*Vega's POV*
It had been a couple months since Sofia stopped Prisma. I called a Protector meeting for the representatives. Once everyone was in, I began the meeting with some minor problems that had popped up here and then over the past few months. Then got into why we were really here.
"It's time to begin Sofia's training." I said. "She will be the first protector of the Ever Realm."
On the crystal ball we were using to check in on Sofia, she was sleeping on the window seat.
"It will be a great challenge and a great honor for whomever is sent to train her." Orion said.
"As our leaders, it is your decision. Who do you recommend?" Garish said.
"Chrysta." I said.
"What?!" Garish exclaimed.
"That's impossible," our satyr Protector said.
"Vega, you can't be serious." the elven protector said.
"A task such as this requires our most skilled protector." I said, "Someone smart and fierce."
"Which is why we are choosing Chrysta for this mission." Orion said.
"Chrysta is a courageous fighter, but she is wild Orion." Garish said.
"And proud and overbearing," the satyr said, "Pairing her with a princess?"
"Not to mention she has never trained anyone!" the elf said.
"She's far too tough for a little girl like that." Garish said.
The doors opened and in came Chrysta.
"Alright, I'm here." she said loudly.
"Welcome Chrysta." I said.
"Hey Chiefs." she said as she hovered, "So what do you have for me next?"
Movement in the ball caught her attention. I looked to see Sofia waking up.
"That is Princess Sofia." Orion said.
"She defeated Prisma." Garish said, "And saved both the Mystic Isles and Phyllus' daughter."
"Huh, hard to believe," she said.
*Chrysta's POV*
"What's that got to do with me?" I asked after a while.
"Princess Sofia has been chosen as protector of the Ever Realm. You are going to be her trainer." Vega said.
"You've got to be joking." I said.
"It is no joke." Orion said.
"But no non magical creature has ever been a protector." I said.
"Which is why she'll need a strong trainer." Vega said.
"Pr…er…Sofia must get her enchantlet by sundown or she cannot become a Protector." Orion said.
"But I'm no trainer, especially for some pampered princess who can't put on her gown without help from a maid!" I said.
"See? She's not up for the job." Garish said.
"I didn't say that." I said.
"We will not order you to do this Chrysta. But for the sake of the Ever Realm, we urge you to accept." Orion said.
"Plus, this princess might just surprise you." Vega said.
Hmm, this might be interesting. Alright then. I looked at the ball where Sofia's image was displayed.
"Fine, I'll train her, but don't blame me when this princess collapses like a royal souffle." I said.
I flew off to go surprise the princess.
*Sofia's POV*
I was on my way to a party of some sort. I forget but it was one that I didn't really need to go to. It was one where I had to wear a dress though. The coach rocked abnormally and the coachmen was gone. I looked back to see him chasing the carriage. Then the wheel came off. I had to do something but all I could do was stop the horses.
*Chrysta's POV*
I flew down to greet her.
"Sorry to interrupt your trip to the tea party Princess." I said.
"Oh that's fine, I wasn't even looking forward to it anyway." she said, "I've seen one of those, you're a Protector."
"Not just any protector, the best Protector in the Mystic Isles. I'm Chrysta." I said.
I lassoed the wheel and put it back on the cart.
"So, you're the princess who wants to be a protector huh?" I said.
"That's me. Sofia." she said.
"Well, this isn't gonna be some royal cakewalk. It'll be hard work." I said. "You may want to get rid of the fancy dress. Wouldn't want it to be ruined because of the rough parts."
She just sighed, "I don't normally dress this way."
Then she did something that surprised me. She took off the dress and underneath were a pair of leggings and her chest was binded. I didn't notice them before but she also had a pair of armbands. She had on a pair of combat boots too.
"So, what do we do first?" she asked as she put the clothes in the trunk of the carriage.
It took me a moment to respond cause I really wasn't expecting her to do that.
"Okay, if you want to be a protector, you gotta have an enchantlet." I said.
"Huh, so I gotta get one." she said.
"You don't just get one, you have to earn it." I said, "And you only have till the end of the day to do it. If you don't get your enchantlet by sundown, you don't get to be a protector. First we go to the Isle of Forever Frost. That's where I'll train you in some skills you'll need to get your enchantlet."
"Sounds good." she said.
"The second part of the day is the tough part. You'll have to put those skills to the test, climb a glacier all by your lonesome and get yourself an enchantlet." I said.
