[A/N]: Thanks for reading! As always, feedback is welcome!

Chapter 21

The rising sun and gentle breeze penetrated the windows of Ezio's room early the next morning, disturbing his sleep. His attempt to prolong his slumber was met with a light but sudden smack to the face.

"Get up," came a girl's voice, which he recognized as Rosa's.

"Why?" Ezio grumbled.

"I'm bored and I'm hungry and I don't know where to find food around here."

"Then go back to bed. We can worry about it later"

"I'm not leaving until you come with me," she said.

"Are you going to do this every morning?"

"If you continue to sleep in, si. Now get up."

"I will be up in an hour. Perhaps two," he replied

"What the hell makes you think I'm going to wait an hour?" she demanded, then proceeded to grab his wrist and began dragging him out of his bed.

"You're heavier than I expected," she commented.

"Or perhaps you aren't as strong as you expected."

She let go of his wrist and put her hands on her hips. "Just for that, I'm getting a bucket of water," she said.

"Aspetta!" Ezio requested as he slowly moved in his bed. "Fine, I'll get up."

"If you're not ready in ten minutes, the well is only a short walk from here," she reminded him.

Ezio reluctantly crawled out of his bed and got dressed, then met Rosa downstairs. The two of them found a few scraps of food for breakfast, but it was enough to satisfy Rosa for a while.

"Then I will return to bed," Ezio said upon learning that Rosa was no longer hungry.

"No, you're coming with me," Rosa told him as she opened the door to go outside.

"Coming where with you?" he followed her hesitantly.

They made their way to the training arena in front of Mario's estate, where a mercenary was waiting for them with two swords.

"Grazie, Alessandro," Rosa said to the mercenary. "Ezio, take a sword."

Before he could protest, she took a sword from Alessandro and tossed it to him, then took one for herself.

"Look," Ezio started chuckling, "if this is about my comment on your strength earlier…"

"This is about many things, Ezio, but it is mostly for practice. I think we could teach each other a few things."

"You're sure you won't find even a little pleasure in hitting me with a dulled sword?"

"I didn't say that," she shrugged.

"Va bene. Shall we make this more interesting, then?"

"I'm listening."

"If you win, I will answer every question you have about my childhood dreams of becoming a minstrel."

"I knew Claudia was telling the truth," her face lit up. "Va bene, and if you win?"

"You answer a question of mine."

"Easy enough. You have a deal," she agreed

They walked into the arena and Alessandro told them to begin. Rosa took a couple good swings at Ezio, but her defensive abilities weren't as refined as Ezio's, so Ezio managed to counter one of her attacks and eventually got her sword away from her.

"Merda!" she complained. "If I had my dagger, we would still be fighting."

"I believe you," Ezio lied*. "But we agreed upon swords, did we not?"

"Si, I know. And I have to answer your question. What is it?"

He thought for a moment or two, the replied, "I have not thought of one. When I do, you will owe me an answer."

"What? That's not fair! You can't do that!"

"Then you should have specified that before we made our agreement."

"Stronzo," she called him, then the two proceeded to exchange a few tips on their techniques.

*[A/N]: A reader pointed out (and by coincidence, I've addressed this in the next chapter) that since Ezio is highly trained, it is unlikely that Rosa would have an advantage over him, regardless of the weapon used. Consequently, I have elected to replace the word "conceded" with the word "lied" (which I actually like better, since he has a cocky personality). Ezio is just trying to avoid a broken nose here.

Other than that, nothing has changed. See you next week!