yay! 56 reviews!! thank you peoples! if I didn't get those reviews I probably wouldn't have written all this so thanks for reviewing! And Dana if you don't review every chapter or if you don't review right away it's okay, a while agomy computer didn't work either so I get how annoying that is.

A/N: Korinna is an old Greek name from the word ''Kore'' which means 'maiden' so basically Korinna means 'maiden'. Yeah I know, crappy name for a Princess but she wasn't named in the manga so I had to pick a name and I figured Greek was closest to Hittite. I could be wrong. Eh.

25: Preparing for a Celebration

Someone knocked on the door the next morning. After a moment of silence they knocked louder.

Oh bloody...it's way too freakin early for anyone to be up! Kiara groaned loudly and held the pillow harder over her face. I don't want to be up for another six months. Go away. Away away, begone.

So of course they opened the door and came in.

Hadi looked at the bed and saw the bundled shape of a small person hiding under nearly five blankets.

Is she so cold? Hadi wondered feeling a little bad for the woman who was probably not used to the harsh cold of Hittie winters. The snow had not come yet, but there was a definite cold chill in the air.

Hadi walked over to the bed and gently shook the woman's shoulders. Hadi had brought her another dress to wear, and wanted see if she was alright. She had heard how hard this strange woman had worked yesterday to save so many lives, and she was impressed. The only other woman she had seen with such strength and caring was Queen Yuri.

"Kiara?" Hadi asked as she shook the sleeping woman's shoulders again.

There was a faint mutter in reply. Hadi shook harder.

"You must get up now. I have brought you new clothes, and we have a lot of work to do today. Deiru will be needing you very soon."

Hadi stepped back as Kiara growling sat up and started untangling herself from all of the blankets. She had curled up so tight that she resembled a caterpillar in its cocoon. When Kiara stood released from her blankets, she shivered violently.

And no wonder she is so cold! She wears almost nothing! Hadi thought with a slight blush as she saw the small shorts and thin t-shirt that Kiara was wearing.

Kiara looked up and noticed Hadi's scandalized look. Still hazy with sleep Kiara blinked wondering what was wrong. Then she shivered again and felt goosebumps along her arms and legs. Looking down she remembered that she was wearing the softball shorts which only covered a little less than half of her thighs.

Oops. She thought with a yawn. "Everyone wears these kind of clothes when they exercise where I come from." Kiara said yawning again.

Hadi didn't know what to say to that. It seemed rather distasteful to reveal so much to the world, but she said nothing. In Egypt the women wore dresses that were thin enough to see through and sometimes without any covering across their chests.

"How a person dresses in their own country is their business." Hadi said with a small shake of her head. She handed the shorter woman the plain white dress she was holding. Kiara took it and held it up with a small sigh.

"This one looks like it will fit me, but wearing so much white after Labor day is rather annoying. I wish you had some pink around here." Kiara mumbled trying to regain full consciousness. Hadi shook her head knowing that it was just random rambling. Kiara had often rambled during her three weeks here.

"Why is everyone so busy today?" Kiara asked as she pulled her hair our of its braid.

Hadi beamed happily. "Queen Yuri had her child last night. We have a strong new princess in Hittie."

Kiara nodded only half listening. She had expected that. There was a small strange depressing feeling in the back of her mind at the thought of the two babies, but she had already forgotten her dream, so she had no idea why she felt unhappy. She figured it was because she was still sleepy.

"And why..." she paused to yawn heavily. She hated waking up. She didn't mind being awake, but waking up was damn annoying. "Why does that make everyone so busy?"

"His Majesty has ordered a celebration to honor the birth of the new princess as well as to thank the gods for averting the tragedy of yesterday."

Kiara flinched blinking. She sat on her bed so that she could peel of her t-shirt.

Hadi came up behind her. She gently placed her hand on Kiara's shoulder. "There was a census taken yesterday; no one died because of the destruction. We know what you did Kiara, and we really are grateful."

Kiara turned to look at the blond woman. She bit her lip unsure what to say. In truth she had done what was basically instinct to her by now. Plus she really didn't want to think about yesterday, it reminded her too much of more painful and stressful days.

She smiled weakly at Hadi feeling a little embarrassed and depressed suddenly. Hadi smiled back and turned away.

"His Highness wishes to see you once you are ready. He will be in the west sitting room."

"Um...I...."

She cut me off with a smile. "Kash will be waiting to take you there." she opened the door and left. I smiled as well. I knew my way around the palace very well, but I didn't know what the rooms were called. She said west sitting room, but I probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a sitting room and a bedroom. I mean they both had big couches and tables and sometimes the beds around here looked more like couches than anything else.

