Court of Feathers

Twelve

Word Count: 2,304

Shiro never recalled Lance ever showing them a training deck, but he doubted the room could've been made for anything else.

Multiple rows of weapons lined the far wall, sporting everything from bows and arrows, to spiked bats, to swords. The room was at least two to three stories high, he could see the glint of an observation deck tucked in a corner of the room, high enough to be out of harm's way of any fighting happening below, and like the majority of the rooms in the castle, it was lit by some unseen source, magic.

Princess Allura already stood in the center of the room, a large staff gripped in one hand as she watched the two enter slowly, both of them still looking around the new room. Her flowing dress she had been wearing the day before was swapped out for a tight suit instead, her long white hair pulled back in a tight bun, her gaze hard and unwavering.

Shiro was surprised to see Lance leaning against the wall by the door, engrossed in playing with a sharp-edged looking arrow, the quiver was strung around his back, blue feathers sticking out from inside, the bow itself sat stung loosely over one shoulder as the prince picked at the arrowhead with a concentrated frown.

"Good luck, lads," Coran whispered behind them, the double doors suddenly slamming closed behind them, shutting them both in.

"Can you fight?" The princess asked, getting straight to the point, well, it sounded more like a curious demand without losing any of her harshness towards the two humans.

Shiro nodded his head, but at the same time, Keith said "No" and Shiro deflated, if the princess really was trying to get to know if they were spies or not, being told two different things at the same time wasn't exactly helping their cause.

"Grab your weapon." She gestured to the wall behind her, and Shiro's brain just about shorted out. There were too many to choose from, he didn't even know where to begin looking. Keith seemed to though, and he hesitantly followed the teen right past the princess and stopped in front of the large wall, pale hands instantly reaching out for a red and white sword situated at about shoulder length in front of him. The handle was strangely set for being a sword, but Keith seemed to handle the weapon well enough without poking somebody's eye out.

Now it was his turn. Shiro surveyed the wall uncertainly, he knew how to handle a gun, but, looking at the weapons in front of him, there wasn't a single gun to be found, not even a handgun and Shiro's brows furrowed as the thought hit him. How could these avians defend themselves for as long as they have without any heavy type of machinery?

"Is there a problem?" The princess spoke up from behind him as he stared puzzled at the rows upon rows of weapons in front of him, not finding a single thing that he could see himself using well without taking an eye out, either on himself, another person, or both.

"No, there isn't any problem," he paused, looking over them one last time before finally looking behind him and meeting the princess's fiery gaze, "but I don't see any guns."

"Guns?" Lance's voice echoed through the room, and Shiro peered over the princess's shoulder to see the teen walking towards them, "we don't have any guns here. The Galra have them, but they're too dangerous to use here."

Annnnd, he just dug himself an even deeper hole with that statement he realized, Shiro could practically feel the princess trying to incinerate him with her stare, probably even more suspicious now that he just mentioned the one weapon that no one here seemed to have except for the one race that he was trying to convince the princess that they were not a part of.

Great.

Just perfect.

"Is our lack of that particular weapon going to be a problem for you?"