Chapter 2- A new developement....
sorry this took so long to come out... i know there were sooooo many of you waiting too! lol anyways, Katielyn and Jenelin (we) had this all written awhile ago, but I (Jenelin) am lazy, and i took wayyyyyy too long to type it. and i (katielyn) didn't give her the copy for awhile so she couldn't type. so please send us any advice you have for us, and any criticism, please! i hope you like this chapter!
Saphyne was waiting in the banquet hall. She was humming to herself, a song her mother had taught her. The sound bounced off the walls back to her ears.
"Saphyne?" Lady Alanna, accompanied by a few others (Saphyne couldn't make out who), had entered. She blushed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you come in. I –-"
"Don't worry about it, you have quite a voice." Alanna lit a candle near them. Saphyne could see Thayet, Jon, Daine and Buri. A tall man wearing black robes, who she guessed was Numair, was with them.
"Saphyne, this is Numair, he'll be teaching you a bit to help you control your powers." Thayet said.
"That's an interesting tune you were singing there," Numair said. "Do you mind if I ask you what it is?"
"Oh, it's just a song my mom taught me." Saphyne said. She noticed that Numair kept looking back and forth between her and Daine, and he seemed to be talking to Daine with his eyes. Suddenly, Kitten ran into the room, right up to Saphyne. She started cooing, and the charm on Saphyne's necklace came out of her shirt and started to glow a deep blue color. Alanna, Jon, Thayet, Buri, and Saphyne were shocked.
"Saphyne, look out the window." Daine said, looking startled.
Saphyne looked out the window, and in the harbor, she could see all sorts of sea creatures staring back at her.
"This is like no other magic I have ever seen. Sea nymphs rarely tell us their secrets." Numair said. "Do you know everything about sea nymphs?
"Numair," Daine warned, "this isn't the time."
"Ah yes, well, some other time we will have a long talk, and perhaps Master Lindhall will join us." Numair said with a sigh. "As far as I can see, when you sing, particularly when you are holding onto that charm, you call things to you. Sea animals AND immortals it seems."
"I wonder if Tkaa heard the call." Jon questioned.
"For your information, yes I did, but I was taking a bubble bath, or I would have come sooner." A tall basilik said as he walked into the room.
"Tkaa, this is Saphyne, she is a new rider and she has sea magic. You might be able to help her. Saphyne, this is Tkaa, he is a basilik, and teaches the pages and squires about immortals here." Daine said with a smile.
"So you heard a call Tkaa?" Numair asked.
"Yes, and it was quite a call. I could tell I wasn't the only one called, and I can see my young cousin showed no resistance." Tkaa stated. "Us stronger immortals can resist the call of a sea nymph, but only for so long. The young ones have no resistance. I am curious though –You look like a girl. Did some mage turn you from a sea nymph to a girl, because that was clearly the song of the sea nymph that I heard, and it led me here."
"No, I'm really a girl. My mom is a sea nymph though, and I inherited her voice." Saphyne said
"And her power it seems," Tkaa added.
"Well, we will have to work on your control missy." Numair said with a smile. "We can't have you calling all immortals and sea animals every time you start to sing! We will start lessons in your free hour in the morning. Buri will bring you back to the barracks now."
"Well it seems you've had a very exciting day." Buri said to Saphyne as they walked back to the barracks. "How do you like it here in Corus so far?"
"I love it! It's great here! I am so excited about being a rider. I never knew I could call sea creatures and immortals. That's so cool."
"Well I'm glad you are fitting in," Buri said. "Well, here we are, the red door. I don't know if anyone told you, but the yellow door and all that's inside is off limits, just as the Red door and all that's inside is off-limits to the guys. Understand?"
"Yes, don't worry about me," Saphyne said with a smile.
Upon entering the red door and the girls barracks, Saphyne found out to her delight that on the right side of her bed was Narissa's bed, on the left side was Alianora's bed, and the 3 beds across from Saphyne's bed were Renna's, Randilyn's and another girl's beds. They all started talking to Saphyne and filling her in on all of the rider details when the girl on the bed next to Randilyn's, who had not joined in on the conversation, started whining.
"Could you guys please shut up! I for one would like to get some sleep before morning," the girl said.
"Don't mind her, Saphyne," Narissa said. "That's just Vorri. She is never in a good mood."
"That's because I have to sleep near you!" Vorri retorted back.
"Well at least we don't keep you awake, snoring the way you do." Narissa said back with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
Vorri jumped onto Narissa, snarling. "Take… That… Back!" she yelled as girls tried to pull her off.
"What is going on in here?" Buri shouted through the confusion.
"She attacked me!" Narissa exclaimed, holding a hand to her bleeding lip.
