Chapter 51On the ocean

A very young woman sat on the deck letting the sun warm her face as she let her tired and heavy body rest against the railing. Her ankles ached from the extra fluid that often accompanied pregnant women and she was no exception. Sitting with pillows behind her back and with hands placed protective over her bulging belly she fell quietly asleep to the sound of sloshing water that beat against the ship every time it rocked. They had been at sea for two days now.

She had since her presence in the new and unknown chambers tried repeatedly to remember how she had ended up in this situation, but it was as if her memory was filled with empty black holes. Temporary memory loss had the royal healer told her after she had visited Elena in early May - Maybe she had hit her head hard on something or maybe she had been thrown of one of the horses, but she knew that couldn't be so. She was a skilled rider. The visit to the royal healer was now six months ago.

She had three months after the queen's riders stay at Alanna's home, Pirate's Swoop discovered that the sporadic nausea and vomiting hadn't been caused by illness or bad food. She had on return to the palace woken one morning, early as usual, tried to put on a pair of brown trousers she used to work in. But when she standing had been in the process of having to close the buttons in the trousers, she had to her horror discovered that there were approx. 3 centimeters distance between the last button and button-hole. How much she tried, first standing, then lying on the bed she hadn't succeed to get her trousers closed. Although she repeatedly had tried to suck in her stomach, her lower stomach had bulged a little and she had giving up at last standing facing the mirror. With wrinkled brows she had studied her own mirror image. Sure enough, she had gain a little weight over the past three months. She had sighed loudly in the master bedroom which was hers - or someone else entirely, because a mere hostler couldn't afford to stay such, but it was her name hanging on the door - and with the decision to get new trousers, it had been necessary for her to seek out the only one she could think of that would have a spare pair. She had visited Kuri.

Facing the woman had been a bit embarrassing for her as she was going to be measured how much bigger trousers she needed. And sure enough. Kuri had reached the same result as her own. That she was 3 centimeters larger than when she last had seen the woman. With a pair of trousers handed to her she had turned her nose back to her large chambers, containing a large study containing costly books some written in languages she didn't even know of and others rather boring, yet interesting. The chambers had also a bedroom and a small room for private things. She had one evening gone through the content of the bedroom, wanting to proof that it wasn't her chambers at all and what she had found had shocked her endlessly. The objects of her shook had been menswear. Fancy and expensive clothes with delicate perfumes and creams. She had packed it all. Storage it in a corner of the bedroom, not knowing what to do with it. A shirt however had caught her attention; white as it was, silky, it had bloody stains on. Puzzled over the discovery she had one place in her mind known that this shirt was somehow important and she wouldn't part from it. It was tucked away secure down in her luggage. It was a constant annoyance to her not to known why it was so important for her. Speaking of annoyance, she had been annoyed by the very thought of wearing a new pair of trousers, that constantly had reminded her of how slim she had been.

The annoying had grown during the next weeks. For exactly one month after her visit at Kuri, she had in august woken one morning trying to once again to take a pair of trousers on, with the result that the buttons again had been three centimeters apart. She tried again everything. First standing, then lying on the bed, then standing again and then once again lying on her large double bed. Nothing. Her effects had been in vain. She couldn't get those damned trousers to close and it had been in the process of standing up from the bed again, that she had caught her own reflection in the large mirror.

And what she saw horrified her. Her body's construction was out of place. She had hastened to throw all of her clothes of and standing in front of the mirror she had turned from side to side. Sure enough, it was not just her stomach that had been growing in the last four months. Her breasts, which normally would have been small and delicate had swelled in sympathy. Panicking over her discovery, she was, after all, only sixteen and a half, she had caught an old worn cotton dress and had forced it over her head and down her changed body. With the dress on she had turned yet again in front of the mirror and satisfied with her look, her stomach wasn't that big yet, she had fled her chambers. One her way to the healers wing her mind had pondered over the fact, that she was sure about her virginity. She couldn't, how much she ever tried to, not remember giving in to any men at the palace and she had no recollection whatsoever of when she might had lain with a man. It hadback then been August and Tortall had experienced extreme heat. Finally she had reached the healers wing, but standing facing the door into the room where Elena, one of the two royal healers where, she had with her hand ready to knock regretted her decision. If the fact was, that she was indeed pregnant, she didn't want any of the people in the palace to know about it. Not even her friends. They would ask impossible questions about who the father was, and she would had no answer to give them.

