Shaking with fear, she backed away slowly and turned to run.  She had almost set off when the person grabbed her shoulder, causing her to scream in pure terror.  She turned around and let a hand fly at her attacker, putting her body weight into her swing.  But she was reckless, and in her terror, she managed to injure herself more than she was already.

            Her voice cried out in pain and she once more dropped to the ground.  Taking frantic glances around her, she looked for some one, any one who could come and save her now.

            There was no one.

            Trembling, she extended a hand backwards and tried to pull herself with it.  She crawled along the ground like that, and all the while the man came forward.  Suddenly, he tripped and crashed to the ground on his knees, bringing him closer to Arianna.  She screamed.  Why wasn't anyone around?

            The man crawled forward to her, and she backed up.  But suddenly, she stopped.  She had heard her cousin's voice just minutes ago; where was he?  She nearly sobbed as the man finally reached her, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up with him.  His hand lowered and went disappeared in the folds of his thinning cloak.  When they reappeared, they came were accompanied by a thin sword.

            Arianna winced horribly as she heard the chilling sound of metal being drawn.  The man held the sword's tip at her chest.  She whimpered as he whispered to her.  "What is the Lady's last wish?"

            Lady.  Her mother!  Where was her mother right now?  How was she?  Did she have a sword held to her like her daughter did at that moment?  Would she… miss her?  Arianna could not stop the flow of negative thoughts even though she knew they were untrue and completely uncalled for at the moment.

            The sword was brought closer to her.  Closer, and closer.  She could nearly feel  the metal pierce her skin -  and then!  Voices!  Was she saved?  People filed into the room.  Room?  Somehow, with all her crawling, she and the man had managed to enter a room.  It was… the room for Lady Lessons.  All these people – were they here to watch the show?  Would they not help her?  Would they just be spectators?

            The sword was there now, just sliding through the air, but wasn't it already piercing her flesh?  Yes, it was.  Perhaps this was the second time.  Shouldn't she scream?  She did.  Loudly.

            Many hallways away, Arianna daughter of Boromir Steward of Gondor awoke in her bed.  She gasped for air.  The pain on her back was intense and the other cuts on her neck itched.  But something wasn't right. It was far too cold in the room despite the presence of a fire and many blankets.  A muscle twitched.  She pulled the neck of her loose fitting nightdress away from her to see two glowing red cuts on her chest.

            Carefully she pressed a finger to the cuts and yelped.  She looked down at her finger; it was tingling from a nearly being burnt.

~

            "You're awake Milady?  That is good; we shall carry on with our healing then, shall we?" a woman Arianna didn't know said to her.  She nodded mutely in response to the woman's question.  "Good, then will you be so kind as to lift up that rather becoming negligee of yours?"

            Arianna gave the woman a sharp glance.  Was she being impudent on purpose, or did she really think that a normal person might actually want to wear something like this?  Then she looked down at the woman's clothes and held back a laugh.  She was wearing the same kind of dressing gown, but different in colour.  How ridiculous!  She looked ridiculous.

            Then at that thought, Arianna blanched.  She had a Saranine thought.  Saranine thoughts were wrong, illegal, due for exile!  But, she supposed, not all things in exile were bad.  After all, the King had once been in exile himself, so it couldn't be all that horrible.  Maybe… well, maybe not.

~

            Many visitors came in and out of Arianna's room that day.  It was only two hours in that she was wishing to be outside.  It was ironic, she thought with a wry smile.  Every day she had to do a certain amount of sneaking around to stay away from the cursed outdoors, and yet here she was, wishing to be anywhere outside, away from the cursed army of people flooding into the small room.

            She sighed: life was so unfair.  It was so difficult to lead a normal life these days.  Well, what exactly was normal?  She wasn't normal, she knew that.  How many people were taken captive of a runaway prisoner?  It was a number she could count on one hand.  One finger.  She pulled herself up and leaned on the head board.

Okay, so then if she wasn't normal, then who was?  The complete opposite of her?  Sarine???!!  She smirked then full out laughed when another name came to her mind.  ELDARION???

            That was entertaining; Eldarion could be NORMAL.  So it was physically possible to put those two words in the same sentence.  Amazing.  Arianna's train of sarcastic though was interrupted as a voice sounded from the doorway.

            "Did your encounter muddle up your brain as well as your back?"  Arianna's head whipped up and swiveled around to the doorway.  Her face fought to hold back a smile.  "There is no one in here except for you.  Do you find yourself so funny to laugh at nothing?"

            "Is that to say that I am nothing?  For if I laugh at my self, and I laugh at nothing, does it mean that I am nothing?" she asked with innocent eyes.  Eldarion mulled over that though for a few seconds while Arianna waged a war to keep herself from laughing.

            "Any particular reason for gracing me with your presence?" she asked in amusement.  Her attempts to hide her joy were visible on her face, and Eldarion smiled.

            "Why miss a chance to torment thee?"

            "And?  There is always an and.  What is it this time?"  she asked lazily, picking at a piece of lint on her blanket.  Eldarion came closer to her bed and stood next to it.  He carefully sat himself on the VERY edge of the bed after a moment of hesitation.  When he looked at Arianna, her eyebrow lifted.

            He sighed.  "Elfwine is here."

            Arianna squealed in glee.  "I though you were an exception to the screeching of females.  I suppose I was wrong," he muttered, and ducked just before Arianna could hit him upside the head.

            "I'm still a girl even if I don't fall over your feet," she said sardonically.  "Elfwine??!" she screeched again.  "Yay!"

            Eldarion shook his head.

A/N: that's a wrap for now.  Sorry its so short, and there's no feed back on feed back because my hotmail made me delete everything.  Sigh.  Well, I hope you like it.  Doesn't have much content, but it will have to do for now.

Until next time,

Wannabe

And, of course, THANK YOU for reviewing.  I love you all!