WebNovels

Chapter 3 - THREE.

The next day, the weather was cloudy. It rained the whole night. I yawn as the cool morning breeze hit me. 

 I walked up to the right side of my room. There was a drawer, we were told before dinner yesterday that it will be filled with new clothing's.

 I opened it gently and it was filled to the brim with different colors of clothes. Robes, gowns, jewelries. I smiled, wishing my mum could see this. She would be so proud of me. I'm sure the palace would have sent them new clothes too. I'll ask one of the maids later on. I quickly stepped out with my wrapper wrapped tightly on me. I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up. 

 I hurried back to my room, dripping from water and a little cold. I stepped into my room only to meet the prince sitting on my bed. I felt exposed and grabbed my white wrapper a little harder. 

He coughed and looked away. "I told my guard to come get you. But, he said you weren't in your room. So, I had to come see myself". He said, "I just wanted to make sure you were well settled in. I'll get going now". He added, getting up and leaving my room. I hurriedly locked my room behind him. This is his palace, but I don't appreciate him invading my privacy like that. I sigh from the embarrassment and hurriedly put on the gown I picked out earlier. I loved the texture and it feels free to train in. 

 I'm about to leave for the dining when a shining object caught my eyes. I walked toward it and it was a sword. I pulled off the gold scabbard and stared at the shining blade. It looked so sharp. This sword wasn't here this morning, I wouldn't miss something like this. Did the prince perhaps put it there? Or was it here all along. My eyebrows crinkled up in confusion. The sword felt so heavy in my hands. I felt very powerful but also scared. I might own a sword but I don't know to use it. I put it back into its scabbard and hooked it on my dress. I joined the other girls leaving their rooms to dining. 

 "Adira right?" A girl slightly older than me asked. "Yes". I answered unsure of why she was talking to me. I was used to being ignored in my village. I only spoke to people as poor as I was.

 "My name is Mia, I'm from Anlow village". Immediately I heard that, I tuned into the conversation paying more attention. She is from my village. 

 "I overheard the king calling out to you yesterday. I was so shocked to look at you and you looked so familiar. You and your mum would come to my parents house then, to deliver yam flour in bulk every third week". 

 Oh, here goes our potential friendship. She knows I'm poor. Why is she talking to me exactly tho? 

 "What clan are you?" I asked walking a little faster to catch up with the other girls ahead of us and probably end the conversation.

 " Same as yours". She replied, "I'm so happy to have someone from my clan here too". I turned to look at her and she smiled.

 "You're not going to make fun of me for being poor?" I asked.

 

 "No, why would I do that? I just want to be friends". I took a long look at her, looking for any thing that would give her away. I found nothing, she only smiled harder.

 "I would like to be friends too. What clan are you?" I asked as we continued walking. The palace is very busy this morning so it's taking a longer time to get to the dinning arena. 

 "Same as yours, I said that before". She replied, confused.

 "No silly, I meant your clan here". I laughed and she joined in.

 "Oooh, my bad. I'm an Aetheria". She responded proudly. I smiled at her.

 "I suppose you know my clan". 

 "Yes, Quicksilver and the prince is obsessed with you". I gasped when I heard her last words. The girls directly in front turned around too. 

 "Obsessed with you?" One of the girls asked. She was putting on a red gown and a sword was strapped on her gown too. 

 "You're quicksilver". I said smiling, she smiled too. I was so happy that I found someone in my clan.

 "What a coincidence, I'm Ama". She replied. "This are my friends, Bell from Eldoria clan and Mady from Brindlewood". She said pointing individually to her friends.

 "Nice to meet you". The three of us said in unison. 

 "I'm Adira, my sister's name is Ama too". 

 "Oh, I can't wait to meet her. Let's hurry up to the dining. I'm starving". She said grabbing me and Mia. 

 We finally got to the dinning. There were lots of long dining tables with atleast 20 dining chairs. The dining arena was bigger than I imagined. Yesterday, my food was brought to my room by a maid so this was my first time being here.