She had therefor wanted to keep her discovery hidden as long as possible. And seeing no other way, she had been forced to seek help down in Corus. When she had fled the palace, the servants had been overturned by a woman with cascades of long curly hair and an, yet, undiagnosed pregnant stomach. Down in Corus she had asked for knowledgeable healers and visited five of them. Each one had confirmed her suspicions. That she, Veralidaine Sarrasri was pregnant and that she, in August was four months pregnant.

Now sitting on the deck, this sunny day in October, her sleepy mind wondered why none of her acquaintances had noticed her change in her body. She was, after all, more than halfway through her unexplained pregnancy, and although she both feared her situation, she was delighted to be in happy circumstances.

That she had no recollection of who the father could potentially be was right here and now, totally irrelevant. If only she were allowed to remain where she sat without having to get up.

There was a happily and cheerfully whistling from the other end of the large ship and Daine smiled weakly without opening her eyes. Besides that she had temporary memory loss and that she lived inexplicably in large chambers that clearly wasn't hers at all, she also had a foster child. Unique as it was, crawling on all fours wearing reptilian scales and with a long tail for the balance, the dragon Kitten had come back from a long stay with its cousin Tkaa in Dunlath. Daine could vaguely remember how she had healed its mother during an attack and that she had subsequently had found it in a cave, but the rest was like everything else big black empty holes.

Another cheerfully whistling, this time closer and more deafening, something heavy was dropped on her stomach. Daine opened abruptly her eyes and blinked in the bright sun. "Gently Kitten" she mumbled and looked down at the object that had caused so obvious joy in the dragon. "Even though my stomach isn't easily breakable you should still be cautious. There is a small wonder in there, remember."

Daine smiled just as a series of happy trills sounded from the dragon. She knew that the dragon, perhaps as the only one had discovered that there was something wonderful going on inside her. A paw covered with reptilian scales was tenderly laid against Daine's bulging belly and she couldn't help but giggle, just as the baby inside her recognized the dragon with a small, perhaps accepting kick. With her eyes resting on her stomach Daine discovered what it was Kitten had brought her. A book. "Are you telling me that it's been too long since I've read to you?" Another series of happy whistling and the dragon spun around on itself several times, and lay down on the deck like a cat would do with its tail well placed in front of the long slightly pointy snout.

She lifted the dark blue book up. "I really hope that you haven't snatched it from Duke Gareth's private collection of books?" she murmured with wrinkled brows. The binding appeared to be of highly professional standard and the fabric around the book was like new.

A resistant and easily offended whistle came from her right side and Daine looked down at a light gray dragon. "Okay" she whispered quietly. "You haven't taken it from Duke Gareth, then where did you get this come from?" No answer. "Fine, what are we going to read?" she asked, turned the bookcover facing it up. "Numair's diary?"

"Kitten! Did you take this from one of the sailors?" she asked, shocked and a bit angry. The dragon cub lifted its head and stared at her with narrow pupils and a light blue color scales. Offended. Anger, scolding and defending whistle escaped the dragon. Daine closed gently the sounds of by placing a gentle hand around its snud. "No, no ... sorry for the accusation, Miss innocent, but it isn't the first time you've found something interesting and borrowed it without asking permission. You must be happy that Jonathan didn't send you away when he found you running around the palace and playing with his Dominion jewel".

Daine took her hand away when the dragon's color turned into a slight redness, embarrassment. "You should be. Imagine if you had lost it somewhere" she let her eyes slide down over the front of the book and stopped abruptly when they reached slightly curved words that revealed a sub-title. 'Veralidaine Sarrasri - Numair's gifted student'. Her name! Her whole name written on a book? How? Daine turned the book. She had no memories at all about having owned such a book.

