When she found someone had touched her shoulder she looked up at them in a rather still half asleep manner. It took her a moment to realize where she was and who it was who had woken her. Looking around at the half open books littered around her in a half asleep state she looked up at the servant who had woken her, “I…fell asleep” she said stifling a yawn that said she was still very much still tired. “Thank You Gretial, I’ll retire to my room now.” She quickly scooped up the books she had been reading so that Gretial would not question them, and carried them back to her room.

Upon entering her room she found not for the first time that day, that a strange man had entered her room. A man she did not know was asleep peacefully on her couch and she screamed, loudly at that fact. She remembered what Eladon had said about using a hair ribbon to defend herself but she had no idea how to do it. Still she found herself itching to grab something and throw it at him. She was mid way through yelling at the newcomer, “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?” when she saw Eladon sleeping on the floor and she suddenly understood who the man was, she softened her voice , “So you’re the one then…the one who will help me learn?”

Smiling Gretial reached for the books only to stop when the princess reached out and took the books. “oh dear you don’t need to do that. It is our job to put the books away when your done with them.” The way the princess moved with the books made Gertial think there might be something to them that the young princess did not want her father to see. She would have to tell the king that she was doing research in the libraries. She watched the princess go and smiled as she thought about how much she had gowned in the last few years. Walking around the room to pick up what others had left for her she looked back at the door where the princess had walked out.

The scream woke him from a dead sleep and into an alert state. He had not been used to the plush quality of the couch and so had not realized that he had fallen asleep until her scream woke him. His knifes were half drawn when his mind caught up and he sheathed them again. “Princess I am sorry if you were not expecting me but Eladon seemed to think that you needed my aid. Why such a fine lady like you would need me I am not sure.” He spoke quickly knowing that she could at any moment call in the guards, in fact her scream probably had caused them start running this way. Picking up the nearest thing, a pillow, he held it up between them to protect himself from anything that might come flying.

The doors burst open with two guards ready to run through what ever had made their princess to scream. “are you alright my lady?” one of them said as the other leveled his spear at Tommus slowly moving forward to run him through.

The princess had calmed herself but it was too late, the guards where already at her attention. Her father’s guards it seemed where both a blessing and a curse. Today more than anything she was finding it to be a curse. It was curse that she would once more need to placate, for the second time that day, and also both times her fault. Her mother, before she had died, had always warned her that her vivid temper was going to be her downfall. She heaved a heavy sigh, and took to standing between the man and the guards.

Lucky for her, or perhaps it was more lucky for Tomas and there cause, but the one guard she knew quite well. She eyed the man up and tried to appear as tall as she could, which next to the dashingly handsome and tall knight she didn’t compare, “My my Dorien what are you doing up here in the west wing? I thought they had you stationed at the eastern gate.”

“I had my stationed moved to be closer to you princess, there have been rumors of an assault on the castle, now I see that this is correct”

“There is no assault” she said firmly, she knew the next part to be only partially true, but only in its fundimentals “This man is not here to harm me”

The sounds of the princess scream had also woke Eladon but he had reacted at first as he normally did when the sound of a blood curdling scream sounded over him, he slipped into the shadows. Better to say he tired to slip into the shadows. His paws were only halfway into the shadows when the collar tightened around his neck and his mind cleared enough to realize what all was going on and why she might be screaming. Lunging forward he locked his jaws around the shaft of the spear and pulled it down towards the ground and away from Tommus who was now drawing one of his daggers slowly where the guards would not see as he held up the pillow protecting himself with it. The guard not expecting the shadow hound and its formidable weight, yelped and dropped his spear. Seconds latter the pillow flew through the air to hit the closer guard in the face, fallowed by Tommus’ feet. The guard went down and Tommus would have fallowed through with the dagger if not for Eladon’s jaws on his arm that held the dagger.

“damm it Eladon, he attacked me frist!” a soft growl fallowed and he sighed. Looking down he saw the big puppy eyes Eladon was giving him and he growled in frustration. “Fine Eladon, you win this round.” Dropping the dagger he pulled his arm back as Eladon placed his paw down to hold the dagger to the ground. Standing Tommus held out his arm to help the guard up. “I am sorry, and no I am not here for the Princess, I am here because of him!” he said pointing at the shadow hound that had pushed his dagger into the shadows. It was clear that he was upset at Eladon as he saw the blade disappear into the shadows.

“Princess?” the guard said as he slowly stood without the aid of Tommus. “are you sure you are not in danger?”

