SUMMARY: A bunch of short stories about Myles's class. Need I say more?
A/N: Authors note at the end. ON WITH THE STORY! I made up King Derris. He's mine, but use him if you wanna!
DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Tamora Pierce, except the ones that I make up of course.
Myles's Class - In Which Alan Confronts The Issue Of Slavery (and Gary finally gets what he wants)
Alan of Trebond walked into Myles's classroom with a small frown on his face. He was followed closely by Gary and Raoul who looked worriedly at their small friend. Myles looked up to see that Alan was sporting a new bruise, this time on his eye.
Alan sat down in his chair, and refused to look up. Gary and Raoul took seats on either side of him as the class began to fill.
"Myles, I have a question." Myles glanced over at Gary and raised a brow.
"No, Gary. We will not be discussing Princess Eleanor today. You will just have to wait until she comes up in class."
Gary sighed and lowered his hand managing to conjure up the look of a upset puppy. Alan smiled at him and raised his hand. "I have a question Sir Myles. Why is it that Carthak still has slaves but none of the surrounding lands do?"
"What makes you ask this?"
"Gary and I were discussing it earlier. We had a disagreement."
"And that's how you got a black eye?" Myles questioned.
"No. Gary was pounding on my door this morning and I fell out of bed." Myles looked incredulously at the small boy while the class chuckled. "It's the truth Sir! You could ask Coram he was red as a beet from lack of breathing when I left." Myles only nodded, a silent urge for the boy to continue. "Anyway, about slavery, I said that King Derris of Conté freed them because he knew slavery was morally wrong, and once Tortall had freed it's slaves it spread through-out the Eastern Lands."
"And why is there disagreement about this?" Myles asked.
"Because," Raoul continued, "Gary believes that Carthak is close enough to receive influence."
"Alright then, I believe we have an unscheduled topic for today." Myles looked around. "Geoffrey, could you perhaps tell me when the slaves were freed from Tortall?"
Geoffrey put on a thoughtful face. "212 H.E.?" he suggested.
Jonathan's hand shot up but Myles ignored him. "No. Douglass, what about you?" Douglass shook his head and Jon waved his hand around. Myles continued to ignore him. "Sacherell?" He gave the same answer. Jonathan waved his hand harder. "Alex? Raoul?" Alex shook his head but Raoul raised his hand tentatively as Jon started to hop about in his seat.
"Sir, I think His Highness will explode if you don't call on him soon," Raoul told Myles. The knight turned to the prince and cocked his head slightly to the left. "Alright Jon. Answer the question."
"221 H.E." He said proudly.
"I was close!" Geoffrey cried indignantly. Myles smiled sympathetically at the first year page.
"Don't worry," Gary told the boy. "Jon cheats."
"I do not!" Jon called out.
Myles ignored them both. "What made King Derris free them though?"
"They revolted?" suggested one boy.
"More like they were 'revolting'!" came the obnoxious voice of Ralon of Malven. (A/N: Wow, where the heck did he come from?)
"Cute Malven," said Raoul sarcastically while Gary rolled his eyes. "Real cute." Alan just shuddered. He and Ralon did not get along. (A/N: But you knew that already.)
"Calm down lads. If you get out of hand I'll have to send you all to His Grace." It was Gary's turn to shudder. "There was no revolt. But there would have been, had he not freed them."
"Myles, that still doesn't answer my question," Alan told him. "Why was Carthak not affected?"
"Alan, unfortunately I cannot give a straight answer to that, as moral issues rarely have one. Instead, why don't we stick to the subject and discuss the history. What set the slaves free?"
"The king?" Gary answered as if it were obvious. "Myles what type of question is that?"
"He said what Gary. Not who." Alan rolled his eyes. "The Liberation Declaration." (A/N: Wow what a stupid name. ::smacks forehead. Get creative MP!)
"Hey, that rhymes." Gary said to himself. Raoul gave an un-gentlemanly snort.
"Thank you Alan," Myles said. "Can somebody tell me something else that happened in the year 221?"
