A Life Less Ordinary: Chapter 11
By Sulia Serafine
[12-3-00. This is a Protector of the Small fanfic; all credit goes to Tamora Pierce. I'm broke, so you can't sue me.
Oh, one more thing: BAD LANGUAGE (I. E. cursing, swearing…). You have been warned!]
That clear morning, not a cloud was in sight. The sun peeked out over the horizon, warming the city despite the snow that blanketed it. Men and women arose from their slumber and yawned and stretched. Children quickly dressed and went outside to play with the snow. And all was peaceful and pleasant for the world.
"Just because it's pleasant does not mean I have to get up," Joren muttered from under his quilt. They were in a small inn at the edge of the city, sharing a room to save money. Keladry fixed her bed. She smoothed down the quilt and walked around her bed to get to his.
"Well, too bad. Get up, anyway," she said. Joren squirmed under the quilt and groaned.
"Come on! One more hour," he yawned. "Look, this city is snowed in for the season. It's going to be difficult traveling. Why don't we just stay here?"
"I don't find anything here worth staying for," she replied and reached up to yank his covers down. As her fingers closed around the edge of the quilt, Joren tightened his hold on it. "Joren! Stop it, get up."
"Fine!" he yelled back and threw off the covers. He ran his fingers through his mussed hair. "But if we can find a reason to stay here for the rest of winter, may we stay, oh Miss-Keladry-the-Unrelenting-Traveler?"
She threw his shirt at him. "I guess so. I heard there's a few merchants around who sell nice jewels for the season holidays for Dona and Accipio. We can check those out and maybe earn some money doing other practical jobs."
"As if being mercenaries isn't practical enough in a world engulfed by war. I don't see how people can celebrate with the war still on." Joren yanked the shirt over his head. He hastily stuck his arms in the sleeves and reached for his vest. "Dona and Accipio? Oh yes, I almost forgot. The series of holidays where everyone's happy and cheerful, and everyone is so sickeningly sweet that I want to gag."
She glanced at him from where she was looking for her boots. "Is that how you felt about our holidays back home?"
"Yes," he grumbled. "Have you noticed me around this season for the last four years?"
" Last year, he did make us avoid all the cities and we spent the holidays out in the woods," she thought. Aloud, she chided him. "You should be happy and thankful to the gods of this realm that we've lived until now. Our lives aren't easy, you know."
"I know! And I'm not ungrateful. I just wish one of those gods would take some measures to get us home. They know we don't belong here."
"Then if you're good, maybe a god will send you a labafret for your holiday present," Keladry said with a slightly sarcastic tone.
"A Truth Stone, too, please." He actually grinned.
"Of course," she chuckled. "Well, I'm going down to get some breakfast. Join me when you're ready."
Keladry walked to the door. Joren rummaged through his clothes to find his belt. Looking up, he thought of something. He called to her just as she turned the doorknob. She looked over her shoulder. "Yeah?"
"What would you want for the holidays?" His face took on a serious expression, that was the most sincere she'd ever seen from him.
She blinked, caught off guard by the question. It took her a moment to form words. "I don't know. We've spent so many years avoiding the holidays that I've never really thought about it." She paused. "If we do decide to stay here for the season, aren't we going to spend it in some dead-end bar instead of celebrating?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. I was just curious."
"Oh." She abruptly turned and left.
~~
"Hey, a jewelry shop. Fine stuff in there, eh?" Joren elbowed her.
"Uh, yeah. You think they'd have what we're looking for?"
"Perhaps. Won't know until we look." He grabbed her wrist and practically dragged her after him.
"As if I wasn't going to follow," she thought as she stumbled after his quick stride. She snatched her hand away when they reached the door to the shop. There was a sign that read "Dalin's Jewelry" and a picture of a diamond ring. They went inside.
The two were amazed. The place was brightly lit with candles, in addition to the high window with stained glass. The streams of colored light and candlelight hit the jewels on display in such a way that they truly shined. The gold and silver were polished to perfection where they lay on black velvet cushions.
A young man leaned on the polished wooden counter in front of the display cases. There were locks on everything, all tiny, but no doubt effective-- they had to have been safe locks or all these precious items would have been stolen long ago.
"Can I help you?" the young man said. "The name's Owen Dalin. I'm the shopkeeper."
Keladry's eyes widened imperceptibly. "Neal?!" she thought. "He looks exactly like Neal!"
Joren didn't seem to notice. "Yes, I'm thinking of buying something with a nice pretty jewel on it for my betrothed. My sister is here to help me." He glanced at her. Past her normal unfeeling expression, he detected a hint of astonishment.
