GETTING UNHITCHED

For the last time ever sniff I'd like to state for the record that I do not own a copy of the books. As such there are bound to be plenty of canonical errors (as well as all the other regular kind). Feel free to correct, shout or laugh at me. This is pure fluff, except when its not. Roger doesn't exist in this story.
Hope you enjoy - plotless.
Disclaimer : I do not own any of Tamora Piece's characters or settings. I just like to sneak into her toybox and play with them once in a while.

{A/N Here it is!! Last chapter!

I'm nervous and relieved. Nervous that you'll hate it, relieved that its over.

There weren't really any questions in the reviews so I'm just going to say Thank you to PhyschoLioness13, Mango Sam, Alannawannabee, Kore Yan, darkmoonlit, AJ4EVA, Blue-forget-me-not, Lady Leah of Chaos, Erkith, imogenhm, aznchicki, Tenshichild (I changed the ending, so definitely read this chapter again!)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially those of you who did so every chapter even to just say, "Write more!" Thanks to those who appreciated silently.}

Chapter 13

Alanna had intended to leave immediately. She had felt that if she spent one more day in the castle she would explode. She had procrastinated for years, torn between staying and going, and having a firmly made up mind was a profound relief. This didn't however make her departure any easier to accomplish. She was unexpectedly disappointed about George's decision not to come. She had asked him on the spur of the moment and as the question had left her mouth she had felt certain he wouldn't agree. But at the thought that George might come with her she had felt confident that she could have faced anything, and was surprised at the depths of her sadness at the prospect of not seeing him for a long time.

That setback hadn't stopped her from setting out at once to find Thom and Calisto. Unsurprisingly she found them together, sitting on the grass in the shade of a large oak tree. They smiled when they saw her and waved her over. Sitting down she noticed that they were holding her hands and smiled inwardly.

Knowing that the longer she procrastinated the harder it would be Alanna began to talk, "There's something I have to tell you."

"That sounds ominous," Thom said, "although I haven't heard screams coming from the Palace so perhaps you haven't done anything too awful."

"It's not something that I've done. It's something that I want to do. Something I've wanted to do for my entire life."

"Dress in green from head to foot and Morris dance in the Great Hall?" Calisto put in.

"No!"

"Oh…I've always wanted to do that."

There was a pause as they all pictured Calisto dyed green and Morris dancing.

"I don't think green is really your colour," Thom said diplomatically.

"Can we get back to the point?" Alanna asked.

Taking a deep breath she continued, "My whole life I've wanted to be a Knight, to fight for the Kingdom, but I didn't grab my dreams when I was younger. And its not that the life I have led hasn't made me happy. I've made wonderful friends and learnt most of the things I would have if I had become a squire but there's always that part of me that knows I'm not following my heart's desire. I've realised now that I will never be content with my life at the Palace."

Thom and Calisto who had an idea were this conversation was leading were looking grave.

"I'm leaving," Alanna finished in a quiet but firm voice.

To Alanna's astonishment Calisto flung her arms around Alanna and burst into tears.

"Calisto?" Alanna asked uncertainly.

"I've always known that you'd leave eventually. There's something inside you that has to be free, and I want most of all for you to be happy. I'm not going to try to stop you, and if Thom tries to I'll curse him. It's just that we're about to become sisters for real. I wanted you here at the wedding."

"We are sisters already. In our hearts we always have been," Alanna said as she returned Calisto's hug.

"We're going to miss you more than we can say," Thom added and put his arms around both of them.

They sat for a while longer discussing the practicalities of her journey. True to form Calisto shamelessly used her tears to wring a promise out of Alanna to stay until Thom and Calisto were married.

3 weeks later

At first Calisto had tried to have an extended engagement using any excuse to postpone the wedding date. Eventually Alanna sat her down and tried to reason with her, although Calisto's decision to wait only a month to get married may have been helped along by the knife that Alanna kept stroking during their discussion. Now a week before the wedding and Alanna's departure she could not believe that the time had passed so fast. Both she and Calisto were excited, nervous, happy and scared although for very different reasons.

