Disclaimer: All things recognized in the books of Tortall, belong to Tamora Pierce. (obviously, lol) The plot doesn't rightly belong to me either, because I am just trying to do the opposite of what people normally do, but I suppose I'm going to call it mine. Samantha is definitely mine, and so are her parents and her brother.
Summery: Samantha's one wish is to be a Lady, to be able to be as graceful as her mother, and as polite as her father. However, her parents have kept her ignorant of the rules of the court and the only thing she has ever known is weapon's. Samantha's godmother, the lady knight Alanna, insists that she goes to the palace for training because of her wild talent with weapons. So, she runs away to the convent and there, watching the girls from a distance, finds what her heart really desires.
A.N: I am dead, sick and tired, of all of the fics that have the parents forcing the girls to go to the convent when they really want to be a knight. So, I'm giving fan fiction a little of variety, and hope that you all enjoy it, even if it's not the norm.
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Chapter One: The wish of one girlThe young girl stood politely in front of her parents, her brown eyes quizzical and her face, distorted by a purplish scar running down her right cheek, had a curious expression on it. Her parents had called her after breakfast to meet with her godmother, the Lady Knight, to see if she was made of the right stuff to be a page. Samantha had purposely done worse then what she was capable of doing. She didn't want to go to the palace. At least not yet. Not until she finished her schooling at the Convent.
Her parents were against it. Samantha didn't know why, but every time she talked about it, longing laced in her words, her parents shared awkward looks. Their gazes would rest on each other and then swerve to Samantha's face, and her scar. They were worried about her, Danielle realized, worried about how the other noble girls would react to share dorms with a girl with an ugly scar. Samantha knew only too well the grief people would give her. She knew about the taunts, the pranks, but she also knew, that after she was settled in, the taunts would dwindle into nothing, and she would be accepted as one of them. She only had to survive long enough to get to that point.
"Samantha, darling, we have some good news for you." Samantha jerked her head up, she had forgotten in her train of thought that she was standing in front of her parents. Good news? Good news without consulting in her first was never the good news that her parents planned.
"We were talking to the Lioness," Her father said quietly, watching his daughter closely as she got a satisfied smirk on her face.
"She told us that you were being incredibly lazy" The smirk vanished from Samantha's face, how had the Lady Knight known that? Oh please don't say that she told them I was a natural, they don't need anymore encouragement to send me to the Palace. Please no!
"She also told us that you were a natural at weapons" No! Stupid body, should've stopped training with weapons years ago. It's a stupid practice anyway. All you do is kill people, and go in tournaments, get bashed up, bruised. Why would anybody want to live a life like that who isn't completely crazy?
"So we have made a decision, you will go to the palace, and train as a page." Samantha barely stopped herself from bolting out of the room like a frightened filly. She knew she should be happy about the decision. Most girls would die to be able to go to the palace and become a knight. She wasn't one of those girls.
What you want you never have, what you don't want, is staring you strait in the face. How true that quote was!
A girl from the fief over had run away from home when her parents had said she was going to the convent, heading towards the palace. They found her and took her to the convent anyway. I'm the complete opposite of that girl Samantha thought miserably, then her mind started coming up with possibilities.
She carefully curtsied to her parents, wobbling slightly, and walked out of the room. Dang her parents and their refusal to teach her courtly manners, they had refused to even talked about the convent after she got her scar.
************ FLASHBACK **************************
Samantha was six, a rambunctious child, who liked to get into everything, and here about stories from the palace. Especially the romantic, prince charming, stories. The stories, like Majestic, and Elise, her personal, fairy tale, favorites.
"Hey Samantha" Her brother called from above, she looked up, and grinned at seeing him up side down on the side of the wall.
"Bye Rob" She scampered away, and walked down to the creek, pretending to be a princess, with a royal gown and a prince holding onto her hand.
The place was beautiful, with a small 15-foot waterfall, and greenery growing on some of the slippery rocks. The tree's were tall, and the plants surrounding the clearing where dense, and green with life. Across the waterfall as some sort of bridge were rocks, unevenly spread across the opening. The mist made the place feel mysterious, and it made her fairy tales feel even more real.
She walked on the slippery rocks, with a different tale, pretending to be a princess stuck on a ledge, with a dragon between her and safety. She was waiting for her prince to come and save her.
Suddenly a voice came between her, and her fairy tales and she saw her brother standing where the prince should be.
"Samantha, get down from there, come back!" He called out worriedly; she was on the other side of the waterfall and she waved back offhandedly. She was coming, and no harm was done to her, honestly, her brother worried too much.
Just to show that her brother was paranoid she started to run back, leaping long jumps between the rocks that were further away.
Suddenly she felt her feet slipping, and she cried out, desperately trying to retrieve her balance, somebody else's cries rang in her ears- her brother, she realized before she toppled over completely and the water swallowed her up and rushed her down the waterfall.
She woke up later, her face stinging and her brother, her hero, carrying her, dripping wet both of them, back to the fief, and back to the real world, and her shattered dream.
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The water, the waterfall, that in her childhood she had loved so much was now her worst nightmare. The clearing was a place of past dreams, and past fantasy's. She never went there again after her accident. It had shattered her hopes of becoming a lady, and getting married, or at least in her parents mind.
She was different though, stubborn. She knew that if she was accepted, they would teach her what she needed to know. They would teach what was needed to become a proper lady, so that her scar wouldn't matter in the lands of beauty and grace.
She was going to become a Lady, whatever her parents wanted, whatever the crown wanted, it was her life she was going to live, and that, was that.
She was going to run away.
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A.N, hmmmm, I do know where this is going don't worry. Not quite what I had in mind when I started typing this…. but, I go where my plot bunnies take me or I get kicked in the head, very painful let me tell you. I'll see y'all next chapter hopefully!
Cheers without tears,
Stee