A/N I'm going to try to add more reactions in the story, I just don't want to overload it, but I will try harder for you guys. I'm sorry the story's are not the best of quality, frankly I'm writing until I'm too tired and when I should be studying for several of my tests.

In case its not clear Raoul, Neal, Merric, Duke Baird , Wyldon of Cavall, Alanna, George of Pirates Swoop, Cleon, Faleron, Daine, Dom and Thom remain.

If your enjoying please review. I will continue on regardless, so just enjoy reading if you would like.

*Gives a bow* Please enjoy

George grinned "Well enough me fiery Lioness." he bent down and gave his fiery lioness a kiss, before turning around and addressing the room, Alanna behind him.

"Now that refreshments are done, back to the story." He clapped his hands together before picking up the first scroll. As the group settled down he began to read, his voice drawing in everyone who listened. "A Dream"

A Dream

Anders leaned against a post. "Kel… "

She looked at him. Since the incident on the river the day before, she'd caught Anders watching her. She barely remembered him before their departure to the Islands, six years ago – he had already been a knight, handsome and distant in his armor, always riding somewhere.

In the months since their return to Mindelan, she had come to like him. "Something the matter?" she asked.

Neal leaned over and whispered to Merric "With Kel, something's always the matter." Merric snickered, then quickly turned it into a cough as Kel glared.

Anders sighed. "Do you realize it's going to be hard? Maybe impossible? They'll make it tough. There's hazing, for one thing. I don't know when the custom started, but it's called 'earning your way.'

At this Cleon looked down, a faint tinge dusting his cheeks. Neal flashed him a glare, remembering all the times Cleon made Kel run and fetch his glove or his ink. Neal turned back to George.

It's just for the first-year pages. The senior ones make you run stupid little errands, like fetching gloves and picking up things that get knocked over. You have to do it. Otherwise it's the same as saying you don't have to do what the older pages did, as if you think you're better than they are. And older pages play tricks on the young ones, and some of them will pick fights. Stand up for yourself, or they'll make your life a misery."

"In the rules they sent, fighting isn't allowed."

Neal burst out laughing, everyone who went through training with Kel cracked grins. Wyldon even slipped a smile, no one could think of Kel without remembering all the bruises, broken bones and black eyes.

"Of course it's forbidden. If you're caught, they punish you. That's expected. What you must never do is tattle on another page, or say who you fought with. That's expected, too. Tell them you fell down –

Wyldon groaned, with everyone's eyes on him he explained "Every boy I has ever trained has me that same excuse. Except for Liam of Pearl Mouth, they were amusing to hear, even more amusing to think about when he was cleaning out the stables." Wyldon ended with note of grim satisfaction.

that's what I always said. Otherwise no one will trust you. A boy told when I was a page. He finally left because no one would speak to him."

All the knights flinched, that was one of the worst things you could do as a page.

"But they'll punish me for fighting?"

"With chores, extra lessons, things like that. You take every punishment, whatever it's for, and keep quiet."

"Like the Yamanis," she said, brushing loose hairs from Chipper's coat. "You don't talk – you obey."

Raoul nodded appreciatively, he knew he liked the Yamani, they were sensible people

Anders nodded. "Just do what you're told. Don't complain. If you can't do it, say that you failed, not that you can't. No one can finish every task that's given. What your teachers don't want is excuses, or blaming someone else, or saying it's unfair. They know it's unfair. Do what you can, and take your punishment in silence."

Kel nodded. "I can do that, I think."

Neal rolled his eyes, Kel took a lot more then most people. But she also handled people it better then most people because of what she went through , he admitted to himself grudgingly.

Anders chuckled. "That's the strange thing – I believe you can. But, Kel – "

Kel went to Chip's far side, looking at Anders over the pony's back.

"What?"

The young man absently rubbed his stiff leg. "Kel, all these things you learned in the Islands."

"Yes?" she prodded when he fell silent again.

"You might want to keep them to yourself. Otherwise, the pages might think you believe you're better than they are. You don't want to be different, all right? At least, not any more different than you already are."

"Won't they want to learn new things?" she wanted to know. "I would."

Merric grinned lopsided "Kel, we learnt that quickly."

Kel ducked her head.

"Not everyone's like you, Kel. Do what they teach you, no more.

You'll save yourself heartache that way."

Kel smiled. "I'll try," she told him.

Neal raised an eyebrow and remarked drily, "that lasted long, didn't it Kel." Kel glared at him. The room glanced at him quizzically, Neal shook his head grinning.

Anders straightened with a wince. "Don't be out here too long," he reminded her. "You're up before dawn."

Neal blanched at the thought of it.

Unlike normal dreams, in which time and places and people did strange things, this dream was completely true to Kel's memory. It began as she knelt before an altar and stared at the swords placed on it. The weapons were sheathed in pure gold rubbed as smooth and bright as glass. She was five years old again.

Kel grinned, this was her favorite dream. She hoped it sounded as exciting reading it, as it was living it.

"They are the swords given to the children of the fire goddess, Yama," a lady-in-waiting beside Kel said, awe in her soft voice. "The short sword is the sword of law. Without it, we are only animals. The long sword is the sword of duty. It is the terrible sword, the killing sword." Her words struck a chord in Kel that left the little girl breathless. She liked the idea that duty was a killing sword. "Without duty," the lady continued, "duty to our lords, to our families, and to the law, we are less than animals."

