A/N: Hello all! ...um...thanks for being patient and stuff...I have been really busy lately, no I'm serious! I really have been! and so I just wanted ta say thanks for reading my story, and ...um ...ya...

Tom walked back down to Numair's room and knocked on the door. "Hello? Numair?"

Diane was once again the first one to reach the door, "Oh, Tom! Numair's been waiting for you, come on down!"

As he walked into their room, something brushed against his leg, something scaly. He jumped and looked down, "What's that! It looks like a..."

Diane smiled, "...a dragon? It is..." Tom stared at her then back down at the dragon that was now making funny clicking noises and seemed to be purring. "its name is Kitten, and she likes you." Tom just stared. Numair walked up the stairs from his study. "Is that you Tom? Come on down!"

Tom stared at the dragon for another second before his brain snapped back to reality. "Oh, right...coming!" He walked downstairs and found Numair sitting by the fireplace reading a thick spell book. Numair stood up, "I'm glad to see you decided to come Tom!"

"I wouldn't have missed an opportunity like this!"

Numair smiled, "I hope you will have as much fun as you hope to. I was thinking that we could go over the basics of magic first."

Tom took a seat, looking intently at Numair.

Numair smiled at Tom's excitement, "Right, first you should know that even people without magic, like you, can still use magical items and can have the ability to control them."

"That is so cool!"

"Cool?" Numair raised his eyebrows.

"Oh...sorry... It's a slang word from our dimension... It basically means awesome;."

Numair thought about it, "huh...cool."

Tom grinned and shook his head, "Never mind...so, what do you need help with?"

"Well, I am trying to create a spell to get you back to your home."

"You're trying to create one? ...You mean you've never done this before?"

"...No."

Tom looked at him, "So...what do I have to do?"

"You can start by helping me measure out these ingredients!"

*********

"All right pages! Go get your horses. We're starting our horseback riding."

There was a mad rush towards the stables and Alex and Phi were left in the dust.

"What was that all about?"

Lord haMinch came up to them. "You had better pick up your pace as you're probably going to end up with the old farm horses!"

They looked at each other and started sprinting towards the stables. Unfortunately, when they got there, most of the horses were already taken.

"Shit..." Phi looked around and walked into the building, looking into all the stalls and muttering under her breath. Alex gazed around tiredly, then spotted the boy that he had seen with Kel that morning.

"Hey kid! Are there any almost adequate horses left?"

The boy looked up and looked at them thoughtfully, "Well..." He looked at the horse that he was grooming and then at the one next to it. One was a really big horse. A really big horse. It was orangey-red with a white mane. The other one was smaller with brown coloring and a little white star on its forehead. "You're Kel's friends, right?"

"Um...ya...I guess so."

"Mmm...All right then." He pointed to the big horse, "His name is Peachblossom." He looked at Alex, "You'd better ride 'im. He says he's feeling unusually nice today, but it never hurts to be safe." He pointed at the other one, "Her name is Hoshi. She is a lot calmer than Peachblossom." The large horse snorted and nudged the boy's arm, "Oh ya...Peachblossom wants me to tell you not to use spurs, or else he'll throw you."

Alex walked up to Peachblossom, "Don't worry...As long as you promise not to purposefully hurt me, I won't hurt you."

The horse snorted again and seemed to nod. Phi's eyebrows rose in surprise and she walked over to Hoshi, "Can you help us saddle them, um..."

The boy stiffly bowed, obviously unused to the custom, "Me name's Tobe."

Phi grinned, "It's nice ta meet you."

The boy turned and grabbed two saddles off the wall and began to prepare the horses, "As soon as I finish, you'd better move ta the field. That'll be where jousting practice is."

Phi jumped on Hoshi, "All right...Hurry up Alex!" He was cautiously trying to get on top of Peachblossom, "We're gonna be late!"

"Fine!" Alex hoisted himself onto the saddle and gently urged Peachblossom forward, "Easy there boy...don't hurt me!"