"I understand." she said.
"Well, I'm not so sure you do. The Isle of Forever Frost is a treacherous land of ice and snow. I hope you're wearing your warmest tiara." I teased. "Alright, let's move out."
Just as I said that, a unicorn landed and Sofia climbed on. I took her to the Isle of Forever Frost and she looked amazed by it.
"Here we are, the Isle of Forever Frost." I said.
"It's beautiful." she said.
"Come on, we're going this way." I said.
She followed me.
"So Chrysta, who trained you?" Sofia asked.
"Orion." I said proudly.
She chuckled. So I lead her to the place where we were going to be feather walking. I was talking and she followed. I was expecting to hear a thud in the snow but when I didn't hear anything, I looked back to see Sofia right next to me.
"Uh Chrysta, what are we doing? I thought I was going to learn a skill." Sofia asked.
"You're doing it right now actually. It's impressive." I said.
"Oh, I call it snow walking. Picked it up from running with wolves in the winter." Sofia said.
"We call it feather walking. Now, since you've got that down, how about something more challenging." I said.
"Cool." Sofia said as she followed me.
I brought her to the kitten I had waiting after the patch of snow.
"What's that?" she asked.
"This little kitty is the next part of your training." I said.
"He's a kitten?" she asked.
"How'd you know that?" I asked.
"You said it was a kitty so I assumed kitten." she said.
"Well, you're also gonna have to wrangle a magical creature to get your enchantlet." I said.
Sofia made her way over to the kitten and petted it.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"He doesn't seem so bad." she said.
"That's because he's wearing the calm collar I put on him. Ready?" I said.
I didn't give her a chance to do much as I removed the collar. The kitten's behavior changed quickly as he shot fire.
"You have to get the calm collar back on him." I said as I tossed her the collar.
I missed though and the kitten stepped on the collar. It chased Sofia but at some point it looked like it was going to tackle her so I pulled her out of the way with my enchantlet.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
I told her off for safety reasons.
"He was playing with the light from my amulet." she said.
"Oh, well. From where I was it looked like you were gonna get batted around like a ball of yarn." I said.
"I can show…" she started but cut off. "Where is he?"
I looked and the kitten was no longer there.
"Great. Now I'll have to go find him and bring him back to the Isles." I said.
I was not looking forward to that. Sofia knelt down next to the tracks. She closed her eyes and I watched.
"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Shh." she said.
Suddenly she stood up and took off running. I reacted and ran after her. I was barely keeping up so I started to fly. I bumped into her.
"Stop. You're going to disturb the tracks." she said.
"Um, what are you doing?" I asked.
"Hunting." she said.
I followed her and apparently the kitten went where we needed to go.
"You know, this is actually the place where you get your enchantlet. You just have to climb up to the top, feather walk across the deep snow, and get past the articondors." I said.
"Huh. Easy enough." she said.
I watched as she reached up but got really annoyed with what she was wearing. So she took it off and I gasped.
"Where'd you get all those scars?" I asked.
"I'll tell you later. That is if you want to still train me." she said looking down.
"Course I do. This has been interesting and I want to help you learn. I may be rough around the edges but that's the way I am." I said gently. I really did like this one.
She grinned and made her way up the glacier. Dang she climbs fast too. By the time I looked up again, she was at the top. So I flew up to watch.
*Sofia's POV*
I made it to the top and put the calm collar on the male arcticondor. While they were distracted, I made my way into the cave.
"Excuse me. Miss. Hello. Over here." a voice said.
I looked over to see a smaller younger version of the arcticondors outside. He must be their kid.
"Hi." I said as I went over to him.
"I'm Stormy. What's your name?" he asked.
He's really cute.
"I'm Sofia." I whispered back, "Why are we whispering?"
"I don't want the dragon to hear us." he said.
"Dragon?" I asked.
"Yeah. I was following him, and then he saw me and chased me and I got scared. Don't tell my parents Sofia. Articondors are supposed to be brave." he said.
I pet his head.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Over there," Stormy said as he pointed with his wing, "Hear him growling?"
I checked and it wasn't a dragon, it was the kitten that I was supposed to wrangle hours ago.
"It's not a dragon, it's a barronga," I said as I turned to Stormy who was behind me, "And he's not growling, he's sleeping. Now let's get out of here."
"But I'm frightened." he said.
"It's okay. We'll just hurry up and leave before he wakes up, come on." I said as I gently pulled him by his wing.
