Hey guys! Okay, so I know chapter fifteen was super short and all, so chapter sixteen is really long to make up for it. I'm sorry it took so long to write. But anyway, review answers;

To Creator's Lost Island: I will do that next time, don't worry. I was and still am having a little trouble putting an entire chapter together; I promise to get better about it.

To Oceanstorm: I changed my mind, I'm just going to go with the flow on this one, but I will let you know if I need to do any more research for future chapters.

To Padme Amidala2121: Thank you, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

To Kirika Moonshadow: Thank you, I might take you up on that offer!

To Yazmari: Gomen nasai! (Is that right::Shrugs:) Please don't hurt me!

To luvklm1991: Thank you, I'm glad you like my story. Enjoy the chapter!

To Celestial Secrets: That's a good idea::ponders the possibilities: I'll take it up with my sugarbowl and get back to you on that.

Thus ends my review answers. But my friends, I must caution you! My life is getting super hectic right now, what with all of my club activities. I will do my best to update as often as possible, but it might take a while for the creativity to flow from my brain to my hands and onto the computer screen. So, please don hurt me if the next chapter is a bit long in coming. Thanks!

Last Time:

Molly laughed, and for a moment, the previous conversation was forgotten. Mia rubbed the back of her head and said

"So, how are we going to go about fixing this little dilemma?"

Now:

The three friends spent a long period of time thinking about their present situation in silence. Every so often, an idea would be put forth. Molly suggested that maybe they should try taking the links off and putting them on again, just to see what would happen. They tried this, and the door remained locked. Rick suggested banging their heads against the door to see of it would help any, but his idea was shot down. It was only after Mia got fed up and suggested a battering ram that they gave up. Irritably, Mia took the ribbon off and threw it hard against her closet wall. However, being extremely light, the ribbon did not actually hit the wall, but floated gently to the floor. Mia glared at it for a moment, and then a thoughtful expression came over her face. She went over and picked up the ribbon and examined it carefully. Then she gasped and turned to her friends.

"I've got an idea!" She said excitedly.

"Don't tell me that it involves a battering ram." Rick said warily.

Mia crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Okay, I won't." She said

"Oh, just tell us already!"

"Give me your hair ribbon. Rick, I need your bandanna too."

When her friends handed her the items she had requested, Mia looked over each carefully. Finally, when she came to her own hair ribbon, she muttered an exclamation of victory.

"I thought so! I solved our problem!"

She gave the links back to their owners and then instructed them to put them on. When they did so, the door appeared again. Mia walked over and pushed open the door. Her friends uttered cries of shock.

"What did you do, Mia?" Rick asked curiously.

"Easy, I pushed the door open."

"Yes, I can see that, but what did you do to open the door?"

"I pushed it, as in pushed instead of pulled."

"You mean to tell me that all this time, all we had to do was PUSH the door open instead of pull?"

"Um, yes?"

"Tell me, how exactly did you come to this conclusion?"

"I had my hair ribbon on upside down."

"What does that have to do with the door locked?"

"The door was never locked; I just had my hair ribbon on backwards. Wearing it that way reversed the way the door opened."

"So, why did you just replace your hair ribbon instead of putting it on the right way?"

"I decided that I like pushing a door open better than pulling. There's less work involved."

"You are such a lazy bum."

"Yes I am."

"Can we PLEASE go now?" Molly asked impatiently.

"Oh, yeah."

"Sure."

The friends turned towards the door and walked through the door and into Tortall again. When they emerge, they were all dressed in riding clothes. Rick looked down at his shirt and said

"I guess need provides, huh?"

"Yeah, guess so." Molly said.

"Where are we?" Rick asked Mia.

Mia looked around them carefully.

"I'd say we're in the training area for pages and squires." She said after a moment.

"Really? Can we-"

Molly was cut off by a shout in the distance. The three friends turned to see a group of knights heading in their direction. The shout had come from the knight leading the group. It wasn't until the they were closer that Mia noticed the gaggle of squires following behind them. Mia couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but from the tome of their voices, it was clear to her that these knights' egos were currently getting a huge boost. The knights stopped in front of Mia, Molly, and Rick. The lead knight looked from Molly to Rick to Mia and then back to Rick and said

"It isn't seemly for two lovely ladies to be alone with a man."

