The next morning, someone said, "Laurie, time to get up!" I was only half awake, so I said, "No!" like a two year old and rolled towards the wall. Then that person was shaking my shoulder. I said "NO!" again and ignored them. They shook me a little harder, and so I (keep in mind, I'm half asleep) yelled, very loudly, "NO!!" and threw my fist back over my shoulder. I heard the person, who I now reconized as Numair, yell, "OW! Gods, you little b****!"

THAT got me up. "Well, you were the bastard trying to wake me up!" I yelled, sitting up.

"Oh, jush shu'up an' geh dwesseh!" Numair yelled. Apparantly I gave him a bloody nose.

Later we were in the courtyard, about ready to leave. Neal said good-bye to everyone, and then he left for Pirate's Swoop. He wasn't going with the rest of the group. Kel, Merric, Seaver, Cleon, Faleron, Owen, and their knight-masters were, though.

Sir Johan of Malorie's Peak, Owen's knight-master, said, "Numair, what in the name of the Goddess happened to your nose?"

Numair muttered something that sounded like, "Muripoochedmignse."

"What?"

"Laurie punched my nose, okay!? Gods!"

"Uh-oh," I muttered to Kel.

I would rather not describe what happened next, since it involved a huge fight, a knight turned into a tree and back to knight, lots of cussing that I don't think the ickle kiddies should be exposed to, large amounts of blood, more cussing, some threats, a couple painful, lasting injuries, and a few screaching ladies.

So we set off, much more battered than before. A little later in the morning, I rode up next to Numair. "So," I asked. "What fief are we going to again?"

"Hannalof," he answered simply.

"Oh. Like as in, Uline?"

He looked at me strangly. "I'm not going to ask how you know that."

I blushed. I had told him I was from another world and all, but I never mentioned the books to him, from the reation Kel gave me. "Total guess. So it's run by Uline's parents?"

He shook his head. "No, they died in January. It's run by Uline's cousin, Lady Charrisse."

"Who is, supposedly, the most beautiful woman in Tortall, prettier than even Thayet," Raoul said dryly, riding up beside us with Kel.

"How old is she?" I asked.

"Seventeen," Numair said. "About your age, am I right?"

"Yupsies," I answered.

"You two would probably get along very well, if she weren't an airhead with nothing on her mind but those of us of the opposite sex," Raoul said. I was under the impression that Raoul and Charrisse weren't the world's best friends.

"Ouch. That's gotta hurt." I said, grinning.

"What?" Raoul asked tartly.

"What, did you just call her a slut or something?"

"I should, but a knight should always treat women decently," he said sadly.

Kel and I looked at each other. "What?" Raoul asked.

"Nothing," I said innocently. Of course, I NEVER looked innocent, so of course Raoul suspected somthing was up.

"One of the squires said something about a lady, didn't they?" Raoul looked at Kel.

"A few years ago. It's nothing," Kel answered quickly.

"Which boy about which lady?" he asked, raising his voice.

"Hey, Raoul! It's gone, over, so forget about it, k?" I asked. I was getting more than a little worried.

"Laurie, stay out of this!"

I didn't that this was a matter I was involved in, so I dropped back to ride with the other squires. It was a pretty fun afternoon, with Faleron teasing me, me scwabbling with Merric, and Sir Adeon, Faleron's knightmaster, who was riding just ahead of us, looking back at us, grinning, and shaking his head. So then of course I immediatly asked what the hey was so funny, and he would say, "oh, nothing," and then I would ask him until he glared at me and said to shut up, and then I would turn the "treat women decently" rule on him, ect., ect.

When we stopped for the night, Numair showed me what you did to set up a camp. I made supper, which was grilled cheese sandwiches, and when someone complained, I asked them if THEY could do any better, which shut everyone up immediatly. Later, we were sitting around the campfire, playing a version of truth or dare, where one person asked someone else a question, and they answered it, and then the "victim" picked someone to ask their question. There were no really personal questions, but some of the stories were hilarious. "Laurie," Numair asked me, "what jobs do your parents have?"

"My mom's a lawyer, and my dad was an engineer."

"Was?"

"Yeah. He died when I was ten." I had never told them about my dad, since I saw no reason to.

"Sorry," he said.

"You weren't the drunk that killed him, so don't be," I said tartly. "Now, can we talk about something else?"

"It's your turn," Merric said.

"You can have it." With that, I got up and walked towards the slightly closed-off area where Daine, Kel and I had put our bedrolls. I let myself cry. I always cried when I thought about Dad. "Five years, Dad," I whispered, "and I still cry."

When I got myself together, I went back to the fire. A little later Seaver asked me, "What's the craziest thing you've ever done?"

