Disclaimer: I acknowledge that all legal claim to the characters other than
Ryneka and Ayden, the places known as Tortall, Corus and the Palace is
strictly Tamora Pierce's.
Yay! Another long chap! Longer than the last too! Thx to my reviewers! Yay yay yay! Sorry, another sugar high, this chapter is a little different than I had expected ok? The language thing has been put off to next chap, but this chap is really descriptive, I know, BORING! But there always has to be at least one per story right? So the important stuff will probably be in the next chap and the romance won't start for another few, so tell me who you want to pair up now that you know everyone a little better (don't forget there's still Ryneka) all right, here's the chap.
Karma
~**~ First Day
"A what?" Alanna asked but her friends surrounded her before he could answer, faces filled with worry.
"Alan, are your alright? Did you hurt yourself? Do you need help getting up?" Asked Jon hurriedly.
"I'm fine, Jon. I think I broke my leg but it's nothing I can't heal myself." The red head attempted to reassure the Prince.
"Oh no you don't! you used up all your energy all ready today, I'm not letting you do it again until you've had rest and food." Jon retorted hotly, worried about his friend. The boy, watching quietly noticed how distressed raven haired man was about the boy, the two obviously weren't related and the man was much too young to have children that age. "Faithful agrees with me, don't you Faithful?" Jon growled at a black cat the stranger hadn't even noticed before, He's talking to cat? What kind of people are these? he thought. Then the cat nodded at Jon as if to tell the boy-Alan-He's right you know. The boy's eyebrows shot up on his forehead.
"Well you seem to be fine and you don't look like you need to get to a hospital so if I'm no longer needed I'll just go." The young man said as quietly as possible, hoping no one would hear so he could get away unnoticed but Alan heard him.
"No!" The red head cried to the surprise of her friends. "Sorry, but we're new here. we need someone to show us around. Could you help us?" Alanna got to her feet slowly. "Hello, I'm Alan," she told the boy, holding out a hand for him to shake. "Would you be willing to help me and my friends?"
The stranger speculated, the boy who spoke most had a high voice, he hadn't been through puberty yet, it seemed, and he was fourteen or so. He was lean but not skinny and muscular, he looked at Alan's hands he noticed the callused fingertips. The barest hint of muscle could be seen in the boy. The stranger looked at Jon and the others, two of them were very robust and had huge profiles. The other lean figure seemed secretive and self regarding. The second youngest man, the one who was so fretful about Alan. Was a very handsome young man. He had black hair and. Sapphire eyes! He looked quickly at Alan who had. Amethyst eyes! Oh my God! That's crazy! They must be wearing contact lenses, but they look so real! He looked at their clothes, how odd, from his studies of Shakespeare in English class they looked like breeches, shirts overlapped by tunics and leather calf- high boots. They also had big bags in the lean boy's he thought he caught a glimpse of a snow shoe. Where are these people from? Wow, they really need help! And they're like, I dunno, popped right out of a fairytale.
Alanna, a little disconcerted by the stranger's silence was growing uncomfortable with her hand outstretched toward him. When he looked at her face and his eyes widened considerably, she got worried and discouraged. As the boy remained silent and continued to stare a while longer, she bean to let her hand fall back top her side, preparing to thank him and start searching for help elsewhere, but he abruptly grabbed her hand in a firm grip and shook vigorously. "Hullo, I'm Ayden, and I'd be glad to help you guys out!" He told her cheerfully with a beaming smile. "I see you have a lot of stuff, why don't you bring it up my place?"
"Sure, thanks a lot!" Alanna replied promptly and she and the others followed their new friend into his house. It was very neat. Everything had it's own spot. It was pretty hot in the house and Ayden apologized for the stuffiness and told them he didn't have "A.C." whatever that was but they all nodded politely at their host.
"Here, I'll open a window to air out the place," Ayden offered, walking to some drapes that Alanna guessed were set up during the summer instead of shutters. But when Ayden parted them,. There was no gush of wind, and the young man kept walking towards the window. He took hold of a small handle and started turning it, the window steadily opened. They're glass windows! No one in has those in Toratll, not even the Palace has any! Alanna marveled as the other Tortallans stared. There was even a small grid that was meant to keep unwanted vermin out of the house.
