Disclaimer: Same old thing. Only my stuff is mine. The rest belongs to the Great Tamora Pierce.

A.N. I'm really trying to improve my grammar, so please either just ignore it or tell me. Also in the last chapters, I've just noticed that the breaks didn't show up, so from now on I'll be doing them like this.-------------- Sorry about that.

Late July,

Storm Head's Peak,

Northwestern Tortall;

in the 22nd year of the reign of

King Jonathan the IV and Thayet, his Queen

461 H.E. (Human Era)

Chapter 6, The Dangers of Traveling

Linnorria surveyed her room one last time before she closed her bags. They would be leaving for Corus within the hour, and she wanted to be sure she wasn't forgetting anything. "Oh boy," she said, taking a deep breath, "Here we go." And with that she swung her bag onto her shoulder and stepped out the door.

Linya always wore her hair either down or braided and wound around her head, the later being her choice for the day. She had refused in a rather loud confrontation with her parents, to cut it in the traditional chin-length cut of a page. Her emerald-green eyes stared out in front of her, and her stride was swift and determined as she went out.

However she had only taken a few steps down the hallway when Miasma's door opened right in front of her. Miasma rushed out with a worried look on her face, murmuring all the while, "Where is it, where did it go, I can't believe this!" Her volume was rising steadily, and Linya grinned as Miasma swept by her.

"Hey Mia!" Linnorria called to her friend, wondering whether she was going to have a heart attack, "What's the problem?" Miasma let out a small squeak and swung about, her face panicked.

"Oh, it's you," she remarked matter of factly.

Linya rolled her eyes, "Well who else could it be? The Lioness? Honestly you would think I was invisible, for all the attention you pay to me."

Miasma swept her speech away with a flick of her hand. "Yeah, whatever," she grumbled impatiently. "Linya have you seen a snake around here? I seem to have lost mine."

'I knew we were going to have problems this morning,' Linya thought to herself before answering. "No, I have not seen your snake. Can you just forget it and get ready to leave? We need to go grab some breakfast. We have a long ride today." She could not keep her voice from sounding irritated, and Miasma looked hurt.

"Fine!" Miasma said roughly. "I'll go get ready and you leave the snake, but if anyone gets bitten, it's not my fault." Miasma turned and stamped into her room, shutting the door firmly behind.

Linnorria shook head, but sighed. "Okay, I'll go get the snake," she told the door. 'Why is it always me?' she wondered as she set down her bag. She sat down Indian-style, her brown breeches crinkling as she tried to keep her light green tunic from puffing up. Linya closed her eyes, imagining snakes, and took a deep breath. She reached out with her mind, searching for the familiar shape of a snake.

Suddenly she jerked her head up, her eyes narrowed and she leapt up. She ran down the hallway, her golden hair streaming behind her. Her mind pounding to the rhythm of her running feet. 'Got to get there in time. Got to get there in time.' She reached the stairs and leapt onto the banister without slowing, seemingly flying down it. Knowing that the punishment of practicing all those times would pay off if she got there in time. She leapt from the end of the banister and landed running for the kitchen. 'Got to get there, got to get there in time.' She opened the doors with a BANG! Startled cooks and maids turned to stare as she ran in. Linya barely stopped as her emerald eyes swept the room along with her senses. Her mind found it and she ran toward the fireplace along the west wall where a servant-boy was getting ready to start the fire. "Stop it! Get away from there!" she yelled as she worriedly rushed over. He had just turned around with a confused expression on his face when she pulled him away from the pile of tinder he had been about to light.

"What are you doing?" the boy yelled as he wrenched himself away from her. He took a step towards the fireplace and fierce hissing broke out from a corner.

"Get back," Linya told him coldly. The boy turned white and carefully took a step back; the he turned and ran. Shrieks came from a few of the maids and the whole kitchen broke into loud speech, but Linya heard none of it. She was concentrating on calming the snake. She hissed to it softly, slowly edging toward it. Come on, she thought as the snake stopped hissing and regarded her. Come on she told the snake telepathically. I'll take you outside.

The snake looked at her for a couple more seconds then came towards her. Straight outside? it asked her, no stops along the way? I'll be home again?

Yes, straight outside, Linya reassured it as it crawled up on her arm. She frowned as she recognized the snake as one of the more poisonous types of vipers that could be found in that area. No more moving you around against your will.

She stood up slowly, cradling her arm with the viper on it, trying to keep her arm in a position that would be comfortable for the snake. Linya ignored the stares of the cooks and the hushed whisperings of the maids. She looked up and simply said, "I'll be taking him outside now, will someone please help me open the door?" Linya heard quite a few mutterings, as maids shifted from foot to foot and cooks became quite suddenly involved with their cooking. "Well?" Linya asked again, glaring at the crowd as she started tapping her foot with impatience.

