Disclaimer: I own nothing

(this is a pointless chapter although there is one or two bits on info in it. Either way this is sort of like a filler)


From what Alanna and Gary told Devon, Roger wasn't up to much, for now. So Devon continued her training with Beth and Noah. It had been over two years since they started training. Ulf said they where further along than he had thought they would be.

It was late in the night when Devon went to the city; she had to get some medicine for Beth, who had a nasty cold. She found a healers house and was about to knock when she heard voices inside. One was George's, another was Alanna's, and the third was a woman she didn't recognize. Devon frowned and went inside the house without knocking. For a few minutes no one noticed her. She over heard Alanna say 'I'm lying to them- I'm doing men's things!" George replied "and your doing them better than most young men."

Devon rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. All three people spun around. George scowled.

"Damn Ferrell, don't you knock?" George muttered

"When the need arises." Devon said dryly "So I take it he knows?" the question was addressed to Alanna

"Yes. He knows." Alanna agreed

"And what pray tell brought this confession on?" Devon asked

Alanna flushed a deep red and stuttered "It-it's a woman thing and I wasn't aware-"

Devon cut her off "Monthlies?"

Alanna blinked "How on earth did you know that?"

"Weren't you paying attention when Maude explained them to us? Not long before we left?" Devon asked "Besides I started mine two months ago. If you needed advice you should have just asked me."

Alanna looked down.

The lady who Devon didn't know raised an eyebrow. "You must be Devon, Alanna mentioned you. I'm Mrs. Cooper, George's mother."

Devon gaped in overacted surprise "Mithros have mercy, you mean to tell me George was born? Here I thought some demonic creature hatched him out of an egg and he'd been raised by rabid wolves. So answer a question for me Mrs. Cooper, how often did George sustain head injuries as a child?"

George who had covered his ears when they began talking about monthlies looked up and glared at her. "None thank you. I was perfectly healthy."

"Actually," Mrs. Cooper said thoughtfully, "there was one time when he was three and he thought her could fly..."

Alanna and Devon burst out laughing.

When they finally calmed Mrs. Cooper asked what had brought Devon here in the first place.

"My friend had a real bad cold; I was wondering if you had some tea to relieve her headache?" Devon asked

A half our and some tea and cookies later, all three of them exited Mrs. Cooper's house. As Devon gave Alanna a quick hug she realized something. She was an inch taller than her sister. She momentarily considered telling Alanna that, but decided to wait till another day. It had been an emotional night for Alanna already.

Only three days after the entire 'monthlies incident', as Beth called it when Devon told her the story, did Devon realize that Alanna and Thom's birthday was approaching.

Beth and Noah where both kind enough to get gifts for Alanna. Beth made the young page a warm down quilt. Hidden in the quilt was a corset that Beth had started tinkering with when Alanna had mentioned her chest problems. Noah had bought Alanna a pair leather gloves that where soft and flexible, they also had a thin fur under-glove for winter, Alanna would be forever grateful.

Devon had looked for sometime before finding gifts for her sister and brother. She got Thom a blank journal so he could record experiments and a pair of glass eye covers to save his site in such experiments. She had gotten Alanna a new pair of very sturdy boots and a carved wood chest. Inside the wood chest was some tea that Mrs. C said would help with cramps and some cookies.

Later that night she wrote notes to both Thom and Alanna. She slid the key for the wood chest into Alanna's letter. The next day she took all the gifts to George, who would send Thom's to the city of the gods and give Alanna's to her.

Alanna was more than startled when Stefan came and gave her an arm load of packages.

Birthday gifts. She had sent one to Thom. And it looked like he had sent one back; the others must have been from Devon and the others.

Alanna smiled softly as she opened each package. Soon the bell rang and she went to dinner. Almost the second she sat down Jon and the others questioned her.

"We saw that you got a whole bunch of packages. What's up?" Raoul asked as he swallowed some beef.

Alanna blinked. "It's my birthday."

They stared at her.

"What?" She asked

"And you didn't tell us?" Jon asked "We would have thrown you a party! Well how old are you?"

"Thirteen." Alanna replied.

And so her friends went on to sing happy birthday, loudly, in the middle of the dinning hall until she finally hit Raoul with a loaf of bread and promised they could throw her a party next year.