Thanks to:
Baby perfectionist: Thank you for reviewing, you were my first reviewer sniff sniff nobody likes my story! wails I have updated! You update now! But NO, you still haven't updated!
laloner: Thanks so much for reviewing! Yeah, I probably sound like I'm obssessed with reviews but that's only because I am. Anyways, thanks for the encouragement
nativewildmage: Sorry, I know what you mean. I can't really see Kel as a player either but the rest of the plots seemed slightly similar, anyway sorry if I made you confused and thanks for reviewing...I like reviews hint hint
Bambolieblue: Hey! Thank you for reviewing, it means a lot to me. It really does, otherwise I would've stopped with this plot idea altogether.
Jjinks: Thank you! I don't understand the player thing either. All I know is they act plays and stuff, which isn't really enough for me to write fanfic with but still. Thanks for reviewing!
Disclaimer: Don't own nothing except for maybe the plot, I haven't seen this plotso I decided to try it out…the characters as usual belong to TP. And as usual…I'm broke. Seriously.
The Player in all of Us
Chapter 2- Friend or Foe?
By Innocent lil angel
After accepting the training to become a player, Keladry was on her way quick smart to the palace. Ironic, isn't it? I'm still going to the palace, Kel thought with a certain smugness. Even if they don't want me to become a knight, I'll show them what I can do. Arriving in no time at all, she was sent to a part of the palace where those wanting to become players of her age were situated.
Looking around in awe, even if her papa said that the palace was a miserable rat's nest, Kel sighed in the way that many sigh when overwhelmed. Glancing at the number's on the door, Kel squinted at a door in the corner away from the light. 505. My new 'home'. The door appears rather drab but it'll do for a door.
Checking to see that she still had her key in her hand, she opened the door and surveyed the scene before her. It wasn't that she minded the structure of the room except there seemed to have been a problem.
"Why is this room so big?" Kel murmured aloud, wondering who in their right mind would give such a big room to a 10 year old girl. Knowing that she wouldn't get an answer, she shrugged slightly, "So much the better I guess, more room for my cats!"
"Sorry to tell you this but no pets are allowed," came a slightly wispy voice near the door. A slender girl's aquamarine gaze followed Kel's troubled hazel ones, the willowy figure stepped into the room uninvited and gradually her lips curved into a smile. Kel's own lips seemed to have moved of its own accord and she was grinning, "We must look rather odd, don't we? Smiling and grinning at each other like we've known each other in years."
Kel nodded, startled whilst observing the young girl before her. Beautiful blue-green orbs gave Kel curious looks, dark black wavy hair swept in an untidy bun gave Kel the impression that this girl was graceful like a dancer. The dark blue material gave off specks of colour as the light shone upon the girl's dress, high neckline, no ruffles or lace and the fact that the dress was rather baggy allowed Kel to conclude that this girl was really modest.
"Sorry, what's your name?" Keladry queried, at the same time gesturing for the girl to sit with Kel on the chairs.
"It's Adeline, Adeline of Trest," was the confident, bubbly reply, "And you're Keladry of Mindelan, correct?"
Keladry was slightly horrified of the idea that after having just arrived at the palace, rumors had already been spread about Kel. She gulped, "What have you heard about me?" Not realizing that she had claimed the mask which concealed all her emotions when she gulped.
"Are you ok? Your face looks all funny and …what's the word? Oh yeah! Blank, why is your face all funny and blank?" Adeline asked, the concern in her tone evident.
"My face?" Kel wondered at what Adeline was trying to say, "Oh…oh..-"
"Oh..what?" Adeline demanded impatiently, her foot tapping against the wood of the table, "Well?" when Kel didn't reply.
Not knowing how to phrase the delicate situation to Adeline, Kel decided to try anyway and stumbled on, "Well, it's just that I've been to the Yamani Islands and they tend to think that to let your emotions out isn't really respectable. Therefore, er, they usually wear a mask whenever they know an emotions is about to come out."
"What?" Adeline's astounded voice, combined with her wide open mouth was comical for Kel. As Kel was about to laugh, her years in the Yamanis kicked in and she bit down the laugh.
"So, you mean to say that if you wanted to laugh- like you just did, you wouldn't be able to in the Yamanis? How stupid is that! I mean, what if you were told that your parent's were dead? Would you be allowed to cry?" Adeline began ranting on and on.
"I guess it is slightly stupid but I find it useful sometimes," Kel defended, after all she hadn't studied all that for nothing, "I mean, yeah it's stupid when someone's dead and then you're not allowed to cry but it's useful when you're arguing with your parents and then you don't want to show it to make the argument even worse."
