The shame!! I am a failure—all lesser cretins shall bow before me in mockery!! Honestly, though- the "green-eyed sergeant" thing was just a typo. I KNOW that Dom has gorgeous blue-eyes, really- I do! It was the meds- I swear!!! Hehe. Anyway- sorry about this chapter that was supposed to be up yesterday, but I've been putting it off because I'm nervous. This isn't as humorous as my other chapters…it's a bit more dramatic and sort of hard to write. Just don't hate me too bad. I'm sort of thinking that half of you will like the chapter, half of you will hate it, and half of you won't care either way (don't diss my math skills, dude!). I feel like I'm walking to the guillotine… good-bye cruel world. Just remember, I'll be back (flexes overly-large muscles as she gains an Arnold S. accent.). On with my death wish, disguised as a chapter.
You're Not a Little Girl Anymore- Chapter 7
While Kel was looking around the hall for a certain BLUE-eyed sergeant, she saw a man come through the doorway with a petite blonde on his arm. Kel did a double- take and noticed that the man was…Dom. Keladry's heart paused in its rhythm for an instant as she tried to process what she was seeing. She quickly looked down at the table and attempted to put a rather convincing smile on her face. She heard a man clearing his throat and everyone at her table looked up. Dom was standing there with a big smile on his face as he looked adoringly at the lovely girl at his side.
"Come now, cousin," Neal said to Dom, " Who is this rather unlucky lady beside you?" As Dom took a breath to introduce the woman, Neal shot Kel a worried glance. Kel gave him a bright, and what she hoped was reassuring, smile.
"This is Nicole of Blythdin. Nicole- these are my friends, at least most days," Dom proclaimed with a grin, then turned to Nicole. "She's the happiness of my existence." The girl in question gave an embarrassed laugh.
"And I happen to think I'm rather lucky, as it were, to be able to have that title," she said to Neal. Kel's heart dropped a few inches.
"Ah- yes. Then I pity you all the more, for you must be extremely disillusioned by my cousin," Neal retorted light-heartedly. Dom and Nicole sat down in the last two seats left at that particular table. As Kel's heart was spouting plans of winning Dom away from Nicole and Kel's mind was lecturing on getting too involved with meaningless crushes, Seaver was loudly voicing his hunger to the table.
"When do you think he'll get here so we can eat?" The man's complaining sounded awfully like a child's whining. "Kel, are you okay? You look…" He stopped that line of thought when he received a quirked eyebrow from Kel. "…Lovely, radiant, effulgent!" Snorts and laughter were heard from around the table.
"Effulgent? Is that a compliment or merely another reason for me to make you beg in mercy?" Kel asked. Neal was quick to answer her.
"Actually, my dear Kel, effulgent is an adjective often used to describe light and magic, as well. It's a variant of the ancient tongue word meaning brightness or absolute light. Some, of course, dispute this as actually meaning absence of life, for absolute light would mean no darkness or color and-" Neal was interrupted from his philosophical lecture by both of the main doors opening fully.
The whole hall rose as King Jonathan IV, Queen Thayet, Prince Roald, Princess Shikokami, and Princess Kalasin walked through the doorway. The king inclined his head in recognition and everyone at the tables bowed and curtsied, respectively. The royal family walked up to the high table and sat down, causing the other occupants of the hall to do the same. King Jonathan stood up in all of his regal glory. Even Kel, who held a slight dislike for him, could not deny that he looked every bit royal. His black beard and hair and sapphire eyes stood out brilliantly on his smiling face.
"Welcome," King Jonathan proclaimed, for he never merely 'spoke' anything. "Tonight is a night of celebration. I am thrilled to see so many of you here, but there are many familiar faces missing. The battle, the war for now, is done and we have won. So now we can sound our victory cheer. The question now, is this: Where do we all go from here? Fields are to be replanted, castles and walls are to be rebuilt, and lives are to be put back in order, as well as they can be under the circumstances. Life continues and we do not simply send our sympathies and regards to all those who lost friends and family. We will send, and pass down, tales of honor and bravery and tales of goodness and truth. We will not pass down tales of good people who died. We shall pass down tales of heroes who lived," King Jonathan paused in his speech for a moment to look around the silent room. Someone's stomach rumbled loudly, lightening the moment and causing laughter. Seaver was slouching down suspiciously in his seat. King Jonathan laughed and continued. "Who am I to keep a soldier hungry? Thank you all for your bravery and sacrifices. Now you are rewarded, for listening to my entire speech and for sitting there looking interested. We feast!" He smiled as he sat down and Queen Thayet said something to him causing him to chuckle again.