"I'll help you milady," a quiet voice said as a girl no older than 6 stepped up to open the door. "That was my brother you saved."

Linya gave the girl a reassuring smile as she told her laughingly, "Thank you dear. Please tell your brother to watch out for visitors next time, before he sets someone's tail on fire." The girl gave her a small smile before she turned and left.

Linnorria walked outside and shook her head. 'It's a good thing I'll be leaving today,' she thought, 'People here can't take many more scenes like that one from me. They're afraid of me enough already.' Then she smiled down at the snake. 'Though I must say, they were even more afraid of you than me.'

Linya stooped walking and crouched down near the gate. Okay, she addressed the snake; it's time for you to go home now. Stay away from this place in the future.

It looked up at her with black eyes then started to unwind itself from her arm. Goodbye, it whispered, then it slithered off into the bushes.

Then in the fury she felt Linnorria turned around and ran back to the castle to give Miasma a piece of her mind for scaring innocent snakes.

"Honestly!! What did you think you were doing picking up snakes? And poisonous ones at that?" Linya yelled at Miasma as soon as she burst through her room door.

Miasma looked up from her bed where she was finishing stuffing all her clothes in her bag. Her black hair was dangling loosely to her chin, where it had recently been cut to and her gray eyes looked more surprised than anything else. She sat down after a second, looking entirely innocent with a blank face in her black breeches and red tunic. "Why Linya, whatever are you talking about?" she finally said to her friend's expectant glare.

"Don't give me your 'Why Linya's.' You're the one that lost a snake, and it very well could have killed someone!"

Miasma dropped the innocent look and looked down at her feet. "Too late for stopping my Why's, I already did them," she muttered, then looked up slowly. "Sorry, I was looking for it. But then you told me to go get ready." She looked up at Linya's red face and grinned. "And we are going to be late if we don't go downstairs soon," she jumped up, putting her bag on her back, and offered her arm to her friend. "So, will you join me milady?"

Linnorria shook her head slowly. "I don't know how you managed to catch that snake in the first place," she held out a hand to stop the explanation, "and I don't really care. Just don't use animals in your tricks anymore okay?"

Miasma seemed to think about it for a moment, but seeing how serious her friend was, stopped playing and said, "Okay."

She held out her hand and Linya shook it heartily, "Okay Miasma, lets go get some breakfast before they leave without us."

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Breakfast was a hurried affair with people bustling about, making sure everything was ready for the Baron's trip to the capital. There would be a squad of men-at-arms going as well as the Baron, Linnorria, Miasma, and several servants. It was a day's ride to Corus and if they were going to get there before sunset they were going to have to start riding right after breakfast.

The two girls stuffed their food in their mouths in a most unladylike manner until the duchess reproved them. Even after that they still ate entirely too fast. Linya was the first of the two to finish and jumped up at once. "See ya' Mia," she yelled in response to the other girls' cry to wait for her. And she rushed out to saddle her horse.

"Hey Firemane," she whispered with both her voice and mind when she got to his stall. Firemane Heartfelt whoofed softly at her as she opened the door and slid in. He came over and started sniffing the front of her tunic, then stood still letting her stroke his neck. Boy, aren't you confident today, she remarked to the horse.

He looked straight at her with one of his huge eyes and answered, Since you have a carrot in your tunic, and you are here, even if I have to wait, I still know I'll get it.

You really are overconfident, Linya told the horse. Then she slowly took the carrot out of her tunic and took a big bite. She chewed loudly, letting Firemane see it all. I guess it's mine now.

Firemane had been watching her antics all the while, and stood perfectly still. But when she went to take a second bite, he whipped his head around and snatched it. I guess not, he said as he gulped it down all at once.

Linnorria laughed in delight. All right, you win, she admitted. You're getting as bad as Miasma. But we still have a long journey today, and I'm the one who will be riding.

Firemane sighed, All right, go ahead and saddle me up. But I'm still waiting for the day when I get to ride. Linnorria laughed again and got on with the job.

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Miasma looked out from her horse at the sea in pure delight. They had traveled west for three and half-hours already that morning, and had just reached the Emerald Ocean. It was her first glimpse of it and that seemingly never-ending field of moving water awed her. "It's beautiful," she murmured.

Linnorria, beside her, mounted on Firemane, heard and agreed. "I've heard it described, but it's not the same thing as seeing it for yourself."

Baron Ishraa came up beside her. "See what I meant Linya?" he asked her. "Something as beautiful and as deadly as yourself does exist."

Linya turned in her saddle and looked at her father to see his joking face. She wrinkled her nose at him and retorted, "Oh, it might be as deadly as I am, but nothing is as beautiful." Then she asked him, more seriously, "Can we rest here for a couple minutes? I want to be able to touch it."

He considered her request for a moment, weighing how much time that would take. " The horses need a rest and we'll need to stop for lunch shortly anyway, so why don't we just have an early lunch here."

