(Disclaimer: Anything associated with the Valdemar series is the intellectual property of Mercedes Lackey.)

Lauren sat on the big sofa in Herald-Mage Savil's suite, where Tylendel and two other Trainees lived. She and Lendel where currently amusing themselves with her deck of cards (she was winning, finally. Lendel had an uncanny ability to win at cards). Luckily, she had them and an extra bra and her CD player, thanks to her gym bag which had mysteriously appeared the other night. It had freaked out the Companions because according to Arvlen, the bag had hurtled out of nowhere, plummeting towards their heads with a vengeance no inanimate object should possess. She highly doubted that, but whatever. Her Companion was known to exaggerate stories. Her gym bag was now safely stowed away in her room in Jaysen's suite, where she now lived. She had tried her CD player, but was disappointed that it was out of batteries and of course, she didn't have extra batteries. There was no way for her to ever get batteries here, since Valdemar was a RenFaire on steroids. They didn't have anything remotely resembling plugs, or sockets, or electricity. Nor, she found out, did they have much in the way of indoor plumbing: their bathrooms were called privies. She wasn't sure she liked them.

"You win, Lauren. Again." Lendel grinned, and she grinned back. Actually, she'd only won three out of seven games, so technically he was winning.

"Well, you're ahead of me anyway. So, one more game?" She asked, already shuffling the cards. He motioned grandly at her and she thumbed her nose at him. They played the last game (he won). She excused herself, and ran off to weapons practice. She had to remember to go back to her rooms and get that belt she owed Lendel, since he beat her. Who knew that someone who'd never even played Blackjack could be so very good at it? It wasn't fair, however he did it.

When she got to the salle she was told by the weapons master to stretch and grab a practice sword. She was learning sword work with about seven other kids of her general build and height. It was an advanced class, as she seemed to pick up weapons work better than the average joe. Apparently these Valdemarans believed in skill-based classes, unlike the school districts back home where they didn't have advanced classes because (for some retarded reason) they thought it would be discriminatory to the other kids not in the classes. She'd always thought that was stupid. Lauren liked it this way as she, though preferring the fencing style, got to learn the 'hack-and-bash' style. After seeing the body-type that used the hack bash routine, they looked like renegade He-Mans. Only none of them wore loincloths and only one was blond. She didn't particularly like learning this style, but she had the medium build that could handle just about any sword work. Or so she was old. She was still trying to adjust to this crazy Renaissance Faire world.

Everyone arrived within a relatively short time. The weapons master called out that they would be working in pairs to today. Lauren and another Trainee, a black haired guy named Aegam, paired off and had at it. About an hour, or candlemark as these guys said it, they were told to cool off and the Trainees where all talking about Valdemaran novels. It was just this side of difficult, as she'd never read any of the books, and these guys had never read any American ones. She kept trying to tell herself it was like being in a foreign exchange program in a really, really foreign country. It made it easier to believe that her brain really wasn't starting to resemble cottage cheese, which was becoming a real fear. She even had nightmares about it.



"I like action. I gotta have action. No horror, y'know? None of that 'ee ee ee ee' stuff." She held her hand out and pretended she was holding a dagger and stabbing someone in the back. The Trainees who saw her laughed and she grinned. Well, at least these weird Valdemarans get humor. Lauren was very glad they weren't a whole country of sticks-up-their-butts. That would have totally sucked.

"Ugh, I need a bath! I'm smelly. I'm off!" She grinned and left, heading towards the bathroom. These freaky Renaissance people hadn't invented showers yet and Lauren was very annoyed. The only time she'd ever really taken baths, where bubble baths, and these psychos hadn't invented that either.

She neared the baths and opened the door; thankfully no one was in there because in addition to no showers, there were no separate stalls. She thought that was weird, but they did have curtains, thank goodness. She opened one such curtain, and turned on the water. While waiting for the tub to fill, she hummed. It was one of her favorites, Unbelievable by EMF, and she'd always sung it in the shower. Well, that and Aerosmith and various other bands. When the tub was almost filled she was in her underwear and singing to herself, complete with instrumentals.

"You burden me with your questions; you'd have me tell no lies. You're always asking what it's all about, but don't listen to my replies..." She got louder as the tub filled higher, and by the time it was almost full she was at full gusty volume, dancing about the tub, strumming an air guitar. Totally absorbed in her "performance" she didn't notice that two other girls had walked in. She heard them when one of them let out a squeak. Whether that squeak was one of laughter, surprise, or mortification, she couldn't tell. Well, she'd be mortified, too, if she'd walked in on a girl in her underwear dancing about like a buffoon.

She turned around, towels in hand. She'd just got to the second 'you're unbelievable' chorus. The look on her face was probably a mix of embarrassment and disappointment. The two girls, both tall, where staring at her with (as she had suspected) surprise, amusement, and mortification. Lauren thought they looked liked they need an explanation. She had always been good at thinking on her feet and possessed the constant need to mess with people's heads; she decided to give them the best explanation they'd ever get.

"It's a heathen ritual from my country. It's meant to keep evil spirits from impregnating women who bathe in the water. The illegitimate child would be born grotesque and evil, with eight horns and viscous liquid oozing out of both ends. The child then grows and falls in the nearest lake, to turn into an evil water spirit, and the cycle repeats." She tilted her head to the side as if pondering something, "But I don't suppose you have them here, so no need to worry, eh?"

The girls stared at her and suddenly left the room. Lauren savored the looks on their faces with uncharitable glee. It was one of the highlights of her week. She sighed contentedly and hopped into her now full tub. All this week had been very interesting for Lauren. She'd learned that she didn't have to take any form of math, as she knew more than the average Valdemaran Herald. Valdemarans where a lot like Americans in quite a few ways, she'd noticed: they were mongrels, and didn't have one religion. She found that she kind of liked here, even if they hadn't invented T.V. yet. Or indoor plumbing for that matter.



She got done with her bath and went down to her quarters to grab that belt she owed Lendel. It was in her gym bag under her bed, just for safe keeping, since these backward people hadn't invented zippers yet either. She had bought it a few days ago, when Lendel, Mardic, Donni and she'd gone into town with Savil. It was a leather belt with oddly weird designs on it. She couldn't imagine why Lendel wanted it so bad, but she didn't care. She hadn't bought it for herself; it had just been an impulse buy. She had no emotional attachment to it, so giving it to Lendel wasn't going to tear a whole in her heart.

She grabbed it out of her bag and walked down the hall to where Savil's suite was. She saw Lendel, Mardic and Donni standing outside of the door. Lauren wondered what was going on. Why the heck were they all standing outside? She couldn't figure it out. Not that that was anything new, she was kind of dense and easily confused sometimes.

:Sometimes, Chosen?: Arvlen asked. She'd since found out that her Companion was a giant, horrible tease.

:Oh, shut up Peanut Gallery.: She thought back at him. He chuckled mentally. Lauren walked down the hall towards where Lendel and friends where just about to walk into the suite.

:Uhm, Lendel? What's going on?:

:Savils nephew just arrived.: