Author's Note: Hey everyone! I am so sorry I am such a slow updater. Over the summer will be even worse because I won't have much access to a computer that has word that I would be able to use. I'll be in Maryland at my Aunt's. Feel free to IM me at: PeacePixie100 (aol) or supersk8ergirl (yahoo).

Magical Discoveries

Disclaimer: Me write like Tamora P? Think up Alanna, and all her other complex characters and worlds? snorts Nope, that was all her.

Ingrid sat straight up. A trickle of sweat poured down her face. That was the fourth night in a row she had had that dream, ever since her and her two friends had been magically people she loved, trusted; her friends and family. There was singing and merriment. It was a cold desert night, but the warmth of the fire and their love warmed the night. The strange thing was, she had never met these people before in her life, yet she knew them. She hardly had time to think of that when, FLASH! Everything happened fast after that. Images, memories, going past her. All confusing and unfamiliar but they felt important. As if they were a message. The clues, memories, and images went by to rapidly for her to get anything out of it. Faster and faster, spinning, falling, confusion, passion, running, fear. Faster and faster ;FLASH! She would wake up.

Silently, as not to disturb Meredith or Hannah, Ingrid pushed back her blankets and crept out of the tent. All was quiet as she walked on the cool morning sand. The sun was just starting to peak up in the horizon. When she came to the fire pit she saw an odd thing. Meredith held her hands towards the fire pit as if to warm herself, but there was no fire. Her head had fallen so her chin was resting on her chest. Her eyes were closed and there was a thin stream of drool coming from her mouth.

Ingrid giggled silently, 'Merry is not a morning person!'. She snuck up behind Meredith, and stuck her face right by Merry's.

"GOOD MORNING!" she said powerfully. Meredith's eyes snapped open.

"What?" Meredith woke-up. Ingrid sat down, in a laughing fit..

"ITS NOT THAT FUNNY!" Meredith snapped.

"Yes, it is," Ingrid continued to laugh.

" A-Ha-Ha-Ha!" Meredith replied sarcastically. Ingrid just kept on laughing.

"So," Ingrid said once had control of her laughter. "What are you doing up so early?" Meredith's eyes fluttered.

"Meredith?" Ingrid realized that in the time it had taken her to choke down her giggle fit, Meredith had fallen back asleep.

"MEREDITH!"

"Huh?"

"Meredith! What are you do-ing up so ear-ly" Ingrid said sounding out every syllable.

"Oh, yea...um...well since Kel..." Her chin drooped down.

"Meredith?" Ingrid poked her. "Stay awake Merry! Since Kel what?"

"Mmmmhmmm".

"Meredith, finish your sentence! Com'on," Ingrid tried to urge her awake with little success. An idea struck her when Hannah came walking up behind Meredith from the tent. Ingrid mouthed the word 'water' and pointed to Meredith's head. Hannah nodded and went to get the water. She came back with a bucket of freezing cold water. Ingrid mouthed, '1...2...3'. Hannah dumped the bucket on Merry's head, SPLASH!

"Crap!" Meredith screamed and jumped up. Her eyes were wide open now. Ingrid and Hannah laughed so hard that tears poured down their cheeks.

"High five Hannah!" Ingrid held out her hand.

"YaY!" Hannah said as she high-fived Ingrid. She plopped down between Ingrid and, the now drenched, Meredith.

"So, Merry," Ingrid said laughter spilling out of the corners of her mouth. "You were saying?"

Meredith glared at her but answered, "I was saying that I thought that since Kel gets up so early so should I!"

"Well that worked, "Ingrid mumbled.

"You know what!" Meredith declared, standing and stamping her foot on the ground.

"What?" Ingrid and Hannah asked in unison.

Meredith through her arms in the air with exasperation. "Arrgghhhh!" Meredith scrunched her face up at the partners-in-crime and stuck out her tongue. She stomped her foot once more and stalked back to their tent. She passed Numair on her way. He waved at her cheerfully.

"WHAT?" She snarled.

Numair felt a little taken aback but that faded when he sat next to Ingrid. "Morning magelet," He whispered into Ingrid's ear. Ingrid, who had been giggly uncontrollably, stopped when he did this. Hannah , trying to act like Alanna, and save her and her friend from an uncomfortable situation, cleared her throat and gave Numair a 'warning' look.

