The next day, Jewls went into the stables, by herself, since most of the
pages had gone to their homes, or where their families were. Jewls sat in
Opals stall just thinking about nothing when she heard a whinny, Opal, what's
wrong? Looking in the horse's eyes, Jewls only realized that the horse was
talking to someone else. "Hello? Stephan? Who is there?" Jewls only knew
that Stephan had wild magic, she knew of no one else.
"Oh, hello, are you
Jewls?" Asked a girl or a woman, or in between, she had dark hair and was
about 5'5. "Yes, umm who are you? Wait, are you, no you can't be, yes you
must be. You must be Veralidaine Sarrasri."
"Yes, and how did you know that?" Daine said with a smile on her face.
"You came to my homeland a few years ago, Carthak, do you remember?"
"Yes, but, how come I don't remember you, I would have remembered your eyes?"
"Oh, well my uncle kept me in hiding, since he thought I was too immature."
"Oh, I never fancied your uncle. Dreadfully sorry about him, even though he
is um, dead." Daine didn't sound sorry at all, Jewls knew why, too. She had
never liked her uncle. The girls got into talking and then decided to go on
a ride. Jewls asked Daine to help her with her commands, she told her about
her magic. Daine reported everything that Opal told her.
"Jewls Opal said that you get to nervous why you ride, she said that her
nervous, too. Is there a reason that you're nervous for?" Daine questioned
the girl.
"Umm, well, I get scared that people will laugh, or they will get mad at me.
Then, I say to myself, no, they will just try to help, but I am still really
nervous. So I always mess up. I mean I can ride in a straight line, and do
wide turns, but that's all. I will never be able to use a lance or ride on a
tiny mountain path." Tears had started to pour for Jewls's face.
"Now, don't cry, please don't cry.' Daine pleaded. "I don't know what I can
do to make you stop crying, please stop, Jewls, please?"
"I am sorry, it's just that I am the worst of all the riders, even the little
prince and princesses can ride better!" Jewls cried.
"You aren't going to get any better just complaining," Daine told the girl.
For the rest of the day Daine helped Jewls with her riding, in the end, Jewls
just felt sore and even more like a fool. "You expected way to much for your
first day," Jewls knew Daine was right but didn't want to admit it, she was
too proud, that's also why Jewls was such a bad rider; she wouldn't let
others help her when they offered. That was just her nature, she had to do
lots of stuff on her own when she was younger, so she just thought that
asking others would make them mad.
The next day Jewls went into the city, she stopped at The Dancing Dove
for some lemonade and saw the Lioness pondering over something. Jewls was so
excited to finally meet her without having to be formal. "Hello, Lioness,
ma'am." Jewls stuttered.
"Oh, hello Jewls," she said in an off hand way, as
if she wasn't really aware that Jewls was there.
"What's wrong?" Jewls
asked.
"Oh nothing, nothing at all." I won't look into her eyes, I won't
look into her eyes, her thoughts are personal.
"Please tell me what is
wrong," Jewls pleaded, and kept at it.
"Jewls! I just want to be left
alone!" Alanna shouted after being pestered by Jewls for a good 10 minutes.
Jewls looked into her eyes and saw anger, confusion, sorrow, and pain. Jewls
didn't even have to read her mind to see that.
She walked back to her room, hurt, yet knowing that it had been her
fault. Later that day Alanna came up to apologize to Jewls, knowing she was
in her room. She knocked, no one answered. "Jewls are you in here," Alanna
asked, opening the door a little. She walked over to Jewls' bed and saw that
was soaked with tears, Alanna heard a muffled cry come from the small storage
space, "Jewls is that you?" Walking over, she opened the door to see Jewls
surrounded by animals and blankets. "What are you doing in there?"
"Nothing, oh nothing, I just wanted to be with people that love me," there
was a catch to her voice.
"Sorry to break it to you, Jewls, but these aren't people," Alanna said
Jewls started bawling and said with many sniffs, "You like to point out all
my faults don't you!" Jewls shouted, and broke down crying, again. Alanna
spent a good 2 hours in there talking to Jewls, who never once looked in her
eyes, afraid that she would hear things she didn't want to hear. After
Alanna was done talking and Jewls done crying, Jewls looked into her eyes she
could read nothing, only a bright purple light. Alanna told Jewls that she
had shielded her thoughts from her with her gift. "That was why I was
sitting in "The Dancing Dove," I was trying to debate weather I had done the
right thing or not, shielding you from my thoughts. "
"And I thought it was because you didn't like me! Wow, I cried over that!"
