Chapter 4

The King had called a meeting in the Throne Room, and Sir Theodore was now leading Kayla to the big room where the entire castle staff was gathered. As she entered the room, Kayla suddenly became quite nervous, a rare feeling for her, and averted her eyes and shielded her face as well as she could without appearing too suspicious. The room was full of strangely dressed people, with a few adults and quite a few people who appeared her own age: a boy with curly blonde hair who was dressed as a blacksmith, a tall boy with brown hair, a girl with long brownish- black hair wearing a white-grey dress, the handsome boy who had been guarding the castle gates, Jane wearing a confused look on her face, and the eccentric court jester, who was looking at Kayla in a way that made her feel uneasy. The King and Queen were sitting on their thrones, the King looking quite pleased- maybe he was happy that he was getting another person in his service, as his staff was quite small. Sir Theodore stopped a few feet away from where the floor elevated like a stage, and he bowed, so Kayla did the same.

"My good subjects," the King began. "I bring you here today to share some exciting news. Today I am adding a new person to my staff." Kayla felt every eye in the room land on her, and she could hear muffled whispering. She knew her eye make-up, skinny jeans, and t-shirt must have made her seem especially strange and suspicious. "She has come from another kingdom," the King continued. "To work here as a singer alongside Jester." Jester bowed, having been acknowledged. "Any questions?"

No one spoke. They must have millions of questions, thought Kayla. If they did so, no one spoke their mind, and moments later the King dismissed them. Kayla saw Jane start to walk up to her but then stopped as Jester was already coming up to Kayla much faster.

Jester scanned her up and down. "You're the new singer?"

Obviously, Kayla thought. She nodded. She didn't get a good impression from him, and at the moment was not looking forward to having to work with him.

"Well, I have a few ballads I could probably turn into a duet. Do you play any instruments?"

Kayla had seen Jane leave the room through a side door. She literally couldn't wait to see her so she quickly told Jester, "Look, I have some things I need to do to get settled so I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Uh, okay…" Jester seemed hurt.

Kayla then ran from the room, exiting in the same place Jane had, and found her in the gardens. "Jane!" she called. Jane whirled around, quite surprised, and asked, "How do you know my name?"

Catching her breath, Kayla said, "I'm Kayla- the person from the future whose mind was switched with yours. Remember that dude Dr. Allen?"

Jane had figured it was Kayla, but had dismissed that thought, for it had seemed impossible. Now the mysterious girl she had wanted to meet for a year was cheerfully talking to her, and had just marched in and gotten a job at the castle. Overwhelmed, she asked, "What's a 'dude'?"

"Never mind," Kayla replied. "Anyway, he invented a way to travel in time so here I am!"

Jane didn't say anything. She tried to, but nothing came out. She was very happy, happy in a way that she couldn't express it.

"I see you're quite speechless," Kayla laughed. "Well, I thought we could just get to know each other and all that."

"That would be great." Though this was the first time Jane had ever met Kayla face-to-face before, she felt like Kayla had been her friend for ages. "I can show you around if you like."

"Okay!" Kayla almost jumped up like a puppy.

"Well, this is the Royal Gardens." Jane waved her arms about, gesturing to the hedges and topiaries. "Rake takes care of the gardens."

"Rake? That's his name?"

"Yes. Do you want to meet him?"

"Sure." Kayla blinked her eyes and shook her head to herself. She couldn't believe the poor boy's parents had named him after a garden tool. Kayla shuddered at the thought of her own name being something along the lines of Shovel or Pickaxe. At least Rake wasn't that bad of a name.

It turned out Rake was the tall boy with brown hair. He was very nice but they did not talk long, as he was busy planting some type of bush, so Jane and Kayla headed towards the kitchen, where Pepper was boiling water and preparing vegetables for a soup. Kayla knew the kitchen would be nothing like hers at home, but still it was interesting to see the different type of kitchen. A pot was full of boiling water over a fire, and there were all sorts of foods on the counter. Pepper turned around as Jane and Kayla entered the kitchen.

"Oh, hello!" Pepper said to them. "Welcome to the kitchen. I'm Pepper."

What is with these people's names? Kayla thought. "My cat's name is Pepper."