Mia and Molly looked at each other and then laughed. The knight watched, confused, as the two laughed so hard that they had to use each other as support. Finally, Mia wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes and said

"Rick is my brother. Molly here is his fiancée."

The lead knight blushed and his friends snickered behind him until he turned and glared at them. Molly straightened as well, and said

"This is why jumping to conclusions is a bad idea, right Mia?"

"Quite right, Molly." Mia said with a grin.

The lead knight, trying to redeem himself, turned to Mia and said

"Since your friend is taken, I will only be able to extend my invitation to dinner later to you."

Mia snorted and said

"You're kidding, right?

She turned to look at him, and realized, from the look in his eyes, that he was totally serious. She shook her head and said

"I don't think so, you're not my type."

The lead knight looked indignant.

"Do you have any idea of who you're talking to?" He asked.

Mia shook her head, marveling at how egotistical this man was.

"I am Charles, my father is the head advisor for the king." The man said proudly.

It was only then that Mia realized that this 'man' was actually a boy about her age, older than her by maybe a year or two, and not a knight at all, but a very popular squire. She rolled her eyes.

"Now I KNOW you're not my type. Sorry, I'm busy this evening." She said, and with that, turned to leave with her friends.

Mia was only about a foot away when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned sharply to glare at Charles, who was the one who had stopped her. She noted from the look in his eyes that he wasn't going to take 'no' as an answer. She glared up at him intensely and said

"May I help you?"

"You can help me. You can change your mind."

"Not for all the gold on this country." Mia said, getting slightly pissed now.

One of Charles' friends came up beside him and said

"No girl has ever said 'no' to Charles."

Mia glared at Charles' friend and then swatted Charles' hand off of her shoulder and said

"Well the, I'll be the first."

Then, she turned to leave, but once again felt a hand on her shoulder. This time, when she turned to face Charles, she drew her sword and pointed it at him and said

"If you don't stop doing that, I will chop your hand off and then leave, okay?"

Charles looked at the sword, and then started to laugh. His friends joined in after a moment.

"Do you really expect me to believe that a WOMAN will actually know how to wield a sword?" Charles asked before snorts of laughter.

Mia's eyes narrowed and she put her sword back in its scabbard.

"You're right Charles! What ever was I thinking, me, a WOMAN, using a sword!" Mia said, imitating an extremely girly voice.

Her sarcasm fell on deaf ears and Charles nodded emphatically.

"Exactly! Women shouldn't be allowed to use swords!"

"But Charles, what about Lady Keladry and Lady Alanna, do they count?" Molly asked innocently walking up to stand next to Mia.

Charles snorted and waved his hand impatiently.

"If you ask me, they bribed their way in. They used magic or something, you know. Lady Alanna has magic, you know. And-"

He was cut off by a punch to his jaw. The force made him spin and then fall to the ground. He looked up to see who had hit him, and met the hateful eyes of Mia, who was glaring down on him.

"Alanna and Keladry are twice the knight that you'll ever be. If I ever hear you talking badly about them, I will do worse to you than just a punch to the jaw, and DON'T even think for a minute that I won't." She hissed.

Then, she turned and walked towards the practice fields, her friends following, leaving Charles sitting in the dirt, looking dumbstruck, and his friends staring at her back.

When Charles and his groupies were too far away to hear anything that was said between them, Mia turned to her friends with a sheepish expression on her face.

"That felt good." Mia said with a grin.

"It had better! That was amazing, Mia!" Rick said with a smile.

"You showed him!" Molly said emphatically.

"Yeah, I guess I did. So, what do we do now?" Mia asked

"How about some practice?" Molly offered, pulling her word out of its scabbard and went into a ready position.

Grinning, Mia took out her sword as well, and mirrored Molly's stance.

"Ready, set, FIGHT!" Rick yelled to start the sword fight.