"Alright, I only have two guest rooms so you guys can choose who goes where, put your bags wherever in there and then we'll talk, cuz we obviously have a lot of talking to do!" He chuckled a little, showed them the two rooms and left to his they picked who had which. In his own experience, this decision could take a while but when he came back out of his room fifteen minutes later, they were all unpacked and now seated around his kitchen table, talking. The oversized kitten but undersized cat was seemingly sleeping on the open window's windowsill. The companions hadn't realized he'd come out of his room yet. He took advantage of that and listened to the argue.
"I think we should tell him, he's an honest man and is evidently willing to help," Jon was saying, Alan, seated beside him nodded his agreement.
"Not only that but he seems as interested in us as we-or I- are in him," Alan added. That was certainly true, he was interested in this strange group.
"No! we can't tell him!" the lean boy exclaimed. This didn't surprise Ayden, the man appeared very secretive.
"And why not?" Asked Jon and Alan at the same time, their voices melting together eerily, both of them frowning delicately.
"I don't know, I just don't think we should." The boy had lost his confidence, this seemed to decide the other two.
"You're right, we should tell him." Said the curly haired, sloe eyed man firmly, his companion nodding assent.
They all turned their gazes to the opposing member, he nodded reluctantly, "I guess you're right," he told them softly. Alan grinned.
Tell me what? Ayden thought as he started to back up slowly so he could come back making more noise to announce his arrival. But Alan spoke.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that eavesdropping is rude?" He asked.
He'd been caught sneaking away again! The boy was good, he had to admit. "No, she didn't actually," he told the red head with a grin, but sobered quickly. "She didn't teach me much of anything really, she left me when I was two," he announced somberly. Wow I haven't been able to say that to anyone for the past eight years and now I just come out and tell these total strangers? Get a grip on yourself, Ayden! He reprimanded himself sternly. He knew, nonetheless that telling these people that bit of information had really lifted a intensely heavy weight from his already burdened shoulders.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, Ayden." Alan told him with a look of concern and sympathy. But not pity, he does not pity me, he grieves for my mother, not I. I already like this guy! Ayden thought to himself. He was about to tell his guest that it wasn't a problem when Alan hung his head and told him in an almost conspiratorial whisper, "My mother died giving birth to my brother and myself." Jon put a comforting hand on Alan's shoulder and squeezed. Ayden and Alan looked at each other for a moment then reached out simultaneously and clasped hands in a way only two people sharing the same sorrow could. When they let go, both sighed loudly and shook their heads slightly as if to clear it then smiled brightly as Ayden dumped himself into a chair.
"So you have a twin then? What's his name?" He asked with a grin.
"None of your business," he replied but grinned too.
"alright then, what were you going to tell me anyway?" He asked seriously now, Alan and the others also became serious.
"Better make yourself comfortable, it's a long story."
~**~
"Wow, that's pretty amazing!" Ayden said, running a hand through his thick, straight brown hair. The whole story was rather farfetched but he believed it all the same. Alan was a pretty cool kid too. He had made a poultice for his broken leg and to prove the fact that he had the Gift he had tried to use it on his leg but Jonathan refused to let him and did it himself. Ayden had been moderately impressed by the shimmering azure light of the Prince's magic, but only moderately, until he saw the bone pieces getting back into place and then being glued back together somewhat. When Jon left the room to go to what he thought was an amazing bathroom, Alan winked at him and he saw the amethyst magic seamlessly repairing the bon and then sewing the broken tendons and ripped sinew and finally the scraped skin. After another hour or so of their heated conversation, the purple eyed boy got up and didn't limp at all, or even flinch when he put all his weight on it. he grinned at Jon's wide eyes who then gave an exasperated sigh and threw up his hands as if in silent prayer to the heavens. Then he excused himself and followed his friends to bed. Now Ayden understood why he and Alan were so close, the whole, knight master/squire deal.
