Hmm I'm not sure about this chapter, please review and tell me what you think! Xxx
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The next morning dawned bright and frosty. Evelyn was wakened at sunrise by the sound of gentle humming as her maid come in to light the fire, it drew a small moan from her lips; she pulled the quilt further up around her, trying to block out the wind chill, and closed her eyes.
Twenty long minutes later, despite her best efforts sleep was eluding her. Eventually she conceded defeat and decided that while awake, she might as well put all the extra time to good use and begin plotting against all those 'boys' in the Own.
As she sat up in bed and absorbed the warmth coming from the now cheerfully crackling fire, it hit her in a rare wave of brilliance, an evil grin spread across her face and her eyes began to twinkle. Oh yes Third Company was in trouble, and Sergeant Domitan and Raoul were in the worst of all….
Keladry of Mindelan walked across the piece of ground that separated the mess from the Owns barracks, being careful not to slip, she figured with a wry smile that it would not do to have Lord Raoul's squire fall flat on her ass onto the hard cold ground.
She was curious as to where Dom had gotten to, he had after all promised that he was going to come and spend the day with her and Neal, and after they had waited half an hour with no sign of the missing sergeant she and Neal had agreed to split up and find him. It was unusual for him to miss an opportunity to tease his favourite Meathead.
She was interrupted from her musings by the sight of a court lady running towards her, this in itself was unusual as most of the 'fair ladies' didn't rise until at least the tenth bell, especially in the cold weather and it was only just past the ninth. She thought she recognised Evelyn of Naxen, Lord Raoul's goddaughter, but just as she was thinking this the Lady reached her.
"Squire Keladry, I need your help", Kel looked at the girl, careful to keep her face carefully blank, revelling no emotions. They were about the same height and age but to all appearances that was were the similarities ended, while Kel was well muscled and had short fair brown hair and hazel eyes, Evelyn in contrast looked like a severe gust of wind could blow her over and had long straight blonde hair with emerald eyes.
Kel therefore paused before answering carefully, as she wasn't sure what help she could be to a Lady of the Court, "I would love to help you, but I am looking for a friend at the moment".
Evelyn silently appraised the squire, had she been wrong in thinking that the girl would want to help?
"Mmm! A certain Domitan of Masbolle by any chance?" At Kel's nod Evelyn proceeded, "He along with all other members of his squad and a certain Knight Commander are all still in their nice warm beds, due to late night adventuring."
Kel looked slightly confused at this and Evelyn realised with a start that in her rush to talk to the lady squire, she hadn't introduced herself and that poor Keladry had no idea what she was talking about, so after taking a deep breath, and without further ado she filled the puzzled squire in on the nights events and re-delivered her plea for help.
Kel listened in silence keeping her mask on, but inside a grin was fighting to break out, it seemed she had misjudged Evelyn, perhaps she was not quite the perfect court lady that she had first seemed.
"Well, when you put it like that, it seems you are in need of my help, I'll just find Neal and tell him I'll have to see him tomorrow instead," try as she might Kel couldn't keep the excitement from her eyes and it was obvious to Evelyn that she was looking forward to pranking the Own as much as she herself was.
"That's grand, sure I'll see you after lunch and we can put the finishing touches to the 'plan', and show them that Ladies are not something to mess with!" With this the two not so different girls went in separate directions, both smiling inside, tonight would be a one Third Company would never forget….
Dom shivered and tried to roll over, unfortunately this resulted in him falling out of bed, luckily he landed on something soft, something which had the ability to yell….
"Oomph, gods Dom, when did you get so darned heavy?" Wolset shoved his sergeant unceremoniously off him and picked himself up from the hard floor, he looked around and got no small surprise when he say all of his fellow squad members sprawled two per bed and on the floor centred around Dom's bed, then as if that wasn't enough, he spied a snoring knight commander on his own bed….
