(Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is not a Cold, Dead Place) ?storyid1934421&chapter4

As if it were a sacred relic, Reenie and I carefully opened The Diary. Sean’s diary.

The first page had various scribblings and such on it, a deranged portrait of the old headmaster, the usual.

The second page went as follows:

Dear Diary,

You may want to ask why I am being cliché. To start with, you aren’t really my diary. This is a hoax for any thief who might have the idea of stealing this book. Also, it’s for when Reenie gets enough guts to finally sabotage my room- she’ll see this, take it, then gasp when she reads:

I know you are reading this, Reenie. It is worthless. It is a fake. Go away and DON’T GO IN MY ROOM AGAIN. EVER.

Always,

Sean

Reenie gasped really loudly. I snickered.

She looked at me as if I had grown four heads and a mustache.

“What? It’s funny…” her glare cut me off.

“Oh, Ari,” she said, collapsing on her bed. “What am I to do? He’s older, stronger, and smarter than me. He’s even taking a military strategy class!” she groaned.

“I know,” I said happily, “I’m in his class.”

Reenie closed her eyes. “That didn’t help,” she muttered.

“It did.”

“How?”

I sighed way overdramatically. “Well, you see Reenie, you don’t know Sean’s class schedule.”

She nodded that she agreed.

“Since I just so happen to know his best friend and be in like, four or five of his classes, I think that might help you just a wittle bit!”

She stared at me. “Four classes….five……I LOVE YOU ARI!”

I just kinda stood there….

“Jeez, I’ll get the schedule- don’t worry. I’ll just have to wait ‘til next class. We still have another day before we have to go back to classes. What’d’ya wanna do?”

“Right now- eat. Later, I dunno. You know, I have this most adorably cute-”

“Eating’s good!” I exclaimed, not letting her finish the sentence. I hate frilly pink clothes.

They scare me.

Last night, I had a nightmare about frilly pink nightgowns swallowing me up. I asked Vaughan to dye mine a different color for me.

He said he understood. Thank the gods.

Oh my freaking gods.

There was a knock on the door of our room. Naturally, Reenie answered it.

I seem to have developed at paranoia of knocks and doors, nowadays.

“We need Ariella of Stieg, immediately.” Said a husky voice.

Then, Prince Charming’s (right when I was ducking into the closet), “I know you’re in there, Stieg. Get out, NOW.”

Now, what did we say about temper problems, hmm?

I came up to the door.

A tall guy- a very tall guy. Reminds me of my Uncle Fenswarden.

“Yes?” I asked in my meek, little-sweet-girly voice.

“You are coming with us,” said the tall guy, as if he controlled my life!

Heck no.

“And WHY do you say that, SIR?” I asked, my big mouth coming back in a flash. “What RIGHT do you have to come BARGING into MY room? None! As a matter of the fact, it is a school night! I have classes tomorrow! You may come back Friday afternoon if you wish to discuss business, but as for now, SIR, you will leave me to mine!” I finished with a little satisfied smirk on my face that no one but me saw.

There was a stunned silence.

Reenie coughed in her nice-little-noble-lady way, and Prince Charming shuffled his feet.

Then, there was laughter. A giant laughter that filled the corridor and echoed, all coming from the tall man.

“You’re right,” he said, speaking to Prince Charming, “I just can’t believe this- it’s been so long- oh, this is gonna be so fun…” laughter echoed again.

I stood there, proud, head held high.

“Princey, dear,” I said in sickening false cheerfulness, “would you mind introducing us?”

I’m sure he shot daggers in my direction.

Ah ha. As if he could even properly hold one. Stupid nobles and their ‘fancy’ way of doing things. Of course, I’m a hypocrite unto myself. They’re the ones teaching me swordplay.

“Lady Stieg, this is Zolten Ince Gyalta!” he said it as if it were something special.

I held back a snort.

“ Deiter Gyalta, this is Lady Arielle of Stieg, the girl I spoke abou-”

“Ariella. Ariella of Stieg, Prince.”

“Do not interrupt me!”

“Why not?” I asked, taunting. “You interrupt me.”

Prince Charming opened his mouth to yell, when we heard cheery whistling coming near.

And nearer…

nearer….

nearer….

Sean’s head popped out between the tall guy’s and Prince Charming’s.

“Your highness! Such a pleasure to meet you! And you too! Hey, you look like the Duke of Delaney! Are you? What brings you here, sire? Business? Pleasure? I saw you once in a parade! You were riding a black horse! Can I have your autograph?” Sean babbled on like an idiot.

I saw Reenie praying to the gods, begging that her family be forgiven for claiming such a stupid idiot as one of the Nordstrom sons.

