Whoa, this chapter is looong. I didn't realize it was gonna be this long... hope y'all like it! It took forever to write. I was listening to beatles music most of the time while writing it, if anyone cares. Oh, and this is gonna count for last chapter too, since i forgot one, ok?

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

Birle slowly opened her eyes, groaning as she realized that the sun was beginning to show over the horizon, turning the sky nearest it a pale yellow. Pulling herself up out of bed, she sleepily put on her dress and went to wake Lyss. Birle smiled softly to herself as she looked down on her sleeping daughter... she was no baby anymore. But she would always be her baby.

Birle gently shook Lyss's shoulder, and Lyss let out a little moan, trying to shake her off, but Birle simply shook her harder. "Lyss, it's time to get up. I told you we'd have to today, didn't I? Just last night. Come on, get up, we need to go into the village. You'll get to see Griffin!"

With a final sigh, Lyss turned over and stared up at her mother. "Do we have to?"

"Yes." Lyss, with a seemingly great effort, managed to drag herself upright and begin silently brushing out her hair, too tired to say anything.

Half an hour later, both mother and daughter were ready for the day. Lyss was over her initial sleepiness, and now actually quite energetic.

"How long are we going to be in the village for?" she asked cheerily as she picked up her half of the herbs that had been requested of them the previous time they had gone for a trip into the village. They only went about once a week for a trip into the village. Just going down there wasn't unusual, but a trip lasted a bit longer and consisted of a lot more. They had many errands to do, such as purchasing necessities that they couldn't make themselves, and selling their own goods and services. Lyss sometimes despaired of the fact that her mother always refused to buy things they could make at home... it would make their life at home much less busy, and they could more than afford it! But, for some unknown reason, Birle simply wouldn't, and Lyss did not question it. Out loud.

"Probably all day. You can help me until noon, and then go do as you wish 'till I finish. I won't need your help with anything after that." Lyss was slightly surprised, but grateful. Usually Birle required more help than that. It never occurred to her that her mother might have an alternate motive for letting her off so early, besides giving her a break.

"Okay!" The pair had begun to walk away from the cottage, towards the village. Each was carrying a medium sized basket of herbs, among other things.

They could easily have ridden in their cart to he village, had they wished to, but it was such a beautiful day... by unspoken agreement, they both realized this was no day for riding in a smelly old cart, even with their placid old mare Bela pulling it.

An hour later, they walked in through the village entrance. Almost immediately, Mr. Higgins came hurrying up to them. How did he always manage to do that?

"Ah, Lyss, my lassie! You're back again! And brought your mother along too, I see." He beamed at them.

"Hello, Mr. Higgins." said Lyss, smiling at him. He really was a very nice old man, once you got past the annoying aspect of him. That was sometimes a hard thing to do, but he was nice, and he did depend on the herbs they brought him.

"Did you, by any chance, bring any more of that green leafy stuff with you? The one that helps you sleep and sooths your joints a bit when you make it into a tea? Not that it matters... it just... popped into my head! Yes, it just popped into my head, when I saw you coming in, with those big baskets..." he eyed them jealously. Lyss doubted he was capable of lifting anything as large anymore.

Birle answered for her. "Why, yes, as a matter of fact we did. We even have a bit extra, if you'd like it, because of the storm. We were afraid it would be ruined if we didn't harvest it yesterday."

"You have extra? That's wonderful! Not that I needed it, you understand... it is nice though... just... to know it's there, you know..." Birle and Lyss exchanged quick glances, and Lyss smiled; they always found it amusing how the old man tried to deny his dependency on their herbs. He always liked to pretend he was like a little boy with a cold; like he would be better in a few days, and rarely needed anything in the way of herbs, unless of course he hurt himself by accident while completing some manly task. Lyss sometimes wondered if that was really what he himself believed... he did seem a bit crazy at times.

Mr. Higgins paid for plants and then hurried back home, probably to make some tea. Birle and Lyss continued on with small laughs to do the day's errands, none of which varied much from the normal routine. Around the time that the sun reached its peak, Birle told Lyss she could go.

"Just stay in the village, all right? I'll come get you when it's time to go home."

"Okay! Thanks, Mama! See you later!"

Now that she was free to do as she wished, Lyss wondered what exactly she should do. Suddenly, several large white and furry things whizzed past her, nearly knocking her to the ground. They were closely followed by a boy with sandy hair, strong looking arms, and mischievous brown eyes that lit up when they saw her. That was when she realized that the boy was also being closely followed by someone- Paister, the village baker.

"Griffin, what- "

"Run!" shouted Griffin, grabbing her by the arm and continuing to sprint after the furry somethings, which Lyss now realized were the baker's dogs. What on earth had Griffin done this time?

They tore down the dirt road, dodging people and carts and other things as they tried to lose the vengeful Paister. He was a jolly old man, normally, but now... well, let's just say it looked a lot like Griffin had done something that had a lot to do with both his flour and his dogs, the two things Paister most cared about in his life. Griffin was in big trouble.

