Rabecca.

A Great piece of News.

"Goodwork. Keep working on your speed. Your Èpèe and Foil are up to par, but you're little slow with the Sabre." Albert, my father's old valet told me and I grimaced with displeasure.

I looked to where my father was. He always came to watch this kind of things. Right before he insisted that I spar with him and he knocked me flat on my rounded rump.

"I noticed that as well. What do you suggest we do?" My father asked directing his question to my uncle Emmerret, whom I had yet to notice until now.

"Human Kinetics?" My uncle smiled and I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"Strength exercises." He continued, "After that we can work on her stance and I am sure the rest will slowly follow."

"What is human kinetics?" I chanced a question.

"As you can tell the word is made of two words, human and kinetics." Uncle Em responded and I scowled at him in response.

"I can tell that there are two words, but what do they have to do with me?" I challenged.

"Wait for it little princess. I like to be thorough and that was just a little introduction."

"Fine, go on." I huffed. I did not understand why everyone had to keep on calling me little, but I knew that if I pursued that line of questioning right now, it would take forever to have my questions answered and I was not feeling very patient at the moment.

"As I was saying, where the word human reffers to our bodies, kinetics or kinesiology for that matter is the scientific study of the movements associated with that body. The human body." Uncle Emmerret told me and I furrowed my brows in deep thought.

"So you are telling me that if I can work on my strength, then, my power will increase as well?"

"Undoubtedly." He responded before adding. "But you also need to work on your footwork to make sure that you are light and nimble and also well balanced. Infact, swordplay is more like a dance. You just need to find your rythm and keep it."

Somehow his words seemed to make sense and as I planted my feet on the ground, ready for Albert's next round of assaults, I hoped that I could pull off putting that fresh insight into some sort of use. That would surely surprise them and then, maybe, I could earn my own genius title just as Thomas had at my age. At my age? Who was I kidding? By the time he was five he had already debuted as an academic genius. It was wishful thinking to imagine that I could beat even with intensive training.

"Not now princess. I believe that our time is over and your father is waiting to spar with you." Albert told me and grudgingly, I bowed before him, mostly out of respect more than anything, while still formulating a plan of attack for my dear old daddy.

"What are we learning today?" I asked as I turned to the other two gentlemen. They appeared awfully complacent and even now as I looked, I realised that my father was not wearing his training gear.

"We are not learning." he confirmed my fears as a scowl wormed its way to my face. If Grandma Lena could see me now, she would rightly be disgusted. After all, she was a firm believer that too much frowning could cause one wrinkles, which was very unacceptable for me as the crown princess. 

It was a ridiculous notion obviously, but sometimes I was very much tempted to believe her. Take auntie Minerva for example, she was way younger than my mother, but because she was constantly scowling, comparing two of them, you would think that she was the elder.

"Rabecca!" My father called me to attention and for a moment, I worried that in my reflections I may have missed something quite important. I did not voice it but he gathered as much and began explaining again.