As Leon begins to walk to the training grounds at a leisurely pace, he plans out the rest of his day. After today’s physical training, he will most likely bathe.
“What will I do after, though?” He wonders to himself.
“Food is always a good idea, but I don’t want to ruin my appetite for dinner. Maybe i’ll go see Ale’ron later”
Opening a door, leading into a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel it opens into a courtyard.The high walls seem titanic to the small boy. As he walks out he feels the dirt ground under foot. A small breezes falls into the grounds from the west softly blowing against his thin fur. Scanning around the grounds, he sights dummies constructed from hay. They range in different sizes, It seems like the ones towards the ends are for him and his brother. They are much smaller and stand about four feet tall. Approximately the same size as the boys. Standing in the exit of the tunnel, directly to his left he sights a large bench. Two tower shields leaning up against the wall next to the table and larger polearm esc weapons lean nearby.
Leon sees his brother slowly looking over the weapons, hesitant to actually touch anything. A pair of guardsmen walked out of one of the side tunnels. They wear a solidly made set of scale mail. Their head’s aren't covered, showing off their tigerlike features. The orange and white of there fur shines slightly in the sun. Neither of them are armed, as they walk towards the boys with an air of confidence.
“Today is the last day of your training with us.” States the guard on the left.
“So we will be doing training in the actual training grounds. No more classrooms, or learning about how weapons work in any given situation.” Continues the guard on the right.
“When you get back after the winter season, you will be training with Calendale.”
“Why Calendale?” asked Lushen.
The first guard laughs chestedly. “Calendale is the man that helps the Guardian train the soldiers. Training with him only makes sense since you are getting older.”
“Training will be increasingly difficult when he begins to train you.” Says the second guard.
“Well, bring it on!” Exclaims Lushen with a vigor that he did have just moments ago.
“So what are we doing today?” questions Leon as he walks up closer to the guards.
“Today you will be sent through Hell!” The two guards say together.
Twenty minutes later the boys are always dripping with sweat. Leon is on his knee’s dry heaving onto the ground. Lushen leans up against the wall panting, hands on his thighs.
“You two aren’t done are you?”
“That was the warm-up.” one guards says as the other is buckling in laughter,
Thirty laps around the training ground with an extra hundred pounds of weight on them, was finished in record time. Doing so it pushed both boys to there limits. The second guard walks up with two vials full of a glistening orange liquid.
“Drink these and get ready.”
“I'm not sure I could do that again.” Leon says between heaves.
“Oh don’t worry, We are going into weapon training.” Replies the guard.
Lushen jumps forward, pulling the vial from his hand. The thought of finally training with real weapons gives him a second wind. As he guzzles the contents of the vial, his stomach wrenches.
“What is this?!” He shouts as he crushes the vial in his hand.
Leon grabs towards the other vial, slowly drinking the liquid. Both boys feel it surge through their veins. Their bodies filled with an electric energy. Blood pumping faster, thoughts racing, as they begin to shake in anticipation to release this new found energy.
“Those were stamina rejuvenating elixirs.” A guard chuckles out, as he starts to notice the boys to jitter.
The other guard points towards the large bench.
“Go ahead and grab a weapon. Any one that you want.”
The boys rush over to the table. Lushen without hesitating this time reaches out and dons a greatsword. As he does, the blade begins to grow heavy in his hand. It ultimately lands tip first on the ground.
“Maybe something smaller.” shouts over a man.
Lushen tosses the sword back on the table and grabs a shortsword. He twirls it in his hand giving it a practice slash.
Leon however, is having a harder time picking out a weapon. He glances over them, believing them all to be too heavy for him.
“Something wrong, sir?” A guard asked as he walked up.
“I’m not sure what to grab. I’m sure most of them are too heavy for me to even lift.” Leon says with a bit of a downed tone in his voice.
When the guard reaches the table he pulls a few weapons forward.
“Well, there are a few different size and shaped daggers.”
As the man pulls them forward Leon examines them. One dagger has a straight blade on it, another is slightly curved towards the end with a serrated edge. The one that catches his attention the most, has two thin blades attached to the handle. They are only centimeters away from touching each other. The blades come from slender at the handle and curve outward to a tick width.
“I see you eyeing this one.” The guards states as he lifts the blade in his hand.
“If you are looking for small blades, these are fun.” The other guard says as he pulls out a pair of katar. The thick blades come to a sharp point, but the handle isn’t that of a normal dagger. The blades are attached to a full fist grip. There’s a hand guard over the handle with a large pearl embedded in it.
