Ancient Cardos: The Knight Life

Chapter 5: Smoked out.

I laid in my bed inside my square dull room that had a practice dummy in it. I practiced my swings on it. Tiring my arms out. Trying to get faster and stronger. Why was this so much harder than a normal knight?

I pulled my shirt and looked at my waist where Jason hit me multiple times in the ribs area. It was bruised badly and so was my stomach where he had tried to stab me. "I hope you like sleeping." Is what all the knights told me. I can see what they meant.

I tried to stand out of bed, but I had to use the wall as a balance. I struggled getting to the door, but I got there. I opened it and saw nobody down the long hall way. All the torches were lit. It must have been night. I walked around the halls for a while and walking got easy again the longer I walked.

I made it back to the fighting area and there was nobody here. I walked over to a weapon rack and grabbed a wooden sword. I practiced on the dummies for a while. Each swing was painful because of my side bruises. The stomach bruise was hardly noticeable.

What was noticeable, was my terrible swing motion as I tried to work around the painful areas.

The pain didn't lessen at all. I kept practicing because a dragon wouldn't hesitate to kill. If it saw me struggle it would jump on me and take advantage of it.

"Yet she still trains?" A voice echoed throughout the room and it made me jump and I dropped the sword. It hit the floor and echoed throughout the silent halls. It had been completely silent until whoever it was showed up. I turned around to see Darwin standing with his arms crossed. I could barely see a smile across his face.

"Well, it's clear that I suck at fighting." I said in response and picked the sword back up. "You are just out skilled against these knights who trained their whole life." Darwin tried to cheer me up a bit, but it wasn't really working. He went over to the weapon rack and picked up a sword as well.

"I trained my whole life as well. I even killed wild animals. I'm just their test dummy. I don't think I can handle this anymore, Darwin." I picked my wooden sword from the ground.

"Why? Because a couple of older fighters kicked your arse and chocked you out. Did you not kill a bear? Kill pigs when your family was low on food. You have blood on your sword and skill in your veins. Yet, because a few knights with greater experience defeated you, you want to toss it all down the water well." He held out his sword like he was getting ready to attack.

Darwin went to strike at me and I blocked it with my own sword. "Why don't you rematch Jason. If you think about it. You can beat him." Darwin swung at me again and again, it turned out to be a sword fight that lasted a while and then our swords broke against each other. The wood was cheap and fragile. Who made these?

"I did train Jason as well." Darwin kicked over his broken sword and began to leave the room. I was shocked from his sentence. "You did what?" I could not believe it. Me and Jason trained by the same man. Darwin didn't even respond he just left. So I left and went back to bed. I was kept up most of the night that was left.

I thought about it for a while. "If you think about it. You can beat him." How am I suppose to beat the top knight here when I'm the worst. Everyone worships Jason like a god. He had more skill and his two sword tactic was something I've never seen. Which is why Darwin is probably up to something. Preparing me for the unexpected.

A few days had passed again and I was back in the ring against Jason. We both used one sword as usual. "Ladies first." He said again.

I stepped forward this time. I knew he would swing back at me right away when I blocked. So instead I stepped back and swung through the air. It was a useless swing, but it shows I adapted to his usual moves. We reset out stances. He stepped up swung again but this time it was down towards my legs. I held my sword downwards and blocked it.

Jason leveled off his sword with my chest and swung violently. Instead of blocking, I stepped aside and lunged forward to stab him in the chest.

"Well what the hell." Jason said clinging onto his his sword. "Why does everyone hate you being here?"

"Point 1 Claire." The announce called out.

"Because i'm a girl." I said. "No one gets the idea that a girl can fight if she wants to. I want to slay a dragon and I will." I glared at him and he started to glare back, but he had that look in his eye like he was impressed.

"Let's race then. First to kill a dragon wins. Dragon scaled shield as proof." He said holding out his hand. We shook hands and agreed to terms. "I will beat you Jason. Because I have a dragon in mind."

He raised his sword and I raised my own. The knights outside the cage began to cheer me on for once. I only won one battle. I'm not the best yet.

I ended up losing again, but not as bad as before. I hit him in the face and broke his nose. He tried to break my arm during the Hand to Hand, but I got away from that and ended up being choked out again.

I sat alone in my room eating my stew slowly that Darwin had made. He had left back to Faldin while I stayed. I wondered if anything new happened there. I also wonder if my parents had got home.

Some knights came running through the hall in a frenzy. My door was open and one of them stopped to tell me to leave the area. I just followed them in their running. "What happened?" I asked them. My voice scratched my throat as I talked. Jason really messed it up.

A knight looked my way. "It's Ash, one of the greatest dragons, and one of the oldest. He's burning down Roden."

We kept moving and smoke was entering the rooms and filling the top of them. We came across a hallways and stopped to see the wall had a hole through it, showing the outside world. Across from the hole we saw a burnt corpse with a sword laying next to it. The armor looked roasted and crisp. Which meant Ash sent a direct blast into the knight that had no idea what was coming.

I looked out the hole in the wall and a giant grey and black dragon was flying high above. The whole kingdom of Roden was in flames. Giant smoke clouds filled the air. Even the flames were high on the castle walls. This place was going down. It is the fall of Roden. Two kingdoms down in weeks. What are the dragons up to?

"We have to keep moving Claire." A knight shook me from my thoughts. I listened and followed them. "There is an underground exit we built. In case of a dragon attack. It will take us out of the kingdom, everyone else will just have to find a way out."

"As knights are we not suppose to help the people in the city?" I questioned them, but they all ignored me. I didn't have my armor. I couldn't help them.

"Claire...we all admire your enthusiasm to being a knight, but we are all in training. We can't do anything here."

I wasn't pleased from the response. He was right. We were only just training. The dragon would kill us.

We got to the exit and they let me through first. It was a rock tunnel stairway that led downward for a while then leveled off. It was also a small tunnel. My head could touch the ceiling if I jumped. It would have been dark if we didn't bring torches. I was somewhat freaking out in the tunnel as I lead the group through it. I know why I was up front. If something happened, I would get hit first.

We had walked for a while in silence and we finally found the exit. I got out of the tunnel and saw it all. Roden in complete flames. The knights came out and bowed to their kingdom. I did the same even though it wasn't my home, it was a friend.

I turned to see the knights had all their swords raised in the air. I went to grab my mine and join in, but I left it in my room. I didn't know we were being attacked by a dragon and that we were escaping. We were only knights in training. I'm just full of making mistakes.