A/N: Hi everybody! Since at least two people have asked why Alanna doesn't
switch with Thom, I decided to tell all you guys out there who were
wondering. For no reason at all except that I thought that it would be an
interesting "what-if" topic to write about. And if you don't think that
that's a good enough answer, well, go write your own story, 'k? And pleeze
pleeze PLEEZE REVIEW!!! I want five reviews before chappie six goes up!
~*Trek to the Capital*~ (I know the title sucks, but oh well.)
Alanna stared apprehensively at the woman behind the desk, and attempted to curtsy before falling over. The Mother said icily as the girl clumsily got to her feet, "I would expect better behavior from a novice at this convent! In all manners; deportment, language, gentility-all things which you, girl, lack!"
She was tongue-tied, and made some sort of incoherent noise in her throat before the High Priestess cut in. "Go change out of that awful.thing and then report to Madam Aline's room for two extra hours of ballroom dancing. Continue in that respect for the next month, and if you have not cleaned up your attitude, young lady, we will either give it another month or send you back home." She promptly turned her gaze to a sheaf of documents on her table.
Alanna stormed out of the chamber, fuming, but did not bother to go to her room and dress. Instead she went to the stables, picked up a currycomb, and began feverishly brushing her long-unridden horse, slowly relieving her fury. "Great Mother Goddess, that damned old lady is one heck of a woman, isn't she Aquila, good boy." She paused in her grooming. On sudden impulse, she hefted the worn saddle hanging on a peg nearby, placed it carefully on Aquila's back, and mounted him in one swift, fluid motion. "I've had enough of this place, eagle. We're going to Corus!" Aquila whickered softly, and as she dug her hells gently into his soft, roan hide, they leapt together into the afternoon sunshine, out of the gates and down the road.
*** Sometime that evening Alanna began to realize that the feeling in her belly was not of impending doom, but of hunger. Shit, she thought, why didn't I think about tucker? She slowed Aquila to a halt, and, after picketing him by a nice patch of grass, went off in search of some stones. Even with her keen eyes she had a hard time in the growing dark, but she was able to find a handful of good sized, round slinging stones. But after a half-hour of waiting for some unlucky animal to wander by, Alanna was still empty-handed and hungry. "I guess I was asking for it," she breathed softly to her placid horse, and with that, she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning she rose early and, though still bleary-eyed, managed to pocket a few wild crabapples she found growing off to one side of the thoroughfare. Giving one to her less-than-enthusiastic mount, the two headed off again down to the capital city. Mid-morning found them charging headlong down the dusty path in order to get away from barraging multitudes of black flies and mosquitoes. (*Author grimaces; can you tell I live in Maine?*) To her joy Alanna found that, after asking several travelers along the way, Corus was less than one days canter away. Although her belly was seldom full and oftentimes empty, she rode like there was no tomorrow. Finally, as the gloaming sun westered across the horizon, Alanna slowed her loyal charger to a trot and they entered the grand main gates of the capital city of Tortal. It was a rowdy inn, full of bawdy men and woman drinking, dining, and roaring with laughter. Alanna looked up at the battered sign dangling outside; it read: The Dancing Dove. She shrugged, handed Aquila's reins to a hostler standing nearby, and walked inside. A tall, buxom redhead at the counter smiled cheerfully at her. "Welcome, m'dear, to The Dancing Dove! Would yer be wantin' a room, my fine lass?"
She nodded gratefully, and handed over a copper from her secret pouch hanging under her shirt. "Just for the night, please, ma'am." The girl was hoping to secure a job at the royal palace.
The woman smiled again, and led her up a rickety staircase. "Th' room's right around the corner, miss, bit small, but there's a nice view of the city. My name's Rispah; if you needs me, just give a holler and I'll be right up."
Rispah winked, handed her the key, and disappeared down the steps.
Alanna flung open the shutters and looked out over the red-tiled rooftops. "I believe I might become a healer," she mused to herself pensively, and stretched out on her narrow mattress. It had been a long day indeed.
