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Ch 4 - The Decebal Castle

That harpy Roxana accepting my invitation, dammit, sometimes I want to rip her head off. While thinking that I’m walking around the castle.

After I spoke with mother and father they were surprised but at the same time somewhat delighted that I was inviting friends over and agreed almost immediately. 

Father went out of his way and blurted some ridiculous stuff about inviting the king and whatnot, that’s just crazy talk, so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m ten years old now, almost eleven, soon my father got to make my introduction to society. It’s a needlessly meddlesome way of doing things in this country, to introduce your children into the noble society when they turn twelve.

Mother has taken care to teach me social studies like politics, manners, walking, eating, talking, etiquette since I was little. Once she figured I understood words properly, could read and do calculations, she started teaching me about all those

‘a lady must talk properly’

‘a lady must eat properly’

‘a lady must be entertaining’

‘a lady must walk properly’

Again I have nothing against those things, I learnt them a long time ago and it’s not like I have forgotten. They just bore me to death.

Her face when I said I wanted to be a knight was incredible, she even shed tears (crocodile tears of course) saying that a lady shouldn’t walk that path. But after accepting to learn what she wanted to teach me, she allowed me to learn the sword from my father.

She must have thought that I would find it dreadful and the pain would scare me away, heh, I was 3 when I said that and my father was elated and worried at the same time, he must have thought I meant ‘I want to be like papa’.

Well it’s ok for him to believe that.

Now it’s been 7 years since father and his men have been teaching me the sword, it’s different from my style. Apparently the dual wield style is not commonly used, but that’s how I like it and they have adapted their teachings to match it. 

I’ve fought with it for several millennia before (ofc they don’t know that), so I kept at it until they gave up. 

The concept of energy(‘qi’) is not really that widespread or at least seems to be unknown in this kingdom, so I’ve been training my energy in secret with ali.

I started feeling my energy when I was five, which was a surprise, never before it manifested earlier than eight to ten years of age, but well it just happened.

Since then I’ve been training it, molding it, increasing its purity, capacity and strength.

I felt ali’s energy when she turned 6, so indeed it seems this time it happened a bit earlier than usual.

When I decided to be a swordswoman, err, knight, I realized a couple of things, first, the calendar changed a lot, this is the year of heavenly fire or whatever, in numbers it’s the year 1130(I was born on 1120).

Our previous fall was the longest ever, was three thousands years ago, that was quite astounding to me, but considering that we have lived for almost fifteen centuries at times, it seems we were gone for a whole era (as they like to call them that nowadays) who knows.

Enough of that, focus on today, friends uh, Ali has been pestering me a lot to open up a bit more, that I am too closed, too unapproachable, maybe I ought to give it a try.

At about 9 am Ali came running into my room wearing her usual attire, leatherish black chest armor-piece, her pants made of black flexible fabric with black leatherish patches here and there, not too tight not too loose, easy to walk and fight with. 2 daggers hanging on her hip (wooden daggers considering her age and training stage) and some wooden shurikens on her legs, ready to be grabbed and thrown, just her style.

In my closet is my gear, you could say it’s a fair imitation of my usual gear, it took a while convincing father and mother to let me design it.

Father was fixated on plates while mother was just against anything of the sort saying ‘lady this, lady that, lady another, lady bleh’ but after a lot of begging, when I got accepted into the Royal Academy they both agreed.

Dark red-blood leather chest, with some black metal pieces covering my front, back, arms and sides, that goes over a black thin delicate long sleeve chainmail and shirt, same color leather+fabric trousers, also with pieces of black metal covering the back and front of my thigh calf and shin, and heavy sturdy leather boots.

Father's appreciation is that it has a lot of blind spots, but hey! My style covers for it anyway. 

It’s not quite complete as it would be really weird if I asked to get my armor designed as I used it in the past. 

I’m small and still growing, so this allow for that, changing only the leather parts often, and the metal parts once every two years is more than enough for now.

Ali and a maid help me gear up, is not like I need it but mother has always been adamant about the maids help me put on my clothes and gear. I’m already used to it.

Once the job is done I look at the table near the door of my room and there they are, my custom made wooden blades. That also took a while to convince my father because they are not normal swords of this era, but... it’s my style.

After learning for a couple of years with his swords, he accepted to get an artisan to craft my wooden practice swords based on the drawing and measures I gave.

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Picking up my swords and putting them in the scabbard on my back, walked out the room with Ali by my side.