"I'm going to go get wood," Ingrid said blushing. Numair made her nervous. Its not that she didn't think he was nice and all, it just felt wrong, pretending to be with him when Daine was, who knows how far away. She felt like the mistress even if she was in Daine's body, it was still her mind. Before she came here, one of her main 'goals' was to get a boyfriend, but now that she had one she didn't like the idea of it so much. And he wasn't even really hers he was Daine's, not to mention the fact that he was old (well by her standards at least).

Just as she was thinking this Numair came up to her side. "I'll come with you," he said smiling.

"Hehe, great," she said weakly. She looked down at the sandy ground, trying very hard to ignore his unyielding gaze. She had never noticed before how many different colors there was in sand. It wasn't just yellow, but red, orange, and pink. Each grain was different, like a snowflake. There was different types of sand too, there was the soft sand that could be found at beaches. The kind that felt like you were walking on pillows and then squished between your toes when it got wet. Then there was this kind, the desert kind. It was harder than beach sand and would burn and prick your feet.

Someone was talking to Daine. 'God,' she thought. 'Why won't Daine answer so Numair would shut-up and I could go back to ignoring him?'

"Daine?" She suddenly realized that Numair was behind her and that he was talking to her because, to him, she was Daine.

"Oh..um..yea?"

"The wood pile is back here." The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly.

"Oh," she said and scurried back to him awkwardly. She had wandered a few yards past to where the horses were tied up and where the wood pile was.

She reached down for a log but unfortunately, at that same time so did Numair. They're heads knocked together with a loud and painful, 'clunk'. Ingrid fell backward into the sand.

"Ow.." she said as she rubbed her forehead. Numair walked over to her laughing slightly. He reached his hand out to help her up, hesitantly she took it. Once she was standing, she tried to act like Daine so, she kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Thanks," she said blushing. She looked down and turned to collect her log but then she realized he hadn't let go of her hand. She looked down, her face bright red.

'Why did I have the ingenious idea to kiss him!' Ingrid silently yelled at herself.

He lifted her chin and bored down into her face, there were too many emotions to identify in his eyes.

'Oh, no...what is he doing...why is he looking at me like that?' She thought, panicked. He bit his lip as his gaze grew more intense. 'AHH! Why is he biting his lip like that? AHH! He's going to eat me! CANNIBALS! I don't want a boyfriend! I learned my lesson, be careful what you w--'

Her panicked train of thought was broken off as he pressed his lips to hers, only to be replaced by a new one.

'Oh, my, holly shit, he's most definitely NOT a cannibal! 'Ingrid thought. She had never imagined her first kiss would be like THIS.

She broke the kiss off and glared up at him (or she thought she was glaring). Apparently he didn't take it as the what-the-fuck-are-you-doing glare that she meant for it to be, because he started to kiss her eye lids, forehead, ears, and then her mouth.

'Ewwwww...' Ingrid thought. 'He's OLD!'

He deepened the kiss. They were backed up against the pole the horses were tied to. There was a gray, speckled horse, a brown horse, and a black horse. All of the others were tied up somewhere else.

There was a murmuring in the back of her mind. If she noticed it at all she figured it was just the song that had been stuck in her head for weeks now. It was pretty hard to notice anything like that when there was tongue sticking down your throat.

Ingrid was about to break off the kiss, slap him, SOMETHING when the murmuring grew louder and she heard, 'Get a room, please!'

She turned her head to break his (as she would like to call it) assault but also to see who was talking. "What?" she asked.

Numair looked down at her, " I didn't say anything, it was probably just Cloud."

Ingrid was too distracted to notice what he was saying, however. ' I'm going crazy hearing voices! It is all in my head! All in my head! Breathe, Ingrid, breathe. Its okay! Your head will do crazy things to you, especially when your boyfriend who really isn't your boyfriend but a BOOK CHARACTER'S, is making out with you! Ahh this is SO gross! I think I'd rather eat sand or kiss that gray horse over there, anything! Oh God he's giving me that cannibal look again. Oh, oh, oh Go-'

And needless to say he continued his 'assault'.


Hannah's stomach made a grumbling noise as she waited for Ingrid or...er...Daine and Numair to get back with the wood and for Meredith to finish her sulk (she couldn't really blame Merry for being mad though, she would be). It had been over fifteen minutes since Numair and Ingrid had left, and Hannah was growing hungry. Not to mention the fact that Numair was undoubtedly doing something 'scandalous' with her friend.