 "It's so big". Mia voiced out my thoughts. I nodded in agreement. 

 "This is just for the chosen ones like us. Wait, till you see the inner dinning arena where the king and prince eat with their trusted warriors". Mady said.

 "There is an inner dinning arena?" Mia asked as shocked as I was.

 "Yes, her brother has been a warrior for 15years now. He eats there and yesterday we were allowed in briefly when it was empty". Bell added.

 I took in the information as we sit at an empty table. I could feel eyes on me but I ignored it.

 "Don't tell me you don't feel people looking at you Adira". Bell said.

 I hummed in agreement, "Yes I do, do you think they know I'm poor?" I asked no one in particular.

 "Girl no, I'm poor too. I think it's because the prince only spoke to you yesterday and then your scabbard is gold in colour". I looked down at my sword before looking at hers. Hers was red, I looked around the dining arena trying to find as much quicksilver as I can. No one, was with a gold scabbard. 

 "The scabbard are either blue, red or black. Yours is different". Mia added after looking around too.

 "Okay, don't freak out. But the prince was in my room earlier. Maybe he swapped mine or something because earlier there was nothing shiny at the corner of my room before I stepped out to have my bath". I said as our food is placed on my table.

 Ama screamed and Mady put her hands over her mouth.

 "She said don't freak out, eyes are on us already. Don't make it worse". 

 I mentally thanked Mady. 

 "I'm sorry. Wow, I'm happy you found favor in the prince eyes Adira". Ama replied.

 Mia silently giggled. "That's huge, my queen". 

 "Oh shut up, don't address me as that". I replied shoving food into my mouth to avoid talking. 

 They smiled, giving me side glances as my face starts to heat up.

 They're making it sound like the prince likes me, I only got here two days ago. It doesn't even make sense. Yes, maybe he has only spoken to me but it could be that he only pities me and I was the last girl that arrived too. 

******************************************

 I and Ama walked closely with the other quicksilver to the open forest. We stopped at a large clearing on the hills that was mentioned as our training ground. 

 It was a large space surrounded by thick bushes. I looked around and we had men in our midst. This was unusual and they were well built and handsome. Ama whispered into my ears.

 "I'm so glad I'm a quicksilver. This men are built". We both chuckled.

 "This are warriors you'll be going into wars with. So they're the best people to train you". Someone speaks up. We all turned to the source of the voice to meet a dark warrior with a visible scar on the side of his eyes. 

 "I'm Marco. The head of all warriors which now, includes you. Please pair yourself, a male warrior with two novice quicksilver". He said and walked up to me and Ama.

 "Hi ladies". He said and winked. We chuckled again. I watched as each male warrior approached two ladies and soon enough we were all paired.

 "Before you start training, please everyone drop your swords by the side. You can't use them yet or everyone here will go home bleeding". We all laughed in unison at his comment before each dropping our swords beside a tree and heading back to our partners.

 "Come with me", Marco said and I and Ama followed him. He stepped a little bit away from everyone. 

 "I don't know how to train in a small space that's why we had to move aside. What are your names?" He asked.

 "I'm Ama and she is Adira". Ama replied.

 "Okay, I might have been smiling. But, this is a serious business and I'll be strict till you get it". I gulped.

 "So this is the perfect stance as a warrior, so you don't trip and fall". He demonstrated. "Always your strong feet forward and make it firm". We listened attentively to him. He urged us to demonstrate after him. We did and to our surprise he came and poked us hardly and we both fell to the ground.

 "Not firm enough". He said sternly. "What are you still doing on the ground". We scrambled to our feet even though the fall hurt. I felt my arm begin to bruise from landing on the root of a tree. 

 "Again!" He shouted and we did the stance again. He poked us again, harder this time and we fell. This went on throughout the day. 

 I and Ama battled getting our stance right. Each time we got it, he pushed us twice as hard. My whole body hurts from constantly falling down. I was so happy when training for the day ended.