*** It was almost noon when she hauled herself up and out from under her sheets. Yawning mightily, she threw some water on her face, wrinkled her nose at her unkempt reflection in the mirror (her shirt was a royal disaster) and sleepily stumped downstairs, where she turned in the key to her room. She managed to wake Aquila up, and, after cursing for several minutes (she had stubbed her toe on a nail sticking up out of the stable floor) Alanna rode to the palace, where the Royal Healer's Guild was. "Damn," she whispered to her steed, "looking like this I won't be able to get a job as a morgue-keeper." Once inside the infirmary, however, Alanna felt that she was quite capable of proving herself worthy. For the past six years Maude, her old nurse, had been secretly teaching the twins healing magic, and during her short stay at the convent Alanna had taken quite a few lessons of a much more advanced level.
She was pondering this thoughtfully when a woman in the pale green tunic and beige leggings of the Guild noticed her. "Excuse me, may I help you.?"
Alanna jumped. "Er-yes, thank you, um. I was hoping to get a trainee job here, to study healing?"
The healer nodded. "Well, I suppose we could do that, if you could just step in here." She beckoned to the girl, who tentatively followed her into a small antechamber, and sat on a comfortable chair by a crackling fire.
A notepad and quill appeared out of nowhere in the healer's hands. "Now, miss, you have the Gift, yes? All right." The pen scratched for a moment, and the woman went on with the interview.
Nearly a half-hour had passed before the woman was satisfied. She beamed happily at Alanna. "We would be happy to accept your application, we are in such lack of enthusiastic young helpers these days. My name is Tianna, and you will be working with me for the next several weeks until we can see what you are capable of. Then you will be given a more permanent assignment." She bustled down a passageway, and opened a small, whitewashed door. "This is where you may sleep. We pay four silver crowns a week, not counting bonuses. You are served breakfast and lunch, but dinner is not provided; unfortunately we do not have much of a budget." After dumping a pile of clothes into Alanna's arms, she bustled away, closing the door behind her.
Alanna sighed dreamily, and closed her eyes. She was tired, she had a job, and there wasn't a convent in sight.Suddenly a hawk swooped across her eyes, a hawk with a woman's head.Her eyes flew open. Where was the hawk? Alanna shook her head. I must have been imagining things, she thought, and looked out her many-paned window, resting her chin on her knees.
A/N: There ya go! Hope you liked it, blah blah blah, PLEASE REVIEW! Remember, no more chappies until I get five reviews. You see, I WAN"T SOME FEEDBACK HERE! JEEZE!!! Have a nice day too. Oh, and bye the way, next couple chappies I'm gonna pull a Rowling. If anyone knows what I mean by that, I'll give them a box of Cheerios. : )
~*Trek to the Capital*~ (I know the title sucks, but oh well.)
Alanna stared apprehensively at the woman behind the desk, and attempted to curtsy before falling over. The Mother said icily as the girl clumsily got to her feet, "I would expect better behavior from a novice at this convent! In all manners; deportment, language, gentility-all things which you, girl, lack!"
She was tongue-tied, and made some sort of incoherent noise in her throat before the High Priestess cut in. "Go change out of that awful.thing and then report to Madam Aline's room for two extra hours of ballroom dancing. Continue in that respect for the next month, and if you have not cleaned up your attitude, young lady, we will either give it another month or send you back home." She promptly turned her gaze to a sheaf of documents on her table.
Alanna stormed out of the chamber, fuming, but did not bother to go to her room and dress. Instead she went to the stables, picked up a currycomb, and began feverishly brushing her long-unridden horse, slowly relieving her fury. "Great Mother Goddess, that damned old lady is one heck of a woman, isn't she Aquila, good boy." She paused in her grooming. On sudden impulse, she hefted the worn saddle hanging on a peg nearby, placed it carefully on Aquila's back, and mounted him in one swift, fluid motion. "I've had enough of this place, eagle. We're going to Corus!" Aquila whickered softly, and as she dug her hells gently into his soft, roan hide, they leapt together into the afternoon sunshine, out of the gates and down the road.
