Disclaimer: As of yet I don't own a thing, not a one sadly

Chapter 5

Joren stared back at her his blue eyes cold and icy. "You're gonna regret you ever came here, when I get done with you," he hissed quietly.

Staring into those cold blue eyes, Serena felt her knees start to go weak, she felt almost as if her body had gone numb. Why was this happening to her, Saline was the tough one. "I regret nothing I do," Serena called quietly.

"Right line strikes, left lane blocks," cried Sergeant Ezeko

"On my mark pages. High block, low block," Wyldon began.

Joren, to Serena surprise, did not strike with excessive force or try to trip her up. She studied his dark eyes wondering what he was up to and trying to prepare herself for the worst.

"Come on Page Nealan, pick up the pace," Serena heard Zahir growl.

Serena turned away from her partner long enough to see that Zahir was backing Neal into a corner, and that the instructors and other pages were beginning to surround them. Joren took advantage of hear absentness and dove at her with his staff, whacking her soundly in the stomach. She turned back to her attacker and she saw that his blue eyes glowed maliciously. They planned this, they planned a distraction so that no one would notice what Joren did to her.

"You little wench, you'll regret the day you were ever born," Joren gasped as his breathing quicken, as his strikes at her became wild.

Serena drew in her breath quickly, she did her best to block his wild strikes but her was getting the better of her. If she didn't do something fast he would cause her serious injury.

"Do you think you can make me leave? Do you honestly believe that I'm afraid of you, afraid of a boy that looks so much like a girl?" Serena taunted him as she tried to decide what to do.

In his anger at her taunting, Joren began to strike wilder than ever as he was blinded by his rage.

Serena took advantage of his anger, she quickly used her self to propel herself over his head and away from the corner he had been trying to force her into. As she came down she kicked him squarely in the jaw. As she kicked him Joren screamed loudly, his scream got the attention of the pages and instructors.

"Page Serena! What are you doing? We do not do that kind of battle here in this castle! We will have no barbaric fighting here," Wyldon barked at her.

"I'm trying to save my life!" Serena growled back hoarsely.

"Don't start with me Page, you know I can get rid of you and your sister in a second. Watch yourself!" Wyldon snapped.

The bell rang immediately after that and Serena ran off to the castle to her room to rest a minute before the classes started.

"Serena I-I are you o.k," said Roald quietly as he rapped on the door.

Serena opened the door and stepped out, her usually golden eyes had turned a almost pitch black color that was accented violently with golden flecks.

"I'm fine my prince, just fine,"she said stepping past him and heading towards her classes.

Halfway down the hall she felt a hand on her soldier, "I just want you to know that I'll always be here for you," said Roald softly.

"I know you want to, but you won't always be around to protect me. I can take care of myself," said Serena smiling slightly for the first time, "Don't look so worried!"

The prince smiled in spite of himself. This girl in front of him was something special. He could already feel her making her mark on him, this was the start of something neither one of them were truly prepared to finish.

Saline stared at her sister's retreating figure but knew better than to follow her.

"Is she o.k?" asked Neal as he softly gripped Saline's soldier and lead her away from the practice courts.

"She's a strong girl she'll be o.k," said Saline quietly allowing herself to be lead away.

"What about you? You seem like a strong girl too, is it just an illusion?" asked Neal after looking her over for a split second.

"What do you mean? Are you calling me weak Nealan?" asked Saline angrily tearing away from his grip.

"No, no heavens no! Don't overeact Saline I din't mean to insult you. I…I was just thinking about something my father told me. He said the mightiest of the warriors are the ones that cry themselves to sleep," said Neal quickly as he reached out a hand to her.

"My you're a strange boy what does that have to do with what you asked me?" said Saline avoiding his eyes.

"I know that physically you can do this Saline. You are in better shape than most of the boys, but emotionally the two of you are going to go through a lot with this. I want you to know I'm here always ready to talk," said Neal slowly.

"I-I don't know what you mean Neal. I don't wanna talk about this I just…I just wanna be a knight that's all," said Saline nervously pulling away from him.

"I have to go find my sister," said Saline before running of towards the castle.

"Great job Nealan, just scare her away that'll work," he groaned to himself as he punched at the air.

Saline found her sister walking in the corridor past the library. She could see Roald staring at them from the end of the hall. He was looking at them as if he was trying to read them.

"You look like you're feeling better," said Saline as she walked up to her sister.

"Yea, I suppose. What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost," said Serena looking her sister over carefully.

Saline turned and looked into a large ornamented mirror used as a wall decoration. Her sister was right her hair was swept back from the running she had done to get away from Neal, her eyes looked almost like liquid rock because her eyes had been watering.

"It's nothing we'll talk about it later. For now we have to go see how classes as a page are," said Saline forcing herself to smile.

"Yes, and I'm not going to forget. We will talk about this," said Serena after a moment.

(O.k that's my new chapter. I'm sorry it took as long as it id but I more or less just couldn't think of anything. Please review!)