She watched the scene unfurl and anger flooded through her veins at the sight of all sides, except perhaps Eladon’s. He had handled himself well and the room at the other end seemed less likely to harm each other but there were still sparks of fury in the Princess’ eyes. She stormed over to the guard that had attacked Tommus and glowered, standing at her full height, which granted wasn’t very tall. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!”

She continued to fume and her voice continued to raise, at this point she was fuming and she didn’t care, “DIDN’T I JUST TELL YOU I HAD THINGS UNDER CONTROL! I KNOW ITS YOUR JOB TO PROTECT ME BUT THERE IS NOTHING HERE TO PROTECT ME FROM” she growled but then lowered her voice. She turned on her heel to face Dorien the only guard not involved in the mess, “Take them back to there posts, I have things under control here”

She took a moment and calmed herself some more, but there was still anger in her voice when she now rounded on Tommus, “And You! What where you thinking! You made the situation ten times worse! If Eladon hadn’t been here what might have happened!” She let out a growl and walked over to the pile of books she had dropped and began in an angry manner to clean them up, not saying another word to any of them.

As the Princess voice raised Eladon whimpered and his ears went flat to his head. When he had first been given to her he would have said she was weak and not able to stand up to any buddy but now she was proving that even if she was only a princess she knew what to say to get people to bend to her wishes. Tommus was shrinking back from her rage trying to see if he could find an escape route that would not take him near her or Eladon. It was clear in the lines of his body that he wanted nothing to do with what was going on but he also knew that he was part of the problem. A short growl from Eladon stopped him from trying to go out the nearest window.

“he had weapons and I thought he was going for them.” Was the guards only replay to her, he was trying not to shrink back from her anger but was not doing the best job of it. He had reacted on instinct to the human in her room but had not really thought what it would mean. He had been told by the others that strange things had been happening but a human in her highnesses room was not something that should have happened. Bowing he left the room as quickly as he was allowed to when she dismissed them.

As the guards shut the door behind them as they left the sound of a loud slap echoed through the room and Tommus fell back as he looked up at Eladon now in human form. “what in HELL were you thinking? To draw a dagger on the princess?” his voice was cold yet it seemed to burn Tommus the same way she had done to the guards. Second later he had Tommus up by his shirt collar and up against the wall his eyes red with furry. “I brought you here to teach her not scare her to death. If not for other spells you might have been dead not with the loss of one dagger. And no I am not going to bring that one back for you.” Tommus opened his mouth to complain but then closed it. After a few moments of just standing there with Tommus’ feet off the ground he let him slump to the floor. Turning to the princess he dropped to his knee and bowed. “I am sorry about that Your Highness, I was beyond tired after all that had happened and did not think to have you told.” He tilted his head to the side exposing his neck to her.

She finished picking up the books that had littered the floor and quickly set to putting them into her closet. Out of sight she would resume her study on another day. Right now she was still fuming at the whole lot of them. She could hear Eladon laying in to Tommus, but at the moment she didn’t right care. She knew he’d deserved it, and she let him take the brunt for what he had done. At the end when he came over to apologize to her she let out a deep rooted sigh.

She shook her head at him slow, "no this is partially my fault as well. I fell asleep in the library and I should have realized who it was, it was foolish of me not to know who it was."

She looked at Tommus with a deep calculating look. It was stern but not entirely unkind, but it did hold all the power that the Princess held in those clear blue eyes. After a few moments that would seem like an eternity, she said quite firmly, “I am going to let it go this time, for Eladon’s sake here but you must remember, my guards are trained men, hard men, and will not hesitate to take the life of any man whom they perceive as a threat. You could have died, you would do well to remember that”

“I to should have thought my lady, I knew you were not here when I brought him in and I should have told him before passing out” sighing he wounded how many more times he would be making apologies to her and her family before they got to that perfect balance that happened when two people lived and worked together. “would there be a place that he can stay where he wont be seen by most of the servants but is not here. After that display of your guards I don’t think they will be happy to have him sleeping here.”

The sound of Tommus groaning as he pushed himself up from the floor drew Eladon’s eye. He did not know what he was going to do with him. He was the best person to train her but he also seemed to be a bit more jumpy then he had been when last Eladon had talked to him. He was going to have to find out what was happening to him and the family that he would pull his knife on a young woman that screamed. Tommus snorted at her comment about her guard.

