Aether Winds
Chapter seven- The Arrow's Fall
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.
IceWind: *bounces up happily* HEY PEOPLE! I'm BAACKK!
Kaori: *blinks and asks boredly* where did you go?
IceWind: eh? Errr… nowhere…..
Raen: *he pads up, still sulking, before lying down without saying a word*
IceWind: *sighs* RAAEEENNNNN! SOON! I promise!
Raen: *he sighs and turns his head*
Kaori: *snickers at IceWind* HA! Look what you did!
IceWind: AHHH RAENN!!!!!
Raen: *ignores her and turns to the readers saying softly* Thanks to…
Ti-Ti: Thanks, and the poem? Errr… its just what Kel's thinking right then. *shrugs* hey I thought it was a good idea at the time! And Raen will get in at the time I NEED him to come in! He's just a sore-butt hizar *snickers*
RedRosettes: …what else is there to say except thanks? Lol
Anya: ….ok….
Xelena: AHHHH! NO DON'T! or else I'll sic Raen on you! *Raen snorts and turns away* Err… never mind about that! ^.^ Fine you AREN'T grateful (when did I say that you were? Lol)
Anni: You think so? AWWW THAT'S SO NICE! And I agree completely with the Joren and Kel thing lol, I will never just make them do that. *chuckles*
Raven: Hard? OH NO! (actually I think so to since I'm keeping a lot of secrets from you guys lol) and it does take some time to actually write the chapter, it would be great to finish it in like… I don't know a day, but for me, that's not possible. (unless I write all day of course) I also know what you mean about waiting for someone to finish a story ^.^ I wait alll the time lol.
.: You'd think that people would leave at least something longer then a period for their name! How am I supposed to reply???? Hehe. Anyway, thanks and actually… I am developing one, just one that takes a long time!
Lady K: Err… sorry for the no more chapters' thing… here's another one though! And about the Kel suggestion with Radock… maybe I'll think about it. It's a good idea though. And, I AM writing more! As fast as I can alternating between stories that I have to write lol. I have a Sailor Moon one (it's a dark angsty fic though) that I'm writing, and 2 originals that I haven't been paying attention to at ALL lol.
ACK: AHHHHH! I messed up? Lol. What would she call him then? O.o; anyone know? I don't believe that I know (or I forgot).
Larzdinn: You guys will find out soon what aether means! Hehe, and WHAT? Oops! My mistake! I'll go correct it soon or something lol.
Squire Kali: AHH! I have a good excuse! My mom doesn't let me go on the compy (even if I sneak on) on the weekdays because she says I need to study! *pouts* sooo not fair dont'cha think?
I say that I won't post the next chapter unless I have at least… 9 reviews this time! ^.^ I LOVE getting reviews! They are fun to read and encouraging also!
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Here's a summary for the story so far for people confused:
Kel has been having strange dreams for a while now and after one about a white tear drop crystal she finds the exact same one on her bed in the morning when she wakes up. She is… in shock really, but quickly forgets about though it did do some magic thing and transformed into a tear drop necklace so she could carry it around with her. She goes to the practice grounds, beats up Neal, Owen, and Cleon, before Joren comes along and tells her that they have to go see the king. They go to see the king who tells them that he is sending them out on a mission to Scanra to spy, they don't know why but since they are knights they can't question the king (in this story ok? Lol). So they both leave to go spy on Balor, the king of Scanra. While they are there, they think that Darial (king's weapon master) is suspicious and they spy on him and Balor talking about their plans together. They don't know exactly what the two or planning but they are cautious and think it might be something big. In the mean time, Radock (the first king's advisor) seems to like Kel, though Kel doesn't like him, and annoys her greatly. Joren is just hanging around flirting with other women trying to get info and the dreams still come to Kel, in her last one she had a strange poem she can't figure out. Right now Joren and Kel are going for a ride to discuss the information they found out.
On to the story! (hey im BAD at summaries ok? Gimme a break!)
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Kel grumbled to herself as she followed Joren into the stables. It was a nice, well-kept, and well-lighted place, the smell of horses and hay drifted up to her nose as she walked in and took a look around. Joren was talking to the chief holster: Grandell, about the horses, she walked past them and moved towards the stable paddocks, looking in and peering around inquisitively at the different horses.
