Aether Winds

Chapter four- Ice Deluge

By- IceWind

A/N:

This is my first fanfic for The Protector of the Small books by Tamora Pierce. The names, places, things, ect, all are credited to her. This fanfic is set in an alternate universe. I.E: Joren is NOT dead, Cleon and Kel are not together (hehe), and other incidents that have I messed up on and don't feel like making it exactly like the book. Please REVIEW *grins* and as long as its not flames on how Kel and Cleon should be together or something of that trivial nature, flames are fine. This story is PG-13 for anything that might come up lol.

Lalala… err yeah the story…….. errr ^.^ ummmm… ok! (im weird I know) I have the entire thing planned out! O.o; that's very very uncommon for me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She stormed into her room, muttering unpleasant things under her breath about a certain blond hair blue eyed knight. Really, what do I care anyway? Joren is Joren, he won't change, even as she told herself that Kel continued to silently fume, I'll show him… I'll show everyone who thinks that females shouldn't be knights a thing or two. She sighed softly and lied down on her bed, I'll just think about the mission, and find out what these Scanran's are up to. They are incredibly close-mouthed though, funny. Her head jerked up at a knock at her door and she grumbled to herself as she made herself get up and open it. There stood Radock with concern in his eyes.

"Keladry?" he looked at her with worry, "are you ok?"

Kel gave a silent sigh, she really didn't want to deal with Radock right now, and replied calmly, her yamani face on, "Of course, me and my colleague just got into minor disagreement."

"Minor? That didn't seem minor to me, what were you arguing about? Maybe I can help."

"Nothing to concern you with Radock," Kel's eyes were stern as she looked at him, "It was nothing really."

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before speaking up once again, "Are you sure?"

Kel began to get annoyed, she was tired, annoyed, and mad and HE kept asking her questions! She replied stiffly, "Yes I am perfectly sure, now please I'm tired."

Radock looked slightly startled then nodded, "Yes, of course Keladry, I shall take my leave." At that he left her door and walked towards his room.

She sighed out loud and closed the door, a bell tolled in the distance, signaling the time, "Damn!" she cursed when she stubbed her foot, getting changed to go to sleep. A few minutes later she fell down onto her bed, pulled up the blankets and fell asleep, the gem still around her neck.

~

"Not again," she groaned somehow realizing that this was another dream of hers, "I thought they went away after I got this gem!"

Her thoughts took a different direction as the dream fully encompassed her. Kel sighed and let it, unable to do anything else.

It was dark. Too dark, she couldn't see anything.

Panic, darkness, unable to do anything.

Trapped, in an abyss of coldness.

Light, shining distantly in the tunnel.

Kel jerked her head up at the light, sensing warmness, goodness, she ran over to it, faster and faster. But the light… it stayed away, far away. "What's wrong?" her mind whispered, straining still to reach the light.

Demons emerged, hands outstretched, trying to grab her, trap her, hurt her, kill her.

She opened her mouth and screamed… but no noise came out.

Tripped.

She fell onto her knees, hands covering her face, trying to fend off the demons of the dark.

A hand, stretching out towards her.

A voice, soothing and calling.

She reached, with her entire being, and grabbed the hand, a voice whispered to her, "Run, I'll help you, it won't stay away now."

Kel ran towards the light once again, the tunnel brightening as she does, the light getting closer this time, she smiles.

Grabs her, a demon, just before the light. She screams for help.

The presence, the one who helped her, ran out and started to battle the demon.

She watched helplessly, waiting to see who won…

~

Kel awoke gasping. She had her eyes open with fright, her thoughts whirling around inside her head. Never before had she received a dream such as that one and she was scared, scared of what might come and what might happen. With a scowl she strove to ignore what she felt, I'm no coward. The morning bells rung loudly, signaling people to wake up and start the day. With a start she remembered what she was meaning to do, and got out of the bed, hurriedly changing. When she was done she grabbed her glaive and made her way towards the training grounds.

~

She arrived and looked around, of course, only men were there, practicing their weapon maneuvers. Some straightened when they saw her, curious and feeling superior to the girl. Kel ignored them all and started towards a practice dummy, her glaive held loosely in her hands.

A tall, broad shouldered man winks at his buddies and starts towards the girl, holding his sword in his hand. He blocked her way and asked teasingly, "Now why are you, fair lady, here?"

Kel looked at the man, and sighed, annoyed. She says calmly, waiting to see their reactions, "I am no fair lady, I am a knight of Tortall and I am here to practice, now if you please. Excuse me," with that she pushed past the man towards her chosen practice dummy.

He reached out and grabbed her arm, sneering down at her, "Well in Scanra we don't let weak women become knights! How weak of a king is King Jonathon for doing that?" His buddies snicker and nudge each other, coming closer towards their friend and the woman.

