Disclaimer: No matter how much I would like to, I don't own any of Tortall or characters from there, they belong to Tamora Pierce. All other made-up characters are mine!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
Was it always like this? The insults, the degrading, the suffocating feeling? No, it was not. Once it had been all gifts, compliments, and hugs. But somehow it had changed, the way my stepmother and I were. She had once asked me if I was scared of my Mother, I had said yes. Now I realize I'm not scared of my mother, but of her, very, very scared. No matter what I do there is always something wrong with it, always a painful name to go with it, and always a feeling of tears starting to well up in my eyes. Tears were not to be shed though, she did not like tears, she said I was faking. Always in my mind I asked her, How can these tears not be real, when you have hurt me so much? If I had ever said that to her though the verbal torture would have gone on longer, I always stood, straight as a post, staring straight into her eyes, willing myself to not feel like an unimportant life form.
There was no fighting back. And there probably never will be.
Keiran's dreams were unnaturally different from her usually dreamless sleep. The tallest woman Keiran had ever seen, with perfectly white skin, emerald eyes, and full red lips had come up to her. The woman's black, snaky locks of hair hanging loosely below her shoulders.
"Keiran," the woman said at last, "why are you not happy with your life? Why do you pine for what you read in your books?" Her voice was soft and husky, like wind blowing trough the treetops.
"My life is misery, I lie to everyone I love to keep my stepmother from hurting me. My life feels like it's crumbling through my fingers, never stopping, but it keeps becoming more and more meaningless,"
"You have hard choices coming, think wisely of what you decide. And as for your books, you will not need them to hide from the world for awhile,"
The next morning Keiran woke up to find that she did not know where she was. More importantly she could not see where she was all that well either. Her glasses were gone. Not that, that was too much of a problem, but she did kind of need them to see things that were more than a meter away. Suddenly Keiran was jolted out of her thoughts…
"Thank goodness your finally awake, Kel and Dom are back!" said a short girl who looked to be about twelve, a year younger than Keiran.
"Huh? Kel and Dom? Who're they?" Keiran asked, obviously bewildered.
"Oh my gosh, how could you have forgotten the people who might become your parents? Did you hit your head?" whispered the girl, as if talking louder would injure Keiran's memory more.
"Parents? What? Who are you? Where am I anyway?" Keiran spluttered quickly, very confused.
"Do you remember now?" the girl asked Keiran after she had given her a strong clout on her head.
Instantly Keiran's head swam with memories she had never seen before, they fought with the ones she already had, taking over completely. She was an orphan of Tortall. Keladry and Domitan of Masbolle were thinking about adopting her. She wanted to be a knight. Her best friend in the world was named Linette.
"Oh…, yeah, I don't know what was wrong with me…" Keiran replied, rubbing her head as she failed to notice her vision was clearer than it had been in years.
"Well, get dressed because breakfast is going to start soon!" Keiran smiled as she watched Linette scamper off, probably to go convince the cooks to put extra cinnamon in the porridge.
Keiran pulled a small wooden box out from under her bed. Inside it was one light blue dress, three breeches and tunics, some underclothes, and a small bound book filled with drawings of famous female warriors. Someday I'll put a picture of myself in there, Keiran thought as she pulled on some light tan breeches and a pale green tunic. Once satisfied with how she looked Keiran raced down to breakfast.
"Karen, what are you wearing those old clothes for? Do you want everyone to think you're a boy?" complained the Head Mistress as soon as she noticed what Keiran was wearing.
"Who is this Karen you speak of? My name is Keiran – KYER-IN, got it?" Keiran laughed as she started to bolt down her porridge, as per usual Linette had made sure she had gotten extra cinnamon.
"Karen, Keiran is a boys name… and slow down on the porridge or you'll choke!" In response to this Keiran started to pantomime choking.
"Ugh… I can't… breath…" she said as she held her hands to her neck and fell backwards off the table.
"KAREN! STOP IT!"
"Fine, fine, no need to yell at that mysterious Karen person, Mistress," Keiran replied, a grin on her face as she sat back up at the table and finished her porridge.
Authors Note: So what do you think? Please don't flame me, this is my first fanfic, but if you REALLY must flame I guess its okay… I'm not posting the second chapter until I get at LEAST 1 review. MWAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!