"Oh," Pepper wasn't sure if Kayla' comment was a compliment or an insult. "Well, my parents named me Verbena but I go by Pepper. I'm making potato soup for dinner."

Something about that wasn't right. How did 9th century England have potatoes? "Potato soup?"

"Yes, they're a food Dragon got from a faraway place," Pepper explained. "Have you met Dragon?"

Dragon? That talking monster I met when I was Jane? Kayla thought as her stomach did a flip. Jane, seeing Kayla's horrified expression, said, "Don't worry, he's really nice. In fact, he's my best friend. But he's probably napping in his cave at this time of day. Let's go meet the others."

Her best friend is a mythological creature from English and Chinese legend that isn't supposed to exist? This place is bizarre, Kayla thought. As they left the kitchen, Kayla whispered to Jane, "That faraway place Pepper was saying the potatoes come from is where I live. In my time it's called the United States of America." She followed Jane out of the kitchen, past the tables, through the garden, and to the practice yard where Kayla saw two people: the blacksmith and the squire who had been on sentry duty. The blacksmith was hitting a piece of metal with a hammer and the squire was practicing archery. Kayla became suddenly afraid, for the dragon was sleeping on the wall. She almost screamed out but covered her mouth with her hand, fearing she would wake the creature.

"I thought he was in his cave…" Jane muttered, almost to herself. Gunther turned around and smiled. The beast was still asleep, and the blacksmith had only glanced up to see Kayla, Jane, and Gunther, and returned to his work. Gunther, seeing Kayla's distressed expression, comforted her, speaking in a fond, nice voice, "No need to be afraid, the castle is well guarded by knights like me."

Kayla smiled, but Jane angrily spat, "Not from Dragon, you beef-brain. Dragon wouldn't hurt anyone." To Kayla, she whispered, "He's a real pest."

Gunther bowed slightly to Kayla and said in that same voice, "I'm Gunther. Pleased to meet you again." He shot a look at Jane, who glared. She hated how deceivingly smitten he was with Kayla. Meanwhile, Kayla was still keeping her eye on the slumbering dragon, but her attention was mostly on Gunther. She could tell he liked her and had to admit, she returned the crush.

"Let's go meet Smithy," said Jane tightly. Was she jealous? Kayla smiled at Gunther and headed over to the forge. In a voice low enough that only she and Gunther could hear it, she whispered harshly to Gunther, "You don't fool anyone, you pathetic maggot."

"I'm not so sure about that," Gunther replied in a sing-song voice. He then returned to his archery practice. Jane ran over and joined Kayla by the forge. She and Smithy were already talking.

"…So my name is Jethro but my nickname is Smithy. I used to live on a farm a few miles away from here. I was taken into the King's service a few years ago. I brought Pig with me." He gestured towards Pig, who was eagerly spinning in the wheel like a hamster would. Kayla was nodding as he spoke and Jane almost gaped at how quickly and easily Kayla had gotten Smithy to open up about his past. He rarely even did so with his friends.

Just then, Dragon woke up. No one noticed until Dragon, yawning, asked Jane, "Who's that you've got with you?"

Kayla screamed, causing Smithy to drop his hammer and Gunther to miss his shot. "It's alright, Kayla!" Jane yelled.

Kayla was very embarrassed, so she did her best to calm down. "Sorry," she said.

"This is Kayla. She just got a job here today."

"Oh. Kayla, do you like jokes? I know some good ones about cows."

Kayla, still nervous, replied, "I think I'll pass." She couldn't believe she was actually talking to a dragon. "How did you learn to talk?"

"Over the past three hundred years I've learned quite a few things. I've learned to imitate the way shortlives talk."

"Like a parrot?"

Dragon looked offended. Kayla decided to change the subject. "What's a shortlife?"

"That's Dragon's term for people," Jane said. Kayla heard bells from behind her.

"Oh no," she muttered. Turning to Jane she said, "I guess I have to talk to him now."

"Hello, Kayla. I was thinking we should come up with a song to sing for the King and-" Jester began.

"Yeah, yeah I know," Kayla interrupted. Jane and Dragon flew off on patrol and Kayla was left to have to talk with Jester. They headed off to the gardens, where Jester got his lute. "I know a song that would be fun to sing together," she told him. "It's called Mean."

Note: So what do you think? The song Mean is referring to Mean by Taylor Swift.