[h3][center]Lady Sara[/center][/h3] [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/Idxrd1V.jpg[/img][/center] “He has to let me.” Sara’s voice strained like a hound at the end of its leash, barking high and proud, with confidence; perhaps a forced confidence, but with confidence nonetheless. “He [I]must[/I].” Alycia looked up to her elder sister, awed by her faith, but with a far more realistic outlook herself. “No he don’t. If he let’s you, I wanna’ go too, Sara. It’s not fair if you go and I don’t.” The elder girls eyes narrowed, shaking her head as soon as the words breached her seven year old sister’s mouth, “No, no, no! You’re not going!” Her voice pitched in disbelief, “I am [I]not[/I] watching you. Absolutely not. No way.” “You won’t hafta’, Sara! Papa’ll watch me. I don’t want to be here ‘lone.” She pleaded back, brushing a hand against her freckled nose. “Please?” “Father isn’t going.” Sara answered simply, turning away from the child to face a mirror, checking one last time that she was presentable. From her spot cross-legged on the floor, Alycia began to laugh, “Now I know he ain’t gonna’ let you!” Annoyed, Sara flicked her eyes from Alycia’s direction, smoothed her skirt, and made way for the tent-flap door. Behind her, she could hear Alycia calling after her, though much to her own relief, the child didn’t follow. The last thing she needed was for her to be pleading too. Alycia was a child, of seven years and her father had every right to keep her away. Sara, however, was nearly full grown, and it was time, past due time if you asked her, that she’d be allowed to go to such occasions; alone. -- When Sara returned to the small tent shared by the two girls, her eyes had been watering, growing red and agitated, but she wore a smile all the same. With a handkerchief, she wiped her eyes clean, using her reflection to make sure everything was back in place. It’d take time for the swelling to go down, but Sara had time, and she looked toward her little sister with a Cheshire-grin. “He’s going to let me.” “Then why are ya’ crying?” The girl asked, concern playing across her face. She was answered with a small, guilty, smile. “Well, he wasn’t going to let me at first. He was quite adamant in being against it, but-…” “What’s an ada-mant?” Her sister interjected, now smiling along with Sara, eager to hear how she’d persuaded their father. “Adamant? Adamant is a word that means-…like, strong; unwilling to change.” Sara explained willingly, nodding along as she often forgot she was speaking with Alycia, who was still fairly green in the way of words. “Oh,” was her only answer, before the child drifted to silence, a cue for Sara to finish. “But, I changed his mind. I said ‘I‘ve spent my childhood on a battlefield, it is time I spend my womanhood at Court.’ And I-…I know I shouldn’t do this, and I scold you for doing it all the time, but this is very important to me, Lycia- I started crying. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear, but I just started crying. So then he said I could go.” Her grin once more reemerged from that brief guilty look, “I’m to be escorted there, which is fair enough. Honestly, they might have thought me strange, a Lady come alone.” Wonder filled the younger girls eyes, both happy, and jealous for her sister, “When I’m old a’nough, can I come with you too?” Sara nodded eagerly, grinning full-on now as she floated toward her chest, waving for Alycia to follow, “Of course, but help me figure out what I should wear. I wish I had something new, but I suppose any of it will be new to them!” -- [center][h3]Lady Alycia[/h3][/center] [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/XGnEljd.jpg[/img][/center] Though it was evening, and both girls were better off in their beds, Sara could hardly catch a wink of sleep. Alycia too suffered from this restlessness, mostly because just as the younger girl closed her eyes and pulled the covers over her head, Sara whispered to her through the darkness. Then she was forced to sit up, sleepy eyed and groggy. With only a dimmed and dying lantern to guide her eyes, Alycia stared over toward Sara, who sat up in her nightgown, brown hair like hay upon her head. Both her pale legs were crossed, and her hands rested in the hollow that was her lap. Something about her posture, how she leaned forward, how her grey eyes seemed overly wide- or was that just the reflection of the lamp playing tricks?- made Alycia realize there was only mischief to follow if she didn’t go back to sleep. But the girl was quite the fan of mischief, so she grinned widely, and sunk her bare feet to the floor, “What do ya’ wanna do, Sara?” The older girl stood too, stripping quickly from her nightgown, into the dress she’d been wearing hours ago, “I don’t know, but I don’t want to stay here. How about we take a quick walk, no trouble with that, hm?” It was unlike her to suggest something even so seemingly harmless. Sara was the good one. Their father said everyday he found a new grey hair, but that was always from Alycia, because Alycia was trouble. Sara was calm, and mannerly, but there was nothing calm about her excited behavior now. She needed to do something, something that might exhaust her, because otherwise, she was never getting to sleep. Alycia changed quickly, having Sara button up the back of her dress, and she tied the lace of hers. Soon both sisters were matched identically in dresses and cloaks, one far taller than the other, but they appeared in their shroud just as much sisters any. Outside, they could hear the rain, let up a bit from the downpour of earlier, but still continuing with its steady beat against the canvas of their tent. Sara had no real destination in mind, nor an excuse for why they were out, but she strode through the pot-holed street with purpose. What purpose, she didn’t know, but only hoped that if they acted as if they belonged, no on would care to question the two of them.