Disclaimer: refer to last story.
Kristiana…
"Wait! Neal! Come back here!" Kristiana shouted loudly down the hall. "You dolt," she muttered under her breath. "Why would he listen to you?"
"Go AWAY, Kris!" Neal's voice echoed back at her.
"It's not like I'm a stalker!" She yelled, not really caring who heard. "What're you looking at?" She asked angrily of the servants who were staring. Facing her wrath, they hurried by her.
Kristiana of Pearlmouth was dangerous when angry. The servants knew this. They had seen what had happened to Malcolm, Justin and Frank. Not to mention Farrant and Matthias. Malcolm had been the first to feel the Shang Oyster's wrath, and he was still healing. Of course, that was a good seven months ago.
Kristiana huffed, picked up the skirts that she had worn for some strange reason, and ran after Sir Nealan.
"I hate skirts," she grumbled as she sprinted through the hallways. After tripping over her skirts one to many times, she took out her dagger, which had been handily strapped to her leg, and cut half the skirt off. "That's better!" she exclaimed, smiling at the new freedom. "I guess I'll just leave them there for some lucky person to find!" Kristiana said, waving goodbye to the heap of frilly skirts in the middle of the hall.
"Aha!" She cried, rounding a corner and seeing Neal cowering in the corner.
"Please, please don't hurt me!" Neal said in a trembling voice. Kris felt the blood drain out of her face. This wasn't the Neal that she was used to.
"Why are you acting like that?" She asked him. "It's not like I'm going to eat you." She saw the flash of silver as it whizzed past her head and imbedded itself in the wall. "Holy crap!" Kris yelled, wondering why someone had just tried to decapitate her.
"No, go away!" Neal said again. "Please!"
"Neal! Hurry up! Fight! Do something!" Kris urged him, rather cautiously, since she didn't know if the knife-thrower had any more weapons.
She heard retreating footsteps padding away from the corner where Neal was crouching. "Who was it?" She asked him.
"Oh dear," Neal said, not answering the question.
"Neal! Answer me, who was it?" Kris asked impatiently. She shook his shoulder violently. "Come on Neal, think!"
He turned two big green eyes on her, "You saved me," he said in amazement. "Thank you!" They were so close that they could feel the other's breath. Kris leaned in closer and closed her smoky blue eyes, expecting a kiss.
Instead, she heard Neal say, "I can't, I'm engaged!"
"Right," she said, wondering at the feelings that rushed through her at their proximity. She picked herself off the floor and examined the blade imbedded between the stonework. "Yipes!" She whispered. "Wicked."
"Can I escort you to your rooms, Lady Kristiana?" Neal stood at her elbow, every bit as formal and polite, as a courtier should be.
"No, I can get there on my own, thank you very much." Kris said, glaring at him. She pried the dagger out of the wall. "Yamani blade," she murmured, running a fingertip over the edge.
"Kristiana, don't do that, you could hurt yourself," Neal said sharply.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm the Shang Oyster, for goodness sake!" Kristiana tucked the blade under her arm. "Good night, Sir Nealan." She said shortly, before flouncing off to her rooms.
On her way, she passed the pile of frilly pink skirts and sneered. "Stupid things. They should be labeled: for prissy court ladies only!" Kris kicked the cut up fabric violently.
§§§
When she woke up in the morning, she found a note pinned to her bed with a dagger. "Oh dear, someone broke into my room!" She shrieked, imitating the court decorations that were always being saved from some Immortal or another. "Jeez…" she sighed.
She read the note:
Dear Lady Kristiana of Pearlmouth, the Shang Oyster,
Please forgive me for not introducing myself last night. I did not have the time however. Should you need to meet me ever again, just flirt with Neal as you were doing. Next time, you will not be so lucky.
I would like to have my dagger back, if you don't mind. Please give it to Neal; he'll know who to give it to.
Kris shivered at the deadly tone of the note. "Well, I think I like this dagger," she said, holding it up to the light. Then she proceeded to do her morning stretches.
"And ah one! And ah two! Oh-" Kristiana stopped stretching when Neal barged into the room.
"I'm going to die!" He shrieked, shoving a note into her face. Kris looked at it and noticed that it was the same handwriting on her note.
