Would you beleive that I actually got 6 reviews! Wow! If you get a little confused, Yuki and Neal are having flashbacks.
Disclaimer: Don't own nuthin', never have, never will. (Including the part directly out of Squire, with my own changes to make it look like Neal's POV.)
"Sir, you have no right to go around kissing my fiancée." Neal growled.
"Your fiancée? Excuse me, but she and I engaged." Amaki countered.
"Stop it, you two!" Yuki scolded.
"Yuki…." Neal asked. "Are you really truly engaged to this man?"
"Yes." Yuki told Neal.
"Yuki, are you really truly engaged to this man?" Amaki asked.
"Yes!" Yuki told Amaki, almost breaking into tears.
"It looks like we have a bit of a problem then, no?" Amaki said.
"Look, I think I deserve to know what in the name of the Mother is going on between you two. Yuki, you need to explain." Neal said.
"Yuki, please, just tell me what is going on with you and this…this…Easterner." Amaki spat out the word, as if it was something disgusting.
"Okay…but you may want to have a seat. It's a very long story"
"We can stand."
"So it all started when I met Amaki…" Yukimi told the two men, sitting down herself.
*~*
A man walked over to Yukimi as she was pouring herself a drink. "May I have this dance, lovely lady?" The speaker was surprisingly talking in Yaman, not Common. Common was becoming the language of choice for most Islanders. He looked handsome in a blue tunic with blue hose. Easterner style- it was the latest fashion in the Islands. Once again, Easterners take over, thought Yuki. Funny how she'd heard that Yamani style was all the rage in Tortall. But that didn't matter. To Yukimi, Eastern lands were far away and distant, even though they weren't. In truth, she didn't really care about them. She should, since Shinkokami was getting married to a Tortallan , yet she didn't.
"Me?" she wondered aloud. He can't be speaking to me! I have been eyeing him all night- and he's asking me to dance? I have never had such luck!
"Who else looks this lovely tonight?"
"Why, I'd love to." Yuki replied, not knowing what else to say, especially to that compliment. He was a wonderful dancer, she noticed as they a danced to a classic Yamani song. "Do I get the privilege of knowing your name?"
"Of course, it's Amaki. Amaki noh Shiakaru."
"Like the god of the hills?"
"Yes indeed. And yours would be…?"
"Yukimi noh Diaomoru. I prefer Yuki."
"Yuki it is, then."
*~*
There was a knock on Yuki's door.
"Come in!" she called.
"Yuki, I have some terrible news," Amaki said.
"What, darling?" Yuki replied.
"The emperor has decreed that all his warriors must be sent off to fight the pressing force from Scanra. That includes me."
"No! I won't let you! I'll go with you!" she cried.
"No, sweetie, you can't! You must go with Princess Shinkokami to Tortall."
"Come with me then, like you were going to! I don't see the problem!"
"That's the problem, right there. I have to go to war. I promise, I do, I will find you in Tortall."
"And?"
"Yuki, we will marry then. If you agree, of course."
"Yes, of course." She pulled him into a kiss. After a few minutes, she asked, "When do you leave?"
"Tomorrow at dawn." he told her, and laid her down on her bed.
*~*
"So he proposed to you on the spur of the moment, and you agreed?" Neal asked.
"Yes." she replied, shamefully.
"So how come you started to court me?" Neal wondered.
"Well, you see a message came from the islands. It said that a man I knew called Amaki had died. I didn't realize it until later, but I did know two Amakis. I assumed it was the one I was engaged to, not the other one. I now realize I assumed wrong."
"Oh," was all Neal could manage.
"So tell me, Easterner, how you met my fiancée." requested Amaki
"I do have a name, you know, Westerner," Neal informed Amaki.Yuki was trying to fade into the backround, she was ashamed of herself.
"Oh?" he questioned.
"Yes. Neal. Sir Nealan of Queenscove to you, that is."
"As do I. Amaki noh Shiakaru. Please tell me how you met Yuki."
"Fine by me."