I, however, was desperately trying to hold back laughs. I so owe Sean. In fact, I might make him some cookies. With Fire Powder in them, of course- elsewise Reenie would never forgive me for being so kind to him.

Prince Charming nodded to the tall guy, who picked Sean up by his collar.

“State your name and business here.” He ordered.

“Well…I’m Sean of Nordstrom…my sister and my lady claim this room…I come here every day at four o’clock so my sister can check my work and my lady can rub in my face how she once again beat me in Strategy class…then I go to my room and write sonnets about how pathetic I really am…”

I was laughing silently, against a wall, and Reenie was writing a letter to her parents explaining Sean’s future death….something involving how Prince Charming got so mad at him that he just chopped off his head…

Apparently, the tall guy found it funny too. Prince Charming didn’t.

“Go, check your homework, and pray for ‘your lady’ as she will get a severe punishment for her cockiness very soon.”

Prince Charming roughly grabbed my elbow and walked (jogged!) down the halls.

I pulled my elbow back to me, and talked casually. “So, what’s up, Prince Charming?”

He turned red and we walked on in silence until we got to an empty classroom.

There seem to be a lot of them.

“I GET HERE TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR FURTHER EDUCATION, AND WHAT DO I FIND?! SILLINESS! STUPIDITY! RECKLESSNESS! YOU SHALL NOT GO HOME AT YULETIDE! YOU WILL STAY HERE AND WORK AND STUDY AND I WILL WATCH YOU EVERY DAY TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE LEARNING! AND IF YOU AREN’T, THEN YOU WON’T GO HOME AT SUMMER, EITHER! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, ‘MY LADY’?”

Spit flew over my face.

I shook with rage.

“You have no right to control what I do and don’t do.” I took a step forward. “You’re just a coward who blackmails people to get what he wants!” I took another step forward. “You poisoned your father to get the power you wanted, to be able to boss everyone around, and now that you have it, you don’t know what the freak to do!”

My voice quieted.

“Do you, Orok? You don’t. I know that. He knows that. Everyone knows that, and your enemies are going to attack because of it, but no, it doesn’t matter how many war commanders you have, because they’ll attack from the inside out, like they did at my village, yes, they’ll go for you, my Prince, because you’re the weakest!”

We were both shaking when I finished.

Me, with rage, him, with fear- because I had him figured out.

I figured out Ooooooorooook! I figured out Ooooooooorrooook!

Da used to always say that if you watch a man closely, you can see the little holes that he tries to cover up- and those are the holes you stab.

“Deiter Gyalta, do what you want with the girl, short of literally killing her,” Orok spat out, leaving the room. “I will see her at the end of December, and I expect everything about her to be better- or you’ll pay.”

He stomped out of the room, and the tall guy studied me.

I tidied my braid a bit, smoothed my dress, and sat down at a chair and studied him back.

We had a staring contest. He won.

“So, Ariella, eh? You don’t happen to live by the border of Arbegla, do ya? And there’s a bit of you by Cientra, isn’t there?”

I gaped, my rage gone.

My village- Whippoorwill…it’s right by Arbegla, Cientra, and Tovan- hardly within the Yeratin border at all.

“How-how-HOW do you know?” I demanded, posture maintained, hands on hips.

He did his weird laugh-bark thing.

“Your accent. You’ve been taught to speak better, but I can tell your still a peasant underneath all those frills his highness gave ya.”

I grinned. “Yeah. Are you one too?” I asked, a little too eagerly.

“Heck no. I just hang around them in my spare time. They’re a lot more easy going than any noble born.”

I nodded and he stood up and paced.

I’ve noticed this: Brice paces. Orok paces. Sean paces. My Da paced. Do all guys pace? I studied the man, recognizing his name from somewhere. Deiter…Deiter…something about a Deiter….something my Da said once….I lapsed into memories.

Apparently, my musing gave me that blank otherworldly look that I sometimes get, because the tall guy whapped me upside the head.

“Hey-“

“You will respect me. You will only speak when told to. You will follow out all of my orders, no questions asked. You are a solider and I your commanding officer. You understand?”

Dang.

His mood changes are worse than mine.

I nodded.

He whapped me upside the head again.

“When I ask you a question, you will respond ‘Yes, sir’, ‘No, sir’, or ‘I’m a stupid idiot, sir’.”

“Yes, sir,” I said, my meek voice masking curious eyes.

“Very good.”

There was silence.

“Wha-“

Whap.

Okay, then. I’m not supposed to talk, now, is it?

I can handle that.

…

“Excu-“

Whap.

