Disclaimer:
Do you really think that I own any of this stuff? If I did, why would I be posting it here? The first sentence is directly from the book 'Lady Knight', and there is a quote or two directly from the book, but other than that it's my writing about Tamora Pierce's characters.
Chapter 1
She nudged Hoshi to a trot.
Kel was deep in thought as she rode alongside Tobe, toward Fort Steadfast. Her thoughts weren't on the weddings she was to attend there, but on what the child seer, Irnai, had said about her best friend, Neal.
"He doesn't like surprises and the road of his life is littered with them," she had said. But other than the fact that his daughter would try for her shield, she had not said what, when, or where or anything else as to what they would be. Kel couldn't help but think about how many of these would include her, and not be all that nice. Though that seemed to happen all too often, everything always seemed to turn out okay in the end.
"What's up?" Tobe wanted to know as he noticed that her mind was clearly elsewhere.
"Hmm?" she asked realizing that someone was talking to her.
"I just said 'what's up?' you got yer head in the clouds," he informed her.
The guide and Neal were riding up ahead of them, where they couldn't hear, so Kel wasn't worried about him overhearing, and so said, "Oh, I was just thinking about what Irnai said about Neal before we left."
"About his life bein' filled up with surprises?"
"Yeah."
"You worry too much Mother. Neal's a big boy now. He can take care of his own self," came the playfully mocking reply.
"Must everyone always call me Mother?" she asked, trying to sound annoyed with the nickname she had been dubbed with a while ago.
"Would you prefer I call you 'Protector of the Small'?"
"No! Anything but THAT name! And not 'Mother' either!" she added as an afterthought.
"Then what do I call ya?"
"What do you think?"
"Dunno."
"My name perhaps?"
"And what would that be Mother?"
"Hahaha," Kel said dryly. "If you forgot then maybe you should've stayed at New Hope."
Tobe just rolled his eyes. "You DO know why we call you 'Mother', don't you?"
"No. Not really," she answered knowing perfectly why they did.
"You worry enough for all of us sometimes."
"Oh? And did you ever stop to think that maybe sometimes 'you all' don't worry enough?"
"No. I did'n know ya could 'not worry enough'."
"Well I wasn't worrying about it, simply wondering about it."
"Right."
"What're you talking about?" Neal had come back a bit, falling back into a steady pace next to Kel.
"Oh, nothing," Kel said, not wanting to bring up what Irnai had said, or her informal titles.
"Oh really?" Neal asked, raising an eyebrow.
She looked him in the eyes, scowling. "Really. Nothing," she said, staring into deep green eyes and almost getting lost. Luckily Neal looked away before she could get lost entirely and forget herself and stop scowling.
"Alright. Whatever you say."
Kel stared at Hoshi's mane, confused for a moment. She had had a crush on him as a page, but had gotten over it quickly. He was in love with her other best friend, Lady Yuki, and was to marry her very soon. Whatever had happened just then, she had no idea what it was. She shook head, about to look back up, when Neal said something.
"What's wrong?" Neal asked as he saw his best friend scowling at her mare's mane, looking as though she just couldn't find the answer to some really though problem.
"Oh nothing," she said. "Just a problem I couldn't figure out."
"Oh? D'you want to tell me about?"
"Oh no. I'm fine. I'll figure it out soon enough."
A secret she had from him? When did they ever keep secrets from each other? Or maybe he was just being paranoid and it was nothing. But it couldn't hurt to ask.......
"A secret from me?"
"No!"
It came too soon and too harsh to have been absolutely nothing, although it still did not mean that it was something......
"Oh really?"
"I'm sorry. I'm just tired, or something."
Her reply was not exactly what one would call believable.
"Well if you want to talk to me, I'm still here, and always will be."
She looked up and smiled at him. Even if she had a brief moment of confusion that she couldn't exactly have told him, at least she knew that he would always be there for her to talk to. He had always been a good friend, and it was a comfort to know that he always would be.
He smiled back at her, and then something caught his eye. "Kel get your sword!"
She grabbed it and turned around just in time to meet a stream of armed Scanrans that out numbered their group of four people, three of which were armed, a dog and a flock of sparrows.
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And I'll try to make future chapters longer, no promises though.
Okay. I'll shut up now so that you can review and go on with your lives.