"Well, let's see what it says." She said pseudo-cheerfully. "Dearest Nealan, I wish to inform you that you have walked to close to the edge. Take one more step and I'll push you off." Kris gaped at the note, then at Neal, who was shaking uncontrollably. "Oh."
"Kristiana, you know what happened last night, I can't tell anyone! Not even," Neal gulped, "Yuki."
"Why not?" She asked, slightly perplexed.
"Because," he gulped again, "She might be fond of this person who threw the dagger. Right? You did say that it was a Yamani knife."
"True enough." She sighed, wondering what was going on. "Don't worry Neal, I'll- no we'll get to the bottom of this."
Neal smiled sardonically. "We could be working for the Lord Provost if we solve this."
"I'd rather not," Kris said quickly, knowing how utterly despised the Lord Provost was. "Anyway…I guess we'd better go our separate ways before people get suspicious." And I how I want them to be suspicious and have it all true, Kris added silently to herself.
"Right." Neal turned, still shaking, and walked out of the room.
"Hmm, now I wonder…" Kris trailed off. "I wonder why I'm talking to myself?" she grumbled. "Anyway, I have got to find a way to figure this out. There is no way that I'm working for the Lord Provost after this is over."
Sighing, she walked out of the room to begin her search.
Hours later, she had the same amount of information. "Keep going! We have to find this out…"
In the middle of the night, she heard something that broke everything wide open.
"Neal!!!! Get the hell out of my room!!!!" It was Yuki, the Yamani lady-in-waiting who Neal was engaged to. "What're you thinking, sneaking around my room at night!"
"I'm sorry Yuki, but…but…mmph!" Kris heard Neal groan. She bit down on her tongue trying not to scream.
"Aha…now, with him out of the way, we can continue or plans. Right, Honey-poo?" Kris grimaced, wondering who had to be the object of her affection. Honey-poo. Yuck.
"Right," a man replied. "You will kill the king when you gain audience with him through the Princess. Then I will kill the heirs."
"Right," Yuki cooed.
Kris leaned against the rough stone of the wall. This was not good. She had to gain audience with the king to warn him. Right now. She took off running, cursing the winding hallways of the palace.
"Dammit, it's too late for this!" She said, stifling a yawn. Her eyes squeezed shut as she yawned. She opened her eyes too late as she ran full force into the King's bedroom door.
She collided with a profound THUNK.
"Ooff." She rubbed her head. "That hurt."
"Hello?" A sleepy King Jonathon came out of the room. "Is anyone there?"
"Uh huh…" Kris stood up. "You have to arrest Yuki, you know, Neal's betrothed? She's plotting to kill the King!" She yelled.
"Quiet. You say she's going to kill the King?" Jon said. "I don't believe it."
"Damn. You have to believe me."
"What did you just say?"
"You have to believe me. Yuki and…someone will kill you, Thayet and the heirs." Kris shook the king by the shoulders, then realized what she was doing and let go. "Sorry."
"Alright, I'll believe you. I want you to guard me then. Now go away. I want to sleep. Meet me in the morning."
The King blushed as Thayet called, "Jon? Where are you?"
"Bye." Kris walked away back to her room. She was asleep as soon as she hit the pillow.
In the morning when she woke, she was out of bed in an instant. She stretched quickly, warming up for the day ahead of her. Kris sprinted down the hall, worried that Yuki had already made her move.
"King Jonathon!" She yelled as soon as she got into the room. When a guard tried to stop her, she decked him quite easily. His companion rushed her, but he went down with a flying spin kick.
"Shang Oyster, what in all hells do you think you're doing?" King Jonathon asked, looking mildly annoyed.
"Um…" Kris stood there, in the middle of the room, looking like a complete idiot. "Practicing?" She asked hopefully.
"Right. Come, the Princess and her entourage will be here any minute." Kris stood behind King Jonathon, her face burning. Healers were already tending to the fallen guards, who gave her dirty looks when they woke up.
Any minute turned into an hour. Finally, the pages announced the Yamani Princess and Ladies-in-waiting. The hour was at hand!
"Has anyone seen Sir Nealan?" Yuki asked.
"No." Jon said.
