Sorry for those of you who thought this was good, but I won't post on Sundays, I will try to update every other day for you though. Thanx for the support. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: None of this is mine, this belongs to Tamora Pierce. A wonderful author, you know the drill. Well, it's not mine.)

Alanna walked up to him. "Gary, I'm going to catch up on my rest, see you at dinner." She waited a moment before adding. "Call out to me, when you see me? I would never be able to find you with all the people about." She smiled to herself, thinking it would be the perfect way to find her new friends about her little problem, and without raising suspicion.

"Sure"

The fight began, and Alanna walked back on her own to her room, a smile on her face. But that was wiped off when…quick footsteps came up behind her. Someone was running right at her! She swung out of the way at the last minute, thinking she was in the clear. But the boy just stopped, and spun around, came back at her once more. This time she was so surprised that he was evidently mad at her, that she didn't get out of the way, and was hit head on as the boy came back and landed a punch on her. It stung horribly, and she let out a small curse before swinging wildly back at him. As she went to hit him back and he spun out of the way, and sent one right back to her. She ducked guessing it was coming and stomped on his foot. He let out a howl of pain. Letting her know exactly which foot she had hit, and where his stomach was, and sent another fist his way. It hit him in the stomach, and his anger rose. He swung back, with more accuracy and weight in his punch then her, hitting her squarely in the face. She quickly bit her lip before letting out a scream, but even more were on their way. She took a lot of blows, fighting back as much as she could, listening to the voice of her attacker.

"Why'd you even bother coming here farmers' boy? Surely you know it would have been a more suitable job for you to be the stable boy." A few more punches landed around her now bloody nose. "Perhaps you want to go put my horse away."

With one last punch, he stalked off, leaving Alanna alone on the grass. She lay there for a while, until the bell tolled dinner. She got up and found her way to her rooms. Once there she got some cloth to hold to her nose, and clotted the blood. That done, she lay down on her bed knowing Coram would come looking for her when he didn't see her in the mess hall. She tried not to focus on the pain she was in and concentrate on the identity of her attacker. His voice seemed to click somewhere in her memory. Although the memory was farther back in her mind then those of the couple of other pages she had met that morning. Which meant… she had to have known him before coming to the…

The door slammed open as Coram came in. "Hey lass. Why aren't you in the Mess…" He stopped. She assumed he had finally gotten a look at her face, and the blood trailing down her clothes. "What's this? What happened?" He got his handkerchief wet and came over to her, wiping the dried blood from her face.

Alanna lifted her head resolutely. It was embarrassing to have Coram, her teacher and friend to see her like this. "I fell."
"Aye, that you did. But who helped you on your way?"

"No one, I fell on my own."

"Sure, and you managed to bruise yourself in a thousand places along the way?" He grinned, though she couldn't see it. "You're funny lass, strong, but funny. I suppose I better help you out this once." He got up and left leaving her thinking.

There was knocking at her door. "Alan? Are you there? It's Gary. Coram said you were sick."

Silence. "Alan, open up." This time the voice belonged to Raoul. "Come on, you don't want me breaking down the door do you?"

"Go away!" she called. She couldn't deal with this. Not now. They would all think her weak and see her for what she was. "I'm fine, just leave me alone!" Silence met her remark once more, until a bit of shuffling happened and the Prince spoke up.

"Alan, open the door." The Princes' voice was soft, firm, and even. Filled with a tinge of regret at issuing the command. But he was a royal, and she had to obey,

"Coming," she slowly shuffled her way to the door, hoping by now it would be dark enough they wouldn't notice the bruises now covering her face. She turned her head down to the floor, as her hand reached up and twisted the door knob, giving them entry. The Prince walked in first, and pulled gently on her chin, trying to make her look up at him. She struggled to keep it down. "Sorry, for yelling. It's just really hot, and-"

"Alan, look at me." Here came another command. The boys stole glances between them. Her stance told them she was thinking about refusing but at the last minute before Jon spoke again, she looked up. Her eyes filled with anger, as she rested her eyes on Jon's. Gasps surrounded her as her friends saw the damage that had been done. "What happened?" This time the voice posed his question, his voice was hard, with anger.

"I fell, your highness."
"Of course you did, just like every other page sometime or another right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say every page falls, I'm sure that a lot have more coordination, then me." Came her pert answer. Not willing to own up about the fight. If she did, she was sure that the others would deal with the problem for her, and that wasn't the way she worked.

"At least let me heal those a bit, so that you can come do you're homework with us." His hand rested on her face, with her flinching at the contact, before she felt the cooling Gift seep into her skin, and mend the bruises. "There, now come on, we'll go to Raoul's room. Get your books."

Alanna ran into the other room, to get her books. Thinking about the friendships she was building, and ran out to them, to keep them from waiting. They joked the whole way to Raouls' room. With Alanna following silently. They assumed she was thinking about her "fall."

They settled into his room, pulling out their work, and talking about the palace gossip. "Hey, did you guys here about Ralon?" Gary asked.

"No, what about him?" Jonathan asked.

"Well, apparently he left his horse in the stables, all sweaty, with the saddle on him and everything. Didn't bother doing anything with his horse. Well, you know how dad is about that, he gave him a month of extra duties in the stables, doing those horrible tasks." He shuddered. "He probably thought he could scare a smaller page into doing it." The boys all saw Alanna stiffen at his name. "Do you know anything about this Alan?"

"No,"

"You didn't see anything?"
"No," she yawned. "You know, I'm still extremely tired, I think I'll finish the rest of my homework in the morning after I have rested and can actually think." She gathered up the materials. Once out of the door, she took off running to her rooms to find Coram. Once there she threw open the door, threw the books down and cried. "He's here, Ralon's here Coram!

Just wanted to thank my reviewers.

Coeur Casse- Keep Reading!

Twilight Shades- I'm not really sure how I came up with it. I've always admired people with disabilities, because often they're the nicest people you meet with the best outlook on life. I admire their determination, and triumphs that they make, and they always seem to really excel at what they do. So I just thought I would make perfect Alanna not so perfect.

Red rose of love- Thanks for your trust

Ikot-ikot- Thanks for the encouragement

Lianne- Your question will be answered in the next chapter, so keep your eyes open!