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Disclaimer: Do I really need one of these? The characters that you may recognize belong to Tamora Pierce.

On with the story!!!!!

Chapter 2

The next morning, the Riders woke up before breakfast to engage in their daily exercises. This specific morning, the Riders practiced staff fighting and sparred with the men of the Own. The three Rider women proved to be just as good as the men. Melly proved to be an expert with no one lasting more than ten moves on her part. The Riders ate breakfast and were saddled and ready to ride out when a courier rode in from Fort Mastiff. The messenger found Melly at the gate.

"Milady, Lady Melody, correct?" He asked unsure.

"Yes, I am Lady Melody. What is it that you need to tell me? Make it quick we need to get on the road." Melly seemed irked to be delayed.

"Well, Milady, Lord Roaul sends this and to tell you to read it immediately. He says that he doesn't care how big of a hurry you are in." The messenger seemed worried about giving such a message to a noble, but seemed relieved when Melly grinned.

She took the letter while grumbling, "He would say that."

The Riders were trying hard not to laugh. Their commander was famous for getting out early and getting to places on time, always. It was amusing to see her plans ruined.

Melly nearly cursed out loud when she read her uncle's letter. "Well, people, it seems that we are staying here for another say in order to escort the Lady Knight, Sir Nealan and Sir Merric to Corus along with Sergeant Domitan's squad. I am supposed to tell the Lady Knight as soon as possible, so I am guessing that you helpless soldiers don't need your leader to tell you what to do?" With a salute to Melly, the Riders then went off to the stables to put their mounts up. Melly herself, handed her mounts to a junior Rider to put up, and then she went off in search of Kel.

Melly found Kel in her office with Dom, Neal, and another man that Melly had yet to meet. The man was handsome enough in his own way, with blue eyes, flaming red hair, and freckles underneath his pale skin. As she knocked at the open door, all four heads looked up. "Aren't you a little late leaving?" Dom asked as if wanting her to leave as quickly as possible. In truth, Dom did want Melly to leave. He was afraid that he would be attracted to her again and he just couldn't do that to Kel.

"Well, I was on my way out the gate, when a courier from Mastiff stopped me. Apparently, I am being ordered to say another day. Uncle Raoul said to tell you that we, along with Dom's squad, are to escort the Lady Knight, Sir Neal, and Sir Merric to Corus the day after tomorrow. Uncle also had a message to give the Lady Knight personally, he said for you not to worry about the people. The war is winding down, almost to a halt, and from what he has heard, they can manage without you for a while." Melly shot a glare at Dom for being so snappy with her.

"We're going to Corus?" Kel asked incredulous.

"Well, it definitely seems that way," Neal answered, still not awake this morning. Dom could only be grump at the thought of having to ride all the way to the capital with Melly. –Why is everyone against me?- he thought ruefully.

"Thank you, Lady Melody." Seeing Melly cringe, Kel asked, "What's wrong?"

"Only my mother and my aunts call me by my full name. Please call me Melly."

Kel smiled, she didn't think anyone liked their full names. "Only if you call me Kel and stop all that Lady Knight stuff." Melly seemed nice enough, but the look that Melly gave Dom still made Kel a little mad. Melly was beautiful, Dom was handsome, and well, Dom was a flirt, so possibly, Melly only was flirting, not knowing about Kel and Dom.

"Deal," Melly said with a smile. Then Melly glanced at Merric unsure.

"Oh, I forgot!" Neal exclaimed. "You two don't know each other! Melly this is Sir Merric of Hollyrose, Merric, this is an old friend of mine and the leader of the 17th Rider group, Lady Melody of emerald Valley. You can just call her Melly, as you have already heard."

"It is wonderful to meet you milady. May I ask a question?" Merric looked slightly nervous and very much awed by Melly's beauty.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Sir Merric. Of course you can ask me a question, but I am not assuring you that I will answer." Melly let a flirtatious smile slip, along with fluttering her eyelashes a little. Kel looked relieved that Melly was just a flirt and had no special interest in Dom.

"Well, Melly, I was wondering if I have ever met you before. You seem oddly familiar." Merric asked.

" I don't believe so, Sir Merric, I think I would remember you." Melly answered, still flirting… a lot!

"Well, if you two are done flirting, you're blocking the door." Neal said, starting to get annoyed with the scene. This was almost the same flirting she had done with him, but Melly would never take flirting to the extreme unless she really liked someone. She seemed to be on the verge of flirting shamelessly.

"I am never done flirting Neal, but I do need to go and practice. I didn't get a chance this morning. Would you like to go?" Melly glanced at Merric, who was still looking at her, almost staring.

"I have to go to the infirmary."

"Coward!" Melly yelled as Neal ran past. "Anyone else want to spar? I was thinking staff." Melly looked at the other three people in the room, especially Merric.

"I would love to, milady, Melly, but, I have to patrol. Maybe while on the road." Merric quickly left.

