Disclaimer: any characters you recognize are Tamora's (tho I wish I could have them) and the ones you don't are mine (yes! All mine! Muhahaha)
A/N: I finally updated! Yeah, it's been about 5 months…naughty me, but anyway, it's done now. This is for you LadyHood—does it strike a bell in your memory? The first half should and I added the next part for fun :D:D Miss you lots!
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Ugh, these banquets were so boring. Ademia sat between her mother and father at the request of King Jonathan. Despite his good intentions of treating her family like nobles, Mia hated going to the King's "parties". At the moment she was thinking about how much she would like to shoot her new long bow. Or practicing her glaive… Or cleaning out the horse stables…(wow, she's desperate). Daine nudged her daughter out of her daydreaming. Like Mia she didn't really like to be all dressed up either, but at Numair's insisting she learned how to look interested in what was going on. They had just finished the introductions of new nobles at court, only a couple more hours of tedious "work".
"Look over there," Daine said, trying to engage Mia in a conversation. "That's Lady Lisa, the baroness of Novscot, a fief in northeastern Tortall."
"Mmhmm," Mia muttered absently.
"And that's her daughter, Vanessa of Novscot, she likes to train with foreign weapons too." Mia looked over at a young lady dressed in a blue gauze-like dress. Her poofy black hair surrounded a face that had a look of severe boredom. When her face turned towards Mia's table she thought it was more of a look of disgust. Yeah right, Mia thought, raising an eyebrow, I highly doubt she'd even touch a glaive or a shushken. She was clearly unimpressed with the finely dressed noble from Novscot. Little did she know, Lady Vanessa had looked over and seen what looked like boredom and disgust on Mia's face too. Mia would rather be thinking about chores she could do than be getting a tour of all the visiting nobles. She zoned out her Ma's voice and imagined grooming all the horses in the palace…or feeding the chickens…or cleaning Numair's workroom (now that's getting pretty desperate).
Finally supper was over and Mia quietly slipped outside to avoid the area when the dancing began. She began a conversation with a group of squirrels when she was interrupted by Numair grabbing her hand and pulling her in from the balcony. "Hey little one," he said brightly, with a twinkle in his eye. "You wouldn't want to miss all this wonderful dancing and a chance to meet young men." Mia glared at him. Her Da always did this at the banquets. Lucky her, she would be forced to spend the night being handed off to "young men" ranging from the age of 10 to 30. She briefly thought of shape-shifting but then remembered she had gotten in serious trouble last time she did that. Grudgingly she took the hands of the first person her father paired her off to and tried to look as unattractive as possible. Ademia was relieved when Daine insisted that her daughter get to bed.
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The next morning, Ademia awoke early as always and was relieved to breathe fresh air out on the practice courts. After shooting a few ends (yes, I am an archer and that is the correct terminology) with her bow she began a furious practice dance with her glaive. She was thrown out of speed by a girl's voice.
"You're good with that. Must have a lot of practice." Mia was surprised to see Vanessa of Novscot standing next to her with her own glaive, in plain breeches too! "You didn't expect to see me out here did you?" Vanessa added with a smile. " I must have looked really grumpy last night at the banquet, I hate 'em"
Mia laughed at her bluntness. Perhaps this girl was someone she should spend time getting to know. "I can't stand them either, my name's Ademia."
"I know. The wildmage's daughter. Do you have wild magic too?" Mia grinned.
"Yeah, it's quite useful. How long have you been working with the glaive?"
Vanessa shrugged, "Practically forever—lots of the other weapons too."
"Up for a round of staff work?" Mia asked, grabbing two wooden staffs from a shelf. She tossed one to Lady Vanessa. They began at a steady tempo, with a repeating rhythm (high, middle, low, high, middle, low…) but quickly sped to a flurry of movements and random attacks and block. Both girls were grinning as sweat ran down their faces.
"Girls don't have a place in bearing arms." Vanessa and Ademia looked up to see a sandy-haired youth leaning against the fence with a smirk on his face.
"Oh. It's you." Vanessa said, turning to Mia she added, "That's Squire Leif from a fief nearby mine. Mum wants me to be interested in him, but he is such a bore." Vanessa grinned at the shocked look on Leif's face. "Really Squire Leif, you'd think if you were going to insult women bearing arms you could at least do it in a creative way. Practically everyone uses that phrase. Women don't have a place in bearing arms" she said in a mocking voice.
"Can't you see it's obvious that the men don't like it? Seriously, you women are always seen practicing together cause the men won't. Except disgraceful knights such as Nealan of Queenscove." Mia seethed over the insult of Neal. She enjoyed being around Neal even if he was a Meathead.
"The only reason you don't see men sparring with us is because they are too slow to keep up." Mia retorted. "Care to challenge me?"
"It's a waste of time," he muttered.
"Oh that's okay," Mia said cheerfully, "I'll challenge you then."
"Jousting then." Squire Leif said, planning to knock her out of her saddle. "In 10 Minutes." He rushed off to saddle his horse. Both girls grinned and went to saddle up Mia's horse, Big Enough, and get a weighted lance (hmm..seems to have become a favorite of lady jousters). Mia trotted out on the little sorrel/bay (a/n: I know the cross sounds weird but it's true and possible) horse. She laughed when she saw he still had beads in his flax mane from last week's parade. She and Vanessa were met by Leif on a tall strawberry roan. Mia almost regretted agreeing to joust and wished she had been able to borrow a bigger horse from the stables. He looked quite mad—geez, and she hadn't even beaten him yet. Mia felt she had an enemy coming on—not surprising though. Her stubbornness was good at creating enemies. She was surprised when the squire said, "I know you're a wild mage—don't try any funny stuff on my horse." Darn, she was hoping she'd have that element of surprise.
"Good Luck." She heard Vanessa murmur. Ademia pushed Big Enough into a full gallop and raced towards the oncoming roan. She notice that Leif had his lance too high and was leaving an open spot in is defenses. Lovely, she thought and she pointed her lance at his chest. Whack! Followed by Thump! It was a very light hit (she didn't have tons of strength) but he was unbalanced enough to fall out of his saddle. "You act like you and your horse are two separate beings. Connect the parts again." She dismounted and walked towards the stables with Vanessa. "You really have some wit you know? Sticking up to a person like that…and with some sass too," Mia said to Vanessa, referring to the verbal beating given to Squire Leif when he first arrived.
"Well, that was probably the most fun practice session I've had here in Corus. It was nice to meet you. You can call me Ness if you like, all my friends do."
"And you can call me Mia. But never call me Addy—I'll kill you in your sleep" They both smiled. New friends were nice.
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A/N: it didn't turn out exactly how I imagined it but oh well, at least it's written. I rode a horse named Big Enough at horse camp :D:D yeah, I'm random