Hey, thanks for your reviews!

maliaphire: Well, I can say that Alanna won't die (like in some other fics I saw) but it won't be an 'Alanna-is-a-happy-lady', either.But what do you mean with horrible?

Bambolieblue: Charine won't take more part in the story than she already has. You'll never read about her again, sorry. She was just some servant.

Andnow, on with the story...

Chapter 2: False views

A few days later...

"Lady Alanna, look, we're almost there," Charina shouted.

Alanna, deep in thoughts about how she could be a warrior without being at the palace, looked up. In front of her she saw a huge castle-like city with amazing and big wall, surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains. Although there was very less grass and there were hardly any trees, Alanna would have called it 'gorgeous' if she hadn't been that angry at that place.

They rode through the high adorned gates and immediately a lady came to greet them. The woman looked old and crinckles were encasing her smiling mouth and her stern looking eyes. She was a very weird mix of sociability and sternness.

"You must be Alanna, the girl with the flaming red hair and the purple eyes. Fascinating! Come on and dismount, our servants will look after your horse and your luggage.", she said.

Alanna dismounted and patted her horse. "I would like to look after my horse myself," she told the woman, then she remembered her manners and added quickly, "if that's possible."

The old woman frowned. "That's not a thing for ladies to do, such things do servants, maids or men, but surely not ladies. You could get dirty."

Alanna clenched her fists. She knew she wouldn't get along with that woman, but she had to, somehow. She would really like to say, 'I'm no lady', but she decided not to do so. It was never a good idea to make enemies right at the beginning. "I understand, mylady."

She had been at the convent for a few weeks and she began to realize that life at the convent was far worse than she had expected it to be. They had to walk through a big empty room for hours, keeping their backs straight, putting one foot exactly in front of the other and all this with a beautiful smile on their faces. Alanna fell about ten times before she was able to walk like that from one end of the room to the other.

The girls were taught the difference between talking to a knight and to a Duke and to the king or the queen. Alanna thought it boring and all of that stuff annoyed her. Why couldn't she say things like she wanted to say them?

That was the worst thing. The personality of all the girls were taken away. It seemed as if every girl was talking and thinking exactly the same within just one month. Only Alanna didn't. She fought for what she believed in everytime she could. She didn't listen to the teachers and her thoughts were always somewhere else. She got the punishments ever and she was some kind of outsider. She didn't want to talk to the other girls since she knew what they were talking of and as time passed by more and more girls began to think she was weird. They avoided her and some even called her names.

One day a servant came to her room and said the First Daughter wanted to see her. Immediately. Alanna knew what that meant. Nothing good. Alanna leaned on a wall and sighed.

In the office of the First Daughter….

The First Daughter looked friendly and nice at the first look, but her eyes gave away that she was strict and grim. Alanna wondered why she tried to look friendly if she was about to punish her or something like that. She doubtet that the First Daughter wanted to tell her something nice.

"Alanna, please sit down," she began. Then she cleared her throat. "Your teachers told me they have problems with you. They say you don't listen to them and that you haven't learned anything by now. Is that true?"

Alanna nodded in silence. The First Daughter sighed. "Alanna, you're here to learn how to be a lady. That's your duty. And if you go on like that, you'll never be one. How are you supposed to find a husband at court if you don't learn how to be a lady?"

Alanna clenched her fists and tried to keep her voice low. "I didn't ask to be here. I don't want to be a lady and a husband is the last thing I want."

The First Daughter gasped. "But Alanna, you're a noble girl!"

"And? Not all girls are the same. I want to be a knight. Who's the damned person that says I have to be a 'lady'?", Alanna shouted.

"The king and the kings before him. Noble men are to become knights, sorcerers, priests, or healers and noble women are to become ladies. It's been like that for ages!"

"And why? Why are women just to look at? Why can't we do something important?"

"Men are wise and strong. Women are fragile and easily affected. Men are the ones to make decisions and fight for the kingdom. They can do that better."

Alanna stood up and screamed, "That's not true! We only think that because the men make us think that. But that doesn't mean it's true!"

The First Daughter shook her head in disbelieve. "You're a little girl. You know nothing!"

Alanna stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her. She ran down the corridor and fled in her room. She sat down on her bed and began to cry because of anger. She had just realized something. She wasn't angry at the convent or at the teachers anymore. They just didn't know better. It was the men she was angry at. They were the ones that didn't let her become a knight and that turned the women into objects. Things to look at and play with. Like toys. It was disgusting. Men, she meant. She hated them. All of them, except for her brother. He was the light at that dark convent. For her.

Will Alanna ever trust a man again? And what will she do the become a warrior after all? Will she put up with her fate? Or is the convent not her fate? And what happens when the Sweating Sickness comes?Next chapter comes in about two or three days. I promise.