Well im back again! This may seem a very pointless chapter and i personally think so but don't worry. I do actually have a plot and if it doesn't appear in either one of the next three chapters you can sue me.

Thanks to all reviewer, i would answer questions but that'll have 2 wait til next chap cos its 9:30 and i shouldn't be on the computer. soz. I love you all!
Enjoy!

Chapter Seven

Asa woke the next morning with a headache and a groan. 'Dream mornings', as she had taken to calling them thanks to the amount of times they had happened in her life, – were hell. "Damn morning, damn life!"she mumbled, giving a small yelp as she repeated yesterday mornings fall. Damn bed, damn dreams, damn everything!

Yesterday hadn't been pleasant. She petted Shadow, rubbing a fist against her aching eyes, and struggled not to recall the events of the night before. Too embarrassing, she decided. It would do no good trying to figure out the dream – she knew this from experience – as no amount of wondering made it less nonsensical. In fact, the light of day usually confused the matter more, with extra unanswered questions. It annoyed Asa to death and further.

With a silent groan, she decided that she might as well dress now that she was up. There were woods near her room, and it would be child's play to reach them. Foremost in her mind, but carefully ignored, was the idea that being away would stop the awkward questions – or at least postpone them until she was fully awake.

Finding a simple, fawn coloured dress, she pulled on some flowing tunic trousers. The dress was light and had been carefully but rather unskilfully altered to become a tunic that reached just below her knees with wide slit up the sides. Sewing had never been a strong point. Over this she put a floor length cloak with a huge, shadowing hood – her usual choice of "shroud". It was green-brown, almost black.

Shadow began to dance around her. Pack-sister was finally coming to play, and he had seen little of the woods so far. There were other wolves there, he knew. The wolf was wild, but often joined his Pack-sister in the rooms of humans to sleep. He had known not many of his kind.

Once sufficiently hidden and comfortable, Asa opened the shutters cautiously. The dawn bell had rung, waking her, and others would be about. But the courtyard was quiet and still, early morning mist still hanging, like a muffler. She climbed carefully out of the window, landing without a sound in her soft leather boots. Shadow bounded off, stopped every now and then to check that Pack-sister was following, before leaving her entirely when they reached the woods.

She smiled a little at his antics. He would come back, she knew, whether it be in a few moments or a few days. He would always visit, even when moving to explore other territory. Now she simply walked among the trees, enjoying the peace while it lasted. She had a few daggers in her boots and in her sleeves, but felt no desire to draw them just yet.

As a child living in solitude, with a brother training for knighthood, she had never been at loss for ways to amuse herself. Days had been spent wandering through the woods and at the waterfalls in Everton, days meant to be spent in lessons or matters of state. But no-one had really minded what the young girl did – she kept out of sight, bothered no-one – and as long as that was so, she was allowed to do as she pleased. Until she was fifteen, it was never considered that she leave her homeland or even become a part of the state matters. There were other, less strange and shameful siblings. And that was all that had mattered.

Much as the little Asa had longed for company, it was not the company of the villagers or nobles children. Having given up on friendship long ago, she had thought of her brother. The non-existence she led had sparked a will to fight and to become good at something – something unusual. What was the point of being the same as everyone else if you weren't? And so the weapons collection had been born, the long hours of practice and book reading. Daggers and the throwing of anything had become her expertise, that and archery. Self-defence however, was not part of this – anything that could be gleaned from listening in the shadows to classes taken by Shang, were learnt, a few punches and kicks practiced, but that was it.

She began to run. Faster and faster, trying to leave life behind. It served for fitness – or at least that was often an excuse. In the midst of running, she jumped, four daggers released in quick succession, forming a perfect diamond into the wood of a dead tree. Live trees were out of the question. Inspecting it, she allowed herself a small smile. Her skill hadn't disappeared with the long break of training, the journey and lessons that had commenced properly the year before.

In the distance, she heard a bell ring and knew that now was the time to be back at the palace. She had wandered for longer than she had thought. She smiled slightly at the thought of wandering further, away from palaces, but the smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. Princesses didn't do that. However, with last night still weighing heavily on her mind, she decided to skip Princessness, just this once. More like just this millionth, she thought wryly.

