AN: I am really mad at my exclamation point because that key refuses to work and my stupid (wants to use stronger word) computer will not let me cut and paste one either so yeah. Umm… if you see a 1 at the end of a sentence that is substituting for and exclamation point. Thanx1 Please R&R.
zella: Thank you for reviewing. Yes I am updating. Sorry it took me so long I was really busy.
The Dark Lady: Yes she gets hurt a lot in that chapter. Don't worry it won't happen as much any more. I didn't really realize how much she gets injured in this chapter. Oh well. Thank you for reviewing1
CAroLYnrOSe: Thank you. I am glad to hear you like it. I am updating now and I hope you are not disappointed.
TallemeraRane: Thank you for reviewing. Yes she does get attacked a lot in that chapter doesn't she?? Yes she hopefully will learn to defend herself. *evil laugh* Anyway, I will email you, thanx for asking.
death-by-moonlight: Thank you for another review. Ok you can pout a little. But not a lot. My sister always pouts and it pisses me off. But a little pouting is ok. Here is the answer to my cliffy and you can pout even more because I am going away for two weeks and won't be able to update. There are no computers where I am going. But I will write it down in a notebook and hopefully have one or two chapters to put up when I get back.
Arcander : Thank you for another review1 I am very glad you enjoy my story and I hope you like the next instalment of it. Don't worry about your computer, mine does that too. *glares at her computer*
Sunrunner of Summer: Thank you1 I am glad to hear you like my story so much. NO she does not end up danger prone like Daphne. Daphne always bugged me. Anyway she will not end up like her so don't worry. I will take care of it. Promise. Thanks for putting me on your favourites list and here is the next chapter…
Tanya woke to the sound of Kylaia yelling. "Raoul you ass," she heard her say. "You bring that huge dumb animal into this small little town and let it knock out a little girl. I don't believe you." Tanya opened her eyes and saw Kylaia and Griffith standing together facing a very large man in armour holding the reins of the black warhorse that had knocked her out. Beside him stood a girl in squires clothing. Tanya gasped when she realized who it must be. That was Squire Keladry, the first female page to show her true identity. And the knight must be her knight master, Lord Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Malories Peak.
She heard Griffith laugh at her gawk-eyed stare. "She's awake," he remarked to Kylaia. "Tanya," Kylaia yelled. "You're alive."
Tanya gave her a funny look. "Of course I am. If I were dead then you would be too or how would I see you."
Kylaia shook her head. "You are a strange youngster but if anything happened to you I don't know what I would do."
Raoul was studying Tanya. "You remind me of someone," he said. Tanya gasped knowing he must have met her parents. Inside she pleaded that he would not remember who she was. His face lit up. "You're eyes. They are such a light blue. Like ice on a lake. I have only seen one other person with eyes like that. Lord Marcus of Willen has those eyes. Are you related?" he asked curiously. Tanya bit her tongue and refused to answer. Seeing a look in her eye Griffith answered quickly. "We found her near Willen but I can't believe they would be related. She isn't noble." After saying that he almost bit his tongue because he and Kylaia had thought the girl might be a runaway noble.
Raoul looked unconvinced, but seeing the pain on Tanya's face he shut up. "Kel," he said to the girl Squire beside him, "go fetch us something to drink." Kel ran off and Raoul led them to a tent beneath a shady tree.
Tarak was sitting beside it, an extremely pissed off expression on his face. Tanya jumped when Kylaia whispered in her ear, "Ignore him, he just had a healing. I don't think he likes then much." Tanya started gigging, and then laughing, while Tarak glared at her.
"Now Kylaia," interrupted Lord Raoul.
"Yes Raoul, what do you want of us lowly Shangs now?"
Raoul raised his eyebrows and took a sip from the cup Squire Keladry was offering him. "Why don't you four have a drink?" he offered motioning for Keladry to offer it to them. When they all had a cup and were sipping quietly Keladry also sat with them, beside her knight master. Tanya sat in a corner and observed them while they spoke. While Lord Sir Raoul was obviously noble from the way dressed and the way he spoke but Kylaia looked more like a noble. She sat up straight with her long black hair flowing serenely down her back. She must have combed it out since Tanya last saw it; it had been full of debris. Her lilac silk pants and jacket hung loosely, moving slightly because of the breeze coming in through the tent door. Tanya thought Kylaia was the most beautiful person she had seen.