I quickly put on the new dress feeling glad that this one wasn't tight at all. I brushed my hair out and pulled it into a high pony-tail, so that it was out of my way. Slipping into my spare sandals, I stood and left the room.

As Hadi had said, Kash was waiting outside my room. He smiled and greeted me, and then we went on our way. He brought me to see the king and we stepped inside the room.

Ilvani was there, naturally, and Kikkuri as well. King was standing over a small table on which he had piled some scrolls. He looked over them carefully while speaking with Ilvani who made some notes on his own scroll.

When he was done with the task at hand, King looked up at me.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked with concern.

I knew he was probably thinking about how tired I had made myself yesterday. I blushed softly and smiled brightly. "I slept real well. But I imagine you didn't get much rest yourself. Congratulations on your new kid." I grinned at him. "What's her name?"

"Thank you, and she is Korinna." King answered with a smile.

"How pretty. Hadi said it was a busy day, is there anything I can help with?"

"If you are not required to help with Deiru then you may do anything you please as long as you remain out of the kitchens." Ilvani said dryly. I flushed slightly and resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

"Kiara I wanted to—"

"Since everything is so busy today I'll get to work okay? I don't like to be too lazy." I smiled brightly and skipped out of the room quickly. I nearly ran to the nursery so I could just be with Deiru and try to relax.

Back in the room Kail sighed turned back to his work.

"Your Highness? Were you not going to reward her for her actions yesterday?" Ilvani asked.

"I was, but she seems to be avoiding that. I'll wait until she's ready to be more open." Kail answered with a slight shake of his head.

Ilvani nodded slightly, and they went back to work. They needed to repair and rebuild, and they also needed to try and find whoever had caused all of this trouble.

For the rest of the day the servants bustled around quickly to prepare the feast that night. The mayor and other important figures who were close enough to attend were invited. Prince Juda, who was Mayor of Karukemishu was invited, and he would be arriving soon.

Kiara kept herself busy that day too. She played with Deiru a lot and was one of the people who made sure he was never alone. She had gotten to see the new princess as well, and she had spent five minutes cooing to the adorable little baby before she had gone back to work. She tried to avoid the stares of the other servants as she went back and forth carrying flowers or food or blankets to various people and places. She helped clean the laundry and the rooms around the palace. All in all, she tried to act the way she had for the past three weeks of her stay in the Hittie world. But now she was once again stared at as a goddess instead of merely a strange servant who talked funny.

Kiara was getting really freaked out by all of the stares again. If she had been back home people would have told her she did a good job and then joked with her about what a wreck she'd looked like after she'd come out of the water all drenched and ragged. If she had been in New York or L.A., they would have tried to get her on a talk show like Oprah or the View so she could talk about it.

Here in Byblos everyone just stared. She could feel the whispers spreading around when her back was turned, but to her face all she saw was the stares and a lot of head nodding and small bows.

I wonder what they're saying about me now. She thought as she tucked Deiru into bed. It was late, the party had already started down in the ballroom. She had been invited, but she had wanted to make sure Deiru was taken care of first. I wonder if if its good rumors or bad ones? Can there be good rumors, or all they all bad? I shook my head and left the room quietly. A maid walked in past me to sit with the prince while he slept, and there were two guards at the door to make sure nothing like yesterday happened.

I walked down to my room slowly. I heard the loud laughter and music of the festivities going on in the ballroom. I smiled softly remembering some of the parties I had attended on the ranch and in the uptown cities like New York or London.

I entered my room. I had been asked and invited to the party. It was kinda actually a summons. A "please, you have to come" type invite. I sighed as I slipped out of the plain white dress I had been wearing all day. Hadi had given me something to wear tonight.

I slipped into a light simple pale lavender dress. It had a dark blue sash around the waist and a v-neck neck-line and two wide straps for the shoulders. I pulled on my dark blue cloak that I had found again that morning. It draped around my shoulders mostly hiding the dress and me under it. I didn't mind. I re-did the pony-tail in my hair so that my hair was a little more fluffy and light, and I smoothed my long bangs out. I put on a silver bracelet from my bag and some clear lip gloss. I know I looked plain and boring, but I wasn't planning on staying at the party long. Just long enough to say that I had been there, and then I would leave and get some sleep.

I left my room and felt a little nervous as I walked to where the party was. I started to chew in my bottom lip, but then I stopped when I remembered the lip-gloss.

I walked through the open doors of the ballroom and saw lots of fine lords and ladies all talking together and laughing. It was actually a small sized group, but it was still a lot of people.

Here you go pop star. I braced myself and entered the fray and the jungle that was always the result of putting rich people together.