*~*
Cleon was telling what he knew about the new warlord when the door opened. A bright figure walked into the open space between the tables and the dais on which Lord Wyldon and Inness sat.
The newcomer wore two of the floor-length wrap dresses known as kimonos, one over the other. The outer one was cream colored silk with orange and yellow maple leaves printed on the fabric; the edges of her inner kimono were orange. The kimonos were secured by a wide, stiff sash called an obi, this one of bronze silk. The lady's feet, in brown silk slippers, made a shushing sound in the suddenly quiet room. Her ebony hair was parted in the center and combed out straight to her waist. Two short locks framed her face exactly.
Placing her palms on her thighs, she bowed to the men on the dais. "Please excuse me, she said in accented Common, her pretty voice audible throughout the room. "I come at the request of my princess, her imperial highness, Princess Shinkokami."
Lord Wyldon put aside his napkin and stepped off the dais to stand on the Yamani woman's level. He gave her a bow, the kind done in the Eastern Lands, and said, "I am the training master, Lord Wyldon of Cavall. How may I assist you and your imperial mistress?"
"My mistress says, she has been told that Keladry of Mindelan is here," the lady said, bowing to Wyldon again. "Might this unworthy servant of the princess be permitted to speak with her?"
How elegant, and beautiful she looks. I wonder if she's courting someone already, thought Neal. From the looks on the boys' faces, I might have some competition.
Wyldon beckoned; Kel was already excusing herself to Cleon as she slid out of place. At the front of the hall she bowed to the training master as she always had. She turned to the Yamani, placed her palms on her thighs, and offered the correct bow due a noblewoman in the emperor's service. The Yamani did the same.
"Please excuse me," Kel said in Common. "But do I have the honor of addressing the Lady Yukimi noh
Daiomoru?"
Now the corners of the lady's eyes crinkled, the Yamani equivilant of laughing aloud. "You have changed very much too in six years, Keladry of Mindelan." Yukimi, only a year older than Kel, looked up at her.
"There is more of you than there was."
"If you will excuse me? I know you have much to discuss with Squire Keladry," Lord Wyldon said politely.
"Outside, perhaps?"
Yukimi bowed to him. "My lord, may I ask if Squire Keladry is permitted to visit my mistress when her meal is complete?"
"Keladry must ask her knight-master," Lord Wyldon said. He bowed to Yukimi and returned to his table.
Kel started speaking in Yamani to Yukimi, they bowed to each other, and she replied. Turning, she bowed to the room. There was a sudden clatter as every page and squire tried to stand and bow.
Yukimi drew an orange and gold fan from her obi, flicked it open, and used it to screen the lower part of her face. Someone sighed with longing. Yukimi's eyes danced, and she replied to Kel's next statement. The two left the room.
*~*
"Hmph." Amaki scoffed. "I do believe that our story is better than yours."
"I wouldn't say that." Neal remarked. By then Yuki had started off for the ballroom, hoping the two would be wrapped up in such a heated argument that they wouldn't notice her leaving.
"Yuki! Come back here!" They shouted simultaneously. Then they looked at each other, horrified that they had agreed. Just as horrified as I was when the Stump and I agreed, Neal noted to himself silently. Yuki meekly walked back to them.
"Ok, Yuki, since you got us and yourself into this whole mess, what do you suggest we do?" Neal asked.
"Uh…glaive fight? Winner gets to marry me?" She suggested.
"Good idea." Amaki said. This Easterner probably doesn't even know naginata, Amaki thought to himself.
"Great. Second bell, 3rd fencing ring in the King's Court, a week from today." Neal told him, and walked off.
Oh, Mithros, what have I gotten myself into? Neal wondered. I just agreed to fight a man at a weapon I don't know. This is just great. I need Kel! She has to teach me how to fight glaive- and fast!
Hope you guys liked that chapter. It actually took me the whole day. Well, kinda. You see, I was reading other fanfics half the time, and I went out to acupuncture- another story. You probably just want to go review instead of listening to my mindless blabber. *hint hint* Tchao!
PS Thanks for beta-ing Amanda! (You notice I agreed with all your suggestions.)