Due to the many reviews I got, I have decided to upload the next chapter!
Thank you to all my reviewers:
Joe: Thank you.
DOMLUVR4EVR: Thanks, and Toby Keith most certainly is amazing. He rocks my socks. I know the first chapter wasn't all that detailed, but this one should be better (I hope!).
Pussin Boots: I will!
Me: I like the idea of them going to war against Tyra, but I need to know why there is a war, and specific details about them getting there and solving it!
Jasmine: Thanks! I emailed you!
To everyone who was confused about the I 3 thing: It was supposed to look like I (heart) … Instead, the thingy got rid of the part of it. So yeah, the I 3 was supposed to say I heart so and so. Sorry guys!
Adventure Follows
Recap:
"Kel?" A soft voice asked. Kel looked up into the deep blue eyes of Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle. "Are you alright?"
"Umm…I..uh..yes. I'm fine. It was a bit spicier than I expected." She finished somewhat lamely, pointing at her stew. He still looked unsure, but nodded with a smile and finished eating. Kel wasn't feeling hungry anymore, and excused herself from the table. She walked out the large hall doors, relieved that she could take some time to practice and reflect on her own feelings.
Kel broke into a jog, and ran to her rooms. In no less than two minutes, she held her glaive and had sprinted, hair flying, all the way to the far practice courts. She didn't know that Dom had seen her flee, the deadly weapon glinting in her hand. It confused him.
Sometimes she was perfectly normal as they sat at table or talked with friends. Then, the next moment she looked somewhat distant, and a look came over face like she was falling into a deep, bottomless hole. It wasn't an unhappy look; not sorrow or pain, really. Was it regret? Thoughtfulness? He settled upon contemplation, and pushed thoughts of the Lady Knight out of his mind.
Kel swung her glaive hard, feeling the muscles in her arms and shoulders strain and exert heat. She liked the feeling, and practiced too with her newest Raven Armory dagger, practicing her throws and swings. The blue-steel Yamani glaive was but a blur in her hand when she concluded her practice.
She sat down on the packed earth, panting and sweating. The summer heat had turned the first inch of the dry soil to a thick powder, and she traced her finger through it, creating pictures and words. .
I 3 … Kel stopped. 'What?' She thought. Stabbing the butt of her glaive into the dirt, she pulled herself up and dusted off. She walked back to her rooms, eager for a hot bath.
Dom had grabbed his naked sword, and jogged to the practice courts. He contemplated which courts to use, but decided on the far ones, where he had seen Kel practicing earlier. Maybe he could get in a few practices with her. And bruises too, he added to himself, smirking.
He walked through the palace, past the stables, and onto the practice courts, only to see them bare of any people. His face fell at the loss of a good sparring match and slowly began to trudge to his favorite practicing area. It was under a tall, strong white oak, providing perfect shade to practice under. He flicked the sword from side to side, over his head, thrusting and jabbing, strong muscles flexing with the weight of his weapon. He worked for what seemed like hours, but was really about one bell.
Getting tired, he began to think about other things to take his mind off the strenuous exercise. He looked to the stables, and thought about Peachblossom. The old gelding was as crabby as ever, except when Kel tended to him. He thought about Neal and Yuki with their wedding, Lord Raoul and his, and the wedding of Prince Roald and Princess Shinkokami. Everyone he knew was finally marrying, even his meatheaded cousin.
He knew he couldn't marry and stay in the Own, but what if the law changed? Or he decided to leave? Dom had always been a flirt, but would he ever truly settle down and marry? 'If I could, he thought, I…might. But who?' There were tons of beautiful court ladies that would take him, and fulfill the dream he had always had before.
When they were younger, Dom and Neal often wandered the palace balls, watching the beautiful ladies and make-believing who would be their wives when they had finished fighting. It shocked him horribly though, that his biggest fantasy no longer seemed as amazing as it had before. He had grown up of course, and he guessed it was just that he realized there was more beyond looks for marriage, or any sort of relationship.
Kel's smiling face flashed in front of him, smiling as sunlight poured over her. He grinned foolishly to himself, and then noticed a glint on the other side of the courts. He walked over to it, seeing a well-crafted dagger laying in the dust.
Picking it up, he looked closer and examined Kel's initials. She never left weapons in the dirt, he thought. Dom was about to walk away, when something else caught his eye. A large print was there where Kel had sat after her exercise, but in front of it, the dust was twisted and changed.
He looked closer at the design. He made out the 'I' and something that he supposed resembled a heart, even after the wind had blown for a while. Below it, a small dot showed where Kel had been about to continue, and it stopped. He frowned at it. I 3 -. I 3 -. 'Kel wrote this?' He thought, amazed.
He wished she had continued. It would have been the perfect excuse to tease her with, if privately to lessen the amount of bruises he would receive for it. Dom refused to think that he may have been curious for his own knowledge.