Thank you all reviewers! :)

I'm not going to write an author note at the end, as I think it would spoil it. But please review (I want to know what you think of the ending!) despite not having an annoying reminder.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this (admittedly rather short) fic.! I hope you've enjoyed it and have gotten a smile from reading it.

And why not check out the Tamora Pierce Writing Experiment forum, for which this was written?

Also, if DomLuver is reading this, I think this chapter in particular may be to your taste :)

Chapter 5 – the final chapter – must contain a key…

Kel opened bleary eyes. Her bed felt soft beneath her. Still, she was struggling to remember how she got there…but she was glad someone had had the consideration to drape a blanket over her.

Wait.

Kel's eyes narrowed.

Oh, Dom must have covered me up to protect me from the cold, she thought. How kind of him. It was the least he could do after knocking me unconscious with his gods-cursed blue mist magical rubbish!

And Owen. Where was that little wretch? Oh, when she got her hands on him, the treacherous –

Kel broke off mid-thought as she spied a small scroll of paper, tied with a bright red ribbon, hung by the entrance to the tent.

Dreams of vengeance and torture methods fled her mind, as she kicked off her blanket and tumbled out of bed. She crossed the room in a few large strides and tore the ribbon off the scroll.

It was as she had thought. Dom had left her the map.

Why?

Kel unfurled it fully to see a detailed representation of their campsite and its surroundings. A dotted line led away from the clearing. Kel traced the trail with her fingers; it led to what appeared to be an abandoned shed.

Terrible images of crimes committed where no one could hear the screams sprung unbidden to her mind. There's something odd about all this, Kel decided. Yet I don't quite feel that it's…a bad odd, exactly.

Puzzled, Kel hastily donned a bed-robe and slipped the map into one of its pockets. Pushing the tent flap aside, she stepped out into their open air.

The sun was high in the sky – Dom's little enchantment must have made her oversleep. Maybe it was so that he could make a quick getaway…and leave her a map of his route? Leading where?

Stranger still, the campsite, which would normally have been at its peak of activity at midday, was completely silent. The only noise across the whole clearing was the sound of a dove singing out for its mate. Yet the campsite was still fully set up and equipped, the horses were in their temporary enclosure, and everything looked entirely as it should - except for the fact that not a soul was in the campsite except for Kel.

Now she was utterly confused. She pulled the map out of her pocket for another look, and glanced down in the process. Some feathers lay at her feet. She bent down – it was as she suspected; they were her missing griffon feathers. Dom must have taken them! And yet…now he was giving them back?

She picked them up as carefully as if they might burn her. Scrutinising them carefully, she saw that they hadn't been tampered with; all was in good condition.

Frowning, she spotted a tiny label attached to the cluster of feathers. In elegant Yamini script – it was Yuki's handwriting – was simply written, "Trust".

Trust? Trust? Who was she to talk about trust, the little back-stabbing minx?

Yet when Kel held the feathers in her hand, they showed her the truth. They stripped magic away and showed her what lay underneath it all. Feathers in hand, she could feel the trail, seen on the map, winding away between the trees. Maybe this was what it felt like to have a Gift.

She set off, determined to follow wherever the map and feathers would lead her. She wanted to know what was going on, and she was going to find out there and then.

Reaching the edge of the clearing, she saw something metallic glinting at the foot of a great oak. The feathers led her towards it; on closer inspection, Kel saw it was a silver key. She picked it up, unconcerned by the fact that it was a strange key planted in a place she was led to by magic – she had full faith that her griffon feathers would keep her safe from any magical threat. Besides, this magic didn't feel evil or vindictive – if anything, the trail leading away from her feet seemed to shine with ill-suppressed excitement.

Oh gods – had she ever been this curious in her life? She had to find out what was going on!

Kel broke into a run, her feet guided partly by her map-reading, and undoubtedly partly by magic. She sensed Dom's magic in the trail. She ran faster, following it as quickly as she could. She rounded a bend – and found herself in a clearing.

A large shed stood at the opposite end of the clearing. It still had all four of its walls, despite missing many wooden planks off its roof. It had clearly been many years since the building could boast peeling paint; now, it was well into the lichen-covered stage.

She approached the derelict building slowly, tentatively. Was it her imagination, or were soft voices coming from inside? She reached the door, and put out a hand to open it. She tugged at the doorknob, making the door itself rattle on its hinges. Everything went quiet inside – was that a "shhh!" she heard?

Blue letters appeared on the doorframe, as if written by an invisible hand. A silver key will unlock the answer.

Her hands shook as she fumbled about for the key, and then slid it into the keyhole. She held her breath with anticipation and opened the door.

"Happy Birthday!"

Kel jumped back like a startled animal, her eyes as wide as saucers.

A sea of familiar faces lay before her. She shook her head- it had to be a hallucination.

"Look at her face! I thought most people grew out of the scared sheep expression once they finished training as a page – or at least, that's how it was back in my day."

No, it was definitely real. She'd be as mad as a Copper Isles Princess before the day she hallucinated about Lord Wyldon.

She looked around; the faces were laughing, smiling. Friends came forward to hug her and say a few words. Owen sped out of nowhere and nearly knocked her over with the force of his – supposedly affectionate – tackle. Neal was banned from the food table and walked off, nose held high – it turned out he had eaten half the dishes before Kel even arrived. She hugged him for a long time anyway. Meanwhile, Alanna the Lioness sat glaring at the decorations lighting up the walls until they began to change from bright colour to bright colour out of sheer embarrassment.

Someone squashed the air out of her in what was almost literally a bear hug – Lord Raoul was here? And Buri! Kel walked around, half-dazed, but happier than she had been in a very long time. She grinned from ear to ear, shaking her head at the wonder of it all. A surprise birthday? For her? Her smile didn't falter even during a near disaster where she practically tripped over Tobe, who was scrabbling about on the floor for the horse treats which had fallen from his pockets.

