Hello everyone again! Inuficcrzy here, with more of HTTaL. Hope you all like this one, it's a slow build to the actual plot.

Me no own nothing. Me poor. Sorry law-person.

No kibble for you.

Chap : Waking up

Cinnamon groaned softly, trying to sink back into the bed she had slept on so well last night. The light that was just beginning to show behind the mountains meant that dawn would soon be coming. Blast her internal timer. She had a time sense that was so reliable, she'd been known to correct clocks, and now that same thing was making her wake up. She pushed back the soft silk sheets and looked up to the ceiling.

The girl had to admit, this was a very---nice room. It had tones of deep green and umber for its wall paintings, making a forest effect that she found quite soothing. It was just the decorations and molding that she didn't like. It was lavish and very extravagant. The bed was huge, and she rather thought that she could sleep in a different position for six nights and not touch the same spot on it twice. It was also the most obvious guest room she'd ever been in.

If anything that she'd seen was to go by, the extremely masculine tastes for decorating in the grounds were very simple, yet oddly graceful. By comparison, this room was almost gauche, like it was meant to impress someone. She rather hoped that if she was going to be here a while, the prince would let her stay in a place more to her style.

She got out of bed and stretched. Best to get a start on the day, she thought. The girl rooted through her pack and found her joss sticks and incense holder. Taking an ember from the torch by the door, she lit three and waited till the light perfume floated up. She cleared an area of the room for space, focused her thoughts, and began her exercises.

Herb woke instantly, as he always did. There never was any groggy period for him, no drifting in consciousness. He was either awake or asleep, that was it. He got out of his sheets and dressed in his work out gear quickly. The prince was splashing water on his face when he heard the groan. It was the girl; she was getting out of bed. Damn ears, he thought to himself.

Everyone knew that he, along with all of the Musk men, had acute animal senses. But what most didn't know was that his were extraordinary, even by royal standards. The boy had once heard his father talking privately with an advisor. Nothing special, except that they were on the third floor of the fortress and he had been down by the river. He often hid this sensitivity to sound, knowing that it could be used to an enemy's advantage.

Mostly it led to raging headaches, which accounted for why he normally didn't socialize much with his subjects. He simply couldn't handle the amount of noise for long, and it made him rather irritable that something so small could bother him so much. It was also why he avoided the morning training sessions like the plague. Something about the early morning hours made the valleys echo terribly.

The girl was moving around a lot now, he heard. She was moving the night table over to the wall along with the bed. He glanced at the door connecting the rooms. He'd always wondered why those two rooms connected. A waft of air made his nose almost twitch. She was burning incense? His curiosity got the better of him. Carefully stepping over Sun-he, he opened the door.

Sun-he snorted as he rolled to his side and deeper in to the futon, debating whether or not to get up. The young boy was extremely happy his master hadn't been mad at him last night for not manning his post. Master Herb had just told him to not lose his head over a girl and had continued on as if nothing had happened.

The boy was extraordinarily grateful to have this post. It was steeped in tradition, and a very high honor. Those chosen to be a page for the prince were often brought into his confidence, and made up the closest thing the master had to friends. Lime had been the prince's first page, followed by Mint. Upon reaching the age of 12, a page could then become a manservant, part of Herb's personal guard. Herb himself would train them to become warriors worthy of their lands and holdings.

In other words, for you to be chosen for a page, the prince had to actually like you a little. That wasn't common knowledge, but once you were with the prince, you understood that fact. Two other things though were mandatory for a page of Master Herb. They had to be of noble birth, that was a given. But they also could not, under any circumstances, snore.

Sun-he, also known as Crisp, (Crispy, to those that annoyed him) was the seven yr. old son of the Lord Citronelle of the House of Rosemary. They were the rabbit clan, often sporting longer than average (even for the Musk) pointed ears and embarrassingly fluffy cottontails at the end of their spines. Crisp had short black hair, long ears, and a black tail that he often tried to hide in loose pants.

The boy finally decided to get up, rubbing the sleep from sandy brown eyes. He had still roughly an hour before the morning gong rang. He'd go down to the kitchens and flitch some breakfast for himself and the prince before anyone else was up. He rose and put on his shirt before he turned.

Crisp started, and stared out the door that led to the woman's room.

Master Herb was staring too, along with Lime and Mint. They had heard the noise and had come to investigate, but they couldn't have thought of this.

The girl was upside-down, standing on her hands. Her back was bent almost in half, as she was slowly bending her knees backwards, arching her legs so that the tips of her toes touched the floor next to her hands. It looked like a back flip in super slow motion.

Crisp rather thought he was going to be sick. That sort of position could not be normal. The next positions looked even worse. She twisted her legs and flipped herself upright, but then collapsed like her bones were made of water into another pretzel-like position. The look on her face was of intense concentration, and even though she had clearly looked at them twice, they hadn't registered at all, she was so in focus.

Herb was transfixed. What an odd, graceful kata. Such skill and precision. The girl had incredible muscle control. He'd only heard of this sort of thing from the older masters who'd traveled in their youth to India and other parts of China. They'd called it yoga, a series of movements that were supposed to increase flexibility. (Obviously it had worked, and--Herb almost winced. Gods, that had to be painful. He'd had no idea a human body could bend that way voluntarily. The amount of training required to reach such a level must have been terrible.)

He thought back to other things the masters had said. It could help cure illness, (was she sick?), and was often used by priests to worship their gods. Hmm. She wasn't Buddhist or Shinto. So what religion was this?

Mint and Lime were surprised when Prince Herb began to quietly shove them out the door. He motioned to Crisp, his curt gestures clearly saying, 'get out.' He followed them out of the room and at his signal, Mint closed the door.

"Master Herb? What's the matter?" Lime asked.

Sun-he looked very disturbed. "Master, what was she doing?"

Herb looked at them. "I've heard the old masters speak of this type of kata. Its called yoga and some use it to worship their gods." He frowned. "With such great focus and concentration, what else could she have been doing? We were disturbing her ceremony."

The younger boys nodded and blushed with embarrassment. It made sense.

"So that's why she locked the door," Lime said softly.

The prince raised a brow. "What?"

"When we heard the noises inside, we wanted to be sure she was alright. So we just twisted the knob hard and walked in," Mint explained. He flushed. "I guess we'll have to get a better lock for the door."

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Sorry it took me so long to update, I've had finals. Hope you like this chap, please review!