Chapter 5- The Next Few Weeks and Fencing Lessons

Over the next few weeks the three of them became inseparable. They did everything together, and Corum had a lot of trouble getting them into groups for practice with staffs. One day the argument got pretty fierce. Sean had been arguing with Corum about Panil being paired up with and older page, one Victor of Dunlath. His mother was friend to Diane the wildmage at a young age. Victor was a 3rd year page, and wanted to test Panil's skills. "Corum, she won't be practicing, she'll be defending her head! He is going to clobber her over the head with that staff of his!" Sean pleaded. "Now if you are too ignorant to pair her with me or Alan, then…"

"You want to talk of ignorance Sean of Martlys?" Corum said through clenched teeth. "Why not talk of a boy who is too ignorant too listen to his master's orders? Why not speak of a boy who is too busy ARGUING WITH HIS SUPIERIERS TO LOOK AT HIS OWN BAD POSTURE, OR HIS OWN IGNORANCE OF ORDERS! DO YOU SEE PAGE PANIL COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PAIRING? NO SHE UNDERSTANDS HOW TO TAKE AN ORDER, AND UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO TAKE ONE YOU WILL BE SCRUBBING POTS UNTIL YOUR FINGERS FALL OFF! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Sean was quivering at this point, Corum, normally easy going and relaxed, had completely exploded at him, and he had nothing to say except, "Yes Sir, ri-right away sir." Sean then fell into the drill totally shaken and got thwacked on the head three times before he got back into the swing of the drill.

All Panil could do was defend her self from Victor and chuckle to herself about Sean's "ignorance", and get that all too familiar light feeling in her stomach. She had been getting it a lot lately around the guys. Every time they would touch her to correct a posture while they were practicing in their rooms, or when they did things like that to protect her "virtue" as they said. She remembered the incident yesterday, when Harol of Longpond Hollow came up to her and repeatedly telling her offensive things, like "Bar Wench go back to selling your roses for the bastards." Or "Slut go open your legs somewhere else". Sean was walking down the hall where he saw Panil's quivering lips and called Alan out of his room. Soon they came to her rescue and Harol left the scene with a black eye (a/n courtesy of Panil herself) and a bloody lip (a/n courtesy of Sean). Alan mostly held him down, so didn't leave any marks. (a/n except those scratches on his arms, but they don't really count do they?)

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The next bell rang and the boys (a/n and girl) hurried off to the next practice court, which was next to the stables, which was for fencing. All the pages had to start their training for it today. Panil was excited, for a knight's best weapon was the sword, they lived by their sword, or died by it in some sense. She was an athletic sort of person, and she adored new challenges. She already did fifty pushups each morning, and jogged the castle walls with ease, she just had so much energy all the time. No matter what she did, she had trouble sleeping at night, with all the excess energy, but when she finally did sleep, she wouldn't wake up. It was very strange.

"All right Lads, and Lass" He winked at Panil, "Today we start on the sword. Of course not real ones, but wooden ones with lead in them. I want you all to feel the weight of a real sword however, so line up on the fence and I'll pass a sword of mine around, and if you drop it, you fail for the day mostly because I just had it cleaned but that's not the point. You shouldn't have to drop it. At All." Panil was near the beginning of the line, and she saw the boys, the stronger of them, have trouble wielding the heavy weapon, one by one the boys passed it down the line, each boy kind of dipping as he picked it up from the last. When it came to Panil she dipped the tiniest bit and admired the piece of craftmanship in her hands. There was a pitch black handle, encrusted with bits of silver, the blade itself was double edged, sharp enough to probably cut a piece of hair in to. And so Panil yanked a piece out of her head and dropped it on the blade. The hair fell daintily on the edge and broke into two separate pieces. She and the boys looking on with her gasped, and Panil then hurriedly passed it along.

When Alan got it after Sean, who nearly dropped it, but caught it just in time, He hefted it well. He held it in one hand, and swung it side to side gently. Sean had his mouth gaping until Panil pushed his jaw up and said quietly, "It's not polite to stare Sean." Alan grinned at her and passed it to the next boy. The boys in the line all go to see it and Corum began to speak again.

"As you can see, some lads, or Lasses" Another Wink at Panil, "wield swords naturally, just know how to hold one, or swing one, or use it in battle. Some may have to work harder than others, but it will all be worth it in the end. Because, in the end, you will all be Knights of this Realm, Knights of Tortall. Are you all willing to work to the higher Goal? Aye or Nay?" A chorus of hearty "Ayes" broke out from the ranks, and Panil being one of the loudest. A feeling of pride just swelled up in her chest and almost burst. The best part about this was that her birthday, and Midwinter was coming soon. She would be turning Eleven, which was important for her, because she would be the same age as her best friends.

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A/n Panil's Birthday scene is a Special part of this Chapter, SURPRISE! There may be some… well, umm, why not surprise you?

Part Two, Panil's Birthday and Midwinter

Panil squealed as she woke up that day, for she knew it was her Eleventh Birthday. She jumped up from under her covers and sprinted into her dressing room. She quickly got dressed, looked into the mirror, and saw her tunic was on backwards. She went back and more slowly this time, fixed her tunic. She went out her door and ran down the halls to Sean room, which was three doors down on the right. She was told by maids that her room used to be Lady Keladry's room while she was a page. She started to bang on Sean's door and he walked to the door groggily. "What Panil?" He said irratated.

"Guess what today is." She said, as hyper as ever.

"Halloween?"

"Nope"

"Midwinter?"

"Well, yes but no."

"My birthday?"

"NO! My birthday!" She smiled and looked at him, he yawned and she was still pestering him. "Did you get me a present of sorts?"

"Maybe…"

She ran into his room and sat on his bed. He yawned again and Went under his bed, his pajamas pinking up dirt along the way. He brought her a package wrapped in foil and she ripped it out of his hands. Panil then opened the foil carefully, and tore open the box revealing a ….

DUN DUN DUN

To be continued-

A/n You didn't think I would give you two chapters in one? I am not that nice you know, and I enjoy making you hang there like a bungy jumper that didn't bounce back up. MMUAHAHAHAHAHA Thanx to my reviewers and stay tuned to next chaper.