5

It had been Joren and his cronies who had given her the nickname "The Lump". Kel had always ignored it as being too silly for words – she was not one to let stupid names get to her.

However, as she and Neal puffed along the corridor, with the unconscious form of…of herself slung between them, Kel was starting to think maybe Joren had a point.

It seemed to take a long time to make it back to her room, but once there, they bundled the body onto the bed.

Kel straightened with a grimace as he back protested. "Mithros! I need to lose some weight. Or something."

Neal was still staring at her. He hadn't said much since she had tried to explain the predicament to him.

To be honest, Kel wasn't that sure herself what had happened. All she knew was she had woken up in Lalasa's body. And she was pretty sure that Lalasa was even now trapped in Kel's body.

She tried explaining that to him again.

His eyes grew wider. "So…you're Kel?"

"Yes."

"And that's Lalasa?"

"I think so."

"You think…" he rubbed a hand over his face. "What did I say, on the first day I became your sponsor?"

Kel sighed and folded her arms…attempted to fold her arms, she wasn't quite sure where to put them; over or under? How did Lalasa cope with…anyway: "You said to me, 'With me at least you might last a while, even if I am at the bottom of Lord Wyldon's list.'"

Neal gave her a long, searching look. He nodded his head. "All right…Kel. Why don't we try waking…possibly Lalasa up and see what she has to say about all this?" He went to lean over the bed and paused. "Maybe…maybe just stay out of sight for a moment? I think the shock was a bit too much for her last time."

As soon as Kel had ducked behind the changing screen, Neal placed a hand on her forehead. It glowed green momentarily. Kel's body opened its eyes.

"Lalasa?"

Kel's body nodded.

"Right that clears that up then. Don't panic…again…but we do have a little problem in that…well…"

Lalasa whimpered.

"Sit up slowly, that's it. Prop yourself up against the pillows." He cleared his throat. "Kel…I think you'd better come out now."

And so she did.

It was so strange, seeing herself from this angle. It was even stranger seeing her own face go through so many different expressions: fear, confusion, disbelief and back to fear again. Lalasa stood up and Kel got the shock of her life. She was so tall! For an almost fourteen year old, to be standing at five foot nine…

Neal had got to his feet as well, he was usually only a few inches taller than she was nowadays, but in this different body he towered over her.

For the first time in her life, Keladry of MIndelan knew what it felt like to be short.

"Oh, Lady Kel…" whimpered Lalasa; except Lalasa was whimpering with Kel's voice.

"It's ok," Kel heard herself say, with Lalasa's voice. She didn't know if it was ok. She didn't know if it was ok at all.

Tears were pouring down Lalasa's cheeks – except they weren't Lalasa's cheeks…

Kel closed her eyes and groaned softly. She was trying to stay as calm as she could, for everyone's sakes. It would be nice...for once…if she could allow herself to give in to panic, to crumple into a weeping mess. No one could blame her.

"Ladies," Neal's voice sounded a little faint, and when Kel opened her eyes and looked at him, he was quite pale. "We obviously have a problem here. I think the first thing to do is to find out how this happened…then we can sort out trying to reverse it." He cleared his throat. "Now…did anything unusual happen this morning?"

Kel thought and shrugged. "I don't think so, I came back from lunch to collect my books for this afternoon and everything was fine…"

"I…I was sewing…for the queen…" Lalasa hiccupped, wiping tears onto the back of her sleeve. Kel's sleeve. "I felt sleepy and must have…must have dozed off and when I opened my eyes…" She started crying again, burying her face in her hands. Kel was starting to feel irritated at the sight of her own body having to go through so much weeping.

"Nothing unusual? At all?" persisted Neal.

Shaking her head, Kel replied, "Nothing, unless you count…" Her voice trailed off as she remembered something.

Lalasa raised her head and looked at her, hazel eyes wide.

As one they both turned their gazes to the cupboard, wherein sat an innocuous looking fruit cake…