It started out as just some back and forth blocks and blows for each girl, and then it got tricky. Molly faked up, and lunged down. Mia spun around to avoid Molly's sword, and swung her sword at Molly's unprotected side. Molly saw the sword coming and blocked it quickly. Then, she brought her sword up again and went after Mia, who quickly went on the defense. They circled each other warily for a few minutes, faking blows every so often. Finally, Mia faked a lunge at Molly's stomach, and when Molly lifted her sword to block, Mia touched her shoulder with the tip of her sword.

"Ding, ding; ladies and gentleman, your winner!" Rick called, lifting the hand that held Mia's sword.

After a rest, Mia looked at her two friends and asked

"What shall we do now?"

"I want to practice my archery!" Molly piped up.

So the three friends went over to the target range, and Molly got her bow and arrows, courtesy of the Mother, and began to practice. After a while, Mia and Rick decided to try their hand at it, and went to get bows and arrows from the supplies closet. Molly spent some time instructing the other two on how to hold the bow, and how to shoot, and after a while, all three friends were having fun attempting to get the arrows in the center of the targets. While Mia and Rick weren't as good as Molly, she assured then that they would get better with practice. Eventually, they tired of archery, and decided to go for a ride on their horses. SO they put the bows and arrows away, and went to the stables, where they saddled the horses and rode out onto the plain. They spent about and hour riding around and enjoying the scenery before going back to give the horses a well deserved break.

As they headed back to the castle, Mia and Molly randomly struck up a singing contest, in which Rick declared Mia the winner for her 'moody' rendition of Yankee Doodle. Mia was now prancing about singing

"I win, I win!"

Molly glared good-naturedly and wiped a hand across her forehead. Then, she said in a cockney accent

"You'll get yours, 'Enry 'Iggins."

Mia grinned and said

"I can't help the fact that I'm better than you."

Molly responded to this by chasing after her. They didn't notice that there was a group of people watching their antics until someone cleared their throat. Mia stopped short in front of that inventor boy, Thomas, from a few weeks ago, and a group of other people that didn't recognize. Molly, who hadn't seen the people yet and hadn't seen the people yet, ran straight toward Mia, thinking she had stopped and hadn't seen her yet. She didn't see the people in front of Mia until it was too late to stop. Molly attempted to stop, but she was too close to Mia. She slammed into Mia's back, causing poor Mia to stumble and to fall right into a strong pair of arms. Mia looked up to thank her rescuer, and met a pair of concerned dark brown eyes. She blushed and looked down. Then, she stood, and began to brush off her pants, which had become dusty from the sword fight earlier. Then she looked up at Thomas and said

"Thank you for saving me from falling. I appreciate it."

Thomas blushed himself and said

"You're very welcome, your majesty."

"What?"

"I said you're very welcome-"

"No not that, I meant, why are you calling me 'your majesty'?"

"Well, you are a princess, aren't you?"

"I am? Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, and…I'll shut up now." Mia said, noting that the people in front of her were giving her very strange looks.

"Did you want something?" Molly asked, coming to stand Mia.

"Yes, we did. The king and queen wish to see you, Mia." Thomas said.

"Really? Did they say why?"

"No, but I believe it has something to do with the council you impressed by riding my bicycle." Thomas said with a grin.

"So you've named it!" Mia said happily.

"Yes I have. Now then, will you please follow me?" Thomas asked politely.

Mia nodded and followed Thomas and his friends up to the castle. Molly and Rick looked at each other, nodded, and ran to catch up with the group. When they had caught up, Thomas looked at them curiously.

"Where Mia goes, we go." Rick said in voice that allowed no argument.

Thomas nodded and said

"I don't think that the king and queen will if you go in with Mia, but I will ask them. Is that alright with you?"

When Molly and Rick had conferred and said yes, he nodded again and said

"Good, let's move on, shall we?"

Then they resumed their walk to the castle.

Le gasp! Eight wonderful pages of Mia-ness! My longest chapter ever, I think! I hope you like it, and that it will make up for all of those horrible three/four page chapters I've been writing lately! Now then, see the pretty button? The one that says submit review? Obey the pretty button! I must have 135 reviews before chapter 17 goes up! Thanks for reading and join us next time for another episode of A New Kind of Magic!

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