"Saphyne, what happened?" Buri asked.
"Well, Vorri insulted all of us, and then Narissa said that at least we don't snore, and Vorri jumped on her and started attacking her. We were trying to pull her off when you came in." Saphyne said.
"Ok, Vorri, you come with me. Narissa, if you want to go see a palace healer you may, otherwise, girls, all of you go to sleep." Bui said fiercely.
After Buri left, Narissa walked over to Renna, and Renna put her hand on Narissa's mouth. When she took it away, there was a little scar on Narissa's lip.
"Thanks Renna," Narissa said as she walked back to her bed.
"I wonder what will happen to Vorri?" Renna questioned. "Fighting with other Riders is against the rules."
Saphyne slept well that night. Despite waking up early in the morning, she was looking forward to the day. She got up and dressed. She borrowed Narissa's mirror and tried to flatten down her wild hair. She finally gave up.
"Saphyne, c'mere. I can help you with your hair." Randilyn called to her. Saphyne obeyed. Randilyn smoothed Saphyne's hair down. "There you go. My mother taught me that." She said smiling. Saphyne sat back on her bed and braided her hair, tying it off with a string from her pack. Saphyne had started to straighten up a bit when Vorri stormed in and began packing up her things. Saphyne looked at Narissa, who had her back on Vorri.
"Well, you should all be happy. I'm leaving. At least I can leave with style. Too bad I can't say the same for you Narissa," Vorri announced flinging her bag over her shoulder.
"At least when I leave, Vorri Leyoden, it won't be because I was kicked out," Narissa retorted. Vorri pushed her way through the girls and left.
"Um, let's go eat ok?" Saphyne suggested, twisting her blankets. They all headed to the dining hall.
~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~
Narissa had lightened up some and Saphyne was feeling more at home than ever. She never felt like she belonged anywhere before.
"Are you going to eat or push your food around the plate, Saphe?" Aidan said to Saphyne as he took a bite of his own roll.
Saphyne raised her eyebrows. "Saphe? I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name." She took a sip of her coffee.
Aidan rolled his eyes at her, "Sorry Saph-YNE," he grinned.
After breakfast, the trainees were taken out to the field to the ponies. Daine met up with Saphyne. "Daine, who should I pick?"
"I can't help you with that. You pick your own, or rather, they choose you." She patted Saphyne on the shoulder and went off to help Alianora with her pony.
"Saphyne walked through the ponies looking for one. She put her hand on a blue-black stallion. She looked him over, he wasn't the perfect pony, but she liked him. He butted her with his head.
"Okay then, let's go find someone else." She led him through the herd.
She finally found a red mare, light on her feet and quick. Saphyne walked them over to the tree in the center of the field to wait. Aidan was staring at a chestnut bay, arms crossed, the pony with the same expression on his face as the rider. Narissa had chosen a blond butterscotch mare and a palomino. Saphyne laid her head on the mare, she closed her eyes and imagined going back to the sea. She hadn't been in years.
"Saphyne!" Buri was slowly trotting through the field, dodging riders and ponies. "Saphyne there's been a change of plans. You're to spend most of the day with Master Numair. For now, you will have a different schedule than the other trainees. We'll figure out about your rider training later."
"But why?" Saphyne asked.
"I don't know. Daine will look after your ponies until later. We have to go now." Buri took her ponies and led them to Daine.
Saphyne walked to the barracks. She heard running steps behind her.
"Saphyne wait up!" she turned and faced the speaker, Damien. He slowed and flipped brown hair out of his green-blue eyes.
"Hi, um, Hi." She answered, completely unprepared for talking to him. She could feel her cheeks flaming red.
"You left this at the table, today, uh, at breakfast." He handed her her small book of songs, soft leather bound with blue ribbons.
"Oh yes, I can't believe I forgot that." She took it and put it in her pocket.
"So did you choose your mounts?" he asked. He was cracking his knuckles and pushing his hair out of his eyes nervously.
"Yeah, you?" she asked. 'He's not too bad looking, fidgety, but cute', she though.
"Yeah." He looked into her.
"Yeah, well I have to go, lessons, magic, yeah, I'll see you at dinner then?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'll, uh, save you a spot." He said watching her walk away.
"Kay," she said waving.
~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~
Numair had wanted them to start in the dining hall, since it had the best sea view.
"Ok Saphyne, we need to start controlling that magic now. Lindhall is on his way, but we need to work on some now. I've been thinking that the best way to control your magic is to learn about it. You say your mother gave you that charm to find you, so you should be able to find her. We can find out more about your charm, what it is and such later."
