Disclaimer- Everything belongs to Tamora Pierce except Laona and her family and anything else I happen to invent along the way.
Summary- Laona is a girl from the village Daine left (Snowsdale). Daine was her friend and mentor, and when, years after she disappeared, Daine still hasn't returned, Laona decides to search for her. In the process, she sets out on a quest with an ill-tempered stormwing who, for all of their cooperation, wants to murder her. (Prologue takes place before Daine leaves Snowsdale; main story takes place sometime during the Protector of the Small books.)
Reviewer Responses-
Spice- Hehe, you're right, cliffies (sp?) are evil- but not when you're the one writing them (laughs evilly). About the beta-ing thing… So would I e-mail my story to you before I put it up, you would edit it, and e-mail it back? I'm so confused and clueless- but it sounds good to me, if you want to do it. You can e-mail me (my e-mail is back in chapter one) or review, and tell me if you want to, and I'll give you chapter… four, I guess. Thanks again for reviewing,
Cortney- Thanks for reviewing, and thanks for you're support. The information has been
e-mailed to you- much to my sadness, for it seemed my great cliffhanger has been ruined. But I suppose it was worth it just for getting the review.
Forget-me-not- Tarrick- I think he is a little less than a year older than Laona. Close to her age. I don't know if there will be fluff, but I think there will be some romance (I don't believe I am very good at writing it.) Thank you so much for your review.
Mackinoerin- Thanks so much for your encouraging comments, and thanks for reviewing.
Tarilenea- Thanks for reviewing even though you didn't have to because of my pathetic stupidity. Yes there is a possibly Tarrick/Laona and the possible-ness of it is that I don't know how well I can write it. And in Chapter 5 you will find out about the metaly-acorn-ish thing. Yep, I have it all planned out, including two sequels which I probably won't write. I'm so proud of myself! Thank you, thank you, thank you again for reviewing.
Enemy's Ally: Laona's Story
Chapter Three: Traveling Companions
Just a warning- Laona is a wimp in this chapter. Don't worry if it bothers you, it will stop sooner or later, but it's necessary for this chapter.
She flinched as an angry cry split the air, one that sounded half human, half bird. "Laona!" Tarrick cried, pushing her hard, off of her horse, as a rock rushed past the place where her head had just been. She whirled around. Behind them was a female stormwing, another rock on her talons. Paralyzed by fear, Laona could only watch as she circled lower, aiming the rock so that it would hit her in the head, and most likely kill her.
She screamed and dropped, as the heavy rock landed on the ground with a thud, scattering dust and small pebbles into the air. Looking up, she realized that her horse had bolted, and Tarrick was fighting hard to try to calm his own down. She stood up again. The stormwing had perched on the branch of a twisted dead tree nearby, and had apparently ceased her attack. "T-Tarrick?" she asked, shaken, wondering what was going to happen next. They were weaponless, defenseless against their attacker. The stormwing, flying, was faster than she was on foot, and would probably pursue her if she ran. And- she looked at the immortal perched on the tree, sitting perfectly still- why had the stormwing attacked them? The stormwing looked back at her, metal wings and talons glinting in the morning sunlight.
"If you move, I will chase you." The stormwing displayed sharp silver claws as she spoke, and Laona flinched. Her voice was soft and hoarse; exactly the way Laona would have expected a stormwing's voice to sound. She had only seen the creatures once before, two years ago, when an entire flock of them had flown over Snowsdale. She had heard of them before that, in the news that came about once every month that told of the Immortals War that had been going on, but never had she seen one until then. What she had heard of Immortals scared her considerably- animals alone frightened her, but a combination of animal and human- she shuddered. It was disgusting. The stormwing continued, talking to Tarrick now. "And the same goes to you. I can still fly faster than you can ride. And I would advise getting off of your horse." Tarrick did so, obviously ill at ease, and the three of them were still for a while.
Finally Laona spoke to the stormwing. "Why are you doing this anyway? There is no war here, and we haven't done anything to you."
"What do you mean?" the stormwing asked, a curious tone in her voice. And then bitterness: "Don't pretend you don't know." Laona simply looked at her, and she went on. "I've been tracking you for days, ever since you left that village. And then you and the other girl split up, and I lost her. So I followed you instead. But don't tell me you had no part in it?"
"Part in what?" Tarrick asked angrily. "Neither of us has any idea what you are talking about."
"The brown-haired girl you were traveling with," the stormwing said, as if speaking to very small children. "The one who looked like you." She gestured towards Laona. "She killed most of my flock. I didn't know what happened to her, but I came to your village and she was there. And she left. So I followed. And when I find her, I will kill her." The one who looked like you… She could only mean Teyra then, but Teyra had never even seen a stormwing before, much less murdered a flock of them. Laona had a strange though, then. People in Snowsdale, in the earlier days before Veralidaine had gone, had always said the she, and Teyra, looked just like the older girl had when she was younger.
