Alanna
Chapter 10
Eek! As you would have undoubtly realised, I am a little late in uploading this- mainly because I have had a major exam just recently as well as several tests- yea… French is hard- sigh.
As promised- Chapter 10!
All characters except Leo and the plot belong to Tamora Pierce. Credit to her!
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Alanna repeated the moves over and over again, beads of glistening sweat slithering down her forehead. They dropped to the ground silently, and soon, a small puddle formed where they had landed.
The night was deadly silent. The lunar orb still remained as weak as before, as the crisp night air blew a little harder. The distant hooting of an owl could be heard. All seemed tranquil and peace.
Alanna picked up Lightning and went back to her sword exercises. Swinging her sword to a curve, she dashed into a series of complicated and lightning (!!!) fast strokes. Suddenly, Alanna stiffened. Someone or some people were coming. She could feel their presence. Months of living with the Shang had trained up her instinct and she now had the uncanny ability to smell up people approaching her. Alanna clenched the blade of her sword tightly. Thom's words had left a deep impact on her; she still enjoyed life enough to treasure it.
Alanna cursed inwardly. Was it a friend or foe? After talking with Thom, she had grown a tad paranoid. However, Alanna knew that her suspicions could be justified as there were many people at the castle who wished to see her dead. She posed danger to the nation, in a way, as she threatened to threw away the Tortallans conservative ideas that only men could become knights.
Alanna mentally prepared herself. She could hear the breathing of some people. 'More than one person,' she thought. Alanna pretended to be oblivious and continued to swing her sword, as though she was still practicing. Suddenly, she heard someone draw his/her (more likely to be his, she thought) sword and she sprung into action.
Alanna whirled around in the blink of an eye. The weak moonlight did nothing to help her already poor night vision, and she had no idea who it was that she was defending herself from. Her sword embarked into a series of complicated moves, meeting the opponent's sword with a clang. The opponent was obviously inadequate at night vision too, but he lacked Alanna's second sight. After a few clangs or so, Alanna knew that she had won the fight. Carefully, so as not to kill him, Alanna suddenly jerked her sword violently. The other sword flew to the ground, metres away. Alanna lifted her leg and kicked the man viciously. He fell to the ground. She grinned, satisfied.
'There! One down, but I wonder why the others didn't fight along.' Alanna thought to herself.
Alanna carefully placed her sword in front of the man, using her intuition to guess where his face was. She hovered her sword a few centimeters away from his face.
The man on the floor groaned in pain. "Mithros! Do you do this to every person who sneaks on you, Alan I mean Alanna?" he said. Alanna gasped. The voice sounded strangely, very familiar. In fact, it was…
"Gary?" Alanna queried, a little uncertain. "Is that you?"
"Of course it's me!" he grumbled. "And you should learn to differentiate between your friends and your enemies."
Alanna grinned suddenly, her feelings lifted considerably. Gary had not changed, not one bit. Just then, she heard a few chuckles. Someone (other than Gary, who was still sprawled on the ground) lit up a lamb. The whole atmosphere was immediately lit up as the lamp illuminated soft light. Alanna looked up as she swung her sword away. It was Raoul and Alex.
Alanna inhaled deeply. She was not ready for another confrontation. Two within the space of a few hours was enough for her to manage, let alone three. Alanna immediately took a few steps back.
"Now now Alanna, we need to talk." Roaul said. Road and Alex grabbed Alanna's right hand and left hand respectively and with Gary limping behind them, they guided her firmly into the castle and to one of the empty rooms there. Alanna protested along the way, but from fear of injuring her 'friends' (or ex-friends?) she did not pull away too hard. Instead, she just gave in and followed them.
The room was comfortingly bright, lit up by many candles. It was also soothingly warm, something, which Alanna needed. Gary closed the door behind him and all three of them turned to stare at her. Alanna blinked, she hated being in the limelight. Then, suddenly, a wave of emotions flooded her. Her friends- the ones that she never expected to see again… A smile stretched on her face, slowly.
The four of them broke into four-way hug. Alanna grinned happily, as she controlled the urge to let go of her happy tears.
After a long hug, the four sat down on he plush, comfortable arm chairs.
"We have to talk," Gary said.
"I know," Alanna whispered back a reply, a little afraid. 'Get a grip on yourself, Alanna!' She mentally berated herself.
"We haven't talked since… since that day…" Gary continued. "Are you okay? What happened since that day? Why are you back here?"
Alanna grinned. It was like Gary to ask so many questions.
"I am fine, though I don't think you are," She couldn't resist teasing him. However, after hearing his later questions, she became grim again. Grim and bitter. However, she continued.
"I left Corus," she whispered, "and traveled away, far away."
"Why didn't you stay near the borders? Or sent us a letter or something? We could have met!" Silent Roaul suddenly asked a question.
Alanna clenched her fist angrily. "You don't understand! Being a knight had always been my dream, my passion, it had been my future! After that… that… trial, I was broken, you understand, broken." Alanna paused. "I didn't do anything for months and then, I made the right decision, I traveled to the Shang village. It was there where I had spent the last few months at, honing new skills and improving on my old ones."
"Shang? You trained with the Shang? But they don't accept girls your age! How did you get them to agree?" Alex could not resist the question that had troubled him for that split second.
"They didn't, at first." Alanna said grimly. "I fought with the Shang dragon, almost died, but won him. Then they accepted me, grudgingly. The Shang Tiger, Leo, was my trainer."
The three knights, Roaul, Gary and Alex finally understood. However, they were all startled at Alanna's bitterness and anger. She had changed, changed all right.
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Roger of Conte drew yet another thick and ancient tome from the bookshelf. He blew of the layer of dust that covered the worn out cover. Straining his eyes a little, he turned to a page in the book and began to read.
He had began formulating a plan, not just any plan, but the plan. It had to be fool proof, and no one, no irritating knight-wannabes or talent sorcerer was going to ruin it…
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There! Finite! Quite a short chapter actually! I promise you that there is a plot, but I must first finish off these little details before I unravel it. Thanks for being patient!
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