It's the day. Today I will be shadowing the Arrows in training as for once I won't be completely avoiding my duties. I'm waiting by the Enchanted Garden, ready to meet Zaffera and tell her that I'm the King of Arrow. I feel a distasteful sensation whenever I consider myself such. . I'm too young and clueless to be King and barely competent compared to Father. It also comes with acknowledging my guardians' passing. I have already rhereased the same script in my head a number of times when I finally see her make an appearance with a warm smile as she waves towards me. I can't help but smile back as in vain I try to subside my rapidly increasing heart rate.
"Hey...?" I greet but it comes out as more of a question which makes her laugh in confusion. At least she's good at diffusing awkward situations. 'It's time to rip the bandaid off' I think before I say the following words, as my palms get clammy and sweaty.
"Here's the thing, my guardians were the royals of the kingdom and since their pasising such responsability has been passed down to me as heir.... Nice weather today isn't it!" I quiver out of my mouth with an annoyingly high pitched voice in one breath which makes me wonder if any of my words were actually clear.
"Oh... I didn't know you were the King of Arrow. I know very little about around here since I'm from a distant neighbouring Kingdom," she speaks content, bringing her hand to the side of her face, as though she's caressing her cheek.
"I figured as much when you arrived here with a ship," I giggle finally letting loose a bit, "I have to shadow training today, and I was thinking that you could come with, if you would like to of course." I scratch the back of my neck in nervousness. I'm not shy, at least I wouldn't consider myself so having never had much opportunity to put it to the test. But for some reason I get really timid at times talking to her. I don't want her to make an assumption of me knowing I'm King now. We don't know each other much at the moment and one of the things my guardians have taught me well was the importance of first impressions, after that things should be a lot smoother.
"Lead the way!" Zaffera steps to the side allowing me to invite her into the palace. She seems rather excited in spite of her attempt to to mask it with a straight face. But I can see her her mouth arching upwards a little and her eyes sparkle joyously. I feel a lot calmer now. She didn't take it badly, in fact I don't know what I was expecting to begin with. This is all so new. Having told her a little more about me I'm only more curious to know more about her. I wonder where she is from and her background, but I reckon it's too early to ask. A few minutes later we have arrived the training camp.
"Fire!" screams an arrows from the top of his lungs and cannon ball is launched which shoots at the same direction of our entrance. I instinctively throw myself forward to move Zaffera away from trajectory. To my supprise she doesn't need my help as she summersaults forward avoiding the missile completly and gently landing on her two feet with grace. For a second is as though she manipulated the time and the fabric of her clothes take their time to respond to gravity. She then turns around announcing 'this is fun' with her thumbs up eager to do more. I freeze on the spot for a little longer confused at what just happened and a nudge forward from Klaus carrying a wagon with the equipment distracts me back to reality. Here I notice that some of the arrows are surrounding her and asking her all sorts of questions. Even here she seems confident and at ease like she is used to situations like these.
"I've trained with soldiers my whole life, my guardians are quite protective of me and wanted to acertain that I could defend myself in a battle..." I hear her say.
I walk towards her with Klaus trailing right behind me pushing what looks like a heavy wagon. "This is Klaus." I point at him and he bows in sign of respect.
"Master, this is the equipment you and your friend will have to wear for the next stage of training. We are heading to the simulation area and this will ensure you will not get hurt." he says handing us some stretchy black leather custumes and some weapons form the wagon," I'm guessing you will find this next step quite straight forward Zaffera given your experience in training with soldiers." Klaus always speaks in formal tone and hearing him say her name towards the end feels odd, almost even more odd than hearing him refer to a friend of mine in a context that excludes himself.
In the following hours we are practicing precision archery and spotting safety while running in battle simulation stations. This means a lot of stealth and accuracy on grounds that aren't very safe which complicates things, as well as split second decision which could end in fatalities if thought out wrong. Everything seems to be going quite smoothly and quite frankly I'm having fun handling the weapons the arrows train with. That is until I get distracted and miss the landing I was meant to take for a successful cartwheel and accidentally twist my ankle instead in an unnatural position.
"Are you okay Master? I saw that you missed the landing" approaches me Kenzo with some bandaids on hand ready to help me. Kenzo's role as an arrow is to help in aiding any wounded solder as well as protecting his team. He's named after the Japanese word for healthy and wise respecting the title of his role. I nod and force myself to standing which fails slightly and I limp towards the benches to take a seat.
"How do you mess up a cartwheel?" wonders sarcasticly Zaffera with a sonorous laugh. I roll my eyes and look away to show annoyance when I'm really trying to hide the pain being caused by my bruised leg. With an ice pack Kenzo has provided me with, I'm massaging the bruse to relieve the swelling as I try to tune out my surroundings. Unfortunately the ladt part isn't possible as Zaffera carries on with joking.
"It's a cartwheel!" She continues and then kicks her feet forward and begins to demonstrate how to do one properly but then stops as she realises that I'm not in the mood for jokes at the moment. She walks back towards me and apologises. He moods quicly changes and a sadder expression accompanied instead. "I'm used to diffuse pain with laughter, I do get that some moments are best kept in silence though." Her eyes darkened and I feel like I might have pushed my annoyance a bit too far.
"I did mess it up pretty bad didn't I? It was my first time training with the arrows though so I feel quite good with how I went..."A beam screeps its way back on to her face after I speak. She then sits next to me and starts poking the ice pack resting on my leg as she mumbles the melody of a song.
'This is nice.' I think when she rests her head on my shoulder. I can get used to this. As usual though any moment of happiness is short lived as and earthquake is felt making my icebag fall to the groud ans splash on the puddle it produced. Zaffera quickly stands up and say "I need to go" before disappearing in the distance.
She looked panicked.