He even got to her Faithful speak, albeit only a few words: He's a good fellow of sorts. the cat had said this in answer to Alan's query: "what do you think of Ayden?" Alan hadn't noticed he'd been listening but Faithful let him in on the answer. The boy was very proud he'd made the cat think positively of him.
"Well," he told his young guest now, "here's what we'll do, we have to get you guys a flat." At Alan's look, he specified, "you can rent a place to stay." Alan nodded comprehension. "then you'll need new clothes and you have to get into school, I can do that, easy." He opened his mouth to continue but Alan cut him off.
"Why do we have to go to school?" The boy asked.
"Because it's the law, everyone has to go to school until they're nineteen, I graduate this year, fortunately for you, the school year only started today. It'll be a lot easier that way, I can't think of anything else."
"Who makes these laws? Your King?" Alan wanted to know, more interested in this then in her problems.
"No, it doesn't work that way anymore," he started.
"Anymore?" the squire asked, perplexed. Sure, we used to work exactly the way you do except for the magic, those stories were just that, stories." Alan frowned slightly at the remark. "Now we have a government that is under the eye of the Queen if you wanna put it that way." Ayden continued thoughtfully.
"The Queen? Not the King?"
"Hmm? No, we don't have a King. "Ayden told her, not bothering to explain further, oddly, Alan smiled and looked very pleased with himself. "Anyway, the government makes the laws and like good, law abiding citizens, we follow them. So first thing first, I suppose back in Tortall you used to drink ale and stuff like that?" Ayden asked with a serious look, alcohol consummation was a critical thing for him, it was why his mother was gone.
Alan nodded at him, "Since the age of twelve, why?"
"Here you do not drink no matter how much you want to, neither does Jon, you hear?" Ayden looked a him with such a "father looking out for son" look that he nodded dumbly. "Good, here, underage drinking is a federal offense. And it's why my mom's gone," he told his friend softly. Alan nodded and patted him on the knee.
"Feels good, eh?" Alan said with a glimmer in his eyes, Ayden nodded. They sat in silence for a while.
Ayden spoke first, "Well, we know what we have to do, the only problem is money, I only have enough to get you guys into school, sorry."
"Oh, don't worry about money, we brought lots of it" Alan told him brightly.
"Really? That's great! Oh wait! What if it's not current money? Bring some over, I'll tell you what it's worth." Ayden offered.
Alanna went into the guest room quietly so as to not wake Jon, sleeping on the bed, and came back with the smallest purse they had, containing at least fifty of both silver and gold nobles, they hadn't brought any coppers. She was glad they had met Ayden, today had been the first time she had spoken of her mother's death to anyone other than her brother or Jonathan. She hadn't even spoken about it to Faithful.
She came back into the room and with a flick of her wrist, threw the purse at Ayden who weighed in his hand with raised eyebrows before dumping it's contents in front of him. When the coins spilled onto the table, his eyes widened and his jaw it the floor, so to speak, "Wow! This is what you guys use for money? Well, I suppose it's all you've got, considering you said a lot not a fortune. but still!" Ayden stared at the shining pile before him.
Alanna sniggered at his ignorance, "Of course we have more, that's a normal man's purse. There's more where that came from, do you think it will be enough though?" She asked skeptically.
"Certainly! Umm. how many loaves of bread would you get for one of these?" asked Ayden enthusiastically, holding up a silver noble.
"I don't know, around seven or so, why?"
Ayden beamed at her, "Well, if you sold just this one for current money, you'd get enough to buy almost thirty-five loaves!"
"Really? That much? And would I get more for a gold noble?" Alanna asked, Ayden nodded, still smiling back. "This is great!"
She picked up her money and said goodnight to Ayden with a hug, thanking him for everything before going to bed. When she walked into the guest room, Faithful following, she saw that Jon had moved from the bed onto a bedroll on the ground. The Prince slept in a sprawl, snoring lightly, his lips twitched into a smile. Alanna smiled affectionately down at him.