'Maybe I should go see what he's up to,' Hannah thought and laughed. ' What they are up to.' But she had a second thought.. 'Well maybe I should leave them be, we're supposed to try and be like our characters...' Her thoughts drifted off as her stomach grumbled again. She looked around her for any sign of Numair and Ingrid coming back with wood so they could have fire to make breakfast with, nothing, no sign of them.

Hannah decided to go check on Meredith and to make sure that she wasn't seriously mad. Besides it was a good way to keep her mind off food. When she came to the tent she shared with Meredith and Ingrid she stood just outside the door, not wanting to intrude on Merry's well earned 'sulk time'.

"Meredith?" Hannah called standing just outside the tent. There was no answer.

"Merry, come on, stop being such a baby about this!" Still no answer. "Come on Meredith, we're sorry!"

Hannah was worried now. What if something had happened to Meredith? She had never been so mad that she wouldn't talk to her. She pushed the ten flap open and seeing no one, walked in. Immediately she was soaked with freezing cold water.

"Meredith!" She squealed laughing. Meredith stepped out of the dark corner where she was hiding with an empty bucket in her hand. She began to laugh and laugh and laugh, sounding like Hannah and Ingrid had when they'd played a similar trick on her.

Hannah's mood changed from amused to bitter when she saw the soaked blanket, that happened to be on her mat! " Now look what you did!"

"What? Its not like you didn't do the same thing to me," Meredith said her smile fading slightly.

"Yes, but that was OUTSIDE! Now look at the mess we have to clean up!" Hannah gestured to the blankets.

Meredith sighed, " Fine, be like that then." Meredith began to pick up the wet blankets and take them outside to air dry.

Hannah looked down, 'Oh...'. She felt bad about getting mad at Merry, they had done the same thing to her. She lingered for a moment longer but then followed Meredith outside.

Meredith was attempting to shake out the blanket but instead ended up blowing sand around.

Hannah grabbed sandy corners of the blanket. "Look, I'm sorry I yelled, you're right we did the same thing to you..."

Meredith, who had been carefully ignoring Hannah by becoming particularly fascinated with her side of the blanket, looked up. " Its okay," she said quietly. "I understand." She still didn't look up and Hannah.

"You sure?" Hannah asked.

"Yea," Meredith said grinning. "Its cool." Now she looked up. As if to prove her point she snapped the blanket so that water so flick onto Hannah.

"Hey!" Hannah said with feigned anger. At the same time she snapped the blanket to do the same to Meredith. In revolt Meredith was going to do the same, but her fingers slipped and her end of the blanket hit Hannah in the face.

Hannah pealed the wet blanket from her face and let it drop onto the sandy ground. " Oh, its on now woman!" Hannah began to chase after Meredith and Meredith yelped. Hannah flicked her dripping hands towards Meredith trying to get her wet but instead of water spraying off her hands, purple fire did. She immediately pulled her hands in. "Oh no...um...HELLLLPPP!"


The sun was up and so was most of the camp. Wood had been gathered (as to give Daine and Numair privacy, at a different wood pile) and now they busily cooking over the fire. Most were either too hungry or tired too notice the Lioness and young Keladry's water battle.

George sat off to the side of the crowd deep in thought. Not even the delicious aroma of breakfast, could bring him out of his thoughts. Nor could the giggling squeals coming from his wife and Lady Keladry, though it was them and Daine that occupied his mind(a/n: sorry I know that sorta sounds like he is in love with them, but that's not what I mean...well he does love Alanna...oh nvm!).

The only thing that brought both George and the 'Breakfast Men (and women)' fully aware of Kel and Alanna was a cry for, " HEEELLlPPPPPPPPPPPP!"


'Making out is SO overrated,' Ingrid thought as she helped Numair restack logs.

After that first encounter with the 'voices-in-my-head' nothing else had happened, with the exception of his tongue down her throat of course. That is until Numair had the 'wonderful' idea to back them up towards the pile. She had been too flustered with the whole kissing-a-forty-some-year-old to notice where he was blinding pulling her. That is until, two seconds before the collision, the voice came into her head again, 'You and your stalk man are about to run into- too late.' And that's when it happened, not just a painful crash with her, Numair, and a pile of wood, but also when she made her breakthrough. She wasn't crazy, she was Daine. There were three horses tied to the post that Numair and had been leaning against.. Daine could talk to animals. She wasn't hearing things, it had just been Cloud, Daine's loyal mare and companion.

