Hikari was unsure how much more she could stand of the vain boy prince staying in her territory, in her castle, and training with her father, and worse, training alongside her. It was frustrating to watch over the course of the next six weeks.
Hikari was outside at a distance from the castle in the forest, 'sparing' with Prince Takashi under Father's watchful eye. She loosely used the word sparing because she was genuinely trying to kick his teeth in. She had no doubt he was trying to do the exact same thing. Father watched them carefully, only intervening if one of them, well, if she, got too rough. She was stronger than he was. He was trained but only to a point of caution because he was the heir to the throne. While she was the lady of Alaric, her father did not worry so much about caution. He once warned her if she was not strong enough among the demons in the territory, they would walk all over her one day. She clearly won out, enjoying winning most of the time for a change, instead of Izo.
She felt so worn out and drained towards the end of the fighting, but determined not to let Prince Takashi get the best of her. She had him right where she wanted him. She knew, and so did he. She went in for the kill so to speak.
He was exhausted, just like she was. He threw his fist at her. She ducked under him, using her smaller stature against him. She kept low to the ground, and swung her leg around, tripping him up on his feet. He fell hard to the ground, huffing in frustration. She knew he might not stay down for long, so she was quick to jump on top of him to pin him down. She straddled his chest, ignoring the heat she felt at this, and pinned her forearm against his neck. He would not be able to wiggle his way out of this, just like last time.
He was swearing at her, but that's when she knew he was beaten. He was red faced and blustering. She slapped him across the face for good measure, and all the swearing he was doing.
"Hikari!" she heard from behind the two of them. She sat up straighter, taking her forearm off of Prince Takashi's neck. She saw Mother standing at a distance from Father. "Get off him," Mother ordered her.
Hikari shoved her way off of him, intentionally bringing a knee to his ribs. She stood up and stepped away from him. Mother always took his side in his exile here. 'He's safer here,' 'his parents trust you,' 'he needs more training,' etc. Six weeks on, it was getting ridiculous.
"Help him up, please," Mother demanded.
Hikari looked over at Father, who barely nodded at her. Ruefully, she reached down and yanked the vain boy up by his arm, even as he whined about even that. "I hate you," she said as quietly she could. Father would likely hear her words, but not Mother.
"Not as much as I hate you!" he yelled full on in her face.
That started the fight all over again. She ran at him, trying to tackle him. Her small stature was against her in this reactive attack. He took the chance to grab her by the waist, spin her, and throw her down on the ground. It knocked the wind out of her.
Mother intervened this time. She stepped between the two of them. Prince Takashi would not touch her. She was on his side, always.
He was whining all the while at Mother. "Didn't you hear what she said?" he whinged.
"I heard what you both said," Mother said calmly. "Go take a rest before dinner, my prince," she excused Prince Takashi.
"Yes, my angel," he grumbled out. He jogged away from them, towards the castle.
Hikari stood up, annoyed with Mother now. "We were fine," she grumbled out.
Mother gave her a disbelieving look. "You were on top of him, and slapped him."
"While he was swearing at me," she countered.
"You had won by that point, you should have let him up," Mother said calmly.
"Father stops us when we go too far," she countered.
Mother looked over at Father. "You should know by now how to stop yourself," Father added in.
"You always take the prince's side," she spat at Mother. "You always take Mother's side, even when you would disagree otherwise," she spat at Father. She fumed, annoyed by the all around betrayal. She stormed off towards the castle, even as she heard Father calling her back to apologize to Mother.
Hikari went straight for her room, locking the door behind her. Her belt with her knife sheathed at her hip knocked against the door, irritating her with its unexpected noise. She tore the belt off and threw it across the room. If she were not so exhausted, she would probably thrown a few more things. She laid sprawled out on the bed, annoyed by it all. She heard Father's voice echo in her mind, telling her not to come out unless she was ready to apologize to Mother, even if that meant no dinner. That had her raging tiredly, wanting to punch something, anything. She settled for hitting her bed.
