Chapter 3
An Unexpected Visitor
By the time Cleon and Kel reached the manor Kel had relaxed and her tears were long gone. They walked up to the main door and shared a quick kiss before entering.
Ilane came running with Baron Piers close behind.
"Kel, where on Earth did you go? You left Cleon here in shock and us scared." Piers scolded his youngest daughter.
Kel looked down at the ground, "I'm sorry. I just needed to sort some things out. And," Kel added looking up at her parents, "Cleon and I have decided that we shall be wed before any of our friends get hurt in this horrid war. So, of course, they can see us. I don't know what I would do if Neal weren't there to be the best man."
She smiled her warmest smile at Cleon, who was looking at her shocked. Not 5 minutes ago she was saying that marriage would slow her down, yet she already had chosen a best man. Not that Neal was a bad choice; he had actually been considering Neal himself.
Piers and Ilane gazed down at their daughter with eyes full of pride. How much their little had grown since they sent her off to the palace to train to be a knight. She had sworn that she wouldn't marry; and now, just like the Lioness, she was going off to be wed. And best of all with someone that she dearly loved.
"How about over Midwinter? The fighting should stop for a few weeks then, and I'm sure your friends will be able to attend." Ilane suggested.
"Mid-Midwinter? Isn't that a bit soon Baroness?" Cleon asked nervously
"Why no Cleon. And since you're going to be family, please call me Ilane." Ilane smiled at him.
"Er, all right… Ilane."
"Splendid. Let's get started..."
Ilane pulled Kel to her room to freshen up then dragged her out the door towards the seamstress's shop.
"Mother," Kel begged trying to stop her mom from dragging her along, "can't Lalasa make what ever I need for me. Her things are fit for Thayet, and she makes them for me for free. And anyway, she is a good friend of mine and she'd be insulted if she couldn't make my wedding dress."
"Oh, right Kel. I completely forgot about Lalasa. We'll have to go down to Corus."
Kel whooped and ran back down the road to the manor. She was so excited. She would be able to see her younger friends that were still in training; and not to mention Lalasa and Stefan, and not to forget Gower and Salma. Kel could hardly wait. Seeing all her friends and getting married to Cleon. What could be better? Kel still knew the path back to the manor by heart so she didn't look were she was going, and ran right into a boy about her age carrying a sack and some kittens. The boy fell down with Kel on top of him.
"Oh, Goddess, I'm so sorry, I completely didn't see you there…." Kel's voice faded away as she realized who this boy was. Nine years ago he and two of his friends tried to drown innocent kittens. "What are you doing with those kittens?" Kel demanded, her voice had gone hard.
"I, um, was bringing them to you actually." The boy started mumbling.
"Likely story. Are you sure that you're not going to but those cats in the bag and drown them?"
"Well, if Ross gets a hold of them that's what is going to happen, so I thought that they'd be safer with you. Um, Keladry, could you please get up?"
Kel had been so mad at seeing him with the kittens she never got up. She mumbled sorry and stood, offering a hand to the boy. He took it and Kel pulled him up, he stumbled into her and before he could regain his balance Brandon ran up with Ross close behind.
"Jeff!" Brandon called before stopping short at the sight in front of him. Ross, who was rather amused at the whole thing said,
"Well well well Jeffery. Looks like I was right." He had a nasty smile on his face.
Jeff pulled back from Kel and started towards Ross.
"How dare you." He started before Kel grabbed him and held him back.
Kel had recognized the other two boys as this Jeff's friends. "So, the three of you, kittens, a sac, and me. Doesn't this seem familiar…" Kel said smiling evilly. "Now the only problem is that there's no lake. Or is that were you were headed?"
Ross, unlike the other two hadn't seen Kel recently. He stared at her his eyes wide in shock. This was the Mindelan cow?
"I think that I'll take the three of you to my father, he'll set you straight. Jeffery is it?" Kel asked turning her attention to the boy that she knocked over, "can you please pick up the sack and the kittens?" She grabbed Ross and Brandon's arms and marched them towards the manor.
"Kel!?" Cleon stared at her. "You leave with your mother and you come back with two, wait no three boys and five kittens in tow? Maybe I should back out of this marriage now, you seem to, er, make, um, strange this occur?"
Kel giggled. She leaned over and kissed Cleon (much to Jeff's displeasure). "Silly, these three broke the law nine years ago and were never punished for it, they attempted to break the same law, again, and they were caught, again, so now they're going to be punished."
