(5K words — 21 min. read)
Chapter Five
THE SKY WILDERNESS
I.
The next day, Ashley wielded her new blade against Evard with a shield.
"You can't be tired," the prince said.
The orphan wiped the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. The sword weighed her entire being down, and her legs now ached in spikes. She took her eyes off the prince and took a quick gander at her surroundings.
Above them, the great blue sky kept watch of the Loft. The people of Lorvale Dominion went about their business everywhere, legs straight and mechanical, with none caring to stop by to watch their spar. Their purple hair glinted under the intense sunlight and danced in the blowing of winds. The distant marketplace made close to no sound, save for the shuffling of crates and merchandise, and the smaller towers stood lighted against the morning, their doors opening and closing as citizens walked to and fro.
Ashley had always wanted to climb up Lorvale's supersize ring communities. Now that she was here, she saw it quite ordinary.
They sparred in the center of a great circular platform, built with white tiles. Patches of grass, flowers, and hedges lined up the outer edges, before them benches and tables that people occupied. They had their eyes glued at their work, however—papers upon papers, books upon books, quill and ink by the side. The platform connected itself from the bigger ring through a path lined with more plants and flowers.
Behind, the colossal main tower of the dominion rose up the skies, cutting passing clouds as they drifted by. Beyond the ends of the massive ring that they sparred on, more clouds loomed far and close, large and small, herding like cattle in a pasture. With a little peering over the railings, one could see the same narrow pathway that they took to the tower the day before.
Up by her ears, she heard the soft purring of Cosmo the flypurr, who hovered near her with her tiny cloudy wings, fluttering with newfound health. She fixed her footing and caressed the flying cat's fluffy fur.
"I'm not," she replied.
Prince Evard smirked. He raised his shield—an obsidian block carved sharp and strong, rising as tall as him—and slammed it ahead of him, making the orphan flinch. He watched her from a tiny opening in its heart with a ready eye.
"Then come beat me."
Ashley shook the tire away. She took on a sprint and, forcing the blade high up in the air, heaved it down in a heavy slash—
THUNK!
The blade bounced off the shield like rubber, forcing her backward. She fell on her back and slid against the rough ground. Evard, in response, sped to her and brought the shield down on her, stopping a mere inch off her neck.
Ashley watched her killer straight in his smirking emerald eyes. "Yay."
The prince shook his head. He brought his shield to his side and helped the orphan up with a pull.
Ashley slapped the dust off her dress. "Well, that was awful."
"It was." Evard nodded.
YOU ARE READING
The Celestial Princess
FantasyTo Ashley's grim misfortune, she grew up as an orphan in a town that hated orphans. For sixteen years, she lived under the hatred of the people around her without ever finding willing parents to love and care for her--and she is not surprised. Now c...
