The Promise of the Dawn

Chapter Seven: Intervention

I stare up at the ceiling the following morning with a smile on my face, excited for what the day will bring, but my day dream ends when the clock on my dresser chimes six am. I curse under my breath, jumping out of bed and throwing on my uniform, then rushing out the door.

I really need to start getting better at keeping track of time.

I tie up my hair loosely as I run down the path towards the Estate, then enter the training grounds, once again, out of breath.

The Duke stands there already, with Cael standing at his side. They both look at me as I appear, and I'm unable to identify their expressions.

"You really gotta start getting better at time management" Arthur says to me as I walk up next to him.

"Did you say something, Arthur?" The Duke questions, catching him in the act.

"No sir!" Arthur replies obediently.

"Really? Because that sounded an awful lot like talking" The Duke says, unconvinced.

"Drop and give me twenty" He eventually decides.

Arthur releases an annoyed breath, and drops down to begin the push ups.

"The rest of you know the drill. We'll start the day with combat training" The Duke demands, once again scattering the crowd and leaving me alone.

"Welcome back, newbie." Cael says as I walk up to him.

"One of these days I'll get here too late and my welcome won't be so pleasant" I joke.

Cael laughs and offers me his arm, which I take gratefully, allowing him to lead me out to the middle of the field.

"Here, take this." He says, throwing me a wooden staff, which I catch effortlessly.

"Now, first off, you need to familiarize yourself with the weight of your weapon. Try swinging the staff around a bit" Cael suggests, demonstrating what he's asking me to do.

I follow along with his movements, my eyes fixated on the staff as he swings it around gracefully. I slowly become more comfortable with the feeling of the staff, until I no longer need to watch him to accomplish the graceful swinging motions.

"Good. Now try the attack position" Cael suggests, snapping his staff to his side so it sticks out straight in front of him.

I try to duplicate the movement, but it takes me a few tries to accomplish the same sharpness of his.Once I've mastered that movement, Cael begins showing me different types of attacks, and exactly how to counter each one, and soon I'm blocking and dodging each of his attacks.

"You're a quick learner" Cael says in surprise as we continue to fight.

"Yeah, well, I had a good teacher" I reply.

He looks up at me, momentarily distracting him from the fight. I step behind him, positioning my staff across his throat so he's pinned between me and the staff.

"See? What did I say? You're already mastering your tactic" Cael replies.

"I wasn't even trying" I reply, releasing him.

"Hey! You two! Get over here!" The Duke yells at us from across the field.

Cael and I exchange confused glances, then start off towards the Duke.

"Just what do you two think you're doing?" The Duke asks us as we approach him.

We exchange another glance of confusion as he asks us this.

"What do you mean, My Lord?" I question.

"You know exactly what I mean" The Duke replies, stepping aside to reveal Arthur.

The second I see him, I roll my eyes.

"Arthur here says you agreed to be his partner, so you can imagine his confusion when he saw his partner training with someone else" The Duke explains.

"No offense, father, but Arthur wasn't exactly welcoming to her yesterday" Cael steps in.

" 'Welcoming' isn't part of the curriculum here at the Estate. If she wishes to stay in the program, she'll train with the partner she was assigned to, whether she likes it or not" The Duke replies.

"Now. Lets see what you've been working on together" The Duke finishes.

"Father-"

"Silence, son. Go return to your studies" The Duke interrupts, gesturing for Cael to walk away.

He mouths: "sorry" to me before walking back up towards the Estate.

"Now. Where were we. Oh right. Show me what you worked on yesterday" The Duke says, stepping back to watch us begin to fight.

I set myself in the stance Cael taught me, swallowing my fear as the fight begins with Arthur swinging his staff at me, which I dodge, causing him to stumble forward a bit. He quickly recovers from his stumble and charges back at me, swinging and stabbing his staff at me, but I counter each of his movements how Cael had taught me, and I quickly advance on him.

Arthur eventually catches up to me and puts me in a headlock, but I slide down his body, removing myself from behind the staff and shoving his shoulder, which catches him off guard and hurtles him towards the ground, where he lands on his back and I position myself on top of him, like he had to me yesterday.

"Well... that is... remarkable" The Duke says with a slightly impressed tone.

I stand up, turning my back away from Arthur in hatred, but he just lays there looking shocked.

"Great job you two, keep up the good work" The Duke says to us before moving onto the next couple.

Arthur sits up from his defeated position with a grunt.

"So you mean to tell me you learned all that in barely a day?" He asks me as he sits up.

"It's crazy what an actually supportive partner will do for you" I reply coldly.

"You mean Lord Cael? You really think he would actually stay to be your partner? He has more important things to do than train some strange girl from the village how to be a Guardian" Arthur replies.

"And I'm sure the Duke had better things to do besides train a misogynistic asshole how to be a Guardian, yet here we are" I snap, drawing the attention of a few observers towards me.

Arthur looks at me with disdain, unable to find words to shoot back at me. He opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again, like a goldfish gasping for air.

"Yeah. That's what I thought." I reply to his inability to speak.

"You know, maybe instead of training to be the best Guardian, you should take lessons on how to be a decent human being" I finish, turning around and beginning to walk away.

"I'd suggest starting by pulling that stick out of your ass!" I yell to him as I walk away, resulting in stifled laughter surfacing from the small groups of people gathered around us.

I shoot him a playful smile over my shoulder after I say it, but he looks slightly less impressed by my comedic response.

Ugh. Try hards.