Phighting stuff, idk, lol

Royalty

First au I think (au ish)
Royal sword (Royal!Sword -?) and egobworder

Also, bc i can, Venomshank is the king of Lost Temple

the SFOTH gods dont exist exceot they do but at the same time instead their rulers. Also Icedagger would be a prince.

NAH HELP. KING DARKHEART-

+Sword+

In his opinion. Training was stupid.

What was the point in learning to defend yourself when there were always 5 guards either trailing right behind you, or practically stalking you from afar to make sure that 'The harmless prince doesn't get assassinated'  He wasn't harmless! He knew full well how to use his gear.

Yet his father still insisted he needed to train for at least 4 hours. Which meant the day would always end with him collapsing very un-royally onto his bed and then passing out, knowing with certainty that when he woke up, he'd have gained at least 2 new bruises.

Then again, if he gained new bruises every time he went to a training session, he probably wasn't good enough yet. But still! How was he supposed to fight four of the king's best knights at once and not get hurt? It was slightly easier when he had to fight one of his guards, because at least one of them went slightly easier on him, as well as always insisting to help him with his wounds. But Sword kinda-sorta forgot his name. Ego something. He felt slightly bad about it, but it was hard to remember every ones name. Even if it was a knight who worked practically side by side with him. Did he have memory issues? Maybe. Did he care? Not really no.
"Young Sire, your father is requesting you meet him in the arena."
He looks up from his therapy couch. (chaise lounge. Sword had one of those in his room bc he's royal, idk. )

"Please dont tell me its sparring" He starts, sitting up to face the knight.

"My apologies, but it is sparring."

He groans but stands up, the knight disappearing down the stupidly long hall that lead to the arena-type area where he always had to 'spar'.

By the time he had walked into the clearing, he could already make out 3 knights, their gears' already held in their hand or hands. He noticed the spar-board thing that one of the knights held. That was..good? Sort of. Ego'. The one knight that he thought cared about him not getting hypothetically drop-kicked.

"Your gear, Young Sire?"

He bites back a sigh, his sword appearing in his hand a moment later. "Do I really have to fight all of you guys? Cant i fight- like- each of you in turn?"

The knights stare blankly at him. After an uncomfortable amount of silence, one of the knights just hefts their spear.

"Begin."

He was not looking forward to beginning.

(Silly time skip. I avoid writing fight scenes bc i have virtually no idea how to write them without it being shit. I would rather write a car ride. and thats saying something.)

He collapses onto the sand for probably the fortieth time, wincing as he attempted to put weight on one of his arms that had a rather deep slash running the length of it.

"Enough. He did marginally better this time" The same knight that had started the session spoke.

He watches them file out of a different hall, one that led to another part of the castle and eventually to the barracks.

"Need help?"