"Oh. Well, in that case, die King Jonathon!" Yuki hurled a knife at Jonathon. Kristiana, with her super-ultra-cool Shang reflexes, pushed Jonathon out of the way of the knife.
"Seize her!" Jonathon yelled. Men with extremely deadly swords surrounded the whole Yamani delegation. "Get off me, Kris." He said shoving her off.
"Oh dear," she said dazedly, looking at the gash on her arm. "I guess she really did know how to handle that knife!" Then, against all her willpower, she threw up.
"Kristiana!" She heard Neal call. "Oyster girl, where are you?"
"She's over here, Sir Nealan." Jon shouted.
"Thank Mithros!" Neal said. "Ooh, that's an ugly cut you've got there." He instantly reached out with his emerald gift and healed it.
"Thanks." Kris looked up into his green eyes. "How did you get out?" She asked happily.
"You knew where I was?" he asked her, surprised.
"Yup, but I couldn't do anything about it." Kris said, lost in his green, green eyes.
"Oh. They only knocked me out and locked the door. I guess she never knew that I could pick locks. Knowing Alanna and George can be useful sometimes." He said, smiling.
"Well, you know what I think?" Kris said, not completely aware of what she was saying because of his wonderful emerald eyes…"I think we should just go live happily ever after."
"What?" Neal asked her, his green eyes widening in shock.
"You and me, Neal, together, living happily ever after." She smiled up at him.
He looked down at her, smirking. "I guess that would work. If you can stand bad poetry." She smiled wider, then gasped as he kissed her.
"Neal!" She said, after he broke the kiss.
"Don't you want to live happily ever after?" He asked her playfully.
"If there's more of that," she said, referring to the kiss, "Of course!" she kissed him, completely unaware of Yuki's hate filled gaze.
Now I am most definitely not a stalker, she thought happily.
A/N: That was for the Shang Oyster...so sorry, i just couldn't resist with "Pearlmouth" and all.
I hope you liked that, Kristin.
(Next up...Yepara of Jamila Valley)
You know...Microsoft Word, the lovely word processor, hates theses names...I find that funny. Don't ask me why...
EvenSong
Kristiana…
"Wait! Neal! Come back here!" Kristiana shouted loudly down the hall. "You dolt," she muttered under her breath. "Why would he listen to you?"
"Go AWAY, Kris!" Neal's voice echoed back at her.
"It's not like I'm a stalker!" She yelled, not really caring who heard. "What're you looking at?" She asked angrily of the servants who were staring. Facing her wrath, they hurried by her.
Kristiana of Pearlmouth was dangerous when angry. The servants knew this. They had seen what had happened to Malcolm, Justin and Frank. Not to mention Farrant and Matthias. Malcolm had been the first to feel the Shang Oyster's wrath, and he was still healing. Of course, that was a good seven months ago.
Kristiana huffed, picked up the skirts that she had worn for some strange reason, and ran after Sir Nealan.
"I hate skirts," she grumbled as she sprinted through the hallways. After tripping over her skirts one to many times, she took out her dagger, which had been handily strapped to her leg, and cut half the skirt off. "That's better!" she exclaimed, smiling at the new freedom. "I guess I'll just leave them there for some lucky person to find!" Kristiana said, waving goodbye to the heap of frilly skirts in the middle of the hall.
"Aha!" She cried, rounding a corner and seeing Neal cowering in the corner.
"Please, please don't hurt me!" Neal said in a trembling voice. Kris felt the blood drain out of her face. This wasn't the Neal that she was used to.
"Why are you acting like that?" She asked him. "It's not like I'm going to eat you." She saw the flash of silver as it whizzed past her head and imbedded itself in the wall. "Holy crap!" Kris yelled, wondering why someone had just tried to decapitate her.
"No, go away!" Neal said again. "Please!"
"Neal! Hurry up! Fight! Do something!" Kris urged him, rather cautiously, since she didn't know if the knife-thrower had any more weapons.
She heard retreating footsteps padding away from the corner where Neal was crouching. "Who was it?" She asked him.
"Oh dear," Neal said, not answering the question.
"Neal! Answer me, who was it?" Kris asked impatiently. She shook his shoulder violently. "Come on Neal, think!"
