Author's Note: Another Chapter! Yay! And reviews! Yippee!! I like reviews. Very nice. Thank you so much to my reviewers!

Alice and Lioness Fury: Yes, you two are right about Lord Wyldon quiting in "Squire" I had forgotten that. I haven't read the books in about a year and am in the prossess of buying them as well as getting them from the library until I can buy them. So I will try not to make any more major mistakes like that. But, for the time being, we will just pretend that Lord Wyldon stuck around a while longer. ; We all have good imaginations, right? hehe. thanks for pointing that out though.

Sam: Yes! Another girl page! You made me think of it actually. lol. Thank you so much! I know what you mean about whether she should get with Dom or Neal! I always thought Neal but now have read some awesome K/D ffs and am having second thoughts. Yes, I do think this will be a romance... or at least a little bit... but I don't know the couple for sure yet. I do have a bit of an idea, but I guess you will just have to wait to find out what it is. .

Shadows and Levaire: Thank you so much for your reviews! Even just hearing that someone likes my story is very encouraging. Thank you! .

Alright! On with the story!

Chapter 3

Kel got up before dawn as usual. After a quick stretch she went to wake Tobe up. Even after being with her for three years he still was not used to waking up at the same time that Kel did every morning.

"Do I have to?" He muttered as he pulled his blanket up over his head.

"It will be your fault if you get slow then," Kel answered, her hands on her hips.

Tobe grumbled to himself as he hauled himself out of his nice warm bed. After they both got dressed they got their staffs and worked on some simple routines. After they had finished this routine Kel began teaching him one of the most complicated routines that she knew. She had gotten half way through teaching it too him when someone started knocking on the door.

"Kel?" She recognized Neal's voice right away. "Come on Kel, open the door."

"What do you want?" she asked as she yanked the door open.

"Oh you are awake." Neal grinned at Kel as she leaned against her staff.

"Yes, did you want something?"

"Wow. Is she always this cranky in the morning?" he asked around Kel, looking at Tobe.

"Only when she has been interrupted," the boy replied.

"Oh I see," Neal answered. He looked at Kel again. "Are you going to make me stand out here all morning or can I come in?"

"I should just make you stand out there," Kel growled as she moved to the side so Neal could enter. "You might want to sit out of the way though, because I am going to finish this routine whether you are here or not. Tobe, you can finish learning it tomorrow."

Neal and Tobe sat quietly on the bed as they watched Kel start the routine over again. As they watched Neal felt his mind wander.

She is really very good at this, he thought. Well of course she is, Queenscove! She has been doing it for years. But she makes it look so easy. She is so graceful with it. As long as you don't notice the determined, get-in-my-way-or-I'll-beat-your-brains-out look on her face. Ah, her face. So—

"Neal?" Kel yelled.

Neal jumped and looked up at her.

"What?!" He cried.

"Oh good. You are still alive there," Kel answered, putting her staff away. "Are you coming for breakfast?"

"Oh, yes." Neal stood up and the two of them said good bye to Tobe and headed for breakfast.

After they had eaten they went to the training yard where Lord Wyldon was drilling the first year pages at sword fighting.

"Your balance is all off Terris!" He was yelled at the new girl as she raised her sword to block her opponent's attack.

Kel quickly looked the girl over. The girl was not as big and strongly built as she was. She was thin and somewhat lanky. Her hair was still long and pulled back in a horse tail. Many strands of the black hair were falling out of the tie and in her face. Her green eyes flashed as she was trying to get her balance as well as block another attack from her opponent. In doing this she completely lost her balance and fell over. The boy she was fighting held his sword over her in the "kill" position.

"Terris! If you would have paid attention when you first started training here then you would have known to keep your balance. You need to keep your feet apart. If you put your feet together then you lose both balance and leverage," Lord Wyldon told her as she stood up.

"Yes, my lord," she answered before standing in line with the rest of the pages again.

Lord Wyldon then chose two more pages and had them fight each other as well. While he was doing this Kel walked over to the girl page.

"Terris," she said.

The girl turned around. As soon as she saw Kel her jaw dropped.