Walking down the stairs I see father and uncle talking while facing us, they seem to be waiting for us.

Mother and Aunty jumped of their seats when they saw us and started asking us ‘whats with the getup’ and stuff, they thought we were going to dress differently than any other saturday?

“Girls go back and put some dresses on! You are receiving friends today what kind of attire is that to receive visitors?”

“Mom they are knights in training, and they most certainly will come with their training gear too, I never said ‘it's a celebration’ nor ‘it's a party’, this is our usual weekend, where we sweat, train, talk, laugh and eat, please let us be”

I pleaded mother to calm down but she was still agitated and shaking her head while closing her eyes, then spoke of the reason for her agitation.

“Today Lady Princess Roxana will come with her brothers, this is no attire to receive the royal family in our home”

**sigh**

“Dear mother, neither Ali nor I will change attires, as princess Roxana is well aware of the kind of gathering we are having. It’s no secret in the city that every other saturday The Pegasus Knights meet at the castle of The Pegasus to train and bond, if they decide to come formally dressed, it's their fault for not knowing of the proper code of dressing for a training day. Besides whats with that about brothers, *I DID NOT* invite anyone else but princess Roxana”

Making sure the *I DID NOT* was emphasized properly, with a little raising of my voice, I shot a smile to mother and ran out to the back yard where my father’s men were already setting up for the barbecue.

A couple of hours later, and a lot of running away from mother more people made their way into the backyard, I was fighting with a knight commander of my father’s squad when a cryer announced the arrival of the king and his family.

King Garrett Beves Reiyah the Earnest, Queen Alote Ancret Reiyah, first prince Higg Armand Reiyah, second princess Amelinne Sophie Reiyah, third princess Roxana Reiyah, and fourth prince Bernard Reiyah

Everybody stopped what they were doing and kneeled (yes I did too).

“Oh please, thank you for the welcome but as you were, today is a day of training and friendship as was informed by Lord Mark Regenald Decebal, as you were”

I could see the faces of the other kids stunned, and several of the knights were frozen while kneeling, well I was surprised too, I thought when father said that the king should be invited was just you know, blabbering of an old man too happy because of an odd request of his daughter.

As I expected, the king and the princes(male) wore all armors and their respective weapon equipment, while Roxana and Amelinne wore casual wear, fitting for the occasion. 

This was my first time seeing Amelinne up close, and wow she is a really beautiful woman, older than us, she is 17 years of age, adult by every account in our country. She just graduated from the Royal Academy in the politics course.

Her attire was very casual, blue comfortable trousers, and a blue coat that matches her pants covering a frilly white shirt. Sporty dark brown boots that went almost to her knees, tied up with black laces, the kind used to ride horses. 

Blonde long hair tied to her back, white palish skin, and bewitching blue eyes. She gave an image of radiance that could stun any man in the location.

Same can be said about Higg, a man of 18 years of age, tall with sturdy yet not bulky body and extremely handsome face, wearing a  warm smile that can fool anyone into thinking him a weakling. It’s clear that his body has been trained for combat since he was a runt.

His armor was a studded leather chest piece, with a subtle chainmail behind it, and sturdy leather+fabric trousers, his boots were black and heavy, very much like the his gloves.

Those two are without a single doubt brother and sister of the same caliber of their parents, both with extremely good looks and preparation, they carry themselves with dignity worthy of being called prince and princess of a kingdom.

They will one day rule their respective kingdoms, Higg here in Amil, and Amelinne to wherever kingdom she’s married into.

Roxana wore something similar to her sister but pinkish and white, more girly and less ready for grass-work, but still very elegant, though she is older than me by a year(eleven years old), she is soon to debut into this country noble society.

She is petite and has very slender figure, somewhat short of stature, but no one can deny that she is a really beautiful lady that will grow up to be as beautiful as her sister and mother. 

That’s one family of blonde people for sure, those blue eyes are really appealing to most who seen them.

The fourth prince, well it’s a runt, short blonde hair, blue eyes, and really fat!.

Bad bad king! queen go discipline that kid and your bad king! Get him on a diet, and make him workout!

He is about 4 years old, and seems to be more scared than anything, he’ll have fun with the other kids if he’s not too arrogant or scared.

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Thanks for reading my fiction! I hope to get your comments and help from now and in future issues.

Give and Take you know undefined, you help me, I help you! isn't that the main reason why most of us gather here in RRL? to learn from each otner?

Cheers.