Cleon smiled at Kel. "Well, looks like Kennen will be rather peaceful with you running around punishing people with things that they did nine years back." He leaned over and kissed Kel before starting back towards the village.
"Wait! Cleon." Kel called. He turned around. We're going to Corus soon; I want Lalasa to make my dress. That's were we could get everything done. And any way there's much more stuff there that would be perfect for our wedding."
"Oh, alright. Then I'll accompany you back to the manor, how does that sound?"
Ross, Jeff, and Brandon looked at each other in disgust. Keladry had gotten, well, too mushy. What happened to the annoying cow that lived behind that stone wall of a face?
*A.N.: I have a slight writer's block…so the next part won't be that great. I really want to get this posted. And anyways I didn't want Jeff to be put in the dungeons so I needed to come up with some way to get him to get out of it… but newayz this is part 2 of chap 3…
Though the three boys didn't realize it Kel was listening to their every word. Ross and Brandon were complaining to Jeff about basically everything…
"Why'd you have to go and take the kittens, Jeff?" Ross complained
"Yeah, Jeff, why'd you do that? You could've at least thrown them in the river, then go and hunt down Keladry for what ever reason you wanted to." Brandon agreed.
"Well, it's cruel to drown poor innocent kittens. I figured that in a place were there are lots of kids and grownups kittens would be welcomed." Jeff tried to explain without telling the full truth, but Ross had already found out, who knows how…
"Are you sure you didn't just "save" them to get on Keladry's good side?" inquired Ross.
Jeff, who at this point was VERY mad at him, just stormed up ahead of Kel and Cleon.
"I wonder what his problem is." Cleon stated.
"I don't know. I think it has something to do with him saving the kittens that his two friends wanted to drown." Answered Kel.
"Oh, well, if he saved them don't you think that you should let him off the hook? I mean he is innocent."
"But I don't know if he's innocent or not. And anyway it's up to my father to settle this whole thing. Besides, we're at the manor now."
The five of them entered the manor just as someone dressed in a squire's uniform came galloping towards the manor on a tired horse. He jumped off the horse and approached the entrance completely out of breath.
Kel was off looking for her father while Cleon was in the front hall with Jeff, Ross, and Brandon. Cleon went to answer the door when he heard someone ring the bell. (A.N. I know that there are no doorbells there, it's a regular bell that's rigged up (by magic and other things) so it can be heard through out the house…)
"Owen! What are you doing here?" Cleon asked his breathless friend.
"Cleon? What… never mind. I need to talk to Kel. It's very important." Owen rambled.
"Well, sure. But she's off looking for her father right now, she happened to find some troublemakers in the city today." Cleon smiled and let Owen in the house.
"Oh, how great; two knights and a squire. We're so lucky. And earlier we were hoping that Keladry wasn't here." Ross mumbled impatiently.
Just then Kel came running into the hall; she had apparently found her father and heard the bell.
"Who's here?" Kel inquired as she opened the door to the hall, "Oh, Owen, hi. I haven't seen you in a while. How are things up at the border?"
"Not to good. I have a note to give you. The king sent it to the Stump, it was supposed to be for you, he didn't realize that you were here." Owen handed the note over.
"Mithross!" Kel exclaimed after glancing at the note.
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A.N. Well, I'm done for now. Sorry it took me so long to post this but I've had a writers block, a really bad one at that. I also started another fanfic (Harry Potter) so that kinda has been consuming my time. I still have a writers block, I'm surprised that I even got this chapter done. If I get 5 more reviews then I'll continue, otherwise I'll stop because this is becoming a pain to write. Oh by the way, flames don't count for the 5 reviews, neither do helpful criticism :Þ.
~Lady Alendrial~
^,,^
I just wanted to add this in case you ppl don't read the reviews (I posted one that basically says the same thing)
I'm working on the next chapter and I'm trying to write the letter, but there's one problem, I don't know Dom's real name. I would take the shortcut and just write Dom, but it's from Jon so he wouldn't exactly call ppl by their nick names… I don't have Squire (if I did then this wouldn't be a problem :Þ) so could some one just review and tell me his name (the full name, like kel's is Sir Keladry of Mindelan)
By the way, thanx 4 all the great reviews, if I find out Dom's real name the chapter will be up shortly.
~Lady Alendrial~
^,,^