Heyy again. I am back, and I am ready to go. Just one more month before I get to go on a CRUISE!!!! I love the winter, and the snow and ice and slush...but who wouldn't want to be sailing on a big, relaxing cruise in the middle of the Atlantic, heading for South America's hottest spots?

Anyway, I haven't...wait. i frgot how to spell bean, no it isnt bean its ben but like, no. uh! So unbeleivably tired, though it is 10:42 in the morning. sigh

I will just get to it then.

Disclaimer: (which i forgot on the second chapter): I own nothing that is rightfully Tamora Pierce's though i wish I could say I did

I'll Spread my wings, and I'll learn how to fly...

Do what it taked till I touch the sky

And I'll make a wish,

Take a chance

Make a change..

And breakaway.

You got to push hard to be hard. That's what I have been telling my slef for years. Just a little more, or Just hang on. Not anymore. Not after the fight with Rea i had just had. Three days since Daine and George and Alanna had left, called away by some stupid goings-on in Corus. I was stuck here, trapped in my usual cycle...except now I escaped out of my cot more and more at night. I dress differently and look different every night, but tis still the same old me. This night was going to be a bit different, though much more exciting. For this night, I wasn't going to come back.

Stealing away was the only real answer I had to escape my problems. Rea and I had had an...an argument yesterday, and now she hated me. And it wasn't very far from the truth top say I hated her. She was soo stuck up with her "your a maid, got over yourself" and her "get your head out of the clouds" sayings. All I wsa doing was looking out the window and she started to yell at me. We had gotten ordered to clean out one of the old barns that had needed repairing, and I ws looking outside for ONE second. She starts ranting how she does all the work, how i day dream all day and get nothing done. How I never do anything that helps anyone but myself.

Trying to forget then, I stuffed the last of my clothes into the small little brown bag I had gotten for my last birthday and went into the Washing Room. Closing my eyes, I toke up a sitting stance on the side of the tub. Dark brown streaks ran down my hair as I sat there, until my hair was the perfect shade of midnight black. I turned my eyebrows that too, and let them thicken up just a tad. Making my nose smaller, for in my maid form I had a large nose, I also let my cheeks turn redder and my mouth soften. My eyes added just the tinniest spark of green, and from now on i would leave them golden. My regular clothes, a soft maid skitr and black top, would be too recognizable, so I switched them for the boy's clothes I had been storing slowly all week.

My feet I made smaller, so they would fit into one of the many shoes I found lying around ouside. I left my cot made and all of things packed and gone. Slinging the heavy bag over my shoulder, I glanced around at the other girls and realized that the only thing I would ever miss about this place was them. And maybe Erik.

Once outside in the stables, I found one of George's many extra horses. The one I chose was young and a but frisky, but solid looking and chestnut. She had a plane white blaze going down her face, and no stockings. She was not one he would be likely to remember, for she was plain and everyday looking as crickets. For this quality i named her Cricket, and saddled her with some of the extra tack that the boys use when they come here for lessons. Throwing the bag around one of them many loops, I akwardly threw myself up and into the saddle. I was no rider, and had never been on one.

Kicking Cricket lightly, we set off at an easy trot through the doors and away from the stable. Once away from the palace, there were gaurds to pass and questions to be answered, but I soehow got through the gates of the town by the time the large bell rang for the midinight hour. Sighing, I bouced along with the horses trot and wound my way through the tiny trail leading into the woods away from Pirate's Swoop east entrance.

We went at that pace for a good part of an hour, until I heard the sounds of men coming from infront of me. Probably headed back to Pirate's Swoop after a journey to Corus or somewhere else, i quickly got off the road and waited behind some trees and brush with Cricket happily munching on grass beside me. I patted her absently as the men came up. I recognized them almost instantly.

"I ope Pirate's Swoop didn't 'ave too much fun without me!" George said, and the rest of the company laughed.

"I'm sure not laddy. Still night though, perhaps we should make camp and attempt to get past your gaurds at day break." Alanna suggested.

"No, I couldn't stand to be away ,uch longer. And i promised a little girl with ... wel, you all know, I promised her I would be back soon." He said.

"It won't matter one more day or not." Someone, Hakim I think, said. I was frozen now, my hand clutching Cricket's maine. He wanted to go back there for me, but I wasn't there! 'Oh well" I thought 'he shouldn't have left if I am that important.' I knew that was mean, but I didn't want to think about what would happen when he went back there and saw me missing. Maybe send out search parties...or worse. As soon as the group was away from ear shot, I got on Cricket and we raced away from that place, stopping now and again for rests as we seemed to spread wings and fly away from the life that I hated. The life I had been trapped in. And the life I was breaking away from. Oh, Freedom felt soo good!

Out of the darkness and into the sun

But I won't forget all the ones that I love

I'll take a risk

Take a chance

Make a change

And break away...

I wasn't sure at what point we stopped, but it was when the first light of the sun's rays fell on my face. Knowing that I could puch Cricket no further without a stop, we went off the road at the first sight of a spring. I let her drink deaply and then unsaddled her and brushed her down with the only brush that I had stolen. After, i took out a long rope I had taken and tied one of her feet to a tree a far distance from the road and stretched under the tree myself. Allowing the sun to bake my face with its light, i lay and soon fell aseep.

I awoke when the sun was just going down. Cricket was asleep off to the side of the tree, and I took out an apple I had packed. Eating it happily, I looked at the map George had given me for on e of my younger birthdays. I was about a three days ride from Corus, a two days ride from Mindelan or Trebond, and if I retraced my steps fro an hour and rode on on a different road, I was a day and a halves ride from New Hope, where I had stayed for the month of June a few years back.

I got up and washed my face in the spring. Taking a deep drink and wetting my coal-back hair I saw a picture in the water. Never before had I seen anything in anything, but I had heard of Alanna seeing things in water and bright light. Looking closer at it, I saw the large city of Corus below me in the water, with it's endless winding streets and its many people coming and going form everywhere. Knowing where to go, I stood and began to re-pack everything I had taken out of the bags, starting with the brush I had used to brush my hair last night and the map. I also tucked the few small coins I had earned working as a maid i buried at the bottom of my bag and woke Cricket. She sturred and rose, and then stood meekly as I saddled her and untied the rope at her leg.

"Lets do this, girl" I said, and kicked her softly in the ribs. Taking off at a fast walk, we covered a league in about an hour. I was in no hurry, and now that I was outside I never stopped looking at everything. The trees and the birds, the springs which we stopped at for drinks and the many small animals running along. Most of them I had seen at Pirate's Swoop or from the small adventures outside of the walls that I went on with George sometimes.

Once a small woman in all brown and who had brown skin walked out of the woods infront of me, but when she saw me she shrieked and ran back into the woods. Shaking my head, I walked along on Cricket. Nymphs and Sprites were knew to me, but I had no interest in them. Never hsall I, either. Immortals do nothing but harm and destroy. They are our enemies. Even if they were cute!!!

This time when the sun started to come out, I pulled Cricket into a valley next to an inn. Instead of going into the inn, I slept in the valley of to the side. I ate wild apples and tomatoes I found in the forest and Cricket apples and grass. We both drank from a small lake off to the side, and slept until late in the afternoon. We started off when the sky was a deep purple, and continued this way for another day and a half. That's when my adventure took a turn for the worse. And I mean, the really worse.

Haha, cliffy! Just wait, more coming soon. But I have to clean my room and move my laptop downstairs and stuff. So, byebye!

Oh and all the spelling mistakes are my fault, but I am doing this on notepad and it doesn't have any spellchecks. Sorry!!!!