Disclaimer: We, ~*Kali*~ and Adara, aka Cherry Coke, do not own any of Tamora Pierce's characters (none of which you will see in this chapter), but we do own Aria and Kalila. We're not sure what we'll do to you if you
take our character's, but whatever it is, it'll involve a mink and a butter knife (That was Kali).

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Aria Serena Batailler entered the spartan castle chamber and set down her bags. There was already a girl on the bed, with strawberry-blonde hair. "Hello," she said tentatively.

The other girl looked up coldly from her arrows she was sharpening and frowned. "You must be Aria," she said shortly.

"I am," Aria said, her mistrust for this stranger growing.

"I'm Kalila. Welcome to Corus," Kalila said gruffly.

"Fine. I'm going to take a look around," Aria snapped and shut the door behind her.

Kalila looked at the door. There was something weird about Aria, but she just couldn't place it. She shrugged off the thought and went to inspectherself in the mirror. She, like always enjoyed what she saw. She was beautiful with strawberry blonde curls, ice green eyes and full, soft pink colored lips. She wasn't as pretty as some girls but she ranked right up there.

That Aria wasn't too bad herself her ice blue eyes glittered coldlyand her moonlight colored hair fell below her shoulders and was lightly wavy. The only glitch she noticed was that Aria's cheek bones were too high. Kalila couldn't talk though, her chin was very stubborn, but not so that it ruined her looks. Kalila smoothed out her skirts and walked out the door. She wanted to get a look around the rose gardens.

The sun was shining brightly over the castle grounds while she walkedabout. She glanced wistfully out at the squires training in the yards. Howshe wished she could join them in their hand to hand and archery lessons. She had been well educated as a child by her father's servants in the art offighting, she even knew a little bit of Shang. As she passed she heard the annoying cat calls and whistles from the young men. Kalila couldn't help but laugh, she used to hate that but know she was quite used to it.

"I take it you learned to get over it too?" Aria said coming out from the shade of a tree. Her blue eyes looked out at the group of staring boys.

"Yes, but lets leave, we're distracting them from their lessons," Kalila said, still smiling softly. The two young women retreated from the sight and began to walk in the general direction of the gardens, which weren't that far away.