He blinks looking up. Ego. He really needed to learn his name. -The knight had a chain-mail-gloved hand extended to him. He hesitates for a moment but takes it, almost immediately being hoisted up to his feet. "Thanks-"
"Anytime, Young Sire."
"You can call me Sword, yknow" He says as he walks back down that gods' forsaken hallway to go back to some other room, and, finally, to his bed. Where he could sleep.
"It is the wish of your father to call you by your proper title."
"Well. He can't hear us from the opposite side of the castle, now can he?"
"...very well."
"Anyways! Mind if I ask you something?"
"Anything, Young Si—"
"Sword."
"..Sword."
"Thank you. And. Uh. I forget your name."
"It's Egobworder. Now what was your question?"
"That- was the question."
"Ah."
Sword could feel the knight studying him, but he kept walking. He had no reason to explain why on Inpherno he forgot everyone's name.
"Your wings are in disarray, Si- Sword."
He stops walking. Blinking as he changed his posture so he could look over his shoulder, cringing as he saw how messed up his feathers were. More than half the plumage looked all muddy and brown, not even close to the usual white it was supposed to be. "Damn it, I just preened today!-" He huffs, attempting to shake out some of the dust on his wings. It didn't really work all that well, to his dismay.
"If you are fine with me entering your chambers, I would be happy to assist you with both preening and your wounds." Egobworder suggests.
Sword looks at the knight for a moment. The 'wounds' thing he was fine with. Preening? Maybe not as much. Saying as only himself and his father had wings, —excluding the other kingdoms' rulers— he doubted that Egobworder would have any idea in how to properly preen his wings. There was another thing he knew he was forgetting about completely, but he didn't care all that much. "Fine, but only if you promise to teach me how I can actually fight the rest of the knight's in your class."
"Deal. Although, if I'm permitted to ask, you fight perfectly fine, why do you seek this?"
"Because I'm tired of always waking up the next day-after-training sore!"
"I see."
Sword scoffs lightly as he walks into his chambers, flicking a hand impatiently to let Egobworder know he was allowed to enter. "I'll go get bandages, you stay here and do whatever the heck you do while wearing that heavy-ass armour." (Apparently wattpad is British, lol.)
When he returns back to the actual bedroom part of his chambers, Egobworder was polishing his spear-thing, but looked up when Sword haphazardly threw the bandages at him.
He caught them. One handed.
"...sit." Egobworder says, already unraveling the bandages.
He sat.
(Okay yet another time skip bc cax said I am allowed to put wing preening in this, so I want to get to the wing preening because I love it and it's amazing and I've learned so much about it. I read an entire wiki article on bird preening behaviours.)
He waits until the last bandage is finally wrapped and tied shut over the gash on his arm, glaring at the no-longer visible wound.
"Glaring at it won't heal it"
"Shush."
"I'm just stating the truth"
"That was an order—"
Ego' falls silent, so now he didn't have to listen to the knight talk. Yay.
"Your wings, Sword?"
"I thought I told you to be quiet—"
"You are not the king."
"He's my father—!"
"As you said yourself, the King cannot hear us from the other side of the castle."
Sword sighs, then chooses to switch topics. "Do you even know how to preen?"
"No. The King has select knights for that."
He sighs, yet again. "Okay- so- You see my tail?"
"Yes."
"Near the base of it, where the feathers start, there's sort of this oil."
"In the tail feathers?"
"Dock feathers, but yes."
"Alright—"
"You get the oil, and you put it on the primary and secondary feathers."
"Primary-?"
"Wings."
"Ah-"
"And once you do that, you have to sort out the feathers that are too dead"
"How do I tell?"
"Just run your fingers through— lightly —and the old feathers should fall out. Occasionally their stubborn and you'll have to tug them"
Egobworder nods slowly.
"Understand?"
"I- believe so."
"Good, 'cause I'm not doing that again."
Egobworder just nods again, removing his gloves and setting them neatly on the bed. Sword turns and lets his wings fan out to their full span, flinching as he both saw and felt how mucked-up they were.
Egobworder sets to work, following the instructions Sword had given him surprisingly well, sorting through most the feathers, occasionally pulling one out if it was genuinely full of mud.
Or, atleast he was doing well until he yanked out a gods-damned pin feather, causing Sword to first wince, then hiss, his wings snapping shut almost instantly. "Watch it!-"
"It was an old feather, wasn't it?" The knight seemed confused
"Did it look like an old feather?!" (I almost find those '?!' Things too angry, but phuck it, I'm using it)
"...yes?"
Sword opens his mouth to snap something. And then he remembers that he was letting someone completely inexperienced preen his wings. So instead he exhales, annoyed. "That was a pin feather. Those connect to blood vessels. And that phucking hurt."
"Ah. My apologies, Prince."
"That's a new one—"
"Think of it as an endearment"
"Ah— um- are you done preening-?"
"Yes."
Sword nods, checking over his wings before folding them in. "Thanks"
"You're welcome. Now. If I recall, you wanted training?"
He nods.
"Alright then, follow me back to the arena."
Egobworder was his new favourite knight.

Word Count: 1569
IM SORRY IVE BEEN SO DEAD
Also I had to re-work with the preening idea because sword and ego are not birds, so I couldn't follow the normal preening behaviour, but I still had fun writing it.
Also sorry, bc it's been so long, o forget if you requested them to kiss, cax
Anyways. Venomheart req is next.
caxmi_z