The trees parted and she found herself at a waterfall. Asa had always loved waterfalls. They fell freely and beautifully. Smiling slightly, with that every present hint of sadness and knowledge, she climbed the rocks to the top, sitting on a spray covered rock at the edge, peacefully looking down at the water falling.

Xxx

Liam and Aranias had eaten breakfast with the Own at dawn, ready to join their Knightmasters at the Own's training. The morning began with a ride around the forest to one of the secluded training grounds. Liam's horse, Knightfire pawed at the ground impatiently as he chatted idly with the men around him. They had given up on the formalities a long time before, after his adamant objections. Aranias was with his Knightmaster on the other side of the stable yard, and Keladry was talking with some commanders of another squad.

"So you're betrothed then Liam?" one man asked curiously. "What's she like?" The innocent question brought a torrent of thoughts to his mind. What do I say? That she's strange? Last night was definitely strange. And afterwards she acted as if nothing unusual had happened! I don't understand. He thought of her face, the pain filled screams and heart wrenching confusion.

And her words. 'I don't know what to tell!' she had cried. 'It's really important but I don't know what it is!' And her personality was baffling. Utterly shy at one moment, forceful, terrified and slightly laughing all straight after each other.

Joel, another man in the squad and one of his friends grinned. "Doesn't matter about that is she pretty?!" Liam rolled his eyes. Joel was renowned for his fake shallow view of women. He thanked Joel silently for directing the focus away from her personality. At least this wasn't a hard question to answer.

"Yeah. Yeah she is." Joel grinned again. "Nothing to worry about then, have you!" he said jokingly. Despite his words, the mans eyes were understanding. He knew the young squire well.

Liam suddenly spotted making his way through the crowd of horses and men towards him and waved. Aranias waved back distractedly. It was then that Liam also noticed the severe looking woman standing beside Raoul. Asa's Mistress, he thought, slightly amused. Good luck to her spending days with that woman!

"Have you seen Asa? She's gone somewhere." Joel turned. "Princess Asina, your sister? She's missing?" Aranias nodded. "That's why the Mistress is over there. In a right state as well. Don't really see what the fuss is really. If I had to suffer that lady all day I'd disappear too!"

"What if she doesn't mean to be missing? If it's serious?" Liam asked, worried in spite of himself. Aranias grinned, anxiousness only showing a little in his eyes.

"Oh, she probably doesn't mean to be missing. Just sort of went. I need to get that woman off my back though. S'pose Asa'll have to give up the freedom."

"You know where she is?" Raoul asked, appearing behind him with silent ease. He looked slightly harassed, as if simply ready to find the girl and get away from the sharp-faced lady behind him. Aranias smiled slightly. It wasn't that the Mistress was horrible, - just that she had very firm ideas, especially about propriety and the lengths one should go to help a Lady.

Seeing the veiled look on his Knightmaster's face he gave in. "Somewhere in the forest, a stream or something." Raoul gave him an odd look. "And you know this how? Don't worry I don't want to know." He turned to the Mistress with calm politeness. "If her brother is right I'm sure we'll find the Princess on the way to our training grounds. I hope that is of service to you."

"It is very kind of you, I am very grateful to you." she replied in a flawless accent before sweeping off back to the palace. Raoul sighed, turning to Aranias. "You'd better be right." was all her said. "Mount up!" The sound of hooves and saddles creaking was heard before they rode out into the wood.

After a longish ride for training and to serve the purpose of finding the Princess, Peter finally found a dead tree with holes in it. Aranias grinned at his friend thinking of the strange pastime his sister had written about. Some continued to the training grounds, leaving Keladry, Liam, Aranias, Joel, Peter and a few others of the squad to continue to search for Asa.

So much bother just because she went off for a while! Liam thought resentfully. He knew that wasn't strictly fair. People should be allowed to go for a walk alone. He had often resented lack of privacy in childhood. Now he was trusted but perhaps as a girl it was different.

