"So, do you have anything you'd like to tell me?" Kaladin asks, his booming voice echoing through the trees. We stopped for a few hours for the night, and he had taken me aside, out of earshot of the others.

Jedediah had sent me a look of encouragement before I was dragged away. I fold my arms and glance up at him. "Alright, I'm in trouble with the law. So what?"

He furrows his brow and frowns. "As we all are." I think he is going to ask how then that the prince did not recognize me and take me in. But instead, he continues his questioning. "Do you know anything of this missing girl?"

I hold his gaze. "No."

He gives a skeptical look. "And what about that horse then, that beast? You didn't steal him, did you?"

"I caught him." I say, giving the most simple answer I can. I am surprised that he accepts my confusing replies.

He folds his arms formidably and looks down at me with ice blue eyes. "If you are on my team now, you will have to be honest with me. I need to know that I can trust you."

"You can. So long as you don't expect me to tell you everything about my past, because I won't. Just know that you can trust me, and that I am the hardest worker you have ever met."

He almost smiles. "We'll see. You start tomorrow, so rest that shoulder up, boy."

I nod. "Yes, sir." I am so relieved that he took his questions as I answered them, instead of prying. I am not sure I have the strength to fight again today.

-

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-

-

My head is snapped to the side as someone's fist collides with my face. Birds sing in the trees and light filters through the canopy onto the pine needles, warming me while I lay face down in the dirt. I push myself up on my forearms, and spit blood while rolling out of the way before I can be pushed back down again.

Adolin stands above me, Jed, Syl and Kaladin watching a few yards away as I quarrel with him. He comes at me with his closed fist once again, but I duck just in time to move behind him and I throw my own, hitting him somewhere on his jaw.

I move out of the way quickly, so he cannot hit me as he flies around angrily. Because I am so small, I can move faster than anyone else here, including Syl, as I am lighter than she is. I have to persuade Lasreal to stay where he is by the tree line and not intervene. He hadn't been as angry yesterday when I fought, because he knew that Jedediah isn't a threat to me. But Adolin? Let's say that this is an honest fist fight.

Kaladin had us take off our belts and lay our weapons down so we wouldn't kill each other, and he thought it would be a good idea to have us fight our issues out so we would be a better team once they are resolved. Fat chance of that.

Adolin charges at me, aiming for my waist to knock me down. I waited for him to get closer to me before I crouch down, push off the ground and launch myself into his gut. He falls back with a thud in the dirt, and I straddle him to punch him a few times in the face.

His head rolls to the side and I climb off when he stops moving. I thought that he passed out, but of course, he wants me to think that. Silly me. He grabs a fistful of my shirt and drags me back down, throwing me to the ground and hitting me once in the jaw.

I raise my forearms to block the rest of his punches, managing to kick him as well. This seems to piss him off, and his blows rain down harder on my arms. "You stupid Short arse! I'll rip your fecking head off!"

I can't help but laugh through the pain, despite the slick blood running down my nose, lip and eyebrow, and my eyelid is nearly swelling shut. I really am a ballsy arse. Now I can see why I infuriate him, because he's the one who is normally the person to laugh at pain and danger. I learned this from Jed as we fell asleep last night, so that is why he has a problem with me.

I manage another snort of laughter as his face twists with more anger, enraged that I would find this funny. I stop laughing abruptly, taking him off guard and swing an arm around to deck him in the chin. He flips back, landing in the dirt. This time, he's out.

I push him the rest of the way off of me, and panting, wipe the dripping crimson liquid off of my chin with my sleeve. I really need a new shirt, I think, looking down at myself. The tunic used to be a magnificent white before I met these curs, but it is now yellowed with stains of every kind, but mostly blood.

Somehow, my shoulder had not split back open this round, and I almost can't feel it through the merged pain of my stinging and badly bruised forearms.

I glance down at Adolin, who's beautiful face is horribly bloodied as well, and I lean back down to smack him hard. Blood sprays from we're it had been resting on his cheek, and a few small droplets hit and stain my shirt even further, mingling with my own.

He moans and opens his eyes a bit, then groans even louder when he sees that I beat him, and am grinning.

I smack him again good-humouredly and grab his arm, half hauling him to his feet.

He rocks a little, and I think he might either wail my face in or fall over again. But he does neither of those, an instead slaps his hand on the back of my neck, pulling my forehead to his affectionately. I hear him laugh. "Thank you, Short arse, I needed to be beaten. You've taught me a lesson, brother." There is a genuineness in his voice and eyes as he speaks.

I grab the back of his neck as well, slightly confused but relieved, smiling as our blood drips on each others clothes and in our hair.

Grinning with our arms on each other's shoulders, we turn to face the others. You could have heard a feather drop on the fallen pine needles.

Syl looks like she witnessed a murder and resurrection. "What the hell just happened?" She asks, her jaw half open in shock that we are getting along.

I see the smallest smile on Kaladin's face, but when I look at him directly, it's gone. Maybe I had imagined it. Adolin and I look at each other with matching open toothed smiles and laugh, slapping each other on the backs.

To my surprise, he is careful not to disrupt my shoulder and cause me more pain. Maybe we are friends now. It would seem that he and I would see things eye to eye now.

-

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-

Jed shakes his head in amazement as I wash my face off in a stream that flows near our resting place.

"You're insane, Lyra." He whispers so we cannot be heard, even though the others are a hundred yards or so away.

