::does victory dance:: Yay! Let the reviews come in!!! Yay!!! ::smiles
sheepishly:: Okay...I'll stop gloating now.
Thank you, all of my reviewers:
dragon shadows: Thank you! It's so fun writing fanfiction, and even funner getting positive reviews! I'm sorry if asking for 20 sounds greedy...I'm just so exited! my first story on its second day, getting twenty reviews! I couldn't help myself!
Teepers: Okay! I admit it! I /do/ want to write more! The lucky thing for you is the fact that I have twenty reviews already...
Enchantress Sun: Hehe...I love cliffies...they're all in the minds of the interpreters... Thank you! I'm updating!
Lady Knight Wolfy: Yeah...I love the moral-kinda-things that deal with girl power! They make me so happy! There will be more of that in this chapter. Thanks to the compliments...I love it when people compliment my word choice ::sighs:: I love adjectives.
SeaStar: Thanks so much! I can't believe you like it so much that you'd get a headache for me! ;)
Wake-Robin: Thank you! I really love tense cliffies! They make me feel happy!
rootless californian: ::cries with happiness:: Thank you! ::sniff:: I hope you won't be disappointed about what happens next...
SirPuma: ::dodges baton:: Please spare me! Here the chapter is! I typed it up all special! ::dodges again:: Just put that thing away!!!
Keladry of Masbolle: ::huggles:: thank you! I wish I could update twice in the same day without it being crappy, too... ;)
Lady Angelique of mystiqu: Yay! I'm unique! I hope you mean unique in the good way... Thanks!
::sob:: Thank you so much! I thought everyone would ignore my first fic, but I was wrong! Thank you...thank you...::sob::
To all of those who have stuck with me from my first chapter: ::FLYINGHUGGLEJPOUNCEGLOMPSNUGGLESQUISHSQUEEZETACKLE:: I love you all! Same thing for all of you who will continue to read my mindless babble!
Disclaimer: ::Yawns:: I think you all get the point. I. Do. Not. Own. Anything. Do I have to spell it out??? ::realization dawns:: Actually, considering the fact that I have to type all of this, I /do/ have to spell it all out, don't I?
Without further hesitation...
Chapter four: Advantages
Kel blinked. After believing that she was going to die, the now-gorgeous creatures bowing to her instead of killing her was a little disappointing, if not a relief. For a whole minute nothing moved. But then, as if because of a mysterious signal, all of the kneeling unicorns got to their feet, although still gazing at Kel with respect. The leader unicorn was the last to straighten its self. It took a step back, then made a trilling whinny. It almost sounded like singing.
All of the men could move once more. Their arms dropped, often weapons clanging to the ground. Jaws closed with snaps, and men shook out limbs that had fallen asleep. Four men even fell from their saddles, for they had been frozen in awkward positions. The archers' arrows hissed overhead. They had been aimed for the unicorns, and flew straight and true, but a few yards in front of each target, the arrows would bounce harmlessly off of the air.
It's a good thing we don't have to fight them, Kel thought, still in a slight daze, or else we would lose miserably.
Behind her, her friends were slowly recollecting their senses, blinking stupidly as they cautiously tested once-frozen body parts. Suddenly Dom raised his sword in the air once more. He glanced around at his fellows and raised a bellow, "Three cheers for Lady Kel!"
All of the men raised their swords or punched the air above their heads each time they shouted a "Hurrah!" In the thundering of a hundred men cheering at once, Kel couldn't even hear her thoughts.
But the cheering didn't end after three times. It went on and on.
That night Kel sat in her tent. She had wrapped herself in several layers of blankets, but was still cold. The cold had lessened a bit since their ride had ended, but it was still freezing out. She was actually a lot warmer than the rest of the men in the camp, for the unicorns had been very protective of her, and once everyone had stopped cheering, and went to set a camp, they had surrounded her tent and refused to leave. When the unicorns understood that their mistress wanted them to stop their destruction of the village, all of the smoldering buildings had immediately stopped smoking.
The dead were still out there, but had been moved into piles under shelter. In the morning groups of men would be sent out to dig graves.
Suddenly Kel heard the warning neighs of angry unicorns. The click of teeth coming together was audible, and then a squeak. Kel sighed, then got up and went to the tent flap to save Neal.
