Hidden Beast

6. The Dinner

Ruby

Glancing around the room as the clock shimes I feel dissapointed. The boy isn't here and one chair is left empty, is he sick?

I don't think so as the dad seems to be looking for his son to, where is he? Why is he late?

Suddenly a guard appeared in the arch and after him Jasper emerges. His hair is slightly ruffled like he has been in a haste and his clothes were slightly wrinkled like he had thrower them on without adjusting before he left.

Wonder what he had been up to?

Jasper

When I emerged everybodys head turns to me, I felt the embarrassment rise but instead to show it I lift my head up high and strolled to the empty seat by my father.

At the outside it probably looked like I didn't care at all but on the inside I felt embarrassed and I didn't like the attention at all, dad will yell at me later anyway so I will try to be happy as long as I can before the hell breaks loose.

"Ah, Sir Hamill glad you could join us" the king says smiling to me as I sat down in the chair.

"My apologies Your Highness, I seems like I lost track of time admiring the rooms" I told him politely, not really the whole truth but true enough.

Everybody at the table was studying us eagerly, listening to my conversation to the king.

"Don't worry, everybodys minds gets caught up in thoughts from time to time" the king said and I nodded.

"I guess you're right Your Highness" I said as I overlooked the food at the table.

Before the king could say something more the queen engulfed him in another conversation and his attention traveled away from me.

I didn't listen to the conversation at the table, instead I began eating the food I had been served.

My gaze sweeped over everyone at the table and I found that most of them were talking amongst each other, assessing their opponents.

Picking out their toughest opponents, most of them had probably attended this competition before and as I was new they were catious of me.

They didn't know who I'm and what I could come up with at the competition, they tried to figure me out the best they could right now.

As the dinner went on the groups began talking to each other, the talking hostile as they tried to figure out the new tactics they had come up with since the last competition.

I probably would have done the same thing, observing everyone if it weren't for that my gaze kept dragging to person sitting two chairs beside the king with two advisors separating them.

The Captain of the Royal Guard did sit here dining with us and I had a hard time concentrating on anything but her.

Sometimes I had caught her looking at me but when she noticed me looking at her she had quickly glanced away.

She was carefully observing everyone at the table, probably her job kicking in even when she was off duty.

She didn't had her armor on, she had a red, gold and black vest over a simple white shirt. Her hands were bare, showing a ruby colored ring clinging to her finger with the gold holding holding the ruby plate too the ring and her finger.

The ruby plate were formed as a circle and I could see something black under the red slightly transparent surface.

A movement caught my attention and I forgot about the ring. The king was standing up from his chair and looked out over the table at us still seated.

The most of us had already eaten up and was now only talking to each other but the voices quickly died down as they all took in the king, waiting to hear what he wanted to say.

When he had everyone's attention he began talking "As you all now a ball will be held in three days from now as an indication to the competitions start" he said.

Everyone was listening closely now, not wanting to miss anything he said if it could show to be important later.

"The day after the ball the trainings will begin. The first training will begin later that day as a start, your guards will escort you there when it's time" he said nodding to the guards placed around the hall, unemotional and quiet.

"The rest of the trainings will start early everyday and will end by dinner" he continued.

"The first test will be at the beginning of next week" he said and I heard that this speak was coming to its end.

"If you have any questions you can ask your servants or your guards. That was all I wanted to say, thank you" he said and then he turned and left the room with his guards at his heels.

The queen and the prince left quietly too with their guards at their heels. The captain then rose to her feet and left without a word.

Everybody was quiet for a second, taking everything in. Then people began moving, I sat still, waiting for everything to calm down before moving. Dragging out the confrontation with my father as long as I could.

When the room was nearly empty, only my father, the servants, the guards and me left I turned to face my father.

He had a grim look on his face as he said "Walk with me son" I nodded reluctantly, knowing I didn't have a choice and followed him out.

The guards followed us at a respectful distance as father led me up some stairs.

Fresh air fanned against my face as we walked through some doors and I saw dad had led me to a castle wall. We were walking at the stone wall, looking down to the garden several floors down.

Dad walked in a calm space, I knew he was tough of how to take care of this so called 'Problem'.

Finally he turned to me and I sighed, knowing this argue would not be pleasant and our relationship would be scattered across the floor when I returned to my rooms.