Disclaimer: All of the recognizable characters and places in this story belong to Tamora Pierce.

A/N: I am so sorry that this chapter took me so long to write. I started writing it, and then went away, and then had to finish it over a month later when I came back. I'm sorry if the writing style changes slightly somewhere in the middle of this chapter, however I liked the beginning very much and could not bear to erase it and rewrite the whole thing to make it flow better. Anyway, please review. Reviews are what make writing fanfiction worthwhile.

Chapter Two: A Better Understanding

Neal lounged on his bed, enjoying the free time that Lady Alanna had granted him. Actually, most of his time since being taken as Alanna's squire had been free time. Neal knew his knight-master wasn't ignoring him, that she merely enjoyed the company of her friends without him around, but knew she had been very careful as to meet her friends away from where he was. He knew why, though—she had mentioned hearing somewhere that he was known for eavesdropping. He was glad, however, that Alanna's fake sweetness had worn off, and she now acted around him in the same manner as she acted around others.

There was a loud knock on the door and, before Neal had even bothered to put down his book, the door swung open. Alanna stood there, her eyes fiery. "There you are," she said angrily. "I've been looking for you everywhere. We're leaving right now."

Neal stood abruptly, knocking his book onto the floor. "I'm glad you gave me such great advance warning," he said wryly. "When you say leaving now, am I to assume now means this very second, or at some later point within the next couple days, my lady?" Neal couldn't help but grin when Alanna made a face at being called 'my lady'; the face was almost identical to the one he made when she called him Nealan.

"No, don't call me 'my lady'," she snapped. "Call me…" Alanna trailed off, thinking.

"My Lord hardly works, and I assume you don't want me to call you Sir," Neal drawled. "Should I call you 'Lioness?"

"No, not that," she said absently, thinking. Suddenly Neal smiled.

"I don't assume 'my mistress' would give the correct impression, would it?" he inquired, and received a glare from Alanna, who was busy pacing the room and frowning.

"You call me 'my mistress' and I'll teach you a lesson about impertinence you're not likely to forget," she growled. The room was silent for a few moments before Alanna exclaimed, "Goddess! Just call me Alanna when nobody is around. I'm used to being controversial, and until I can find something proper for you to call me—and mark my word, squire, I will—I can't go around being called something ridiculous." Alanna snorted, and then continued. "'My lady' makes me sound like a delicate flower blossom, 'my lord' and 'sir' are male titles, and 'my mistress' is just ridiculous."

"I'm sure the conservatives don't think it that ridiculous," Neal said dryly.

"Don't talk that way!" Alanna snapped. She pulled at a stray lock of red hair, and sighed. Alanna looked Neal in the eyes, and Neal noticed that they were no longer fiery, but sad. Though she'd never admit it, Neal had a suspicion that the court gossip bothered his knight-master more than she let on. Neal looked down, ashamed even though he had played no part in that sort of gossip. It wasn't natural for the lioness to look dispirited, and it bothered him to see her when she momentarily let down her guard.

"Why are we leaving, anyway?" Neal inquired.

"If I have to remain in the same city with His Majesty any longer, I might just kill him, which, he could not fail to remind me, would be very improper, not to mention juvenile, since I am his champion." Alanna wrinkled her face in disgust, and Neal smiled in spite of himself. Alanna and the king had gotten into a number of arguments since he had been at court, and many ended with his knight-master, furious, storming away. Most arguments lasted for only a short time, but when Kel became a page Alanna had refused to talk to Jon for more than a year. Neal had a suspicion that this argument was once again about his friend Kel.

Neal picked his book off the floor, smoothed a page that had gotten wrinkled, and put the book on his desk. He walked to his dresser and took out a pile of clothes. "Alanna," Neal said hesitantly, "how long will we be gone for, and where are we going?" Had his knight-master not been famed for her temper, Neal would have said something more. However, given his knight-master's mood, he didn't dare to say anything more.