"Thank you Da!" she yelled while Miasma yelled, "Thank you Baron." They both dismounted and hurriedly unsaddled their horses, then turned and with more grace than one would expect of two girls who had ridden all morning raced down to the beach.

Linnorria, in grinning triumph, won the race. She fell to her knees in senseless grace and traced her hands through the sand before hurriedly turning her attention to her boots and the process of removing them.

Miasma panted silently as she ran after Linya, but before coming along-side her friend she stopped and considered her options. She could take her defeat as if it meant nothing to her, and was simply a run for fun, but this in itself would not be fun. She could make a deal of it rather loudly to Linya, but then she would most likely end up looking like a fool. She shook her head as these plots rushed through her mind and quickly settled on the third.

Linnorria was so eager to get in the water she had torn off her boots in record time. She was just eagerly standing (already she had rolled up her pants) to run into the waves, when Miasma came up behind her. She jumped up and put both of her hands on the other girl's taller and thinner shoulder, pushing her downward. Linya, unprepared for the sudden weight shrieked and she stumbled and fell. Miasma set herself to punishing her friend in the best way she could think of…a tickle attack. She sat on Linya's legs, and caught an arm; she dragged her fingertips oh so softly across the captured arm and received a shriek in response worthy of a banshee.

"Stop it!" Linnorria shouted, barely getting the words out between howls of laughter and rage. "Oh…" laugh, "You'll pay…" more laughter followed by a shriek as Miasma grabbed her other arm as well, "For this!" she coughed out, followed by another burst of giggles.

"I won't stop until I have you begging for mercy like a starving dog does for a meaty bone. No, nobody beats me so easily."

"Wanna bet?" Linya challenged back, barely able to breathe by now. Then in a sudden burst of determination she twisted Miasma off of her and tackled her friend. She gave her a slight cuff to keep her silent as she used Miasma as a couch and reached for her magic. She got it in seconds and focused it immediately to her will, as she jumped off her friend.

Miasma curled up into a giggling ball almost instantaneously started a mixture of giggling and yelling at the invisible offender.

"See how you like it," Linnorria told her, as she watched her friend struggle to stop the spell from tickling her.

"Stop the spell Linya," Miasma wheezed between giggles. Linnorria simply raised her eyebrows and stood back. "Stop…it…Linya," Miasma barely breathed out. Linya stood while watching her friend, but suddenly her expression turned from faint amusement to concern. Miasma's face was starting to turn red from lack of breath, a color she had never seen her friend's face wear.

Linnorria crouched down and took off the spell right away. "Are you okay?" she worriedly asked her friend as Miasma sat up, coughing.

"I am now," she said as she took deep breaths. "Boy Linya," she said as she looked up at her in wonder, and for the first time, the slightest bit of fear. Linnorria winced. "You're my friend and all, but I sure don't know what that was. I couldn't breathe!"

"I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry!" Linnorria cried in a hurt tone. "I didn't want it to do anything but give you the same amount of tickling you gave me!"

Miasma stood up so she would no longer have to lean back to see Linya. "I know. But be careful will you?" she said. Then seeing the hurt in her friend's eyes added, "All I ask is that you be careful, you're still my friend. Okay?"

Linya nodded, but her Emerald eyes seemed to have dimmed to a bare flickering, instead of her normal steady glow only Miasma seemed to be able to detect.

"Hey," Miasma told her gently, "there's still a big ocean waiting for us here, and we need to see it before lunch. We only have a couple of minutes, so why don't we make the most of them."

She was satisfied to see a small smile form on Linya's face and a slight gleam returning to her eye. "Okay," her friend answered.

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They spent the next ten minutes splashing in the waves, then came back to the picnic the rest had set out as if nothing had happened. They had a nice meal of meat and cheese stuffed into a roll, though not warm, it was still pleasant enough to be enjoyable. The two girls laughed and joked with everyone there, and Miasma even tried to demonstrate her talents with juggling on the request of Baron Ishraa. Everyone laughed after that, and it was an altogether enjoyable time.

When they were packing up to leave again, Linya suddenly stood still, thinking that something was missing. "Do you hear anything?" she warily asked her father.

He had been talking to an arms-man but turned to look at his daughter at her urgent tone. "Do you hear anything?" she repeated.

He leaned his head from side to side, listening then started to say, "No, I don't hear…" Then he turned suddenly several shades whiter and finished his sentence, "anything."

Linnorria's fears were confirmed at once. When everything got quiet, even the animals, it meant something bad or strange was happening, usually something like bandits. She ran ahead, barely hearing her father start to give commands the soldiers. She reached the horses, which had remained in sight of the group the entire time. She found Firemane and quickly grabbed her bow from the pile by his saddle. He whinnied at her but she brushed him away with a no time! She strung her bow with a quick, practiced motion, then swung her quiver up onto her shoulder just as she heard the first yells behind her.

