Title: The Best Years of Our Lives [TBYOL]

Author: Seadragon

Genre: Humor/Action/Adventure

Rating: Pg-13

Summary: Alanna, Jon, Raoul, and Gary decide to play a little prank, you know for old time's sakes. Unfortunately, they played a prank on the wrong people… Soon, they find themselves reliving some of the most, let's say interesting, years of their lives. Oops! Next time guys, choose someone else to prank!

Author's Note: Whoot! Can you believe it? I have 91 reviews for just five chapters! That's amazing! I love you all! Oh, and I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I hope it's up to par!

That shall be all,

Seadragon.

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Chapter 6: For Me?

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"Alanna! You have got to learn some self restraint, or we could quite likely be here for the rest of our lives!" Jon shouted at a grinning Alanna. In one hand she held her sword, and she was wearing a page's training clothes. Gary and Raoul were standing a respectful distance from the sword, but laughing none the less.

The other pages were comforting a group of four or five pages who had dared to challenge the Lioness. They were really regretting it, and that is a severe understatement. The last boy she had fought, the son of a baron from down south, was near tears. She had beaten him in less than ten seconds.

She had already been given fifteen bells of punishment work for not following the drill rules, and ha Minch looked ready to give her at least five more for her little 'demonstration'.

In the drill, where they were supposed to be practicing basic staff work, she had given one boy a concussion, and broken the collarbone of another. She just didn't seem to realize that they couldn't exactly keep up with a whirlwind. Most normal people couldn't.

In some ways you could compare her to Numair. She just couldn't do small things, it was all or nothing. Asking her to do a simple drill was like asking an elephant to walk a tightrope. It just didn't happen.

With a sigh, Jon put his hands on her shoulders. "Look, I know this is hard, but you're going to have to get used to the fact that they just can't keep up with you. You have to slow down. Please?" He asked her. "For me?"

Alanna the Lioness, one of the most feared warriors in the land, nodded, and put her sword down.

Of all the men in the world, including her husband, only one man had ever been able to tame her. And that was her king.

The pages watched in awe. They could only ever dream of the Lioness being relatively calm, it barely ever happened. And when it did, you saw that she was a woman as well as a warrior, but mostly a warrior. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, because you shall meet a sticky, sticky end.

When she caught them staring, she snapped at them "What?! Do you want to fight me as well then?"

Quickly, they all muttered some pathetic excuse and wandered away. Alanna grinned again, and turned to the still laughing Gary and Raoul. "What?" She asked them, the grin becoming rather fixed.

Both choked mid laugh. They settled for getting off the fence they were sitting on and walking over to the two. "You can stop touching her now." Gary informed Jon with a smile and a superior tone.

"Oh. Right." Jon said with a nervous laugh, his face coloring slightly. His hands dropped to his side, and Alanna went the same color as him. Raoul threw an arm around her shoulder.

"My dear Lioness, you have much to learn about tact." He said in a cheery voice as they set of towards the palace.

"Oh and I suppose you'll be the one teaching her?" Gary retorted. "All she'll learn from you is a lack therefore of."

"Yes, because you are just oh so tactful yourself Gary." Jon said loftily, slinging his own arm around Alanna's other shoulder. Feeling a little left out, Gary joined in the line on Raoul's side and gave Jon a cheeky grin.

"Why yes I am, I thought you would never notice. There is a reason I'm Prime Minister, and not Raoul." He snorted. "Can you imagine? Raoul as Prime Minister? The country would be in shambles!"

"Hey!"

Ignoring Raoul, Jon replied. "Kind of like it is now, you mean? The recipe for a thriving realm doesn't exactly include the King, Prime Minister, Knight Commander of the King's Own, and the King's Champion doing punishment time."

Gary scowled at his cousin. "We are not doing punishment time!"

"Really? What would you call it then? It's certainly not voluntary." Raoul added. He was greeted with three glares.

"Obviously not." Alanna said in a condescending tone. "If it was voluntary, do you really think I would be here?"

"Well, no." Raoul admitted. "But I'm not the one that said it wasn't punishment time. That was him." He elbowed Gary in the side, causing the Prime Minister to step on his foot when he stumbled. Purely by accident of course.

"Oops, sorry!"

"Oh, I'm sure."

"That's not fair! It was an accident! If you hadn't elbowed me in the side, I wouldn't have tripped, and therefore stepped on your foot!"

Alanna and Jon edged away slowly, leaving the two to bicker in the middle of the path leading away from the Palace. By the time the two noticed, they were long gone.

"So, you think you can manage not to lose your temper?" Jon asked her teasingly.

"Think you can manage not to lose yours?" Alanna said slyly. "If I remember correctly, you have a report on obedience due tomorrow. Even I didn't get anything that bad."

"Oh no, writing a report is much worse than polishing all the weapons in the armory for three Sundays."

They were silent for a few minutes as they climbed the hill.

"You know what your problem is?" Alanna said abruptly.

"I have a problem? He asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yes." She said firmly. "You do. You let people make your decisions for you. Stop doing that. Don't you remember how much fun we had as pages?"

"Not particularly…" He replied slowly. "Mostly I just remember you getting endless hours of punishment work for fighting, you breaking every bone in your body that could possibly be broken. And, oh yes, my favorite, fighting the Ysandir."

"Hey!" Alanna protested. "The last one was your fault. You were the one who just had to ride to the Black City in the middle of the night."

"Actually, I seem to remember that being Roger's fault. In a twisted way of course. Was anything he did not twisted?"

"I doubt it." She said wryly, and he grinned.

"But yes, now that you mention it, I suppose we did have fun as pages." Jon admitted reluctantly. "More fun than we did as knights, that's for sure. At least until Roger died that is. The second time, I mean. Say, did I mention how glad I am that you killed him? Twice?"

Alanna laughed. "You may have, once, or a thousand times." Suddenly, her eyes went wide. "That's it!"

"Er, sorry, but what's it? I think I might have missed that." Jon said slowly, not quite getting what she was saying.

"I know what we can do. It would be the perfect prank!" Alanna said ecstatically, her purple eyes practically popping right out of her head in excitement. "Now, here's what we would have to do…"