A/N: hello my dear reviewers…well what more is there to say then enjoy!
Disclaimer: disclaimer? For what I own you all *insert evil cackle here *
Siren's Story: The Page Years: A New Day
Cori woke up, his head slightly hurting from the ale he had last night. Well I guess I learned my lesson, never bet the master you can drink more then him. Bad move on my part.
With a grunt he rolled out of bed and into the washroom. Using the water in the basin he washed his face, trying to get the grogginess out of his eyes. Great, what do you want to bet the Princess will make sure to start the war of wits again this morning? He sighed and got dressed, ready to face the day.
He walked out the door and down the Hall. Cold stone surrounded him until he made it to the privet dinning room. He was to meet the princess and escort her to the Mess hall for breakfast. After that he would accompany her to the practice courts for first bell, until about lunch, after lunch she would be on her own to struggle through her etiquette class along with math and writing & reading.
He remembered those days well, he hated it. It was hell on earth. Wonder how long the Princess will last? Those older pages will maul her…he made it to the privet dinning hall and found the small red head standing just inside the door.
She wore her more favored breaches and a shirt. a dark blue tunic over top the shirt and a pair of well-worn brown boots. He shook his head at the sight. " Good morning Princess. Your majesties." He bowed low, and gave the Princess a sly smile when he came back up.
The Princess only gave him her death glare followed by a sweet smile, "good morning, Courtland" she looked at her parents, innocent as ever, and turned back to her royal guard. "Shall we proceed to the Mess hall then?" he nodded his head and grinned. "As you wish, Princess." He bowed and gestured to the door.
That one action, so simple, yet it was the start of something complicated…
***
Siren had been walking a pace or two in front of the brawny knight, but now she slowed to meet his strides. He looked down at the tiny Princess, "Do you really plan on doing this, Princess." She looked up at him her eyes a steady green, "of course," she smiled for ear to ear.
He sighed, just great, and I have to get up ever morning to watch the Princess get the crap kicked out of her… they continued on until they finally came to the Mess Hall. She smiled and entered the room.
It looked like rumors of the Princess's wish had been spread, because as she entered the room every face turned to watch her. Instead of being afraid of the crowed staring at her, she walked in and bowed low to Lord Hammond, the training master.
"My lord." She said in the sweetest voice she could muster. The training master just looked at her, taking a moment to size her up, "don't think I'll go easy on you just because your royalty. Go get in line, grab your food and find a seat." She smiled and bowed and then was gone.
All this time Cori stood watching her, gods she's fast. She was just here…and now she's over... Hope she ain't always this quick. He sighed for the third time that morning. He watched as the young Princess took a spot alone at a table and was soon joined by a boy with dirty blond hair…
***
Siren smiled at the new comer. "Hello, I'm Siren." She smiled wider knowing all to well that every one already knew that. He returned her smile, "Hullo there Princess." He gave a small nod of his head.
"Oh no you don't, it's Siren, not Princess or your majesty or any of that mumble jumble. Simple Siren." He smiled a wicked smile, "As ya wish, yur majesty." He laughed as she gave him an evil glare, then she to started to laugh. Looks like I just made my first new friend.
They continued to talk about their lives and family's…"I don't understand, how is your sister is your half sister when your both the same age?" the boy through his hands up, "I'm confused." Siren laughed and pulled his arms down, people were starting to stare. " Ok I'll explain. Me and my sister Phoenix share the same father. My mother was best friends with Phoenix's mother, when both the women became pregnant. Since both my sister and me were conceived at ruffly the same time, with two different women as our mothers, we were born at almost the exact same time, only moments apart. Phoenix's mother died in childbirth so my mother took her in, thus Phoenix is now my adopted half sister. As for how my mother and stepfather stand to have our real dad around, all they ever tell us is that he has much to teach us that they can't. Oh and mother usually mutters something about Gods and how they have to meddling human business." He looked at her, "so your half sister is your adopted sister too?" she laughed at his confusion, "yes" smiling she just thought of something, "hang on, you never told me your name" she laughed at that, she knew just about every thing but his name. "Oh, me? I'm Sebastian" they were both still smiling when the bell to end breakfast rang, now they had a few moments to get to the practice yard.
As they got up he grinned, "I'll show you to the practice courts, Princess" she scowled at the name, rolled her eyes and followed the dirty blond out the door and down the hall.
***
The practice yard was a big fenced in area. The floor was made of packed dirt and the fence was made of wood. Siren filed in with all the new, first year pages.
Sebastian was a second year page so he was sent to a different area to start his warm ups. Lord Hammond had a twisted smile on his weathered face. "All right kiddies it's time for you to learn how to fight hand to hand." From that he paired them up and began to show them different punches and blocks, then he made them practice those moves till their arms became sore.
After that he switched arms and showed them the opposite move. They did these drills till they had trouble holding their arms up. "Now ye get to learn a staff work. First we'll work on your blocking then I'll teach ya to fight, go grab a staff," when everyone just stood there he added, "I meant today kiddies."
Siren jogged over to the barrel holding the staffs. Finding a reasonable looking one, she picked it up and began her walk back to where the Pages were lined up. She assumed her position in the line and got ready to learn staff blocking.
