--Sar gets captured when his platoon is attacked by a mysterious wizard and his minions.

--Thana meets Brendan.

--Thana and Brendan get engaged.

--The kingdom finds out about the attack and Sar's disappearance.

--Thana becomes pregnant by Brendan.

--Sar returns.

--King Diancecht dies, placing Sar on the throne.

--Sar begins his tyrannic rule.

--Sar sends Brendan off on an impossible quest to earn Thana.

--Brendan is killed in the quest.

--Thana is kept in a tower until the birth of her baby.

--Thana's child is exposed.

--Sar gives Thana to a rich King or merchant just as tyrannical for the sake of alliance.

--Thana is beat and heavily opressed by her new husband.

--Thana runs away.

--Thana travels the thick forest of her husband's land in despair.

--Thana stumbles upon a band of rebels some years later.

--Thana joins the rebels

--Thana meets a new love.

--Thana is named leader of the rebel armies.

--Thana discovers her son alive.

--Thana marries the man she met in the rebel armies.

--Thana confronts Sar and kills him and the evil wizard.

--Thana is named Queen of Tisloc.

Now according to instructions, I am supposed to write the story backwards, but the plot line was supposed to be simple, so instead of starting at the very end I am going to start near the middle and go backwards at the event "--Sar gives Thana to a rich King or merchant just as tyrannical for the sake of alliance." Sorry 'bout the mistake before domy, you must have thought I was trying to be a real smart alec lol. I wasn't, I'm just blonde ^-^

Thana's emerald eyes stared hard at King Quinlon, fierce, narrowed, and unblinking. Her defiance was clear in the rigid way she stood before him, as a gift from her brother to form the alliance. She didn't care what happened to her anymore. Her love was dead and her child as well, she hadn't even been allowed to know its sex, let alone see it, before Sylvanus, her brother, had sent it out to be exposed in the chill winter air.

He had ceased being Sar to her, the affectionate name she bestowed on him as a young girl. His betrayal festered in her gut and heart like a twisted blade she had to strive to ignore less she sink into despair yet again. Even now she stood before this King with his dark eyes that had her nervous for the glint of danger and malice she saw in them. He had been slighted and he knew it. He sat, still as a mountain in his throne, his massive body three times her size and all muscles knotted with angry tension. Outwardly, though, his hands were steady, as was his gaze. He droned through the formalities with a dagger's edge to his booming voice that only Thana seemed to notice, his accent thick, and stilted.

Despite his feeling of insult, he pledged alliance to Tisloc, and King Sylvanus Darius Xavier Diancecht, and announced to the court that his wedding to her would take place in two days. The four Tisloc Knights, serving as her guard, bowed and left the room to begin their journey to report to the King. Only one of them glanced back at her, his face slack, his brows furrowed with worry for the Princess.

Quinlon gave more orders, and she was taken away, out of the throne room and down a seemingly endless hall. Her footsteps echoed hollowly on the walkway, matching the feeling in each heart beat. The air shrieked with the metal clamping boots of her escorts. She didn't even bother looking at them, she stared down at the reflective black marble that danced red from the torchlight. Lost in her thoughts.

The birthing had been difficult, but relatively free of complications. She was allowed only one nursemaid to wait on her, and after the tearing pain of birth, reached out with eager arms to a baby who was whisked away by the single attendant in the room after the severing of her last link to the infant. She had only been gifted with a single, tear-filled glance of a head full of dark hair, matted with blood and a bit misshapen from squeezing through her lower opening. During the nine long months of her pregnancy, the baby growing inside her, the nursemaid, and the attendant were the only others allowed in the tower room Sylvanus kept her locked up in, claiming that she had fallen seriously ill and needed to be secluded lest it was catching. The people whispered that she had been struck by the same mysterious illness that had killed her father.

Sullenly, she had watched the door as though it were an ominous cloud of death to consume her in sorrow, just as it had consumed the baby she would never know. Some time later Sylvanus entered to tell her what she already knew. He had the attendant and nursemaid killed and the baby exposed. She had glanced out the window then, eyes wide at the heavy snow of deep winter. He had added the last as an after thought, and despite her suspicions the sureness of it struck every thought and feeling from her. She stayed isolated in the tower room for two months after that, watched heavily by one of Sylvanus' shifty-eyed guards, lest she go searching for death, whom she wished for every moment she layed curled up in the darkness, dancing on the edges of madness.

Thana brushed away the tears that still beaded at her eyes even now, attempting to will those memories away, counting each step that shook the air around her with concentrated fervor. But thoughts still haunted the edges of that concentration. The brother she long held above all else had turned his back on her and taken not only her child with him, but the father as well.

Brendan... More thoughts swirled dark clouds in her mind, and her heart felt as though it were gripped tight and twisted cruelly, weeping blood. Her brother was responsible for the death of her love, her fiancé, Brendan. The brother she so long ago admired, turned cold, power-hungry, obsessed, and haunted by the Tisloc throne.

No. Thana shook her head and muttered. Her father had fallen ill suddenly, and died rather violently, plagued by an unnatural fever that no one was capable of healing, or even identifying the sickness that caused it. Obtaining the throne had little to do with it, she thought. Sar had come back from his three years in the military like that, a wall of stone to her, set against Brendan from the beginning.

