Heir of the Sword

30 | Pacem

Pacem {Peace}

*Consider pressing the little star?*

Arya was half-asleep when she heard a light knock on her bedroom door. She bolted up quickly wondering who was at her door at such an ungodly hour. Groggily she got up to see a pair silver blue eyes staring at. Aaron was wearing a tunic and held a sword in his right hand.

He smiled when he saw Arya. "I was wondering if you would like to join me and some of the other knights for a morning practice lesson."

Immediately the sleep evaporated from Arya's mind. "Give me five minutes to get ready and I will join you shortly."

She closed the door behind her before washing her face and tying her hair into a tight bun. Then she slipped into a pair of tunic and trousers before strapping Anaz to her side. True to her word she was ready five minutes later.

Aaron cocked his eyebrows as she came outside. "That was fairly quick."

"I told you five minutes, didn't I?"

The pair of them walked together side by side as Aaron led them to where they needed to go. They did not go outside as Arya had expected but instead took a flight of stairs to a bottom level of the palace somewhere Arya had not been before.

"Where does this lead to?" Arya asked.

Aaron however did not reply and instead shot her a mysterious grin. Arya rolled her eyes but continued to follow him. They arrived at a rustic door and Aaron knocked three times. Sir Samuel opened the door with a pleasant smile on his face.

Arya entered the room and glanced around. The space was wide but it had been divided into different sections. One the right side of the room there were targets for archery as well as an array of bows and arrows to choose from. Beside that area were punching bags and mats placed for jousting.

There were a couple of knights practicing their hand to hand combat. On the left side, there was an area for swords with dummies that had been set up. Right beside that area was a knives station as well. The room was very well lit for being so underground with the sun seeping through the corners of the room. Arya was astounded at what she was seeing. It was like a secret underground training facility.

"This place is incredible," she breathed.

Sir Samuel smiled. "When we are not training outside, here are our indoor grounds."

Arya turned towards Aaron, "how did you find this place?"

The boy shrugged. "I couldn't sleep one of the days during the Heres Gladii so I explored the palace. I could hear sounds coming from somewhere so I followed them and low behold I came here."

Arya wanted to punch his shoulders that he had not shown this to her earlier.

Sir Samuel looked to the two of them, "Are you both ready to practice?"

They nodded and Sir Samuel led them to an open area. "You can put your swords down you won't need them."

Arya and Aaron both did what he said curious to see what they would be doing instead. Sir Samuel came forward and pressed two foreign sticks in their hands.

"These are called Kali sticks. Mostly used in the East but nevertheless, they can be very dangerous. The next step of your training would be learning how to use different objects. This way, in case you don't have your swords or knives you can simply turn a tree branch into a weapon." Sir Samuel explained. "The two of you will be dueling and the winner will be determined when the other gets tapped by the stick."