Chapter 2 - Chapter 1

“Wake up Kiralinda, wake up!” a voice said, “You have to get dressed, breakfast is served in an hour.”

“Yes, yes. I'm up. Haven't I told you I want you to call me Kira, miss Agnes? I hate my full name.” Kira said to the old wrinkled mass that was the woman in front of her. Her maid picked out a rather revealing blue and silver dress with transparent sleeves, which complemented her obsidian hair and unusual pale bluish silver eyes. She had instinctively started to braid her hair as her aunt walked in

“No, this can't be I like the dress, but your hair! You have to do something nicer than a braid! You are going to be spending the day with nobility, not walking around the palace doing whatever you do during the time I am not supervising you.” Kira's Aunt said as she started to twist the dark mass of hair into an intricate pattern on the back of Kira's head. “We are going to have to do something with your face too. You can't walk in, your face completely plain. What do you think of blue eyes and red lips… we might as well add blush, it'll look better,” she said.

“That would look beautiful on her, your majesty Aurella!” praised Agnes.

“You could also tattoo the rest of me while you're at it.” Answered Kira

“Don't be daft girl, tattooing is only for men. I heard that it hurts,” said Aurella in an in-charge tone of voice while adding 20 pounds of jewelry all over Kira's ears, neck and wrists.

“That's why I got one,” muttered Kira under her breath eyeing the indigo ring on her right arm.



Once she was done she was led to the main hall where she was seated with the wealthiest of the nobles visiting the palace for Yuletide. She recognized Roland the Duke of Ichtar, a province to the north of Avalon's Capital and Palace. There was also a man of about 40 who called himself the Prince of Krynn, a certain Frederick. The third man was young, extraordinarily young. He was said to be Theodore, the Duke of Achar, and was at the tender age of 12. None of these suitors seemed very interesting, one was 4 years younger than her and the others were 16 and 24 years older.

As she scanned the room to fin somewhere else to sit she spied Tarja, the new Commander of one of her uncle's forces. He was said to be the youngest Commander since as far as anyone could remember, and was only two years older than Kira. And he wasn't a bad one at that, he had a natural skill with almost every defensive weapon you could come up with and his unit was amazed to know that his tactics almost always worked. He was also the object of much gossip among the girls at the palace; apparently he never intentionally talked to women. Some thought that he already had a wife and was very loyal to her, but the idea wasn't as popular as the rumor that he was playing hard to get. She had been invited to watch him practice in the courtyard by one of the noble's daughter, Emily of Kanran. She had been forced to decline by her aunt.

As Breakfast was served she cautiously wiped her face free of makeup, al that was left of her mother's delicate and hard work was a faint red tinge to her lips. The old Prince attempted to serve her but she casually placed her hand across he plate telling him to back off. He looked humiliated after a couple of girls giggled at him a little bit down the table. As she served herself, she conscientiously avoided the meat and took a bowl of oatmeal. It was generally considered army food but it was the only thing that was not doused with dead animals. Roland gave her a sideways look as she took her food, but he got back to his own business after she glared at him viciously. The young duke sat slumped in his chair hardly touching his food.

“Don't worry Theodore, you'll get used to this quickly. You'll learn how escape it too.” She said taking the opportunity to spare a lance at Tarja. Giggling girls who were trying to force him to talk to them surrounded him. He shooed them off by telling that that if he wasn't left alone an attacker might as well kill the entire court before he could do anything. They swiftly left after that. When he looked over to her she nodded in approval.

“Lady Kiralinda, would you like some pudding?” asked Frederick.

“No, I don't eat pigs blood and horse bones. I consider killing animals cruel.” Kira said with an air of satisfaction when everyone around her pushed their portion of the pudding away.

They were currently walking towards the stables because Roland was obsessed with him purebred mount, and wanted to brag about it even more. As they crossed the courtyard she spared a glance at the two men fighting in the center. Tarja was a very good fighter; the other man already had bruises all over his chest and legs. Suddenly he grabbed a knife from his boot and threw it with fierce intensity at Tarja. He smashed to the ground and the knife missed by a hair, but it kept on flying through the air directly a Kira.

“Kiralinda, watch out!” screamed someone in the background but she didn't hear him. She lapsed back into memory, in front of her stood her father grinning as he watched the knife sail through the air. She felt the rage bubble up inside her. How could he? He was gone he could not have come back. She then reached out with her mind, her eyes blazing white. No, wait her father was dead, it could not be him. She reached out a hand and the knife glided smoothly between her fingers.

When she finally looked around her, everyone was staring at her. Her three suitors had fled for their lives behind the stable door and the gossips girls had finally fallen quiet. But not for long, suddenly a loud whisper came from the group, “I heard that her mother died with a knife in her throat and her father one through the heart, she must be reliving memories!”

“Well, I heard that she almost died too. It must have been terrifying!” said another, with deep sympathy.

Suddenly Tarja got up from the ground and walked over to Kira. The courtyard was totally quiet, even the horses were silent. It was the first time Tarja had even intentionally approached a girl.

“I have never seen that much skill or calm in any of my soldiers, not even the most courageous. Most hide, or panic like your ever so valiant suitors. I am amazed at your talent, Lady,” said Tarja.