*** Sometime that evening Alanna began to realize that the feeling in her belly was not of impending doom, but of hunger. Shit, she thought, why didn't I think about tucker? She slowed Aquila to a halt, and, after picketing him by a nice patch of grass, went off in search of some stones. Even with her keen eyes she had a hard time in the growing dark, but she was able to find a handful of good sized, round slinging stones. But after a half-hour of waiting for some unlucky animal to wander by, Alanna was still empty-handed and hungry. "I guess I was asking for it," she breathed softly to her placid horse, and with that, she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning she rose early and, though still bleary-eyed, managed to pocket a few wild crabapples she found growing off to one side of the thoroughfare. Giving one to her less-than-enthusiastic mount, the two headed off again down to the capital city. Mid-morning found them charging headlong down the dusty path in order to get away from barraging multitudes of black flies and mosquitoes. (*Author grimaces; can you tell I live in Maine?*) To her joy Alanna found that, after asking several travelers along the way, Corus was less than one days canter away. Although her belly was seldom full and oftentimes empty, she rode like there was no tomorrow. Finally, as the gloaming sun westered across the horizon, Alanna slowed her loyal charger to a trot and they entered the grand main gates of the capital city of Tortal. It was a rowdy inn, full of bawdy men and woman drinking, dining, and roaring with laughter. Alanna looked up at the battered sign dangling outside; it read: The Dancing Dove. She shrugged, handed Aquila's reins to a hostler standing nearby, and walked inside. A tall, buxom redhead at the counter smiled cheerfully at her. "Welcome, m'dear, to The Dancing Dove! Would yer be wantin' a room, my fine lass?"
She nodded gratefully, and handed over a copper from her secret pouch hanging under her shirt. "Just for the night, please, ma'am." The girl was hoping to secure a job at the royal palace.
The woman smiled again, and led her up a rickety staircase. "Th' room's right around the corner, miss, bit small, but there's a nice view of the city. My name's Rispah; if you needs me, just give a holler and I'll be right up."
Rispah winked, handed her the key, and disappeared down the steps.
Alanna flung open the shutters and looked out over the red-tiled rooftops. "I believe I might become a healer," she mused to herself pensively, and stretched out on her narrow mattress. It had been a long day indeed.
*** It was almost noon when she hauled herself up and out from under her sheets. Yawning mightily, she threw some water on her face, wrinkled her nose at her unkempt reflection in the mirror (her shirt was a royal disaster) and sleepily stumped downstairs, where she turned in the key to her room. She managed to wake Aquila up, and, after cursing for several minutes (she had stubbed her toe on a nail sticking up out of the stable floor) Alanna rode to the palace, where the Royal Healer's Guild was. "Damn," she whispered to her steed, "looking like this I won't be able to get a job as a morgue-keeper." Once inside the infirmary, however, Alanna felt that she was quite capable of proving herself worthy. For the past six years Maude, her old nurse, had been secretly teaching the twins healing magic, and during her short stay at the convent Alanna had taken quite a few lessons of a much more advanced level.
She was pondering this thoughtfully when a woman in the pale green tunic and beige leggings of the Guild noticed her. "Excuse me, may I help you.?"
Alanna jumped. "Er-yes, thank you, um. I was hoping to get a trainee job here, to study healing?"
The healer nodded. "Well, I suppose we could do that, if you could just step in here." She beckoned to the girl, who tentatively followed her into a small antechamber, and sat on a comfortable chair by a crackling fire.
A notepad and quill appeared out of nowhere in the healer's hands. "Now, miss, you have the Gift, yes? All right." The pen scratched for a moment, and the woman went on with the interview.
Nearly a half-hour had passed before the woman was satisfied. She beamed happily at Alanna. "We would be happy to accept your application, we are in such lack of enthusiastic young helpers these days. My name is Tianna, and you will be working with me for the next several weeks until we can see what you are capable of. Then you will be given a more permanent assignment." She bustled down a passageway, and opened a small, whitewashed door. "This is where you may sleep. We pay four silver crowns a week, not counting bonuses. You are served breakfast and lunch, but dinner is not provided; unfortunately we do not have much of a budget." After dumping a pile of clothes into Alanna's arms, she bustled away, closing the door behind her.
Alanna sighed dreamily, and closed her eyes. She was tired, she had a job, and there wasn't a convent in sight.Suddenly a hawk swooped across her eyes, a hawk with a woman's head.Her eyes flew open. Where was the hawk? Alanna shook her head. I must have been imagining things, she thought, and looked out her many-paned window, resting her chin on her knees.
A/N: There ya go! Hope you liked it, blah blah blah, PLEASE REVIEW! Remember, no more chappies until I get five reviews. You see, I WAN"T SOME FEEDBACK HERE! JEEZE!!! Have a nice day too. Oh, and bye the way, next couple chappies I'm gonna pull a Rowling. If anyone knows what I mean by that, I'll give them a box of Cheerios. : )
