PRE-A/N: Yay! This is my absolute favorite chapter in the entire story, not to mention one of the longest. I got the idea when I was walking home one day in this warm down pour that lasted for about an hour. I didn't have an umbrella with me, but it felt so good I didn't mind, and then my mind started wondering, and this chapter was a result. I hope you all like it as much as I do.

BTW. Everybody wave hi to the new reader! I'm so sorry, I can't remember you're screen name (I left the paper I copied down all the people I wanted to write back to at the library), but I remembered that you're new to the story. Welcome, and I hope you enjoy.

For those of you who read Interception (about Savona finding the note from Mel in CCD and the silly little wrestling match that the cousins had to get the note back), I found that a lot of you wanted me to continue the story. Honestly, though, I can't think of anything else to do with it. Any ideas that may spark a second chapter are welcome, I guess.

Thanks for the ideas on what names to use in the name calling part. I pondered. I debated. I hope you think what I chose works.

Disclaimer: Not mine, except what is.

CHAPTER 14- Mud War

The first warm spring rain didn't come until long after all of the snow had melted. It was the first of a long rainy season, I suspected, but it still felt like something new and special that had never happened before. I wanted to go run in it. Unfortunately, I was supposed to be a proper princess and had certain responsibilities to live up to, and going out in the rain did not set a good example for others. Instead, I went to the stable to groom Bluewood, my horse, to keep my mind off of the inviting drops falling outside.

I walked into the snug, warm stable thankfully devoid of many others today. No one wanted to be out in the rain except me, it seemed. I took a deep breath of the humid smells of the barn; hay, oats, manure, and horseflesh. Comforting smells that helped to keep my mind indoors. I walked over to Bluewood's stall and peered in.

"Hey, boy," I greeted the animal. "Long time, no see, huh?"

He whickered and shook his head from side to side, like he understood what I had said. I chuckled and opened the gate, stepping in, watching where I put my feet, and closing the latch behind me.

"Pretty boy. I'm going to brush your nice coat today. We still can't ride for a while; it's awfully wet out there."

He harrumphed and stamped restlessly. I couldn't agree more.

"Don't worry," I comforted. "It can't last forever." I picked up his brush and started running it along his hide. I let the monotony of the act soothe me and let my mind wander. I started thinking about Bluewood's sire, Sultan, an how he had served Father so well for so long before he was too old to go on. Then on my musings went to a story that Mother once told me about how Father had won their first kiss in a race from Carad-on-Whitewater to Lumm, and that she still maintained that he cheated, although she didn't mind anymore. From their first kiss, I thought about mine and how it was nowhere near as romantic as my parents' had been. That made me sad again, and brought back that feeling of unease that I was trying to put out of my mind.

"Bluewood, I wish we could go for a ride," I told him. "I need the exercise and time to myself. Except for you, of course!"

"Talking to dumb animals, Princess?" asked a voice.

I looked around but didn't see him, though I knew he was here. I tried not to admit to myself that I was relieved to finally hear from him. "Well, I'm talking to you, so the animals can't be that dumb."

"Very funny, Princess," Flauvic complimented.

"Where are you?"

"The loft, trying to nap," he answered.

I looked up, as if I thought I would be able to see him through the boards, then chided myself. I put Bluewood's brush back on the shelf and went out his gate. I found the ladder going to the loft and climbed up, glad that I was wearing pants and riding gear, even if it was too wet to ride. In the dim, grey light of the loft I looked around until I found a human shape lying in the straw. His head was toward the ladder, so I could only see was his hair, longer now, and his body stretched toward a small, oil-paper covered window at the end of the stable.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be working somewhere?"

"Even I get days off," he said. "You can check with my warden if you like, I'm not shirking any duties I'm supposed to be doing."

I climbed onto the floor of the loft and started to crawl over until I could sit next to him; the roof wasn't high enough to let me stand. "Alright. So, why are you up here, specifically? Surely there are less- uf!- awkward places to rest."

"Because I'm not watched quite as closely in here as I am anywhere else. Or, I wasn't until you decided to pay me a visit. One of my shadows has probably just left to tell your father where you are and who you're with."

I thought about the implications of that for a moment, but decided that I didn't much care. I shrugged and listened as the rain doubled its drumming rhythm on the wood roof above our heads.

"What are you doing here, Princess?" he asked sarcastically. "No previously scheduled rainy-day activities planned in Court?"

"I am trying to avoid temptation," I admitted, not taking offense.

"Your beau?" he sneered. "What, the count, or whatever he is. Too much temptation for you to be around him every day? Still trying to maintain your chastity until you marry the sod?"