"For heaven's sake!" said a furious and light female voice not far from Daines sitting position. "I'm not a damsel in distress, get it into your minds that I can kill you all with a snap ..." voice was interrupted when the ship tilted slightly below Daine's body. The sound of someone throwing up could be heard not far away from where she sat. Watching investigative up she found the cause. The Lioness, more specifically, Alanna stood hunched over the side of the ship and threw up while there were three sailors behind her holding handkerchiefs to her. When Alanna was finished and she turned to ash green in the face, Daine couldn't help but smile about the easily upset and angry expression the Lioness possessed. "Which of my many words did you not understand?" Alanna hissed, but she accepted anyway one of the handkerchiefs handed to her and wiped her mouth.

Once again the ship rocked easily and Daine, who no longer looked at Alanna heard clearly how the female knight swore loudly followed by the sound of vomiting. She turned to the first page, and as always it was blank, like other books. Then she flipped forward and came to what seemed to be a kind of introduction. She read inside herself when she did not want that some near would hear what was written.

'Never had I imagined that I would meet someone who was so incredible, unique and completely her own. But this happened in 449 HE. When I first saw her I was in another body and the sight of the blue gray eyes and long curly hair got me thinking that my wish to meet a divine was finally achieved. This book is the diary written by Tortall's only black robe mage about what happened the first year with Veralidaine Sarrasri, also called Daine and magelet'

She stared astonished down on the letters. "Okay, it's quite clear that it is I who are described here, but Magelet? What in Mithros does that name mean? And 449? Mother and grandfather died in the 449th. It doesn't make sense! Does it make sense for you Kitten?" she asked and looked down at the dragon by her side, hoping for help. But the reptile-like animal slept. "And what is a black robe mage?" Without lifting her eyes from the book she held in her lap, she called to Alanna, who still hung over the railing. "Alanna?"

"Yeajh" The ship tilted sharply just as the captain let it steer easily with the wind and the big sails unfurled.

With the Lioness attention caught Daine asked hesitantly. "What robe are you?"

Alanna slowly straightened up looking into her eyes. Daine had never quit gotten used to those violets eyes. "Robe, what are you talking about?"

"I have this book and ... uh ... it talks about a man who had the black robe?"

Alanna took slowly another handkerchief from a sailor who was standing with a flirtatious expression on his face. "You can go away now" Alanna waved her hand in a dismissive way "and by the way, this 'maiden' is taken!" Gazing angrily after the crestfallen sailor that walked away from the kings champion, Alanna began to wipe her mouth again. "It's only people who have studied either at the University of Carthak, which we by the way are heading to or the City of Gods that gives out robes. My brother Thom, the gods watch over him, was one of them."

Daine saw how Alanna kept a sharp eye out for the nearest sailors. The men were both fascinated by the little stocky woman, but also terribly afraid of her temperamental mood. "Okay, so Tortall has never had a black robe mage?" Daine asked and grimaced just as her baby in her belly began to kick.

Alanna caught her grimace. "Are you sure that everything is okay Daine? You're not seasick just like me?"

Daine shook her head and moved herself a bit, to avoid being kicked against her bladder. Seeing the curious look on Alanna's face, Daine slowly realized that the Lioness didn't seem to notice that she was heavily pregnant. Another kick was aimed at her bladder. Daine had the feeling that her unborn child was behaving badly, she now really had to pee.

"Black robe mage in Tortall, does it really say that? It must be sadly mistaken, as far as I know, there has never been one who has reached the black robe. It requires extreme gift and years of training. My brother would have been able to have achieved it, if it haven't been because he was so extremely vain and without friends. Proficient as he was he could have done it, but he was a bit of a fool too. Most people who are trying to achieve the title dies in the process. They have to go through the Ordeal, just as our own knights are doing every year. Sometimes they don't come out and sometimes they are changed by what they have seen inside the chamber". Alanna leaned against the railing and sighed. "I wish we arrived soon!" She stared at one of the sailors who approached slowly. "What do you want?" she growled low.