She turned her eyes to Kel. She was wearing a pair of brown breeches, and her tunic had a badge with Lord Raoul's coat of arms inscribed on it. Kel kept her light brown hair cropped short and her face was set as she listened seriously to the conversation.
"We cannot stay Raoul," Griffith was saying.
Raoul gave him an inquisitive look. "Why not?"
"Raoul," Kylaia muttered impatiently, "we have Tanya to take care of now. We need to keep moving and register in the Book of Shang."
"And where is that?"
"Raoul stop it. We have been through this before. No one but Shang may know where it is." Kylaia stood up and left as Griffith hurried to keep up with her. "I thank you for your hospitality Lord Raoul and I hope to see you again," he said before bowing to him and grabbing Tanya. He dragged her out of the tent and they hurried off towards Kylaia.
She stood in the middle of the ruined town square washing the last of the blood off her hands in the town fountain. Looking around at the devastation she began muttering. "A waste, it's all a waste."
She ran a wet hand through her hair and began walking toward Tarak. "Come on," she told him. "We are leaving." She took one look at Tanya's feet and the cut in her thigh and put her up on the horse. "You need it more than we do," she told her when she protested. Tarak was leading his horse and Kylaia was on hers. The Griffin was at the end leading the packhorse. They were just out of the gates when they ran into a squad of the Queen's Riders.
"Commander Buri," saluted Griffith. The short, dark woman on a dappled pony nodded to them and kept riding.
They were well out of the town and traveling on a small, unused road when they finally stopped for night. Kylaia was in a bad mood and immediately began collecting firewood. The look on her face warned them away. Griffith began a fire and soon had a pot of soup boiling and ready to eat.
When Tanya had finished eating he ordered her over. He lightly touched the side of her head, in between her temple and her ear. She winced when his fingers came in contact. It was very sore. He took out his magical ointment and began rubbing it in. When she began to see more clearly out of her left eye she realized how much it had been swollen. She looked at him, amazed and he reached down to her leg. "Now we had better take care of this." The cut was short but deep. Before he put any ointment on it he had to take many of the splinters out, not an easy task as it was still bleeding. Finally he wrapped it in a lot of bandage and let her walk around on it.
She smiled at him. "Thanks1" Kylaia came over, eventually tired of taking her anger out on thin air. When Tanya smiled at her she frowned. "What are you so happy about?"
Tanya's smile faded and she turned away. She heard Griffith sigh. "Don't take her anger out on her," she heard him mutter quietly. "She doesn't understand."
She didn't hear Kylaia's response and she eventually took out her bedroll and lay down to sleep. Because she had drifted off she didn't feel Kylaia smooth out her long raven hair and kiss her head. "Goodnight youngling," Kylaia whispered, before she went off to relieve Tarak of watch duty.
Tanya woke to the sound of birds chirping and the sun directly in her eyes. "I see you have finally decided to rejoin the world of the living," commented Kylaia. When Tanya had washed and dressed Kylaia took her to a clearing. "Don't I get to eat first?" mumbled Tanya. "Not unless you want to dance in it when I punch you," Kylaia told her. Tanya looked at her in alarm. Laughing Kylaia soothed her, "don't worry. You won't be fighting me for another couple of weeks." After clearing away some dead branches she wrapped both their hands in linen. "Now show me those punches."
An hour later they stopped and helped Tarak and Griffith finish breaking camp. They continued on like this for three more days until they reached the sea. Looking out on the Emerald Ocean Kylaia took a deep breath. "Smell that salt air," she mused. Griffith laughed. "Come on," he said, "we still have to buy passage on a ship."
Tanya looked at him. "A ship? We are going on a ship? Really1? 1? Where are we going?"
"Enough," Griffith wailed. "Little ones are too curious." To Tanya he said, "you will find out soon enough where we are going and that a sea voyage is not all it's cracked up to be."
When they reached the docks they found a large sturdy looking vessel in the harbour. "I wish to speak to your captain," Kylaia told the first mate. "Yes' am," he said, "right this way." A few minutes later they found themselves in the captains' quarters with the captain himself. The captain introduced himself as Rhys Ravi. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Shang masters," he said. "What would ye be wanting with a lowly ship captain such as meself?"
