Undiscovered Origins

Undiscovered Origins - Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

            After finishing her training with Lorimer she hoped to study in the druid and dryad lifestyle but it had been a false hope. The leader of the council wished for her to continue her training and now she was required to take swordplay lessons. Jade felt the bruises and scrapes across her arms from the training exercises from the past day and heavily sighed. The sword master had not been lenient on her in the slightest showing her parry after parry of offense and defense.

            Outside the cool wind brushed across her face causing a slight shiver and she took in her surroundings. Leaves trickled the ground scattered around old stumps and living roots. Their colors were of red and orange and even though they were dull it still out masked the rest of the surroundings. She noticed a small humming bird circling above seemingly to stare at her. Jade smiled and held out her hand where the bird landed gently on her finger. She froze for a moment taking in the bird’s beauty before shaking her head from her daze. Her mind kept circling around the nature that surrounded her and even though she felt depressed without Drake near, the forest life seemed to keep her satisfied.  

            Jade arrived at the sparring field and observed those that battled before her. She had changed to her battle armor that consisted of tight leather upper body armor, and a leather skirt that let her legs show. Nobody in the city seemed to enjoy life and spent most of their time practicing different styles of attack on each other. The town seemed more like it was preparing for war than being a safe haven for all of the half breeds. In fact there was hardly a smile to be seen besides the satyrs when she had first met them. Everyone else around her seemed to be far more concentrated on battle tactics. The strange thing was that some even seemed negligent to learn combat training but learned it nonetheless.

            Her former trainer wasn’t there that day and she was supposed to freestyle with any she chose, but it was still required that she attended. It didn’t feel like a safe haven or that she had any choice over her free will and it was haunting for her. She did her best not to dwell on the thought.

            She did not go forward and find somebody but watched as each person picked contestants. It reminded her of a dance floor the way the men would walk up to the women and ask for a dance, but this was for a fight. It was unsettling in a way to watch formal battles between the sexes. A sign of relief touched her face as she realized everybody was partnered up except for her. The moment didn’t last for long however because as she turned around she nearly rammed into a man.

            He was young, only a few years older than her, with long wavy blond hair that hung just below his shoulders. His eyes were sparkling blue like waterfalls pouring into a stream. He smiled at her as he grabbed her arms to keep her steady from falling. The smile was flawless and it made her head spin as she glanced at it. His eyelashes were long, longer than any girl’s she’d ever seen let alone a man. He had bushy eyebrows that were dirty blond to match his eyelashes. His face was dirty with a few black streaks from dirt above his scruffy face.

            “Hello my Lady, I am sorry for causing you a disturbance.” He said shyly.

            Her body tingled at his words that were innocent, yet strong and sexy. His voice was deep and he reminded her of the voices of the old trees of the forest. She realized his hands were still clutching her wrists to hold her steady and that’s when she noticed how cold he was. The temperature outside was already a horrifying low but his body was far below freezing and her entire body shivered. He glanced down to his hands at her wrists and quickly withdrew putting them in his torn pockets.

            “I am sorry my Lady, forgive me, sometimes I forget.” He said with an icy blue blush streaked across his cheeks.

            “What is your name?” Jade asked staring at him in wonder.