The sailor, who had an extreme weather-beaten face cleared his throat. "Lady Alanna ... uh ... lioness? Duke Gareth want to see you down in his cabin."

Alanna crossed her arms in front of chest. "And what will he do now? We have nothing but to talk about peace treaty since we left port. Are he really going to talk about it all the way to Carthak?"

"Uh, you may ask his grace that yourself, I'm just delivering the message" the sailor whispered apologetic and glanced towards the young woman who sat next to a young dragon as if saying he wanted help.

Daine, who had put the book down on the deck was in the process of standing up, but with difficulty. A hand was handed down to her and she took it.

"Sore legs?" the sailor asked just as he pulled her up to stand.

She blushed heavily. "Uh - something like that" He can't see that I'm pregnant? "Did Duke Gareth say something about me going to?" she said instead.

The sailor shook his head. "No. Only her" he replied, pointing to a pouting Alanna, who was moving away.

Daine looked down at the blue book and called after the red-haired woman. "Alanna, one last thing?".

"Yes?"

"Do you know a Numair Salmalin?"

Alanna trudged annoyed over the deck. "Never heard of the man!" she shouted back to Daine.

"Never?" Daine reached down and took the blue book up Kitten handed to her. She heard the last word Alanna muttered angrily and smiled broadly.

"Always peace treaty! Give me a horse someone, or war - I would rather find myself in the middle of the desert than in the middle of this cursed sea!" with these words the Lioness disappeared in the door and out of sight.


To lie on her stomach and sleep had always been her favorite position, but now that her belly was swollen, she had to resort to either be on the side which she did often or lie on her back. The last was a problem for the little amazing creature she had inside her stomach did obviously not like the flat position and she was woken by small noticeable hiccups from her stomach. Daine reached for the light and her little cabin became illuminated a moment later.

"Again?" she asked sleepy and pushed the blanket away. She could hardly be in the old used shirt with buttons stretched to breaking point anymore, she had to now admit that maybe it was time to find a nightgown instead. But she had none. A mixture between pouting and smiling she got up and the movement finally destroyed her shirt completely. Her stomach was exposed and Daine, who now stood could to see the small jumps that were hiccups. She giggled at the sight and began to pull the now ruined shirt off.

From her luggage she pulled a simple dark blue summer dress and forced it down her equally voluptuous breasts and stomach. It felt nice. Dressed she went looking for the latrine. Finished Daine considered if she were to go up on deck, but even if they were on their way to a warmer country than Tortall, were the nights out on the sea was terrible cold. She waited long enough to in time to see the back of an old woman disappear in through a door to the gallery. Mystified over the person she went after the woman and opened the door that was slowly closing. Sure enough, the woman stood not far from her and - Daine stared, held the blue book in her bony hand.

"Excuse me madam, but that is my book you hold in your hand" Daine said quietly, afraid that the woman hadn't heard her, it wasn't the case for the old lady was already staring at daine and - Daine's body.

"Well, I can clearly see that everything is progressing as planned" the old woman smirked and put the book down on a table.

Daine blinked surprised. "You can see it?" she whispered low and involuntarily led a hand to touch her stomach.

"See? The way you are standing, it almost screams that you are pregnant" the Graveyard Hag laughed.

"But the others? They don't see - " Daine began to say but was abruptly interrupted by the goddess.

The old lady smiled broadly. "The others see you as you have always looked; thin, slim and tiny. Only your movements, like now" the lady pointed to Daine's hand touching the stomach "reveals what's really happening. Call it a little present from me. Moreover, I think it's time you read up on your homework. He can come at any moment, if his inner turmoil will settled first.´I'll tell you that man of ours is simply impossible to be around these days. He continues to seek out my shrine in the palace and yells at me, as if I don't have other things to take care of. "

Daine let her hand fall away from the stomach. "I know you," she whispered with wrinkled brows. "I've heard your voice before."

