and Kaiya.
Lady Kale: Everyone seems to love the arguement betwen Kaiya and Evin. I think everyone fights like they do, I know that I fight with my sister like that. I am glad you enjoyed the story.
inktounge58:I am a blonde too, and so we are entitled to have our 'dumb blonde moments'. Butr that is just for us. I hate it when people who aren't blondes claim to have 'blonde moments'. I am glad you enjoyed the last chapter.
Kate of Carlay: I am glad you like my plot and style. I hope you enjoy more of my story.