I actually laughed out loud, as cruel as that sounds.

"No, no, not at all," I said.

He raised his eyebrows lecherously up at me. I blushed and looked away.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," I swatted him on the shoulder. "I meant, out there," I pointed to the window.

"The rain?"

I smiled a little and nodded. "I want to go play in it."

It was his turn to laugh. "Are you serious? That's it? You want to go play in the rain?"

I nodded. He shook his head.

"You are such a child."

"Didn't you ever go run in the rain?" I asked defensively.

"Not that I remember," he said.

"Your loss."

I stayed quiet, letting the alluring sound of the rain fill the silence to make my point. I brought my knees up to my chest and laid my head on them. My mind wandered again, this time to the first time that I was alone with Flauvic while it rained. He had been kidnapping me, using me as a hostage to get to the border between Remalna and Norsunder. It made me frown. My mind went back to the time my Mother told me about, being with him in what used to be Merindar House while it rained. I frowned deeper and suddenly felt that maybe I shouldn't be up there alone with Flauvic.

"What has you so worried all of a sudden?" he asked.

"I was just thinking that bad things are either happening, or about to happen whenever it rains around you," I answered. "Maybe you're cursed."

He got very still and pensive, even sad. Had I said something that struck a nerve? I was suddenly curios to know what it was, maybe even to help him to not be sad anymore. Right then, it didn't seem like a risk being there at all. Strange how he could make me go from one emotion to another so quickly. I decided to try to lighten the mood.

"If it is a curse, there must be some way to break it, don't you think?"

He didn't answer, but I went on anyway.

"Since its always bad things, maybe the way to break it is by having something good happen in the rain."

"What do you suggest?" he asked, not really interested.

I hesitated. "First of all, the bad seems to come directly from you, so you have to swear, on anything and everything you hold dear, that you aren't plotting anything."

He rolled his head to the side and looked at me skeptically. I just smiled and nodded.

"If I don't?" he challenged.

"Don't you want the curse broken?" I countered.

He glared and went quiet again. I waited for him to say something. It was a few minutes before he spoke. "I swear that I'm not plotting anything right now."

I sighed a little ironic laugh and nudged him accusingly. "Good enough. Now, come on." I got to my feet and started an ungraceful waddle to the ladder.

"Where are you going?"

"We going," I corrected. "Come with me and you'll see."

He sighed and followed. We got down the ladder and I led him to the door going outside, into the rain. There was no one else around, except the spies Father had put on Flauvic, for which I was incredibly grateful. I didn't want to make an idiot out of myself in front of more people that absolutely necessary. At the doorway, Flauvic stopped.

"What are you doing? Is this some scheme to get me out into the rain? Of all the ridiculous, childish-"

"It's called 'having fun,' Flauvic. You need more of it; you're too grumpy. Come on." I grabbed his wrist and yanked him outside with me before he had a chance to resist. He stopped the second the first raindrop hit him. The noise was loud, heavy drops hitting the cobblestones in front of the stable. I tilted my face up to the sky and smiled so wide I ended up laughing.

"You are mad!" Flauvic yelled at me over the drumming of the fat raindrops on the cobblestones.

"I am enjoying my life," I yelled back. "How about you?"

I dropped his wrist and ran ahead a few steps and started twirling, laughing and dancing. I found the biggest puddles and jumped in them, soaking myself worse. I looked back to find Flauvic standing where I had left him, searching around him, not wanting to make a fool out of himself.

"Who's going to care?" I called back to him, wiping my wet hair out of my mouth. "If anyone should be worried about their reputation, it's me! I don't care, you shouldn't either."

He grimaced shoving some of his own hair out of his eyes, and took a few unsure steps toward me. I grinned and ran back to meet him. I took his slippery hand and tugged him out further. I led up down the paths to the gardens. They had just been planted with spring flowers that week. The puddles here were muddy. I jumped, stomping my feet down as I landed, and splashed Flauvic all the way up to his neck. He jerked in surprise as I started laughing at him.

"You think that's funny?" he asked. I nodded, looking for another puddle. I was so distracted in my own pursuit that I didn't notice him pick up a sopping mud ball. "Princess, I'll show you funny."

I looked back just in time to have the mud ball splatter on my chest. My mouth dropped in shock while the little cretin cackled.

"This is war," I warned him, bending down to arm myself.

