Genre: Romance/Fantasy

Audience (?): PG-13

Summary: Keladry, daughter of Lord Piers of Mindelan made a promise to keep silent until her sacrifice to save her brothers and sisters was over. However, she met the cold but handsome Lord of her father's enemy. Based on the 'Six Swans'

Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all, the plot is based on the 'Six Swans' but I've read "Daughter of the Forest" so you may see the obvious link sigh and the characters belong to Tamora Pierce. So, I can only conclude that I'm seriously broke and that you can't sue me for creating something that probably shouldn't exist…

A Long Way

Prologue (Part 1)

BabyPerfectionist

"Inness! Don't teach her that! It's too hard for her." A voice teased lightly.

"Oh, yeah?" a 7 year old girl's voice retorted.

"Yeah!" the deep voice of her 13 year old brother argued back.

"Kids. Kids! Calm down." A voice gently reprimanded them.

"Yes, papa."

"Of course, father. But, don't you.."

"Conal! Don't 'but..' me! Your sister can learn whatever she wishes to learn. You all have an equal opportunity!" their father lectured from the table where they'd been having lunch.

The young girl, who had up until then remained silent chose this moment to stick her tongue out at her brother who made a face in return. Their father sighed inaudibly but a ghost of a smile lingered around the corners of his lips.

Holding his hands up to the sky, their father moaned in an overly done dramatic tone," What did I do to deserve these kids?"

With that one small sentence, a chorus of indignant voices could be heard as each sibling tried to get their father's attention. But it was Keladry, the youngest who got their beloved father's attention- she tugged on their father's coat insistently until he noticed and then said seriously, "Papa, when is the Scanran War going to end? I want Anders to come back!"

"I know dear, I understand what you feel. It should be soon, " came the soothing reply. Everyone else had ceased the babble of talk as soon as Kel had mentioned the Scanran War.

Kel realised that with the one simple and innocent enough inquiry, the rest of her family had become disheartened immediately so she said brightly, "Inness, teach me! Please? Wait, pretty pretty please with a cherry on top?"

Her intelligent hazel eyes brightened considerably as she heard the anticipated groan come from Conal and the twitter and chatter from her sisters. She also felt relieved that she had managed to break up the tension she had caused and lifted the cloud of sadness which had enveloped them.

"Lil sis! If you want to learn then pay very close attention."

Kel watched with wide eyes as Inness bonked the flat side of his sword on Conal's unsuspecting shoulder.

"Ow! What in the name of Mithros was that for, Inness?" asked a humiliated Conal who was hopping around on one foot and howling with pain whilst grabbing the shoulder with the inflicted pain. He gave one last death glare directed at not only Inness but a mock one at Keladry as well and then walked, or in this case-hobbled around to relieve the pain.

"Now, that lil sis is the first lesson in the armed combat. Remember, never allow yourself to let your attention wander! Always keep focus on your target even if your target doesn't focus!" at that last sentence, everyone in the courtyard around the table chortled but Inness was undeniably the loudest.

Due to the fact that Conal hadn't been able to hobble far, he turned around and glared at Inness again, rather menacingly.

"What? I was only teaching our youngest sister about er...um…self-defense…yeah, that's it. You see it's going to help her in later years." Inness said innocently but not succeeding in keeping back his laughter.

Their father roared with laughter and Keladry's sisters giggled at Conal's murderous look. One of their siblings- Oranie (Conal's twin) was furiously sketching on a piece of parchment which she took everywhere with her (in her pocket), Conal's face at that precise moment. Her perfect eyebrows furrowed into a frown as she realised her subject of art had disappeared.

She unsuspectingly turned her head up to become face to face with-

"What are you doing, Oranie?" asked a dangerously calm Conal. A muscle near his eye twitched furiously.

"You know what Conal? We should sign you up in that competition which we hold annually. You know, the one where we give a prize to whoever does the most er…unique act… you could enter the category of facial "problem(s)". Look at that muscle…hehe, "Oranie faltered a bit as she sensed what was going to come and she never did finish that sentence.

