Sol's Shine and the Kingdom of Fire

Chapter 2 Swords & Daggers

A twenty year old girl with long, brown hair was coming out of her room. Sol's sister, Crystal Lumer was now walking down one of the corridors in the castle. It was late at night and she was in a rush to get somewhere, hoping no one will notice. No one was around but she still felt uneasy. She pushed open two large doors and made her way outside. She immediately saw Marvin, her own twin brother waiting on the other end. "Oh! Marvin. What are you doing out here?" She asked. Marvin had his arms crossed and was leaning up against the railing. "I should ask you the same thing. I've noticed that you always seem to sneak away at night lately. What's going on?"

Crystal shuffled her feet a bit. "You know about that?" Crystal said. Marvin stopped leaning up against the railing and walked a little closer. "I didn't really care at first, but it seems to be happening every night now. Where exactly do you go?" Crystal had to think of something quickly. "I... sword train in the forest a lot." Crystal said. Marvin just tilted his head. "You already train with me and Sol. Why are you creating extra time for it?" Marvin believed what Crystal was saying. "I just... take it very seriously. There's a chance I may become a queen so I really want to be strong enough to protect our kingdom." Crystal said. Marvin only smiled. "Don't worry about that right now. The festival is only two days away. If you've been training every night then I think you should just relax."

Marvin turned around and looked over the railing. "Why don't you come with me and watch Sol get some extra training instead." Marvin suggested. Crystal was confused. "Sol gets extra training too?" Crystal asked as if this was a huge surprise. "Only on this night though. I've heard from the other knights that Sol skipped out on training again. Now he's getting extra training from Daika. His friend is joining him too." Marvin said as pointed at the training grounds below. Crystal could already see Daika carving a wooden sword with a knife. Sol could also be seen coming out from a pair of wooden doors with an athera following him.

"Alright! We're here! Whatcha got?" Sol said as he held his arms wide open. Brook sat his bag by the wooden doors and looked down at the dirty field. Daika looked her head up a bit and grinned. "You boys finally showed up." Daika got up and was walking to the other end of the court with Sol and Brook following. "Bring it. I can handle anything you throw at me now!" Sol said as Daika immediately tossed a wooden sword to him. The hilt of the sword ended up hitting Sol's face and the sword fell to the ground. Sol just held his nose for a while. Brook came over to Sol. "Are you ok dude?" Brook asked. Sol looked at him. "See what I mean?" Daika got a second one out and looked at them. She only chuckled. "You were supposed to catch it blondie."

"You can't just throw weapons." Sol complained. Daika pointed at one of the target rings against the stone wall. A bunch of throwing knives were seen sticking out of them. She looked back at Sol and raised a brow as if she didn't need to say anything to prove she was right.

Sol tried to ignore the targets. "Let's just get started." Sol said as he picked up the wooden sword from the ground. Daika went over to Brook so she could give him the second sword. Brook held the handle tightly and just looked at it. "Am I holding it right?" Brook asked. "You can figure that one out on your own." Daika said as she went over to the wall. She sat down on the ground just to watch both Sol and Brook. This made Sol confused. "What are you doing? I thought we were fighting." Sol complained. Daika laughed again. "Hahaha! You two are fighting. Don't start to think that I'll be doing anything this time though." Sol just looked back at Brook who looked even more concerned and looked back at Daika. "You can't be serious. You want me and Brook to fight each other?" Sol was shocked.

"Relax hun. These are wooden swords, they can't be that sharp." Sol just lowered his sword. "You're telling me to hurt my friend?" "It's not that bad. Look. Your friend is already in position." Daika pointed at Brook who was holding his sword out in front. "This is how you hold it right?" Brook asked again. Sol just walked over to him. "Are you sure you really want to do this?" Sol asked him. Brook nodded. "We just got to avoid the head right? I'm sure it'll be fine." Brook reassured Sol.