We raced around trees and through newly planted flower beds scooping up mud and flinging it at each other, not caring how dirty we got. It was exactly like being seven again, running around at Tlanth with Kitten and the other village children in the rain. I couldn't stop smiling and laughing, and got mud in my teeth more than once for it. I didn't mind, though, because Flauvic seemed to be having just as much fun as I was. All too soon, the rain started to taper off. I turned my attention skyward.

"Aw! Boo! Hiss! Come back!" I called up, wanting more. "We barely had time to play."

"I have never intentionally gotten this dirty in my life," Flauvic mused.

I switched my attention to him and saw that, yes, he was filthy, covered head to foot in dark mud and grass stains. I was sure that I didn't look much better.

"You're welcome," I smirked confidently at him.

He quirked his mouth back at me, wiped up some mud from his neck and flung it at my face. I flinched and giggled, flicking my dirty fingers at him, hoping to get some of the mud to fly his way.

"So, is my curse broken, then?" he asked.

"Absolutely!" I exclaimed. "I now proclaim that, from this point on, the Curse of the Rain is broken, and that only good things shall happen around you in the rain. So it shall be." I went over and tapped him on the crown of his head to complete the proclamation, getting his golden hair even dirtier.

We stood there for a few moments, not sure what to do now that playtime had ended. We didn't exactly look one another in the eye, just skimmed passed the other as we surveyed the damage we had done.

"How are you going to explain your clothes?"

I shrugged. "I suppose I'll rely on the classic 'I fell' story," I said.

"Maybe fell and rolled around a bit," he said, a little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Well, it's me," I laughed. "I probably fell and accidentally rolled down a hill. But what about you?" I asked.

"Oh, the watchers probably saw all of this, so I won't need to explain anything," he said, starting to pull back on his Court mask. I realized in that moment, after just seeing him so loose without it, that I didn't like that mask. In fact, if it were something tangible, I'd rip it off of his face and burn it, it was that irritating.

"Are you going to get in trouble?" I asked.

"With Vidanric, perhaps," he acknowledged. "But not with anyone else. As I said, it was my day off."

"Why would Father care?"

He glanced at me with acid in his gaze. "Are you telling me that you don't think he minds your tendencies to socialize with me, the traitor, the kidnapper, the attempted usurper? Oh, and, I forgot, attempted and actualized murderer."

I blushed. "I hadn't really thought about it," I admitted. "It's not that I've forgotten what you've done, it's that I just don't find you very scary anymore."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. He started stalking back in the direction of the Servant's Entrance to Athanarel. I trotted to catch up with him.

"What?" I asked, confused. "I don't."

"Go and get your nice warm bath, Princess," he sneered, "before you catch cold."

I stopped in surprise. Was this not the same man I had been throwing mud at a few minutes ago? It didn't seem like it, though the body was the same. He had just been joking around with me, and now he was mad at me for some reason. I was completely befuddled, and starting to get angry, myself. I picked up another mud clod, and this time when I threw it at him it was in all seriousness.

"You... you... ass!" I yelled at his back after the mud hit with force. "The only reason you're suddenly in a bad mood is that you're mad I don't think that you are the beginning and end of terrifying! How sane and mature is that?! And you called me a child?!"

He stopped in his tracks and spun around, walking back a few paces. "What do you know?" he shouted.

"I know that I have never tried to convince myself that you aren't dangerous, Flauvic, but I know that there are things and people in this world that scare me a lot more than you do!" I shouted back. "The one thing that's keeping you from being a friend is that you think that you have to intimidate me and make me afraid of you; for you to keep people in some kind of control if you want to be near them. Well, here's an urgent message just for you, Flauvic: I don't care how terrible you are. You are a coward if you have to hide behind your vile reputation rather than admit you were wrong and try to be better. I know, for a fact, that there is more to you than just the evil sorcerer and man who tried to claim the throne. I saw it today. You are no different than most of the people I know- a mixture of good and bad. You're just too scared to let anyone near enough to see it. Guessed you slipped, huh?"

This time I was the one who whirled around and stalked off. The only difference was, he didn't try to call me back. It hurt and made me even angrier than I was to begin with. When I reached my room, Maureen looked like she was going to have a fit.

"What happened to you, Your Highness?" she asked worriedly, helping me undress.

"I got in a mud fight," I answered shortly. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Yes, Your Highness."

I walked down to my private bathroom and told Maureen to bring me a clean robe in an hour or so. I had a long, hot soak to make up for the brief, cool one I'd had outside. Before I went to sleep, I wrote in my diary and had a big mug of listerblossom tea to try and fend off a cold. It didn't work. By the next morning I was coughing and running a fever. I couldn't decide if it was all Flauvic's fault, or just what I deserved.

POST-A/N: Well?