JADE
After I remembered things I didn't like to be reminded of, I dozed off 30 minutes later or so after staring at the ceiling some more. I heard the door open and someone walks in whilst I was resting, a trick that Rishab taught me, I stayed as naturally relaxed as possible. The person walked to me and squatted beside me and said,
"Training begins now", he simply said.
"I don't need to be trained again", I said back with my eyes still closed.
"That was not a request but order from your master."
"You are not my master, nobody is. In fact, isn't it near midnight?"
I opened one eye to look at him. When I did I met the intense green gaze of King Amon, who wasn't very pleased. He took my chin and brought me towards himself.
"I see you take pleasure in testing my patience."
"I can't seem to resist."
"You'll be able to once you remember the lives of your dear precious street kids are in my hand and I can whisk them from this world in an instant", he said smugly.
"Damn you."
"I'd watch my words if I were you."
I literally almost growled at him.
"It is almost noon, let's do this again. Training begins."
__________________________
I stood panting in the hot sun, drenched in sweat, whilst the king himself was sitting under a shade that had been mounted at the outdoor training grounds.
Doesn't he have anything to do right now? Apart from watching me run around?
An hour and a half ago I had been training with a bulky soldier in a hand to hand fight and that brought back a lot of memories but his esteemed Majesty decided he wanted me to run around the training grounds which was very big and huge. He made me go round it 15 times.
"Again", he said bored like he didn't know my lungs wanted to burst out of my body. He sat lazily in his seat, sipping water.
Why didn't I kill him the moment I met him? One of the things I regret not doing.
Having enough of this I said,
"No, I'm not going again."
He rose his eyebrow at me.
"Again", he repeated.
"I said no."
All the few servants present gasped at my nerve. What could I say? I was so tired, thirsty and more importantly hungry.
He stood up from his seat and walked to me, I stood my grounds even though all I wanted to do was collapse to the ground and sleep, maybe an eternal sleep.
What am I saying?!
He made a small gesture with his hand and a maid came for his robes as he took it off leaving him in white loose pants and very bare-chested.
Oh, la la.
"Okay if not then fight me."
For some reason, I couldn't resist the temptation. No one has ever owned me so someone claiming to made me want to hit him till my fists were happy. And I also didn't intend to look weak in front of anybody. Nobody. Never again.
"Better than running in circles."
He smiled a half of a quarter smile and asked,
"Hand to hand or swords?"
"Swords", I said pulling my wavy waist-length hair into a ponytail with a string I always have. You never know when a fight meets you.
What?
He nodded and did the gesture thing again. Two men came each holding two different but equally powerful swords. One, a slim and stealthy katana and the other, a curved masculine scimitar. Amon gestured for me to pick on. The decision was tough but in the end, I picked the katana. One of my favorite weapons, before shurikens.
"Good choice but can you use it well enough?"
"Yes I can", I said curtly, slightly annoyed at such a question.
How can you ask an assassin such a question?
He picked the scimitar.
"Then let's begin."
We took our battle stances and waited for one of us to make the first move. Unexpectedly the king launched an attack that dodged by only an inch. Annoyed at the slip-up, I attempted to clash my sword with his but he anticipated the move and parried. We swiped, parried and dodged many times then in the heat of the battle I couldn't stop the memory that was playing at the back of my head. The memory of Altair teaching me swordfight.
Clank clank
"Relax yourself, Jade. You're hitting with too much force", she said as she dodged the attack.
"But I'm supposed to hit hard, right?"
"You are but you aren't doing it the right way."
Then Altair made one strike that had my wooden sword sailing through the air to fall in the sand, far from me. I ran to get the sword, ran back and then began complaining.
"What am I supposed to do? This is the sixteenth time you have beaten me. You say hit then you say don't hit. You say chase but don't chase. I don't get it! What am I supposed to do?"
Altair sighed and shook his head.
"The key to proper sword fighting is to relax."
"But won't that make my defenses weak?"
"That's if you let yourself go. There's a difference between relaxing your defenses and relaxing in battle.
"I don't get it."
"When you fight with your emotions controlling you, that's not right. Though emotions make your attacks strong, they also make the attacks sloppy and cause weak points in your defenses which opponents quickly use against you. You get it now?"
I nodded then asked,
"How do I do that? The relaxing thing."
"Just try to imagine the day you felt so much happiness and dwell on that."
"But I don't even think I have had any since my family died."
"Okay then imagine your family was back to you and you had never been separated from them in any way."
I closed my eyes and imagined that Mama's singing, Isis Jasmine's laughter, and Papa's kind and sweet words were back again. A sense of calm rushed over me and I took a deep breath.
"Are you ready?", she asked.
I nodded then opened my eyes. Altair stood in her battle stance and I did the same.
" Again."
_______________________________
TGIF, everybody! Well to those who are on my side of the planet. I decided to write this cause I realized I'm not even halfway through the handwritten book yet. This chapter is dedicated to Silent426 Thanks for being the first to comment and help me with some mistakes I made in the story.
So moving on.
...........
Denying the king is equal to a death sentence so why is Jade willing to end her life quickly (apart from hunger, thirst and obvious tiredness) and why is Amon not beheading her? Does he have plans for dear Jade? Find out in one of the chapters I'll write.
..........
Even though I totally made up the name Amon it turns out it has a meaning and it is a Hebrew name. Oh, my GERD. No, that's not the meaning. Google it and find out.
And by the way,
I LOVE ANIME!
Not that you care or anything but I just had to let it out.
~Sayonara~