Gary's hand shot up like a weed. "OH! ME! I know!"
Myles just stared at him and turned to the rest of the class. "Does anybody else know something that happened that year?" The boys grinned and looked at Gary. "Anybody at all?"
"Myles I know! I know!" Gary cried. Jon, while watching his cousin, realized that he himself probably got his impatience from his mother's side of the family, the Naxen side. Gary continued to shout. "Pick me Myles! Pick me! I know!"
Myles heaved a great sigh. "Alright Gary."
"PRINCESS ELEANOR WAS BORN!
"Thank you Gary."
"We can talk about her now, right? Since she came up in class! Right?" Gary glared at the knight. Myles only sighed again and muttered to himself.
"I suppose I brought this upon myself," he said to the class. "Alright Gary-"
Just then the bell rang. Alan laughed out loud as Gary's mouth sagged to the floor and watched intently as the thirteen year olds eyes nearly rolled out of his head.
"NO!" Gary cried. "Myles that's not fair!"
"Don't worry Gary. We'll discuss her tomorrow."
"Promise?"
Myles sighed. The sooner they got her over with, the sooner the class could move on. "I promise Gary."
Gary grinned, grabbed his books and practically skipped out the door. He hummed to himself all the way down the hall.
Jon, Raoul, Alex, Francis, and Alan stared after him. "Boy Myles," Jon said. "Are you in for it tomorrow."
A/N: This story is just chock full of Authors Notes isn't it?
This one sucked more than the others. At least in my opinion.
I don't know why you people like these stories so much. Personally I like my "Kel goes babysitting" (AKA: An Adventure in Babysitting and Apples) better. But whatever floats your boat, right? I am running out of ideas however. Though it's not as if I ever intended to write more than one chapter for this. It's become an on-going series though, which is cute. And when I get writers block I can just stop. I like that too.
Anyway, we've got a whole bit with Princess Eleanor on the way, as soon she figures out what she wants. She tells me she doesn't want to come off too scandalous. She obviously does not know how 13 year old boy's mind works. And then perhaps the Braveheart one that was suggested. Don't be afraid to suggest people! I'm not going to bite you!
I'd also like to say that that bit from the last chapter about torture...and the rod. That really happened. I'm serious. To some perverted king of England who had a stable full of "studs" to "mount" if you catch my drift. The country didn't like him much.
Oh and uh, could someone tell me if I'm spelling Sacherell's name wrong? I'm just way to lazy to go upstairs and check. I don't know if that first 'e' is an 'e' or an 'a'. Thanks muchly!
Notes:
TheBlindAssassin: Gary and Alanna's private joke may be summed up in one word. Or two. George (Cooper). To quote "How about, theft can get you anything?" Theft = thieves = George. Yeah. Haha. It's not really funny I know. I don't think Gary and Alan(na) intended it to be funny. Besides, it's been a while since I've been 10 or 13 (I'm 16 now) and I've never been a boy, so I only have my stupid 13 year old brother to go on, and he thinks everything is funny.
Daemon: Thanks for catching on to my sad attempts of a joke.
Tallina Starfire: Thanks so much for clearing that up for me. I just recently noticed the Kel one. Like two weeks ago recently. And since they skipped a year of Alanna it made it all confusing. Except that means she became Jon's squire when she was 14...like everyone else! OKAY! I GET IT NOW! I've been pondering that problem for years! :D (Sad I know!)
Jackie: Yes, it does have all four years, I won't deny that. However the four years are 14, 16, 17, and 18. She's never 15. Count them up. 10 in first test (turns 11 that summer), 11, 12, and 13 in page (turns 14 sometime in the next 2 weeks.) 14, 16, 17, and then 18. Where is 15? Only Tamora Pierce knows. You can check my accuracy. There's those pages that tell you what year it is, they go in order. There are only 4 years but at the end of the book she's 18. (Okay, I got my point across, and I've only said the same thing 20 times.)
And to those who understood whatever it was I was rambling about in the last chapter and gave me a good whack across the back of the head...thanks muchly!