Dom grunted "I'm not that heavy, you're just not that strong," he rubbed his eyes and peered bleary eyed at the corporal, "what time is it?"
He was answered by an overly cheerful standard bearer, "About midday, if you don't hurry you'll miss lunch," his only answer was the swearing of 11 men and the scrambling of clothes, he grinned and shouted after them; "don't forget weapons training with the Riders is in an hour!"
Later that night a squad of men trailed into the mess feeling truly sorry for themselves, they had been put through the most gruelling exercises, and had ended up missing lunch so had had to do it all on empty stomachs. "Ah food, glorious food!" Dom stared up at the server and proceeded to flirt with her, in the hope of larger helpings, "have I ever mentioned how wonderful it is to see your beautiful face, after a hard days work?" He queried, the men behind him laughed and pushed him forward to his seat, "well you can't blame a man for trying!" He laughed and continued with his meal, generally having a good time with his men.
As the moon proudly cast an eerie light across the palace, two young women crept towards the Own barracks. "Are you sure this is going to work? What if they wake up?" Evelyn glanced back at Kel; both girls were dressed both practically and comfortably in breeches and heavy tunics to ward away the frosty air that nipped at their fingers.
"They won't, don't forget I have the gift, and sleep is one of the easiest things to create as it comes naturally to the body, none of them will wake up till morning, and by then the damage will have been done."
In a rare moment Kel allowed her mask to drop and smiled, it was good fun to be doing this, oh she could wait to see the men's faces come the morning, she only hoped the plan went well…
Several hours later the girls could have been found crouched outside the doorway of Raoul's rooms.
By this stage Evelyn was pale from the continuous use of her gift, "Are you sure that you have the strength to do this? You could always do something else to him…" Kel trailed off at the look on her friends face, "I'm grand, just need a second to get my breath back, then it's all systems go, after all this is the last one," Evelyn gave a small and what she hoped was a reassuring smile and on the count of three they both burst in through the open door, Evelyn's hands shrouded in the pale green of her gift.
Raoul sat up but was instantly sent back to sleep. Kel made sure he was tucked firmly under the covers and then watched as Evelyn muttered the few words of a spell that made the bed float, she then followed as it was guided out the door and towards the Own's barracks, oh yes tomorrow morning was going to be fun….
Dom woke the next morning to the knowledge that he was bloody cold. He creaked one eye open and was alarmed when all he was greeted with was a large expanse of sky. Something was definitely wrong here, where was the ceiling? He closed the eye again and furiously tried to remember if he had consumed much alcohol the night before, it was the only explanation, for his current state…
He was shaken from trying to remember the past nights drinking when a voice that sounded suspiciously like Meathead's was heard coming from below, it appeared to be having difficultly in stringing words together between hysterical bouts of laughter.
That was the last straw, he was going to have to open his eyes and find out just what was so amusing, a moment later as he lay back down in bed he wished he hadn't bothered waking up at all.
Raoul spared a glance at the sergeant before proceeding to glare at his goddaughter below, she along with a crowd that included most of the Riders, Alanna, the King, a good number of pages, all of first company, what was left of third company and to his amazement a certain squire of his, who looked like she was having trouble hiding her laughter.
He looked around him again and saw all of Dom's squad and a good number of Aiden's along with their beds were camped out on the barracks roof, covered in frost. This in itself was bad enough but not only that but the bed covers had all been dyed pink and each bed had a sign at the end of it with girly names scribbled on it, and these were meant to be the realms finest warriors!
He was never going to live it down and judging from the way Nealan of Queenscove was acting neither was Dom. As much as he hated to admit it, Evelyn had won, he was going to have to up his game…
From their positions in the courtyard Evelyn and Kel smiled, that would teach the men to play jokes and not expect to be pranked back, after all as Kel frequently said, "Raoul was a 'bad man'" but as they had proved that morning they could be 'bad girls' as well! After all a good girl is only a bad one that doesn't get caught…
Review please! Should I continue?
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