The Heir of Promises

Chapter 7 - Blaise

I lay on my bed, my legs sprawled out and I am throwing a ball into the air and seeing how close I can get it to my face before I catch it. While I do this I think about the next event, there is a ball on in a few days. I am to escort the princess along with Chris, even though we both know that she will just be with Chris, not me. and I am completely fine with that. I wonder the halls of the palace, scaling the yellow Intricate walls, you would think that the walls were just plain yellow with random dots and lines. but if you walk closer and focus enough, you will see small golden crowns, thousands of them. that cover the walls from top to bottom. I focus on them a little more until I heard a light pitter patter of footsteps. I turn my head and briefly see brown curls disappear behind a wall, that must be Sylvanna; The princess' maid. I slowly tip toe and follow the woman down the corridor, she turns a few more times and when I turn the third corner, I am suddenly pinned against the wall, all the air leaving my body. I gasp as I see Sylvanna staring at me, it was a dead sort of stare, the brown in her eyes seem to have no light. I hear a hiss and at first I didn't even acknowledge it, that was until I see a long scaly reptile slithering down her arm towards me. my eyes widen and I back up into the wall, even though I am already flat against it. Sylvanna gives me a look, then whispers something and the snake backs off, then she lets go of me. "what the hell was that?" I breathe as I watch the snake with great detail, it slithers around her neck and its head props up to watch me from afar. "you really shouldn't follow ladies around, you could be mistaken for a thief or a kidnapper" She says smiling, she doesn't let me speak anymore because she walks away down the hallway and through a door, I don't dare follow her from that point on.

I meet up with Chris later on, we do some training. That kid is getting better by the day, he can now hit the bullseye when he throws knives and he is getting more skilled at hand to hand combat as well. He still gets knocked on his ass from time to time, but he dodges well enough."Are we d-done yet?" Chris asks, I don't know how long he has had this stutter for, but all I know is one day he will be a great man who doesn't stutter once and can fight like a true man. "Soon, we just have to go through it one more time." I reply and he nods. We get in our starting stance, his legs are far apart and he holds his fists up. I kick his leg in because he looks as though he is about to do the splits. I stand in front of him and hold my hands up. He moves forward with little steps, then takes a swing at me, his fist goes to meet my face and I block it and pull his arm down with my hand. I lift him and pull him over my shoulder, letting him then drop to the floor. He gets little pebbles and rocks to the face and arms but he stands back up and dusts himself down. He goes to barge into me but I dodge out of the way causing him to meet the ground again. He gets up and tries again and again but I keep knocking him down. eventually He gives up and yields, I hold a hand out for him and he takes it roughly. "are you okay?" I ask him, dusting his back off and he lightly nods. we are quiet as we walk side by side back into the castle and Chris is watching the ground, I nudge him lightly and when he doesn't as muhc as crack a smile, i furrow my eyebrows. "hye bud, really are you okay?" I stop him and kneel down to look at him, "a-am I gonna d-die here?" he asks and i am stubbed. "no you're not." I say but he doesn't look at me, he doesn't believe me. "Hey, look at me." I say as I pull his chin up so he's looking at me, "you aren't going to die, I will protect you and so will the princess. she won't let anything happen to you." He nods and smiles, though his eyes start to water, "don't cry. men don't cry." He wipes his tears away, "O-okay." I stand up and we continue walking, in the distance I see a familiar head of black hair, alongside her is a woman with curly hair. Chris must of spotten them as well because his whole face lights up and he speeds his steps. "slow down buddy, you don't want to eat dirt in front of the ladies" I hold him back and he looks at me once before nodding and slowing donw, his expression not changing one bit. Once we reach them Chris speaks, "Dessie!" He says and he goes to hug her but she raises an eyebrow to him and he refrains. he then bows and kisses her hand, before she eventually pulls him in for a hug. "Hello Chris, how are you today?" she asks and then she sees the scratches across his knees and arms. "oh dear what happened?" she asks with concern and he shakes his head, "just t-t-training with Blaisie!" She frowns then looks at me as if I had only just arrived. "Blaisie?" I frown and turn away, "could you possibly be a little softer with him? he is fragile and young still." "I am not f-fragile!" Chris says as he jumps off her lap. She puts her arms up in surrender and he giggles. I glance over at Sylvanna who is sipping tea, she noticing my looking and holds the cup in the air as if shes saying hi, then I look next to her and in a basket her snake lies, my skin crawls. After a few minutes of Chris and the Princess talking, Sylvanna butts into the conversation. "I am sorry for interrupting, but my lady, you must be getting to your next appointment." she pulls out a sheet of paper and continues talking, "you have a stroll in the garden with Jacob Lio" The princess groans and huffs some hair out her face, "that man is a two faced bimbo." she says as Sylvanna gets out of her chair and helps the princess up. "he's not that bad, good eye candy" Sylvanna winks and the princess laughs, "no way, he is straight bad news, last time we went for a walk he didn't act like a man at all! he even let me fall into a pond when my foot slipped." Sylvanna holds her hand over her mouth likes shes holding in a laugh and the princess glowers at her, then looks towards me, "kind of reminds me of someone, hm?" I look at her and shrug, she ignores what I was about to say and looks down a Chris, "remember what I taught you? you have etiquette classes now, you show all of them boys up, show them your the man." Chris nods and the Princess gives him a kiss on the forehead before turning and walking away with Sylvanna, they link arms and lean in, sometimes I forget she isn't a fifty year old woman. Chris tugs at my shirt and when I look at him he's smiling, "lets go! I have something to p-prove!" I laugh and ruffle his hair, glancing one more time up at the princess who has now turned the corner, I then walk off in the opposite direction with Chris.