She had put the extra month to good use. Spending time with the few friends who knew she was leaving. Pouring over maps of faraway lands with Patricia in the library, plotting courses, trying to learn enough of the various dialects of other countries to get by and purchasing travelling rations and weapons. She had been lead to the stable early one morning by Calisto to find an unfamiliar horse that had a bow around its neck and a note from George

Thought you might need this. Name her yourself.

You friendly neighbourhood thief

The horse, that she had named Maeryn was a tan mare. Alanna had fallen in love with her immediately and now spent a part of every day in the stable. On this particular day when she entered the stable she saw that she was not alone. Calan was in another stall saddling his stallion. From the amount of luggage he had with him she guessed he was leaving.

"Leaving without saying goodbye?" Alanna enquired.

"I was about to come find you. I've already made my farewells to the others. And given my congratulations to the two couples."

"Two couples?"

Calan snorted, "Trust you not to know the biggest gossip in the palace. Jonathan asked Thayet to marry him. Now that she is about to become a Princess of Tortall any attempts on her life by the Sarainians would be considered an act of war. Which means that I don't have to protect her anymore and I can return to my wandering ways."

"That's great," Alanna enthused.

"If you want to come with me, you're welcome."

"Do you have to leave today?"

"Yes, I've urgent business in Carthak."

"I have to wait for the wedding and besides I think I'd like to strike out on my own for once in my life."

Having settled the saddle on the horses back Calan turned to Alanna and hugged her.

"You never know, we might meet up again," Calan said

"I'll see you when I see you," Alanna replied.

He mounted and rode out of the stable.

The day of the wedding dawned bright and beautiful. For the first time ever Alanna was glad to put on a dress. Calisto had of course picked a colour that made Alanna look terrible but she wore the orange monstrosity with a smile. Although the King and Queen had offered to hold the wedding in the great hall, Thom and Calisto declined. They had a quiet wedding in one of the smaller palace chapels with only close friends. There was an air of romance and mystery in the chapel that was lit only by candles, some enchanted globes Thom had conjured and strewn with flowers. Thayet the other bridesmaid, who somehow managed to look beautiful in the orange dress, Jonathan and Alanna stood with Thom as they waited for Calisto to enter. Alanna was close enough to hear Thom's indrawn breath when he first saw Calisto.

As they exchanged vows with a priestess officiating Alanna felt tears fill her eyes and she looked across the room hoping that they wouldn't be noticed. She saw a man standing in the shadowy recesses and when he looked up she recognised George. Except for the horse and the note she hadn't seen or heard from him since the day when she had asked him to accompany her on her journey. George nodded at her once and then towards Thom and Calisto and she turned in time to see them exchange a kiss. When she turned back George was gone.

The day of her departure did not dawn bright and beautiful. It was a cold, cloudy, rainy morning that was perfect for staying in bed with a book and a warm drink. Alanna got up determinedly and changed quickly. She was leaving an hour earlier than the time she had told her friends. They had exchanged their final words the night before at the Dancing Dove, a party that had for once been quiet and solemn. George hadn't even been there to liven things up. He had given her a quick hug before claiming urgent business elsewhere. She wrenched her thoughts from the hurt his lack of attention had caused her and concentrated on strapping on her weapons. She had forbidden her friends to see her off as tearful goodbyes from Calisto, Thayet, Patricia, the other Ladies and possibly Thom would be her undoing but she had a feeling they might ignore her request. She climbed out of the window instead of using the door for old times sake.

She only turned back once, when she was already on her horse, on a hill on the road outside the palace. It was only then that she saw that Thom and Calisto had enchanted the clouds above the palace to form the words, "Good Luck Alanna! We love you!"

Her friends had obviously seen through her ploy to leave unnoticed.

Standing on top of the Palace wall were Thom, Calisto, Gary, Raoul, Jonathan, Thayet, Patricia and even Tristan waving at her. And that was how Alanna started her adventure, with a heart filled with love and her laughter on the air.

Five miles down the road outside the city Alanna stopped. She had come to a crossroads. Both roads would eventually take her to the same destination but the journeys would be vastly different. A decision was made easier by a full stomach Alanna thought as she sat down in a nearby clearing.