He turned two big green eyes on her, "You saved me," he said in amazement. "Thank you!" They were so close that they could feel the other's breath. Kris leaned in closer and closed her smoky blue eyes, expecting a kiss.
Instead, she heard Neal say, "I can't, I'm engaged!"
"Right," she said, wondering at the feelings that rushed through her at their proximity. She picked herself off the floor and examined the blade imbedded between the stonework. "Yipes!" She whispered. "Wicked."
"Can I escort you to your rooms, Lady Kristiana?" Neal stood at her elbow, every bit as formal and polite, as a courtier should be.
"No, I can get there on my own, thank you very much." Kris said, glaring at him. She pried the dagger out of the wall. "Yamani blade," she murmured, running a fingertip over the edge.
"Kristiana, don't do that, you could hurt yourself," Neal said sharply.
"Don't you think I know that? I'm the Shang Oyster, for goodness sake!" Kristiana tucked the blade under her arm. "Good night, Sir Nealan." She said shortly, before flouncing off to her rooms.
On her way, she passed the pile of frilly pink skirts and sneered. "Stupid things. They should be labeled: for prissy court ladies only!" Kris kicked the cut up fabric violently.
§§§
When she woke up in the morning, she found a note pinned to her bed with a dagger. "Oh dear, someone broke into my room!" She shrieked, imitating the court decorations that were always being saved from some Immortal or another. "Jeez…" she sighed.
She read the note:
Dear Lady Kristiana of Pearlmouth, the Shang Oyster,
Please forgive me for not introducing myself last night. I did not have the time however. Should you need to meet me ever again, just flirt with Neal as you were doing. Next time, you will not be so lucky.
I would like to have my dagger back, if you don't mind. Please give it to Neal; he'll know who to give it to.
Kris shivered at the deadly tone of the note. "Well, I think I like this dagger," she said, holding it up to the light. Then she proceeded to do her morning stretches.
"And ah one! And ah two! Oh-" Kristiana stopped stretching when Neal barged into the room.
"I'm going to die!" He shrieked, shoving a note into her face. Kris looked at it and noticed that it was the same handwriting on her note.
"Well, let's see what it says." She said pseudo-cheerfully. "Dearest Nealan, I wish to inform you that you have walked to close to the edge. Take one more step and I'll push you off." Kris gaped at the note, then at Neal, who was shaking uncontrollably. "Oh."
"Kristiana, you know what happened last night, I can't tell anyone! Not even," Neal gulped, "Yuki."
"Why not?" She asked, slightly perplexed.
"Because," he gulped again, "She might be fond of this person who threw the dagger. Right? You did say that it was a Yamani knife."
"True enough." She sighed, wondering what was going on. "Don't worry Neal, I'll- no we'll get to the bottom of this."
Neal smiled sardonically. "We could be working for the Lord Provost if we solve this."
"I'd rather not," Kris said quickly, knowing how utterly despised the Lord Provost was. "Anyway…I guess we'd better go our separate ways before people get suspicious." And I how I want them to be suspicious and have it all true, Kris added silently to herself.
"Right." Neal turned, still shaking, and walked out of the room.
"Hmm, now I wonder…" Kris trailed off. "I wonder why I'm talking to myself?" she grumbled. "Anyway, I have got to find a way to figure this out. There is no way that I'm working for the Lord Provost after this is over."
Sighing, she walked out of the room to begin her search.
Hours later, she had the same amount of information. "Keep going! We have to find this out…"
In the middle of the night, she heard something that broke everything wide open.
"Neal!!!! Get the hell out of my room!!!!" It was Yuki, the Yamani lady-in-waiting who Neal was engaged to. "What're you thinking, sneaking around my room at night!"
"I'm sorry Yuki, but…but…mmph!" Kris heard Neal groan. She bit down on her tongue trying not to scream.
"Aha…now, with him out of the way, we can continue or plans. Right, Honey-poo?" Kris grimaced, wondering who had to be the object of her affection. Honey-poo. Yuck.
"Right," a man replied. "You will kill the king when you gain audience with him through the Princess. Then I will kill the heirs."
"Right," Yuki cooed.