Sure enough, Neal was standing with his hands over his head and his left elbow in the jaws of the lead unicorn. Earlier, after Kel's fear of being speared to death by the immortals had worn off, she had inspected the leader enough to come to the conclusion that it was male. The height of its shoulders was about the height of Kel's shoulders, so the unicorn topped her off by about a foot. The rest of the unicorns were female, and from five to ten inches shorter than the male. Although the male had light moss- colored eyes, all of his females had eyes that were all pale purple.
Because Kel still got that wonderful, peaceful feeling each time she gazed into the leader unicorn's eyes, she had named him Nalinamar, the Yamani word for "Peace".
Kel went to Neal's aid and grabbed his right hand, dragging him away from Nalinamar. "Seriously, Neal, you have to stop making that squeaky noise whenever you're bit. It just encourages horses to bite you."
"But Kel—" Neal began to whine. Kel stopped him by covering his mouth with her free hand.
"No buts." Taking her hand away from his lips, she asked, "Why did you even come here at all?"
"You see, I just wanted to make sure that you knew why the unicorns let you live, as they would have killed us...and all of the advantages to having tamed the unicorns." His voice was smug, so she slapped him lightly.
"Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean I'll let you be cocky. Explain things to me, or you'll just answer to me on the practice courts!" Seeing his eyes widen with alarm, Kel stepped back from him. "I know about the first thing. A virgin, a young girl, can tame a unicorn if they have a good heart. Doesn't every mother tell these tales to her daughters? I do know a few of the advantages this brings: first of all, because of this we stopped the unicorns. They would have, I guess, been able to kill all of you men with no difficulty. Secondly, there's the fact that if these unicorns will obey all of my commands, Tortall has a new fighting force. Do you have anything to add to this, almighty researcher of books?"
Neal was a little surprised that she knew this much. He had been one of the only men out of the hundred or so that knew why Kel had not been frozen, been spared, then turned the unicorns beautiful. Neal had all ready been explaining this to the rest of the men for the past few hours, and so it was a shock to find that she wasn't clueless like the rest.
"Well, yes. There are more reasons," Neal replied. Then continuing in a slightly chiding manner he said, "Leave it to you, of course, to give all of the reasons that will help others! There are two other reasons.
"Which are...?" prompted Kel. She didn't really like the games Neal always played when he was going to tell someone something.
"Well, a third reason to add to your two is that people probably won't doubt girls as much, as they have been lately. You have been worried about that, have you not? They will see that there is something special that only women can do, and some might even hurry to make special groups devised of only maidens to help against Unicorn problems. For saving a hundred men, you'll also be a hero for the billionth time. Excuse me" he grinned, "You'll be a /heroine/ for the billionth time."
Kel smiled at this. She /had/ been worried, and she couldn't deny it. "What's the fourth reason, dear friend Nealan?" She drawled sarcastically. She couldn't stand his conceited attitude, for he had started to smirk again. "Well, you know...the maiden thing..."
"No. I don't know. What's your point, Neal?"
"Well, you tamed them..." he grinned suggestively.
Kel sighed and rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. Yes. He definitely was like a brother to her. Friends couldn't possibly be this annoying.
"And your point is...?" she asked him blankly, her last thread of patience about to snap.
Seeing all of Kel's "danger" signs starting to turn on, Neal decided it was time to stop beating around the bush and spill the beans.
"Unicorns can only be tamed by maidens Kel," he explained slowly, "so after you've tamed twenty of them in from of an entire company of the King's Own, no one can say you bedded your way to knighthood anymore."
"Good night, Neal." Kel's voice was low and dangerous. He left without another word besides his returned "good night".
Kel sat down on her bed roll and put her face in her hands. Of course. Leave it to Neal to point out that the entire court could no longer call her a slut. She sighed heavily and stood up once more.
Tugging her heavy cloak over her head, she decided that she needed some fresh air. She swept aside her tent flap and stepped into the frigid night air. As if to reassure herself, she stroked Nalinamar's muzzle gently.
Gazing up at the starts in the sky she breathed deeply. Although she had been irritated by Neal's second reason, she was glad that he had pointed out the first. She /had/ worried.
She glared at the night sky in satisfaction and thought almost smugly, So there is an advantage to being a girl. There is an advantage to being me.
::flinches:: I know that was terribly short! Please don't kill me! ::hides eyes with hands:: Please???
Will you review? Please? I know this is probably my worst chapter so far, but will you please have mercy? Please pity a poor soul like me? I'll post the next chapter at, umm...twenty-seven reviews.