"You're quite right, my dear. You know me, I'm the reason you are here and your man is where he is. Incidentally, how do you get him to shut up?" The Graveyard Hag leaned a bit forward.

What the old woman had just said confused Daine more than it benefited. "I have no husband" she whispered quiet "and besides I don't know who it is you're referring to. It must be your own problem".

The old goddess frowned. It took several minutes before she said anything. "Oh I had really forgotten. You can't remember anything. Ha - it makes this a lot more fun!" the goddess exclaimed with a resounding laughter.

"Fun? Daine couldn't see the funny side of the situation." Explain to me why all this should be fun? It seems to me that this is serious, we are at the break of war with Carthak and you are rambling about a single man shouting at you. If he is shouting you must have behaved badly". She folded her arms stubbornly in front of her.

Another loud laughter. "Spoken like a true mother to be!"

Daine began to fear that the old woman would wake the ship, when the old woman became serious again and came right up to Daine, she flinched away when a bony hand was laid on her stomach. Looking into only one brown eye the woman possessed "Read the book my dear. He will be here one day before the ship docks at port."

Daine stared into the goddess' very wrinkled face. "Who?" The question came a gasp, as a tiny foot kicked against the hand on her stomach.

The Graveyard Hag smiled sinister. "The father of your child." And with the words hanging in the air the goddess was gone.

Her hands were quickly put protective against her stomach. "She didn't tell who he is. How do I know who the father is?" she asked and looked investigative down on her big belly.

'The diary' came the reply, which seemed to reverberate through the ship. 'Read the diary'.

She saw the book immediately. With slow and hesitant steps she approached it. Intricacies letters presented the title. She picked it up. "Numair's diary? And he is the father of ..." She was interrupted by a resounding 'yes!' Fine, she thought, and walked resolutely back to her cabin. Homework, had the old lady said. As far as she could remember, she had never had homework to do after she had left Galla.


She walked on deck as if she were in an inexplicable fog. If there was anyone who had asked her she would had said that she was in love. In love with a character that was non-existent and who had written a diary about her first year at the Royal Palace. One could find her sitting up on deck with her nose buried in the blue book or you could find her sitting in the galley, with a bowl stew and eat with healthy appetite. The sailors had been surprised by the quantities she could consume and joked with it daily, both at breakfast and supper. On the sixth day one the ship, a young man around twenty winged forward and grabbed her book from the table, as she was reading.

"Who is Salmalin?" he asked and turned the book.

Daine lifted her gaze from the empty table in front of her. "A man" she replied reaching for her book.

The blonde young man smiled broadly and revealed facilitate crooked teeth moving his hand out of her reach. "What's it about?"

She "A girl who meets Tortall's dangerous mage and becomes his student. Together they meet griffins, weird spiders and saves princesses". Why did she fell as if she blushed heavily.

The man smiled at her. "It sounds like a fairytale. Who is this Veralidaine Sarrasri?"

Now she blushed heavily. "Me" she replied and stirred the stew. A concern flute sounded beside her. She reached for the book again, but the young man got up quickly and came out of her reach. Kitten chirped angrily beside Daine. "Quiet Kitten" she commanded, and turned to the young man with the slightly crooked teeth. "Can I have my book back, please?"

"How can you be in a book with one of Tortall's most powerful mages, as far as I have been told it is Alanna and the king who are the most powerful?" the young man asked.

Daine sighed deeply and stood up, careful not to bump her stomach into the edge of the table. "It's a diary and to your question, of course they are the most powerful, and no," she saw how the young man was about to ask more "I don't know how or why this man has written about me in his diary. May I have my book now, please? "

The young man smiled mischievously and walked backwards "Why? Can I read juicy scenes between you and this mythical man?" He crashed abruptly into a person standing behind him. The man, Duke Gareth, the younger, cleared his throat vigorously.

She looked down at the table and her half-empty bowl. All she wanted was just to be left alone with her bulging belly and a book that could explain who the father was.

