The Princess and The Dragon

Chapter 2 - The Treaty

   Even though I had not been chosen, I was determined not to give up. I spent even more time in the armoury, training into the early hours of the morning, with one thought keeping me going: now I had more time to improve. Randa had convinced my father to let 'her brother' train in the palace grounds, because I was so much smaller than the men who trained in the city grounds. I could always enter the race the following year. I could perhaps even beat Captain Cirimgor when that time came. 

   In the two days that followed the Captain's disappointing announcement, I had driven my frail muscles to a point where I could barely move them at all.

   On the third day, I was busy training with one of my newfound favourite dummies when an unexpected visitor arrived.

   "Alain Thastrin?" Captain Cirimgor called. Everyone in the training room looked at me.

   I froze in place, a luxury the dummy in front of me would not tolerate. Gears continued running within it, and I was punched in the stomach with such force that I fell over backward.

   "Here," I gasped. 

   As the Captain approached me, I got up as hurriedly as I could, readjusted my hood and stood completely straight, my hands clasped behind my back.

   "Good morning, son," he told me.

   "Morning, sir," I replied, frowning underneath my hood at the pleasant greeting.

   "Two of the candidates dropped out. Would you like to take one's place?" 

   I felt myself grinning before I could stop it, "Of course!"

   "Out of all the others who participated, you were one of the very few who had proper footwork and enough wit to strategise, so now is your chance to show that to the rest of the kingdom."

   "It would be an honour, sir!" I said, "Who dropped out?"

   "Les'jus Rescir and Mathil Morra," he replied darkly, his head dropping slightly, "I'll tell you about it on the way to the dragon caves. Prepare yourself to depart tomorrow. I'll see you at dawn."

   "Yessir!"

   The moment I was sure that the Captain would not be able to hear me, I punched the air in excitement and high-tailed it back to my bedroom. Randa was not on the inside, but that did not colour my excitement. I marched to my closet and wrenched the doors open, retrieving a large duffelbag, dry foods I had taken from the kitchen, as well as a hairbrush inside. I heard a few knocks on the door and went to open them myself.

   Randa was standing on the threshold. I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her inside the room.

   "What is going on-"

   "I'm in!" I squealed. I lowered my voice to whisper. "The Captain just came to tell me that two of the candidates had dropped out, and I would be replacing one of them."

   "That's great! Why did they drop out, though?" 

   "Dunno."

   "Then are you sure it's a good thing for you to be replacing them? They might have been eaten by the dragons!"

   "You are not going to make me quit on this," I said, waving a scolding finger at her. She chuckled and nodded. "By the way, could you bring me a blanket and a few pillows? It would look a little suspicious if I used pink, flowery ones."

*

   Randa and I both sleep the rest of the day in order to wake up in the early hours before dawn. When the time came, we got up an hour before dawn in order to mask my face. She reckoned that people would start growing suspicious if I spent all my time wearing a hood, so she used all manner of makeup I was sure I had never seen before in order to disguise me as a man.