"Do you…" she said, looking at the stormwing. "Do you know the name of the one that killed your flock?"
"All my flock knew it. It was Veralidaine. Veralidaine Sarrasri. You know the name?" Tarrick looked at her, startled, and she fingered the acorn token in her pocket.
"The person that was traveling with us- well, I do know the name, but it's not the same person. One of them is my sister. She only looks like Veralidaine. But she's younger-"
"But do you know where Veralidaine is?" the stormwing asked, eagerness in her voice. Eagerness to kill, Laona thought with a shudder.
"Well- we- we-"
Tarrick spoke for her. "We will tell you what we know if you promise not to hurt us."
"Very well," the stormwing said. "I promise. But I do not promise not to hurt her, and if you were in league with her…"
"We are also looking for her. We think that she is in Corus, in Tortall."
"Where is Corus? Show me, show me or I'll-" She made as if to launch herself from the branch, but Tarrick held up his hand.
"You promised not to hurt us."
She slowly settled down again. "Promise…" she said slowly. "You are looking for this Veralidaine because she is your friend?" Laona nodded, not thinking what the consequences might be, but the stormwing merely continued to talk. "Then I will make a deal with you. When we find Veralidaine, I promise I will not kill her until- I promise not to kill her. Or hurt you," she added as an afterthought. "I will not kill her, and you must show me the way to Corus. And if she is not there, you must help me find her."
"And if not?"
"If you do not promise, I will find some other way to get to Corus. Slower, but I will find it. And then I will kill Veralidaine." Tarrick and Laona looked at me each-other's eyes, and Tarrick nodded very slightly.
"Very well. We will show you the way to Corus."
"Good." The stormwing flew down from her perch, and landed awkwardly on the ground near Laona. "My name is Jikkeh. And yours?" Laona looked at her, puzzled. She sighed, an exasperated sound. "It is a stormwing custom. When we bargain with someone we do not know, we exchange names. I know that it is not your custom, but I thought you would still like to know my name, and you knew mine, I should know yours."
"My name is Laona," she replied, slightly embarrassed somehow.
"And I am Tarrick," Tarrick told the stormwing- Jikkeh, if Laona was to start using her name. "Now what are we going to do about transportation. You can fly, I suppose," he nodded at the stormwing, "And I still have my horse, but yours bolted. We could walk, but then what would we do with my horse?"
"Don't worry," Jikkeh told him, lifting herself into the air. "I'll find the horse. I'll call when I've found it. Like this." She made the sound Laona had heard when she at first attacked, and both of them flinched. She flew off before they could protest, leaving them alone to talk.
"What are we going to do?" was Laona's first question. "I know she's promised not to hurt Veralidaine, but it just doesn't seem right- showing her the way to Corus."
"I think it will be all right," Tarrick replied. "If she is in Corus, she will probably be well-protected, and the stormwing couldn't hurt her even if she tried. And she didn't break her word to us before, when she could have."
"I- well, I suppose. But she's a stormwing- how can we- well- I don't think we can trust her."
"You may be right- but whether we can, or can't, I think we have to now." As if on cue, Jikkeh's shrill cry concluded his words, and they both ran towards the direction of the sound.
The horse, running from the painful noise, appeared before the stormwing did, and stopped when it saw them. Laona mounted inexpertly as Jikkeh flew toward them. Tarrick did likewise, having brought his own horse behind him. "And so now-" Laona looked at her two traveling companions. "So now we will go to Corus?" Tarrick nodded, Jikkeh screeched her assent, and the three of them moved off together. What's going to become of us now? Laona wondered.
Author's Note- Well, not exactly a cliffhanger, but it does leave you with something to wonder about- What's going to become of them now? Find out by reviewing, leaving your e-mail address if you haven't already done so, and telling me you would like a preview of chapter four. Sorry if this chapter and the last one are somewhat shorter- although the next two might also be, ones later on will become longer. I don't know if anyone cares about this, but if you do- well, you don't need to anymore. Thanks so much to all my reviewers, even though I already said that a bunch in the reviewer responses (and will probably say it a bunch of times again). You can't realize how much I appreciate you all. Just one more little thing (so the chapter doesn't seem so short). I've notice that a lot of times, when a story gets really long, only the people who reviewed in the earlier chapters continue to review. I want to make clear that reviews any time during the story are welcome and although it is nice when people do, I do not need anyone to review every single chapter.