Ayden, passing by her doorway stopped behind her, "Is a knight master really supposed to be so nice to his squire?" He asked then clapped her on the back before walking down the hallway to his own bedroom. Alanna looked after him, a little baffled and a little worried, did he know? He couldn't, she reassured herself. She shook her head and closed the bedroom door behind her, got undressed and began to put on a nightgown when she thought, I can't wear this! What if someone comes to wake me up! And I can't wear only breeches! She quickly ran down the hallway in her half unbuttoned shirt and unlaced breeches, she knocked on Ayden's bedroom door, thinking quickly. He opened the door, "What's up?" he asked, he had no shirt and was wearing plaid, baggy pants. Perfect.
"Do you have a shirt and another pair of pants like that I can wear? I forgot my nightclothes," she asked him with a sheepish smile.
"P. J. pants? Sure, gimme a sec." He disappeared into the darkness of his room, he came back a moment later with a shirt and pants for her, "Here you go, have a nice night!" He gave her another hug and closed the door.
She stalked through the silent hallway to her room, changed in the dark and then slipped into the bed. It was quite comfortable with it's downy sheets. She sighed contentedly.
"Goodnight, Faithful," she whispered to the dark.
Goodnight Alanna, Faithful's voice resounded in her head.
"Goodnight, Jon," she whispered to the seemingly sleeping form on the floor.
"Sweet dreams, squire," Jon's voice answered. She chuckled, rolled over and just before falling asleep, thought, The adventure begins.
Alright, I'm sorry there were so many point of view changes, I hope it wasn't too confusing. Plz review if you read this cuz I'm feeling kinda like everyone whose reading stops reading after two chaps! I need some criticism or something maybe some suggestions on where this fic should go, what are your views? Thx to everyone who reviewed last chap, and especially thank you to dragon defender for having reviewed every chapter so far. Alright, if you liked it, review, if you didn't, still review, ok? Thx a lot peeps! Bye!
P.S. does anyone know if there are any guys on this site, cuz I have a friend who likes TP and would like to submit some stuff but he's afraid he'll be some kind of loner if there aren't any guys and none of the girls except me will read his stuff (he's gonna kill me when he sees I wrote this down but oh well) plz help me reassure him in your reviews! The button's right there V
Yay! Another long chap! Longer than the last too! Thx to my reviewers! Yay yay yay! Sorry, another sugar high, this chapter is a little different than I had expected ok? The language thing has been put off to next chap, but this chap is really descriptive, I know, BORING! But there always has to be at least one per story right? So the important stuff will probably be in the next chap and the romance won't start for another few, so tell me who you want to pair up now that you know everyone a little better (don't forget there's still Ryneka) all right, here's the chap.
Karma
~**~ First Day
"A what?" Alanna asked but her friends surrounded her before he could answer, faces filled with worry.
"Alan, are your alright? Did you hurt yourself? Do you need help getting up?" Asked Jon hurriedly.
"I'm fine, Jon. I think I broke my leg but it's nothing I can't heal myself." The red head attempted to reassure the Prince.
"Oh no you don't! you used up all your energy all ready today, I'm not letting you do it again until you've had rest and food." Jon retorted hotly, worried about his friend. The boy, watching quietly noticed how distressed raven haired man was about the boy, the two obviously weren't related and the man was much too young to have children that age. "Faithful agrees with me, don't you Faithful?" Jon growled at a black cat the stranger hadn't even noticed before, He's talking to cat? What kind of people are these? he thought. Then the cat nodded at Jon as if to tell the boy-Alan-He's right you know. The boy's eyebrows shot up on his forehead.
"Well you seem to be fine and you don't look like you need to get to a hospital so if I'm no longer needed I'll just go." The young man said as quietly as possible, hoping no one would hear so he could get away unnoticed but Alan heard him.
"No!" The red head cried to the surprise of her friends. "Sorry, but we're new here. we need someone to show us around. Could you help us?" Alanna got to her feet slowly. "Hello, I'm Alan," she told the boy, holding out a hand for him to shake. "Would you be willing to help me and my friends?"