"Can I ask why" Duke Gareth took the book from the young man "you have a book that doesn't belong to you?" He looked down at the young man who wasn't as high as the Duke.

"I ... I" began the young sailor.

Duke glanced down "Hopefully that sentece will initially lead to more than 'I ... I' have you nothing else to say or have the fish taken your tongue?" There was laughter around from the sailors sitting around the table.

A dark blue book was handed to her and became visible in her field of vision. She took it and pressed it against her chest. Slowly she lifted her gaze and met Duke Gareth's chestnut brown eyes. She nodded in thanks, lost for words.

"I think we all need to go early to bed" it came from the Duke who turned to go. He looked down at Daine, who once again sat and gave her a smile. There was absolute silence in the galley after it had happened. The sailors didn't talk to her for the rest of the evening and the young man sent her an apologetic smile just as the captain came to fetch the man. It seemed that the Duke had a little word with the captain about what had happened.

The galley was slowly emptied around her as the captain called more of the sailors on the deck and she flipped once again in her beloved book. With the page found she got to her feet awkwardly because of her stomach. "Come Kitten" she called. "It's time to go to bed and I'll read to you," she smiled.

She sat in the hammock with many pillows placed behind her back so she could sit comfortably. The book lay in her lap and the dragon lay at the end of her feet. How long she had been reading she didn't know, but with the old lady's words in her thoughts that the man or the writer of the diary would come on board the ship the next day, she fell slowly into a dreamy sleep.


Butterflies, the feeling could best be described that way. Big beautiful butterflies hovering around her pregnant belly and made her a bit dizzy as she sat up on the deck and waited wearing a light blue cotton dress. Instead of sitting down below the deck, she had made a kind of makeshift bed. The sailor, who had taken her book from her the day before had raised an overhang so she could sit in the shade from the now blazing sun. He had found her sitting in the sun and in a way to apologize he had raised this protection for her.

She had thanked him many times and he had smiled down at her. The hours had seemed like endless days, almost like months and she had wondered how he would arrive and when, but when the sun reached a point in the afternoon she had left her makeshift bed for Kitten and sought below for a brief second. The heat and her swollen ankles had been about to kill her, and she had therefore been forced to wander below the deck from one end of the ship to the other. She had, however, almost every moment been ready to sprint up on deck again in case he would show up, the mysterious man from the diary which had praised her to the skies and described her in loving, devoted and caring words. The goddess had said that it would be today. When her ankles felt better, she went up on deck again and had to move a sleeping dragon from the bed. She was sitting late into the day and looking up at the blue sky, searching for a single small sign that there would be something amazing going to happen, but nothing and no one came.

When she had sat to twilight came and only when Alanna came carrying a tray with two bowls of stew and sat down, she discovered that it was dark around her. The only light that came were from the two light violet balls that floated beside Alanna's head. The Lioness laid the tray on the deck and lifted a slightly dissatisfied Kitten away so she could sit next to her young friend.

"Why so glum?" Alanna asked, reaching for the first bowl, which she placed in Daine's waiting hands.

Daine took the spoon that handed to her. She took one of the pillows and placed it on her belly, where she also put the hot bowl. "I had a feeling that something great was going to happen today, but clearly it didn't" she murmured disappointed.

"Tell" Alanna told her and lifted the spoon to her lips, she gently blew on the food.

"I don't think you could understand it" Daine whispered and copied Alanna's movements. It was getting cold and sitting in her light summer dress that was only intended when the sun shone, she suddenly got goose bumps all over the place.

Alanna, who had noticed the slight tremor produced several small warming balls that hung over their heads. "You could try to explain it to me," Alanne urged hopefully. "You have acted quit happier today than some of the other days, but as the sun began to go down, it was as if the light that burned within you went off. Almost as if you were disappointed".

"I am" Daine told her friend slowly. She hadn't wanted to tell Alanna the truth about her condition or her feelings that something important was missing in her life. "How do you know you're in love?" she asked instead and try hard not to see the light surprised expression in Alanna's violet eyes.