They rode up to the field just in time to hear haMinch's instructions, "You are going to ride up to the dummies and aim your lance at the target. Make sure you hurry though, because if you do not, that sand bag will knock you off your horse." Alex shifted uneasily on Peachblossom's back, the armor that they had slipped on before they went to the stables made him sweat. Of course, they had trouble yet again. None of the armor was large enough for Alex, so Merric, who happened to be watching them train, lent Alex his. He had also managed to get one of Kel's suits for Phi, who had trouble finding some armor that fit her body right.

The first boy went, and ended up on his butt. After five more failures, it was Alex's turn. He sighed and nudged Peachblossom forward. He saw Merric watching him from the fence and felt Phi watching him from behind. HaMinch gave the signal and Alex pushed Peachblossom ahead, really fast.

The horse, who had obviously done this before, was unused to a rookie rider and began to thunder down the path. By the time he reached the dummy, Alex already knew what was going to happen. His lance hit the target, extraordinarily close to the middle, but he had hit it with such force that the sandbag whipped around and nonetheless hit him square in the back, flipping him clear of the horse and into the dirt.

Merric reached him first, followed quickly by haMinch. Merric shook the teenager, who had basically got the air knocked out of him, except it hurt ten times more than it usually did, "Alex! Alex! Are you all right?"

Phi ran up to her friend and looked, concerned, at Merric, "Is he going to be all right?!"

"He seems to be unconscious..."

Phi leaned thoughtfully over Alex and bent down until she was inches away from his ear, "Alex..." he twitched a little, "Alex...you missed the bus..."

He launched himself into a sitting position so quickly that he nearly took out Merric, "Wha?!? Huh! What's going on?...Ow! My back..."

Phi laughed and helped him up, "I never knew you where THAT afraid of missing the school bus!"

"It's not being late for school..." he replied tautly, "It was my mother's wrath!"

Merric shook his head and Phi turned to him, "Don't ask..."

He grinned, "I wasn't about to."

Phi looked at Alex, then at the dummy, which was still spinning slightly, "I don't think I'm gonna try that thing today..."

Alex looked dejectedly at her, "Aw...come on Phi! It's...fun..."

Phi looked at his mud smeared face and armor, "heh heh...I don't think so..." She walked back to the fence, and Merric had to support Alex to get him over there. HaMinch came over to them grinning, "Good first run Alex! You got real close to the target, keep it up!"

"Ya...sure thing haMinch."

***

Tom was astounded by all the research that had to be done for one spell. It took more reading than his analysis report on The Tale of Two Cities. Not that he minded. In fact, he was reading some of the most interesting, illogical material that he had ever come across, and he told Numair so.

Numair laughed, "Magic isn't all about logic and reason as some other subjects are. It's just about...well...magic."

Tom smiled. Numair reminded him of his old eighth grade science teacher, except for the fact that he was trying to concoct a magical spell that would send him, his sister, and his friend back through space and time to their own universe. "Numair, how long will this spell take?"

Numair looked up from his reading, "I'm not sure Tom...I was hoping it would only take a week or two with both of us on the job, but now I'm not sure..."

Tom sat up, "What do you mean?"

"It's just that...well with the Scanrans moving in I might be called to the battlefield. That's what I became a black robe for, to protect the people."

"Are these Scanrans that big of a threat now? I was reading up on your history and they seemed to be little more than barbarians."

Numair smiled sadly at him, "They've come under the rule of one king now, King Maggaur...now they are dangerous. There have been reports of them moving to the Tortallian borders. They may try to attack us, although I don't know why really...thrashed them the last time they came here."

Tom closed his book, "Well I'm sure this time it will be no different."

Daine came down the stairs with Kitten, "Numair, Tom, it's time for dinner, come on!"

Numair stood up, "Gods! Is it that time already?"

The three walked out of the study and to the mess hall to get something to eat.

***

After the lance practice, the pages were told they had wrestling practice, an idea which seemed to excite Phi very much. Merric had to go do something or another, which left Phi to act as Alex's crutch, "You know, you normally don't look this heavy..."

"That's so funny I forgot to laugh...you're just not strong enough!"

