We arrive at the training fields, and the soldiers stop and look at me in awe as usual. Commander James and General Zander approach us, smiling and pleased to see King Fenris and me together on Nimble.
King Fenris hops down and then helps me from Nimble and ties the reign to a wooden post in the ground.
We go into a large communal tent where a large table is stationed. On the table is a map of the two kingdoms and my home, the forest, in the centre.
I walk over to the table and run my fingers over the forest on the map.
‘I didn’t know the kingdoms were this big,’ I say, and King Fenris walks over to me.
‘When the war is over, all of this will be one kingdom,’ he says neutrally.
‘I’m sorry, King Fenris, but there has to be another way. Thousands of people and werewolves will die if you proceed with this war. There has to be another way to settle this.’
Commander James and General Zander look at each other, then back at me, amused.
‘How do you think I should proceed? What do you think should happen to the werewolves?’ He asks, his arms folded across his chest.
He is annoyed, but I don’t care when thousands of lives are at stake. So I pondered his question for a few moments.
‘I’m sure there is a more harmonious solution than fighting,’ I say.
‘Well, until you come up with a better plan, my love, I don’t have a choice but to continue. Alpha King Damon could cross the border at any moment with his army, especially now that you’re here,’ he says, and he is quite right.
Commander James looks confused.
‘King Fenris. Why does Maia’s presence being here mean the Alpha King will cross the border?’ He asks.
Before King Fenris can answer, I tell him myself,
‘I’m Alpha King Damon’s mate,’ I tell them.
They look at each other, shocked.
‘You’re not a werewolf, though? You’re an elemental sprite. How is it possible you’re his mate?’ General Zander asks, confused.
‘I’m actually a primal sprite, to be specific, which means I’m a princess by blood and can control all the elements.
And sometimes, the Moon Goddess mates people with different species,’ I explain, my hands clasped in front of me.
Commander James and General Zander look at each other, unsure what to think of this information.
‘Ah yes. I recall my grandfather Henry telling me about the primal sprites. They’re very rare indeed,’ King Fenris smirks.
‘King Fenris, I’m going to wander around and explore the training fields further. Some fresh air would be nice,’ I smile.
‘Very well.’ He says.
I sit on a hay barrel, watching the archers shoot arrows with their bows. I am enjoying it so much that I am eager to try it myself. I stroll towards them, and they all bow.
‘Princess Maia, what a pleasure to have you here. Is there anything I can help you with?’ An archer asks.
‘Yes, I would like to use your bow, please.’
‘Oh,’ he replies, waiting for an explanation.
‘I enjoyed watching you all shoot the targets that I thought I must try myself.’
They all blush and are humbled by my words.
‘Of course, Princess,’ he says, handing me the bow with the arrows.
‘Have you shot a bow before?’ He asks.
‘I haven’t, no,’ I say, running my fingers along some bowstrings, feeling their tension.
‘Every bow has a different tension—a weaker tension for beginners and a tighter tension for archers. Archers have built their strength up in their arms over time and have the muscle required to pull the higher-tension strings backward, and beginners don’t. You have a very slight frame, and very slender arms, with minimal muscle. You might want to swap the tighter tension bow for this lower-tension bow instead,’ he offers kindly.
‘I would like to try this tight tension bow for now,’ I smile.
‘When we’re out on the field – the first rule of thumb is – never run into the field without stopping every other archer first. When a man is focused on his target, it’s easy to forget about his surroundings. The last thing we want is you being speared with an arrow,’ he says, smiling.
‘I understand. Thank you,’ I say, flinging the quiver over my shoulder.
‘If you need to stop the archers, yell HALT FIRE,’ he says, ‘very loudly,’
‘I will,’ I say, thinking of the words inside my head. He takes a large bow with stronger tension and his quiver of arrows and flings it over his shoulder. He hands me a two-fingered glove with a wrist strap.
‘Pull out an arrow and copy me,’ he says.
So I copy him, pull an arrow from the quiver behind my head, and nock the arrow.
‘Good. Excellent. Yes. That’s exactly how to hold it,’ he says and releases the string on his bow. It fires with lightning speed into his target, hitting the large red circle in the centre. The target has three colours: red, white, and blue. Red is in the centre, white encircles red, and blue encircles white.
‘Your turn,’ he says, standing two metres behind me, watching.