“Princess, they may be trained but they are not trained to deal with someone like me or Eladon. We know how to deal with guards, and those two would have been put down before they could have done anything if I had really wanted to hurt you.” A growl from Eladon brought his hands up and him backing against the wall. “but I was not planning on harming you or your guards unless they actually try to kill me for no reason.” He said quickly.

She laughed, although in a dark sort of humor. She really found none of this even remotely funny, but the irony of the fact that just yesterday she was the second most powerful person in the world, and today she felt she’d been reduced to the meekness of a kitten. The tables had turned and the situation reversed, and somehow she had to take that moment to laugh, or the fear would overtake her, drive her to places she didn’t want to go.

She looked at Eladon for a moment, and contemplated the situation. Where could she put Tommus that he would be for the most part out of the way. She paced around for a moment thinking, “There is a few rooms open in the servants quarters, but we don’t particularly want him seen by most of them.” She was talking mostly to herself, thinking out loud. Suddenly a thought occurred to her, “Let’s put him in the West Wing. Currently the West Wing is not inhabited. It needs a bit of repair towards the furthest end so father evacuated the whole thing. But there are parts of the near end that would do, no one goes down that way.”

It was her turn to snort at him, “The two you dealt with are dolts. Those two are nothing more than a pair of well trained monkeys. However, the third man in the room. That was Dorian. Dorian should be the captain of the guard, he’s been offered the position many times, but has refused. He may not have been able to stop you from harming me, you where too close even for him,” her face darkened for a moment, “but you never would have left that room alive had that happened”

At his last comment about not wanting to harm her or her guard she studied him, truth was she didn’t trust him. The only reason he was still in her rooms and not tossed out to the guard was because of Eladon. Her trust was not an easy thing to earn and so far she was doubtful, but she didn’t say as much. She simply nodded, “I’ll remember those words.”

As Tommus started to protest Eladon spoke again. “ I think that this west wing sounds rather nice and best suited to our needs.” A small sound of disbelieve burst from Tommus mouth causing Eladon to look back at him. It was hard for Eladon not to laugh at the comical look of horror and surprise on Tommus’ face. “it will not be as bad as that dump that you call a home is, and I bet if you ask really nicely the princess might, MIGHT” he held out his index finger to make a point. “get you some supplies to fix it up so you feel safe. You’re going to have to be very careful about what you do during the day though. Also” he said as he looks cockeyed at the princess. “it might be a good place to do some training of you once I have made sure the area will not fall out from under your feet. Is there a way that you might be able to go there without your guards? I have seen how they seem to fallow you everywhere, it would be terrible if they came barging in when one of us go flying in a fight.”

“hay that dump as you so kindly called it is my home. As in I own it, not some landlord that has been acting like they will do the work but don’t.” the pride in his rundown shack was quite evident in his tone of voice as Tommus spoke. His eyes glittered with a challenge for anyone to contradict what he said. “I don’t like working on places where I have no real stack in the property.” Eladon turned away from Tommus, towards the princess as he hid the snicker that came up. He knew that no matter what by the time Tommus finely left the west wing the place would be much safer even if it did not look that safe. There also might be three to five booby traps in the end. “

“You may think that Dorian is ready to deal with me or Eladon but the truth is we are trained to fight dirty and your men are not taught human street fighting. Sadly it is one of the many shortcomings that your family has had since long before any of us were born.” Tommus bowed to her as he stepped closer to them. “humans may be short lived, and yes we as a mob will die out long before we can get into the castle if we do a direct assault, yet there are many ways that one of us can cut down a squad of your kind that is not ready for a human.” Eladon nodded in agreement with what Tommus had to say.

The princess rolled her eyes after a moment of the two of them bantering back and forth and placed her hands on her hips. She stared pointedly at both of them. “I need to clue you guys in on something here, and we need to set something straight” she said it huffy like but not entirely as if she was truly angry, mostly just miffed, “You are asking me to trust you guys with my life. Of all things that is an entirely hard thing to ask for and an equally hard thing for me to give, and yet I agreed. But trust goes both ways here, how can you expect me to put my neck on the line in front of either of you if you don’t trust me. The west wing has about” she paused and thought about it briefly, “the was wing has 20 rooms attached to it. Of those, only 6 were damaged enough to be inhabitable. Father only evacuated the rest as a safety precaution, nothing else. The structure in the rooms closest to the east, are virtually perfect.”