Adeline smiled wryly, "You argue even more than my cousin. I realize that the players amongst our year are going to be having a lot of competition."
"Why?" Kel asked, puzzled.
"Well, there is this tiny fact that you're a bit of a drama queen and believe me, drama queens' are usually the best players ever."
"Really? The people at the Yamani Islands often said that I was a touch dramatic before I learnt the art of concealing emotions," Kel suggested.
"Anyway, as I was saying before…around ½ an hour ago. You're not allowed to have pets in the palace whether or not you have a big room." Adeline said seriously, her brows furrowed tightly together.
"Oh, that! I meant my Yamani lucky cats," Kel said, thinking to grin but not knowing whether or not she should but decided that if she was going to be a player she was going to have to release her emotions so she grinned naturally.
Walking over to her case, lying on her bed she flipped it open and began tossing things here and there. After some very long moments, Kel emerged triumphant with a lucky cat clutched in her hand.
"Thought you could escape me, huh? Well, for your information you canNOT! Haha..ha…ha…-" Kel's laughter trailed off and she tried to explain to Adeline that she didn't often talk to herself or laugh rather manically.
"Er…hi?" Kel's voice was decreased and appeared rather soft.
"Yeah, is that the cats you were talking about?" taking the one Kel had in her hand, Adeline carefully looked at all the minute details on the cat.
"Why does the cat wave at you though?" Adeline's brows furrowed once more, this time out of confusion.
"It's quite a long story, but to cut it short. Actually, wait. You can't really cut it short. If you cut it short then the whole story loses the general point…"
"Kel! Stop being abnormal!" seeing that Kel still wasn't paying attention to her she leaned over the table and screamed in her ear, "THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOU TO BE ARGUING WITH YOURSELF AND LOSING!"
That seemed to work for the next second, "As I was trying to say before –something- interrupted me," Adeline snorted while muttering "Wonder what," "Once upon a time, there was a war in the Yamani Is. and the emperor at the time was about to shoot or was about to be shot (as you can see I've kind of forgotten the details) but seeing a cat waving, the emperor moved out of the way and they won the war. Therefore, it's claimed that these," brandishing the cat in Adeline's hand, "are lucky."
"I see. So, then everyone started the habit of having a lot of these 'lucky' cats and placing them all over the house?" was the incredulous reply.
"I guess, except it's lucky," insisted Kel not at all put off by Adeline's blunt nature, "It really is."
"Of course," Adeline said in a non-committing manner, "How about I give you a tour of the palace? Otherwise you might get lost in no time because, as you can see it's pretty big." She finished with a big flourish of her hands at their surroundings.
"I'll be with you in a while, it's just that I like to get all belongings packed and ready by night time so I won't have to pack then," Kel replied.
"Fussy girl," muttered Adeline, shaking her head.
"What did you say?" Kel asked, her tone accusing.
"Nothing much," Adeline answered, "You know…"
"Adeline, Adeline, Adeline. I find that you really don't know how to change the topic in an embarrassing situation, tsk tsk tsk!" Kel scolded the other obviously taller girl, this time she shook her head with Adeline cowering slightly at Kel's intimidating gesture.
Gleefully, Adeline nodded her head smiling.
"Huh? Aren't you supposed to be horrified? Shocked? Even intimidated? Well anything but there you are smiling."
Kel's shock deepened further when Adeline began laughing uncontrollably, "It's..just that..you changed the topic…yourself…hehe..he"
"You are one strange girl, Adeline. How about that tour?" Kel asked, after having stuffed most of her clothing in the drawers and gingerly placed her Yamani lucky cats waving their hands on one shelf of the bookshelf.
"You haven't finished packing though," Adeline pointed out.
"Of course I have, " frowned Keladry.
Gesturing at the books still in Kel's case, "What about your books?"
"I'll pack those later, I mean we're not going to be studying anything right?"
"Of course we are! Even though we're players in training it's like a page, we still learn the theory things like Mathematics and Etiquette or Reading, etc."
"Really? So do we get to do the practical part of the page training?" Kel asked, excited.
"Unfortunately for you, no but fortunately for me. It's just like they don't get to do the stuff you're going to do. You know how you asked me where/what I've heard about you? It's just that you wanted to be knight or lady knight, should I say. It's rare, even after the Lady knight Alanna no girl wanted to go through with the training."
"I know, especially since the king doesn't want any other girl to train. Probation, pssht!" mumbling to herself about the indecency of not being allowed to train as a page to become a knight like every other boy.
Adeline regarded Kel shrewdly, "You really wanted to be a knight didn't you?"
"Of course, how did you know?"
