Shorter chapters than WOL. Heavily OOC. Alternate Universe.
Dedicated to Jonathan of Conté.

Disclaimer – Song of the Lioness belongs respectively to Tamora Pierce

CHAPTER ONE

Alanna of Trebond was fourteen years old. Quietly, she sat to the side of the carriage, her hands gently folded in her lap, a gesture most unlike her. She watched the passing scenery with an acute eye, her purple orbs soaking up the minute details that everyone else would have dismissed otherwise.

The lushness of the Conté Plains was infinite. All her sight could take up was rich emerald grasslands that stretched to meet the sky in the boundless distance. She briefly wondered if the countryside was touched by magic. It seemed too perfectly groomed to have been cared for by people, and too beautiful to not have been blessed by the Goddess of Earth and Tranquility.

She turned her head slightly only to catch her father looking at her peculiarly. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, an act that would have had Lady Loucelle – Alanna's severely demure, but senile etiquette teacher – throwing a fit. She supposed her father was disbelieving of her serene behaviour, which was the one thing she was definitely not a suitable candidate of. Alanna had always been a rebellious, playful child.

And consequently, she took pleasure at the knowledge she had caught her uncaring father unawares. She suspected the slight ripple of his forehead would turn into a twitch. She smiled in amusement, but turned her head back to look out the window. It was a perfected act of female subtlety.

Alanna had always been at odds with the expectations placed on her. She never understood the reason why women had to abide by social conventions that only rendered them powerless. The men were given the dominance, and they were never criticized if they swayed from social behaviours deemed acceptable for males. With only her father as the principle male figure in her life, besides her brother, she believed that men took advantage of the power given to them, instead of honouring it like a god-given privilege.

A nudge to her knee brought her out of her thoughts. Across from her, she gave Thom an enquiring look, to which he replied with an interested grin. Careful not to spoil the silence that always dwelled between the three of them (the siblings and their father), her twin motioned with his eyes to the window they both were able to look out of.

Curious, and also expecting something silly – which wouldn't be surprising in the least, considering Thom's love for the abstract – she leaned forward so that her nose was almost touching the glass. She was expecting some magic-fused mockery of the country side, or even an illusion that ridiculed their father.

She found neither. Instead, what she saw made her heart skip its beat, and pound so hard against her chest that she was certain her heart was visibly physically thumping. No it was not by any part invoked by her sorcerer brother. There, grazing around what Alanna swore was the greenest part of the grasslands, were what appeared to be a hundred white clouds.

Squinting, she realised they were not clouds, but sheep. And standing in the middle of them all was a figure swathed in cream-coloured robes. The wind whipped harshly across the open grass expanse, and it thrashed the figure's robes around him wildly. Alanna, who had learned much from Lady Loucelle despite popular belief, was instantly reminded of the Arabian lands, and the mysteries surrounding that distant, intangible culture.

Enraptured she held her breath as the figure – clearly male – lifted his head and looked at the small, fancy carriage that passed by him. But more directly he stared at the young girl whose large violet eyes were locked on him. His black hair brushed over his eyes, and the rest of his hair was covered by the cloth wrapped around his head. He had tanned skin, a face chiseled to rival that of Adonis, and the deepest ocean blue eyes, Alanna had ever seen.

A shepherd! Alanna realised. The man, whose gaze was still locked with hers, smiled mysteriously at her. At that moment - her heart started beating to a new rhythm, and she was convinced that Thom must have conjured him up.

There was no man on Earth that could ever look that perfect.