Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me, unfortunately. It's all Tamora Pierce/Random House's. And, seeing as how I've had the pleasure of meeting Tamora Pierce, I don't think it would be very nice of me to steal her characters and her places and everything else.

A/N: This chappie is dedicated to Viv because she was kind enough to do research that I was too lazy to do. THANX VIV! Sry if it's kinda weird and random at parts, my bro kicked me off the computer and I couldn't remember what I was talking about. Hey, at least I tried! ENJOY! Edit: halla all, me making changes again.

Chapter 2 – George

I met George when I was six. I was sitting against the side of my house and all of a sudden I felt something bump into me and then a hot jarring pain ran all the way up from my elbow to my pinkie. "Hey!"

"Hey yourself."

I just glared at him, rubbing my pinkie because it still stung. He slid down the side of the wall and sat down next to me, "What's a girl like you doing in breeches?"

"Why's a boy like you not wearing a skirt?" He seemed a bit taken aback by that comment and then he laughed. The nerve!

"You think I'm handsome."

I slapped him.

---

That was the first time. After that I never seemed to be able to get rid of him. It got to be so bad that I wouldn't go out until after dark, and even then he managed to find me. This amused Andy no end, he called me chicken and teased me whenever he could get away with it.

Then I decided that ignoring him was the best. I had tried avoiding him, and failed rather miserably at it, since he would never go away, so I figured if I just shut up he would eventually find someone else to bother. It seemed that he always knew exactly where I was and what I was doing, and he was always there. I don't know how, but somehow, he knew and he used to watch me, squatting in the street with my arms wrapped around knees that I hugged close to my chest and my head resting on my knees. After weeks upon weeks of stony silence, he announced, "You're in my spot."

"What?"

He gasped in mock surprise, "She speaks!"

I glared at him.

He went on as if he hadn't seen me, "You see, I used to sit there, and then you stole my spot."

I opened my mouth to say something and remembered my vow of silence; he would go away once he got bored. I should have realized I would have had more of a chance trying to make Gainel get up on a table in a hot pink dress and do a jig.

"I used to sit there and think about things," fat chance of that blockhead thinking, "and sometimes I wondered who my Da was. I mean, was he a good man, or what? I've never met him, and Ma never talks about him. I don't have any siblings. I really wish I did. Wouldn't it be nice to have a brother that protects you? Not that I need any protection, mind you," yeah, right, whatever you say, "You have a brother, don't you? Is it great? I think it would be fab-fabbbbb-" here he stumbled, his tongue tripping over an unknown word. I rolled my eyes, and he grinned, "Must mean you like me, or you never would've cared if I knew the word or not."

"I DO NOT!" then I covered my mouth, I hadn't meant to say that out loud.

"Course you do! You love me, don't deny it."

I muttered something about egos being too big for certain tiny brains before getting up and stomping away.

Upon sneaking up to my room, I found Andy already up, with a malicious grin on his face. I told him I didn't want to hear his malarkey, he asked me how I knew such a big word, and I stuck my tongue out at him before dropping into bed.

Occurrences like that one became a part of everyday life. The day after my seventh birthday, I was out wandering in the streets, trying my best to seem inconspicuous while my little hand slipped up into stalls and took some food to eat. It had been a bad year, and nothing in Mother's pathetic little garden had survived. Father had gotten fired, again, and everyone went hungry. It wasn't surprising then, that Lily grew up to be such a tiny girl, she had never gotten enough to eat as an infant.

---

I had managed to successfully grab a bun and had just set my teeth into it when a large hand came down on my shoulder and spun me around. I gasped, stared at him, looked at my bun, grinned and hid to food behind my back while beaming at him with my most innocent smile. "Little," here he paused, not sure what to call me, "street rat, do not think that you will be able to win me over with your tricks. I have dealt with enough people like you to know a troublemaker when I see one."

"Trouble, what trouble?" my heart was beating so hard I thought it might burst out of my ribcage any minute, but I didn't show it. I had learned a while back never to show that I was scared, because it would give me a handsome beating.

"Don't think I didn't see you steal that bun. I want you to put it back now, or I shall have to call the guard to take you to my Lord Provost, and we'll see what he has-"

"Dearest sister! What did I tell you about being polite?" That voice was very familiar, I twisted around, trying to get a good look. A hand swiped the bun out of my hand and held it out to the baker who had me captive. "My sister here is very ignorant. She believes that she is allowed to take anything she wants, the silly goose. Here, take this for your troubles," he handed the man a silver noble and told him to keep the change.

The baker gaped, then closed his hand around the money and announced, "Well, I'm sorry about that, next time, remember to keep your sister in check." He let me go and I turned around, glaring at George, "I'm N-" his large, calloused hand clamped down firmly over my mouth before I could give him a piece of my mind. "Do you want to go to my Lord Provost?" he whispered in my ear while dragging me though the crowd. Once we got to my alleyway, he let me go and I proceeded to yell, "YOU! I AM NOT YOUR SISTER!"

"I never said you were," then he took out a bun and stuffed it into my mouth to get me to be quiet. I choked and spit it out onto the ground, "I. Do. Not. Want. Your. Help."

"Whatever." He turned and left, dropping a bag into my hands and marching off. My first thought was to throw the bag away, and then a delicious smell reached my nose, my curiosity overwhelmed me and I dug around, trying to see what was inside. Pulling my hand out, I gasped and sprinted the entire way back home.

