SUMMARY: A bunch of short stories about Myles's class. Need I say more?

A/N: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated this story in forever, but I had no inspiration. I have a half a chapter written, but I lost interest in it. Anyway...now that school is back in session there are things that I can write into this story. So without further ado...the much awaited chapter 13 (11 w/out author's notes) of Myles's Class.

DISCLAIMER: Characters/Places that you recognize do not belong to me (duh). Antimony belongs to me, but her story belongs to Sophocles - who wrote her story before there was such things as copyrights, so it's really not stealing at all.

Dedication: All y'all for still loving me after my long sojourn.

Myles's Class - Princess Condwiramurs Gwenhwyfach of Scanra or The Truth About Fairy Stories

Myles watched as Alan of Trebond entered his classroom. The boy looked as if he'd just woken up and rolled out of bed. His hair was unkempt, his eyes were red with bags under them, and his clothes were wrinkled. In fact, if Myles hadn't known better, he could have sworn that they were the same clothes the small boy had worn yesterday.

Alan walked to the back of the room and sat down next to his giant friend, Raoul. Alan however, hardly acknowledged his older friend. Raoul was the most easy going person Myles had ever met, and he had met a lot of people. The only people that were completely immune to his nonchalant attitude were his friends. Myles hid a grin as he heard them exchange early morning grunts.

"Ullo," Raoul said groggily.

"Uh."

Alan slumped down in the chair, his arms folded over the desk, his head resting on them. Raoul was engrossed in the book he was reading.

It was silent in the room, except for Alan's quiet breathing and the continuous turning of pages by Raoul. The silence, however, was soon broken by the young, exuberant, Gareth of Naxen.

"Good morning, boys!" he cried out cheerfully as he practically skipped to the back of the room. He loudly, as well as obnoxiously, dropped his books onto the desk next to Alan, making the young redhead jump. Raoul was still unperturbed.

Alex joined them just as Alan was about to strangle Gary for disturbing him. This amused Alex to no end, and he laughed heartily as the smaller boy tried futilely to beat up his friend.

Other boys filtered into the room; Francis of Nond and Prince Jonathan arrived just as Alan tired of alternately kicking and punching his friend. Raoul was still reading.

"Just what is so interesting about that blasted book, Raoul?" Gary asked, annoyed that he was not the complete center of attention. Raoul just shrugged. Gary frowned and reached out, grabbing the book and pulling it away from his friend in one swift movement.

"Hey!" Raoul cried out in surprise. "Gary, stop being such a twit. Give it back!"

"A twit," Francis murmured to himself, pondering his friend's odd choice of words. "Did you really just call him that?"

Raoul ignored his quiet friend and continued glaring at Gary. Gary turned the book over, making sure his finger kept the page, and glanced at the title of the book.

His eyes widened. "Bleaker's Tales," he read aloud. "Fairy stories Raoul?"

Raoul sighed and rolled his eyes. "Give it back Gary. It's my sister's."

"That's a lie," Gary said as he flipped to the page Raoul had been reading. "Why would you want to read one of your sister's books?"

"Because there was nothing else?" Raoul suggested.

Alan, quiet up until this point, came to his friend's rescue when he saw that Gary was about to be joined by Alex in his attempt to faze Raoul. "Why do you care Gary? It's just a book. Besides, why should it matter if he reads fables or not?"

"Fables?" Jon asked.

Alan nodded. "That's what Bleaker's Tales are. At least, that's what they're believed to be up north."

"But don't fables have some element of truth in them?" Gary asked as he scanned a page. "These seem like pure folly if you ask me."

"We didn't ask," Raoul snapped as he grabbed the book away from his friend.

"Bleaker's Tales do have an element of truth in them Gary," Alan sighed. "Haven't you ever heard of Miache and the Dominion Jewel? Or of Antimony?"

"The Dominion Jewel is made up," Alex said sourly. "And Miache, though he existed, never did any of the things that Bleaker's Tales say he did."

"Whatever you say Alex. But you yourself admit that Miache was a real person."

"Yes, I do."

"So there is an element of truth."

