A King's Guardian

>7<

Samson came knocking on everyone's door within the hour. Fortunately, the maid had rushed back with my fresh uniform, so I was now dressed and prepared for whatever task we were assigned today. All of the guardians were gathered in the same drawing room we were in last night. Servants set out platters of bread and sausage for breakfast with casks of water and small, squarish cups.

Banter filled the room while we ate. Isaac tried to jest with me until I relocated to another chair across the room. Seth knew better than to talk to me. Once most of us were done eating, Samson rose from his seat and called the room to attention.

"Good morning, Guardians. Everybody enjoying their stay so far?" he asked.

A chorus of positivity flowed around the room. He chuckled.

"I thought so. The townsfolk would think we were royalty from how wonderfully they've been treating us." Clearing his throat, he clasped his massive hands together and adopted a more serious face. "The king and city official have not yet come to an agreement on their matters, so we will be staying for at least another day."

I internally groaned. As lovely as the food and board was here, I longed to return to the Castle. I wanted normalcy again, in which the King never noticed me and the royalty of Wainsworth were no longer around to judge me for my gender.

"As such," he continued, "we will be running drills on the back lawn. I have already assigned station leaders to lead the drills. Dump your dirty dishes and follow sunny little Seth out."

The said guardian perked up. He gathered his breakfast utensils, so everyone else followed in suit. Isaac managed to catch me on our way down one of the grim corridors, to my disappointment.

"Whatcha think?" he asked while prodding my ribs.

I caught his hand and squeezed it as hard as I could until he whimpered and pulled back. "Think about what?"

"Staying here for another day? What else do you think?"

"What does my opinion matter?" My brows drew together in a scowl aimed his way.

"Oh, come on, Apphia," he said, nudging with his elbow. "Don't be such a priss. Unless you're on your monthly. Then I will—"

"Isaac!" I hissed.

A burst of laughter shot out of his mouth. "I'm just messing with you. We've been friends too long now for you to take me seriously."

"Oh, yes, of course," I scoffed while rolling my eyes.

"Stop being petty now, and tell me what you think. I want to know."

We emerged from the back doors of the Wainsworth castle and stepped into the master garden. The whole spread was lush with life and flowers. It came quite close to the garden back at the Castle. Something about the structured beauty of flora always stole my breath.

"I'm never gonna get an answer from you, will I?" Isaac snorted in annoyance and marched off.

I smiled to myself victoriously. If I wasn't in a bad mood, maybe his persistence would have been more tolerable. Once we'd navigated the garden and reached the back lawn, Samson divided us into groups. Each group went to a station, which had already been set up.

We ran the drills for about three hours. Over and over again. I was thankful, though, because I needed to practice my dagger-throwing more. It was my weakest area. Then again, I was also glad to practice archery. I just loved weapons. Perhaps to a fault.

Servants brought out delicate sandwiches and goblets of water for us to indulge in.
While eating, I noticed for the first time how my uniform truly was soiled with sweat now. The princess cleaned it in an act of kindness, I knew, but it was in all actuality a useless deed. My undershirt stuck to my spine and even itched beneath my kevlar in some places. Some of the others had removed their Kevlar already, probably because it was bulky and unneeded in the walls of the Estate.

I took the liberty of removing my own. Isaac whistled a moment later. Sometimes, I dreamt of what punching him in the throat would feel like. This was one of those moments.

"Don't stop undressing for my sake," he purred whilst batting his stubby eyelashes at me.

"Don't flatter yourself." I rolled my eyes. "I'm not the only one who's taken off the suit. It's hot out."

"Keep telling yourself that, sweetie."

Before I could even decide how to chew him out for that, Samson called us to attention again.

"Alright, Guardians, anyone up for a little competition?" he asked.

A roar of the Guardian chant sounded out in thunderous confirmation. I was slightly competitive myself. We all had to be to get here.

"You will each compete against each other in the drills." Samson's voice boomed as he added, "Whoever wins will receive an extra day's pay."

More hearty hollers were bellowed. I liked the incentive, even if it wasn't very much. An extra day's pay could afford me a massage, one that I badly needed. Most of my salary was sent to the orphanage I grew up in. I owed them essentially what I would have owed my parents if they had still been around.

We started with sword-fighting, using the heavy wood ones for training. The bigger guardians were eager to go first. It was volunteer-based, so I waited to be pit against someone closer to my own size. Swords weren't my finest art, nor would I voluntarily choose one as my primary weapon, but I could hold my own.

When it came to Isaac, he challenged me. I gladly grabbed a sword and stepped into the ring of cheering guardians. We had fought several times before, so I knew he was slow to retract his arm and that he never managed to block leg blows.

Samson gave us the go and he immediately lunged for me. Being smaller and more agile, I ducked to the side and brought the heavy weapon up to the back of his leg. The hit took his leg out, sending him to his knees. In a move as swift and elegant as I could be, I brought the sword to his neck.

They clapped and hooted for me, and I managed a small smile. Isaac smirked as we stepped out of the ring before draping a beefy arm around my shoulder.

"You know I let you win, don't you?" he said.

"Whatever you say." I shrugged his arm off. "You should know better than to choose me as your opponent, Isaac. Don't you want to stand a chance at winning?"

Snickering, he replied, "You just wait until we get to hand-to-hand, little girl."
I stuck my tongue out at him.

We went through the rounds of sword-fighting until someone else won. I had been defeated at the third round by one of the other more agile Guardians. Next was knife-throwing, which I actually made to the finals. Seth, unfortunately, beat me.

Hand-to-hand combat came after, in which I was challenged by Isaac again. Most of the other Guardians still thought me too weak; thus, they would make themselves look like a wuss if they challenged me. Isaac didn't care, though. His sole purpose was to make me suffer.

We were set loose in the ring again. Isaac started with simple punches and sidekicks. I was able to block all of them and even succeeded in dishing out a few harmless elbow strikes. Things were gaining velocity and power when I noticed a dark figure slipping into the crowd. My eyes caught a glimpse of the king's composed face.

Foolishly enough, I let it get to me. I twisted my hips while throwing a punch to Isaac's face, but he dodged and swung under my arm. My mind was still reeling from our unanticipated company, so I was slow to respond. Isaac took his chance to grab my waist and slam me to the ground. The move forced out my breath in a painful squeeze, and I struggled to recover.

It was too late. Before I could wrap my legs around his neck or strike him in the groin, he pinned my hands to my sides with his calves and straddled me to the grass. I glared at him as my cheeks reddened.

"What'd I tell you, sweetcheeks?" he taunted with a grin.

"Get off," I hissed.

"Isaac wins this round," declared Samson. "Now let her go, Isaac."

The idiot finally released me. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the stare I felt burning into me, and stormed off towards the castle. If the king hadn't decided to come distract me, I would have been able to beat him. I know I could have. Now even if I won the archery division, I wouldn't stand a chance at winning the entire tournament.