She had never even had a chance to tell Brendan that she carried his child. He would have been overjoyed. It was the first time she had ever layed with a man. The news of the ambush and her brother's disappearance caused such a shock to her soul, announced the same day as their engagement. She sought comfort in Brendan's strong but gentle embrace. The grief awakened a need in her. A need to be closer to Brendan, to be wanted in return.

He had been strong back then, so sure of himself. Back when she was selfish, spoiled. He was rather disconcerting at their first meeting, rigid and possibly more stubborn than she was. The hint of a sad smile brushed her lips. She had tried to push him around like everyone else, but he didn't bend anymore than a solid tree to the wind would have. They had words, coated in formality, but dripping with hidden threats. He won her heart that day, as much as she had hated to admit it. Then he approached her, requesting to make her his lady. It took her rather by surprise, she thought he hated her. A spoiled, selfish princess. She consented and the ceremony of naming the Lady he dedicated his sword and knighthood to followed fast.

Was Sar jealous? She didn't think that was it. As much as he had her to himself in times past, that would not be the sole cause to his extreme change. It must have been the disappearance, the ambush, or both together. He had been missing a year afterwards.

Something had happened to him then, someone powerful had set the attack during a time when Tisloc knew nothing but peace. The edges of the thought wavered in her mind among the swirl of so many others. Someone powerful had changed him, it was some kind of spell. It had to be...

*Can't help but wonder if her plotline is too formulaic, anybody wanna tell me what they think?*

Well, there domy~ I think I did it right this time ^_~

Warning! This was written in the throws of an allergy attack and as such may seem hasty and impatiently done lol

His singing drove her nuts! Anytime he entered the same tavern his very voice made her teeth grind with aggitation. It wasn't the quality of his voice, or even the tone. Actually, he really wasn't all that bad at singing and playing his mandolin.

It was his songs. The topics he chose. The idiocy of his own ideas. Everything in his world was honey-sweet, creamy-smooth; altogether too cheery. Even his tragedies had unrealistically happy endings.

The appropriate dreariness of the tavern brightened at his entrance. Not because everyone was happy, but because his clothes contained their own light show. Decked out in shimmering jewels so fake not even a tiny beggar child would mistake them for something valuable. He was a blight on sensibilities and a sore in a blind man's eye.

"Thana!" His voice breathed, elighted, in her ears as he clapped her on the back solidly and made himself comfortable next to her.

She growled in response.

"Not in a good mood eh?" His shrill voice chortled in her ear like so many twittering birds.

"I'm never in a good mood when you're near," she said bluntly.

"I noticed that, it's a good thing we run into each every once in awhile or you'd likely brood yourself to death!" He laughed.

Thana sighed and rolled her eyes. "Or my life might suddenly seem brighter and less bothersome..."

"Touché, touché" He slapped her on the shoulder and got up from the bench. "Ladies and gents! May I direct your attention to this table over here?" He gestured widely at where Thana was sitting and she, in turn, buried her head.

"This is Thana the Brave! This fearless woman has saved you people countless times!" Cheers went up in the tavern, and mugs were raised.

Thana sunk further into the hard wood of her bench.

"This woman is so marvelous that I've written yet another song about her!"

"Gods please no..." She groaned. "I'm going to kill you bard."

"Later," he said, under his breath as he unslung his mandolin from his shoulder and began to strum a sunshiney tune on it.

He droned on about one of her recent adventures and Thana attempted to block out yet another warped story of his until a single line caught her attention. By this time he had crossed the room and was sitting on the edge of the bar table separating the kitchen from the eating tables. She realized with embarassment that he was singing of her tale from long ago...a tale she thought no one knew. Her story before she became a reknowned adventurer.

"His parodies have gone too far..." she growled as she glared at him menacingly. He didn't noticed, or feigned not to.

Nary a word said they,

Thana felt herself going cold all over at the mention of her past sung in such an offhand manner, but the stupid bard sung on, completely unaware of his own danger...

With a smile on her lips

But no, not for lo--

The last ended in a squeak of voice and squeal of steel as an arrow found its way through the mandolin, stopping just a breath from the bard's heart. A smile of satisfaction played on Thana's lips as she looked evenly at the bard. She ignored the tears on her face as she walked calmly to him and pulled the arrow out of his instrument, all the while staring at him evenly.

Tapping the arrow on his chest idly, and a lilt in her voice she said, "A warning. Do not write of things you know nothing about." She pulled out her dagger and with a snarl embedded it in the bar counter between his legs.

Satisfied, she turned away from him and walked up the stairs to the inn above. As she lay in her bed dwelling in the past a funny thought occurred to her. For the first time, one of that screw up's tragedies actually made her cry...

It's the light breeze and the new sprouts of spring through which it blows. It's the sharp scent of freshly cut grass, and the jealousy in someone's eyes. It's a sign of wealth, seeking riches, the abudantness of the earth. It's the smooth, light color, that inspires happy thoughts, and sneezy days. It's the color of healing, the color of growth, and the shade of life. It's the flowing river, the algae-rich pond and the base of the circle of life. It's the vast fields, blowing in the wind like a beckoning sea in summer, and the spot of color peeking out, and towering above winter's sparkling snow. It's the smooth, minty taste in your mouth, the fizzy, fresh taste of the mountain's dew; the taste of sour candy. It's the color to represent so many things, it is the color of richness.