Featured in Wattpad HighFantasy & Magic II 19-year-old Aria is ready to accept her doomed fate of marrying the cruel Lord Lathik. An alliance that will secure a large army for her hateful brother's war against the fae. When destiny intervenes and he...
"Again!" Elora dictated as Aria hit the floor for the hundredth time.
A bruised rib and a sore jaw were only a few of the injuries that had begun to accumulate on Aria's body. She grunted as she picked the disarmed wooden sword and stood. "Can I please have a second to heal myself?" Aria's eye stayed glued tightly to Estel's circling form. It wouldn't be long before the blonde elf soldier would strike again, and Aria would have a new bruise to add to her list.
"You will not heal yourself until tomorrow morning," Elora instructed. She watched with stoic dark eyes as the two women circled each other. Pacing back and forward in her gold and moss green armor.
Aria turned to the newly appointed commander, mouth agape with disbelief. "Why?!"
Estel moved, and with a sweep of her feet, Aria was thrown back to the ground.
A bruised rear.
"Keep your attention on your opponent," Estel snorted. A smirk appeared on those rosy lips while she dusted her brown training leaders. At first, she acted offended when Elora ordered her to spar with Aria. Still, Aria wondered if the golden elf was enjoying hurling her to the floor far too much.
"Healers. Such a pain to train. If you don't learn the consequences of failing in battle, you will be reckless. Understand the result of missing a swing of the sword now while it's only a wooden stick and not the sharp edge of a steel sword." Elora inhaled before loudly exclaiming. "Again!"
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Aria laid in bed like a plank wrapped in a silky sleeping blue robe-like leaf bread. It was easier to pretend to be frozen, for any slight movement would surely mean agonizing pain. Even breathing felt like a burden. She wasn't expecting training to be easy, but perhaps she had bitten off more than she could chew.
A knock on the door vibrated when the moon reached its highest point in the night. The next events happened as usual.
"Enter," Aria murmured under her breath. It took strength to speak loudly, a strength she did not have.
Soon after, the door creaked open and closed. The sound was followed by the soft tapping of leather boots on the polished ceramic floor, each reaching closer to her than the one before. She didn't need to turn to know who had entered. The rhythm of his walk had engraved itself in her dull ears. The faint scent of the earth that would overtake the wind when he was near had become familiar to her nose. A part of her now wished she wasn't so tuned to his presence, making the elf prince easier to ignore.
"I heard you have begun training with Commander Elora?" Elvin's bass voice questioned with concern from near the bed.
'So now he decides to grace me with a conversation,' Aria barked in her head. Nevermind all those moments that she tried to get even a single word out of him. It felt like trying to milk a cat. A male cat. Her gaze stayed focused on the chandeliers, which shimmered from the moonlight. Anything to not look into those silver eyes, and see how they would shift to evade her. "You do not need to stay tonight. I doubt I will be able to find enough sleep to have nightmares."