Eventually she disentangled herself from the crowd and made it to the other side of the room, as people became distracted by an odd shape-shifting entertainment display, courtesy of a man named Nawat Crow – Alanna said he was one of the more unusual young men her daughter had brought home.

An ivory fan tapped Kel on the shoulder, and she spun round. "Yuki!" she exclaimed, and flung herself onto her petite friend, who was nearly bowled over by Kel's enthusiasm.

"Well," said Yuki once she had regained her breath and her balance, "you certainly did look surprised!"

All the pieces had fallen into place; Kel had no reason to be angry at her dear friend. The only secret Yuki had kept from Kel was the secret of the surprise birthday itself – everything else had been a build-up of Kel's paranoia combined with an overactive imagination.

"You should've seen us sneak everyone through the camp," giggled Yuki, "it was wonderful. Neal tripped over a dozen tent ropes at least."

Kel felt embarrassed simply thinking such a mushy thought…but she had to admit that sometimes just laughing with your friends could be the best thing in the world.

A little later, Kel felt a tug at her sleeve. She turned to see Daine the Wildmage flanked by Numair, who was looking self-conscious. "I made him wear his black Master robes for the occasion," said Daine with a wink.

"Worse things could happen," said Numair. "Notice Daine hasn't taken off her cloak yet – I made her wear her clothes from when she lived in Galla. Well, they're by far the most colourful things in your wardrobe," he protested at Daine's mock glare. "We decided we should at least try to look slightly different from usual for a celebration," he explained. "It shows we're not always off in a world of our own."

"Besides," whispered Daine confidentially, "all my other clothes were covered in animal hair."

Kel looked down at her own clothes. In all the excitement, she had forgotten that she was still dressed only in a nightgown and bed-robe. If Daine and Numair were overdressed, she was anything but!

The pair drifted off, before suddenly turning on their heels and returning to Kel's side. "We forgot what we came to give you!" laughed Daine. She pulled something inky black – and moving – from her cloak pocket. "Meet Honeycup," she said. "It's a darking."

Kel gasped as the thing leaped from Daine's hand to wrap itself around Kel's arm. She'd heard of these creatures before, but it was certainly the first time one had gotten this close to her. It gazed up at her with large eyes.

"We did mean for you to take it away along with your other presents, but it was getting very overexcited and couldn't wait to meet its new friend," Numair was apologising. "Honeycup is -"

"Hiccup!" piped up a tiny voice. "My name Hiccup!"

Daine smiled. "It has trouble with long words. It doesn't cope so well with Honeycup, even though that's the object at its core." Sure enough, a small honeycup flower lay at the darking's core, occasionally ending up making the darking look at if it was wearing a tiny hat.

Kel put her ear close to the darking to her the little noises it was making more clearly. Strange creatures, darkings; Hiccup's voice was a constant stream of "Funfunfunfunfunfunfun!"

Kel raised her eyebrows at Daine, who shrugged. "It likes parties," she explained. "We're giving it to you so you have a loyal helper in case you need to spy on any more honest surprise birthday planners." She winked, and strolled off arm in arm with Numair, a tiny group of birds soon flying down to circle around their heads.

Kel poked Hiccup. "For now you can wander," she said. "Enjoy yourself!"

No sooner had she spoken, Hiccup vanished with a squeak of excitement to watch the entertainment.

Kel looked down at her bedclothes once more, feeling her cheeks turn scarlet with embarrassment – luckily she was only around friends…She walked off to a quieter corner of the room to enjoy the entertainment, now being given by Buri, who was demonstrating a K'Miri sword dance.

It was then that Dom appeared.

Kel hadn't seen him at all throughout the entire celebration so far – her heart ached at the thought. "Where have you been?" she asked laughingly. "Don't tell me a little social bird like you was hiding in a corner!"

Dom chuckled and stepped into the light, and Kel's jaw dropped. He was barefoot, his loose pair of night-wear trousers covered only by a pale blue bed robe.

Kel began to giggle uncontrollably. Dom looked at her sheepishly. "I didn't think you'd take the time to actually get dressed in some proper clothes, and so I decided I didn't want you to be the only one looking like, like -"

"Looking as if they're completely cobweb-brained?" Kel supplied. Then the laughter started again, and this time Dom joined in whole-heatedly: they made quite a pair, sliding to the floor, clutching their sides with mirth.

"You know," said Dom, once he had regained control of his voice, "I'm actually still quite amazed that we managed to keep you in the dark for so long. It was only once we realised that you were onto us that we decided to give you that false lead," he laughed, "where you thought Yuki and I were having a secret affair!" He began to laugh again so hard that Kel wondered herself how she could have possibly suspected Dom of being in any serious relationship at all.

"Actually, when I think back, I don't belive you actually meant to give me a false lead at all. It was simply the way I interpreted all that I overheard."

Dom looked sideways at her. "Alright, I'm giving us too much credit. It wasn't at all part of the plan to put ideas in your head: you did it all on your own."

Kel grinned. "I'll try and take that as a compliment."

Still, she admitted to herself, it's true. I was the most deceptive person in this entire episode of delightful madness…How embarrassing! To think I actually tricked myself so well…

She glanced at Dom. "You know what?" she asked. "If this is the outcome, I think we should all be deceptive more often." She hesitated for a moment, then impulsively flung her arms round Dom in a hug. "Thank you," she whispered, "Thank you."

Dom stroked her coarse brown hair, yet it felt as soft as silk under his light touch. He put his face close to hers. "I don't want to deceive you any more," he whispered in her ear, "and I'm not deceiving you now." He planted a kiss on top of his dear friend's head; she had by now had fallen asleep.