Suddenly, a large wagon piled high with bundles of straw pulled out on front of them. There was a small opening between the wall of the nearest shop and the wagon which Griffin, being in the lead, quickly slipped through. Unfortunately, Lyss couldn't get through fast enough, and Paister managed to grab her just before the wagon rolled away again.

"I should've known you would have something to do with this if he did! What exactly did you think you were doing! Did you see my dogs? And my poor kitchen! It's a wreck!"

"Let go of me!" Griffin, hearing his friend's yell, turned around and saw she had been caught. Immediately, he ran back to her side and shouted at Paister.

"Aw, you let her go Paister! I swear, she didn't do anything! It was all me... I didn't realize the bags would completely explode like that!" He shoved the baker off of Lyss and pulled her away.

"Oh, yeah? If she didn't have anything to do with it, why the heck was she running?"

"I was just following Griffin! I wanted to see what would happen... actually, I'm pretty curious about what did happen. Griffin, what did you do?"

"I didn't mean to do it," said Griffin, turning slightly red. "What I was trying to do sort of blew up in my face...literally... let's just say that the end result was I caused three bags of flour to explode, scared the hell out of Paister's dogs while simultaneously coating them with flour, turned the whole kitchen white, and saw the dogs practically destroy the kitchen on their way out."

"Three? How- what were you trying to do!"

"Er- well, actually, I was just trying to see if there were any of those little apple pies left over..." He trailed off, his color deepening. Both Lyss and Paister looked stunned for a moment. Then Lyss burst out laughing and didn't stop for several minutes. Even Paister had to smile... he was generally good natured.

"It's not funny!" said Griffin defensively, going redder by the second. He had now reached the shade of a nearly ripe strawberry.

"No," said Lyss, still laughing. "It's hilarious!" This went on for a while longer and finally ended with several people staring and Griffin beet red. Paister had calmed down from his initial fury, though he assured Griffin that he would be cleaning up his kitchen, as well as slowing working off the price of the flour. He wasn't going to let this one go, he said. Lyss thought it would be better not to ask what he had let go.

Griffin and Lyss then decided to go back to his father's shop, which happened to be a blacksmith's shop and just around the corner. Griffin's color was now back to normal.

Birle still couldn't believe all the things she had told her daughter the previous night after so many years of leaving the subject completely alone, by an unspoken agreement. Or at least, she'd thought there had been an unspoken agreement. The trouble with those, thought Birle with a small smile, was that they sometimes turned out not to exist.

Birle had no idea what would happen now... all she knew was that, when she was Lyss's age, she would never have let something like this go, even- no, especially- especially after their talk last night. Never. One thing she couldn't seem to come to a conclusion on, however, was what exactly she would have done. Finally, Birle decided to at least pretend to herself that she had dropped it until the rest of her errands were done. There was actually less left to do than she had thought, so she finished fairly early. Yesterday morning, she had been planning on returning to the cottage with Lyss as soon as she was done. That had been before their conversation last night. Now, she desperately needed to talk to Nan. So, holding her things with one arm, she headed towards the inn by the river.

Seeing the little makeshift dock as she approached it, Birle smiled as she thought once again that this was the place where she had first set eyes on Orien. But now, she had no wish to set eyes on him again. Her worst fear was that father and daughter would meet, and both would turn against her for keeping them apart. And then Orien would offer Lyss a home in his fancy manor, and Lyss would accept, and she will have lost them both. She couldn't let that happen- she could no longer even begin to imagine a life without Lyss. Then she saw Nan, now gray-haired and slightly stooped, but still as alive as ever, hanging laundry up to dry outside the inn. Birle's father had passed away when Lyss was five... the inn should technically have gone to her at that point as he couldn't marry Nan, but she hadn't wanted it, and anyway, Nan was better at that sort of thing. Nan looked up from where she was, and smiled as she saw Birle walking towards her.

"Why, hello, Birle! Haven't been around in a while, have you? Where's my Lysie now?" Birle smiled. Sometimes, she didn't know how she would have gotten through anything without Nan.

"Oh, Nan, I need your advice on something. I don't know what to do, or even if there's anything I can do! Lyss asked me about her father last night, and I told her all about him, though I sort of left out one rather important detail about him. And I just know, she's not going to leave things as they are, she's going to ask me again, and I have an awful feeling she's going to ask me to find him!"

"Slow down, no need to say everything at once," said Nan, giving her an amused look. "Lyss wants to know about her father, does she? Well, that's certainly understandable. After all, there was a time when the only thing you wished to hear about was your own mother. I became quite tired of the subject, actually."

"But that was different!" said Birle exasperatedly.

"How?"

"My mother was dead, and I at least had some memories of her. Orien, on the other hand, is still very much alive. And Lyss has no memories whatsoever of him."

"So that's his name, is it? Almost sounds familiar... and you say he's alive? Do you know where he is?"