"You are the Lady Knight," she said, her voice barely audible. Kel smiled and nodded.

"Yes, that I am," she answered. "What is your name?"

"Sonya of Terris," she replied. "Not a knight worthy name."

She looked down, her voice sad.

"Sure it is!" Kel cried. "Who would have thought that Kelandry of Mindelan would become a knight. Kelandry isn't a very knight like name either."

"Sonya is too girly," Sonya answered not looking up. "And I'm not good at and of the fighting. I'm the worst page in my year. In the class room classes I am the best student, but in fighting? I can't beat anyone."

"Do you exercise extra to keep up with the boys?" Kel asked. Sonya shook her head, no. "That is what I had to do. Every morning I woke early to do a few sets of push ups as well as various weapon routine. I did have a bit of background in some weapons which helped a lot."

"Lady Kel!" Lord Wyldon called to her. Kel looked up to see what he wanted. "Would you take over the staff fighting today? The king wishes me to go speak with him."

"Yes, sir," Kel answered. She looked at Neal who had been standing quietly next to her half listening to her conversation with Sonya and half watching the pages practice. He smiled at her and then the two of them led the pages to the staff training area.

"How good are you with these?" She asked the pages. The tallest page of the group stepped forward.

"I'm the best in our year," the boy said smugly. Kel guessed that he was one of the trouble makes of the group.

"Well, how good is that?" Kel waved him over to her. "What is your name?"

"Devon of Sendila," he answered.

"Fight me," Kel commanded taking a fighting stance.

An almost scared look flashed across the boys face, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Quickly he got into a fighting position and attacked. Kel quickly lifted her staff to block him. He stuck again. She blocked again. He swung the staff over his head to and brought the staff down at her. She easily blocked it and then, using a handy move she had learned many years earlier, twisted the staff out of his hand.

"Your grip is too weak," she told him. "Neal, grab a staff and come here."

"Oh no, you have beat me too many times," Neal said taking a step back.

"We are going to do a demonstration," she said firmly. Then somewhat softer added, "I wont hurt you too badly."

"That makes me feel so much better," he muttered as he snatched a staff and walked over to her.

"Watch us," she commanded. "Notice the position of our feet and our hands on the staff."

She waited for Neal to make the first move. He did. He attacked, she blocked. She attacked he ducked and knocked her feet out from under her. She easily rolled and came to her feet again in a crouching position. The two continued to fight at a quick pace making it hard for the watching pages to see the moves they were making and the position their feet were in with these various moves. After a short time Kel managed to pry the staff out of Neal's hand and it flew through the air towards the pages. Sonya caught it before it could hit her on the head.

Kel turned to face the pages who stared at her awestruck. They had all heard about her, but they had never actually seen her fight.

"Now I want you all to pair up a safe distance away from others and try it yourselves. Neal and I will come around and see how you are doing," she told them. She wondered why she had said that Neal would help her as she watched them pair off.

If I am planning on accepting this position I will need to be able to do this by myself, without Neal's help. She told herself. Oh well. He can help today.

As the pages started fighting together she and Neal walked among them each giving advice and each of them taking a page to practice with them every now and then. Kel worked with Sonya especially. The girl was right; she had very little skill at fighting. By the time the pages had to go to their archery session Sonya could at least block much better than she had been able to before.

"Well, that was interesting," Kel commented as she and Neal walked back to the palace.

"Yes, I think you make a great instructor," Neal told her.

"Really?" she said. Neal nodded. "I do enjoy teaching people."

"So just take the job," Neal said. "The worst that could happen would be that you could totally hate it."

"That's encouraging." She rolled her eyes at her friend. "But I think I will do it."

"Just please don't beat the kids as much as you do me. You beat me more than Lord Wyldon or anyone else ever did in the practice ring."

Kel grinned.

"Well, it made you quicker, didn't it?" she pointed out.

"Well, yeah. I guess so," he said slowly.

"So then it wasn't all bad." She punched him playfully on the arm then started running toward the palace.

"It still hurt!" Neal called after her as he began running after her.

A/N: Reviews are really really nice! .

Kitty