The small stocky woman didn't answer right away and Daine wouldn't repeat her question, so she waited. "I think it varies from person to person" it came hesitant from Alanna. "I, personally had three love affairs before I finally got the sense to see what it is to be in love with somebody".

This surprised Daine. She stopped the spoon halfway to her mouth. "Three?" she asked.

Alanna smiled broadly. "Yes. It wasn't always George and me. Before him, even though he was the first who kissed me, there was both Jonathan and Liam".

Daine was about to lose bowl of pure surprise. A calloused hand was beeing offered and Alanna's held Daine's hand as she regained balance of the bowl saving the contents from being spilled out over herself. "What? Do you mean that you and Jonathan, you mean the king?"

An affirmative smile played across Alanna's lips. "Not many people know this, it is a long time ago, but yes ... when I was a squire and he was knighted. Of course it wasn't planned, it was just something that happened."

She looked down towards her bulging belly wondering. Had this also been something that just happened? "How did it end?" she asked instead.

A laughter echoed across the deck. "He proposed to me, but by the goddess I'm glad I said no. A marriage between Jonathan and I would have ended in disaster, to say the least. I subsequently had a brief affair with George, but as adventurous as I am it was was very short. And then Liam came into the picture".

Daine discovered that she had been sitting gaping. She closed her mouth. "Liam, who is he?" Daine looked down at the empty bowl and wished there was more. She was still hungry.

"Liam Ironarm was the Dragon from Shang. He was a huge man, calm disposition and redhead like me," Alanna shook slightly and a bit sadly her head. "He sacrificed himself to protect Jonathan during his coronation. He died, but we had become friends instead of lovers by that time. He despised those who possessed the gift, our relationship was condemned from the start. He fourteen years older than me".

"So love has no age?" Daine asked. She remembered faintly a line from the diary, which described the difference in age between the mysterious Numair Salmalin and herself. The man had described how the rumors about their relationship had become too much and that he had tried to protect her from them. She had no idea at all why he should have made an effort over something so trivial. But now she understood better. If he really existed and if he was the father of her unborn child, he had to had loved her from the start.

Alanna shook her head, smiling. "I don't believe so. George is six years older than me, Liam was fourteen and Jonathan is three years. If you really love someone, as long as it isn't twenty years we're talking about, it doesn't matter. Love is love. And you cann't do nothing when it hits someone". The Lioness cast a crooked glance on Daine, who seemed to be absorbed in her own thoughts. "Have you found someone you have a little crush on?"

The door to the deck went up in the same moment and out came the young man who had taken her diary. He waved to Daine, who smiled hesitantly back.

"Well?" Alanna asked again and looked closer the young man.

Daine who followed her gaze turned horrified towards the Lioness. "No, definitely not him!" she hissed sharply. "Certainly not him!"

With the young man rejected Alanna lifted wondering her eyes towards the rest of the sailors. "Some of them?" she asked quietly, she turned in time to see the shock in Daine's face. "No. Not any of them, I can see that in your facial expressions. Is it someone I know?".

She wasn't sure what she should how to correspond to that questions. According to the diary it had been Alanna, who had helped her to call him back from his shape as a hawk. "I think so, but I'm not sure and I do not want to tell his name".

Alanna stood up and clapped Daine top of the head. The sailors around them were getting ready for the night. "I understand" she smiled down at the seated young woman with wild locks of brown long hair. "When you want to tell me, you know where to find me and Daine? Do me a favor and sleep in your cabin. How much you want it, I don't think that the man you are thinking about will drop from the stars. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow". Alanna bent down and took up the two bowls. With the tray in her hands yet again Alanna disappeared quietly across the deck.

Daine didn't answer her. She was busy getting up from her makeshift bed when she saw that her swain with the crooked teeth was heading towards her. She looked quickly down a very dark blue dragon. "Come Kitten. I do not think he are going to come and I don't want to sleep under the open sky". With these words she left the makeshift bed with a very disappointed young man looking after her.