The stranger speculated, the boy who spoke most had a high voice, he hadn't been through puberty yet, it seemed, and he was fourteen or so. He was lean but not skinny and muscular, he looked at Alan's hands he noticed the callused fingertips. The barest hint of muscle could be seen in the boy. The stranger looked at Jon and the others, two of them were very robust and had huge profiles. The other lean figure seemed secretive and self regarding. The second youngest man, the one who was so fretful about Alan. Was a very handsome young man. He had black hair and. Sapphire eyes! He looked quickly at Alan who had. Amethyst eyes! Oh my God! That's crazy! They must be wearing contact lenses, but they look so real! He looked at their clothes, how odd, from his studies of Shakespeare in English class they looked like breeches, shirts overlapped by tunics and leather calf- high boots. They also had big bags in the lean boy's he thought he caught a glimpse of a snow shoe. Where are these people from? Wow, they really need help! And they're like, I dunno, popped right out of a fairytale.
Alanna, a little disconcerted by the stranger's silence was growing uncomfortable with her hand outstretched toward him. When he looked at her face and his eyes widened considerably, she got worried and discouraged. As the boy remained silent and continued to stare a while longer, she bean to let her hand fall back top her side, preparing to thank him and start searching for help elsewhere, but he abruptly grabbed her hand in a firm grip and shook vigorously. "Hullo, I'm Ayden, and I'd be glad to help you guys out!" He told her cheerfully with a beaming smile. "I see you have a lot of stuff, why don't you bring it up my place?"
"Sure, thanks a lot!" Alanna replied promptly and she and the others followed their new friend into his house. It was very neat. Everything had it's own spot. It was pretty hot in the house and Ayden apologized for the stuffiness and told them he didn't have "A.C." whatever that was but they all nodded politely at their host.
"Here, I'll open a window to air out the place," Ayden offered, walking to some drapes that Alanna guessed were set up during the summer instead of shutters. But when Ayden parted them,. There was no gush of wind, and the young man kept walking towards the window. He took hold of a small handle and started turning it, the window steadily opened. They're glass windows! No one in has those in Toratll, not even the Palace has any! Alanna marveled as the other Tortallans stared. There was even a small grid that was meant to keep unwanted vermin out of the house.
"Alright, I only have two guest rooms so you guys can choose who goes where, put your bags wherever in there and then we'll talk, cuz we obviously have a lot of talking to do!" He chuckled a little, showed them the two rooms and left to his they picked who had which. In his own experience, this decision could take a while but when he came back out of his room fifteen minutes later, they were all unpacked and now seated around his kitchen table, talking. The oversized kitten but undersized cat was seemingly sleeping on the open window's windowsill. The companions hadn't realized he'd come out of his room yet. He took advantage of that and listened to the argue.
"I think we should tell him, he's an honest man and is evidently willing to help," Jon was saying, Alan, seated beside him nodded his agreement.
"Not only that but he seems as interested in us as we-or I- are in him," Alan added. That was certainly true, he was interested in this strange group.
"No! we can't tell him!" the lean boy exclaimed. This didn't surprise Ayden, the man appeared very secretive.
"And why not?" Asked Jon and Alan at the same time, their voices melting together eerily, both of them frowning delicately.
"I don't know, I just don't think we should." The boy had lost his confidence, this seemed to decide the other two.
"You're right, we should tell him." Said the curly haired, sloe eyed man firmly, his companion nodding assent.
They all turned their gazes to the opposing member, he nodded reluctantly, "I guess you're right," he told them softly. Alan grinned.
Tell me what? Ayden thought as he started to back up slowly so he could come back making more noise to announce his arrival. But Alan spoke.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that eavesdropping is rude?" He asked.