"Oh, that's gonna be a looooong list, dear," I answered. "Let's see, there was the time when Jess, Juls, Joni, Niki and I got out in the middle of the ice rink during Rock 'n Skate and sang Weird Al's "Saga Begins" at the top of our lungs, when we went to a poetry reading, got up, and read Dr. Suess, when we made Niki do her Angry Weasel impression, but didn't tell her that it would end up on national TV, when we all ate tons of sugar and we all wrote stories at Joni's sleepover, coombined them to make one wacko story, and posted it on the internet, when we wrote 'Sparkling Clean' on Joni's forehead while she was asleep, when we were at a rest stop on a field trip, and Niki tried to hijack the bus when Tess was making out with her boyfriend in the backseat--we didn't know about that, when we were the characters from 'The Princess Bride' for Halloween, and we started arguing about who had to be Buttercup in front of the whole school in the office when the intercom was on, when we wrote 'Loser' on Jul's brother's forehead in laundry marker, when we---"

"Laurie," Daine gasped, "enough! We...can't breathe!"

So that was pretty much how the trip went.

Two weeks later, we got to Hannalof. Lady Charrisse was waiting for us by the castle gate. Raoul hadn't lied, she WAS beautiful. Her skin was blonde, silky, long, and basically perfect. Her skin was perfect. Her sapphire-blue eyes were perfect. Heck, SHE should've been Buttercup.

She was wearing a "different" outfit. What it was was a white silk chemise with buttoned cuff, and over that a heavy red brocade dress with trailing sleeves. The neckline of the dress was under her chest, which was how you could see the chemise.

The strangest thing was that I reconized her, I just didn't know where.

Most of the younger male's jaws dropped, the squires included. It was actually pretty funny. (OK, imagine all the guys at your school. Now imagine their jaws dropping at a new foreign exchange student who happens to be the most beautiful girl on the continent. Now imagine all their girlfriends whacking them over the head {exactly what Daine did to Numair}Funny, huh?)

"Oh, thank the gods you're here! The raiders from Scanra and the killer unicorns were getting so hard to control...thank you!"

Raoul rode up to talk to her. Since all the guys were too busy staring at Charrisse to talk, I could hear what he was saying perfectly. Pretty much it was about how are you this and how are you that and may we please be shown to our rooms since we're all every tired from the journey.

So she had servents take us to our rooms. Along the hallway, I started shaking. I was scared out of my mind, I didn't know why. Kel came up next to me and asked, "Laurie, what's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."

"I might've," I muttered, then I said, a little louder, "Do you believe in prophectic dreams and deja vu and all that?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

"Well, sometimes I have prophectic dreams, not often, but they started happening a lot more often now. But right now, I've got this...feeling."

"What kind of a feeling?"

"It's more of a sense, actually," I said. "I know that there's darkness, death, pain, screaming." I shut my eyes, it hurt so much to look around. "People've died here," I whispered.

"Well, of course. It's a castle, Laurie. It's old," Kel said matter-of-factly.

"I didn't get a feeling like this from the palace," I said stubbornly. Kel shook her head and walked away.

My room was across the hall from Numair and Daine's room, don't ask me how she knew that they were "together", and next to Kel's and Faleron's. So I started unpacking my bags, and I got this sudden, terrible feeling, sort of like what I felt int the hall, only much, much worse. I felt sick. I lay down on the bed, but I could hear screams, wails, begs for mercy. I went into the bathroom and threw up. What was it about this place?

I shut my eyes for a second, and I saw a brunette woman with an infant on her shoulder, begging for her life so the child may live. The man from my nightmare, the ragged-looking one, grinned, drew a knife, and slit her throat. The baby cried. The man broke her neck.

I opened my eyes and gasped. Shaking my head, I leaned against the vanity. Then the pictures were gone.

A little later, I was feeling somewhat better, and for some reason, I reached under the bed. I rooted around, and got hold of something, and pulled it out a little and looked at it. It was a skeleton's hand.

I screamed, dropped the thing, and backed up against the wall very quickly. The door burst open, and Numair, Daine, Lady Charrisse, Kel, Raoul, Faleron, and Sir Adeon ran in.

"Laurie! Are you all right?" Faleron asked, coming up to me.

Everyone was staring at me. I was pretty sure I knew why. I was scared, trembling, and most likely white as a ghost.

"Look...under..the bed," I said slowly, gasping for breath. Numair glanced at me strangly, then walked over to the bed. He reached under and pulled out an entire skeleton, with the tiny bones of a baby with a broken neck on its rib cage.

Everyone gasped. Numair stood up and took several deep breaths. Then he bent back down and touched the back of the big skeleton's head.

I glanced at Charrisse. She was calm-looking. Except for her eyes. They darted around, as though looking for a way out.