"Stop! Hehehe…no…hehehe..that tickles! Stop, " running out of breath, Oranie clutched at her stomach. Conal was tickling her so much that Oranie fell off the stack of hay she had been sitting on to sketch Conal's face earlier.

Keladry surveyed the scene with amusement and giggled as Conal tickled Oranie, his pain from before obviously forgotten. She walked over, stumbling a bit as Oranie's head contacted with her foot. She picked up the sketch that had been dropped, forgotten in Oranie's ticklish moment and giggled a bit more.

She dropped the sketch because Conal's elbow had jutted out and made Kel lose her balance, causing Conal to stop and pick it up for her (he was on the floor tickling Oranie anyways) and that was when his face scrunched up. He glanced at the piece of paper in front of her which depicted a wild and almost manic look on the face with large bulgy eyes, a big nose and a wide mouth howling in pain with a small body. It looked like one of your villains in a fairytale or a cartoon.

Nobody expected to hear laughter coming out of his lips, "Who the…who…is that..? That guy has …got to be the ugliest man in …history."

Oranie stared in shock at her brother, then stared at Kel who stared at Adalia who stared at her brothers who in turn stared at their father. Their father stared right back at Conal and said, "Son, isn't that meant to be-…"

"…- your um…son!" came Kel's heroic effort to save the day.

"Kel, my lil sis that can't be my son. See," and he began to explain that he would never ever marry a woman ugly enough to produce the picture in front of him. "…and that is the reason why this will probably be offspring to someone else." While nodding his head, Conal didn't notice the snickers which were echoing around the courtyard.

Kel nodded just as seriously to what Conal had to say and her eyes blinked innocently, "But Conal, when you have a child…er let me phrase it differently- …-ok, let me try again..- achilddoesn'thaveonlythemum'sfaceandfeatures! Theyalsohavethefeaturesofthedadsoifyouhadachildthechildmightgetyourlookstoo!" Kel caught her breath after her long speech.

Conal looked at his youngest sister as if she had finally lost it, "Are you ok lil sis? Wait," he put a hand on Keladry's forehead and replied, "Ok, you don't have a temperature. Open your mouth!"

"Conal? She's fine." A patient voice rang out.

"Mmmhmm."

"So, can you kindly stop examining her?" the voice became impatient.

"Of course, now Kel look up at me and say 'Ah…'"

"Conal! That's enough! We have work to go through!" the voice snapped.

Conal swiveled around looking guilty, "Yes, father."

"We have business to attend to boys." Pier's grim voice echoed out. Nobody wondered at the sudden change in their father, it was expected. There was a war going on and they needed to prepare more stocks and medical supply for those in the infirmary.

Kel's 2 brothers (excluding Anders and Christopher) filed out, following their father. Adalia and Keladry helped Oranie up since she was still on the floor.

"Kel, we're going to teach you how to play the harp today."

"It's very important, ok? A part of our family's history is passed down through this piece of instrument." Adalia said, as if in a trance.

Keladry nodded, smiling and followed her sisters leaving the courtyard deserted of any conversation and laughter except for the leaves swirling around on the hard floor being tormented by the wind.

As Kel's head hit her pillow later that night, she pictured all of her brother's and sisters individually. She didn't know why, but the war had made her more aware that any one of them could get hurt.

First there was Anders who was 17. He was the next leader of Mindelan (a vast estate and piece of land which was the centre of Tortall) and was a great warrior as well as expert in matters such as how to manage an estate and how to plan out strategies during a war. At the moment, he was part of the fighting force to keep Scanra away from Tortall.

Then there was Inness at the age of 15; the prankster of the family and had to ability to lift anyone's spirit. However, behind his sense of humour he had an intelligence which was gleamed from stacks of books of knowledge. He had the wisdom of the druids and was expert in matters of accounting.

The twins Conal and Oranie were next both at the young age of 13. No one could have been more different than those two in personalities. Oranie was very artistic and adept at all the drawing techniques and then there was Conal who had a great aim and was considered to be Tortall's finest from knife-throwing to archery.