"We're going to Pirate's Swoop until I'm needed elsewhere," Alanna declared, and her face softened at the mention of her home. "And we'll be gone for an indeterminable length of time; normally I'd say travel light, but since you can always leave your clothes at Pirate's Swoop, just take what you think seems reasonable. And make haste—I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

With that as a warning, Alanna turned and walked toward the door. She opened it, walked out, and closed it behind her. Neal packed as quickly as he could, and then got his horse ready, convinced that the lioness would be ready before him. She wasn't, and he then had to wait for her to settle various affairs before they could leave. Though Alanna had told him to leave mid-morning, they didn't leave until well past noon.

The trip was uneventful. Alanna started with the intention of quizzing Neal on information she thought it necessary for him to know; once she discovered he knew at least as much as she did, if not more in some areas, they spent the remainder of the trip in silence. Embarrassed, she had to remind herself that Neal was a scholar at heart, before vowing to read more on the subject immediately. She couldn't have her squire getting cocky.

They made a quiet entrance, and the lioness showed Neal where to put his stuff before she went and found her husband and children, Neal in tow. Neal introduced himself to the Baron of Pirate's Swoop, Alanna's husband George, before retreating to his room. He knew that his knight-master wanted to be alone with her husband.

Neal slept late the next morning, and when he woke up the sun was already high in the sky. Once he was dressed, he decided to look around his knight-master's home. He had taken no more than a few steps out his room when a servant came up to him. "Squire Nealan," the servant addressed him, "Lady Alanna is waiting for you in the dining hall."

Neal, wondering why he was wanted, followed the servant to the dining hall and entered, leaving the servant standing right outside of the door. In the dining hall was Lady Alanna, the Baron, and her three children. The oldest, a boy of about twelve, introduced himself to Neal. "Hi. My name's Thom. Nice to meet you!" the boy said, causing his parents to laugh. Thom was a true redhead, like his mother, and his eyes were a dark brown, like his father's. He held himself with dignity, and his face showed kindness and stubbornness.

The two younger children, twins, were introduced to Neal by the Baron. Age ten, the twins looked very similar, though the boy's hair was slightly redder, and the girl's eyes slightly more green. The boy was introduced as Alan, presumably named after Alanna, since she called herself Alan as a page and squire; the girl was introduced as Aly.

Throughout the afternoon meal Alanna and her husband talked quietly while their children, at first hesitantly, questioned Neal about a large manner of things. Once the children realized that Neal was not going to harm them, they bombarded him with questions, and demanded stories be retold of events in the capitol. Try as he might, Neal could not hear a word of what the lioness was telling her husband while maintaining a conversation with three enthusiastic children, so he stopped trying to eavesdrop and focused his whole attention on the children.

To Neal's amazement, he learned that each of Alanna's children had very different interests. Thom, though pleased by talk of court gossip, became most excited when he learned that Neal knew a great deal of knowledge acquired from books. Alan wanted to hear about what Neal's experiences as a page. "After all," he had proudly announced, "I'm going to become a knight someday, too." Aly was a curious case, and Neal couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was that Aly was interested in.

When the afternoon meal was finished, Alanna pulled Neal aside. Her eyes sparkled, she stood up straighter, and her face was smiling—she looked happier than she had all summer. "Today your first formal day as my squire begins," she announced. Neal groaned loudly, and she laughed. "Get your sword and meet me in the practice courts. I have to figure out just how good you are with a sword."

Neal's insides turned, and for a second he thought he might get sick. He had known that sooner or later he would have to start training with his knight-master; he had just hoped it would be later instead of sooner. He knew the second she saw him with a sword she would announce it was all a big mistake, that he was a disgrace to his family, and that he could return to the capitol to serve a desk knight. It wasn't that he was bad with a sword—actually, he was quite good with a sword—but he wasn't nearly as good as Kel, let alone the lioness. "Yes, my lady," Neal gulped.

Apparently he looked as scared as he felt, because Alanna put her hand on his shoulder. Neal was amazed by how small her hand was. "You can't be that bad," she said, as if that was reassuring.

