Sparks

♕ Chapter 3 ♕

The next day, a knock on the door woke me up. A servant--dressed in black, of course--informed me that they were going to lead me to the training room after I was ready to go. I closed the door and looked in the closet for a change of clothes. I found the training outfit, which was in black, and slid out of my silk white nightgown. After I took a shower and changed, I pulled my hair into a ponytail and brushed my teeth.

When I reached the training room, the servant wished me good luck and took off. I wondered why everyone warned me to be careful…. It wasn’t as if I were going to die, right? I looked around. There were many weapons around the room. In front of me, bows and arrows were hung up against the wall, and on the left, there was a table with a row of swords and daggers on it. The right side had another table with many axes and small bombs on it. The bombs had sections labeled, “Grenades”, “Smoke Bombs”, and “Stink Bombs”. In the middle of the training room were a row of human dummies, which looked disturbingly lifelike.

I walked toward the table filled with swords, but before I was halfway there, I heard a whoosh, and a dagger flew right in front of my nose. I jerked backwards and watched in awe as the dagger embedded itself into one of the dummies. “You need to improve your reflexes,” Alexander said in a hard voice. “If I had aimed for your head, you’d be dead now.”

“Well it’s a good thing you didn’t then!” I said in a chirpy voice. He ignored my reply and ordered me to get a bow and arrow.

I fought an urge to roll my eyes and grabbed a silver one with a design of flames on it. The matching set of arrows looked deadly sharp and I hesitantly pulled the strap over my neck and under one arm. I slid an arrow out of the sheath and tried to aim at one of the dummies. The arrow missed the dummy by five feet, which I didn’t think was that bad, but Alexander just shook his head. “Let’s try an axe,” he suggested.

I tentatively picked one up and turned to him. “Try to hit me,”  he said, looking bored. I raised an eyebrow, but swung the axe. It slipped out of my grip and somehow managed to hit a dummy in the heart. I grinned, but Alexander just frowned. “You didn’t even come close!” he shouted.

“Look, I’m new at this thing,” I said defensively. “I don’t know why you have such a terrible attitude, but I haven’t even tried all the weapons yet!”

“Fine,” he said, “I bet you won’t even be able to get close to me with a sword, much less a dagger. I don’t know why Queen Olivia wanted me to waste time on you. You’re not very good at anything.” That stung. I picked up a sword that felt right in my hand and turned around.

“Maybe you shouldn’t judge me when you don’t even know me,” I hissed, charging at him with the sword. He dodged my first blow and darted for the table with the swords and daggers. I attacked him when his back was turned, but he swung around and countered my attack. He kept pushing me back, and it was all I could do to avoid his sword. The sound of metal on metal made me cringe, and soon I was backed up all the way to the axe and bombs table. “You’re worthless,” he sneered. I fought back angry tears and instead reached behind me and threw the first bomb I could get my hands on. Right at his face.

 

KABOOM! The grenade blew up in his face and I was left standing there with a sword and a beheaded body on the floor….. Just kidding! Back to reality….

 

The smoke bomb hit his face and he was blinded for a moment. I thought of a quick plan and grabbed more smoke bombs and ran, dropping them as I went. Soon, the whole room was filled with a thick, gray smoke, and I left. Like a boss.

I knew if people were searching for me, my bedroom would be the obvious place to look, so I decided to take a walk around the castle. I found the sleeping quarters where the servants and guards slept, and also realized that the other wings of the castle were exactly like the East Wing of the castle. There was a door at each end, where I presumed other people Olivia took a liking to lived.