He sat across from me, his gray eyes penetrating what seemed like into my very soul. It’s very uncomfortable, and I wish he’d stop. I hate this feeling—like he is reading my memories, and my fears. I stared straight back, but I’m sure he noticed the cockiness disappearing.

“May-“

WHAP.

After two hours of whappings, and learning nothing else (except that I got a new schedule) I arrived back in our room, kicking my boots off by the door.

Only to find that there was approximately oh, lets say about fifteen people in our room.

Going through our stuff.

Messing up my stuff.

“EVERYBODY OUT!” I yelled, making them all scream. “SHOO! GO AWAY! OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!”

They were like a herd of sheep, honestly. Just gathering and going where the sheepdog herds them.

Pathetic.

I plopped on my bed, feeling myself crush about three maps and also something long and broad was in my bed. I groaned. Someone probably left something there just for an excuse to come back and get it. I swear, these people have problems. The guys don’t know what to think of me, and the girls think too much. If I talk to them, they whisper. If I ask something of them, they squeal. If I pull their hair and tell them to shut their big fat mouths, they clap energetically, and tell everyone except the teachers.

“Ari?” came Reenie’s voice.

“Yes?”

“There’s something sticking out from underneath you.”

“I am aware of this fact.”

I heard her creep closer.

“Ari?”

I grunted.

“Can I see what it is?”

I grunted again. She took it as a yes, for she pulled the thing out from underneath me.

BANG.

I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t been so tired.

“…Ari…?” she sounded scared.

“What?”

“Swords are heavy.”

I opened my eyes, confused. Swords? I sat up, then looked at the ground, where a long, white scrape now tattooed the floor. Above it, was a sword. A great, big, heavy long sword.

I grinned, then picked it up. I had been using wooden practice swords for the past…however long I’ve been here. What month was it?

“What month is it?” I asked Reenie, who looked at me confusedly.

“Ari, you just got a sword and you’re asking what month it is.”

“Yeah. Do you know?”

She sighed. “It’s November 18th. It says on the calendar.”

We have a calendar? Oh. She just pointed to it, on the back of the door. What a stupid place for a calendar. Who looks at a door for a calendar?

“Thanks Reenie.”

I lifted the heavy sword slowly, then brought it down swiftly with a great swish through the air. Reenie squeaked.

“I don’t like flying things.”

“it’s not flying.”

“So what? What if you drop it?”

“I’m not gonna drop it.”

This argument continued for a very long time (“accidents happen!” “I KNOW, but I won’t drop it!” “how do you KNOW?”) until a draft blew the candles out. I leapt in bed while Reenie chattered away to herself. Of course, I got up before dawn and practiced with it. What else was I supposed to do? Sleep in?

---

Instead of listing a very long and tedious line of excuses, I have decided to skip that part (that okay with you? IT BETTER BE!) and just go on.

I’m kinda still…developing, you could say, Ari and her world. I drew a map of the countries surrounding her own, and I’m almost down with her continent’s map. I’m gonna work on a family tree so everything won’t get screwed up again (did you notice that in chapter one I said she had a brother? ARGH. she doesn’t, by the way) AND her culture needs a set of gods, AND I forgot my plot. Go figure.

I actually know how it ends. I just forgot her history from ages 12-15. I have a lot of stuff for her from 16-?.

If my old reviewers find it in the deep depths of their heart(s?) to review me, I’ll probably leap for joy and do something stupid (like wear matching socks, for once). But I decided since it’s ridiculously late, and I have to get up ridiculously early, I might as well reply to what you said (even if it’s only to amuse myself).

Bekk- (puts on adorable, fat lip look) will you still forgive me?

Smittened by Marauders- No, I think because you asked I shall not tell who killed the headmaster (jk!). and since you seemed to like the idea of Sean’s diary in your last review…uh he has that hoax one…and (I shouldn’t tell this) he also has a real one. BUT DON’T TELL ARI! lol

Skeeter the Groundhog- Thanks for the compliment about the characters! I’m great at giving them quirks, I just can’t seem to make them do anything. Seriously, if it were up to them, they’d just be lazing around somewhere in my imagination, serving no purpose except to amuse me. Oh, and Ethin will come in later (if I don’t forget). He’s actually based off a real person, so every time I see him I feel extreme guilt for not updating this. Of course, he doesn’t know this. He strongly opposes magic, even if it’s just for reading and not believing. But he’s a funny dude, anyways.

Anybody else—any ideas? Thoughts? Things you think don’t matter, but I might find them…INSPIRATIONAL, perhaps? Tell me! like I said, I forgot the plot. I even punished myself for it (I sat up late at night trying to think of it. Of course, this also meant that I had an excuse to miss the bus)

I should shut up now,

Aryanda