One of them called out with a smirk, "Hey Terry! Go and show this," says it sarcastically, "'knight' what Scanran's can do to their weak woman!"

Kel could feel her anger mounting, not only did they insult her, but they also insulted her king, and that she could not let them do. With an icy voice she said softly, "I challenge you to a duel for insults against me and my king."

The man, Terry, laughed loudly to his friends and said mockingly, "I don't think so, I might hurt you to much and send you crying back to Tortall."

She clenched her fists and slapped him, a smirk lingering on her face, "Once again I challenge you, if you don't accept you are an unhonorable cur." Really, all it seems that I have been doing is slapping people in Scanra

Terry narrowed his eyes; ears acutely aware of his friend's calls to fight the wrench and show her what Scanran's can do to weak Tortall knights. His lips curl up into a sneer and he says bitingly, "I accept wrench."

"Since I challenged you, what are the terms of the battle?"

"One on one, use any weapon you like wrench, it won't matter. 10 gold nobles to the winner."

"Agreed," with that Kel moved over to the dueling grounds, the men formed a circle around her and Terry, watching and waiting. She stood there confidently and said, "I'll use my glaive as my weapon of choice." She swung it around slightly and then moved to the side to warm up for the duel, doing her stretches, ect. Her face was emotionless, getting ready.

Terry sneered at her and did the same, though not as much as a person would usually do to warm up, being confident that he would win.

They both finished and rised facing each other, Terry had his sword out, while Kel had her glaive. He charged at her, his sword slashing down in a crescent. She stolidly pushed her glaive's blade up to counter his, and held it there. He looked surprised at the strength she was showing, him unable to push his sword down further, with a scowl he returned and lunged at her. Kel parried the sword with ease and darted in with her glaive, slashing at his chest. The only thing that saved him from losing was a frantic leap backwards. Kel, pressing her advantage, lunged in again, darting in and out rapidly, Terry franticly tried to dodge and parry each stroke.

They were both sweating profusely by now, but Kel remained confident, soon, he's tiring more than I am. Her eyes searched calmly for an opening, ignoring the frantic insults he threw at her. His friends watched tensely, knowing how bad this was going for Terry. She parried and dodged with ease, striking at him at the appropriate times, THERE! She darted in at the sudden opening, her glaive's blade hook the swords hilt and with some rapid moving she dislodged it from his hand, quickly still, she lunged in and pressed the glaive's blade at his throat, breathing heavily, "Do you yield?"

He looked at her, sweat pouring down from him and gave a slight nod, Kel disengaged her glaive from his throat and relaxed… slightly. Terry suddenly rushed at her swinging a fist, she dodged to the side, and it missed by several inches. She then grabbed his tunic, and threw him onto his back swiftly again she placed her glaive at his throat, her eyes were dark and fierce, "Some knight you are, attacking after you were beaten."

Terry didn't say anything, he just glared at her.

Kel sighed and let up, she gave a glare at him and his buddies, her voice venomous, "I thought that Scanran's knights would have more honor then you currently have." She started to walk away, thinking dark thoughts.

One of Terry's buddies ran up to her and cut her off, Kel gave a dark look at him, "What?"

He smiled at her and held out a pouch, "Here."

Surprise shown on her face, then she was suspicious once again, "What is it?"

"Just take it, it's your gold nobles for defeating Terry."

Kel looked at him closely, wondering if it was a trick they cooked up because she humiliated them by beating their friend. She gave a sigh and took the bag and opened it, shaking out the contents in her hand. There was the 10 gold nobles promised to the winner, she glanced at the man.

All he did was nod at her and grin, turning around to go back to his friends.

She watched him run away towards Terry and the others, I'll never understand these Scanrans. With that she headed back to her room to change and get ready.

~

Joren appeared from watching nearby from some shadows, a thoughtful look on his face. He glanced at the sun and saw that it was time to be heading in and walked back to the palace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

IceWind: *giggles* ooooooooo Joren was WATCHING Kel!

Kaori: *she yawns* so?

IceWind: *frowns at the rabblite* its part of the story DUH!

Raen: *sighs* Its Christmas! For once be CIVIL to one another!

IceWind: *she pouts at the hizar* but Kaori is a meanie!

Kaori: *she gives a laugh* Fine but only for today!

Raen: *he sighs and bows his head* one can only hope.

IceWind: *stands up and waves to the readers* MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

My e-mail address is flyby311@hotmail.com and put Aether Winds, so I know what the e-mail is about. Anything you want to add/criticize/comment/whatever you guys just review it… please? Thanks for listening to me ramble for that you get a candy cane *hands person a candy cane*

Raen and Kaori (hizar and rabblite) are MINE! GET IT? MINE!!! *they sweatdrop in the background* no stealing or else I'll blow you up! MWAHAHAHA! Also any other made up characters in the story are mine to, if you want to use any of them please ask before doing so, same goes for Raen and Kaori. BYE NOW!