-Quick Addition to Crown Duel Book- By: Wake Robin

(This was for a creative writing assignment for school. Enjoy & review! – I know it's really short, sorry!)

Disclaimer: Crown Duel By: Sherwood Smith ….need I say more?

Words were no longer possible, but I hardly noticed. The room had begun to revolve with gathering speed. I lost my footing and started to pitch forward, but before I could land on my face, strong hands caught my shoulders and righted me.

I blinked up into a pair of very dark eyes. "You're not well," said Savona. "I will escort you back to the Residence."

I hiccupped, then made a profound discovery. "I'm drunk," I said and, as if to prove it, was sick all over Lady Tamara's exquisite carpet.

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"Not exactly the usual response to a knight in shining armor," Savona joked, loud enough for all the ladies in the room to hear.

He crossed over the nice present I had displayed over the carpet and scooped me into his arms. I groaned and he was lucky to escape a repeat of my heaving activity.

"Well, ladies, I fear your time with Lady Meliara has come to a close," He told the others. "We bid you farewell. Oh and Tamara, next time, it'd be wise to have care with the potency of your punch. We wouldn't want to taint innocence with ignorance."

Tamara, I saw, burned with color, as Savona advised bluntly with the Court's flair and sting. The others frowned, as Savona had earlier, looking at me and I knew, even in my drunken stupor, that I had received what others would call a social falling. Disgraced, I closed my eyes, hiding from the spinning room and eyes filled with disgust, as I turned my head toward Savona's chest.

"May we p-please go," I requested softly to him.

He held me tighter to him and left with me in his arms, as if it was the most casual thing in the world and I was just a lady in distress and not a social disgrace. I was thankful that he was there, but sorry that he had to help like this in the first place. I feared tomorrow, the cuts and snubs that were bound to follow this humiliation. I worried for Bran and Nee's wedding. I didn't want my ruined reputation, ruin their glorious day.

My life in Court was in shambles now. It would be difficult to survive the days until the wedding. I wondered if I could last for Bran's sake, staying in Athanarel and not returning to home, my beloved Tlanth. How I wished, during that seemingly long and dismal walk back to the Residence, that I was not just a simple rustic Countess. I wished I had known that even in the supposed civilized society at Court that there existed the same steel fanged traps, which had pierced my ankle in those terrible days of the past. Except these are in the mouths of women like Tamara and there're no stingflowers to warn anyone, I thought to myself.

I sighed softly, thinking, why do I never see the traps and how do I always get hurt from them as of late. I doubt I'll return from this as a heroine, like before. Miracles don't happen twice, I cynically thought.

Now that I reflect on it, it's funny how things turned out and how wrong I was. I suppose I have no future as a prophet.