She was observing the passers-by on the busy main road distractedly while she rested and ate when a familiar face rode past her at a mad gallop.

"George!" Alanna stood up and shouted after him.

George immediately pulled on the horse's reins and wheeled around swiftly coming towards her. He jumped of his horse, crossed the distance between them and grabbed her shoulders, "Thank the goddess that I found you," he exclaimed.

"Calm down George, is everything okay? Has someone been hurt? Why were you rushing about on that horse?"

"Rushing? Because I arrived at the castle to find that you decided to leave an hour early, you daft girl!"

"Well, it's not my fault you didn't say goodbye properly last night when I gave you the chance!" Alanna said a trifle angrily

"That's the thing lass…I'm not saying goodbye," George smiled down at her.

"What are you on about George?"

George bowed comically, "I am here to offer my services as travelling companion."

"What? Do you mean it? This is great! But…what about your court?"

"That's the business I had to take care of last night. Cole would never have been able to kill me. He's a good leader and a remarkable thief but the boy is the worst assassin I've ever seen!"

"How terrible for him," Alanna said sarcastically.

"Haven't you wondered why I've been so busy this last month? I've been putting my affairs in order and training Cole to succeed me. We faked my death last night. My court are mourning my death at the cemetery right now…and trying to pick the lock on my coffin to see if there's any valuable possessions in there with 'me'," George finished.

"You're not kidding! You really are coming with me?" Alanna grinned up at George.

"There is one condition though, lass,"

"Anything," Alanna declared.

"You might want to listen to the actual condition first." George said a seriously. Alanna smile faltered a little as she noticed George's sudden nervousness.

"Ask away."

"Well lass, the thing is…this is going to be harder than I thought."

"George, you can ask me anything, I'm just Alanna."

"You're not just Alanna. You're brave, intelligent, witty, impetuous, sometimes infuriating, a brilliant fighter…a lioness at heart and…" George reached out and stroked Alanna's cheek and added softly, "…beautiful."

Alanna felt herself flush involuntarily and her eyes widened in confusion. Where was George going with this, she wondered.

"You're also a Lady but if you cared about the "proper thing" you wouldn't be going on this journey in the first place. That's why I'm hoping that you'll overlook the fact that I'm not a Noble and marry this humble thief."

Alanna's heart began to race as if to catch up with her frantic thoughts and the confusing tangle of her emotions. She remembered her first meeting with George in Delia's room, a heated look on the balcony, a drunken game of cards, a trust that grew stronger the longer she knew him, a knowledge that he would always stand at her back, a friendship that had grown into… love. Alanna didn't know when her feelings had changed but she now knew with certainly that they had.

She had fallen in love with a thief.

George, who was looking increasingly nervous at her continued silence, began to speak again, "Come on, lass. Don't make this any harder; it's difficult enough to ask an ordinary girl to marry you and risking the chance of being slapped. You're not an ordinary girl by any stretch of the imagination, that's why I love you so much that I'd leave everything behind to be with you but we both know that you can do an awful lot more than slap me an-,"

Whatever he had been about to say was lost, as Alanna's mouth had covered his. Her hands crept around his neck and his lowered to her waist. When they drew apart, George gazed down at Alanna in shock. She blushed and looked down. Seeing this George began to smile, "I take it that's a yes then."

{A/N If there're any A/J fans who were still holding thumbs. Sorry. I think most of you figured that it wouldn't be A/J by now, though. I've always been an Alanna/George fan, right from the first time I read the book.

The reason Patricia keeps on being mentioned in the last chapter even though she is a minor character is because I was going to write an extra scene in which Patricia and Tristan meet. But I got lazy, and I was too lazy to take her out of the scenes. Besides, few of you seem to really like Tristan anyway.

Anyway, tell me what you think. Was is a good ending? Too cheesy?

Thanks again for reading this far. I'm almost sad that this is all over.

plotless

I've written a Ron/Hermione short fic for those Ron/Hermione fic. I'll be putting it up next weekend on my livejournal (which is kind bare and boring right now, I've just started it, but I'd appreciate being friended by anyone who also has a journal.)

The address to my journal is on my profile page.