Disclaimer-I own little of this story, please don't sue.

Sorry the last chappie was so short. I hope this ones longer. Review!

~Chapter 6:Friends~

Realizing she hasn't a clue where to go she started down the hallway she'd thought they had comedown. Rounding the corner she tripped over someone's leg. And was caught by someone else, and was put to her feet by yet another person. She ended up standing in front of two boys, all a foot taller than she, considering she was twelve that was surprise. She supposed the one on the floor was the one she had tripped over.

         Lia just looked at them

"I'm Alex. And that's John, the crown prince of Tortall." He said the last part in a cynical voice that could rival her own. While saying that he pointed at the body on the floor. The crown prince was sprawled out on the floor sleeping .He was snoring like a sick duck, and had a trickle of drool coming out of a corner of his mouth that was making a large pool on the ground  Lia grinned.        

"Impressive." She commented wryly. 

"Oh, isn't he?" Alex said with a grin.  

"Okay, before you two come up with some evil plot to demean the prince." Erikk said intervening he reached over, slapped John on the head, and in a very girly voice said.      

"Oh, most glorious prince, come rescue me from the smelly stormwings." With that he backed away as the prince jumped up drawing his sword and yelling that he would save her. Spotting his grinning friends he sighed and sheathed his sword.         "Thats not nice you know. And who is this lovely lady.' he asked bowing. Lia didn't know what to say, to her luck Erikk came to her rescue.

"If you had stayed awake, you would know that this lovely lady is the newest page. And she has already had her first run-in with your grandfather." Lia smiled at the shocked look on his face. Erikk had stepped out in front of her slightly to gain a better glaring view of his friends. Lia just grinned.    

"If you lads are done could one of you show me back to my room, as I am quite lost." Lia said politely, pretending to be a lost little girl.

         "Erikk can do it, he's you sponsor, I have to go meet Melody. I've been told she misses me." Alex said over his shoulder walking off down another hallway.

         "And I am going to sleep. Tchao."

         "Well I guess that leaves the two of us." He started walking off down a hall, Lia sprinted to keep up.  "We heard your little speech."

         "Oh, what did you think?"

         "It was good, I was surprised you took on Minchi after only being here an hour. I've heard about the legendary Queenscove tempers, but never seen them in action."

         "Queenscove tempers are legendary? Thats a laugh, the only Queenscove's with tempers are my father and I. Well, the twins get mad but they don't yell."

         "Then what do they do?"

"Blow things up." Lia loved the reaction of his face, his jaw dropped and he sputtered for a minuet. "Who's Melody?" She asked remembering Alex's comment before running off.

         "Alex's horse. He's obsessed. Here we are.'

         "Oh, thank you for showing me back." She opened the door. Her room was in taters. "Great, wonderful, genial!"

         "I'll go get one of the servants, hang on." He ran off and Lia surveyed the damage done. Her mattress had been flipped over and paint was sprayed on her walls her bookcase was laying on the floor and her cloths strewn about. Lia sighed and walked over to her bookcase and lifted, nothing happened and Lia fell backwards. The three-day ride and the raider attack had left her with zero back muscles.  The door opened, Lia looked up. Erikk looked at her surprised.

         "Yazlia,"

         "Lia." She said shortly.

         "Okay Lia then, you're bleeding."

         "Oh, yeah, I'll fix it later. Help me with this bookcase will ya?" He nodded, still looking at her arm occasionally. It took five minuets for the two to get the bookcase upright.

         "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here. Oh lordy you where right when you said they terrorized the room boy. You sit on the bed and give me ten minuets." Erikk flipped the mattress back onto the bed and sat on it.

         "Now let me see you arm." he said pulling her towards him.

         "I can fix it it."

         "And drain yourself in the process, yes I know you can't use your gift on yourself! Come here." Obviously Erikk was stubborn. So reluctantly she let him fix her arm.

         "How'd you do this anyway?"

         "Raider attack."

         "You fought raiders?  Your only ten!"

         "I'm twelve." Lia said glaring at him.

         "Oops."

         "Mmhmm."

         "There you go Milady, I'll come back to paint the walls tomorrow."

         "Alright that's fine, thank you." The servant smiled as she left.'

         "I'll be going now. Try to get some sleep." Lia nodded and kicked off her shoes, and curled up into a small ball in the center of her bed, already sleeping. Erikk shook his head, picking up a blanket from the pile on a chair and draped it over her. Still shaking his head he left the room.