She woke up with a jolt, unsure of when exactly she feel asleep. She awoke stiffly and irritably hungry. She looked out the window, seeing it was the beginnings of sunset. It always set so late at night this time of year this far North. The prince complained about it once or twice. She rose up, ready to go to Mother now to apologize. It would make things easier if she did as she knew from experience, even if she felt like what she said was true.
She went to Mother and Father's room, knocking on their door. She listened in, hearing Father shuffling to the door. "Where's Mother," Hikari asked, avoiding his eyes when he opened the door half way.
Father blinked sleepily. He looked towards their bedroom door. "She's asleep now," he answered.
Hikari's stomach growled loudly. "Can I wait until morning then?" she requested. She avoided looking at his eyes. She looked else where, seeing into the room behind Father. Her eyes lit on the couch in their rooms. There was a wrinkled blanket and a pillow laying on it. "Why are you sleeping on the couch?" she asked him. "How long have you been sleeping on the couch?"
Father moved to shut the door on her, saying, "don't worry about it. Go get some dinner and apologize in the morning."
She stopped the closing of the door with her foot. She felt a twinge in her foot from it, but ignored it. "It's all because of the prince, isn't it? Because he's here and that stupid treaty you signed-"
"Keep your voice down," he said in a tone that shut her up. "It's not something you need to worry about," he added dismissively.
She feigned defeat. "Yes, Father," she breathed out with pretend ease. "I'll be here first thing in the morning to apologize. She pulled her foot back. He shut the door without another word.
He bought it. She tried to keep her mind clear. She walked, not letting herself run, through the castle to the vain boy prince's room. She pounded on the door, waiting for him impatiently to answer the door for her. He shuffled to the door, opening it, shirtless. She forgot for a moment why she was there. Then her senses came back to her.
"Get out," she said quiet.
"What?" he asked her, rubbing at one of his eyes.
"This is my castle. You are no longer welcome here," she told him.
"That's not what your mother, the angel said," he countered.
"She doesn't like being called that and she doesn't want you here anymore," she half lied.
He narrowed his face at her. "You're lying," he called her out. "The angel wouldn't say that."
"Well, I want you out. I don't want to be here with you anymore. You've caused enough trouble as it is," she accused.
He went to shut the door on her. She stopped him with her foot in the door. He hit it more than once, but gave up in a huff. "I'm not leaving until my parents come back with a dark crone to free me of my engagement to you."
"No one else would have you. That's probably why your father made a deal with my father," she countered.
"I'd rather be without a wife than marry the flat faced, ugly likes of you," he told her.
She stared at him in disbelief at his harness. She slapped him across the face and then ran for it.
She ran down the stairs, through the front hallway, and out the front door in her rage. She ran through the forest towards the setting sun. She was not sure how long she had been running until she stumbled over a tree root and fell. She fell and stayed down, annoyed by it all. She was exhausted, hungry, angry, and just in general upset. Her foot that had been shut against two different doors was also beginning to bother her.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a gruff voice said from behind her.
She stood up in a rush, turning around. Two wolf demons, from the pack of bandits, stood before her. She blinked at them, actually not sure what she was seeing. They had rooted out the wolf demon bandits, though, on the Great Hawk Spirit's orders via Mother. Yet they were dressed just like the other bandits they defeated six weeks ago. She brought her fire dragon around her neck. Even that was difficult to do with how depleted her energy was. She panted just at the effort of doing that. She kept her eyes on two wolf demons before her. She reached down to her belt for her knife, but it was not there. She tapped her hips, feeling around for it. It was not there. She felt with both hands around the whole of her hips, but nothing was there. Her belt was missing. She felt ready to panic at that. It was never missing. She always had to wear it as back up protection. Father insisted. She wondered if the prince had knocked it off by accident when they were sparring earlier...
