Everybody Loves Kel

by an anonymous geek

It has been a while, my friends, has it not? I have not updated this here collection of stories in months. Finally, I have decided to commence the production of them, and have reached the Kel/Joren story. I must concede, it shall be difficult to write a love/hate story of this sort in only one chapter, but I shall attempt the impossible. I would be very much pleased if you would kindly leave a review when you reach the end. I thank you for your noble deeds...

disclaimer- sadly, I do not have ownership over anything in this story other than the plot, which I myself brilliantly concocted

Chapter 3- Joren

[457 H.E. Set during Kel's years as a squire and pretending that Joren never died]

"No woman," the conservative spat out the word as if it was distasteful, "should be out there fighting! We have men to do that job; women should stay inside the palace and fiefs and perform their own trivial duties, not run foolishly into battle. Women are simply incapable of fighting." He pointed toward a young girl with mousy brown hair and hazel eyes. "This one should be thinking of marriage, not worrying about fighting techniques. Now no man would ever want to marry her. She has the scars of battle all over her! Simply, she has wasted her life doing something that no one will ever appreciate or thank her for. This is why we mustn't have little girls out of the fields of battle carrying swords that they can hardly bear the weight of. It is useless to send them out so that they will just bring death upon themselves." The man sat down daintily and looked toward the king to see what his response would be.

From a corner of the room, a certain blond-haired blue-eyed boy watched the face of the girl who had been referred to during the earlier speech. He could see that through her mask that she had immediately placed over her features (what one might call her 'Yamani Face'), he could see that she was angry. Very angry. Her eyes were what betrayed her thoughts. They were practically inflamed, burning up the room around her. This girl was indeed none other than Squire Keladry of Mindelan. The one observing her was the newly made knight, Joren of Stone Mountain. He watched as her eyes flicked toward the king who seemed to be processing what the man had just said. There was distaste in her eyes; she seemed to be angry with the king. Silently, she stood up and left the hall in which many nobles were seated.

They had all been invited to a Midsummer Banquet. As a knight, Joren had a duty to attend this banquet, for his king had ordered him. Otherwise, he would not have come; he did not hold with such trivial ordeals. Seeing the girl leave the room, Joren thanked the gods quickly for giving him an excuse to leave the room. He wanted to see how far he could push her this time. He took great pleasure in taunting her, but the one drawback of it all was that she would never be pushed far. Once in a while, she would show her anger, but he could never make her have a huge outburst. That, by far, would be one of the most interesting things to see, and that was what his goal was for the night. He wanted to show that Keladry could show emotion just like any regular human being. She was not special, and he certainly thought that if someone caught her yelling at him or trying to beat him up, seeing her get it trouble would be far more interesting than staying in the stuffy old banquet hall.

As he turned a corner of the corridor through which he was walking, he gained on her and soon he was walking right behind her. She kept walking through the palace and did not seem to notice that she was being followed. Once outside the palace, she broke into a run, and Joren willingly followed her out. So maybe this wouldn't work out as he had planned (no one would probably see them), but at least he would be able to see her crack. She stopped by a fountain in a garden at the far end of the palace and sat down on a bench nearby. Joren stopped walking and hid himself from view slightly, by keeping to the shadows. He expected her face, as usual, to be blank of any emotions, but what he saw there when she lifted her head surprised him more than anything else in his life.

Tears were streaming down her face and her eyes were red and slightly swollen from much apparent crying. Joren was shocked to the bone. He had never ever seen her cry. This was something unheard of. She was the girl who always kept her emotions in check, never showing any sign of them, as if they were some kind of weakness. But, to see her cry, it made Joren feel slightly bad, which is definitely not something he had ever felt before in his life. He knew that he should be right beside her, taunting her for finally showing a sign of weakness, but, surprisingly, a part of him wanted to comfort her instead. The sound of her quiet sobs and the sight of her tear-streaked face made him want to go right up to her and hug her. She looked so amazingly pathetic that he felt bad for her and guilty for all the times that he had hurt her or insulted her. As her cheeks glistened from the tears that were rolling down, he could not help but think that she really was pretty in her own special way.

'What's wrong with me?' he asked himself. 'Why am I feeling so bad for the Lump?' Suddenly, he felt terrible for even thinking of that horrible name that he and his cronies had created for her. She certainly did not look like a lump now, she looked more like an angel or a goddess. Once again, he was surprised at how quickly his mind had been transformed. As the moonlight shone down on the crying girl, Joren could not help but be reminded of the heart-broken girl told of in fairy tales. Of course, even at a young age, Joren had scoffed at those stories. They were very unrealistic and foolish. But now, seeing this real manifestation of the stories in front of him, he could not help but feel like he should walk over to her and say something nice to comfort her. However, nice things were not included in Joren's vocabulary. He barely even knew how to speak civilly.

As if in a dream or trance, Joren stepped out of the shadows and walked toward Kel. She still did not notice that he was there. He stepped closer once again. It was then that she noticed him. She did not even bolt upright and slap him like he thought she would, she just lowered her face in her hands in defeat. For a while, they just stood there, Kel with her face in her hands and Joren staring at her. Then Kel lifted her face.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you lording this whole thing over me? I would have thought that by now you would be sneering at me and telling me that such an emotional girl does not deserve to be a knight. Go on, say it. Tear me apart while I'm still weak." She looked up at him with bitterness in her voice as she said this. But, instead of continuing her speech, she just stared at him blankly as she evidently saw the change in his face. Thinking that this was just another one of his plots, she just lowered her face into her hands once again and resumed crying.

Joren, seeing her return to her former position, could not help but sit down next to her. She must have felt him next to her, because she suddenly stopped crying and moved her hands away from her face, but did not lift her head, as if in shame. Joren, for a reason he could not quite determine, desperately wanted to look this entrancing girl in the eye. He lifted her chin with his hand, and she tried to look away from him, but found it was inevitable. When they made eye contact, Joren felt strangely light and an odd feeling swept through him. He felt as if he wanted to kiss this girl right there and then. A few minutes ago all he wanted to do was make sure she was thrown out, but now he was having feelings for her like he had not had for any other girl. Joren felt himself leaning in toward her face. Her eyes were wide open in shock as she realized what was about to happen. The distance between their faces lessened and suddenly his lips found hers.

Joren had never felt such a wonderful feeling as he now felt kissing this girl who he had thought an enemy. It seemed as if electricity were flowing through them. At first the kiss was full of passion, but ended as a gentle loving one that showed more fully the feelings that were flowing through him. Still not waking up from the trance he was in, Joren pulled back and looked at the girl before him. Her eyes had been closed until this point, but now they opened and they displayed some shock of what had just happened, but it was overwhelmed by a look of understanding. He knew that he needed to say something to her, something that was very important.

It took him a while to find his voice, but he told her, "I-I'm sorry for all the things I've done to you." He waited for her to answer, half expecting her to slap him. But then she did something unexpected, that outdid all the strange things that had happened that evening. She leaned in once again and kissed him, putting her arms around his neck. This seemed to be her answer, and he thought this was the best one that she could ever have given him.

~ * ~

I'm sorry for the lack of dialogue and substance in this chapter. I felt that not much was needed. And for all those who wanted the whole love/hate scenario, I'm very sorry, but I really could not have that in here, because there was only a limited amount of time I could spend on this, and it would have taken a while to portray that. Please forgive me and leave a review!!

~Kristin