Chapter 11: Story Reading

Troy actually found the library faster than Priscilla did, which was surprising, since Priscilla lived here all her life so far, and with Troy, it was only a few days! As Troy opened the door, he could hear some fire burning in a fireplace nearby, and the smell of really fresh new books. It also had another smell: Leather. Troy smiled. He really liked that kind of fragrances.

"This is looking good from a first glance!"

Troy walked around a few of the shelves containing really old looking books, some of them were new however. One of the books even showed how the arenas get built, and who built them!

"This is awesome!" Troy said, speechless, but he did say something anyways.

Troy could see some crown shaped blue and yellow rugs near the fireplace, and when he bent down to feel them, it felt really soft. However, he could see a chair that was shaped like an arrow on one of the rugs. In that chair had some sort of book.

"Hmm, I'll see what this book is!" Troy thought to himself.

As Troy picked up the book, he glared straight at the cover picture. The cover picture showed a blonde hair teenager boy facing the left angle of the cover. Then there was also a princess just like Priscilla facing the right angle of the cover, and they were smiling. Also, the teenager boy looked like he had wizard like powers, and one of his hands was clenching that magic dust. The princess was holding what a usual princess would hold. A fiery bow that fired flaming arrows.

"Wow." Troy thought to himself.

Troy hesitated for a few seconds and started to open up the book.

"You like reading those kinds of stories?" A familiar female voice questioned to Troy. When Troy turned around, there was Priscilla smiling.

"Oh man, I'm sorry if that's your book!" Troy stammered.

"No, no, it's okay! I am really attached to that book, because it has a really good storyline!" Priscilla chuckled.

"Really? What is it about?" Troy said excitedly.

"It's about this princess who has really lame archery skills in a camp where they train you to shoot arrows accurately. Everyone in the camp makes fun of her, and the princess was angry and sad with that. However, the princess was still determined. And one day, when the princess was practicing shooting arrows at the target, she accidentally shot too high up and too strong. Her arrows went streaming really far, and apparently at the same time, this wizard newbie was trying to fend off a raging boar.

"Whoa!" Troy said.

"The newbie wizard and the boar were just a few feet away from the shooting camp, and the arrows came down and killed the boar! The newbie wizard was astonished, but didn't know who killed the boar, so he searched everyday who helped save his life.

"So it's kind of like that Cinderella story?" Troy comprehended from his past prior knowledge.

"I guess you could say that." Priscilla smiled. "Anyways, the newbie wizard overheard some more princess bullies saying more mean things to the princess who shot and saved the newbie wizard, and her desperate cries for help drove the newbie wizard into pity and rage. The newbie wizard stormed inside the camp and shouted at those mean princess with all his voice strength what the heck are they doing to that princess."

"Wow that really is a good story!" Troy exclaimed.

"Yeah." Priscilla said, and walked forward and looked straight at the book. "Want to read the story together?"

"Huh?!" Troy said and blushed hardly. "I mean… I guess so, but… why read togeth… ah never mind!" Troy stammered and was nearly at a loss for words. Surprisingly, the arrow chair was just enough to fit both of them in, and Troy holded on to the left side of the book, and Priscilla too the right side.

"Let's begin!" Priscilla said, and Troy and Priscilla started taking turns reading the story out loud.

(IN THE STORY)

"What in the world are you doing?!" Javier shouted at the four princesses.

"Uh… do you even know how LAME Kayla's skills are?" Tera exclaimed.

"Yeah! They are rubbish and probably more worser than a skeleton shooting an arrow!" Another of the princess's added.

"Wait a second…" Javier realized now. He looked around him. Almost everyone in the entire camp was staring at him. Even the counselors, trainers, and supervisors were standing still, glaring at him.

"Uh hello! It's been a second! Tera said very rudely.

"*Pointing at Kayla* you're the princess who saved my life!" Javier said excitedly.

As soon as he said that, everyone in the camp fell silent, but some gasped.

"I…I…I did?" Kayla blushed.

"Yes you did! You saved my life! How can I ever repay you?" Javier said enthusiastically.

"You don't need to repay me." Kayla said smoothly.

"Yes! There has to be some way I can repay you!" Javier said again, glared at the four princesses and punched the palm of his left hand with his right hand, causing a few dust of fire to form from that impact.

"No! Don't!" Kayla said desperately.

"What did she just say?" One of the princesses thought.

"She's like defending us!" Tera thought in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" Javier said, uneasy about Kayla's choice.

"Yes! Even if these bullies come back, there's no way I'll strike back. That will just make the situation worser!" Kayla said, with no pride. Just with a regular voice.

"Wow!" Thought one of the nearby trainers. "She sure doesn't settle arrow to arrow!"

"Well then! I'm really glad that was a good reason! But remember, if you need any help, come to me!" Javier said and then left the camp.

