'Till Death We Will Fight

Chapter VIII

"Why don't we see what her majesty can do?" I am woken by Julius' voice and an uproar.

'Why do you hate me?'

'You need to practice.'

'You're trying to kill me.'

'No, I'm not'

'Yes, you are. If I were to fight I would die of pain.'

"Please your highness, I'll go easy on you."

'You go easy on me and I'll kill you.' As I climb from my perch I glare at him. One of the men hand me a sword. "If you go easy on me how will I learn?"

"Good point." He begins to circle me. "You shouldn't stand still." As he warns me he lunges at me and I am able to swiftly dodge his attack.

"Be the center of movement." I smile as I draw upon the knowledge the trees have given me.

He lunges at me again; turning I bring the hilt of the sword down on his back, barely touching him because it is a spar. "How did..."

"It's amazing the things trees can teach you."

Smiling he twists and hits me in the side with the flat of his blade, "And it's amazing what I can find in your head."

We continue this back and forth of hitting, blocking, shifting, slight wounding until we are both tired and out of breath. "It's a draw... if I wasn't in your mind I would have lost long ago.... how is it you are not in my mind yet you can still sense my next move?"

"You have a tell... are you fore fitting or do you want to make this fair by leaving my head?"

"I give up, I'm going to lose either way."

Smiling I nod and hand the sword back to the man who handed it to me. I can feel slight pain in my stomach and as I walk to where my father, Centiel, and jay are standing the pain grows. "You're bleeding, V."

I look down to see that as I walk there is a bright red stain spreading on the white bandages. "Well, that explains the pain."

After ushering me to the infirmary and making a big fuss over the wound we have settled at the head table in the dining hall. You know I never thought that men would make such a fuss over a female or a wound not to mention both. "How are you not worried about that wound?"

Looking over at Jay's worried face I give him a reassuring smile, "I can't be fearful of a small wound. If I was how could I take on Crastor without fear...plus it will heal in time and leave a scar to remind me of the memory."

"No one is expecting you to take on Crastor with no fear and I will not let you take him on alone."

Lastrance, who has once again taken his dragon shape, nods in agreement, 'I'm starting to like him.'

'Yeah,yeah... what happened to not trusting him?'

'I take it back.'

'Mmhmm.' I look down at my plate and let out a sigh, "Father, may I take my leave."

"You have hardly eaten." Worry is clear in his expression and I know that the knowledge that I haven't touched my food would worry him even more.

"I'm not very hungry tonight."

"Okay." He hesitantly nods and I stand from the table.

Walking out of the dining hall I am enveloped in the crisp night air. I take a deep breath and walk into the illuminated forest. Until I came here I had never even dreamed of leaves that give off light in the night.... some of the leaves give a green light, some blue, others red it is a magnificent sight to see. If you look close at some of the leaves you can see a pattern showing the name of its tree in an elvish marking. It's so calm here at night, all of the noisy, restless, and rambunctious animals have lain down for the night. With the tree's leaves lighting my way I come to an ancient tree in the center of the forest.

I sit with my back against the tree, my knees bent and my head leaning back with my eyes closed. I hear the flapping of an owl's wings and I open my eyes to see a large owl gliding towards me, I smile at the utter beauty of the creature. I am slightly startled when it takes its perch on my knee. It is quite a large owl... the name I cannot place. The owl ruffles its feathers and settles on staring at me, it's a little unsettling but I can't help but to stare into the large eyes.

'You are the one.'

I blink several times as a female's voice sounds in my head, 'What?'

'Don't be alarmed. You may call me Du'Enta, I am the spirit of the forest.'

As Du'Enta speaks in my mind the owl bobs its head with the words, 'Are you the owl?'

'I am, I thought it would be best if I came to you in a solid form. If you would accept I would like to stay with you and give you all the knowledge that I can.'

'That is a large task... you should only give that knowledge to someone worthy of knowing....'

'Are you saying that you are not worthy?'

The owl cocks her head to the side with a quizzical look, 'Yes, I am only a .... I am of mixed blood and up until recently I knew nothing of the real world.... in all honesty I may still know nothing of the real world....'

'That! That thinking is why I find you worthy! There are many worlds and many ways of seeing them but you question which one is real. You are worthy of this knowledge, do you accept it?'

I take a moment to think, as I am about to give Du'Enta an answer we hear a rustling from the direction I came from. I turn towards the noise to see Jay walk out of the dense foliage and Du'Enta takes flight staying just above me, "Jay?"

"Sorry, V, I didn't mean to scare off your friend..." He watches Du'Enta circling above.

"Oh, it's okay." As I speak she lands on my knee once again. 'I accept your offer Du'Enta.'The owl nods it head letting me know she's heard me.

"Why didn't you eat?"

"I wasn't hungry."

Jay walks over and sits so that he is facing me, "I find that very hard to believe, I think your father does as well." I look down and nod in agreement, "What's bothering you?"

"I just... I keep think, what if I never found that book...." I close my stinging eyes, "I wouldn't have been in my room and maybe I could have stopped Richard from killing my mother.... but then I still wouldn't know about my father or you or any of it....but then again they do say ignorance is bliss...."

I feel Jay's hand on my shoulder and I look at him, "We'll never know. Maybe if you didn't know, Morthren wouldn't have been there to get you here and maybe you and your mother would have died. You lived and that's what matters, you now just have to worry about yourself and not what could have been."

I give him a saddened smile and whisper, " 'Of all the words of tongue and pen the saddest are what could have been.' I never thought that was true but... here I am and I know it is."

Jay must have heard my whisper because his face clearly shows shock, "I didn't think you'd know something like that.... I didn't think women read about such things.....War is nothing a young woman should think of...."

"You say that yet I am the one who has to lead the rebellion into battle." I give him a small smile.

We spoke for hours about our readings and life in the 'human world', he got very upset about many of the things humans believe. As we talked I forgot about my sorrow and he made me laugh, it was nice to not be treated as a freak...... he sounded fascinated by the things we celebrated and how the kings and queens were supposed to rule and we forgot all about the upcoming war as we indulged each other with the tales of our people and spoke about our lives and homes.