"Yes, and yes again." answered Birle miserably. "And you just practically repeated her last two questions last night."

"And what's the big secret you didn't tell her?"

Birle hesitated. "You won't tell anyone?"

"Not if you don't want me to."

"I don't."

"Well then, I won't. So what is it?"

"Orien... well, the reason his name sounds familiar to you is that you have probably heard it before. You see, Orien is... he's...well, he's the Earl." She waited.

"...the Earl?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! How could I possibly not be sure? And Orien doesn't even know she exists!"

Nan was silent for a moment. Then she slowly said, "I think the best thing to do in this case is simply to let things be... there isn't really much you can do, we'll just have to see in which direction Fortune's wheel turns."

With a soft sigh, Birle agreed. "You're right, I guess. There's nothing to be done."

"Why don't you go, take Lyss, go home, and get a good night's sleep. You'll both feel better for it."

Birle smiled softly. "Thanks, Nan. It really makes me feel better, knowing you know and I've told someone."

"You're quite welcome. Now, please, for both of us, go- home." Birle hugged her, and ran off. Nan smiled to herself as she watched her go. As soon as she had you totally convinced she had finally settled down, she would go and do something like this. It was almost as if she were trying to prove you wrong.

Birle strode through the village, intent on finding Lyss, when a little boy with dark hair suddenly ran up to her and said, "You're Lyss's ma, right?" she nodded, confused. "Yea, well, she asked me to give you this." The boy shoved what looked like a note from Lyss into her hand. Not knowing what to expect, Birle began to read it.
Lyss and Griffin had been doing various things for a while, when Griffin suddenly said he had something to tell her. He took her aside, where nobody could hear them, and burst out, "Lyss, I'm going to go to the trader's day! I just had to tell you that- I haven't told anyone else! I'm going to see everything, go everywhere, meet everyone!" He stopped, breathing hard, and waited for her to say something. Lyss just looked stunned- she hadn't expected that. When she remained silent, Griffin said, "Well, aren't you gonna say anything?"

"You're leaving? Just like that- you're just... running away? And you haven't told anyone?"

"I just told you. Doesn't that count?"

"Well, I suppose it does... oh, Griffin, what am I supposed to do without you here? Are you sure? No one else around this place really knows how to have any fun!" Griffin and Lyss had been friends since they were toddlers, and neither of them had ever gone farther than from Lyss's cottage to the village and back.

"Um, actually, maybe you won't have to... find something to do without me, I mean... you see, I sort of had another reason for telling you I was going besides just saying goodbye. I was just sort of... I was wondering if... well..." Griffin trailed off, embarrassed.

Lyss's blue eyes widened as she realized what he meant. "You mean you're saying... you want me to go with you?"

"Only if you want to. It'll be fun... we've never done anything big like this without each other before, and it would be nice to have you along..." Griffin trailed off again, not knowing what to say. He wasn't looking at her.

"When are you leaving?" asked Lyss weakly. She didn't want to admit it, but there was a part of her that really wanted to go with him. After all, Birle had run away when she was her age, hadn't she?

"Tonight... I would've asked you sooner, but you were never in the village and my dad and I were too busy for me to leave and ask you. This morning, I was afraid I would have to sneak into your cottage tonight and wake you up and tell you. But... will you? We would only be gone for about a month at most, and judging by the weather and the fact that you and your mother just did everything that needed to be done around here for a while, nothing much is going to happen around your place for a while. Birle can take care of herself. The busy season just ended for my father and I yesterday. And didn't you tell me once that your mother ran away when she was fourteen, and didn't come back until more than a year had passed? She'll understand if you go. ...Will you?"

Lyss looked into Griffin's eyes, and saw the pleading there. She couldn't bear to see him look at her like that. Suddenly, she didn't care what leaving might mean, how her family would feel, what might happen while on the road... she just wanted to go. She was tired of this place and wanted to see something new. With Griffin.

Lyss took Griffin's hand in her own, and said, "Yes, Griffin. Yes. I'll go with you." Griffin broke into a huge smile of pure happiness. Lyss smiled back as she let go of his hand and said, "Just let me write a note to Mama... I can't just disappear without any explanation at all..."

Slowly, Birle unfolded the note and read what it said with disbelief.

Dear Mama,
Please don't be angry with me, I'm not doing this to hurt you or anyone else. Griffin has asked me to go with him on a trip to a 'Trader's Day,' in the capitol, and I've told him I will. He is leaving immediately, so I shan't see you before I go- the reason for this note. Please don't worry about me, I promise I will be fine. I am more than capable of taking care of myself, and I will have Griffin with me. He thinks we should be back within a month. I love you.

-Lyss.

REVIEW, REVIEW! ...please? It would make me very happy. Hope you liked it, and thanks for reading! Sorry it took me so long to get this up, I'll try to get the next one up sooner!

... pretty please review? with sugar on top...? (lol)