She cooled her head for a minute, and thought over this question. It wasn’t going to be as easy as he was thinking but she shook her head, “I’ll have to speak with Dorian.” Before he could protest she held up her hand, “He won’t argue with me. If nothing else I can talk him into escorting me alone. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but he can be as stubborn as I can sometimes”

Alandriel snorted in a disbelieving manner when Tommus had said Dorian wasn’t trained, not only had he trained in her personal guard, but elsewhere as well. However, she said nothing. It wasn’t worth the argument on the manner. Instead she stepped towards the door before turning back to them, “Let me show you to the West wing, and then I’ll need to speak with Dorian in private.”

“your highness, what you think of as safe and what I think of as safe are two different things. A place may be safe to walk around in and dance in, yet it could be so open to attack that no one could properly defend it.” Tommus said as Eladon tried to silence him with hand gestures and shushing motions. “I would not mind to look at the rooms that are livable.” Bowing to her a cold smile crossed his face directed at Eladon.

“what he means to say it that he would fortify any place that he moved into before he could call it safe.” Eladon said hoping that she would not take officen to what Tommus was saying. It seemed that it had been a long time since last he had been with Tommus. So much time that it seemed that he had changed so much. “hopefully he will agree with our plans and not take them to your father. I would hate for your father to decide to put his sword through me so soon after we calmed him down last time.”

“yah and maybe we can teach him a thing or two about fighting humans.”Tommus said dryly as he looked at the beds of his nails in disinterest. Eladon knew for a fact that Tommus was interested in what was going on, he was only fainting disinterested. Maybe he would call him on it later but at this moment it would be better if they stopped sounding like an old set of war time lovers then cousins.

“what ever we have to do to keep him from getting to her.” Was Eladon reply before he turned to fallow her out the door. “lead on My Princess.”

[“your highness, what you think of as safe and what I think of as safe are two different things. A place may be safe to walk around in and dance in, yet it could be so open to attack that no one could properly defend it.”] She gave him a cold piercing look at that moment, this man was so convinced her father’s palace, one of the great armies of the world, wasn’t safe. She was finding more and more that she didn’t care for this Tommus much, but as she did trust Eladon and Eladon trusted him, she would in the very least give him a shot. She let the matter drop and said no more.

As the two of them continued to bicker amongst themselves she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, devoutly resolved to neither comment nor put up with it. She would wait patiently until the two of them were done and ready to move forward. She did however role her eyes as she did so, these two were becoming tiresome. Sure enough, Eladon soon followed her out and she nodded slightly but there was a raised eyebrow question that she did not voice. “The abandoned wing is this way”

As they walked she fell silent, thinking about the training she was soon to overcome and the man would try and harm her. Soon enough however they reached their destination. To most people the wing would seem amazing, but to those living in the palace could point out the areas that were highly in need of repair. If you continued down the wing the damages became more and more apparent event to those who didn’t live there ending in 4 rooms that were not even safe to walk amongst. She paused however on the end of the hallway that was fairly inhabitable. “Take your choice of any of these,” she waved at the rooms nearest to them, “however stay away from that end, It isn’t safe,” she paused briefly but looked at Tomas with a hard stare, and there was a slight disdain in her voice as she said, “by anyone’s standards”

The moment she said that the end was not safe Eladon could see the look in Tommus’ eyes and he shivered. This was not going the way he had hoped that it would. Tommus was going to tested her at every chance he got and it was going to come down to Eladon to protect him from her or her guards. “I think it might be best if we start with one of the ones in the middle.” Tommus gave him a look of disappointment at being stopped from trying the rooms out on the end.

“are you sacred that I am going to kill her in them?” he asked Eladon, his voice full of sarcasm that did not reach his eyes. “I was not going to harm her…” Eladon could almost hear the ‘much’ that was not said.

“we can talk later about the rooms at the end Tommus, but for now I think it would be best if we kept to the middle or closer rooms, they are what she is used to, its not like she is going to end up in the Mire any time soon.” He hoped that she never ended up in the Mire. If there was one place he did not want to have to protect her in it was the mire. Walking over to the nearest door Tommus yanked it opened, as if he expected it to be hard to open, and popped his head in before looking back at her.

“this one will do.” Tommus voice was dull as he spoke. “any of them will do if your going to be putting it that way Eladon.” Sighing Eladon held out his hand to the princess to lead her into the room. Inside the room stacks of chairs and tables had been set aside, almost as if the servants’ were using the room to store all the other furnishings for the wing.