A loud stamping sound entered her ears and she began moving towards it, curiosity in her gaze. As she put a hand on the door, about to look in to see the horse, someone suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked her back. Kel looked up startled into the dark brown eyes of Grandell, who was scowling down at her. An angry look entered her eyes as she jerked back her arm from his grip. Joren, who was reclining against a wall, waiting for the horses, was watching them and smirking to himself. She forced herself to calm down, taking even breathes as she asked Grandell, only slight irritation showing in her voice, "What's wrong?"
Grandell looked slightly annoyed, brushed back his hair in a sign of nervousness, answering her calmly, "Don' go near that 'un. She's a killer," his was a rough country voice, more inclined to horses then to people.
Kel raised a brow, answering him smoothly, "I shall pick my horse that I wish to ride, I haven't even seen the one you call a 'killer'. Shouldn't I take a look first?" A loud whiney burst through the solitude of the stable, coming from the paddock that Kel had been trying to get into. Kel put on an emotionless face, looking like she didn't even hear it.
"Mi'lady! You'se crazy! That 'un aint fit for a noble suchus yourself!" his answer was vehement, and yet, sincere at the same time.
Joren gave a small smirk, waiting to see what Kel would do, or say, next. He was enjoying this little episode, it made Kel look like crazy, trying to ride a horse too rough for noble women, but he was getting slightly impatient, this looked like it could take a while and he was wanting to go for a ride. Finally he barked out at them, "Let the fool chose her own horse Grandell! We're in a hurry." He gave a glare at Grandell when he started to open his mouth to protest, nether the less, when Grandell saw the glare he shut up pretty quickly.
Grandell folded his arms obstinately, watching Kel, not saying anything at all.
She raised a brow at Joren, who looked impatient and shot a glare at her, before turning to the door, calling out softly to Grandell, "Hey, I have to look at the horse first ok?" Kel walked towards the paddock and looked over it, there stood a gorgeous little filly.
The filly was snow white in color, with almost perfect conformation. Her forehead was broad and her eyes wide apart, some think that was a sign of intelligence others thought that it ruined the look of a horse. The horse eyed Kel, hostility shining clearly through her ice-blue eyes. It wasn't a big horse, not big enough for a knight riding with armor, she was only a mere 15 hands tall while knight's horses range from 16 to 17 hands. The thing detracting from the filly's looks, were her temper and the obvious signs that she wasn't well taken care of. There was dirt and other things muddying up in her coat, and the filly's mane and tail was all tangled up.
Kel suddenly gasp as something registered in her mind, the filly has BLUE eyes, that was strange since most blue eyes, white furred animals were deaf and this horse could clearly hear. All Kel did was knock on the wood to confirm if the filly was deaf and the horse swiveled her ears towards Kel. She gave a look at the filly's condition and suddenly shot a venomous look at Grandell, "You didn't take care of her! What kind of hostler are you anyway?"
Distemper showed on Gandell's face before he answered her, "Nun of us could get ere her! How could've we kept her looking nice?"
She broke off her glare, turning back to the horse and unlocked the gate, slipping inside. Joren looked surprised for a second and slid nearer to the paddock, looking to see what would happen to her.
Gandell cried out, "No! Mi'lady don' know what the filly ken do!"
The filly reared as soon as Kel entered the paddock, hatred in her gaze. She stood there motionlessly, watching the filly eye to eye, hazel to ice blue. Joren stood next to the door, looking on tensely, not liking this at all. The filly when back to her feet, but her ears were still laid back, and her feet were still not close enough to strike out at Kel. Kel just continued to watch the filly, aware of her every shuffle, every toss of her head. Her necklace shone softly unnoticed by the men, but the filly eyed it. Kel stood there hoping and wishing, yet ready to dodge the minute the filly looked like she was going to attack, If she just trusted me…
Her necklace swung slightly from her neck, the filly's eyes moved down from Kel's to it. None of the others were aware of the necklace, only of the horse who was coming dangerously nearer to Keladry. Kel stood her ground, bravely facing down the filly.