~~:~~

"Lia, c'mon get up." The boys (When I say boys I mean Alex, John, and Erikk but I am not going to write them all out) where standing in her room trying to get her up.

         "Do we know about any halfway cruel tricks to get her up?" Alex asked.

         "Not about her specifically, but there is one universal wake up call." John said reaching for the water basin.

         "What, no John we can't she's a girl, don't-" Erikk protested

         "Too late" Erikk looked on helplessly as the water basin was dumped on Lia. He watched as Lia's foot snapped out and caught both Alex and John in the groin. They both went down.

         "Who's idea was that?" Lia said glaring at him, if looks could kill...

         "Lia, that wasn't very nice."

         "Who?!"

         "John." And with that she kicked him in the gut again.

         "Now, give me a minuet." She said and stormed into the bathroom. The one minuet turned to five. Which actually was pretty good for a noble born girl.

         John and Alex were seated on the floor still recovering from the pain and shock of being kicked in the gut. Erikk was perched on the desk laughing at his two friends.

         "Okay, I'm ready, where are we going?" Lia said stepping out of her dressing room in her favorite outfit. Black hose with a green tunic and a cream colored shirt. All of the colors highlighted her hair, eyes and skin.

         "Um, we need to get your uniforms, and all of the first year pages need to have someone test you out for your skill level. So we'll go there after the tenth bell."

         "Okay. Lets go." She said and walked out of the room, Erikk and the boys left to follow her. Once in the hallway Lia spun around.

         "Where are we going?"

         Erikk grinned. "This way," he said dragging her off to the left. They went down a lesser number of hallways then the night before. And Lia didn't get as lost as the night before. When they arrived at the semesters the man laughed.

         "A girl eh? You'll be out before the month ends. I'll suit you up anyways." He whipped a knotted cord around her body, dumped an armful of clothing into her arms and told her to be off.

         When she was back out in the hall she stomped around for a while muttering about the "Stupid inconsiderate conservative Childs."

Alex for some reason found this immensely funny and cackled about it all the way to the training fields. John had to go get his portrait painted and offered to take her clothes back to her room on the way back, leaving Lia was free of burden. The training Master for riding was actually Alex's older brother. So they immediately smacked each other around, it was quite amusing.

         "Hi, I'm Roderick, call me Rick though, most people do. So your testing today?" Lia nodded.  "Alright go saddle up and these boys and I will set the course up." She nodded and ran to the stables.

         Shanti was exited to see me, and even more exited to be saddled up. She was a bundle of energy, unlike myself, who was feeling the strain of the day.

         "We're going to do a course. We're goanna show these men we can do things better than they, ready? Okay." Lia mounted her horse and rode out of the stable. The boys were just getting done putting up a huge wall. Shanti eyed it and nodded her head, showing she could do it.

         "Ready?" Called Rick from the end of the course. Lia nodded and began. The course was a mixture of dressage, cross-country and stadium jumping. They came to the wall, Lia settled her weight, focused her eyes on the wall and weighted for Shanti to make her move. This part of the jump was up to the horse. Shanti gauged the appropriate time to jump.

         They jumped, they flew, they floated. It was brilliant. It was magical. It felt wonderful. Her hair flew behind her, escaping its binding. And when they hit the ground Lia felt exhilarated.

         "Very good, very well done. Who taught you? I must now, really."

         "No one taught me, I taught myself."

         "Really? All that aside I'm marking you as a rank one horseman." Rick said scribbling down notes. 'I'll take care of your beast, move to your next station.' Lia nodded and followed Erikk and Alex to her next station. Which turned out to be archery. Lia made a face when she didn't think anyone was watching. Alex saw her.

         "Don't like archery, eh?" he asked.

         "Not at all."

         "It's useful."

         "I know, that's why not being good at it's so humiliating." Alex laughed and the archery master came up behind her.

"This is how it work you get five arrows, you get points for how close they are to the center, got it?" He handed me a bow and five arrows. Lia bit her lip, She turned towards the target. I can do this, I can.  She let the bolt loose. Time seemed to slow down, Lia watched as the bolt spun towards the target. She held her breath as it neared the target. The arrow hit near the center. Lia sighed with relief and dread. Relief that she had one done, dread because she had to do it four more times. Lia sighed and drew the bow.

Hehehe, a cliffy eh? Not really, but I try, Now review!