Serafina: Becoming a Princess

Chapter Four

A half hour inthalf-hourht nap, Sera could feel the presence of someone watching her. The unknown guest was moving quietly and slowly. Much quieter than if they had been one of Sera's guards. Fortunately, she was in her normal sleeping position by laying on her stomach with her hands in her pillows where her dagger hid. 

As if a bolt of lightning were passing through her body, Sera was quick to swing her feet over her bed with her dagger out and ready to kill if need be. Before her stood the woman that she had seen earlier that day dragging Cicero towards the Queen's wing. Sera wished that she could say that she was surprised to see the woman before her, but she had been in similar situations before where people would try to attack her, thinking it would bring peace to the country or some other such nonsense. 

The woman lunged forward with her blade. Sera was quick to dodge.

"Damn it, just die already," and the woman lunged again, her own small dagger in hand. Sera dodged again and started to fight back. It was not often that she had to fight for her life, the last time being almost two years prior, but her body reacted the way it was supposed to as if her muscles had never forgotten the memory of combat.  

Everything was happening so quickly and Sera appeared to be flawlessly dodging the attacker's blade. Then she felt it. The white-hot pain that came when one's flesh was torn open. Her assailant was right-handed and it was that hand that Sera was focusing on. But mirroring Sera's left side came another small dagger and pierced her side. She was cut off guard but not nearly as much as the happy maid standing before her realizing she may have accomplished what she had come to do. Through the pain Sera thrusted her head forward into the head of the other woman, with a crack of newly broken nose, and jabbed her own knife into the woman's right leg. The woman screamed in pain and backed up. 

Then more bodies burst through the door. Sera's ladies came and Leena was quick to  jump on the would-be assassin. Soon other guards, male and female alike, could be seen as well. Sera looked around herself to see them all. Her body was in shock and her adrenaline was pumping through her like a comet shooting across a night sky. She started hyperventilating and desperately started to look for a place to sit down. 

"Serafina!"  

She couldn't figure out which one had said it. The room was spinning and her lower half was drenched in warm blood, causing her light sundress to cling to her. She couldn't figure out if it was her would-be assassin's blood or her own. 'Is this what dying feels like?' she wondered before her fatigued body met with a hard thud with her plush carpet. Her eyes fluttered and she tried to stay awake and alert but soon everything went black and cold.