Alex shrugged. "I suppose. What's this story of Antimony you were talking about?" he asked, just as the bell rang.

"Take your seats boys," Myles said to them. As he stood in front of the class, explaining what they would be discussing that day, Alex whispered in Alan's ear.

"Who's Antimony?"

"A girl," Alan whispered back.

Alex shot his young friend a look. "I know that. Who was she?"

"She was a princess, in some foreign land, who defied her king for the love of her brother."

"Oh, how romantic," Alex said with a roll of his eyes.

"Alexander and Alan," Myles said from up front. He never snapped, but the boys could tell that he was peeved. "Perhaps you'd like to share whatever you were discussing with the rest of the class?"

Alan shrugged. "Gladly, Sir Myles. We were discussing Princess Antimony, and her tragic death."

"That old fairy story that my sister makes me read to her whenever I'm home?" asked Douglass of Wellam.

Alan sighed heavily. "Yes, the fairy story. Only it's based on actual events." He looked to Myles for support. "Antimony was a real person, though that wasn't her name."

Myles mouth was turned upwards in a faint smile. "And her real name was?"

Alan blinked at Myles. "I can't quite remember what her name was, Sir. It's in one of my father's books somewhere. It was long, and strange. I think she was the princess of Scanra. Or was it Carthak?"

"Scanra and Carthak are two entirely different places, Alan," Gary said.

"I'm aware of that," the young boy snapped back.

"It was Scanra," Raoul said lazily.

Gary snorted. "This coming from the boy who reads his baby sister's story books."

Raoul ignored the insult, and Jon came to his friend's defense. "She's nine. That's old enough to go to the convent. Therefore, she's nearly a woman."

"In your eyes," his cousin fired back.

"Oh, ha ha."

Myles cleared his throat. "Would it be possible to get back on the actual subject?"

"Would that be the original subject, or the second one?" asked Francis.

"Either, so long as there is no longer any discussion of young ladies."

Alan raised his hand, "That would be hard Myles, considering the fact that Antimony was a young lady."

"True, but Antimony is a historical figure, albeit a barmy one."

"Sir?"

"Mad. Insane. Crazy. It ran in her family."

"I wonder if Alan's related," Gary joked with a grin. Alan's only response was to growl at his tall friend.

"Might we get back on track? Antimony is based on the Princess Condwiramurs Gwenhwyfach of Scanra." (A/N: read Gwenhwyfach as Guenevere - you know, King Arthur's wife.)

"Condwiramurs?" Jon stared at his teacher. "Myles, you must be joking. No sane parent would name their child, that."

"I believe, it was already stated that the royal family at the time was insane. And they usually called her Gwenhwyfach. As I was saying, Antimony is based on the Scanran Princess. Alan, perhaps you can tell us what happened to her?"

"Uh. I can tell you what happened to Antimony," he suggested. "That story is much more interesting than the one that I remember from the history books in my father's library."

"Whichever."

"Well, first, you have to know about Antimony's background. Her father was also her half brother."

"How did that happen," asked Geoffrey of Meron with a raise of his brow.

"Simple," Alan answered. "He killed his father and married his mother. How else would you do it?"

"Why in the world would a man do that?" yelled Alex. "It would put a triangle in the family tree. I hear that marrying one's cousin is quite popular in Scanra, but marrying your mother is slightly ridiculous."

"He didn't know that they were his parents," Raoul explained. "He was abandoned as a baby."

"Still," Alex began.

"Might I continue?" Alan interrupted. Alex nodded ruefully. "Thank you. Anyway, he married his mother and had four children."

"FOUR?" Francis cried out in disgust.

Alan sighed heavily. "Yes, four. Two girls and two boys. The brothers Ariel and Perris, never really got along, so when their father-"

"Half-brother," Alex pointed out. Alan merely ignored him.

"When he died, they argued over who would take the throne. They were twins you see, and no one was absolutely positive on who was born first. So rather than have a combat to the death, which was the original idea, they decided to share it."

Jon felt it was time to put in his two coppers. "That's stupid. And the story is getting predictable. Whoever got the throne first didn't want to give it up right?"

