Disclaimer: With everything that you do recognize let me just state that they do not belong to me, but to Tamora Pierce. Anything you do recognize belongs to me 'cos I made it up.

Just for anyone who wanted to know the pronunciation of Nuada is NU ah

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Finishing off her braid and tying it together with a leather thong, she answered the door. The Prince was standing out the door waiting for her so they could go down to the Mess Hall.

"Ready to go?" Asked Liam.

Sophie nodded and came out of the room, locking the door behind her. Both of them proceeded to the Mess Hall, looking forward to dinner.

Chapter 8

The next day started with an early morning wake up call for Sophie. Outside the birds seemed to be in hysterics, chirping deafeningly. Sophie went to the large shutters and opened them to see what was wrong. It looked to be about an hour before dawn. She looked to the source of the noise. In the middle of the courtyard were a group of birds flying together hurriedly over something. She made her way over to the racket to find an injured baby red goshawk on the ground. Its wing was at a wrong angle. It had been broken.

Sophie bent down to examine the animal as all the surrounding birds quietened down and rested around her. She touched the squawking bird and he calmed down.

: Hurts, hurts, hurts: the young goshawk was crying.

"It's alright, little one. Just stay still." Sophie told the bird. She picked the bird up and carefully brought it back into her room. Setting the eagle down onto her bed, she went into her dressing room to get a piece of cloth. Coming back Sophie wrapped the young bird in it, trying to keep him warm. He squealed a bit before getting settled into his new environment. As soon as he was settled she again disappeared into the other room coming out with a tub of something. Taking the lid off Sophie smothered the broken wing in it telling the bird not to touch it.

The goshawk did so with a contented sigh before falling asleep on her bed. Sophie sighed as she looked down at the injured bird. There was no way that she would let it go until he had healed completely but until then she had to hide the little bird from everyone.

Sophie decided that there was no way that she would be able to get back to sleep now and went into the other room to change into her page clothes, but not before checking that her little charge was comfortable.

By the time she had washed and changed into her clothes for the day, the sun was just starting to rise out of the clouds. With a flick of her hand Sophie rekindled the hearth in her room before settling down at her desk with a history book. By the time the bell rang to tell everyone that a new day had begun, she had gotten fifty pages into the book. About five minutes later Jim knocked on the door with her water and some new firewood stood in a pile at his side.

After that was done Sophie made her way down to the Mess Hall and started eating her breakfast. She was almost finished when the Prince walked in along with Aaron and Kieran. They collected their breakfast before coming to join Sophie at the table.

Aaron grinned at her. "How did you enjoy your first day as a page?" he asked.

"It was ... not as I had expected it would be." Sophie replied with the utmost care.

Aaron cocked an eyebrow up at her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Why anything you like, dear sir. Just don't expect another answer from me." Was the only reply that Aaron received from the silver-eyed girl.

Aaron laughed out loud and the pages quickly finished what they were eating before having to attend their first class of the day.

The gifted students made their way over to their class that was to train them in the way of using their Gift to their full capacity, while those without the Gift had lessons about magic.

As Sophie walked into the classroom, Tkaa the Basilisk, was standing at one end of the room. She waited until all the pages had filed in before turning towards them and introducing herself.

"As I am sure you are al aware, the king has decreed that all pages and squires without the Gift are to learn about Magic and magical creatures. I will be teaching you about magical beings and later on in the year, Numair Salmalín will be teaching you about Gifts.

"The first creature that we will be learning about in our lessons is dragons. Now Skysong has kindly agreed to come to the first class to give you all you pages what a dragon really looks like." Tkaa paused for a moment before calling out to the dragon that she could come into the classroom now.

With that announcement Skysong, dubbed Kitten by those around her, entered the room. She went to stand up with Tkaa, but instead of standing on the ground Kitten got up and stood on the desk so that everyone could see her. The dragon looked around at the children that were in the room while Tkaa started to explain about dragons.

Sophie, who already knew about dragons, took the time to study Skysong who was still a child in her own right. The silver creature stopped studying the children finally resting her eyes on Sophie. Sophie stared straight back into split-pupilled blue eyes. The dragon gave a shrill cry before quickly jumping off the table and made her way towards Sophie. When she came closer to the Lady Page, Kitten jumped onto her table and stared intently into her face.

Tkaa stopped talking before she too also looked more carefully at Sophie. The basilisk kept staring at her intently before suddenly bowing to her and continuing with the lesson.

As the lesson finished, the pages started to exit the room. Sophie followed them out and Kitten followed her out. The boys stared and this strange occurrence, but Sophie continued on as though nothing were wrong. Finally before she entered the next classroom Sophie gave an exasperated sigh and bent down to whisper something in the baby dragon's ear. Kitten nodded before trotting down the hallway, as the Lady Page entered the Maths room.

Numair Salmalín, who had gone unnoticed by all except one, had entered the hallway just in time to witness the conversation between human and animal. He froze before suddenly turning around to inform the king of what had just happened.

End of Chapter