They came upon a clearing with a small pool and waterfall. Liam drew his breath in sharply. It wasn't the precarious position at the top of the falling water or the strangeness of the scene. Nor was it the peaceful aura htat seemed to be given out. No, it was the expression.

Face turned toward some spray that bounced off the rocks below, her hood thrown back revealing the beautiful features he had glimpsed the day before. But the expression made the scene almost Holy.

She was smiling, a careless free smile that seemed to cast light on all shadows around it. Peacefulness seemed to radiate in waves. Liam had a feeling that this was a rare occasion. No-one wanted to break the spell.

Finally Keladry pulled herself together and forced herself to speak. "We're glad we found you, people were very worried where you were."

She seemed to realise they were there, head snapping down, crystalline eyes focussing. The smile dimmed as she made conscious effort to return to reality. Standing up gracefully, while drawing her hood over her hair she spoke softly, "I am sorry to bother anyone. My thanks for coming to find me." Her polite voice didn't betray any of her thoughts.

Aranias rolled his eyes at his sister's tone. "Such a shame," he said mildly, "that now one of us will have to escort you back to the palace."

She blinked, still perched above the fall. "I don't need an escort!" Asa replied indignant. "I got myself here I'm sure I'll find my way back.. There's no need to…ooohh." Right. I get it. "Really, I don't want to inconvienience you."

Aranias sighed. "Well, as there's no chance of you coming with us I suppose…" His voice drifted off. "Oh you don't know where we're going! To the training grounds, for practice. But the Mistress may be waiting for you I guess." His voice was carefully disappointed.

Asa turned her gaze to Kel. "I'm really sorry it will be such a bother taking me back. Though really you don't need to. Mistress is with the Tortallan ladies today and I doubt anyone will miss me."

Meanwhile, Liam had caught on to his best friend's well played game. "If no-one will miss her I suppose she could come with us. It's not like it will be dangerous or anything and it is just training."

Kel looked down at her squire and former Knightmaster's squire, knowing full well what they were doing. It seemed reasonable. And somehow this girl didn't seem like someone who would be scared of dirt or anything of that kind. After all, she'd run off into a wood for goodness sake.

Aranias and Liam watched her hopefully, the latter unsure of exactly why he was doing this. Finally she nodded, aware of their gazes and the gazes of the men around them. "Princess Asina may accompany us if she wishes. I see nothing against it." Though her words were formal, the smile she sent the girl was real.

Aranias grinned and yelled at his sister in Eve. She jumped precariously to the rocks at the side of the waterfall and began her descent conscious of the eyes on her. Aranias hoisted her onto the back of his horse, laughing slightly at her protests. The nine-year-old Asa had been terrified of riding horses. Its seemed she hadn't changed.

Asa clung on tightly to her brother's shirt as they walked away from the clearing. Riding horsed was bad enough, without sitting side saddle, without a saddle, on the wrong part of the horse and liable to slip off at any moment. She shut her eyes tightly muttering Eve curses as they sped up.

"What was that Asa?" Aranias asked laughing slightly. She would have glared had her eyes been open. In no mood to be made fun of in her fear she repeated them louder. Head turned to look at them some knowing a few words from her brother. She opened her eyes for one second to glare fiercely at them, before noticing the moving ground beneath the horses hooves and fought against nausea, pressing her head against her brother's back. He rolled his eyes slightly, taking one hand off the reins to hold her in place.

She struggled to keep from shuddering violently as they sped into a trot. If it would only go forwards instead of rocking all over the place!

xxxx

ok, i hope u enjoyed that. As i said the plot arrives soon and chapters will soon be on more than just a few hours as i need to speed up a bit. i have even started chap 8 which is strange and i hope its up sometime in the next week. I'm away for a few day beginning of half term so maybs not.

Pleas tell me in ur reviews (hint hint) whether you want another slightly pointless chap thats shorter so i update quicked or whether its better longer and with a vague point. (i say vague i mean vague until chap nine prob :-) )

neway reveiw please nd tell me wot u think! Less rambling nd description nd more plot? or just hte way it is? Shorter chaps quicked updates? nething!