After a good half-hour of that, they switched to attack moves. Once the pages had finished with that, they were put into pairs and sent against each other. Siren was paired with a particularly odd looking male. He smiled and whispered, "Hullo, Princess." She smiled back and got in to the guard position as he prepared to attack. The taller boy was better at staff work by far.
The merriment showed in his green eyes. When they were finally allowed to stop, she stood beside him and whispered hello back. He had close cut jet-black hair, which allowed his pointy ears to show. The only elves she had ever seen before had been visiting negotiators, royalty and nobility. "You're an elf!" she exclaimed and he only laughed. "That I am my young princess." She smiled and shook her head, she whispered back, "please call me Siren." She looked at him with a evil smile, "and if you don't I may just use you as a practice dummy." He laughed harder at that, unfortunately letting Hammond know they weren't paying attention.
"Tayo quit goofing around and take the Princess to the stables to fetch a horse." He tried not to smile but was failing when he replied, "yes Master" they where on their way to the stables and Siren choose to question the name for the training master. "Master?" he laughed again, "you have much to learn my little Princess." When he finished he received a nice whack for calling her Princess again. He only laughed yet harder still and jogged ahead of he so he wouldn't get whacked for that too.
After picking their horses, the pages went back to the practice yard to learn how to tumble from a horse and jump form a horse and all other useful antics like that. They moved on to jousting and only stopped when the bell rang for lunch.
All the pages cleaned their mounts and headed down to the Mess hall to eat. Before heading out Siren was met by Cori, " I shall take my leave, princess." He bowed and left before she could argue about him still calling her Princess. She sighed and began to walk to the Mess hall.
After standing in line forever, she finally had her food. Where to sit… she was interrupted mid thought by an arm around her shoulder. She looked up to find Tayo, the tall elven youth's arm around her. Smiling he lead her to a table deemed appropriate for a Princess. She shook her head and took a seat as Sebastian took a seat across from her and Tayo claimed the seat beside her.
In the short time that is lunch she was introduced to many more people non of which she really remembered, I just have to do my best to remember that was thought at the same time as oww…sore muscles... was thought.
Next Tayo and Sebastian escorted the "lovely Princess" to math and then writing. After that they had history. History was a lot easier to stand because instead of the teacher being a stiff priest the teacher was a fascinating elf, whom bared an uncanny resemblance to Tayo.
The instructor's name was Galadin Nailo. He had been a Professor at the Elven University before he came to Brea to teach. Today they were to learn about the Great War between the Elves and the Humans. Siren enjoyed that class much more then her next, etiquette.
After learning a million different ways to bow, both for a knight and a princess, she had to learn proper greetings for the different nobility. Finally after much hard work and a lot of repetition the day was over. All the pages hauled themselves to the Mess hall where they could finally sit and bask in the nothiness of eating.
***
Sebastian and Tayo lead her to the library where she was to do all the homework assigned to her for that day. "How in the name of the Gods am I suppose to do all this?" she said motioning towards the table that sat in front of them, "think of it as more class work, only outside of class." Tayo gave a mischievous smile and she said. "When do I get free time?" Sebastian smiled and clapped her on the back, "free time? What is this free time you speak of?" she laughed and began the grueling work of finishing her writing paper on a poem they had read called "My Fair Duchess"
Siren spent the remainder of her day doing something the teachers called "Homework." Hah homework, I think it's an inhuman form of torture. After she had done all the work she could manage she began her walk back to the pages wing with Sebastian and Tayo in toe.
They stopped at her door, and both boys took their time to say good night. Tayo stepped forward and bowed, "Good night my fair Princess." He laughed as she swatted at him and missed as he jumped back. He waved over his shoulder as he walked back to his own room.
Sebastian stepped forward and ruffled the shorter girl's hair. "Good night my little Siren." He smiled, turned and he too disappeared of down the hall.
Turning she entered her room. In no time she was fast asleep dreaming of homework and her new friends…
***
Somewhere down the hall a certain tall, dark haired knight stood thinking. Well she made it through her first day after all…who would have thought… then turning he to decided it had been a long enough day, and headed for bed.
A/N: hope you like it! And thanx goes to….
Hyperchick88: I'm glad you liked it, and your welcome. I was glad to read and review your fic. Thanx for the review.-Siren
That Girl: thanx for reviewing. The only problem with them running parallel to each other is it's hard to update them both. I'm getting to ISCK though right after this :)-Siren
Dragonsphere: what to say to the person who hates your story…how about thanx. If no one hated me then I would really worry. Not everyone will like my writing that's the facts of life. So thank you for taking the time to let me know all is right in the world. –Siren
Kitten: thanx so much, I doubt I'll ever forget as long as people remember to review :) thanx again-Siren
Larzdinn: I tried my best to explain it all but I think I confused myself in the process. *sigh* I hope I cleared it up. If I didn't just tell me and I'll try again to clear it all up. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter till next chapter-Siren
The Dark Lady Adrienne: I love witty banter too. Sorry their ain't a whole lot in this chapter…I was kinda stuck this morning when I wrote it so …well this is how it ended…thanx for the review. Till next chapter-Siren