The next morning Jester awoke before the birds. With a sigh he thought back to the evening before. He hoped last night would mark a new phase in his friendship with Jane. With a grin he realized that it was Sunday, the one day a week the castle staff had off. He would be able to spend all day with Jane… playing bandyball, laughing, teasing, and sitting under the cherry tree. Jumping out of bed, he hurriedly threw on clothes hoping to get a chance to talk to Jane before breakfast. He was just beginning to search for his hat when he heard a light tap on the window. Swinging open the shutters he was surprised to find a rather nervous looking Jane clutching his hat.

"Oh…uh…Jester. I, um, did not expect to find you awake." Jane seemed unable to meet his questioning gaze. "I wanted to return your hat before the others awoke. I know how much you hate to be seen without it." With a half smile her gaze flickered up to his then quickly darted away.

"Why thank you, my lady," replied Jester with an uncertain smile. "You know me well. I was thinking of taking a stroll before breakfast to enjoy this lovely morning." Quietly he added, "Would you care to join me?"

A slight blush rose to her cheeks and she stared at the ground as she searched for an answer. "Um, I, well, that is… Dragon and I have some business to attend to on the other side of the mountain. We must leave immediately and I, uh, do not expect to return till evening."

So saying Jane abruptly turned and hurried off to find Dragon. A very puzzled Jester could do nothing but watch her hasty departure. Important business with Dragon, my foot! She is just trying to avoid me. How could I have been so dumb? I let my emotions take over for just a moment and now Jane will hardly look at me. Smithy and Lily must be mistaken. Jane will never see me as anything more than a friend… and now I am afraid I have lost even that. Stupid, stupid Jester!

"So remind me again, Jane. Why are we going to my cave?" Dragon had been Jane's friend long enough to know that they were not really going to just look at the drawings on his cave wall. She was hiding something and he intended to pull it out of her. "Not that I am complaining, of course. It's just that you seemed in an awful big hurry to get away from the castle this morning."

"Oh, you know. It has been so long since we last looked at the dragon runes and it seems like every time we try to get away something comes up and keeps us from going. I was hurrying before anything could distract me."

"Jane, you are never up this early on a day off. Never. Stop lying to me and just spill it. If you do not, I will do flips and loops till you beg me to stop."

"I cannot hide anything from you, can I?"

"Nope."

"I hardly know how to explain it, Dragon. I just…I just needed to get away from everything. There are so many things I am confused about." For a while Jane seemed lost in thought. Then suddenly she burst out, "We need to do something active today. I want to be so busy that there will not be a moment's time to think about things back at the castle."

They landed at the top of the mountain with a thud. After Jane clambered off his back Dragon turned to look at her.

"Or think about a certain person, perhaps?" Jane looked at him with wide eyes. "Dragon ears," he replied with a shrug. "I could hear you two this morning outside Jester's window."

"I guess it really is impossible to hide things from you!" She replied with a laugh. "No. I do not want to think or talk about him at all. Today is about you and me doing what I have been promising you for ages."

"That's more like it. Talking about jingle-boy is certainly not what I wished to do today. So let's get down to business. I found some new carvings down this pathway. Come on!"

Jane was amazed at the new cave markings and was soon completely absorbed in uncovering their meanings. The morning passed by quickly. Only when Dragon's stomach growled loud enough to make the walls shake did they stop to think of food. When they stepped outside the cave they were amazed to see that it was already well into the afternoon. Dragon suggested going down into the woods nearby to find some fruits and vegetables. Jane agreed, adding that they might find some herbs and spices to bring back to Pepper.

Several hours later they had a satchel full of plants for Pepper and had eaten their fill of the bread and cheese Jane had packed that morning. Suddenly a series of howls rang through the forest.

"Wolves!" cried Jane. "A whole pack of them by the sounds of it."

With a worried look to dragon she realized "They are much too near the village. We need to chase them off before someone is hurt. Come on! If we take to the air we may loose them or you may not find a place to land. We will have to catch them on foot!"

Jane took off into the trees not realizing that it took Dragon much longer to wind his way through. As she neared the howling she drew her dragon blade. The wolves were circling an old tree. One of the creatures even had his front paws up as high as he could reach, snarling at whatever they had trapped there.

"Jane!"

"Jester?" At the sound of her voice, the wolves turned and edged towards her. "Now would be a good time to scare them off with those huge teeth of yours, Dragon!" Turning around she found no Dragon to back her up.

Brandishing her sword, she called up to Jester, "I am going to fight my way through to you! Be ready to pull me up."

The wolves backed up just out of the reach of her sword, but not before she managed to nick a few of them. Upon reaching the tree, she reached up her hand to meet Jester's outstretched one. In one strong motion he swung her up to a spot next to himself. After sheathing her sword she began shivering uncontrollably though it was still quite warm. Jester put his arm around her and rubbed her shoulder.

"It's just the adrenaline wearing off. I went through the same thing. Do you see the wolf that's limping? I gave him a pretty good whack with that stick before scrambling up here." Jester said with a chuckle.

"Dragon will be here soon to scare off these beasts. He is so quick in the air that I never realized how slow he can be on land." Turning to face him she asked, "Jester, what are you doing out here?"

"Well, I was, ah, looking for you." Jester removed his arm from her shoulder to rub the back of his neck. "When you left so quickly this morning I knew you must be upset with me again and I was attempting to find you so I could apologize."

Jane reached over and laid her hand on his arm causing Jester to turn and look her in the face.

"Oh Jester… I am not angry with you, just very confused. This is all so new to me. My whole focus these past two years has been on becoming a knight. If I started acting like a lady and had a suitor the king and the other knights would never take me seriously. You have always been my dearest friend. You are the one I go to for help and advice. We have always been able to laugh and joke together. I am not sure I am ready for that to change. Can we go on as we were before, as friends?"

With a small sigh, Jester laid his free hand over hers. "The best of friends."

A rustling in the underbrush caused them both to turn. The noise turned into large snapping as several trees broke to make way for Dragon as he forced his way into the clearing. As soon as the wolves saw him they took off for the hills far away from the village.

"Took you long enough!" called Jane as Jester jumped down from their perch.

"Well excuse me for coming to rescue the two of you. You clearly had those wolves shaking in their paws!" replied Dragon.

Jester reached up his arms to help Jane down. She laid her hands on his shoulders and jumped. For a few moments they stood with Jester's hands still round her waist. Jane could see the hurt in his eyes and felt tears rise to her own knowing that she had hurt him with her words yet again. A single tear rolled down her face and she pulled her friend into a tight embrace.

"Oh Jester, I hate to cause you pain, but I am just not ready yet. Please be patient with me." She whispered in his ear.

"Are you two coming or not?" called Dragon.

Jester broke away from her grip. "Come on, Jane. They will be missing us back at the castle."

Together they jumped on Dragon's back and took towards the sky. Jester sat close behind Jane with his arms wrapped around her waist to keep from slipping off Dragon's back. Jane felt her heartstrings stir yet again as they had each time Jester touched her since the evening before. The whole ride home she wondered.

Did I make the right choice?

Author's note: This one was a little sad, I know. More is coming, but it may be a week or two.

I'm not entirely satisfied with chapters 5 and 6. Who knows maybe I'll scrap them and start again from chapter 4. Let me know what you think.