In the morning, when I have just gotten in bed after a full night of planning something nearly traitorous, my mother bursts into my room.
"Saoirse, you were marvelous!" She cries, throwing open the curtains. I shudder when the light hits my face. I forgot that I had to get up today.
"Your moves were flawless, except for when you stared at your fiancé and he fumbled, that—" She says smiling at me, "was just plain dirty." My mother, who is the daughter of the greatest Master of Aikido said to have ever to existed, has now taken on her father's title. She teaches me, and I plan on becoming her successor as well.
"You look like you haven't slept at all." She says taking my chin in her hand and looking at the circles under my eyes. "You look sort of like a raccoon." She giggles, and I swat at her.
"I didn't sleep at all last night! Try sleeping when you know you're getting married to someone you've never met."
"Take this up with you're father, not me." I have already voiced my complaints many times with her, and she's getting tired of it.
"But he'll never listen!" I say, exasperated. "What am I supposed to do? You're more reasonable and you won't even try!" I sit up in my bed, and then think better of it and let myself fall back down.
"Saoirse, darling, I can't do that, it would c—" I cut her off.
"Cause bad blood, I know. But I don't care. Which is also a sign I'm not ready to rule!"
"You'll learn." My mother says, condescending as ever. I give up. I guess Imrie and I will have to run away.
"Fine."
"Now! We have a tour of the Castle in an hour, and I'd like you to get dressed in this." She pulls out a loose tunic and pants out of my closet. I smile. I can't be mad at someone so unconventionally elegant for long.
"I'll knock em dead." I say to her.
"Good." She answers back.
After I get dressed my mother does my hair up in a bun, and then I do hers. This is something we have done for years, after our time together wasn't deemed a necessity. She goes to meet my father, and leaves me in my rooms for some time alone. Although I don't get much of it. A knock on the door, or rather, multiple poundings on the door, and I find Kaire waiting for me outside.
"Hello." I say. I try and hide my confusion and fatigue, but it obviously doesn't work. "You look tired. And not happy to see me. I thought we could practice Aikido together, since we're both planning on taking the title of 'Greatest in Existence'" She laughs a bit and a smile comes across my face. I forgot I told her that over dinner.
"Ok." I close the door silently behind me and she leads me to what I think must be the training grounds, but no. It's a willow tree. Both Emer and Kansai are there as well as Imrie.
"Hiya!" Kaire shouts to them as we approach. Emer and Kansai giggle, and Imrie cracks a joke about how informal she is. Them acting so at peace with each other, I let myself joke and laugh with them as well.
"Alright!" Kaire shouts after half an hour of chatting. "Time for the matches to begin!" We all stand up except Emer, who starts scrambling backwards to watch.
"He's the Ref. I'm the announcer as well as one of the fighters, and you all are just fighters." Kaire gives us our roles in this "game" and then picks out matches.
"First it goes Imrie against me, and Kansai against Saoirse, got it?" We all nod.
"Then GO!" She yells, and starts pelting Imrie with attacks. He fights much better than I thought he would've considering his performance. I turn my attention forward and rush at Kansai, feigning an attack. He blocks, and I grab his arm and wrap it around so that I'm behind him. He tried to do a kick from behind, but I just kick his knee and he falls. I pin him and grin. "Saoirse wins!" Emer yells, and then starts poking his brother, who I still have pinned. I look over at Kaire and Imrie and see that their battle is still going on. Imrie throws a series of kick punches and then a kick, Kaire pushing his leg down so he has an awful stance. Imrie puts the weight into the leg in front of Kaire and flips, giving a knife strike to her neck, but she's to quick, and she turns to her left and dodges, then lands on him hard knocking him to the ground and pinning him.
"If you had only fixed your stance. Tsk, tsk, tsk." She says, smiling at him. He smiles back, you can tell that they've had many fights like this, always ending with Kaire giving him advice.
"Kaire wins. Again." Emer says. Kaire gets up quickly, and dusts herself off.
"Well now, it seems the final match is between you and me. Emer announces when we start." I nod. We choose our stances, and then Emer yells, "GO!"
We race at each other, and Kaire gives the first punch. I doge to my right, but she expects this and does a 360 kick towards my head. I duck, and grab her still-in-motion leg and pull downwards, she falls, but manages to twist herself hands towards the ground so she can spring back up. I run and flip over her head twisting myself so that I face her back, trying to kick her in the neck, but it's a little too ambitious, and she dodges easily and pins me down. We both laugh.
"We should train together more." I say happy to have found someone to fight.
"Definitely," she says grinning, "although a flip, twist, and roundhouse altogether might not work like you want them to." We both laugh and the three boys stare at us.
"Kansai, Imrie, stop wagering your food. You'll never beat either of them." Emer says playfully.
And after that we talk, and the four of them lead me to their favorite spots to be in the castle grounds. We laugh and share jokes, and it's dark out before we return to the castle. Kansai exclaims about how he didn't remember lunch, and Kaire elbows him gently. I decide that I like it here with my four new friends, friends that laugh all day and invite me to have made-up tournaments.
We all bid each other goodnight, and then go to our rooms. I find my door open and my parents sitting on my bed.
"Hello?" I say, confused.
"You forgot about the tour." My father says. He doesn't look annoyed though. In fact, he looks quite pleased.
"You made friends!" He yells and tries to pull me into a hug. This one I have time to dodge, and I pin him to the ground with a kick to the knee. My mother rolls her eyes.
"So, have you taken a liking to your little Prince?" She looks at me, and smile spreads across her face.
"I've taken a liking to all of the royals. All the ones that are my agw, at least." I say. I start getting excited. "Did you know that we had matches against each other and I won the first round? And so did Kaire, and we fought and she beat me!" My mother's eyes widen.
"Really? That's wonderful! Now you finally have someone your own age who can beat you. You should train together!"
"I'd like that very much." My father is lying on the ground under my foot, and he makes some muffled noises. I let him up.
"I'm so proud of you!" He says. I smile a bit, and then my mother laughs.
"We'll leave you be now." She takes my father by the arm and pulls him out my door and down the stairs. He grunts as he tries to pull away, but to no avail. I laugh at them, and shut the door.
I really don't want to leave them. But I really don't want to get married. Yet. I flop onto my bed and cover my face with my hands.
"What a predicament." I mumble to myself. I'm really tired, and somehow sad and happy at the same time. I made friends, but I'll have to leave them soon. I guess it's a problem for another day though. Or at least till the end of the week.