Once there, I dumped the contents of the bag out into my mother's lap and grinned at her startled expression. Normally she would have accused me of thievery, but having gone without any food for a week changed her mind. She screeched, hugged me, and called for Father.

That night, my family had a feast, well, something resembling a feast. Each one of us was given two warm, sticky buns while Mother hummed as she cut into one of the two loaves of white bread. "White bread!" Rissa had exclaimed, "I feel like the queen! Not," she added, "that I'm not one already." She then stuck her little four-year-old nose up in the air and strutted around, waving her hunk of bread like is was a scepter. My father stared at the handful of silver and bronze nobles with a silly grin on his face. "My dear wife, I do believe that our Ariel is useful after all."

What I didn't tell them was that it was not I who had stolen the food, but George. I tried to tell myself that I had been the one who had acquired it, and George had nothing to do with the matter. After a while, I began to feel guilty. I sulked and became grumpy as our meager supply of bread ran out all too soon. Father tried to urge me to go down to the bazaars and "do something useful". Mother ignored my antics because she felt that it was her payment to me. She didn't scold me for almost a whole moon. Elspeth looked at me with admiring eyes, for at six, she really did believe that I had performed some miracle. Rissa went about the house stuffing her face and the three babies only cared about sleep.

Andy, however recognized my guilty symptoms immediately. He cornered me and demanded to know what was up, his sharp green eyes boring into my own. I managed to tell him bits and pieces of my story and as soon as he heard most of it, he turned on his heel and left the house. I stumbled after him, sure that he was going to beat something up. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to go far. Andy found his target sitting against the wall and didn't hesitate to give him a sound thrashing.

When he was done, he shouted a warning, "Leave my sister alone," and left. I stared, horrified at what he had just done. Rushing to the unfortunate boy, I found George's accusing hazel eyes staring up at me. "I should have known the moment I met you that you were trouble. Next time, I'll just let the dogs have you."

"No, that's not it at all. I didn't-"

"I would have thought that you might have at least had the bravery to tell me you hated me. Turns out you were a coward after all. That boy fights like Chaos himself."

Those hazel eyes had me trapped and I couldn't snap back at him as he got slowly up and limped away.

---

I told myself over and over again that I should have said something. I should have at least told him thank you. He avoided me, I didn't see him for weeks, and even when I did it was at a distance. Every time I tried to catch up to him, he would shoot me a hateful glance and run off in the opposite direction. I hadn't realized that this annoying person had been something of a friend.

In the end, I gave up and vented my anger at my brother. I told him that it was all his fault and next time he should leave me alone. I complained to Father about him and Father got mad and yelled. I told Mother that Andy was being a bully and Mother took away his dinner. It was all payback. I thought that in torturing Andy, I was paying him back for what he did to George. In reality, it was trying to make him hurt as much as I was hurting because I lost a friend I never knew I had. Of course, at seven, I had no idea this was the reason for my lashing out. At seven, all I knew was that I was upset, and since the world revolved around me, everyone else had to be upset because I was upset.

Finally, I gathered up what little courage and dignity I had left and went off in search of George. I couldn't find him anywhere during the day, and decided to look at night. I found him sitting in the exact same position I used to sit in, in the exact same spot on the wall. I walked over to him, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "I'm sorry."

He looked up at me and his eight-year-old heart was so big that once he saw the tears in my eyes he forgave me. He forgave me for all those times I had hurt him when he was only looking for a friend. He forgave me for all those times he had helped me and received a sharp word or a black eye as thanks. He forgave me for everything I had ever done to hurt him and said, "I'm sorry too, will you be my friend?"

I held out my hand and sniffed, "Yes."

He took my hand in his too large ones and we shook on it. Then I took my hand out of his, spit in the palm and said he had to do the same or he might break his promise. He grinned, obliged and made a face as the saliva as squished between out hands. "Gross."

"Gross? What's gross?"

"Your spit."

"Your spit is grosser than my spit."

"Your face is uglier than my face."

"Your nose is crookeder than my nose."

"I like crookeder noses."

"Well I like uglier faces."

We grinned, my mother shouted for me to come in, and we parted as friends. It's amazing how young hearts forgive so readily.

A/N: ok... a little stupid and weird, but it's all good. oh, and anyone who can figure out where I got the idea for the first meeting between George and Ariel gets a cookie! Arghhh. I can't tell if their speech is little-kiddish enough.

Thank you to:

Wake-Robin: aww, thnx! Ya, I kno, it's kind confusing, but hey, I got confused too! So it's all good. You get a cookie for being to first reviewer!

MAR: I figured it out! Marge, Amelia, Rachel! I WIN! Ya, the raven armory thing is a little of a ... mystery to everyone, you'll see why later, I PROMISE! (I think) and, mulan rocks! Its, "with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon!" not blahblahblah! we are men! blahblh! we are men! b;ahblahblah! we are men!

eat paper: yeah, I realized they were a little too descriptive, but hey, at least you know who they are!

White Lizard: lol, ya, sry that I spent so much time on the other characters. But it's good that you got to know Ariel, cuz I'm trying to make you get to know her but not because she tells you all about her... did that make any sense? D ya! I sorta kinda named her after you but not really... XD (that's my dead face) is this soon enough for you?

Goldentwilight: tyty, ya, I know that it's kinda evil and not happy go lucky, but it's all good! Sry about the paragraphs. I tried to make it better this time, but there are still some long-ish ones. HAPPY B-DAY IN ... counts A COUPLE OF DAYS! (think of this update as an early-ish b-day present)