"The most I've actually heard you talking was when you were complaining about not being able to have the same chance as the other boys, apart from that the only time you talked for more than a couple of sentences was when you were telling me the story of the Yamani cats," Adeline said glancing rather doubtingly at the cats themselves, "and I haven't really heard you complain until now. My only conclusion is that you usually don't talk a lot and that you're more of a thinker...-"
"…" Kel interrupted trying to calm Adeline down, "I didn't understandmuch of that sorry. I think you're exaggerating somewhat though. I mean, I've talked for more than a couple of sentences other than the tale of the Yamani cats!"
This time, Adeline interrupted, "How about we go now? The sun's almost set."
"Something logical, let's go." Kel turned around to go when she stopped noticing that Adeline wasn't with her, "Adeline?"
"Yes?" was the small reply.
"What's wrong?" Kel asked. From what she had judged of Adeline's character, she wasn't the kind to worry about nothing and basically over confident in most things.
"It's just that I forgot I was supposed to see my cousin, he's starting his page training tomorrow and if I don't see him today then I won't have too much time because he'll be rather busy. Do you mind if we stop by his place? I promise it wont' be long." Her aquamarine eyes shone pleadingly.
"Of course it doesn't matter Adeline, you strange girl," Kel grinned at said girl's scowl.
As they set outside room 505, Adeline showed Kel her room. "It's odd actually, though you don't know many of the people here a lot of people already know about you. I actually 'knew' you through my cousin. If you think I'm strange, you'd probably call him crazy."
Seeing Kel's disbelieving look, Adeline defended herself, "It's true!"
"Right…" walking quickly they made their way to the page's quarter of the palace.
"It's really confusing getting your way around but you'll get used to it," Adeline said as they passed many staircases, doors and hallways. "Here we are, remember though he's the odd one, not me."
"Sure."
"I'm being serious!" Adeline cried, as she knocked on the door.
"When are you ever serious, Addy?" a boy's voice cried out.
Kel turned her attention to the boy standing at the door, emerald green eyes were dancing with messy brown hair flopping onto his forehead, his nose was sharp and Kel thought that there were distinct facial similarities between the boy standing in front of her and Adeline.
"Nealan, " the boy winced, "Adie, you know that I hate 'Nealan', only Aunt Morice calls me that and that's only because she hates me though the feeling's mutual..."
Kel stared at the boy in front of her whilst whispering to Adeline, "You were right, Addy, if you don't mind me calling you that, but this cousin of yours is weird."
"Of course you can call me that, Kel. I told you…" said Adeline shaking her head miserably, "It's an embarrassment whenever I try to introduce friends' to him," whispering again.
"I can see why," Kel whispered back.
It seemed as though the boy, Nealan noticed that nobody was really paying attention to him and realised that the 2 girl's were whispering about something.
"Hey! I am NOT an embarrassment! ADDY! How could you say such a thing!" the outraged cousin yacked on and on about how Addy could say such a thing.
Getting impatient, Adie pushed past Nealan and pulled Kel in with her. "It doesn't matter, " Addy reassured Kel, "he'll notice and then he'll feel guilty that he didn't invite us in earlier."
"Really?" Kel asked doubtfully, "He doesn't look like he can feel guilty, no offense or anything," Kel added as an afterthought.
"I'm not offended, I understand what you feel. I've never been able to understand how Neal can communicate with any of those university people. They're highly intellectual and don't deserve, in my opinion to talk to someone who goes on and on about every little detail."
"What do you mean by that?" Kel asked, rather puzzled.
"You see, if you ask him for a list about Immortals for example, he won't stop with just telling you about the different Immortals but where he got the information from, what he had to do to get the information and then he'll give you another list which lists the various sources and etc. it's really hard talking to him sometimes."
As they sat on the chairs, Neal, after having noticed that they had long stopped listening went inside too.
"Hey, you're the Mindelan girl who wanted to become a knight!" Neal exclaimed.
"Let me introduce you, as I was rudely interrupted earlier. Neal, this is Kel. Kel this is Nealan. Or should I say Neal, "Addy added hastily.
The emerald eyes met those of hazel ones for a brief instant then,
"Aren't you too old to be a page?"
A/N: I am extremely sorry, it's rather sad but I don't think this chapter was really good. I'm sure many of you will agree on that. Sometimes the conversations between Addy and Kel are a bit weird/stilted but yeah me, being the lazy me couldn't be bothered to fix it.
Anyways, just so you peoples know I have no idea how the training to become a player goes so I made anything up. Sorry, if you think I'm not following the book but I'm not sure if they mentioned anything about it.
Remember to REVIEW! Otherwise…I'll cry.
Luv ya lots,
Innocent lil angel