"Thanks for the offer!" Kayla said and sighed. "I better get back to my archery training."

All four of the princesses stood there, with their mouths wide open in shock and disbelief. Everyone else walked back and return back to their activities.

"Well… what are we going to do now?" One of the princesses questioned Tera.

Tera was still surprised by Kayla's answer, but was still infuriated.

"We'll have another shot at her!" Tera said growling and then signaled them to follow her.

"Where are we going now?" One of the princesses questioned her.

"To our training you arrowhead!" Tera said, frustrated at that dumb question.

Now, obviously Tera had been treating even her clique for the past couple weeks, and she was going to still act like that. The scolded princess looked hurt.

"I s-should've known." The scolded princess said, her voice quivering a bit.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER NOW?!" Tera shouted at her.

"I knew that offer of joining your gang was too good to be true!" The scolded princess gushed out her inner thoughts at her. She removed the bandanna from her head which showed a symbol of Tera's gang. She thrusted it to the ground in a fury and stomped away.

"Yeah whatever. BE LIKE THAT WAY!" Tera shouted angrily. Her remaining two teammates snickered and followed their leader back to their training.

Kayla aimed another arrow at the 10 feet away target. Kayla could already hear Javier's words circling around her mind. It gave her new strength, and the arrow stuck just a few centimeters from the center.

"Great job Kayla!" Kayla said to herself, and was about to fire another arrow when she saw one of Tera's teammates slumped against wall, and was sobbing a little bit.

"Of course! That just goes to show never to join Tera's clique!" Kayla thought to herself, but felt sorry for the teammate. "I know what I can do!"

Kayla took a deep breath and walked over confidently to the teammate.

"Hey. You seem really disappointed. Are you okay?" Kayla said softly to that teammate who WAS Tera's teammate.

"I'm fine, okay?!" The teammate said angrily.

"Listen, everything's gonna be fine, just be glad you're not in Tera's clique anymore! Kayla said.

"What do you know?" The teammate said, with no change in her voice tone.

"I've been a victim of her terrifying clique, and there's a lot I can learn from that!" Kayla said, and didn't change her voice tone a single bit.

"I guess you right." The teammate said again more softly.

"At least you're not going to do any more of that bad mumbo jumbo stuff!" Kayla said again.

"Yeah. Anyways, I forgot to tell you that my name is Tess."

"Tess huh? That's a pretty good name!" Kayla commented.

"Thank you." Tess said, smiling a little bit.

"Want to go shoot some targets with me?" Kayla suggested.

"Sure, that would be great! Tess said.

With that, Tess took out her bow and started shooting targets away. Tess started enjoying and Kayla noticed a few minutes later.

"At least I made someone's day better!" Kayla chuckled.

(OUT THE STORY)

"I think that should do it for now!" Priscilla said.

"Wow! That is one of the best stories I had ever read!" Troy gushed, and was really glad now that he chose to read that book.

"Yeah, I knew when I first saw that book; I was going to have a good time reading it!" Priscilla said, chuckling.

"Well, I really like your taste and choice for reading material!" Troy said, smiling.

Priscilla a little bit blushed, "Yeah, thanks!"

Troy noticed almost everything Priscilla did in front of him, including Priscilla's blushes, but still, Troy tried hard not to blush himself. He wasn't going to contribute more extra awkwardness right now!

"So we'll read again tomorrow?" Troy questioned.

"Sure!" Priscilla agreed.

"Thanks! I can't wait to read more of that thrilling story!" Troy said excitedly.

"Anyways, I think it's time I help out with the lunch making." Priscilla concluded.

"Er heh, heh, I don't really have anything to do at the moment, so can I… help you out at the kitchen?" Troy said, and felt himself blushing really hard. He turned away, but it was too late. Priscilla saw him and smiled a little.

"Sure, it's okay. Just make sure you have good memory and good choice of foods!" Priscilla said.

"Of course! I'll bring the taste of tropical and northern foods to the table!" Troy said.

"So…" Priscilla began.

"That's right! I was born uh…. Well, it wasn't really an island, but it was still a good place." Troy said proudly. "The Tropical"

"But what about the northern?" Priscilla questioned him.

"I might as well tell you!" Troy said. "You see, I sometimes visit the north because it's is known that my ancestors live there. It's actually a super long story, but I'll tell you all about it later!"

No really, he thought, he'd never tell her. It was too valuable.

"Okay then." Priscilla said. And before they knew it, they were in front of the kitchen.

"Ready to head inside?" Priscilla said, smirking at Troy.

"Yep! Time to put my cooking skills into action!" Troy said enthusiastically, knowing that the cooking dishes he knows how to make will for sure impress everyone who eats it! With that, Troy and Priscilla opened the door and headed inside the kitchen.