 "We'll continue the stance tomorrow". He said as he walked past us.

 This wasn't the life I signed up for. I thought fighting was just about mastering the sword. Here I'm barely able to get my stance. I didn't sign up for this. I grabbed mine and Ama's sword. I handed hers to her, after giving her a long hug. 

 "We will do better tomorrow". I assured her, even though I wasn't sure myself.

 We join the others and began our walk back to the palace. 

 "Hey stranger, why is yours gold", someone asked referring to my sword. I ignored her, as I was too tired to talk and continued walking with Ama.

 She placed her hands roughly on my shoulder and I flinched from the pain. I turned around to be met with a girl my age. 

 "I was talking to you, loser". She said. 

 "Let go of my friends". Ama replied, "And leave us alone".

 She turned to Ama laughing hard and her friends nudged Ama and she fell to the ground.

 "Hey you". I pushed her friend and tried to help Ama up. "Leave us alone".

 "This could have been avoided if you answered my damn question. Why is your sword different?" She asked again.

 "I dont know, I found it in my room". I responded. 

 "Good, now hand it over. I want it". I exchanged puzzled looks with Ama and she shakes her head in disagreement.

 "Why am I even wasting time". She said and roughly pulls my swords from me.

 "Give it back". I said trying to reach for it but her friends blocked me. 

 "You can have mine if you want", she offered displaying her black scabbard. 

 "No, give hers back". Ama screamed.

 Some girls tried to interfere but she growled at them and everyone walked past ignoring us.

 "You can have it, but I wonder what the prince will say when he doesn't see it on me". I said boldly locking eyes with her.

 "Flora what does she mean?" One of her friends asked. Oh, it seems her name is Flora. She has such a pretty name but an ugly behavior.

 " What do you mean?" She asked directly.

 "The prince was the one who gave it to me".

 "You literally said you saw it in your room". She replied immediately.

 "Well, the prince was also in my room". I replied and they all gasped.

 "You whore!" Flora said and hit me hard on my face. I swallowed, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that. She spat and threw my sword at me. Ama rushed to me holding me tightly. They looked at us with scorn and walked away.

 I locked hands with Ama as we trailed behind everyone. Few people who witnessed what happened kept turning back to look at us at intervals. 

 "I'm sorry, this is my fault. I'll return the sword". I whispered to Ama.

 "Shuu, don't say that. No one deserves it more than you do. They were only stronger today, because it was four to two and we were already weak. Wait, till we tell the others". She assured and I nodded. 

 I wasn't going to fight unless I had to defend myself. I don't know what Flora wants from me, asides the sword. But, it looks like she isn't done with me. I'll be ready whenever she snaps again. 

*****************************************

 We got to the palace and exchanged room numbers. Her room was farther away from mine and others. 

 I said my goodbye and I head to my room for a nap. I'm about to sleep when I heard a knock on my door. Did Flora find my room? I shivered as I thought of it. Should I ignore it? 

 "Adira, it's me". Mia gentle voice calls from outside. I lazily walked towards the door and opened it.

 "Ama filled us in on what happened at the dining table. We didn't want you sleeping hungry, so I offered to bring your dinner to you". She said and I looked down at the tray she was holding and smiled. I'm so glad I made good friends. "Thank you so much Mia". I smiled genuinely at her.

 " Anything for you". She replied happily. 

 "Would you love to sleep here with me?" I asked suddenly, unsure if it was too soon and scared she would decline.

 "I thought you would never ask". She replied, entering my room and making herself at home. I giggled and locked my door.

 She handed me the food tray and I told her to join me but she refused.

 We spoke briefly about today's incident with Flora, then my training with Marco and then her training.

 Her training was far better than mine. She was able to harness her power today. This is very strange, but again I guess everyone learn at a different pace. She is lucky she is one of the lucky ones. We said our goodnights and turned off the lights. I wonder how training tomorrow would be, I wasn't looking forward to it at all. 

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