Slowly the filly approached Kel, a single step at a time. Her head was lowered slightly and her ears were still laid back against her head. Kel, seeing the slight improvement kept still and very slowly raised her hand, eyes locked onto the approaching horse's figure.
Joren stood by the paddock door, his eyes narrowed slightly, that fool Mindelan, she's going to get bitten, or worse, kicked… not that I care, but it will impair the mission if she gets hurt. He stood silently, ignoring the nervous stable master beside him.
The horse stopped a step away, ears now slightly relaxed, but not totally away from their laid back position. She shuffled slowly, slightly confused about the still human in front of her. Suddenly the filly stretched out her neck and softly lipped the hand, still cautious.
Kel smiled lightly and calmly rubbed the filly's neck, who now nickered lowly, but other then that, didn't do anything. She looked behind her to the stunned stable master and the totally emotionless Joren, asking the former, "What's her name?" The filly moved closer to Kel, sensing a friend, her ice blue eyes not roaming over Kel's body, nostrils slightly flared, taking in her scent.
Grandell nervously cleared his throat, eyes still shocked, "Arctic Wind mi'lady."
Kel gave a business like nod, making the filly shy for a moment before returning to her. She gave a comforting pat on the side of the neck, grimacing slightly when her hand got dirty, "Give me a curry brush."
Joren glared at her while Grandell hurried away to do what she asked, "Mindelan! We have to go! No time for you to clean up your new best friend."
She scowled at him, rubbing Arctic Wind between her ears now, "I will clean her up and you will not even think about deterring me!"
He said warningly, "Mindelan…"
"Go sit down and wait Joren!"
Grandell came back hurriedly with a bucket of warm water, a curry brush, and several other cleaning tools, placing them out of the paddock door. Kel walked over and grabbed them casually, walking back to Arctic with a smile, now ignoring Joren completely.
His eyes narrow, but seeing as he couldn't do anything, he sat down on a pile of hay, thoughts running through his head, anger directed towards Kel and that little white filly who was currently nickering happily at her.
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Joren snarled out at her when they started to ride down the trail, heading towards a nearby lake, "What took you Mindelan? Don't you care about what we have to do?" He was riding a tall, 16 ½ hands tall, pure black stallion who wasn't only handsome, but whose gates were as smooth and perfect as his looks. The dark blue eyes, looked around, and his walk had a constrained manner in it. Surprisingly his name was Demon Wind, which was why Kel insisted that Joren pick this horse (well also the fact that she thought it was cute that both Arctic Wind and Demon Wind had blue eyes…). Humph, the only reason why I picked this horse was to get her to shut up about it.
Kel looked behind her and gave a slight grin at him, "Of course I do Stone. It's just that we aren't doing anything to important and could wait a bit before setting off to talk about what we found." Her forehead creased slightly as she contemplated something, "Hey, how are we going to tell King Jonathon anyway about what we have found?"
He smirked at her in a way that always got her annoyed, "You weren't paying attention were you when they told us what to do." His smirk got bigger as he saw the slight blush that stained her cheeks at that remark.
She snapped at him quickly, "Of course I was paying attention! I just… err… forgot!" Bad thing to say, now he'll say something like: Figures Mindelan, your memory is as bad as your IQ. She gave an inaudible sigh and sure enough….
"Figures Mindelan, your memory is as bad as a taurus is stupid."
Inside she was laughing on how close she came, on the outside though, she glared at him mildly, deciding to ignore that comment with dignity. She calmly repeated herself, "How are we going to tell King Jonathon?"
Joren ran a hand through his hair and asked coldly, "Do you think that we are the only one's that the king has stationed here?"
"Well no, but…."
"Don't interrupt Mindelan," out of the corner of his eye he saw her scowl at him, but he continued on, "We write up a report stating what we have found and I'll slip it to one of them to give back to the king personally."
She gave a slow nod, "What if someone finds out."
He stopped his mount abruptly, Demon whinnied and shook his head, but kept still. Joren said bitingly, "They won't."
Kel pursed up her lips and continued on in silence, after a while of silence she saw the lake through some of the trees. Arctic Wind started to pick up her gate, now trotting towards the water to get a drink. Demon Wind followed, his gate just as enthusiastic as hers was. He caught up and started to trot next to Arctic.