"What you doing, little girl?" a barking voice asked behind her. She rounded on the voice, seeing a third wolf bandit.
'Three of them,' she said to her fire dragon. 'But they were all dead,' she asserted. 'How are there three of them left?'
'Pay attention,' her fire dragon cautioned.
She looked back and forth between the three wolf demon bandits around her. She turned her body sideways so she could face them both. She stood at the ready, unsure how or if she should engage in this fight. She studied the three of them. Two had swords and one had a dagger of his own. If she could get any of their weapons, it would change the tide of the fight. Getting one off of one of them though, that was going to be the difficult part. Not to mention her foot was starting to throb.
"What you doing out so late, sweetheart?" one of the wolves drawled out. He took a step closer. She took a stance in which she could either run or fight in an instance. "Jumpy, are we?" he asked, pausing.
She began to sweat. Just the act of keeping her fire dragon around her neck was draining what little energy she had left.
"Are you lost?" the second one asked her.
"We could help you out, girly," the third one said. To his two other cohorts, he asked, "this is the one who's been sparring with the prince, isn't it?"
She held her breath, not liking what he was saying.
The second one commented, "we're supposed to take the prince captive though, some hussy."
She scowled at that. "I'm the Lady of Alaric," she told them confidently. "And you are in my territory, disturbing my people. I'll give you just this one chance to surrender."
They laughed at her at that, and loudly. She seethed, knowing if she had her spirit energy or her knife, they would die laughing. She turned, launching her tired, hungry, and injured self at the third wolf, standing by himself.
She charged at him, tucking and rolling at the last minute. She stayed low right up close to him. She swept her leg around, hitting his lower legs to knock him to the ground. She was at his side, yanking at his sword to haul it from its sheath. She managed to get it out, but felt arms come around her middle, pulling her up and off of the wolf demon bandit. She had the sword though, locking its hilt tight in her hand.
She kicked behind her as best she could, hearing a pained groan behind her. The arms around her let go. She kept the sword in hand, driving it up and into the wolf demon bandit around her. She stabbed him through the middle. She pulled the blade out, watching the now dead demon fall to the ground before her.
She turned around, holding her breath in panic. There should have only been two wolf demon bandits standing near there now. Instead, there were seven...
"Fuck," she swore. She let her fire dragon fade away.
"That's not very ladylike," one of the wolf demon bandits commented.
She held her grip on the stolen sword, turned, and ran as fast as her injured foot would let her in the other direction. It was so dark out now. She hoped the direction she started running was towards the castle or the village, but it was too dark for her to tell. She could hear footsteps coming up behind her. They were getting closer. She drew a deep breath, and then shouted for help.
The shouting slowed her down, enough for one of the bandits to over take her. One of them tackled her from behind, knocking the sword from her hand. They landed hard on the ground. The bandit that had her was quick though. She could smell his reeking breath up close and personal. He grabbed her by the bun of hair piled on the top of her head, hauling her up to her knees by this. Another one came next to him, binding her hands around her back. She felt a wave weakness wash over her. Draining wards. She cringed. Father said they were the worst. It took an equal amount of energy used by its wearer that they exerted, doubling everything. Breathing was took twice as much energy now, blinking was twice as hard now, etc. She was much too weak in her current state for this kind of thing.
"Aren't we supposed to take the prince hostage instead?" a bandit asked.
"She'll do," a new voice echoed around them. A velvety, man voice.
Hikari tried to turn her head to look in the direction of the new voice, but the bandit that held her hair prevented that.
"Our king," one of the other bandits said.
The velvety voice laughed. The sound of it made Hikari feel uneasy. A new man stepped around the group and into her line of view. He was tall, stocky, and his head was completely clean shaven. His ears were sharply pointed. An elf. He stepped up to her, kneeling down right in front of her. He brought his face much to close to hers. "I know that face, those eyes," he commented. "But they are the wrong color." He loosed an unsettling laugh.