Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns the characters and books.
A/N~ Exams are over, I can write again. Plus no more papers for me to write for the rest of the year. Although at this point math will be the death of me.
Chapter 5
Kel's POV
After getting back to the castle with Roald the night before, I crashed. Everything he had said was running through my head. The hug, the kiss, and the promise, all kept me awake. At some point I feel asleep, but not early. I woke up later than usual due to this. I had no time to do my normal morning exercises but instead got dressed and ran down to the mess hall. The pages had already begun eating. I grabbed some food and sat down with Merric. "Neal and Lady Alanna left earlier this morning, and Roald stopped by to see if you were here, since you weren't he asked me to tell you he says bye, and remember. I asked him remember what but he wouldn't tell me."
"It's okay, I understand."
I quickly ate what was on my own plate. "I'll see you when we leave."
Merric nodded and I left the room. I started heading back to my room when I realized there was a chance Roald would head there as well. I changed directions and headed for the Own's stable. In Peachblossom's stall I paused. I looked him in the eye, "Should I trust you or not?"
"Kel, I though you would be here. I came to say good-bye."
I turned around to see Roald standing in the doorway. "Lucky for me I decided to check here last, I was going to come here before heading to your room, but decided to go to your room first."
"I didn't think you would find me. Although Merric passed on the message for you. So, I'll see you when you get back."
"Good luck on your training."
He left and I faced Peachblossom once again. "Can I trust you to behave if I leave you with the rest of the horses traveling behind us?"
Peachblossom looked me in the eyes as if he couldn't believe what I was saying. His head dipped down in a nodding motion before he starting for treats. "I didn't bring any with me. I make sure to bring you something before we leave though."
I headed straight for my room to see if Raoul was up yet. I walked into the room between ours first. Raoul was sitting at his desk writing something. "We meet by the stables in fifteen minutes; bring your pack with you. Pack your armour and leave it in here, someone will grab it later. We will head to the training stables and meet up with the pages there. Any questions?"
"No sir."
"Good, now which horse are you bringing?"
"Peachblossom sir."
"You promise he won't cause any trouble."
"He won't I've already talked with him."
"Fifteen minutes."
I knew I had just been dismissed, so I walked through the door and into my room. I packed my armour and brought it over to Raoul's room before grabbing my pack, in which I placed the lists so that I could continue working while away. I headed for the stables bumping into Joren on the way. "Aren't we meeting in the pages stable?"
"I'm to head to the King's Own's stable first. I'll see you at the other one soon though."
Joren nodded at me then turned away. Inside the stable I went to Peachblossom's stall and held out the apple I had promised him. Shortly after I arrived the other men started showing up placing their saddles on the stall's door. I followed their lead and placed the saddle for Peachblossom on the door. I nodded at Dom as he passed me on the way to his horse's stall. I looked over at Peachblossom one more time before heading to the stable doors. There Raoul waited for all the men to gather. Once everyone was ready Raoul gave us a short speech. "We're nearly ready to head out. Just a few things I wanted to say first. No telling stories to purposely scare the pages. No telling stories about me. If you're asked for help, help to the best of your ability. Not only do the pages do what is assigned, you do as well. Any questions?"
"None."
"Normally I don't mind if you are relaxed about positions and names, but while we are with the pages set a good example for them to follow."
"Yes, sir."
"We head to the pages' stable and from there we head out. We are going to the clearing; there we shall set up camp. You will not be all together, but spread out with the pages. Let's go."
We headed to the page's stable from there and were broken into groups. Each group consisted of the Own's members and younger pages. Joren, Merric and I were placed with a group of fourth year pages. Wyldon gave me a look as he called out the groups. I didn't know whether he didn't trust the friendship between Joren and I, or the fact that I was going to be using the same tent as the others since on all our page trips I stayed with the Shang Cat. I smiled at Wyldon as my group past him on the way out. Raoul was leading us with his group, while Wyldon's covered the rear. Being Raoul's squire my group followed right behind him. Both Joren and Merric's knight masters were staying behind to rest, giving their squires a little freedom.
We had barely entered the forest when one of the pages nearly fell. Joren and I both reached out to catch. Joren who was slightly closer caught him and helped the page steady himself. "Careful with your footing, you don't want to injure yourself tripping over something like a root in front of a lady would you?"
"We were told to act as if she was no different from any other male."
"Well then here's another thing you can think about. Stories from this trip will go around. Even if we are the only people who saw you trip it doesn't mean others won't hear, and news can travel quickly from pages to nobles."
"I shall be more careful."
"Everything alright Kel?"
I looked back. Dom's group was coming closer as Merric and the rest of our group walked further away. "Everything's fine, we just had to teach our first lesson, make sure the page remembers everything."
"Well then if the lesson's been taught you may want to catch up."
"We were about to do that."
"I'll see you at camp then."
Joren looked at the page and I, "We better run, watch your footing page."
"My name is not page it's Theo."
"When then Theo, watching your footing, cause it'll hurt more if you fall while running."
We jogged until we caught up with Merric and the rest of the group. "What took you guys so long to catch up?"
"Kel had to talk with one of the Own's members."
"We only said about two sentences each Joren, it's not like we had a full conversation."
"It seemed like it."
"Well the two of you can stop arguing. Sir Raoul had just sent one of his men back to tell us that we will be stopping for the night soon."
"This early?"
"We've been walking for nearly four hours Kel, even if you have not noticed it, many of the new pages aren't so used to this yet, plus we left late because Sir Raoul waited until the afternoon to leave."
I looked up at the sky that was barely visible through the treetops. The sky was darkening, which meant it was almost night. It was hard to tell in the forest at times because the trees were so thick. "We should decide the sleeping arrangement before we reach camp then, that way we can break up into the groups putting up our tents."
Joren looked over at our group. "Alright guys, we're breaking ourselves up into tents now. Normally you won't be asked this, but do any of you have a problem with sharing a tent with Kel?"
I watched as three of the pages put their hands up. "You three will share one tent then," he softened his voice and looked at Merric¸ "Can you share a tent with those guys? Teach them about Kel since they will have to learn to work with her."
"Why can't you do that?"
"I don't know her as well, that's all."
"Fine, who will be in the other tent with you and Kel?"
"Theo."
Joren looked back at the pages, "Merric shall be in your tent. Theo, you will be with Kel and me."
I smiled; the tent I was in would have plenty of room. Most the groups had eight people in them, but since Wyldon wanted to put us in a place where we had to act as leaders, he gave us the smallest amount of people. As we reached the clearing, we went to Raoul for instructions as to where we were to pitch our tents. Ours were to be next to his, since I was his squire. From the look on his face I knew it was also because I was sharing a tent with boys and this would help with any rumours that might arise.
Together the three of us pitched our tent as the other groups began to arrive. By the time we had finished setting up camp for the night the food was ready. For the pages supper was a quiet affair, while the members of the Own and Wyldon talked. Wyldon gave us an overview as to what we would be doing the following day. If everything went as planned, we would be at the clearing we planned on camping in by noon the following day. After that Wyldon wanted us to map out a certain area. We would each be told our point the following morning. I felt Wyldon's gaze on me as he said this. I knew he was probably going to send me somewhere that had heights involved.
I headed back to the tent after instructions were given. I had kept my guard down, not expecting anyone to grab me and pull me into the bushes near the tents.
A/N~ Another update complete. Wonder if you can guess who pulled her into the bushes. :)