He'd been caught sneaking away again! The boy was good, he had to admit. "No, she didn't actually," he told the red head with a grin, but sobered quickly. "She didn't teach me much of anything really, she left me when I was two," he announced somberly. Wow I haven't been able to say that to anyone for the past eight years and now I just come out and tell these total strangers? Get a grip on yourself, Ayden! He reprimanded himself sternly. He knew, nonetheless that telling these people that bit of information had really lifted a intensely heavy weight from his already burdened shoulders.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, Ayden." Alan told him with a look of concern and sympathy. But not pity, he does not pity me, he grieves for my mother, not I. I already like this guy! Ayden thought to himself. He was about to tell his guest that it wasn't a problem when Alan hung his head and told him in an almost conspiratorial whisper, "My mother died giving birth to my brother and myself." Jon put a comforting hand on Alan's shoulder and squeezed. Ayden and Alan looked at each other for a moment then reached out simultaneously and clasped hands in a way only two people sharing the same sorrow could. When they let go, both sighed loudly and shook their heads slightly as if to clear it then smiled brightly as Ayden dumped himself into a chair.
"So you have a twin then? What's his name?" He asked with a grin.
"None of your business," he replied but grinned too.
"alright then, what were you going to tell me anyway?" He asked seriously now, Alan and the others also became serious.
"Better make yourself comfortable, it's a long story."
~**~
"Wow, that's pretty amazing!" Ayden said, running a hand through his thick, straight brown hair. The whole story was rather farfetched but he believed it all the same. Alan was a pretty cool kid too. He had made a poultice for his broken leg and to prove the fact that he had the Gift he had tried to use it on his leg but Jonathan refused to let him and did it himself. Ayden had been moderately impressed by the shimmering azure light of the Prince's magic, but only moderately, until he saw the bone pieces getting back into place and then being glued back together somewhat. When Jon left the room to go to what he thought was an amazing bathroom, Alan winked at him and he saw the amethyst magic seamlessly repairing the bon and then sewing the broken tendons and ripped sinew and finally the scraped skin. After another hour or so of their heated conversation, the purple eyed boy got up and didn't limp at all, or even flinch when he put all his weight on it. he grinned at Jon's wide eyes who then gave an exasperated sigh and threw up his hands as if in silent prayer to the heavens. Then he excused himself and followed his friends to bed. Now Ayden understood why he and Alan were so close, the whole, knight master/squire deal.
He even got to her Faithful speak, albeit only a few words: He's a good fellow of sorts. the cat had said this in answer to Alan's query: "what do you think of Ayden?" Alan hadn't noticed he'd been listening but Faithful let him in on the answer. The boy was very proud he'd made the cat think positively of him.
"Well," he told his young guest now, "here's what we'll do, we have to get you guys a flat." At Alan's look, he specified, "you can rent a place to stay." Alan nodded comprehension. "then you'll need new clothes and you have to get into school, I can do that, easy." He opened his mouth to continue but Alan cut him off.
"Why do we have to go to school?" The boy asked.
"Because it's the law, everyone has to go to school until they're nineteen, I graduate this year, fortunately for you, the school year only started today. It'll be a lot easier that way, I can't think of anything else."
"Who makes these laws? Your King?" Alan wanted to know, more interested in this then in her problems.
"No, it doesn't work that way anymore," he started.
"Anymore?" the squire asked, perplexed. Sure, we used to work exactly the way you do except for the magic, those stories were just that, stories." Alan frowned slightly at the remark. "Now we have a government that is under the eye of the Queen if you wanna put it that way." Ayden continued thoughtfully.
"The Queen? Not the King?"
"Hmm? No, we don't have a King. "Ayden told her, not bothering to explain further, oddly, Alan smiled and looked very pleased with himself. "Anyway, the government makes the laws and like good, law abiding citizens, we follow them. So first thing first, I suppose back in Tortall you used to drink ale and stuff like that?" Ayden asked with a serious look, alcohol consummation was a critical thing for him, it was why his mother was gone.
Alan nodded at him, "Since the age of twelve, why?"
"Here you do not drink no matter how much you want to, neither does Jon, you hear?" Ayden looked a him with such a "father looking out for son" look that he nodded dumbly. "Good, here, underage drinking is a federal offense. And it's why my mom's gone," he told his friend softly. Alan nodded and patted him on the knee.
"Feels good, eh?" Alan said with a glimmer in his eyes, Ayden nodded. They sat in silence for a while.
Ayden spoke first, "Well, we know what we have to do, the only problem is money, I only have enough to get you guys into school, sorry."