"Right," Alan answered. "So Perris, that was the son who was going to rule in the second month, ran off and married a clansman's daughter. And then he came back with that clan's army, prepared to take over."

Raoul picked up where Alan left off. "They fought a bloody battle or two, but in the end both of the sons died, leaving only their uncle to sit on the throne. Said uncle felt that Parris was a traitor, and refused to let anyone bury the body. This angered Antimony, who, being a girl, felt that family was the most important of all things."

Alan snorted and when Raoul gave him a questioning look, he said simply that he knew some girls that would disagree with him. Raoul continued, "So Antimony went and buried her brother, going against her uncle's wishes and breaking the law. Her uncle, unable to go against his own decree, even for the sake of his niece, was forced to have her killed. But rather than behead her, he decided to bury her alive in a tomb with some food."

"You're missing some of it," Alan interrupted. "Antimony was engaged to her Uncle's son."

"Her cousin?" Alex asked with a raise of his brow. "Isn't her family screwed up enough already?"

"Quiet Alex," Myles said. "Let them finish."

"Yes, Antimony was engaged to her cousin Dalaise. But marrying your first cousin was quite popular back then, especially in Scanra. That's why the families were all insane."

"So, what happened?" Francis asked.

"Well, there are two endings. In one, Antimony kills herself in the tomb, and Dalaise, who comes to rescue her, finds her dead and kills himself as well. And in the other ending, he rescues her and they run away and live happily ever after," Alan explained.

"Now," Myles said, "that's the story that sprouted from history." The boys turned their attention from the back of the classroom to the front of it. "The real story, is about Princess Gwenhwyfach. As in Antimony's story, there was a civil war going on, except Gwenhwyfach was the only daughter of a Scanran warlord. Unfortunately for her, this Scanran warlord happened to be the father of her fiancé. When Gwenhwyfach's father refused to let her marry the boy, she ran away and did so anyway."

"Let me guess," Gary said. "They lived happily ever after?"

"No. When her father found out what she'd done, how she'd disobeyed him, he disowned her."

"What about the man she married," Alan asked, his face blank and emotionless. Not for the first time did Myles wonder if the young boy was hiding something.

"He was shot and killed, by his own father no less."

Gary's hand shot up. "Why would a father do that? Yes, the boy did go and marry his enemy's only daughter, but you can't tell me that his father was completely heartless, Myles. The boy was his son. Insanity is no excuse either. I'm sure that if Alan, who's got just as much insanity in his family as in any Scanran one, disobeyed his father he wouldn't be shot."

"Sometimes I wonder," Alan said quietly with a grimace. Alex and Raoul took it to be a joke and hid their grins. "Of course," Alan continued, "It would be death through boredom, since Father can hardly pick up a bow, much less shoot one."

His comment got a laugh from the class, but a scowl from Myles. "Alan, I, personally, do not care what you have to say of your father at all, but I would appreciate it if you said it in your own free time. And not in front of anybody who cares." Alan did not answer, only looked down at his feet. "As for Gwenhwyfach's husband, it was an accident. Gwenhwyfach and Dashé were riding, and his father mistook them for the enemy."

"What happened to Gwenhwyfach?" asked Douglass.

"She became so upset she ended up starving herself to death."

The bell rang. Silently all the boys filed out.

"That was a really depressing class," Alan said quietly to Jon as they exited the room. "Almost as depressing as the next one."

"What next one?"

"Mathematics," the redhead said with a groan.

Jon laughed, and the two boys walked down the hallway.

FIN

A/N: Okay, that really was a kind of depressing class. You can see I tried to lighten the mood, perhaps unsuccessfully, at the end. I don't think it worked. But you can't always have a happy ending to these stories. Anyway, it didn't turn out like I had expected, but at least I wasn't torturing Gary (lol Bryt). Or did I torture Gary? I can't recall, and I'm too lazy to go back and read it. So yeah, it's taken like 4 months to get another one of these up, but the point is it's there. Not my best work I know. I'm outta touch with Myles's Class. Gotta get back in the groove.