"It's a woman," he said. I assumed he had done some sort of magical test to find that out. "About thirty years old. Her throat was slit, about a year ago."

"And the baby?" Adeon asked.

"About six months. Neck broken, same time as the woman."

I slid down against the wall. "Do you know what color her hair was?" I asked weakly.

"Brown. Why?" Numair answered.

"Oh, dear gods," I said, taking several deep breaths.

"What?" Raoul asked.

"I have no idea," I said. "That's why I'm so scared!"

"What?" Numair asked.

"Kel, would you mind explaining what I told you in the hall?" I asked. Kel nodded. "Um, Numair, you know, it's sort of a magic thing."

Numair caught the hint. "My lady, would you mind leaving for a few minutes?"

"Of course not." Charrisse smiled sweetly. "I need to change for supper, anyway."

When she was gone, Numair shut the door. Kel helped me sit on the bed, and told them everything that I had told her, then I explained what happened in the room. When I was done, Numair started pacing.

"Not good, not good," he muttered.

"Numair," Adeon said. Numair ignored him.

"Numair," Daine said, a little louder than Adeon. Still no response.

"NUMAIR! WOULD YOU MIND EXPLAINING WHAT'S SO 'NOT GOOD'?!?!?!" I yelled.

Numair glanced up and said, "Well, you didn't have to *yell*."

Daine sighed. "Never mind, just explain, will you?"

"If Laurie has prophectic dreams, and she gets these 'feelings,' then she very easily could be a Seer."

"What's so bad about that?" I asked.

Numair looked at me sadly. "Laurie, if you can tell when there's been a murder or something, some people might decide that they don't need witnesses."

I slumped backward, falling on the bed. "Great. Juuuuuust great. Now I'm a potential problem to all murderers."

"So, that means that I'm going to have to teach you more defense magic."

"Okay, fine, now thanks," I said.

"Laurie," Raoul asked. "As a knight, I have to ask you, did you see who killed the woman?"

I nodded. "He was tall, not as tall as you or Numair, about as tall as Sir Adeon, with brown hair, a little gray, raggedy."

Raoul sighed. "No one you've seen around the castle?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

He sighed again, then smiled tightly, and said, "Thank you, Laurie. I'd better let Jon and Alanna know about this."

One by one, everyone left. Sir Adeon was the last to leave. "You know, Laurie," he said. "I know we don't know each other very well, but--" he stopped. "--I think that you can handle anything that you need to, but if you need some help, or someone to talk to, you can come to me." He started to go out the door.

"Hey!" I said. He stopped. "Why d'ya wanna help me?"

He grinned. "I'm twenty-three. I remember very well what it was like to be fifteen, and to have a crush on someone."

"What the hey are you talking about?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Laurie. I see how you look at Faleron."

I stared at him. Then I said, or rather, yelled, "I SO don't have a crush on him! I don't DO crushes!"

He grinned again. "Whatever you say." Then he left, leaving me with more than a skeleton and murderers to think about.






Author's Note: Yes, Rita, I DID decide to post! Smiles, to clear this up: It was a five pager at first, then right before I updated I reread it, and changed a lot and forgot to change the authors note. And Reena, sorry but Laurie ain't going home for a LOOONG while. She's got black-robe sorcerers to annoy, pages to torture, places she hasn't wrecked havoc on yet... nope, I'd say she checkin' in and not checkin' out for at least fifteen more chapters!

Also, Charrisse's name is pronounced sha-REESE, or share-EESE. She and Sir Adeon belong to me, but everyone else belongs to the almightly Tammy. That's the only other disclaimer you'll get until I introduce more characters.

Note on Plot: Okay, NOW we're getting into the real thing! I have Tuesday and Wednesday off from school, today was supposed to be a half day but I got sick, so expect a lot more coming out.


Note: Lately there's been a lot of stuff about flames on ff.n. It might have been brought around by what's going on in the forums, but I think flames are an accident waiting to happen. Yeah, the forum sort of brought it out, but I think that people who flame stories were just setting it up. I have a message to you people who flame: GET A LIFE. For God's sake, those things hurt. Find something other to do than critisize other people. Now, I'm probably gonna get flamed by flamers for saying this, but heck! Writers put, blood, sweat, and tears--tears especially--into their work, just like artists, archetechs, sports champions, and all sorts of other people. How would you like it if someone said, "This sucks. Go burn it or something." about your clay project that you spent 8 hours on? You English paper? The song you wrote? I think Saphron expresses the problem perfectly in her note on what's happening in the forum.

In Saphron's note about the flames, I was looking at the reviews, and someone FLAMED HER! For God's sake, constructive critisizm! NOT FLAMES! Do us a favor, and keep your comments about how sucky our fics are to yourself. You know who you are.