“Such elegant talk for a man who was once a peasant living near the Coloary Mountains, Sir Commander. I see court life really does change you,” responded Kira.

“So, you've done your research, young Lady.”

“It is considered necessary to know this kind of information if you are the only heir to the throne. And I am not so young, you are only two years older than me.” She answered back, offended at being called young.

All of a sudden cries rose from behind them, “she's flirting with him!” and “he with her,” “they are lovers,” “they are betrothed!” the empathy was fully gone from their voices, they were jealous.

“I heard that she spends her time in the forest, the dark and forbidden forest!” Kira knew that voice, it was Emily's! They had been friends for about a year. Kira knew it was just because Kira had no interest in the men Emily ranted about, but recently Kira had started to trust her.

A collective gasp rose out of the crowd, as Kira turned away and ran into the stables. She saddled up a horse and when a young stable boy came up to help her, she pushed him away. She didn't even bother to lead the horse out of the stables before mounting it. When she rode out stables people were already getting back to their own business, whispering as though she couldn't hear it. Some even pointed and stared.

She rode her horse at a gallop for about a league, until the start of the forest loomed tall before her. Every so often a trader or storyteller who happened to be at the palace would entertain the court with stories of deadly creatures and man eating trees, but Kira had never seen any of those in the forest. Infact the trees and creatures seemed to call to her. Her horse also loved this place; he knew exactly where to go to get to the small glade at the edge of the forest. For some reason nobody could find her when she was in the forest, no matter how close she was to them.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

She really was beautiful, more beautiful than in the vivid stories of the soldiers who had seen her around the stables. Of course Tarja had seen her before, she was a regular at court, always surrounded by the dim-witted and rich. She was always eerily quiet. He had never associated her with the title of princess of Avalon. It was probably because she had never ambushed him in the hallways or started flirting with him in mid-sentence. All the other noble's daughters did that, and even some of the servants who were bold enough to approach him, but never her. Now she was even more amazing, she had shown a lot of courage, or stubborn idiocy as one of his soldiers put it, facing that knife that even he did not dare to take on. And when she had talked to him…

“Wake up from your little daydream, we found something,” said Jenga, Tarja's second in command and best friend since he had come here. They were on a `mission' to find the missing princess. The Queen had refused to accept the fact that Kiralinda might be in the forest and she had ordered search parties sent out. Until now they had found nothing. The King was convinced she could not have gone very far, she was a woman after all. Tarja thought otherwise, she had an extraordinary skill with words as well as weapons and no one had found anything within half a league of the castle.

“ Jenga, why don't you go back and tell the king, Priam, that we found his precious niece?” said Tarja.

Tarja had ordered the farther and they were now within a 100 feet from the forest. The rest of his party shied away but timber and twigs did not intimidate Tarja.

“Sir, she can't survive very long in there. She'll have to come out soon. Why don't we just wait?” asked George, his voice shaking.

“Sure, we'll wait,” said Tarja. He had never seen people as afraid of anything but these trees, even death was not a powerful a deterrent as the forest.

As they waited, Tarja observed the landscape around him. He knew that the forest encircled the palace everywhere but were the river went. That way the river merchants made gigantic profits and were as rich as the lords.

“Sir there's a noise in the woods, are we going to die?” said a young man of 13.

“No, it's probably Kiralinda coming out of the forest, I'll go get her, “ he said the raised his voice a little bit higher, “I want to go alone, she'll feel cornered if a lot of people go at once.” The rest were fine with the plan, they didn't want to go closer to the trees.

When Kiralinda came out of the forest, she looked even more beautiful than he had last remembered. Her hair was in one single braid down her back and the only jewelry she still had on was one tiny sapphire on a silver chain around her neck. She looked as if she would bolt at any moment, and with her horse right next to her she probably would have if Tarja had stepped forwards. Instead her remained were he was trying his best not to look threatening.

“You don't need to act like you're not dangerous, I know very well what you are capable of.” She said as if she had read his mind. She seemed angry… maybe even scared. She wanted to leave.

“May I escort your lady home? Your aunt is very worried about you,” he asked as gracefully as he could

“Yes, we have to go now!” she said, as if impending danger was near.

“Why do we-” said Tarja unable to finish his sentence before Kiralinda pitched forward, an arrow protruding from her shoulder. “Attack, we're under attack!” He screamed as a shower of arrows fell from the sky. An arrow skimmed his head as he saw Kiralinda get back up, the arrow removed. Then everything was black.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

His eyes shot open and he immediately tried to sit up. He grunted as he did so, and Kira could feel the pain surging through his body.

“Get back down, you have a cut on your head and you have made it bleed again. You have lost enough blood, you don't need to loose more,” said Kira as she leaned over to see to his wound. As she worked on his wound she felt his eyes searching her face, she looked down at him and smiled.

Once she was done he tried to get up again, and again she told him to lie back down, “I just told you that that will make your head bleed, do you want to die?”

“But- how did you get rid of that arrow wound?” he said eyeing the hole in her gown, now the only remnant that she had been hit.

