Knight Me

Chapter 2

I raced away from my mom and Lady Ethel as fast as possible.  Sparrow's feet pounded the ground as fast as I had ever heard them go.  I knew I was going to be late!  I couldn't let Kay down!  I kept my head down as branches whipped through my hair and pulling at my dress. 

"Come on, Sparrow!  Faster, girl!" I yelled, patting her neck.  Finally we were spat out of the thick woods into the little meadow where Kay stood.  He was leaning against a large oak tree, watching me with amusement in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Kay!" He wouldn't believe what I had been through in the last twenty four hours.

He smiled up at me, "Don't worry about it." 

Kay led Sparrow over to a tree where a large, black horse was also tied too.  I dismounted quickly and walked over to the stallion.  The hose looked at me warningly, but then placed his nose right in my hand.  Kay laughed, "He likes you.  Normally Lightening hates everyone."

"How flattering," I joked.

"Let's get started, I've been waiting a while."

"I said I'm sorry, Kay-" I started, but he shook his head jokingly.  I walked up to him and said, "Let's work on strength today."

He eyed me with careful eyes, but didn't ask questions.  I pulled my dress up to my knee, revealing two pieces of rope that were wrapped around my leg.  I untied them and handed one to Kay, keeping the other one.  I held up my rope to show Kay how to climb a tree, and he shook his head, "You can't climb in a dress, Elaine.  Wouldn't that be a suicide mission?"

"Oh, I've climbed trees in a dress many a times," I said, rolling my dress up to mid thigh.  His eyes widened a litlle and teased, "Tisk, tisk, Elaine, how unladylike!"

I rolled my eyes, wrapped the wrope around the trunk, and started climbing.  I got about ten feet off the ground and looked down, only to catch Kay looking at my butt.  "Kay!" I scolded.

He blushed, saying nothing, but started to climb the tree neighboring mine.  I let out a huff, and fell to the bottom again.  He tried twice more before letting out a frustrated sigh, "I don't like this anymore!"

"You're such a wuss!" I teased, "Don't pull on the rope so hard! 

He finally did as I told him, and advanced about twelve feet.  He let out a triumphant laugh and kept going, finally passing me up.  I frowned and climbed faster.  We reached the tops of our trees at the same time, but Kay swore that he won.  I just laughed it off and said it didn't matter.  We sat up in the trees for a while, just talking.

"So why were you late today?" Kay asked in a light tone.  I could tell he wouldn't let the subject drop any time soon.

"I just got caught up in some family issues."

"What kind of family issues?" he asked, being a nuissance.

"Why does it matter to you, Kay?" I snapped accidentally.  He looked up at me surprised and started talking really fast, "I'm sorry, Elaine, what did I say?  I'm sorry, I was just curious, that's all."

"No," I said, "It's not your fault, I didn't mean to snap at you, that was bad."

He paused for a minute without talking.  That wasn't very Kay like.  He finally spoke, "Are you alright, Elaine?  I can sense you're unhappy.  And don't lie to me, I don't think I could take it if you did."

I turned my head away and whispered, "We have seven weeks, Kay."

"What?" He reached over to my branch and grabbed my hand, "Why seven weeks?  What's going on, Elaine?"