9 years and a few months later...Kalwen is two weeks away from her fifteenth birthday! (A/N: Send her and Kaeldros a happy b-day card a.k.a. a review!)

Chapter Four: Gigglers and Examinations

"No! I won't!" A brown-haired girl yelled, her face reddened with anger. Her silver eyes blazed fire.

"Kalwen! Obey me!" Master Octoren shouted at the girl, his face also turning red.

"I won't! You can't make me!" she screamed, her face turning even more crimson.

"Kalwen! You must!" Master Octoren said sternly. The stern old training master only wanted the best for Kalwen, but she defied him.

"Kalwen, I'm only asking you to a simple thing. Just swim! Only a few hundred yards!"

"No! You know I'm afraid of water!" Kalwen screamed, running away from the riverbank.

Master Octoren caught her by her arm. "Kalwen, come back! Now, listen to me. This is a part of the exams you take. You know that. Please Kalwen. You'll never become a true Shang cadet if you don't do this! You've scored with flying colors on every single other subject content! Please Kalwen."

Tears were leaking out of Kalwen's eyes. She bit her lips and her breath came in a shuddering gasp. "Please.." she whispered.

Master Octoren shook his head. "Kalwen. Now. Mistress Irene!"

Irene came over. At her questioning glance, Master Octoren nodded. Irene held Kalwen's arm in an iron grip and literally dragged her over to the girls' side of the lake. In trousers and a shirt, both of light cotton, Irene almost pushed Kalwen into the water. As soon as she hit the river, she screamed.

"Go, Kalwen." Irene commanded.

Kalwen started taking tentative strokes. She knew how to swim, but rarely exercised that skill. Soon she was up to her nose in the water. Kalwen started to panic.

"Kalwen! Calm down. Remember how to float!"

Kalwen did calm down. She swam hesitantly, and anyone could see the panic in her, barely contained.

The Shang had exams like the pages did to become squires. In their case, to see who was fit to become Shang warriors or who wasn't.

Kalwen was barely ten yards out into the water. She closed her eyes and concentrated on nothing but swimming. She bit back her lips as a scream almost escaped her.

Kalwen had hated water ever since that day her mother had died. She of course didn't mind showers and baths, but she despised flowing water. She was deathly afraid of snow and ice.

"Come on, Kalwen!" Mistress Irene called. The girl only had about twenty yards left.

Kalwen finished swimming about ten minutes later. It had taken her a total of twenty-five minutes to swim two hundred yards. It was poor scoring, but at least she had finished.

"Good job, Kalwen," Irene said quietly, "I know it was hard."

Kalwen could do nothing but stand there, eyes closed and savoring the feel of solid ground. Irene looked at the girl with sympathy.

Kalwen turned away. Even after nine years, the terrible image of her mother's death was clear in her mind; pity hurt.

"Kallie!" a distinctly male voice made her turn; Kaeldros, Kael for short, was running towards her. He had also just finished his swimming exam, and was still dressed in his soaked breeches. His shirt had been taken off.

Trying to contain laughter, Kalwen saw a few girls, mainly Alisha and Shauna, were staring at Kael with admiring eyes. Hormones were just beginning to spurt around the Shang Academy. To her immense disappointment, Alisha and Shauna had passed the examinations with poor, but passing, grades.

"It seems that you have admirers, Kaeldros," she teased, jerking her head towards the giggling girls.

Kael groaned. As a teenager, he was extremely good-looking, with dark brown hair that swept across his forehead in a 'gorgeous' tousled way. His amber eyes sparkled with mischief and his body was toned. Actually, it would've been impossible for anyone at Shang to not have a toned body.

"Don't say it, Kallie. Just don't. I don't want to hear it," he said, putting a finger on her lips as she opened her mouth to tease him. She closed her mouth and glared.

"You just had to take out the fun, didn't you," she grumbled. He smirked.

"Kallie," he called her by her childhood nickname, "You passed, right?"

Kalwen assured her best friend with a bright smile. "You think I really wouldn't have?"

"Well, the water bit worried me. I thought you drowned when you were struggling out there," he said, his eyes concerned.

Kalwen clapped his shoulder. "Me, drown? After all I went through? I wouldn't dream of it," she said, lightly joking.

But Kael stayed serious. "Kallie, we need to do something about that fear. Please. My father drowned, you know. I don't want you to end up like him."

Kalwen's gaze fell to the floor. "I won't, Kael. I won't."

"But-"

"No buts. Shush."

Alisha watched the two friends with narrowed eyes. "We need to get rid of that Kalwen girl."

"Why?" Shauna was the less intelligent of the two.

"So I- we,can get Kaeldros, that's why!" Alisha said impatiently. "Don't you see how Kael almost worships the ground she walks on? And she doesn't notice. Not at all."

"Kalwen doesn't deserve him. We do," Pamela's voice was filled with pure disgust.

"Okay…so everyone agrees that we must get rid of Kalwen?" Alisha asked. The three heads nodded agreement. "Here's what we do..."

Please Review! I promise I will try to continue the story now…