Tales Of A HUNTSMAN

MARIA HORWICH

MARIA HORWICH

Maria and her most trusted man were in her chambers discussing the current state of Greylan. " It seems all our plans have gone to waste." Darwin spoke up, Darwin was Maria's personal knight and had been with her since she was a child and had slowly become her most loyal and trusted confidant.

Most people saw Maria as nothing more than the Princess, they saw her as nothing more than a weak girl and their way into the royal family. No one was aware than the so called weak, fragile girl possessed monstrous intellect and had deep knowledge of the political factions.

" It's not true, we just failed to account for the brash actions of my brother and how gullible he truly is." Maria spoke up, she sat on her couch deep in thought " I am still confused about something mistress... " Maria rose her head to look at Darwin giving him the nod to go on. "It would not be impossible if you were to claim the throne for yourself and yet you continue to push for your... forgive my words, buffoon of a brother to rule." hearing Darwin’s words she began to smile.

"I understand you Darwin but I must correct you on something Adonis is more than a buffoon, true he knows next to nothing about politics and couldn't make a scheme to save his life but he possesses certain qualities that make him the perfect king those qualities of his are what drive countless knights to give up their lives for him, that trait of his is something which I can never have and so I am willing to be his advisor dealing with the schemes in the royal court."  Darwin rose an eyebrow hearing the evaluation given by his mistress." He is loyal and understands his men, he wouldn't hesitate to rush to the front limes if it meant saving the lives of his men. His loyalty and bravery, is why I support his succession of the throne. "

" But now he has been expelled from the family " " I am not worried Darwin,  my brother at least has his strength and I believe given enough time he would complete the labors and my father isn’t dying anytime soon, what I must do is prevent Anwir and all the others who have set their eyes on the throne. "  Maria arose from her seat with conviction in her eyes.

" Darwin get some men to protect Adonis in secret I'm certain Anwir will try something " " yes mistress " Darwin responded" have we figured out who Anwir's hidden backer is? " " No they are good at hiding their tracks but we have gotten news that the noble faction have started to move also the people who were undecided have started to take sides and Adonis is also losing a lot of supporters from his camp from the way things are heading even if Adonis returns he is probably going to be out of line for the succession. "

Maria grit her teeth hearing the information " it seems I have been too quiet lately.... gather our people and start making our moves, let them know a wolf, no matter the gender is never to be trifled with." " yes mistress " with that Darwin was gone.

With Adonis missing the game referred to as politics was getting heated with all players making moves both big and small everyone had their eyes on the throne.

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It had been a month and I had eaten nothing but poison food at that point I was sure I had lost my sense of taste. The poison food was bad but it wasn't the worse, Gareth began my training his words were my body was not strong enough to go through the trials and I had to build up body and so began the torturous training.

He woke me up at dawn and had me run around the entire of the academy, this was just the beginning I went through so many drills that I actually began looking forward to my poison meals as that was the only time, I was free from the torture.

" Congratulations boy you actually made it, I'm impressed I expected you to die during the second week but here you are." I glared at him and if looks could kill he would be six feet under. "Don't look at me like that you made it didn't you...any who you can now move unto the second trial."  he threw me a wooden sword and my heart began pumping I knew what this meant,  I was closer to my dream closer to being a huntsman.

" You done" Gareth words brought me out of my daydream " good let's begin."  I have to admit the next two months was not what I expected it to be like, he taught some basic stances and moves as well as the basic knowledge of a huntsman and when I say basic knowledge, I mean I had volumes upon volumes so as to learn each monster and race as well as their habitat their feeding methods their preferred prey as well as their weakness factoring the fact I did not know how to read my training period was lengthened so I could be taught to read and write in the common tongue as well as some basic knowledge in some Archaic tongues.

Gareth said if I knew the language and the people who commonly spoke it, I could easily avoid most traps and it could even help me predict what enemy I was up against. At that moment Gareth taught me something important ‘gaining knowledge is half the battle’