Everyone filled their plates and began to eat. Servants replaced the empty trays and bowls with full ones. People were talking joyfully all around the room. Kel was not one of those people. She sat eating quietly, cursing herself silently for feeling so heart-broken over a man. She was too busy with her self-lecturing to notice Neal get up from his seat until he was right behind her.
"Kel?" He asked quietly. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" He nodded his head over towards a shadowed corner and Kel followed.
"What is it Neal, that you find important enough to leave your plate unattended?" Kel asked teasingly.
"Kel, I've known you longer than anyone," Neal said with a slight frown, "You're not alright. There's something wrong, and you're going to talk to me." Kel glared at him in return, but said nothing. "Kel- it's not the end of the world. There are other men out there than Dom."
"What are you talking about?" Kel scoffed. "There's nothing wrong, and there's certainly nothing wrong that has to do with Dom and that silly little blonde." Neal chuckled quietly.
"Kel, I'm not that oblivious. But the only reason you're feeling like this is because it's your first crush."
"Actually," Kel started.
"Right, right. There was Cleon, but that relationship worked out for a while. This is your first unresolved crush," Neal said.
"Actually, there was one before Cleon," Kel admitted grudgingly. Neal looked interested.
"Really? Who was it? When?" Neal questioned. Kel looked embarrassed.
"No one. Forget it." Kel lied quickly.
"Did I know him? Is he still alive?" Neal pestered. Kel sighed in resignation.
"Yes you knew him, you still know him, and yes he's still alive. All right? Now, leave me alone." Kel turned to walk back to the table, but Neal held her arm to prevent her from leaving.
"Come on! Who is he? Just tell me, Kel. I'm your best friend, you need to tell me these things."
"It was a long time ago; I don't still fancy him. It doesn't matter, Neal. Leave it be."
"No, tell me. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me," Neal said in the most annoying voice possible. "Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me."
"Fine! Just shut that trap door you call a mouth," Kel snapped.
"Well…." Neal prodded.
"It was a long time ago. Remember that, all right?"
"Yes, yes. Just tell me."
"You're like a little child begging for candy."
"What can I say? I have a sweet tooth. Tell me who it was," Neal said with a grin.
Kel groaned before answering. "It was you. Happy now? The Goddess! I can't believe I just told you that." Neal grinned.
"Really? Did you really have a crush on me?" Neal teased.
"Shut it," Kel replied. Neal suddenly stopped grinning and looked serious.
"Kel, you got over me. You can get over Dom. You're the protector of the small." Kel grimaced over the title. "You know, your heart's the size of a walnut. Isn't that small enough to need protecting?" Kel grinned at his logic.
"I'll be fine, on one condition," the lady knight amended. " You let me go sit back down and eat, now." Neal shook her hand in acceptance and they walked back to the table and sat down. Dom voiced a question when they sat down.
"Where have you two been?"
"We were having a theoretical discussion on the root words of the word effulgent," Kel replied.
"Really?" Merric asked, looking at her strangely.
"Actually, we were discussing Kel's early years," Neal retorted. He leaned over to whisper something in his beloved Yuki's ear.
"Neal! Don't! I swear I will beat you black and blue," Kel threatened. "Just don't tell her that, please!" Her begging was in vain.
Yuki grinned at Kel before she said, "Honestly, Kel. I can't blame you." Kel glared at her for a moment before rolling her eyes and laughing sincerely for the first time that night. Keladry's heart softened and she even managed to exchange a few kind words with Nicole, although a fragment of the jealousy was still lingering from before.
The meal wane along with the daytime and everyone began exiting the dining hall. Kel traded farewells with her friends and made her way towards her room. She turned into the hallway that housed the classrooms and teachers. It was rather dark, with only a few torchlights flickering through the shadows. Keladry stopped as she felt someone was following her, but found that the hallway seemed deserted except for her. She warily continued on her way. Out of nowhere, a pair of hands reached out and pulled her into some sort of room. Kel, by no means incompetent of defending her self, went to counter attack and found that her arms and legs weren't moving at her commands.
"A little something I made up. Don't worry, it's not permanent or anything. It just allows me to do this without getting completely pummeled flat by you," a voice whispered. "Just don't scream, or I may have to do something drastic." Perfect, Kel thought. It's a dramatic kidnapper. Kel wasn't going to submit so easily.
"What in the name of Chaos do you think you're doing?" Kel yelled. "Just wait till I get my arms back in working order, then you won't have that luxury." The voice, which seemed to belong to a male, chuckled. He held her by the shoulders and Kel felt his breath get closer to her face. There was no light in the room to see her capturer by. It's the opposite of effulgent, Kel thought sarcastically.
"Now, I have to do something drastic so you don't attract the guards this way with all of your yelling," the voice said. The man, or she supposed it was a man, was right in front of her. His breath mingled with Kel's own.