"It's a good thing we're doing wrestling next so I can show you just how wrong you are!"

"What? I've seen you fight before...besides street fighting and martial arts are more your thing, aren't they?"

"I'll make do..."

Alex snorted unbelievingly and Phi "accidentally" slipped out from underneath him, and he quickly collapsed onto a bench. "Ow! God! I am SO tired of getting hurt!"

Both of them decided to let the others have fun wrestling first when they saw one of the boys get punched in the stomach. Phi looked over at Alex who was attempting to pry Merric's armor off, "Alex, I think I decided that I may not go through with this. I mean this whole thing..."

Alex finally got his breastplate off, "What 'thing'?"

Phi sighed and sat down next to him, "This whole 'becoming a knight' thing. Well...you know me..."

"Ya I do...you're not to good with going along with the program are you?"

"Nope..." the boy who got punched launched himself onto his opponent and Phi smiled, "Although I might stick around a little bit longer as long as things stay interesting."

Just then, Kel, Neal, and Tobe came into the room, carefully skirting around the edges so they wouldn't distract anyone, nodding towards haMinch. Kel spoke up as Alex turned, surprised, to face her, "Tobe told me that you were going to wrestling practice and based on what we saw yesterday at the tavern, I figured that it would be something worth watching."

Neal peered over at Alex , "Are you all right? Here, let me take a look at you..." he walked over to Alex's bench and sat down on the other side of him.

Phi looked at Neal, "It happened during lance practice. He didn't move fast enough and the sandbag hit him. He landed flat on his back."

Kel grimaced, probably over old memories and said, "Ya, Tobe told me about that too..."

Neal looked up at her, then back at Alex, 'Well you could have told me about it...wait a minute...is this Merric's armor?" Alex nodded as Neal pulled up the back of his shirt, 'Quite a scratch you've got going here, nothing I can't handle though..." he put his hands on Alex's back and suddenly Alex relaxed and sighed happily as something pleasantly cool flowed through his body and the red mark on his back disappeared.

Phi stood up, "Well, now that that's settled, haMinch! Can I go now?"

HaMinch looked at her curiously, "Go right on ahead. Who wants to be her opponent?" several snickers ran through the pages and almost every hand went up.

Phi grinned and casually pulled off her armor which she handed to a surprised Kel along with a 'thanks'. HaMinch looked around and chose (miracle of miracles) the boy that she had gone up against in staff practice. Devic glared at him and looked worriedly at his new friend but didn't say anything.

Phi looked manically fine with the situation and winked knowingly back at Alex, then stepped into the fighting square. HaMinch looked hesitantly at the pair then said, "You both know the rules, no punches, no face hits. All right," he stepped out of the square, "Go."

The boy crouched and circled Phi, looking for a weak spot. She, who had fought in many brawls herself, got into a kind of kickboxing stance, and decided right away that she wasn't going to show any weaknesses to this stuck-up punk.

He launched himself at her, attempting to knock her over, but Phi easily sidestepped his attack, and he stumbled trying to regain his balance. She knocked him to the ground and almost had him pinned when he struck out and launched himself on top of her.

Alex looked at Phi, "Three...two...one..." Phi kicked up and the boy sailed over her head and hit the ground.

He stood up shakily and glared at Phi, who smiled prettily back. He took her by surprise and jumped right in front of her and drew back his fist and aimed it right at her face. Before haMinch could stop the boy, Phi panicked. Right before the boy's fist connected with her jaw, Phi leapt back into a flip, which would have looked a lot cooler if she had not landed on her butt instead of her feet. The boy propelled himself forward and stumbled a little again. Phi somersaulted to his left, ending up behind him, and tackled him from behind the knees. He fell face first onto the mat and Phi wrenched his hands behind his back and pinned him down.

"Phi won!" cried Alex as he jumped up and grabbed her off of the boy before any post-wrestling fights could take place.

Phi turned happily to Alex as all the first year pages looked disbelievingly as the boy peeled himself off of the mat and walked dejectedly back over to his friends, "I told you so...".