Fanta
Thank you, all of my reviewers:
dragon shadows: Thank you! It's so fun writing fanfiction, and even funner getting positive reviews! I'm sorry if asking for 20 sounds greedy...I'm just so exited! my first story on its second day, getting twenty reviews! I couldn't help myself!
Teepers: Okay! I admit it! I /do/ want to write more! The lucky thing for you is the fact that I have twenty reviews already...
Enchantress Sun: Hehe...I love cliffies...they're all in the minds of the interpreters... Thank you! I'm updating!
Lady Knight Wolfy: Yeah...I love the moral-kinda-things that deal with girl power! They make me so happy! There will be more of that in this chapter. Thanks to the compliments...I love it when people compliment my word choice ::sighs:: I love adjectives.
SeaStar: Thanks so much! I can't believe you like it so much that you'd get a headache for me! ;)
Wake-Robin: Thank you! I really love tense cliffies! They make me feel happy!
rootless californian: ::cries with happiness:: Thank you! ::sniff:: I hope you won't be disappointed about what happens next...
SirPuma: ::dodges baton:: Please spare me! Here the chapter is! I typed it up all special! ::dodges again:: Just put that thing away!!!
Keladry of Masbolle: ::huggles:: thank you! I wish I could update twice in the same day without it being crappy, too... ;)
Lady Angelique of mystiqu: Yay! I'm unique! I hope you mean unique in the good way... Thanks!
::sob:: Thank you so much! I thought everyone would ignore my first fic, but I was wrong! Thank you...thank you...::sob::
To all of those who have stuck with me from my first chapter: ::FLYINGHUGGLEJPOUNCEGLOMPSNUGGLESQUISHSQUEEZETACKLE:: I love you all! Same thing for all of you who will continue to read my mindless babble!
Disclaimer: ::Yawns:: I think you all get the point. I. Do. Not. Own. Anything. Do I have to spell it out??? ::realization dawns:: Actually, considering the fact that I have to type all of this, I /do/ have to spell it all out, don't I?
Without further hesitation...
Chapter four: Advantages
Kel blinked. After believing that she was going to die, the now-gorgeous creatures bowing to her instead of killing her was a little disappointing, if not a relief. For a whole minute nothing moved. But then, as if because of a mysterious signal, all of the kneeling unicorns got to their feet, although still gazing at Kel with respect. The leader unicorn was the last to straighten its self. It took a step back, then made a trilling whinny. It almost sounded like singing.
All of the men could move once more. Their arms dropped, often weapons clanging to the ground. Jaws closed with snaps, and men shook out limbs that had fallen asleep. Four men even fell from their saddles, for they had been frozen in awkward positions. The archers' arrows hissed overhead. They had been aimed for the unicorns, and flew straight and true, but a few yards in front of each target, the arrows would bounce harmlessly off of the air.
It's a good thing we don't have to fight them, Kel thought, still in a slight daze, or else we would lose miserably.
Behind her, her friends were slowly recollecting their senses, blinking stupidly as they cautiously tested once-frozen body parts. Suddenly Dom raised his sword in the air once more. He glanced around at his fellows and raised a bellow, "Three cheers for Lady Kel!"
All of the men raised their swords or punched the air above their heads each time they shouted a "Hurrah!" In the thundering of a hundred men cheering at once, Kel couldn't even hear her thoughts.
But the cheering didn't end after three times. It went on and on.
That night Kel sat in her tent. She had wrapped herself in several layers of blankets, but was still cold. The cold had lessened a bit since their ride had ended, but it was still freezing out. She was actually a lot warmer than the rest of the men in the camp, for the unicorns had been very protective of her, and once everyone had stopped cheering, and went to set a camp, they had surrounded her tent and refused to leave. When the unicorns understood that their mistress wanted them to stop their destruction of the village, all of the smoldering buildings had immediately stopped smoking.
The dead were still out there, but had been moved into piles under shelter. In the morning groups of men would be sent out to dig graves.
Suddenly Kel heard the warning neighs of angry unicorns. The click of teeth coming together was audible, and then a squeak. Kel sighed, then got up and went to the tent flap to save Neal.
