A Cinderella Story | Dream x oc

Chapter 7

After a few weeks, I felt stronger than I had in a long time, although the small pain in my back kept flaring up. I tapped Skeppy on the shoulder as we walked out of the dining hall after breakfast. "I want to train." I told him, hoping he would understand. He nodded, and led me to an enclosed arena. There were two rooms branching off. I assumed one was an armory and one was a weaponry. He led me to the one on the left, a room full of weapons. He gestured for me to pick one. I chose a simple iron knife, like the one I'd been using for ages.

"Are you sure you want to fight me?"

"Yes." I answered simply. We took up our stances, and rushed at each other. I spun as he was about to hit me, and he rushed past. He recovered quickly, putting his knife up to block the attack from mine. I pulled away and we paused for a moment, before resuming our deadly dance. He went on defense, instead of taking multiple opportunities to take me down. This infuriated me. "Stop going easy." I growled, slashing at him. He didn't doge fast enough and the knife hit his with a loud clang. His knife went flying, but I ignored it. I knew he let me win, and it angered me to no end. I didn't need anyone going easy on me, I needed someone to fight for real. The pain in my back flared up, making me wince noticeably. I threw the knife in my hand, and it embedded itself halfway up the blade into the wall or the stands beside the ring. I stormed out of the arena, ignoring Sapnap's confused look as I thundered past him. Skeppy tried to chase me, but I was small and easily hid from him and got away. I ran all of the way to my room, passing Clay on the way there. He reached out to try to stop me, but I didn't want to talk. I dodged him, still furious, and saw Skeppy at my door. I swiveled around, running to a place I knew nobody would find me. Clay was the only other one who knew about it, and he would hopefully understand my need to be alone. I turned a corner and saw Clay stopping Skeppy from chasing me, I sighed in relief and continued running until I reached the greenhouse Clay had shown me. It was old and overgrown, but I liked it. I opened the door and inhaled the sweet scent of the many types of flowers growing there. I grabbed a watering can and started sprinkling the soil with the infused water. The gardeners had stopped tending to the place at Clay's request, leaving it for me alone. He told me that the flowers never wilted and came in every color and shade, not just the normal white, pink, red and yellow. They belonged to his mother originally, and she'd left them to him when she died. The door creaked open and Clay's voice broke the peaceful quiet of the garden, "Artemis? Are you in here."

"Where else would I be?" I said. He walked through the rows of plants until he spotted me. He joined me and silently pulled out a knife. He started cutting through some of the stems, removing the crowded and choked flowers. Without a word, he cut off a small purple rose and placed it behind my ear. I sighed, hearing his unspoken question: What's wrong? I answered, "He wouldn't take me seriously. All I wanted to do was train, and he just went easy on me. All I want is for him to fight, because otherwise I can't learn. But he has to go and let me win. He easily could've beat me, I purposefully gave him plenty of chances to win, but he kept the fight going until I ended it. Then I threw the knife into the wall and now there's probably a hole there." I ranted, slamming the watering can on the table and waving my hands in the air in anger.

He simply leaned against the side of the table and listened. Once it was clear I was done, he walked over and gave me a warm hug. "He wants to protect you. He's hoping that he'll be able to protect you well enough that you'll never need to defend yourself. He cares about you."

"He wasn't there for an entire year. Neither were you." I said bitterly.

"And I hated myself every day at the thought of you being alone. So utterly alone. I shut myself away from everyone whenever I was here, which wasn't often. I was always looking for you or planning on where to search next." He told me, still holding me. He walked over to a bench, pulling me down with him as he sat. He pulled me closer and tucked my head under his chin. We stayed like that for a while, enjoying the peace of the garden.