Adalia was 12 and the musical one in the family and knew how to play at least 5 different instruments. Apart from that she was known for her love of nature which gave her a special bond with animals.

And lastly, there was Christopher who was only 10. He had the ability to see into the future. But it was Chris's passion and love of all things around him that made the connection between Kel and Chris exist. They were probably the 2 closest siblings in the family even thought the others were close in their own way.

Kel sighed as she remembered the times when she would play with her siblings without a care in the world, but now because of the war…Anders had gone and Chris was hardly seen, he hadn't even made an appearance at lunch in the courtyard that day.

That was when she heard it, a slight noise could be heard so she prepared a small brush in her hand in case it was a burglar or someone who was potentially dangerous. The door knob turned and she gasped.

There in the shadow, she could feel the presence of her brother Chris. She laid the brush back down on the dresser next to her bed and glared at her brother for scaring her.

"Where were you at lunch today?" she asked, shivering sitting up. Holding her blanket up to her chin, her hazel eyes blinked to adjust to the light emitted from outside her door.

"Somewhere." Was the evasive reply.

"Where's somewhere?" Keladry's face scrunched up as she recalled all the places that she knew which might resemble the place "Somewhere".

"Ok, erm…do you mind if I come in?"

"No, just let me light a candle." After hunting down the location of a match and the candle, Kel managed to burn herself a couple of times. Chris watched as she struggled but refused to give up.

"Let me try."

"No, I can do this!" she managed to light it. "Well, where were you?"

"I was thinking," after glancing at Kel's eyes hastily supplied, "on the roof."

"Why do you think so much? It's not good for you." Kel's voice queried innocently.

"No reason, I just think to keep my mind off things."

"That doesn't make any sense. When you think, your mind is on the things which you think about. Isn't it?"

"You know what? For a 7 year old, you're very intelligent." Was the brotherly observation.

"That's not the point, don't try to flatter me and then not give me a straight answer as to where you were. I still can't think of where "Somewhere" is." Huffed the young girl, her arms were crossed against her chest and foot tapping.

Chris laughed, the sound echoing in the room. "For an intelligent little girl, you are a bit dense at times. There is no place called "Somewhere", I think. But what I meant to say was that it's place where I don't want to tell you- and I told you already anyways- the roof."

"What were you doing on the roof again apart from thinking?"

"I'll tell you but you have to promise me not to tell anyone else, ok?"

His little sister looked at him and nodded eagerly, "Of course, Chris."

"I had a vision, " Chris's eyes took on a slightly dreamy trance, "and it wasn't very nice- all I remember was the danger, the harsh coldness and the fear. I saw swans and..-you." His eyes turned back to normal and he glanced at his confused sis.

"Maybe, you're halicun-?"

"It's called 'hallucinating', and no, I don't think that I was hallucinating."

"Okay, if you say so."

"I just feel that sometime in the near future, we're all going to face a lot of danger but you're going to go through more than any of us."

"Us, who…us? And why am I going to face more danger?" an incredulous expression formed on her face.

"Us includes all our brothers and sisters and I only sense this Kel- it's not true. Look, go back to sleep and don't worry about it ok?"

"But I know you can see into the future. When is this going to happen?" Keladry pointed out sharply.

"Not any time soon, but just remember that I'll always be there for you." Chris kissed Kel on the cheek and left, closing the door behind him leaving his little sister alone in the dark with a single candle to light the face of the confused young girl.

A/N: Weird ending? Ok, I know that Keladry is out of character, but I need this to establish her usual calm demeanor. Our othercharacters haven't entered the story yet- and probably won't until 3rd chapter. This prologue is in 2 parts. If I made it in a huge chapter than it'd be over 13 pages so I decided to split it in half.

By the way, REVIEW! It makes me happy…if you don't- then I'll have even more low self esteem which is gonna depress me even more runs out the door crying

Anyways,

Just remember, tell me whether it's ok or not, please? I have no idea if you guys like this idea or not (?) if not, I might delete this story.

Luv ya lots

BabyPerfectionist