Suddenly time seemed to stop for Kel, everything she saw became sharply in focused. The smells became more apparent, her hearing grew sharper, and her eyesight grew better. She wondered to herself with alarm, opening her mouth to talk to Joren when she suddenly heard the sharp twang of a bow releasing an arrow. Unthinkingly she threw herself out of the saddle towards Joren, knocking him to the side.
Pain…
Pain lanced through her shoulder as the arrow slammed though it, Joren unthinkingly shoved her back to her saddle, glaring at her angrily, not knowing why she knocked him out. In the far reaches of her hearing she heard the muffled curse of the would be assassin and his steps as he fled from the area. Slowly her senses returned to the norm and she gave a soft yelp and moved her hand to her shoulder.
"Mindelan! What in the gods name did you do that….." his voice trailed off as he saw the blood seep through her fingers and making trails down her clothing. "Shit!" he gave a frown, his eyes slightly wide at the sight of an arrow protruding from her shoulder, "Can you ride to the lake?"
Kel gave a pain filled nod and tapped Arctic Wind with her heals, the horse now walking hurriedly, as if she sensed that something was wrong, to the lake. Kel drifted in and out of consciousness, the blood loss affecting her greatly.
They reached the lake and Joren hopped off Demon Wind, quickly tying him to a tree before going to Kel. His eyes narrowed at the amount of blood gushing out from her wound and quickly helped her down, "Fuck!" his eyes quickly took in the fact that she was almost unconscious, "Kel, by the goddess, you better stay awake!"
She gave a weak nod, now lying down by the side of the lake. Joren tugged off her outer tunic and surveyed the wound, ignoring the fact that Kel was almost naked.
He muttered to her softly, "This'll hurt…" and quickly yanked the arrow out, and quickly stopping the blood with a piece of cloth that he cut off from his own tunic.
She gave a low scream as she felt the arrow slid out from her shoulder and half sat up, lying down again quickly. Kel gave a low moan in pain, and tried to hide it, vainly putting on a thin mask of indifference. I've been away from the islands to long…
Joren once again cursed, his eyes hard as he began to clean the wound carefully, "Mindelan, how in the goddess name did you know that arrow was coming?"
Kel gave a weak smile at him and whispered, closing her eyes, "Would you believe pure luck?"
He started to shake his head until he realized that she had fallen unconscious in his arms, Joren grimaced and quickly checked her pulse, the wound couldn't have been that bad… Her pulse beat against his tough steadily, and he determined that she fainted because of the blood lose, I didn't think that it was that bad or else we would have stopped where she was hit.
Leaves crackled under the sounds of footsteps to his right, and he jerked up his head in a mild glare before his face betrayed his sudden shock. Kel mummered in his arms and shifted restlessly, but he ignored her.
For what approached them was a bunch of guards with an emotionless Darial at its head. All of them bore swords and all of them advanced slowly towards the two.
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A/N:
IceWind: HAHAHAHAHA! I'm soooooo evil! I left it at a cliffhanger! ^.^ Poooorrr Kel! *sniffs* she got hurt, did ya see? I'm sorry that this chapter came out late, and it wasn't really that long….. But you know parents and school *sighs* Anywayz, how did you guys like this chapter? It was weird ne?
Kaori: *she yells* It's always weird!
IceWind: *gives a glare* it is NOT! Just ask Raen! *turns to the lying down Raen* right?
Raen: *turns his head and ignores her*
IceWind: err……
Kaori: *doubles up and laughs* HAHA! See!
IceWind: *snarls at her and kicks her into a garbage can* THERE! *turns back to the readers* anyway… I don't know WHAT I'm going to do with the horses, it was a spur of the moment idea lol. Strange though aren't they?
Kaori: *kicks inside the garbage can angrily*
Raen: *ignores everything around him*
IceWind: *blinks* ehhh… hehe! ^.^ Err… I have a question. *points down to Question* Ok? Ja!
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Question
Does Joren have the gift? (If he does then I screwed up, but I will find a way past that lol)
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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 an apple pie *hands person an apple pie*
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. ALSO, the poems that appear in the story are also mine (duh) I'll tell you if I use any that aren't. BYE NOW!