A/N After reading some reviews, I rethought my chapter idea. Since I wrote most of the story as a block, and inserted chapters arbitrarily, I went back and reworked them. Some will still be short, but not quite as short.

Thanks everyone who reviewed.

The Plan

The next morning, she kept her customary vigil of the morning guard practice. But this time she wasn't watching the exercises, she was watching the men and boys doing them. Many village boys attended these sessions, since swordplay was a useful skill to have, especially since most of them dreamed of becoming soldiers.

As the group disbanded at the end of the hour, Jess selected a boy who looked about her own age. Dressed in breeches and an inconspicuous tunic, like the ones worn by household servants, she grabbed her sword and followed him through the village. She saw him go into a modest sized hut. After skulking around outside to make sure he was alone in the house, she knocked on his front door.

When he answered he was confused as to why a girl would come calling. His reaction turned to shock, then back to confusion, then to disbelief, before settling on confusion again as she quickly spat out her story. He agreed to let her come in and explain further. When the two were alone in the house, she told him what she wanted to do.

His response was quick. "There's no way I'm going to fence with a girl," he said. Jess however, was determined. She decided to goad him into a competition, one she was sure of losing, but wanted to have no the less.

"Scared of losing to a girl," she taunted. The young noblewoman continued with her insults until he could stand it no longer.

"Fine," he cried, "let's get this over with." Cried Eric, for that was his name. He fully expected to disarm her quickly, and to have her run back to her home crying. The boy was surprised, however as she put up a strong fight.

Starting off tentatively, she parried all his blows. As the battle progressed, she began launching some attacks of her own. After a long fight, which lasted over 15 minutes, he finally managed to slip is sword inside her guard. Having reached through her defences, he gave her a light tap with the flat of his sword on the side of her throat.

After this long and well fought exchange, they were both bent over gasping for breath. This was the beginning of a great friendship. Jess tried to slip away from the castle at least three times a week to practice with Eric.

As the weeks progressed, Jess improved to the point where she easily beat Eric in the vast majority of their matches. Eric was extremely proud of Jess, as he felt responsible for much of her improvement. One day, about four weeks after they had begun their practice sessions, he decided that Jess needed more competition than he could offer.

When Jess snuck out of the castle on that day, getting Jarrett to cover for her absence, she was surprised that there was another boy with Eric when they met. Eric introduced him as Simeon, and announced that they were to fence each other. Eric knew that Simeon, being three years older, was a much better swordsman than he was, and estimated that he would be well matched with Jess.

As soon as the words were out of Eric's mouth, a look of shock came to the faces of both would-be combatants. Jess quickly decided to go with her friend's instincts, trusting that he was trying to do something good for her.

Simeon however had no such reservations about speaking his mind. "A girl?" he loudly intoned, "I'm not fighting a girl." Before Jess could even speak a word, and she had plenty to say, Eric was leaping to her defence.

"Yeah," he reasoned, "she's a girl, but don't talk down to her until you've seen her fence."

Even though Simeon appeared to be wavering, Jess decided to tilt the balance in her favour. "What, are you scared to fight a girl?" she jeered.

"Never," was the quick reply. "Let's go, right now." With that said, Jess and Simeon started stretching and warming up. With their limbering exercises complete, they drew there swords and came to the guard position.

As soon as Eric yelled, "GO!" Jess decided to test her opponent. Lightning-fast, she lunged straight at him, sword pointing at his heart. Caught off guard, Simeon stumbled, but recovered enough to block her thrust and slash back at her unprotected side. Ready for his counter, Jess stepped back and deflected the blow away.

This feverish pace continued for some time. As the match wore on, both fighters began to make mistakes due to fatigue. When Simeon leaned slightly off-balance on a stab, Jess quickly capitalized. With a quick flick and twist of her blade, she sent his sword flying out of his hand, and skittering across the floor.

Simeon stepped back, stunned. But he soon recovered his composure and congratulated Jess. "I guess that's what I get for underestimating you. You're really good."

At this point Eric piped up, "See, I knew you guys were evenly matched. I may not be the best fencer in the world, but I can evaluate talent when I see it. I don't know if I've ever seen such an evenly matched duel go on for that long."