Jewls said, amazed at her own stupidity.
The rest of the week Jewls spent on her horse, barely improving at all, but
when she did, Opal would tell her. On the second to last day of break Jewls
decided to take a ride to Port Caynn. She saddled Opal up, packed a lunch
and rode away. Riding down the rode was easy and difficult at the same time,
it was a straight path, but quite mucky since it was spring, and it rained in
spring, the path had become awful. Opal didn't mind; she almost seemed to
enjoy it. Like a filly in the fall, Jewls said to herself. Reaching Port
Caynn, Jewls's eyes widen, like a child's on Christmas morning. Wow and
amazing were only two words that popped into her head. She looked through
the whole place first, and then went back to buy things for herself and her
friends. A particular store caught her attention; it had the most wondrous
clothes. Oh I must get this blue for Kel, she would love it, to have a tunic
and breaches that complimented each other. Jewls was thinking about the
green breaches that Kel almost never wore since they clashed with everything,
yes even a soon to be knight has to have good color coordinating. And this
green for Min, Oh this purple would look great on the Lioness! The rest of
the time in the store was spent like that thinking, so and so would be
offended if they didn't get something new. Jewls was ready to pay for
everything when she came across a piece of fabric that caught her eye. It
was silver, a gorgeous color, shining in the little light of the store, she
picked it up, it weighed almost nothing. Next to it was a row of different
treads, Jewls had never seen so many colors, she got some practical colors,
and then one fun one, a gold spool. Jewls had never been more grateful for
the money she had been saving up and she had never told anyone this, but she
also kept in contact with her old nurse in Carthak, who would send her money
as her 'allowance.' Jewls didn't want a soul to know that she was keeping up
with Carthak news, because she knew that the king and queen would write or
say something like that even by accident and Jewls couldn't stand going back
to Carthak. Ana, her old nurse, who wasn't that old, sent her money every
month. How Jewls got it was her own business. Next Jewls made a run to the
paper store and asked for scraps that were not sellable, Jewls like most
pages and squires at the palace did all their 'private' work on scraps so as
not to spend lots on paper and more on sweets. Jewls took the paper and went
to the middle of town, sat on the side of the road and started to draw. It
was a dress, the one she was going to make out of the silver material. The
bodice was low cut and tight around the bust, but it puffed out for the
skirt, Jewls had also bought tulle a French fabric that was sort of like
netting. She would make a skirt and put the tulle over it to make it look
puffier. The tulle was silver as well, she drew the dress and then decided
it looked too plain so she added a few jewels at the bottom, she had some
that were not on necklaces or other pieces of jewelry and knew she could
fashion them into the tulle itself. She made the straps so that they would
fit on her shoulders and arms, so to look like she pulled them down a little.
Then she started to sketch the tunics for her friends, fashioning them in
all different ways so none were the same. Time had gone quickly for Jewls
and she started to ride towards the castle.
As Jewls walked to the stables, she heard something behind her. Turning, she
saw Harry, "Uh, what are you doing here, I thought you went back to your
parents summer house? What do you want?" Jewls demanded after Harry didn't
say anything. Jewls figured that it had something to do with her, since most
of the squires didn't come to this part of the stables, the page's part.
Also because she was the only page that was still at the castle, all of them
were coming back tomorrow. "I've seen the way you look at me and I know that
you can't resist me," Harry told the stunned girl. He made an advance at
her; she kicked him and then flipped him over. While punching him in the
mouth, causing blood to pour out Jewls said, "Even if I remotely liked you
(she said the word as if it was poison), I would get kicked out," Harry took
advantage of her speech and leapt on her, yanking some of her black hair out.
He punched her so hard in the nose, she felt it crumble, Harry twisted her
arm until she heard a crack. Jewls was in too much pain to resist. "No I
must keep going, I can't quit," trying to get up, Harry pushed her down and
then turned her right ankle in such a weird position that she was sure it was
sprained. Then Harry jumped up, for he had been sitting on the ankle, and
brushed his hands together and said, "Well, Princess Jewls, it looks like you
just made your first enemy."