Sure enough, Neal was standing with his hands over his head and his left elbow in the jaws of the lead unicorn. Earlier, after Kel's fear of being speared to death by the immortals had worn off, she had inspected the leader enough to come to the conclusion that it was male. The height of its shoulders was about the height of Kel's shoulders, so the unicorn topped her off by about a foot. The rest of the unicorns were female, and from five to ten inches shorter than the male. Although the male had light moss- colored eyes, all of his females had eyes that were all pale purple.
Because Kel still got that wonderful, peaceful feeling each time she gazed into the leader unicorn's eyes, she had named him Nalinamar, the Yamani word for "Peace".
Kel went to Neal's aid and grabbed his right hand, dragging him away from Nalinamar. "Seriously, Neal, you have to stop making that squeaky noise whenever you're bit. It just encourages horses to bite you."
"But Kel—" Neal began to whine. Kel stopped him by covering his mouth with her free hand.
"No buts." Taking her hand away from his lips, she asked, "Why did you even come here at all?"
"You see, I just wanted to make sure that you knew why the unicorns let you live, as they would have killed us...and all of the advantages to having tamed the unicorns." His voice was smug, so she slapped him lightly.
"Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean I'll let you be cocky. Explain things to me, or you'll just answer to me on the practice courts!" Seeing his eyes widen with alarm, Kel stepped back from him. "I know about the first thing. A virgin, a young girl, can tame a unicorn if they have a good heart. Doesn't every mother tell these tales to her daughters? I do know a few of the advantages this brings: first of all, because of this we stopped the unicorns. They would have, I guess, been able to kill all of you men with no difficulty. Secondly, there's the fact that if these unicorns will obey all of my commands, Tortall has a new fighting force. Do you have anything to add to this, almighty researcher of books?"
Neal was a little surprised that she knew this much. He had been one of the only men out of the hundred or so that knew why Kel had not been frozen, been spared, then turned the unicorns beautiful. Neal had all ready been explaining this to the rest of the men for the past few hours, and so it was a shock to find that she wasn't clueless like the rest.
"Well, yes. There are more reasons," Neal replied. Then continuing in a slightly chiding manner he said, "Leave it to you, of course, to give all of the reasons that will help others! There are two other reasons.
"Which are...?" prompted Kel. She didn't really like the games Neal always played when he was going to tell someone something.
"Well, a third reason to add to your two is that people probably won't doubt girls as much, as they have been lately. You have been worried about that, have you not? They will see that there is something special that only women can do, and some might even hurry to make special groups devised of only maidens to help against Unicorn problems. For saving a hundred men, you'll also be a hero for the billionth time. Excuse me" he grinned, "You'll be a /heroine/ for the billionth time."
Kel smiled at this. She /had/ been worried, and she couldn't deny it. "What's the fourth reason, dear friend Nealan?" She drawled sarcastically. She couldn't stand his conceited attitude, for he had started to smirk again. "Well, you know...the maiden thing..."
"No. I don't know. What's your point, Neal?"
"Well, you tamed them..." he grinned suggestively.
Kel sighed and rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. Yes. He definitely was like a brother to her. Friends couldn't possibly be this annoying.
"And your point is...?" she asked him blankly, her last thread of patience about to snap.
Seeing all of Kel's "danger" signs starting to turn on, Neal decided it was time to stop beating around the bush and spill the beans.
"Unicorns can only be tamed by maidens Kel," he explained slowly, "so after you've tamed twenty of them in from of an entire company of the King's Own, no one can say you bedded your way to knighthood anymore."
"Good night, Neal." Kel's voice was low and dangerous. He left without another word besides his returned "good night".
Kel sat down on her bed roll and put her face in her hands. Of course. Leave it to Neal to point out that the entire court could no longer call her a slut. She sighed heavily and stood up once more.
Tugging her heavy cloak over her head, she decided that she needed some fresh air. She swept aside her tent flap and stepped into the frigid night air. As if to reassure herself, she stroked Nalinamar's muzzle gently.
Gazing up at the starts in the sky she breathed deeply. Although she had been irritated by Neal's second reason, she was glad that he had pointed out the first. She /had/ worried.
She glared at the night sky in satisfaction and thought almost smugly, So there is an advantage to being a girl. There is an advantage to being me.
::flinches:: I know that was terribly short! Please don't kill me! ::hides eyes with hands:: Please???
Will you review? Please? I know this is probably my worst chapter so far, but will you please have mercy? Please pity a poor soul like me? I'll post the next chapter at, umm...twenty-seven reviews.
Fanta