" I'm not crazy, it was just Cloud!" Ingrid had exclaimed when she had realized all of this. Her immediate relief was soon replaced with a mixture of fear, worry, and dread. ' I don't know how to control this,' She thought. ' They're going to know! How could they not? Daine could heal and become animals, and that took her years to truly master, and I didn't even know when a horse was talking to me! I'm so stupid!' said the negative, unconfident part of her.

' No you're not, these are...extreme situations!' argued the reasonable part.

' I bet Hannah and Meredith are handling themselves just fine! God I'm such a big baby! I suck!' The negative side won this time and the positive side backed off and let her mind think pessimistic thoughts.

'It smells like something is burning,' Ingrid thought. 'Oooh! Maybe they're starting breakfast!' As she set the last log on the stack she heard a, "HEEEELLLLP!" She dropped the log and ran towards the cry for help with Numair close in tow.

"That's not breakfast," Ingrid said breathing heavily as she came to Meredith, with her shoulder on fire and Hannah running around panicked.

"WATER! WATER!" Hannah yelled. The few later sleepers who had not woken up yet came running out of their tents. Men and women who were had been seated at the fire went frantically running for buckets and water. Swiftly George grabbed the damp blanket. He beat the fire on Meredith's shoulder with the blanket and it quickly went out.

'Mithros, something stranger than I thought is happening here,' George thought. Out loud he said, " Lady Keladry, are you all right?"

"Ehhheh, yea," Meredith said nursing her burned shoulder.

" I think you should allow Numair to have a look at you." George nodded to. Normally it would have been Alanna who would attend to her. Her or one of the Shamans, but he felt better, with Alanna's peculiar behavior and the Progress coming up, if Numair attended to Raoul's squire. " You'll want to be ready for Progress comin' up." With that he turned and went back to his tent, without even a glance at The Lioness.

"Progress?" Meredith gulped. She knew from the books that Kel jousted at this thing. Not to mention a few rendez-vous with Cleon. She had been the least affected by the switch, having no husband or magical powers to interfere, or any age difference between her and Kel. Now, however, she would have to learn what took Kel four years or Page training and ALOT of practice to master.

The other camp members had calmed down and resumed to their normal routines. Meredith went with Numair to get her arm healed while Hannah and Ingrid silently went back into their tent, to share their mornings stories. It was becoming more challenging by the hour to act like Daine, Kel and Alanna. In their world magic didn't exist and the closest thing to a weapon any of them had ever picked up was a kitchen knife. They all knew that their original plan of 'act like the characters' would not suit their new position.

Meredith walked in with her arm good as new. She flopped down onto a pillow. "Your boyfriend has healed me!" Meredith proclaimed trying to lighten the mood. Ingrid and Hannah stared out into space not noticing their ever positive friend. Meredith sighed, " We need a better plan." Hannah and Ingrid snapped out of their trance and gave a half chuckle, but then frowned again and nodded.

"Yes," Hannah agreed. " But what?"


Okay, please review! Next chapter...Daine at the hospital, diabetes returns! If anyone has any ideas please feel free to email me or IM me or w/e. Thank you!

Booksurfer1500: Thank you! And yes, as you can see I wrote more. Please keep reading and reviewing and I apologize for my slowness in updating. :-D

wouldn't you like to know: Yes of course you and Megan will be in it! I'm just taking a while to get to that part!

Megsta: Fo shizel girl, fo shizle! lol thank you!

Water Sprite: Yea! Sorry! Thank you for loaning me your brother for my story, I wanted to have someone I knew in it! ;-) Thanks girl!

Mari: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you like it. Please read on!

yugirules: yea sry it took so long on that one and this one!We've been having computer trouble and there has been end of the year craziness! ROCK ON SUMMER! Thank you!

Meepball: Yea! crazy is kool...I think! Thank you!

seabiscuit0810: I know what you mean ( bout the Hw thing) zzz...zzz Thankfully, it is finally summer! Thanks for your review!

Anywien: I know it took ours along time too! Ya think JDRF could move a lil faster? Email/ IM me plz! Thanks!

To everyone else you didn't review for chapter 7, thank you so much for your reviews! And I'm sry for the spelling mistakes in chapter 1. Review, email, read.! Ciao tutti!