We got out of the cave and the two adults were looking over the cliff. The momma was mad about me being with her boy but Stormy came in and told her how I saved him.
"Oh alright, I guess we owe ya one. We won't drive you away. But first, take that calm collar off my husband!" she said.
"Right. Sorry." I said.
I pulled it off and the male tried to get me off the cliff but the mamma stopped him.
"Alright, go on dear. Get your enchantlet. We'll call it even." the mamma said.
"Oh, there's still the…" I jumped out of the way, "Barraonga!"
The kitten breathed fire and the articondors flew out of the way. I was so thankful I had my stuff with me and shot an arrow into the ice to swing up and around. I had the collar in my hand so I landed on the barronga and put the collar on him. He calmed right down so I was able to walk right in.
"Wow, I'm officially impressed. Did I just see you flip onto this thing?" Chrysta asked as she flew in.
"Yes." I said.
"Nice! Sofia, the sun hasn't set yet! There's still time. Quick!" she said excitedly.
I got pulled along to the wall of enchantlets. There were many of them. I had a feeling though and sat right in the middle and closed my eyes. I meditated and focused. I felt two somethings reach out and latch on. I looked down to see two enchantlets, one was purple and the other was a royal blue.
"Whoa. I've never heard of a Protector getting two." Chrysta said.
"I did it. I got my enchantlet." I said.
"You know, I gotta say. Princesses are much tougher than I thought." Chrysta said. "You did great Sofia, but there's a lot more training to do."
"Sweet. I know you're new to training and all, but you could be a little nicer." I said.
"Noted. Say, why don't we get this barronga back where he belongs." Chrysta said.
"Sure." I said.
"The path is gone but I'm sure this kitten can help you out." she said.
"Oh I've got something a bit more fun." I said.
I swung down the arrow and as I reached the bottom, I released it and it came with me. The barronga followed and when I got to a certain point, I hopped on and rode him down the rest of the way. Then the next couple of hours was getting the hang of using the enchantlet. It was fun.
*Chrysta's POV*
These past couple of hours with her and I learned that she's a quick learner. She's picked up using the enchantlet in many ways already. Honestly she's been one of the fastest to ever master the basic enchantlet drills. Which meant she's able to move onto the more advanced drills, meaning the Which Way Bow and the Necessi Key. Sofia was so different from the princesses I've heard of and it was kind of refreshing having someone who seemed to have a difficult life like me.
I had seen the excitement in her eyes when she was learning and actually looked like she was eleven years old. Plus she had turned it around on me too so technically we were sparring. The first time we did, I got flattened in no time. I realized that my hand to hand has fallen short and so the next time we sparred I worked hand to hand. Sofia grinned at that and she began helping me with hand to hand as well as weapons. I helped her with the enchantlets.
"Sofia!" I heard a young voice call out.
I looked to see a young female centaur galloping over. Sofia turned to see who called her name and smiled.
"Hi Kelly. How are you." Sofia said as she got tackled by the excited centaur.
"I'm great! My daddy has been teaching me how to fight like him." she said.
Sofia chuckled, "That's good. What else?"
"Well, daddy has been on edge since I got snatched. He's trying to find out who would want to hurt me." Kelly said.
"Hmm, maybe not hurt you but hurt him through you." Sofia said.
"Maybe, but daddy wants to find out. He told me to find you because you found me." Kelly said.
I rose an eyebrow because she wasn't even here for more than a day and she's already got a good reputation.
"Alright I'll come. Chrysta, would you like to help out?" Sofia said.
"Sure." I said.
I really wanted to see Sofia in action because in all honesty, she's just held back due to the trainee status on her enchantlet. Her enchantlets grow with her skill and with her skill they're already pretty high. Sofia and I followed Kelly to the Isle of Centaurs where we met up with Kelly's dad.
"Chrysta?" Phyllus asked.
"Phyllus?" I said.
"Oh it's so good to see you." Phyllus said.
"It's good to see you too. I didn't know you had a kid." I said.
"Yeah, you were off on a big mission when she was born. So how's life?" he asked.
"It's pretty good, Sofia's my trainee." I said.
"Huh. She's a good kid and pretty smart." Phyllus said.
He told Sofia everything and Sofia thought about it and found out who was trying to hurt Phyllus. Once we found out, Phyllus thanked Sofia and I for helping him out. His daughter was safe and sound.