"Oh, don't worry about money, we brought lots of it" Alan told him brightly.
"Really? That's great! Oh wait! What if it's not current money? Bring some over, I'll tell you what it's worth." Ayden offered.
Alanna went into the guest room quietly so as to not wake Jon, sleeping on the bed, and came back with the smallest purse they had, containing at least fifty of both silver and gold nobles, they hadn't brought any coppers. She was glad they had met Ayden, today had been the first time she had spoken of her mother's death to anyone other than her brother or Jonathan. She hadn't even spoken about it to Faithful.
She came back into the room and with a flick of her wrist, threw the purse at Ayden who weighed in his hand with raised eyebrows before dumping it's contents in front of him. When the coins spilled onto the table, his eyes widened and his jaw it the floor, so to speak, "Wow! This is what you guys use for money? Well, I suppose it's all you've got, considering you said a lot not a fortune. but still!" Ayden stared at the shining pile before him.
Alanna sniggered at his ignorance, "Of course we have more, that's a normal man's purse. There's more where that came from, do you think it will be enough though?" She asked skeptically.
"Certainly! Umm. how many loaves of bread would you get for one of these?" asked Ayden enthusiastically, holding up a silver noble.
"I don't know, around seven or so, why?"
Ayden beamed at her, "Well, if you sold just this one for current money, you'd get enough to buy almost thirty-five loaves!"
"Really? That much? And would I get more for a gold noble?" Alanna asked, Ayden nodded, still smiling back. "This is great!"
She picked up her money and said goodnight to Ayden with a hug, thanking him for everything before going to bed. When she walked into the guest room, Faithful following, she saw that Jon had moved from the bed onto a bedroll on the ground. The Prince slept in a sprawl, snoring lightly, his lips twitched into a smile. Alanna smiled affectionately down at him.
Ayden, passing by her doorway stopped behind her, "Is a knight master really supposed to be so nice to his squire?" He asked then clapped her on the back before walking down the hallway to his own bedroom. Alanna looked after him, a little baffled and a little worried, did he know? He couldn't, she reassured herself. She shook her head and closed the bedroom door behind her, got undressed and began to put on a nightgown when she thought, I can't wear this! What if someone comes to wake me up! And I can't wear only breeches! She quickly ran down the hallway in her half unbuttoned shirt and unlaced breeches, she knocked on Ayden's bedroom door, thinking quickly. He opened the door, "What's up?" he asked, he had no shirt and was wearing plaid, baggy pants. Perfect.
"Do you have a shirt and another pair of pants like that I can wear? I forgot my nightclothes," she asked him with a sheepish smile.
"P. J. pants? Sure, gimme a sec." He disappeared into the darkness of his room, he came back a moment later with a shirt and pants for her, "Here you go, have a nice night!" He gave her another hug and closed the door.
She stalked through the silent hallway to her room, changed in the dark and then slipped into the bed. It was quite comfortable with it's downy sheets. She sighed contentedly.
"Goodnight, Faithful," she whispered to the dark.
Goodnight Alanna, Faithful's voice resounded in her head.
"Goodnight, Jon," she whispered to the seemingly sleeping form on the floor.
"Sweet dreams, squire," Jon's voice answered. She chuckled, rolled over and just before falling asleep, thought, The adventure begins.
Alright, I'm sorry there were so many point of view changes, I hope it wasn't too confusing. Plz review if you read this cuz I'm feeling kinda like everyone whose reading stops reading after two chaps! I need some criticism or something maybe some suggestions on where this fic should go, what are your views? Thx to everyone who reviewed last chap, and especially thank you to dragon defender for having reviewed every chapter so far. Alright, if you liked it, review, if you didn't, still review, ok? Thx a lot peeps! Bye!
P.S. does anyone know if there are any guys on this site, cuz I have a friend who likes TP and would like to submit some stuff but he's afraid he'll be some kind of loner if there aren't any guys and none of the girls except me will read his stuff (he's gonna kill me when he sees I wrote this down but oh well) plz help me reassure him in your reviews! The button's right there V