She spun about with an arrow on the string and observed the scene of growing chaos. A band of 15 to 20 men had just charged the group, arms-men had already drawn swords and stood before the servants, ready to protect them, the horses, and fight the men all at once. Her father had his sword out as well, fighting already. Miasma had whipped a knife out of some concealed sheath and was standing down in a crouching position, ready to leap into the fray.

It barely took any time for Linya to observe everything and set her bow. She shot the first arrow, carefully aiming, at one of the men trying to go around the soldiers and attack from behind. Linya heard the man's scream and saw him fall. Screams of pain and battle cries were erupting all over the small battlefield as swords cut and a few bandits were hit by well-aimed and deadly arrows.

Linya cried out in frustration. She was afraid to fire into the fray, for she didn't want to hit anyone from Storm Head's Peak but she couldn't just pick off those who stumbled, wounded too far away from the fight.

She thought of her magic and turned a sickly green, she didn't want to hurt anyone that way, it seemed to be…cheating or something. Then she looked down as Miasma faced a man with a wicked-looking axe, her knives were her only defense. She swooped under his wild swing, and stabbed him in the chest, blood ran over her hands as he fell. Baron Ishraa was in a fight with a rough swords-man, and he was bleeding from the shoulder, though in better shape than the other guy, it still tore Linnorria's heart.

"ENOUGH!!!!" she yelled over the din. There was a flash of light from her eyes as she said that, bright enough that it was impossible to go unnoticed, even in a battle. Everyone looked up at her, for just a second and stopped fighting, but that second was enough. Using the same spell she had accidentally hurt Miasma with earlier, she smote the bandits. The 8 men left alive fell and started rolling on the ground. Laughing, almost against their will, and crying out for mercy as no wound could force a man.

Miasma had looked up with everyone else, just in time to see the look of firm determination and hurt in her friend's face. She had already wounded, if not killed a man with her knife, and had thrown sand and dirt with into the eyes of another man she had just faced. She looked down at the rolling men, their faces starting to turn blue, and blanched. She had fought with a kind of glory, knowing she was fast and skillful with a knife, and even ready to kill a man; but she was NOT, not at all ready to see a man killed by a spell that was tickling him to death. She turned away and through up; and suddenly heard the noise of several others, mostly the servants, but some of the soldiers as well, copying her move.

Linya gazed down at her handy work. If you could call it that, and felt like crying, only she knew she couldn't. Her gaze was sharp, and her face unemotional, but her eyes barely held any light at all.

Figures were starting to come up the slope, the servants and guards grimly leaving the dead bandits. Some of them started bandaging their wounds, or helping their friends, but all of them firmly avoided Linya's gaze. They seemed to flow around her, all ignoring her, standing there, silently observing their movements.

Baron Ishraa came up to her, his solid figure giving off reassuring warmth. "Linya," he said quietly so only she would hear him, "It had to be done."

She looked up at him with eyes both empty and deadly. "I know," she whispered quietly, but violently. "Oh, how I know, but now they're all going to think I'm a monster." She let out a hollow laugh that had no amusement in it. "That is, if they didn't already."

Baron Ishraa almost looked lost at this. How could you comfort someone who had just ruthlessly tickled 8 men to their death? "Oh, honey," he finally said. "You protected us as best you knew how. You did what you could, and that's what counts."

Linnorria pasted on a small smile, but couldn't hold it. "I'll be okay Father," she whispered, and after something that was clearly a dismissal the Baron could do nothing. So he nodded and went to get his horse.

"Okay everyone," he said in the false voice of anyone who has just been in a battle, and has any honor at all, "let's ride out."

They rode slowly and silently, without the joyful chatter that had been there that morning, though it now felt like a thousand years had passed. Linya rode alone in what seemed to be a silent thundercloud around her. Even Miasma, who rode by her side, was quiet. Everyone but she and Baron Ishraa glanced at her like she was a wild animal with an uncertain temper, from time to time.

Needless to say, it was not an enjoyable ride to Corus.

A.N.

So, how was it? I should have had this for you on Saturday night, but then I had to go to bed. I've been reading constantly, so I haven't been able to update as soon as I would have liked. (I've gotten quite a few absolutely wonderful books lately.) I'm going to camp tomorrow through Friday, so I might be late updating next time to, but I'll try my best, depends on my inspiration.

Rubber Duck-

Thanks for still reading, and thinking it good enough to reread. I'm still really sorry about chapter five, you see, it was the end of our school year, and I didn't have much time for writing with all the projects and still have time to read and write. Well here's chapter 6 and it's my longest yet, so please excuse the wait.

Allia-

Since when have you been going by Rat Child G? Although you are one. Evelyn's good so far. So when's the next chapter coming.