"Wh- what are you doing?" Kel whispered, getting slightly frightened by this mystery man.
"I'm signing my death wish," He whispered back.
"What do you mean by th-" His lips were on hers. Kel would realize only later that the magic had been removed from her limbs. Only later would she realize that she had voluntarily slipped her arms around the mystery man's neck as her feet closed the little distance between them.
Don't hate! You all knew it had to come, but I don't want any of you to hate Nicole. It's not her fault, really. Just breath…in…out…in…out. Now I want you to calmly collect yourself before screaming at the screen how stupid and crazy the author (aka- me) is. Then I want you to have a snack and take a nap before you start putting needles into a doll that resembles me (which would actually be sort of hard cause you don't know what I look like, so…good luck with that). FYI- There WILL NOT be an update for at the least five days. I know, I know! But I'm doing this Youth Conference thing with my church and, oh yeah, did I mention that tomorrow is my birthday? Hmmm, well now I have. I'll be turning 15 and getting my permit. So I advise you to stay away from any roads around the South-East Georgia/North-East Florida area. Thank you- and have a great. OMG- also (this is so cool) I got an early b-day present and it's one of those pre-paid visa cards…it's so neato! Lol- I'm trying to make you forget about the chapter you just read…is it working. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful week and if I start getting many sharp pains in my body, I'll know who to blame.
To my oh-so-wonderful Ch.6 reviewers-
Nolee of Stone Mountain- OMG! I absolutely LOVE Newfoundlands! They are so sweet!
chicken-puffs- Woah! Quiver in fear mere mortal. For time moves differently here, and one year equals one day. Haha!
Lilliana-Rose- Soon enough? And don't worry, I'll never forget...what kind of punishments?
Alianne Cooper- Pop? Is that like coke? lol- I'm glad you liked how I handled Ermelian. She always gets dissed in fanfic- but it's not her fault she was married off to Cleon. It wasn't even her choice.
dragon shadows- yeah, I know what you mean with the waiting a long time. I have a few story's that haven't been updated in almost a year...but I'm still waiting.
pinky- Thank you. It will not be a K/D, much to the disgruntlment of many of my reviewers.
evil spider monkey- Yay! i love being evil. It's the whole "bad to the bone" mantra, ya know?
Squirrel Maiden of Green- Thanks for believing my way of bringing Ermelian into the story. That's the third review that's called me evil, so far- go me!
Artemis Teranki Ryann- I'm pretty sure questioningly IS a word.Or, at least, it is now!
Keziah- It won't be a Kel/Dom, sorry to dissapoint you. btw- In trickster's choice it really doesn't describe Thom that much. It describes Alan more, seeing as how he's Aly's twin. Thom is bound to be slightly bookish, though. It sort of goes without saying, hand in hand with the mage training.
SeaStar- I love chocolate chip cookies! It won't be Kel/Dom, in case you didn't realize yet.
VampiricEternity- Yay! I love your name, btw.
Kore Yan- Lol- no she's probably not going to have a child in this story, I just like confusing people.
ich bin viking- I know, I know! I wallow in shame!
ossini- Argh! I did! hehe
yamani- thank you kindly!
lixt66- Thank you, but see..I just gave you another one.
gReeNeYedeLfguRL13- dude- YOU so totally rock! I'm on your favs? awesome!
Christina- thanks. I hope you liked this chapter.
ALRI the Crazy Alaskan- I'm sorry you hate Thom. But it is extremely likely that Kel will end up with him.
Skittle Princess09- No way! You would SO not win the argument. Both sides of my family are crazy scary. Like at one family reunion, my uncle brought a cooler full of little alligators for us kids to play with...it was really cool though!
Keladry of Masbolle- Thank you kindly!
elements-of-the-soul- woo-hoo! Another Chili Peppers fan.Did you know that the love of my life James Phelps (Fred Weasley) and his brother love them too! Now you know.
Miya-chan3- It was Dom! But you already know that, you read the chapter.
PsychoLioness13- I got it, I got it. It's updated- please don't shoot me!
SafireSkittle37- It's highly likely that it WILL be a Kel/Thom story.
oceanspike- I hope you liked this chappie too!
steph- yes, well -actually- it's today...right? Wait...I'm feeling dizzy, I'm confused!!!
To Nolee of Stone Mountain (again)- You are so THE BEST reviewer ever! I find out who it was, I'll send em your way- deal? ps- You rock!!
And, as always, to all of my sloth-like readers- a solemn thank you with a side-dish of REVIEW! Also to all of those that review Ch.6 after I post this, a big Thanks as well.
I love you all! - Throws out roses - ciao!
Aymay ethay umorsray eadsray icklyquay oughthray ethay allwayshay ofhay ouryay ifelay. Ta-ta