"We were wondering, Captain Ravi," Kylaia replied, "where you were headed?" The captain scratched at the little hair he had left. "Well mam, I be heading for the Yamani islands first," he told her.
"Excellent," said Griffith. "How much to buy passage as far as the capital?" The captain looked at him. "Well for all four of you, food and board, I'd guess about 18 gold nobles."
Tarak looked at Kylaia and she looked at Griffith. "15 and you have a deal," he replied.
The captain nodded. "Fine. Be back here with your money in 2 days. We leave at sunrise." Griffith nodded and they left the cabin swiftly. That night after an hour of the same old punches, Kylaia showed Tanya a high kick. She fell over the first few times but soon got the hang of it. "Good," muttered Kylaia. "Keep those nice and tight," she said slapping her stomach muscles. Tanya winced and tightened them. That night when she lay listening to Kylaia snore she thought about all that had happened to her since she had left her home. She had almost died when she saw the picture of her on the wall with a reward underneath it for any information about her whereabouts. She had quickly grabbed it and thrown it into a near by fire but she still worried that one of them would see one and recognize it as her and turn her in. She knew she never wanted to go back and learn to be a lady and go to the convent when she was 10. Her sisters were fine with it but she wanted a different life. She had always wanted to go with her brothers and be a knight. When that became out of the question she saw a Shang performing in a small village out side of her home town. Since then she had begged her parents to let her join the Shang. Finally, the night Kylaia had saved her life she had run away with a few apples, clothes and her favourite book. The apples and clothes were long since gone but she had kept the book with her at all times. It was small and she tucked it into her belt.
That night she dreamt of her parent's wrath if they ever found her again. She woke up in the morning, tears poring down her cheeks.
Tanya ate breakfast with a grumpy Tarak in the inn's main room gulping down her porridge quickly. "Slow down youngling," muttered the Unicorn who had just come down. Today she was wearing an emerald silk tunic and light pink silk pants. (AN: What Kylaia wears is like a Karate costume but in silk and more of a tunic than a wrapped around top. If anyone knows what to call this please tell me11) Her belt was black silk and tied at the side as opposed to the middle, and today she had a small belt knife tucked into it. The tunic was decorated with small embroidered blue flowers.
When they had finished their meal Kylaia lifted Tanya to her feet. "Up you get Tanya," she said. "We are going to get you some proper clothes." Ignoring Tanya's protests she dragged her around to about 20 shops and street vendors. When they had finally gotten enough clothes to make Kylaia happy they bought some hot cider and began walking back to the inn. They had ended up with 5 pairs of breeches, 4 shirts, 3 tunics, 5 loincloths, 2 skirts, 1 pair of silk pants like those Kylaia wore and one embroidered silk tunic, 1 silk kimono, 2 pairs of boots, and a pair of soft silk shoes like those Tanya had been wearing when she first met Kylaia.
"Umm, Kylaia," Tanya muttered.
"Yes youngling?" said Kylaia as her eyebrows rose.
"You can't spend all that money on me. It's not right."
"Actually it is right. I took you in and I am expected to do so. Besides," she added as an afterthought, "someone did something like this for me once and I am repaying them by helping you. So don't fuss." The rest of the way back to the inn Tanya sipped her cider in silence.
A day later they awoke before sunrise and mad their way to the docks. When they arrived on the vessel Captain Rhys showed them to their bunks. They had not been their hour before the ship cask off. Tanya and Griffith stood at the bow looking out onto the open ocean while Kylaia climbed the mask to the crows nest. Watching her Tanya gulped. She did not anticipate have to climb it but she knew Kylaia would eventually make her. The Griffin laughed when he saw the expression on her face. "Don't worry," he told her. "You won't be expected to climb up it that fast. I think Kylaia has some ape in her," he joked. Tanya laughed at this and looked back onto the ocean. The breeze riffled her hair as she thought about how much fun this voyage would be. Little did she know how wrong she was…
~*~
AN: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Unfortunately I am going away for two weeks and will not be able to update as there is no computer where I am going. I hope to write a few chapters in my notebook and I will type them up and post them as soon as I get home. Have a good summer and thanks again for reading1 Please review.
Saharian