𝓢𝓸𝓵𝓭𝓲𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓣𝓸𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻

𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰

Maddy woke up to a knocking on her door. She got out of bed and opened the door to reveal professor Sterling.
"Good Morning Maddison. I just came here to give you your training weapons, and to wake you up for your training sessions." 

The older man said and carefully handed the girl everything she would need. A sword and its protective sheath, two daggers and a leather casing to wrap around her arm, and a bow and quiver full of arrows. 

"Thank you sir. I'll be down in a minute." She said goodbye and watched the man walk away so she could close the door. The sun was barely up and she was not in the mood, however, she needed to prove that she belonged there.

So, Maddy put everything down on her bed and went to her wardrobe where there were another three options of clothing for her to choose from. The girl picked out a pair of flexible pants with a corseted long sleeve top paired with a pair of boots. 

She tied her sword sheath around her waist, her daggers casing tied around her arm and she figured that she wouldn't need her bow yet. With that, Maddy put her hair up into a ponytail and walked out of her room.

It took her a while to figure out her way throughout the building but she managed to find her way out to where herself and Tedros had been training the night before. The girl got a few weird looks as she walked over there but most of them were impressed that someone finally changed something about the school.

After everyone had shown up to where they needed to be the professor began to talk.
"Most of you know who I am, but if you don't then I am professor Sterling. I am going to teach you everything you need to know about protecting those soon to be princesses, and possibly your own kingdom." 

"Now the rules are pretty simple! You need to pass each lesson as they are all teaching you different things about how your life will be in the future. However, you can fail, and if you fail three times then.... you don't want to know because your not going to fail. Simple?" 

The man asked and everyone nodded there heads showing that they understood what he was talking about.
"We have also changed things up this year! We have our first female swordsman and I have heard about her skills, so you will not treat her any different then anyone else." 

Once Maddy heard him start to speak about her, she took a deep breathe and stood tall trying not to look small or weak compared to everyone else. She felt someones presence next to her and when the girl looked over she saw Tedros.

He was looking back at the professor but just standing there helped her nerves calm down. 
"Right, let's get to it shall we! I need two of you to showcase your skills. So, who wants to go first?" The professor asked and there was no way that Maddy was going first.

Well, the boy standing next to her had other ideas.
"We'll go first professor." Tedros smiled and mentioned to himself and the girl next to him who seemed like she was staring daggers at him.

"Perfect! Everyone out of the way." Sterling pushed the rest of the class out of the way so the two could go against each other. 
"Tedros. I am going to murder you in your sleep." The girl said through gritted teeth while everyone was busy moving away from the two of them.

"Maddy, you'll be fine. Just do what we did last night." The boy got his sword out and did a couple spins with it. Maddy took a deep breathe and did the same, trying to get the feel of the sword.

"Get into position!" Sterling yelled and the two followed his instructions. 
"Begin!" He yelled and Tedros immediately jumped up and went straight down for his attack. He had an advantage as well. Excalibur, however he refused to use it unless he needed to. 

She quickly countered his attack and did a back walkover, getting out of the way and attempting to kick his sword out of his hand. She stood back up in the correct stance and rushed towards him trying to hit him from a different angle. 

The two went on for a while until Maddy again, got sick of using her sword and in a swift movement had a dagger in each hand. She was in her element and Tedros now had a scared look on his face.

Everyone else was extremely interested in what was happening and by now everyone else had woken up and was walking around the school grounds until their classes, meaning that the two were on full display to anyone who would walk past. That was a lot of people who ended up just standing there, watching.

"C'mon Tedros, give me this." She hissed trying not to let anybody hear what she was saying as she ran at the boy, avoiding contact with his blade and attempting to knock him of his feet.
"No way. I'm not being beat by you in the first lesson." He said from behind her and she turned to face him.

"Fine. You asked for it." She smirked and ran but instead of trying to hit Tedros, she flipped over him and swiped his legs from underneath him, knocking the boy to the ground and leaving everybody speechless. Maddy took a deep breathe twirled the mini blades around her fingers in victory with a large smile on her face.

"I didn't need you to let me win. I did it on my own." She put the daggers away and walked over to give him a hand up. He took the girls hand and she pulled him to his feet. 
"That was brilliant! I've never seen anything quite like that!" Sterling crowded around the girl and congratulated her. 

"You two go to the archery and gets som extra practise in while you wait. Alright, who wants to go next? We need to get this done so we can get to the next lesson!" Sterling said the two walked away from the centre and two other people volunteered to go next. 

Once the two had walked over to the archery range and got themselves prepared, Tedros turned to look at the girl.
"Where the heck did you learn that move?" He asked and the girl turned to look at him.

"Nowhere. I had to figure it out on my own." Maddy turned and put an arrow in her bow.
"Nobody just knows how to do that stuff. But fine, let's see if your as good at this as you say you are." 

Tedros observed the girl in front of him. He hadn't really cared for what she looked like, even if they had spent so much time together already. Maddy took a deep breath and held the bow to her eyes so she could aim properly.

She drew the string back and straightened up and let go of the arrow. It flew in the air and landed directly in the middle of the target.
"I am generally aiming at trees when I shoot but a target works." She aimed the bow back at the ground and saw him.

"Well now I know something for a fact." He grabbed and arrow and aimed his arrow at the target. Tedros swiftly let go and hit right next to where the girls arrow landed.
"Oh yeah, and what's that?" She questioned the boy. 

"Your meant to be here. Your pure of heart." Maddy just looked at the boy with a strange look. 
"How do you know this?" She asked him again.
"It's prince's code. Your arrow flies straight if your pure of heart. It's always true." When the girl heard this it made her think. 

So she wasn't good at aiming? And it was all just this code that was always right? How was she supposed to think she was good at anything now? She really had to process what he just said. And Tedros could tell that what he had said affected the girl.

"I-it doesn't fully affect your aim. You still have to have skills otherwise your arrow won't even reach the target. And it doesn't affect how you use any other weapons." He tried to reassure but it wasn't really helping. Maddy was just standing there, rethinking everything about her life.

"Look, it's just a slight push to help you get the confidence boost you need to do these things. Trust me, you have skill and I'm sure the code doesn't even affect you." Hearing that made the girl somewhat relax.

"This place is so strange." She whispered to herself but it was loud enough for Tedros to hear.
"You'll have to get used to it eventually." He smiled and then went back to aiming at the targets. She looked over at the targets snd picked up where she left off. 

Maddy grabbed another arrow, loaded the bow, aimed, pulled the string back and let all of her emotions and frustrations go with that arrow.