Kris leaned against the rough stone of the wall. This was not good. She had to gain audience with the king to warn him. Right now. She took off running, cursing the winding hallways of the palace.
"Dammit, it's too late for this!" She said, stifling a yawn. Her eyes squeezed shut as she yawned. She opened her eyes too late as she ran full force into the King's bedroom door.
She collided with a profound THUNK.
"Ooff." She rubbed her head. "That hurt."
"Hello?" A sleepy King Jonathon came out of the room. "Is anyone there?"
"Uh huh…" Kris stood up. "You have to arrest Yuki, you know, Neal's betrothed? She's plotting to kill the King!" She yelled.
"Quiet. You say she's going to kill the King?" Jon said. "I don't believe it."
"Damn. You have to believe me."
"What did you just say?"
"You have to believe me. Yuki and…someone will kill you, Thayet and the heirs." Kris shook the king by the shoulders, then realized what she was doing and let go. "Sorry."
"Alright, I'll believe you. I want you to guard me then. Now go away. I want to sleep. Meet me in the morning."
The King blushed as Thayet called, "Jon? Where are you?"
"Bye." Kris walked away back to her room. She was asleep as soon as she hit the pillow.
In the morning when she woke, she was out of bed in an instant. She stretched quickly, warming up for the day ahead of her. Kris sprinted down the hall, worried that Yuki had already made her move.
"King Jonathon!" She yelled as soon as she got into the room. When a guard tried to stop her, she decked him quite easily. His companion rushed her, but he went down with a flying spin kick.
"Shang Oyster, what in all hells do you think you're doing?" King Jonathon asked, looking mildly annoyed.
"Um…" Kris stood there, in the middle of the room, looking like a complete idiot. "Practicing?" She asked hopefully.
"Right. Come, the Princess and her entourage will be here any minute." Kris stood behind King Jonathon, her face burning. Healers were already tending to the fallen guards, who gave her dirty looks when they woke up.
Any minute turned into an hour. Finally, the pages announced the Yamani Princess and Ladies-in-waiting. The hour was at hand!
"Has anyone seen Sir Nealan?" Yuki asked.
"No." Jon said.
"Oh. Well, in that case, die King Jonathon!" Yuki hurled a knife at Jonathon. Kristiana, with her super-ultra-cool Shang reflexes, pushed Jonathon out of the way of the knife.
"Seize her!" Jonathon yelled. Men with extremely deadly swords surrounded the whole Yamani delegation. "Get off me, Kris." He said shoving her off.
"Oh dear," she said dazedly, looking at the gash on her arm. "I guess she really did know how to handle that knife!" Then, against all her willpower, she threw up.
"Kristiana!" She heard Neal call. "Oyster girl, where are you?"
"She's over here, Sir Nealan." Jon shouted.
"Thank Mithros!" Neal said. "Ooh, that's an ugly cut you've got there." He instantly reached out with his emerald gift and healed it.
"Thanks." Kris looked up into his green eyes. "How did you get out?" She asked happily.
"You knew where I was?" he asked her, surprised.
"Yup, but I couldn't do anything about it." Kris said, lost in his green, green eyes.
"Oh. They only knocked me out and locked the door. I guess she never knew that I could pick locks. Knowing Alanna and George can be useful sometimes." He said, smiling.
"Well, you know what I think?" Kris said, not completely aware of what she was saying because of his wonderful emerald eyes…"I think we should just go live happily ever after."
"What?" Neal asked her, his green eyes widening in shock.
"You and me, Neal, together, living happily ever after." She smiled up at him.
He looked down at her, smirking. "I guess that would work. If you can stand bad poetry." She smiled wider, then gasped as he kissed her.
"Neal!" She said, after he broke the kiss.
"Don't you want to live happily ever after?" He asked her playfully.
"If there's more of that," she said, referring to the kiss, "Of course!" she kissed him, completely unaware of Yuki's hate filled gaze.
Now I am most definitely not a stalker, she thought happily.
A/N: That was for the Shang Oyster...so sorry, i just couldn't resist with "Pearlmouth" and all.
I hope you liked that, Kristin.
(Next up...Yepara of Jamila Valley)
You know...Microsoft Word, the lovely word processor, hates theses names...I find that funny. Don't ask me why...
EvenSong