"Something surprise you, Sister?"
Keladry hoped she wasn't blushing. "Uh, the jewels are nice is all. It will be hard to pick one."
Owen grinned. "I'm sure we could find something. But it would be hard to match the beauty of any of these 'rocks' to your betrothed, sir, let alone your beautiful sister."
Joren tried not to gag. "Oh, isn't that a nice compliment?"
She forced a smile. It came out all wrong and obviously fake. That was the first time a young man like Owen had said anything like that to her. Especially since she was usually seen in breeches and dirt from some fight. She quietly replied, "Thank you."
They spent the whole day looking at every single jewel in the whole entire shop. Finally, when it was near sunset, they gave up. Joren patted his stomach. "I'm getting kind of hungry. Since I wasted your whole day, Owen, maybe we ought to treat you to dinner."
Keladry became frantic, but being Keladry, she hid it from showing. "Now I'm going to have to spend the evening with the guy who looks like Neal? I'm going to be a mindless idiot the whole night!"
Owen smiled. "That would be great. Would your betrothed be joining us?"
"Uh, no," Joren answered nervously. "She's out of the city for the season."
"It must be awful to be away from the girl you love so much for the whole season."
Joren shrugged. "I'll survive. Keladry?"
"Er, yes?" she asked. Joren stared at her.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine! Just fine!"
"Um, all right. Let's go," Joren said. Owen locked up the shop. They never saw so many different keys and locks in their whole lives. Keladry even noticed some runes of New Magic on the display cases. They left the shop and headed to a tavern right next to Joren and Keladry's inn.
"This place has great food. Have you been here before?" Owen asked.
"Why would we have been here before?"
"I took it that you lived here, although it is strange that you do. I'd be able to recognize almost every citizen's face," the Neal-lookalike admitted. "It's okay. I'm just having one of those confusing days."
"Eheheh… Of course," Joren nodded. He kicked Keladry under the table when she started to fidget nervously in her seat. Owen had been complimenting her all night about how beautiful she was and how great it must be have traveled around so much (Joren had said they used to be a traveling brother and sister merchants, much to Keladry's disgust).
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Joren asked when Owen left to relieve himself.
"I don't know!" Keladry blushed. She couldn't believe she was blushing. Joren couldn't believe she was blushing. She hadn't done that in a long while.
"Well, don't worry. Since we haven't found anything worthwhile in this stupid city, we're not hanging around. We'll stay in the woods this winter," Joren said angrily, propping his elbow on the table.
Keladry's eyes widened. "No! I want to stay!"
"Eh?"
"Did you… you ever notice how Owen looks and acts like Neal?" Keladry whispered.
"Yes, actually-- a good explanation why I'm growing less and less friendly to the guy every minute," he huffed. "What does that have to do with anything? It's not like it is Neal."
Keladry turned a deeper shade of red, much to her discomfort. Joren stared at her.
"No…"
"Uh, no what?" Keladry timidly asked. Joren clamped one hand over his mouth. He lowered it and leaned toward her so close that their noses were nearly touching. "What?"
Joren grinned. "You…" He started to laugh deep in his throat. He held off his laughter for a moment. Then Joren came closer to her so that his nose actually touched hers and whispered, "You had a crush on Neal?!"
She shoved him away and suddenly became engulfed by the fascinating pieces of food on her plate. He burst into loud raucous laughter. Several times, he tried to stop, but it seemed impossible. Keladry finally started to punch him in the arm, making him pause his laughter to cry "ow!" and continue on.
Owen came back to the table. He frowned. "What's so funny?"
Joren stared at him for a moment, then resumed his laughter. Everyone in the tavern stopped what he or she was doing to stare at him. The only sound in the whole place was his hysterical laughter. Kel grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet. "Excuse us, Owen. We'll be right back."
It was too late to avoid embarrassment since Joren had literally made a spectacle of himself, but at least she was going to shut him up. Keladry dragged Joren out the door and led him to the alley. There, she punched him-- this time hard in the shoulder. Joren finally stopped to grab his struck shoulder.
"Ow," he said, even though he still maintained a taunting smile. "Hey," he shook his head and dropped his grin. " I just couldn't… resist." He stifled a snicker.
Keladry leaned on the tavern wall and turned her head away from him. "I'm not talking to you."
"Aw, come on! I didn't mean it," he said. He stepped on his own foot when he thought he was going to laugh again. "If you can't face Owen anymore, I'll send him away."
Keladry's head jerked toward him. "Don't you dare!"
He blinked. "What?"
"Er," she scratched her head.
"Forget it," he mumbled. "Let's just go back inside."