“These are katar, also referred to as punching daggers.” States the guard.
“I think I’ll use these” says Leon softly.
He grabs the weapons and begins to turn away. As he walks he looks back over his shoulder at the other dagger with a questioning glance. Turning back, he follows the two men to the other side of the arena towards the hay dummies.
After a short lesson on how to hold their blades the boys are given free range to whale on the dummies. Lushen swings his longsword with feral vigor attacking recklessly on the dummy. The guards watch in amazement how he endlessly attacks. Leon on the other hand is making short jabs and slices trying to learn to control the blades he holds.
As the boys begin to tire from the unskilled swordplay the two trainers step in.
"Now how would you like to learn how to properly use these weapons?" One asked.
"How do you mean?" Leon replies in turn.
"We will pair off, to show you basic of these weapons."
After an hour of being shown how there chosen weapons are to be wielded and used, the boys were dismissed. They were told they are free to come back and practice sword play at any point in time during the winter break. However, they would not be made to, and there won't always be someone around to answer any questions. Weight training would be expected to be kept up regularly. Once given this information they two were dismissed and told to have a joyous solstice.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
After a hot shower Leon dressed in simple clothes and began walking slowly towards the garden near the temple. When he entered the gate leading into the garden he made an immediate left and continued forward. A guard patrolling around the garden made eye contact with the boy and gave him a rye smile, with a small nod of his head he greeted.
“Sir. Good day for a walk huh?”
Leon smirked and looked around
“I like the flowers honestly. There are some that no one even knows are here.”
The guard turned as he walked past Leon and began to walk with him. Leon casually looked around and asked.
“Is anyone around today?”
“There is one other guard on the other side of the garden. You should be fine though. His shift is almost over and he is just ready to get home.”
As he spoke the man pulled a rolled up cloak from a sack on his side and gave it to Leon.
“Thanks Jean.”
Leon began to unroll the cloak and put it on fastening it around his neck. As the two walked forward the turned past a hedge at the edge of the garden.
“Ahem.”
A throat cleared as the two walked around the corner. The guard looked up and jumped back and terrified look on his face.
“Queen Keerah!”
With a knowing look on her face Queen Keerah looked towards Leon
“What are you two getting up to this fine day?”
“Hey mom. Just going on a walk. Figured I would have a guard keep me company. You know, just in case.”
Leon recited this in an almost rehearsed manner.
Keerah raised an eyebrow in question at the boy.
“Really? That’s what you’re going with?”
“It’s the last day of physical training until after the winter months. Might be the last time we have a nice day for a walk.”
She looked at him for a long second not saying anything. Then with a large smile an a caress of his face she said
“Just be careful darling and enjoy your walk.”
Keerah walked past the two giving the boy a rub on the shoulder as she picked a flower and continued on.
With a sign both Jean and Leon released a breathe that they didn’t realize they were holding.
“That could've went worse.”
Leon laughed as he pulled the hood over his head and to walk again. They walked up to the wall separating the Royal ground from the market and a large hedge stood in adjacent to the wall.
“Try and be back before dark sir. My shift ends in four hours.”
“Yeah, yeah!” Leon shooed off the comment with a wave of his hand.
“I’ll be a good boy and all that.”
He gave the man a few coins and began to push the hedge to the side. Pushing through he met a solid surface. He pushed hard and it gave way. Exiting the other side of the wall he pushes a large crate back in front of the hole he came through. Covering his face as much as possible without looking too suspicious, he began to walk out from behind the building in front of him into an alleyway.
As he walked between the two buildings the sound of western market came alive. The clanging of the forges rang through the air. The beckoning of all the vendors imploring people to browse there wares. The tents and stalls occasionally being checked out by the guards and passerbys.
“The finest clothes in all Lestillim sold here. Cheapest prices you can find”
“Five silver a day to begin an apprenticeship in smithing.”
The shouts of the people around him brought a smile to his face.
An angry shouts burst out to his left.
“This price is outrageous! You’re trying to get away with robbery in broad daylight.”
Leon laughed softly and began forward. Blending into the crows easily enough, he began to flow through the people. He knew all he had to do was pull his hood back and everyone would move aside to make way for him. He preferred it this way though, it felt natural. As he pushed through the busy streets he started making his way to the left side of the street. He stopped in front of a nondescript building. The only things that made it stand out from any other building was a small sign over the door. Gold filigree flowed around the letters on the sign and the letters looked as if they were made from pure silver, glistening in the afternoon sun. He looked up to the sign and with a scoff and a shake of his head he read it.