“I don't know, I just felt better and I got up. The arrow was on the ground right by my feet.” She answered back as if she wasn't really sure what she was saying.

“Why are you treating me? Aren't noble ladies supposed to be inept at anything useful?” he asked straining to see the place where his men were last as well as staying on the ground.

“I see you still have your sense of humor, but it won't last long. We are the only ones who are still alive, the attack killed everyone else. I only counted 8 dead; if I remember correctly there would have been ten of you. One managed to stay alive.” She responded somberly.

“It was Jenga, I sent him to the palace to tell your uncle that we had found you. If we don't return soon he'll come for us.”

“Then we will have to wait for him because you can't go anywhere in your condition and all the horses ran away,” she said sitting next to him. Suddenly Tarja moaned.

“What's wrong?” asked Kira frantically.

“My head feels like hell,” said Tarja, still moaning.

“Here, stay still,” Kira said as she placed her hands on both sides of Tarja's head, carefully avoiding his cut. Her eyes blazed white and a `wave' of appeasement went from Kira to Tarja.

“That feels good,” said Tarja before sinking into blissful unconsciousness.

As they waited Kira spoke of many things, even when Tarja was unconscious she spoke. From the dim-witted suitors her aunt chose for her to the rumors going about the palace. After Tarja lapsed into sleep, she leaned on a near by tree, resting, before attempting to clean his cut. She had pushed a lock of hair away from his eyes when she heard hoof beats. Her head snapped up. She saw men riding in the distance, eleven of them.

“Lady what happened here?” asked the closest one, but he was still 100 paces from the tree line where Kira and Tarja were.

“We were attacked by some unknown assailant, Tarja and I are the only ones still alive,” said Kira. There was a collective gasp from the crowd. She didn't know whether it was because of the coldness in her voice or because of the horror that had happened before they came.

“Oh dear, what is so wrong with Tarja so that he can't get up?” asked the man she presumed to be Jenga.

“He had a cut to the head and if he moves too much he will bleed to death.” Kira said grimly.

“You seem to know a lot about medicine, what should we do to bring Tarja back to the Palace?” asked Jenga as the others walked over to the corpses.

“Our best try would be to make some sort of stretcher and make the horses walk to the palace, unless you have a better idea.” Kira said hesitating, “the only problem is that a bump could make him bleed again. We will have to go really slow.”

“We'll do it. Boys, I need some of you to build a stretcher, then tie it across the backs of two horses. Don't worry we'll get him, and you, home whole.” Jenga said, as if that was any help.



Then walked back to the castle at a pace slower than a crawl. They had been walking for almost three hours and they were still 500 paces away from the palace. They had sent a messenger out before them so they could get the doctors ready and possibly get some of them to help them carry him.

Soon the gates loomed before them. There was a crowd gathered at the doors as the doctors rushed over to Tarja.

“Dearie, I was so scared! What happened? Are you all right?” asked Aurella, as she looked Kira over.

“You were only worried because I would not be worth as mush dead or scarred!” cried Kira, “And what happened? I just saw eight people be shot down and one slip in and out of consciousness! I am perfectly fine.”

“Calm down, were are in a crowd. Come I'll lead you to your room,” said Aurella, grabbing Kira's arm and dragging her inside. Just then Tarja tossed around in his stretcher, moaning. Kira wrenched her arm from her aunt's hand and ran to him.

“Shush, it is okay. You are going to be fine, just calm down.” She whispered to Tarja and he calmed down immediately.

Her mother came up behind her and said, “Come inside now.”

“No, I'm going with him. I want to see if he's fine, and it is not like I can't wait for the lecture you have probably planned for me,” said Kira walking away with the doctors.

“You are coming with me!!!” said Aurella, now enraged. She grabbed Kira's arm so tightly until red marks appeared where she was gripping.

“Your majesty, we would like to have Kiralinda come with us, she might have some cuts or bruises that we should treat,” said a young doctor's apprentice.

“You may go, but I want to see her tomorrow.” Aurella said glaring straight at Kira.



“I owe you for that one Colin,” said Kira to the apprentice.

“No, I've always wanted to do that. Our queen has such a temper!” said Colin, walking into the examination room where they had put Tarja. As they walked the doctors were getting the leaches out.

“What are you doing?” asked Kira, shocked beyond reason at the doctors' horrible understanding of the situation.

“We believe that this man has been poisoned by bad blood, we are going to take it out. Now leave, we know what we are doing!” said one in the back.

“He's close to death because he's been bleeding for too long, taking more blood out is not going to help.” Kira yelled as she pushed herself towards Tarja.

“If you know what's right for you, you would leave her alone,” said Colin from the back of the room. “I'll stay here and call you if anything happens.” The doctors grumbled a lot but eventually they left the room, probably awaiting a warm meal.

Kira then sat on the bed where Tarja was laid and looked at his cut. She sat there for several minutes before falling asleep herself. Colin was confident that if anything happened, Kira would take care of it. She had an extra-ordinary gift with healing, and she had absorbed al his teaching very well. She would do fine. And he could use a nap right now too. He fell asleep on the couch in the corner of the room.

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