The Training
1147 Words
Alba jerked back in her chair as Blaze got up suddenly, rubbing his eyes and smiling, having caught Alba staring at him. Recomposing back to her angry posture, she got up from the chair;
“Why didn’t you tell me about the training?”, feeling the anger actually coming back from the thought of it.
“I may have forgotten to mention, why?”
“I ran away from home just to get trained again?”, she asked, with the tinge of annoyance in her tone.
“No, you don’t have to go through etiquette training, but rather magic and cultivation training!”, he giggled.
“Oh, but still, you should have informed!” she said, her anger evaporating.
“Sorry, I won’t do it again!”, he said, turning cute in a heartbeat.
Alba smiled and they chatted about the training schedule before they went for dinner. The night went by peacefully, with Alba thinking about her family and if she would be able to go back to them and eat the brownie she loved, or be able to see her parents smile again.
The next morning she was woken even before daybreak. Maids entered, creating small flames in their hands to light all the candles of the room. Crimson prepared the dress for her while she took a bath. After getting ready, they headed for the dining hall, where Blaze was already present, waiting for her. As they sat next to each other, Blaze whispered,
“Do you know, you should never make the emperor wait?”
“I heard there are no definite set of dining rules in this palace!"
“This is basic etiquette!”
“Okay, then I would like to apologize to the emperor for the misunderstanding, I am having breakfast with my childhood friend!”
“Played well!!” he said, like a tune, which made Alba laugh and all the servants look at her, narrowing their eyes.
“Shh! don’t laugh loudly in public. It’s said to be indecent.” he clicked his tongue.
“Okay!” she whispered back, still smiling.
Once breakfast was done, Blaze took her to meet an old man who seemed to be in about his fifties, with a band on one eye and a number of scars on his face, holding a stick for support while standing but the aura around him seemed to speak highly of him. The other person was a tall and athletic looking guy, seemingly in his thirties, with a huge cut on his eyebrows and scars that seemed to be from animal attacks on his arms.
“Alba, he is Sir Raymond Fume, he was my magic teacher and also my father’s. And this is Kevin Fume, his son; he is the most talented horse rider in our kingdom, and my closest friend and also the general in command of my army.” They bowed to Alba and she returned it, which caused them to smile.
“You are the same as the younger you!” Sir Raymond smiled.
“You knew me?”
“Of course, you used to sneak to our kingdom all the time!” he laughed, and Kevin and Blaze smiled, while she looked at them in confusion, not remembering anything.
“Okay, I will leave her in your hands. I need to go to the court.”
“Sure!” they bowed to him and realizing that, Alba followed suit. Blaze looked amused by it but he didn’t comment.
“Okay, so first we have horse-riding training, then endurance training and then shooting.” Alba nodded in reply.
Kevin whistled, and a horse actually came running and stopped by him.
“This is new horse bought and trained for a week, especially for you. It is nice and lovely. Your task today is to ride her.”
“I haven’t even touched a real horse before.”
“Speak less and do your work.”, he said, in a professional and domineering tone.
“Sorry!” she felt weird. He felt so friendly to look at, but his character changed while working.
About next two hours went by with her trying to touch it, it getting aggressive at her, and kicking her more than twice.
“Seriously, how the hell they said you are powerful enough to be a threat. You are just stupid.” Kevin mocked, frustrated.
“Sorry!” she apologized, feeling ashamed.
“Being sorry isn’t the way out of this.” He walked away.
Alba sat down, she was so tired. Sir Raymond sat beside her.
“It’s okay, he gets too serious while working.”
“I am just stupid!”
“No, you are just inexperienced! But if you get tired so easily, you will become stupid!” he smiled.
“I am not tired. I can still fight with this horse for an hour!” she gave a small laugh.
“Good! This is the Princess Chloe I know!” he said, patting her head.
“Can you tell me about the Chloe you know? Because I really want to know her.”
“Someday, I will. But today, you need to do the endurance training!”
And then he made her frog jump around the field, before making her run for four rounds. By the end of first round, she felt dead tired and sat down to take a breath, when the sound of a dog barking and running towards her forced her to run in fright. It was burning in flames, which made it look all the more frightening. She saw Sir Raymond laughing at her, and wanted to run towards him, but she seemed to be bound by something, that forced her to run only in her fixed lane. When the fourth round was over, the dog disappeared and she fell on the ground, dead tired and relieved.
“Are you okay?” it was Sir Raymond.
“You nearly killed me!” she said, tired enough to not even move her head.
“No, I wouldn’t ever think of doing it, Princess!” he laughed.
“Shouldn’t exercise be done early in the morning?”
“We weren’t exercising. We were learning to endure! Let’s go eat, and then you have shooting too!”
“Are you seriously trying to kill me?”
“If we wanted that, do you think you would be alive?” Kevin said, smirking.
Later, he raised his hand and gave thumbs up and instantly, three servants came with food. After eating to her heart content, she lay on the soft grass.
“We will begin shooting in half an hour!” Kevin said.
- Writer