“The Sewing Serpent”
He pushed open the door to the building and stepped in. He looked around and saw various well crafted outfits on headless mannequins. The owner of the shop was a masterful tailor and such had extremely well made and unique clothing hanging around.
The shop seemed completely void of life. This shop was unique in that people didn’t stay long. You would come in, give the owner your order and come back when it was done. The price tags on these items were outrageous to most people, so the only people that were ever seen here were royalty or high ranking guardsmen.
There was a rustling in the back of the building when the bell on the door jiggled as Leon stepped in.
“One moment please.”
A disembodied voice rang out. The voice sounded weathered and youthful at the same time.
With a sly grin Leon tried to make his voice as deep as he could.
“I hope you have something of better quality than this trash back there.”
To anyone else the thought of talking bad about Ale-ron’s tailoring skill was unheard of. This being said the long silence that followed his comment wasn’t unexpected.
“I did.” Ale-ron replied slowly still from the back of the shop. As he began to walk through a door in the back he continued.
“I’m sorry to inform you that I sold it all to a brat though. Pretty sure he was part of that royal family or something.”
As the two made eye contact they both smiled and Ale-ron spread his arms in a welcoming gesture.
“Ale-ron!” Leon chuckled, faining insult he held his heart
“That was harsh. I’m hurt my friend.”
The two embraced in a hug.
“Does your father know you snuck out again?”
“You know technically you’re supposed to call me sir or even prince.”
“I’ll take that as a no them.” Ale-ron said with a laugh holding the boy at an arm's length looking him up and down.
“Mom saw me leave.”
Ale-ron raised an eyebrow
“Was she mad?”
“She didn’t seem to be. I think she has gotten used to me sneaking out now. She won’t tell though.”
“So why did you come see me today?”
Leon looks around conspiratorially and leaned in.
“I want a nice suit for the winter ball.”
“But I already made your suit for the ball. It was picked up yesterday.”
“Yeah, but I want mine to be something people won’t forget. Obviously i want it fitted, but I want the material to shine a dark blue in the light.”
Ale-ron shrugged and with a thoughtful look said.
“So a black fitted suit that shines blue. You didn’t have to sneak out to ask for that.”
“I’m not done yet.”
With a devilish grin on his face he continued to explain what he wanted.
Twenty minutes later after some laughs and measurements the boy put his cloak back on and stepped out of the shop. Leon walked around the marker for another thirty or so minutes. He browsed different stalls and vendors an even bought some bread. He walked back to the alleyway he had entered the market. Instead of heading back through the hole behind the crate he climbed the building and sat on the roof watching the people as they went on with there day.
No one ever looked up he thought. He had snuck away or hid around the castle countless times just by going up. He had gotten into trouble more than his brother and need a way to get sneak off while mother calmed father down. Mother would defend him by saying he was just adventurous. Apparently, Adventurous wasn’t a trait of Pantheran royalty. In Leon’s mind this had always led him to believe that father liked Lushen the most. Father never loved anything. Nothing was ever good enough for him. Leon wondered if he had ever loved mother, but she was the queen and had children with the man so there was some kind of connection there.
As he sat on the roof eating the bread and watching the roaming people, he absently wonder what it would be like to be them. They were free to do what they wanted. They could go anywhere or do anything. He understood that Patherans stayed together, but why not explore some. The lands around the kingdom hadn’t even been completely mapped out to his knowledge. Seemed like a waste of a life to stay trapped in one area.
“The prince needs to know how to act like proper royalty, not run among the commonwealth”
Leon said in his best impression of Dyandale.
Making his way back into the garden he was lost on what to do for the rest of his day.
“Suppose I could practice my magic before bed. It’s getting dark though.”
He said absently to himself.
Leon shrugged and started making his way back inside when he heard a group of guard to his right laughing appearing to be on a break. With another sly grin he whispered.
“On second thought I could definitely use the magic practice.”
Leon didn’t know alot of magic but what he did know focused around making small sounds and moving small objects. This mixed with his favorite pastime of playing pranks on people gave him plenty of utensils to really scared the piss out of people.
He started by following some of the guards as they got back to work and magically skipping a rock across the ground by them. When they turn to see where it had come from he hid deftly. As the night progressed he began created in the sounds of distant whispers and lightly echoing laughter around the guards. waiting until they were in an exceptionally dark area.
He was eventually caught and scolded by Dyandale and another guard that Leon was sure he had made actually piss himself from fear. Winding down from the long day Leon lay in his bed excited to see the outfit being made for him and what would happen in the coming days of the winter solstice and in turn the winter ball.