I dry my face on my untucked shirt and look at him. "That, I cannot disagree with." Looking at my broken reflection in the flowing creek, I see that my brow and lip are split, though I am glad to see the swelling in my eye had gone down with the cool water. An ugly bruise forms on one of my cheekbones, and I see a small laceration in the middle of it were the taut skin must have split on impact.

"He should have been able to kick your arse!" He says softly, baffled. "I took it easy on you when we fought, that's why you won. But Adolin? He was out for your blood!"

I smile, face aching. "And he got it."

Jed throws his hands up like I am an impossible child. I climb to my feet, swaying a little as my aching muscles and burning shoulder scream. I close my eyes and breathe through my nose to clear my head, trying to force away the nausea in my belly.

Jed stands behind me, unable to see my face, and by then, I am able to turn around to face him with a cocky grin. "And you would have lost either way. My brother taught me well."

He shakes his head and chuckles fondly. "Did he teach you to be such a cocky bastard as well?"

"You know it," I say, punching him in the arm. I think about telling him that Lance was part of the company we ran into the night before, but something stops me.

He smiles fondly, and rubs his shoulder as if it hurt where I hit him. Adolin comes crashing through the trees with the grace of a grizzly bear, and as he gets nearer, I dip my barefoot in the water, and splash him with it.

He opens one eye to look at me. "Aye!"

I laugh. "You look like crap, to say the least."

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "And you look not much better!"

"Better than you!"

"Do not." Even though he is twenty or so, he acts like he is fourteen with how he argues. I splash more water at him.

He starts towards me, and I nonchalantly hide behind Jedediah's big frame as he kicks water back up at me.

Jed turns, seeing his wet shirt back, and Adolin laughs hysterically, then takes a step back with wide eyes, as if realizing that he made a big mistake. Jed's stone face melts as he chuckles and reaches an arm out to pat him on the back, but then grabs a fistful of his shirt and hauls him into the water.

We all start to laugh and splash each other with water, and Adolin grabs me by the shirt and throws me down into the creek with him. Cold rushes over my head as I quickly come back up in the waist high water.

I am grateful for my over sized shirt and chest bindings as goose flesh rises on my skin, and I quickly bolt out of the water. I hug my body with my arms, crossing them over my chest, hands stuffed into my armpits.

Adolin looks at me, wiping drops from his brow. "What's the matter, Short arse, scared of a little water?" He teases.

I swallow and manage a meek laugh. "It's too fecking cold!"

Jed looks at me with concern, and a slight blush colors his cheeks as he realized why I am hugging myself, and he averts his gaze, rubbing the back of his wet head awkwardly. Someone walks up behind me as I back up to head back to the camp, and I bump into a hard chest.

I immediately jump back when I see Kaladin, his blue eyes irritated. He looks up to the other boys in the creek. "Quit Fecking around and come tack your horses. We are moving on again."

"Why?" Adolin asks, splashing through the water back to the dirt of the ground. "I though those soldiers weren't a problem to us."

"They aren't." He says, then looking down at me. "But someone needs clothes and we need supplies as well, so we are heading to the nearest town to restock."

Once we get back to the camp, I immediately find my cloak and tie it around me, grateful that I hadn't had it on when I got soaked. I do as previously instructed and saddle Lasreal, and this time I am the one waiting for the others.

I mount and watch as Jed stomps on the fire to flatten it out again, before kicking dirt over it. So he is the one covering our tracks. I can't help but think it could be because of me. He, for some reason, wants to keep my secret.

"Why don't you just take your shirt off if it's so cold?" Adolin asks as he pulls his over his head to expose a hard abdomen. "The sun is warm on your back."

I give him a pointed look. "It isn't in the shade, scholar."

He shrugs, ignoring the name I called him. "It doesn't bother me, anyways."

The rest mount their horses and we ride off at a slow trot into the trees towards the nearest town. With the trees as thick as they are, I don't have to worry about fighting Lasreal for his head, since he knows that he can't go much faster without knocking me off.

I shiver as we ride on, the warm mid-summer breeze unwelcoming in the shade of the trees. My hair falls clear out of its holder, as it must have come loose in the water, and I drop the reins to reach behind me to find it. No luck. I look behind us to see if it fell, but I don't see it. I sigh and run my fingers through my wet, jaw length hair. At least it will dry quicker now.

Adolin looks at me funny, and I shoot him a glare and he quickly looks away.

Jedediah also peeks over at me through the trees.

My face heats up. "Stop it!" I whisper fervently, terrified that Kaladin will look back and see me with my hair down, but the horses hooves on twigs and leaves mask the sound.

He was right, I should have cut it shorter, but I was reluctant to because it would take ages to grow back if I did. Call me vain, but I did plan on becoming a girl again in my lifetime.

Syl drops her pony back a little, and throws something at me. I lean over to catch it, and almost fall off doing so, but manage to pull myself back up using my bad arm. It's a piece of cloth.

I look at her gratefully and drop Lasreal's reins again to pull my hair back at the nape of my neck.

She knew that losing my string almost blew my cover, as I knew, that my dark hair is long enough to frame my face and give me a feminine appearance. That was close.

As we ride a little farther on, it became apparent that we weren't going to be finding any more soldiers, and someone starts to sing softly. It take me a moment to realize that it is Kaladin. I never would have guessed that he was the singing type, and a good one at that!

It isn't a song that I recognize, but Adolin and Jed soon join in, creating a hauntingly beautiful harmony to the slow beat of our horse's hooves. When they had finished, I find myself wishing that they would sing again, but by the smile on Syl's face, I imagine that they rarely do it to begin with.

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Kind of a fuller chapter, hope you enjoyed!

~A.