Neal raised his eyebrows, kept his mouth shut, and went and got his sword. He arrived at the practice courts at the same time as his knight-master did, and started to stretch. To his horror, Alanna was displeased with his stretches, and showed him a few new ones that would make him more flexible. By the time they got ready to start Neal's legs ached. They weren't using practice weapons, and Neal could only think how much it would hurt if the lioness accidentally cut off his head.

As soon as he had gotten in place, the Lioness attacked. He was forced to block her blows repeatedly, and was not surprised to learn how strong she was. Every time he blocked her sword his whole arm grated, and he was in a great deal of pain. Neal waited, looking in vain for Alanna to make a mistake; she didn't. After little more than a minute, Alanna had him on the ground and his sword feet away from him.

Alanna held out her hand to Neal, and pulled him to his feet. In pain, Neal stumbled over to his sword and picked it up. If Father wasn't her friend, she'd have killed me, Neal thought hysterically. I didn't even have a fair chance—she's a genius with a sword, and I'm only average.

Neal turned to face his knight-master. "You happy?" he demanded.

For a second Alanna looked as if she were going to hit him, but she calmed down slightly, reminding herself that he was only sore because he was embarrassed. "Boy, you and I have a lot of work to do," she told him, her voice quiet. She toyed with the bridge of her nose, before continuing, "Though, you're not the worst I could have gotten."

"Kel's a thousand times better than I am," Neal informed her. "You should have chosen her." Neal sighed. He knew the argument was hopeless, he just would have felt less anxious if he and Kel had had time to talk before she left. He just wasn't sure that she wasn't mad at him, though he knew that Lord Raoul would be an excellent knight-master. He'd be happier when he got a return letter from his cousin, Dom.

"I know," Alanna said unhappily, "But you're the one I want, okay? You're my squire, not Kel, and I'm going to teach you to be the best you possibly can."

"Would you have chosen her if you could have?" Neal asked softly. "Or am I just the backup choice?"

"Goddess you're nosy!" snapped Alanna. Yet, despite her tone of voice, Alanna looked sad, not angry. She sighed deeply, pulled at a red curl, and replied, so quietly he almost couldn't hear her, "I don't know."

Neal looked up into Alanna's eyes, and he could see the confusion in them. "I just don't know," she continued, sadly. "From the second I heard there was going to be a girl page, I knew that I would be able to help her, that I would help teach her how to become a lady knight. I knew she would be my squire. But, it didn't work out that way—it never works out that way for me, I always have to do things the hard way. When Jon first told me I couldn't be in contact with Keladry, I almost went crazy, but I've had years to reconcile myself. I've been told," Alanna said, almost bitterly, "that Kel must make her own path in the world, that it is her fate.

"Furthermore, I know that I can help you in ways I could not help Kel. I can teach you how to heal, and I know that you wish you had learned more about healing. And, Goddess knows, you need to be better with your sword. I can help you with that too. Certainly I'm not disappointed to have you as my squire, I just can't say that there aren't times when I don't wish things had worked out differently. I'm sure you understand me perfectly in that respect," she finished. And she was correct—Neal was thrilled to have Alanna as his master, yet he sometimes wished that Kel had the honor instead of him.

Neal stood perfectly still, amazed and horrified at the same time. He didn't know what to say, and when he had asked the lioness that question, he hadn't expected her to respond aside from telling him to shut up. "Thank you," he said finally, much louder than he had intended. He smiled slightly at Alanna, who did the same. There was a moment of awkward silence and, to break it, Neal asked, "Am I done for today?"

Relieved to talk about something else, and embarrassed that she had told Neal the truth, Alanna was more than happy to tell Neal that he could not leave until she had showed him how to improve, and what he had done wrong when fighting her. Even when she criticized him, Neal didn't complain. Although he had always respected Alanna greatly, he respected her more than ever now for telling him the truth. His old reservations about being her squire vanished, and for the first time Neal was happy to just work.