"Ok, but I can't contact her. I haven't spoken to her since I was 10. Even when I was with her, she always kept certain things secret, saying she would tell me someday." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry I can't be more help, but I know that the charm can do more."
Numair looked as if he was thinking. Finally, he said, "Then I suppose we'll have to find out about the stone before we move on. But I was thinking, you should practice by the sea. In a few weeks we will be going to Pirates Swoop. For now I want you to meet me and Daine here just after dinner to practice some control." Saphyne nodded. She hurried back to the stables. Daine was the only one there.
"Where'd everyone go?" she asked, picking up a brush and walking over to the black stallion. "Did they all already go to practice riding the ponies?"
Daine had taken Cloud back in from the paddock and had begun to groom her. "Yeah, they are outside now. So you can ride 'im now and I'll saddle up the lady for you." She pointed to a small room behind them. "The tack is in there, pick a saddle you think would fit 'im and tack up!"
Saphyne went into the small room. It had to musty smell of horses and oil and leather. She picked up a brown simple saddle and a small bridle. Daine showed her how to tack up, using Cloud as a model and Saphyne mimicked her. Only a few adjustments were made.
"I'll take you down there. Only half of them are riding at a time so they should be switching now. She patted the pony. "What are you gonna call 'im? He's one of the few who doesn't already have a name."
"I don't know. It will come to me." She and Daine walked down to the field where the trainees were already changing.
"Hop on," said Daine. Saphyne took a breath and got on. The pony shuffled it's feet a little. "Ok, I'm gonna leave you now, I'll be back later with the other." She said waving. Aidan was coming up behind her on the chestnut bay pony she had seen earlier.
"Hey, nice pony, but can you ride?" he said jokingly.
Saphyne stuck her chin up, "Of course I can." She grinned.
"Well then I'll race you. We still have time before we have to actually work." He grinned out of the side of his mouth.
"Later," she answered, "I want to get to know 'im first." She nodded towards her horse.
"I'm gonna remind you of that later then."
She made a gentle clucking noise and gave him a kick. Slowly horse and rider became accustomed to each other.
"Well you seem to be fitting in here. Usually Vorri gives people trouble but I haven't seen her today." Aidan had come up alongside her.
"She was giving Narissa some trouble last night. I think she got kicked out."
"Was bound to happen sooner or later. I think Damien's got a thing for you –Or so my reliable sources say."
"Not true!" she said, surprised. "He only gave me back my book! I – "
"Excuses, Excuses." Aidan said grinning. Saphyne smacked him playfully. He yanked her braid.
"OK GUYS, UP HERE!" Onua and Daine were with a few undistinguishable people at the opening of the field. Everyone trotted up to see what work they would be doing. "Ok now, gallop your ponies around the fences for awhile for a work-out. After you complete 6 circuits, you can go and clean your horse. Do NOT forget to brush your horse and clean the tack. We will meet back in the stables after lunch." Buri yelled the instructions.
As Saphyne was getting ready to gallop, Aidan and Coren came up behind her and boomed: "Race ya!" into her ear.
They raced the 6 circuits and finished off at the stables where they began grooming their ponies. After brushing down the ponies, a loud bell sounded, and they headed to the mess hall for lunch. While waiting in line, Aidan and Coren teased Saphyne.
"Only 3 days here and you've already got the guys dumbstruck" Aidan joked.
"Yeah, is there some song you are singing to captivate them?" Coren asked.
"I don't have any clue what you are talking about!" Saphyne exclaimed *innocently*, as they picked their food and headed for their table. Saphyne sat on the end of the table next to Narissa and Randilyn, and Damien sat down diagonal to her.
"You guys beat me here!" Damien said. "I was stuck cleaning my tack a 2nd time after it fell in the mud."
"Oh that sucks!" Saphyne exclaimed.
Coren and Aidan exchanged looks, which Saphyne noticed, and so she kicked Aidan (he was sitting across from her).
"OWWW!" Aidan yelped.
"What?" Randilyn and Damien asked simultaneously.
"I, um, but my cheek, sorry for yelling," Aidan said as he stared into Saphyne's eyes.
"Well uh, I think I'm gonna go early, I uh, gotta go get something." Saphyne said.
~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~
Saphyne entered the barracks and flopped onto her mattress. She sighed, then got up to change her breeches, as they had gotten soiled during riding. She noticed something had fallen onto her floor. She picked it up. It was an envelope with her name on it. Interested, she opened it. It was a note. It said:
"Dearest Saphyne,
I have been in love with you since the 1st moment I saw you. Your long wavy hair is so gorgeous I have difficulty restraining myself from touching it. Looking into your eyes is like looking into the depths of the ocean. My heart races when you smile, and I dissolve into my love for you. I love you!