"Promise not to laugh?" she said suspiciously.
Joren shrugged. "I promise to try to not laugh."
She sighed. "Coming from you, I guess that's good enough."
They went back inside, where Owen was waiting with confusion written in his features. The other patrons of the tavern glanced their way now and then, but mostly left the three alone. Keladry coughed mildly, nudging Joren to say something.
"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry about that. My sister and I were talking about an embarrassing moment in our childhood and I got caught up in the moment."
"I'll say," Owen shook his head. "You were like a hyena."
"And he'll never do it again," Keladry assured him, shooting Joren a threatening look. He only grinned.
~~
"Thanks for the meal. You two are very… interesting people," Owen remarked with a crooked smile. "Dinner with you two is like a weird family reunion for me. It's like I've known you for years."
Keladry nodded. "Yeah-- us, too."
"That's some weird family," Joren muttered under his breath. Keladry stomped on his foot. "AH!"
Joren hopped a few feet off, cursing. Keladry glared at him before talking to Owen. "That's my brother, for you."
Owen nodded. "Yeah, uh, right." He cleared his throat. "I was wondering, Kel-- uh, you don't mind I call you Kel, do you?" Before she could answer, he continued on quickly, "Because it's like I've known you forever and you're just such a great person and you're so interesting and you can call me anything you want, if you don't like Owen and… and…" He took a breath. "Would you like to go out to dinner some other time? I mean, not with your brother along-- wait! It's not that I don't like Joren or anything. I mean, he's nice, I suppose, although I really don't care for him for some reason-- doesn't mean I won't learn to like him…."
Keladry held up one hand. "Whoa… I don't think I can keep up." She paused. "But I'd love to have dinner with you."
He seemed ecstatic. "Really?! You're not kidding? Because sometimes, my parents say I can go on and on about the most stupid things unless someone beats me to the punch-- you know, like your brother did with the laughing tonight! I really, really hope you aren't annoyed by that, but I only do it when I'm really nervous…and…" He stopped and put a hand over his own mouth. He took a deep breath and lowered his hand. "What I mean to say is, you're a dream come true. And that's why I'm nervous."
She chuckled. "You're definitely flattering."
He put his hands in his pockets. "So, we're going to dinner, say… three days from now?"
"Meet at your shop?"
"After dusk?"
"Nothing fancy?"
"Why, you hate dresses?"
"Don't you?"
He laughed. Then he scratched his chin. "Well, I guess I could wear a dress if you wanted me to, but…"
"I was joking!" she laughed.
"I know. I was 'joking' right back," he said with a tender expression. "So, I'll see you later."
He started walking. She smiled. "Yeah."
"Hey," he called back. "You should smile more often."
Keladry waved. She watched him walk away with a serene look on her face. Joren came up, glaring at her. "Thanks a lot, Sis."
"You're welcome." She patted his shoulder. The started to walk next door to their inn. "I'm going to have dinner with Owen three days from now."
"What?" Joren turned to her. "Why?"
"Because he's nice and respectful, and why not?"
"I thought you wanted to focus on going home!"
She rolled her eyes. "As apposed to you flirting with every pretty girl that walks past?"
He stood indignant. "That's different! I'm not looking for a relationship." He turned and pointed in the direction Owen had gone. "That is the prelude to a relationship. And we are not getting personal with anyone here like that." He emphasized each word by stabbing his finger in the same direction and increasing his tone.
She marched past him to the door of the inn. "I'm going to dinner with him and you can't stop me."
Joren growled. He yelled to Keladry from where he stood. "Don't get attached, Kel!"
She turned around while her hand was on the knob and stared at him with a mixture of confusion and anger. "Why not?"
"You'll understand one day," he said. His voice was colder than ice. His blue eyes were stormy from what she could see in the moon's illumination. The shadows of his face seemed to exaggerate the effect. For the second time that day, his face become the most serious she had ever seen. Keladry was going to crumble under that gaze unless she walked away. And so she did, her legs shaking.
~~
Author: I hoped you liked that one! I'm afraid I won't post another chapter until Friday. Same reason as always (and umm…, if you can burn my school, please, do so. Address is 1179-- no, can't. As much as I want to, I kind of like my creative writing class. I wonder why…).
Anyway, I added a new sketch of Keladry and Joren, full body, on the same page I gave you before. Once more, here's the address:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/1100/silverdragon/fanfics/keladry_joren.html
or
http://www.geocities.com/silvrblade.geo/silverdragon/fanfics/keladry_joren.html
Thanks for reading. Thanks for reviewing. Uh, thanks for everything, I guess. Happy Holidays, guys, in case I forget!