The Changeling

Chapter 8

"Alaska, may your father and I speak with you, please?" Queen Ensley requests when I open the bedroom door from her knocking. 

"Of course," I nervously reply, chewing on my left thumbnail - a nervous habit of mine. 

"Stop that," she demands, pulling my thumbnail from my teeth with a deep frown. 

Opening my mouth to let loose a rude comment about her not being my mother, but I quickly snap my mouth shut before I could say this. I know if I do, mum will be disappointed with me since she raised me to be better than a rude, hurtful comment. 

The Queen raises an eyebrow at me, almost like she is challenging me to say whatever I was thinking. When I still don't comment anything, she silently turns to the right to lead me to the thrown room where I figure we are having our conversation with the King. 

Taking a deep breath as I step into the thrown room, I slowly exhale when I notice King Sol sitting in a chair with an empty chair next to it up on a raised dais. What has me calming slightly is mum is standing off to the side slightly, and Eilonwy and Kingston are there, too. 

Queen Ensley sits on her thrown next to her husband, giving everyone a cheerful smile as King Sol begins to speak; "Hello Alaska, we want to speak with you about your decision about staying or not."

Snapping my gaze over to mum, she smiles reassuringly at me with a tiny nod since we spoke about this last night with Arizona. 

Focusing back on the Queen and King, I confidently reply; "The three of us discussed this last night, and we will stay under a few conditions."

King Sol grins at me as Queen Ensley raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me as I continue; "I will agree to be trained to take over the Kingdom, but I Arizona and I to train physically with Kingsley and Eilonwy. Mum wants to be trained with the lead doctor to become a backup doctor for emergencies. Now, I understand that you are my birth parents, but I need time to adjust to this fact, and not be forced into calling you mum and dad. Lastly, I want Arizona and my best friends to be allowed her occasionally, and treated nicely."

The King instantly smiles broadly at me as he turns to make eye contact with his wife, and they have a silent conversation for several tense minutes. 

When they finish, they turn back to me, and both are grinning broadly as King Sol says; "We agree to all of your terms. We only need to work on your negotiation skills some. The three of you are staying then?" 

Nodding with a tiny smile; "Yes, we will stay."

"Perfect! We will start your training this afternoon," Queen Ensley happily states, her smile widening. "We will start off with etiquette." 

"What kind of etiquette training?" I carefully ask, trying to figure out what they are exactly expecting from me on this subject. 

"You need to have correct posture, your appearance in how you dress and style your hair, and you need to have perfect manners, things of that nature," the King answers. "Nothing you can't handle. Then this afternoon you and Arizona will begin self defense training with Kingsley and Eilonwy. This weekend if you would like, your friends can stay."

Brightly smiling at then in thanks as Sol stands clasping his hands together loudly; "Let's go out into the garden to begin your lesson."

Giving the Queen a tiny smile, I engulf mum in a large hug before leaving the room with the King, Kingsley, and Eilonwy. Entering the garden, I am instructed by Sol about my posture for an hour, a very long hour at that. Then we moved onto manners - what is expected of me while dealing with the people of Shaylah, and those in the castle. Lastly, we worked on how I am expected to dress. All in all this lasted for four years, and now I am mentally tired. 

We have lunch with everyone before Kingsley and Eilonwy begin training Arizona and I in basic hand to hand combat. About the time we start this, the King, Queen, mum, and the Princess are sitting on the bench that is along the wall in the training center to watch. 

"Okay, we are going to start with the basics, and work to complicated moves," Kingsley says in his deep voice. "First off is your stance, feet need to be shoulder width apart, and your weight needs to be distributed equally between your feet. Now, what is your dominate hand?" 

"I am right handed," Arizona answers with a grin, and Kingsley nods in reply before looking over at me. 

"I am ambidextrous," I shyly admit with my lip between my feet not knowing if they can teach me how to fight this way. 

"Okay, that isn't a problem," Kingsley says before looking over at Arizona. "Arizona, I need you to place your left leg forward slightly with your left arm up in a defensive position like this."

Kingsley shows Arizona exactly what he is saying, and Arizona copies him. While Kingsley corrects Arizona's position slightly, Eilonwy shows me both stances while telling me to practice both to decided if one is comfortable, or if both are. 

"Alright, now that we have run through a few basic blocking and punching combinations, we are going to spare," Kingsley says with a glint in his eyes. 

Fuck.

"Alaska, you are with me, and Arizona, you are with Eilonwy," Kingsley says as he steps back three steps while rolling his shoulders and neck. 

Fuck, he isn't going to be easy on me. 

"Use everything we have taught you," Kingsley says with a nod at Eilonwy just before they both attack Arizona and I. 

Several minutes into this, I start feeling strange, and this feeling intensifies when Eilonwy roughly takes Arizona down to the ground. 

I feel this wave of intense energy blast from my body, rippling through the air in a visible manner. This wave of energy solely hits Eilonwy in the chest, knocking him backwards on to his back harshly. I vaguely notice Kingsley backing away as if I shocked him when he touched me, and his eyes grow large in shock. Turning my head slightly to look over at Arizona to make sure he is alright. When I notice a foggy mist encompassing Arizona and me, and when Kingsley tries to walk through the foggy mist, he is thrown backwards onto the ground with a loud thud. 

"Alaska, I am okay," Arizona calmly states as he moves to sit onto his knees, his chest heaving to catch his breath as he stares at with a reassuring smile.