Daine frowned, it wasn't that bad being animals. Her frown lifted a little, she remembered the blood lust last time she got close to being an animal.

Kel smelled burning wood. She looked around, curious. The large oil lamps that hung from the temple ceiling by thick cords smelled of perfume, not wood. Kel sniffed the air. She knew that fires were terrible on the Yamani Islands, where indoor walls were often paper screens and straw mats covered floors of polished wood.

Alanna frowned, burning wood, that didn't sound good.

The lady-in-waiting got to her feet.

The temple doors crashed open. There was Kel's mother, Ilane, her outer kimono flapping open, her thick pale hair falling out of its pins.

The group was shocked, Kel's mother, Ilane, was always self composed and organized, something big must have happened.

In her hands she carried a staff capped with a broad, curved blade. Her blue-green eyes were huge in her bone-white face.

"Please excuse me," she told the lady-in-waiting, as calm and polite as any Yamani in danger, "but we must get out of here and find help.

Pirates have attacked the cove and are within the palace."

Dom raised both eyebrows, Pirates?

There was a thunder of shod feet on polished wood floors. Swords and axes crashed through the paper screens that formed the wall behind the altar. Scanrans-men already covered in blood and grime burst into the room, fighting their way clear of the screens and their wooden frames.

Daine inhaled sharply, everyone else looked concerned.

An arm wrapped tight around Kel's ribs, yanking her from her feet.

The lady-in-waiting had scooped her up in one arm and the swords in the other. Faster than the raiders she ran to Ilane of Mindelan.

The lady tumbled to the ground. Kel slid out the door on her belly.

Turning, too startled to cry, she saw the lady at her mother's feet.

There was an arrow in the Yamani woman's back.

Kel looked around, everyone was staring at George. Their eyes wide open, Kel grinned, she couldn't wait until they got to the next part, the look on their faces, Kel watched eagerly.

Ilane bent over the dead woman and took the swords. Hoisting them in one hand, she swung her weapon to her right and to her left. It sheared through the heavy cords that suspended five large oil lamps.

They fell and shattered, spilling a flood of burning oil. It raced across the temple in the path of the raiders who were running toward them.

Raoul, Dom, Alanna and Thom all nodded, appreciative of Ilane's tactics

When their feet began to burn, they halted, trying to put the fire out.

"Come on!" Kel's mother urged. "Hike up those skirts and run!"

Kel yanked her kimono up and fled with Ilane. They skidded and slipped over the polished floors in their Yamani sock-shoes, then turned down one corridor and another. Far down one passage they saw a new group of Scanrans. Kel and her mother ran around a corner.

They tried another turning – it led to a dead end. They were trapped. The walls that now blocked them in on three sides were sturdy wood, too. They could have cut their way through paper ones.

Ilane turned. Scanrans armed with swords or axes blocked the way out.

Everyone's heart were racing, was this real, how could they live through this?

Ilane thrust the gold swords into Kel's arms and pushed her into a corner, then stood before her. "Get down and be quiet!" she said, gripping her weapon in both hands. "I think I can hold them off with this."

Everyone familiar with Kel's skill with a glaive grinned. Only Thom who had never seen Kel frowned in disbelief.

Kel put the swords behind her and huddled. The men came at her mother, laughing and joking in Scanran. She peeked around the edge of her mother's kimono. At that moment Ilane swung the bladed staff-glaive, Kel remembered as it swung, they called it a glaive – in a wide side cut, slicing one pirate across the chest. Whipping it back to her left, she caught another of them in the throat. Blood struck Kel's face; even dreaming, she could smell it. Breathless, the sheathed swords poking into her back, she watched her mother lunge and retreat, using her skill and her longer weapon to hold the enemy off. Ilane killed a third and a fourth attacker before a squad of guardsmen raced around the corner to finish the rest.

Alanna gave another whoop, George paused and flashed her a grin before continuing on.

When the pirates were dead, Kel's mother turned and reached a hand down to her. "Let's go find your father," she said quietly.

Duke Baird smiled, sitting in the corner, he had known Ilane before she had married Baron Piers, he had no doubt she could have accomplished that.

Kel grasped the hand, and let her mother pull her to her feet. Then Kel gathered up the golden swords that had been trusted to them.

When they faced their rescuers, the guards knelt as one. They bowed low to the woman and the girl, touching their heads to the bloody floor.

Most of the people nodded thoughtfully, they hadn't know the events that had made Baron Piers and Ilane of Miladen close confident of the emperor. Kel was beaming happily, she loved her mother and was proud people knew of her achievements.

Kel woke, breathing fast, her eyes shining. Her heart raced; she trembled all over. The dream was not scary; it was exciting. She loved it. She loved that it had all been real.

At that Neal and Dom grinned at Kel. Dom leaned forward and whispered in Neal's ear "of course she did," before flicking custard in his ear.

Ignoring Neal's squawks of indignation, everyone listened on as George read.

I want to be like that, she told herself as she always did. I want to protect people. And I will. I will. I'll be a hero one day, just like Mama. Just like the Lioness.

Nobody will kill two kittens in front of me then.