The wind swept her raven hair as Aliya dodged the incoming blades and rolled to the floor. Dirt gathered up in clouds as she quickly regained her footing and slashed out with her sword angrily. Her opponent's two blades connected with hers again, catching it between its crosses, and knocking it out of her hands.
"Don't let your emotions get in the way of battle", the knight warned as he easily lowered his opponent to the knees.
Aliya glared at Lancelot with narrowed eyes, she hated to practice in the middle of the day when the sun was at its hottest. Lancelot smirked, seeing her expression and lowered his swords, extending a hand to help her up.
Oh how she hated and loved that smirk at the same time. Deciding not to let the dark knight's ego get any bigger by defeating her, she quickly swept one of her foot from under her and swung it at Lancelot's legs.
Jumping quickly out of the way, Lancelot was surprised to see Aliya back on her feet with her fist coming towards his face. Before he knew it, the dark knight was on his back with Aliya on top with her sword at his throat.
"Never let you're over confident ego get in the way of battle". She mocked back, as Lancelot realized he just got beat. Aliya watched as he shook his head with a slight laugh and his eyes grew even more mischievous, and he whispered in a low husky voice,
"Can't keep your hands off me eh?" Lancelot asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Argh!" Aliya rolled off the knight and stealth her sword, not even bothering to help him up.
"Water break!" A loud voice bellowed, catching the attention of all the knights and students. Aliya glanced over at Lancelot, over to see he was already flirting with a group of girls by the fence. Rolling her eyes, she headed towards Arthur, who was handing out water.
She had been training for weeks; girls of the village were suddenly required to know some self defense, in case of an attack. Many mothers and fathers were appalled at the idea of their daughter wielding a sword, but Aliya found it exhilarating. Arthur and his knights were called upon to teach the twenty five or so girls, ranging from ages twelve to seventeen. Lessons were held every other day, from dawn to dusk, involving knife fight, sword fight, archery, and a lot of running about.
"I saw your practice with Lancelot", a voice teased, as her friend Mercella ran up to Aliya and puckered her lips.
"Oh stop it Mer, we were just practicing" Aliya said warily as she wiped sweat from her forehead.
"Sure…ok" Mercella skipped away to the water station, where a bunch of girls were already lined up and talking excitedly about how their practice went. Aliya went to the end of the line and stood gratefully in the shade, it has really been a long day.
"Next!" The line moved up as girls received their water and watched the knights set up for their next lesson.
"Water, my lady", Arthur's voice brought her attention back to him as he handed her the canteen, overflowing with water.
"Thanks Commander" She said jokingly as she tilted her head back and poured in the cold water.
"Hot day isn't it?" He asked kindly, filling up the next girl's canteen as she lightly shoved Aliya out of the way. Aliya ignored her and nodded her head vigorously, and walked over to her group of friends, hollering her thanks to Arthur over her shoulder. Aliya stood next to her group of practicing partners and followed their gaze to over where Tristan was setting up.
"He's so handsome"
"Not to mention manly!"
"And mysterious!"
"And deadly" Aliya added, in matter of fact tone. The girls turned to look at her before turning back to Tristan, nodding their heads and murmuring their agreement. They were right about Tristan, but so wrong at the same time. For the past two weeks, Aliya fought and practiced with him like all the other girls did, but never really knew the knight.
Her dark green eyes watched as he brought out the box of wooden swords and dropped it to the ground. Tristan reminded her of a wolf, or a tiger, in his stealthy actions, and quiet demeanor. He then picked up a sword and motioned for one of the girls to follow suit. Mercella ran to the field with an excited squeal and began to duel Tristan.
Aliya watched as he backed her up into the tree, causing her to surrender. The next girl ran out, slashing out with passion and speed. Tristan easily disarmed her by catching the mistake she made in being too vulnerable and not keeping her sword close. The following girl has soon disarmed too, being too slow and thinking too much about correct form. Tristan kicked the fallen wooden sword out of the way and turned to Aliya, nodding his head.
Without hesitation, she jogged towards him slowly, and circled him waiting for him to make the first move, and he did.
Aliya sidestepped the swing to her left, and ducked quickly at the blade coming for her neck. She blocked the next blow with both hands, grasping the sword handle tightly, and pushed his sword away. He advanced again, with a calm expression on his face, if you could call that an expression. Everything about the man was unreadable. She ducked and blocked, barely having any time to fight back herself. The scout was just as deadly with a wooden sword Aliya thought as she swung her sword up with his, determined to at least tie with him.
Her sword was pushed out of her hands in one fluid motion and landed by the girl's feet, who were sitting under a tree near by, watching.
Tristan watched as Aliya glanced at her fallen sword and back to him. With a set face, she ran suddenly, towards the tree where her sword lay; she was determined, he'll give her that.
"Here Aliya!" Mercella called and stood up, holding out the sword. Aliya ran past them, grabbing her sword on the way, and turned back to see Tristan standing ready with sword in hand.
Was that a smirk? Nah… Aliya slashed out first this time, hitting his blade again and again, he was too busy blocking her, and so her next move would go to his neck, causing him to surrender.
"Next station!" Arthur's voice bellowed, as Aliya froze in the middle of the swing to his neck. Tristan took the opportunity and knocked the sword out of her hands again. Aliya shot Tristan a shocked confused look, he cheated, and time was up!
"Good duel, keep trying". He said in his deep accented voice, as he walked away, picking up the wooden swords.
"But…you…" Aliya stuttered, not wanting to believe the scout had beaten her.
"You were great Aliya!"
"You should have seen the moves you were using!"
Her friend's praises seemed off to the distance as she watched Tristan's retreating from. He was so mysterious, it almost unnerved her. His quiet stoic like nature lured her in even more.
"Let's go Aliya!" Mercella laughed, shaking her by the shoulders.
"We have Galahad next!" Mercella squealed, as she pulled Aliya into a squishing hug and rambled on about practicing archery with Galahad.
"Aliya, what are you staring at?"
Aliya found herself looking at Mer, with the latter girl's hands on her shoulders. She gave a light smile at Mercella, who was looking at her with concern.
What's wrong with her? I think she's taken a liking to that scout….
"Ok, let's practice archery; you don't want to be late for Galahad". Aliya's voice sounded dreamy and far off as she spoke.
"Race you!" Aliya's voice returned to normal, the dream like gaze gone from her eyes.
Mercella sighed as she racked after her, she didn't know what effect the mysterious Tristan had on her friend, but she did know one thing….
She didn't want to be late to Galahad's class.
Thanks for reading everyone! Sorry it took longer than a week to update, but I was grounded from the computer. After I read the reviews for the last chapter, I screamed and jumped around for about 5 minutes, I really do love getting reviews, and thanks to any silent readers out there.
Mercella: Young warrior
Aliya: Defender
