A chapter in which Wyn starts to look like a page

I hope you don't mind being attacked by stories... =P Oh yeah, and I dreamed I had 93 followers last night... awesome dream.... =D Anyway, onward, stories!! =D

* * *

I smiled. "Thankfully, I've thought it all out. There's an old family friend of ours who has a young son--William, by name--that's just starting out for the crusades tomorrow. We'll detain his page, I'll take the page's place, and viola! I'm in the Middle East! It shouldn't be that hard to find Lochinvar."

Walt gave me a look like "hello, it's the Middle East! You're going to get lost. Or killed." Then he finally cried, "Hello, it's the Middle East! You're going to get lost. Or killed."

I sighed. "I'll be fine. Now, are you going to help me, or not?"

Walt sighed, too. "Fine. Let's go."

* * *

"Ready?" I whispered to Walt.

He groaned. "Are you sure we really want to do this? Look at the size of him!"

I rolled my eyes. "Just lock the outhouse door. It's not going to be that hard. And he's never even going to see you."

"I don't see how locking the page inside of the outhouse is going to detain him," Walt muttered under his breath.

I glared at him. "You got any better ideas?"

He sighed. "OK. Fine."

I stayed behind the tents of finery set up in the castle's courtyard. We'd been here since sunrise, having hidden away inside of a peasant's wagon without his knowledge. When the peasant had stopped the wagon, we'd jumped out and hidden behind the tent here and hadn't moved. (Well, that wasn't entirely true. Walt had "borrowed" some cheese and bread. And then I'd gotten bored so I'd gone and looked at the horses. But no one saw me. Honest.)

I glanced around the side of the tent. Walt was moving towards the wooden building that both of us knew was the outhouse. Good. Everything was going according to plan. I fingered my long brown hair. Now I needed to finish the plan.

I'd already commandeered one of my father's old swords and an old page's outfit from the armory back at my own castle. Now I looked like a page all except for my long hair. I'd delayed cutting it as long as I could. But now it was time.

I pulled the dagger out of the sheath on my boot and held it up to my hair.

"No turning back," I whispered.

It fell like a long brown waterfall.

Walt hurried around the side of the tent, breathless with excitement. His eyes gleamed as he whispered, "I did it! He won't be coming out of there for a really long time." He paused. "So it's done."

I fingered my chopped hair. "Yeah." I managed a wan smile. "Thanks for all you've done, friend."

He nodded.

And, at that moment, I realized that I might never see Walt again. There were a million things that could go wrong--SIr William could realize that I was a girl, and Lady Wyn no less; I could be killed; and a million other things. I shook my head. I couldn't think about them.

Right now I had to remember that the hardest part of my plan was still to come...