"I have too much paperwork. I am very sorry, but since we are leaving tomorrow, I had better get it done." Kel answered, gesturing at the stacks of papers in front of her.

"Well, I guess that leaves you sergeant, unless you have some kind of excuse." Melly looked at Dom, glaring.

"I have to…….um…." Dom struggled to find a reason.

"You just don't want to?" Melly looked slightly disappointed. She thought that they were over that and could just treat each other as fellow commanders. She was also angry that he was trying to think up a stupid excuse, and not be honest with her. Just then the lunch bell rang.

"Would you look at that, I have to go to lunch." Dom smiled at the look on her face. I would be scary if you were under her command.

"Well, after lunch then, Sergeant." Melly started to walk out the door, then paused and turned around, "or are you scared?"

"I am most certainly not scared. I just don't want to practice." Dom searched for a better reason, but there wasn't one.

-Wow,-Kel thought, -She really knows him well and how to push his buttons.-

"My dear Sergeant Domitan, you aren't turning into a coward on me are you?"

Now Dom was getting angry, something that wasn't normal for him. Why did Melly always make him mad? "I am not yours by any means. And I would rather be called a coward than to be a whore!" By now, a large group of people, including some of Melly's and Dom's men were standing outside of the door, listening to the argument. They all looked shocked. Dom looked shocked himself. The words had come out of his mouth without him thinking. Melly had so many emotions go across her face at once. There was anger, plenty of that, sadness, embarrassment, and astonishment. Kel could only gap at the scene before her. She realized that Dom knew Melly in the past, but she just now realized that they must have had a relationship of some kind.

After a few minutes of shocked silence, Melly looked up at Dom with iron control. "I hate you!" Those three soft words were heard by everyone watching. With that, Melly stormed out of the office and into her room. Lunch was forgotten, but the argument wasn't. Melly had been called a whore so many times and it hadn't affected her in the least. Why was this time any different? "It doesn't matter." She told herself, "HE doesn't matter." She knew that wasn't correct though, it DID matter to her. All she could think about was that exchange. She had to do something about it. She needed to talk to someone. Melly thought about going to Neal, but his nickname, Meathead, was well-deserved, and he wouldn't understand. Then Melly thought of a better idea—Kel!

As Melly knocked on the door, she thought about what she was about to do. Neal had hinted her first night there, that there was something between Dom and the Lady Knight. At the time, Melly was happy for him, but now, she thought that he deserved no woman. Especially not a Lady Knight.

"Come in," A voice from inside the office interrupted her thoughts. Melly opened the door and went in, a little cautious, just in case Dom was in there. It was still midday.

"Um, hi Kel, um I was wondering…" After seeing no one there, Melly tried to find the words.

"You need to talk?" Melly simply nodded. "About this morning?" Melly nodded again. "Go ahead."

"Well, I kind of know that you and Dom are something, so please don't get mad at me if I bash him a bit."

Kel smiled. "Well, I guess that it is kind of obvious," Kel said ruefully. "And don't worry, I am disappointed in that statement he made. I was very inappropriate."

"Well, Kel it isn't all that. Oh, where do I start?"

" The beginning would be nice."

Melly smiled, " you do have a point. I suppose the beginning would be that I am a flirt. Just like Dom. I suppose the beginning was 3 years ago. During the Progress. We met there, you know, I was with Buri's group. Dom was a handsome sergeant. Very nice, and charming, but of course, I am sure you know this. We met and fireworks exploded. I have never had so much fun flirting in my life! I was 16 then. I suppose, being the ignorant youngling I was, I thought I was in love" Melly said love as you would a curse. "We flirted all the time and were always bickering. Kel, let me just say this, we didn't mean a thing to each other. It was lust and flirting and that is about it. Dom must really like you, Neal told me. Anyway, please don't get mad at either one of us, but, one night, we slept together." Melly said the last part in a small voice, half expecting Kel to respond angrily. But Kel knew that Dom had relationships of that kind, and he was honest with her about things like that. She wasn't angry, or surprised. She had expected something of the like. "Kel, we avoided each other as much as humanly possible. We were shock at ourselves and each other. That is when I realized that my little girl concept of love was ridiculous. I didn't love Dom, I was attracted to him, but who wasn't? We agreed not to tell anyone. Uncle Raoul noticed us flirting and threatened Dom if we ever went any further than that. You are the only person I have told, he probably told his whole squad by now." Kel could tell that Melly was bitter.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" I was a perfectly logical question, but Melly didn't know the answer.

" I don't know. That is why I came to you. I needed advice and Meathead doesn't give good advice too often."

Kel smiled at Neal's nickname. "Well, the only way to solve this mess once and for all is to talk to him."

"Who, Meathead?"

"No, Dom!!"

"I suppose so , I guess I need to talk to him. I won't be easy." With that, Melly walked out the room in search of Dom.

Yay!!!!!!! Another chapter down. Next chapter coming soon!!!!!!!! Stay tuned!!!