Saving Summer

Chapter Sixteen: Advanced Techniques

Penelope woke up early the next morning. Her muscles ached from the sparring practice with Sir Domnahl last night but she ignored the pain. Especially since more hovered on the horizon as Sir Domnahl would be teaching her advanced techniques with the spear. There was no time to waste complaining about sore muscles. Today was the last day that they would spend at the Summer Kingdom palace and Penelope knew that it was important that she learned all that she could about fighting. 

Crossing the room to the wardrobe, Penelope pushed open the drawers to look inside. Dresses of various shades and styles hung on the hangers. Penelope slid the dresses down the rack. While a dress was acceptable attire at a ball or a fancy dinner, it was unsuitable for sparring practice. She needed something that she could easily move around in and a ballgown was not the answer. At the very end of the rack, Penelope found a few tunics and pants. She chose the simplest one and put it on. As she examined herself in the mirror, Penelope felt a bit guilty. She did not feel as though she should be putting on a stranger’s clothes but the king and queen insisted that it was fine. They claimed that the clothes belonged to no one and therefore she should take what she needed. 

“You are our guest.” the queen told her at dinner last night. “Whatever you need to be comfortable, we are more than happy to provide.”

Penelope suspected that they were feeling guilty about bringing her here to Prinaes but said nothing. Not when they were doing everything within their power to be accommodating. Besides that, Penelope liked the king and queen. They were such a loving couple who cared deeply for the people of their kingdom. It was easy to see why their subjects adored them. Being stuck here was definitely preferable to back home. The only things that she ever did at home were eat, sleep, and work. This was almost like a vacation to her.

A knock could be heard at her door. Penelope told whoever it was at the door to enter and the door cracked open. Sir Domnahl peeked into the room. 

“Just wanted to see if you were up,” he said, looking at her. “I figured that we could walk down to breakfast together and then spar after that.”

Since yesterday’s argument, Sir Domnahl had been treating her more kindly. It was a pleasant change from his boorish behavior so Penelope did not mind. Still, she wondered how long it would last. The man did seem to be aggravated easily by her. Penelope had a strange suspicion that Sir Domnahl did not spend much time around people. That would explain why he was so sullen. His skills in combat were excellent but his people skills left much to be desired.

Penelope nodded and made her way towards the door. Sir Domnahl opened the door further and held it. Penelope strode through the opening and pretended as if this was not bizarre at all. Not even twenty four hours ago, Sir Domnahl would not speak to her. Now he was holding open doors for her? It was weird and she did not think that she liked it. However, she did not want things to go back to how they were before either so she was at a loss for what to do. 

They reached the dining hall and sat down at the table with the king and queen. Once breakfast was over, Penelope and Sir Domnahl thanked the king and queen before going to the armory. When they reached the armory, Penelope realized that a crowd was gathered there. It seemed as though every guard in the palace was there. All of them stood in a circle around the room. Every one of the guards had an eager look on their face that Penelope did not like. Sir Domnahl marched up to the nearest guard and glared at him.

“What is the meaning of this?” 

“No one has ever seen you take on an apprentice,” replied the guard, excitedly. “Especially not a female. We are all interested in seeing your lessons for ourselves.”

Penelope was baffled. Apparently, her training was a joke to the guards. They found it amusing that Sir Domnahl would teach a girl how to defend herself. As if she did not deserve to be trained in combat arts. Her face reddened and her nostrils flared as the thought came to mind. She desired nothing more right now than to show these...men how wrong they were in their assumption. 

“Get back to your posts!” Sir Domnahl snapped. A vein pulsed in his thick neck and his lips were curled under. The guards made no motion to move and this caused Sir Domnahl to inhale deeply and bellow, “NOW!”

The guards scattered and Penelope stifled a giggle. Sir Domnahl turned towards her as the last guard vanished. A smile replaced the scowl that had been there only a moment before.

“Shall we begin?”

Penelope nodded. Sir Domnahl spent the rest of the day teaching Penelope advanced techniques with the spear. He set up a few targets so that she could practice throwing the spear. He moved her arms and legs into the proper position to toss the spear and stepped back. He crossed his arms over his chest as he observed her. The first few tries ended with Penelope missing the mark completely but on the very last one, Penelope hit the bullseye. Sir Domnahl shot her an impressed look.

“You are doing well,” he said, looking pleased. “It has taken some of those guards longer than that to hit a bullseye. You did it in ten tries.”

“That is high praise coming from you,” Penelope teased him.

Sir Domnahl stared at her for a moment before laughing, “I suppose that is fair. I have been hard on you. But really, you have improved quite rapidly. You should feel proud.”

Sir Domnahl clapped a hand onto her shoulder. Pride shone in his emerald eyes as he looked at her. He let go of her shoulder and said, “I think that you should be able to defend yourself against any monster that we come across. Or at the very least be able to fend one off while you get away.”

Penelope tilted her head to the side, “Is that so?”

Sir Domnahl nodded.

 “Yes, it is so. Now,” he looked at her and smiled, “how about we do something fun?”

“Like what?”

“Horse back riding.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, how about it?” Sir Domnahl asked. “We will probably be doing a lot of that on the road. It is better that you get used to it now.” He paused and his face paled as he added, “Please tell me that you know how to ride a horse.”

Penelope smiled, “As a matter of fact, I do. One of the men that my mother dated owned horses and he taught us both how to ride them.”

Sir Domnahl looked relieved, “Good. That is good. I forgot that you are not from Prinaes so I did not know if you would know how to ride a horse.” He clapped his hands together and said, “Let’s get going. Dinner time is in an hour but that is plenty of time for a quick race.”

Penelope grinned broadly, “Sounds good to me.”