I discreetly summon the air to help my arrow shoot fast and accurately. I can feel the energy flow. I shoot the arrow, and it hits the target spot in the centre of the red circle with amazing speed. As soon as the arrow hit, it burst into flame. The soldiers are stunned in awe. They pick me up and lift me into the air, and cheer. I have the biggest smile on my face. I can’t believe I just did that. It feels so amazing. The soldiers ask me to do it again. They want to see if it catches fire again.
The best archers try and outshoot me but fail, they take it so well, though, and they express their admiration. I am having so much fun and notice that the entire army has stopped training and to watch my impressive archery skills.
King Fenris, Commander James, and General Zander step out of the tent to see the commotion.
They stare at me and see the entire army cheering. I turn and shoot three arrows at the three targets ahead with great speed and watch as they burst into flame on impact.
I turn towards King Fenris, who smiles and claps his hands. Then, he shakes his head in disbelief.
‘Well, you are just full of surprises,’ he says.
I follow King Fenris back to the tent with Commander James and General Zander.
Before I enter, someone grabs my attention. I stop and ignite both hands with a ball of flame. I angrily stare directly into Sir Hugo’s eyes. The soldiers that stand near him step back in fear. I step toward Sir Hugo as the soldiers continue to step aside, creating a path as I walk towards Sir Hugo.
‘Maia, whatever is going on?’ King Fenris asks.
I stop and turn to him.
‘I have a matter I would like to attend to.’ I say with a smirk on my face.
I turn my attention back to Sir Hugo, not giving the King a chance to respond. At first, Sir Hugo isn’t too concerned, but he becomes nervous as he realises that I am walking toward him. I stop a few metres in front of him. He crosses his arms and tries to mask his worry. He avoids eye contact even though it’s obvious I am staring at him in anger.
‘Sir Hugo,’ I say in a stern voice.
He looks up.
‘Kitten… and what do I owe the pleasure?’ He says calmly.
‘Well, you see, I’ve come to kill you,’ I lie.
Hugo glares and straightens himself. ‘You see, Sir Hugo, when you kidnapped me and had me chained up in iron, I promised myself I would kill you when I was free from the iron cuffs… so, here you are, and here I am without my iron cuffs,’ I smile.
Sir Hugo pulls his sword from his sheath and steadies himself.
‘You can try and kill me, kitten.’ he says and readies himself for a fight.
He quickly leans back when a ball of flame I throw comes towards him and misses him. He grins at me.
‘This is going to be fun.’ He says.
The soldiers back up roughly fifty metres with worry for their safety and excitement at the fight. They have circled us and cheer. They make bets between them if I am going to kill Sir Hugo or if he will defeat me. I close my eyes and summon the ground to shake under his feet. He jumps away and tries to keep his balance. He runs towards me and swings his sword. I purposely fall back and kick my foot out, kicking Sir Hugo right between the legs. He drops his sword to hold his crotch in pain, and the army is hysterical with laughter at Sir Hugo’s injury. I roll to my side, grab his sword, and stand up. I hold his sword an inch from his throat. Sir Hugo grunts.
‘Get on your knees!’ I command.
Sir Hugo tries to grab his sword from my hold. I spin myself around simultaneously and kick his chest with the heel of my foot and watch him fall back. I again have his sword pointing at his throat. This time, I summon the flame and make the blade of his sword ignite with fire.
‘I said get on your knees.’ I say.
The army gasps and becomes silent in anticipation.
Sir Hugo is shocked I have defeated him. He slowly and hesitantly drops to his knees. Now at eye level, we glare at each other for a moment. The heat from the sword is making his face drip with sweat. I ready the sword as if to strike his head off.
‘King Fenris? are you really going to let her kill me?’ He yells.
I have no intention of cutting his head off, even if he did kidnap me and cause my wrists to burn. I stare into Sir Hugo’s eyes, and his eyes change from shock to worried.
‘King Fenris!’ He yells again.
‘Well, that was a very entertaining fight, wasn’t it, Sir Hugo?’ King Fenris says as he steps towards us.
‘King Fenris, I am your strongest and most loyal knight. Tell her to step down!’ Sir Hugo says desperately.
‘I don’t control Princess Maia. She is free to do as she chooses. Besides, you did kidnap her, restrain her with irons and not treat her well.’ He says with a smirk.
I was expecting King Fenris to tell me to stand down. Instead, Sir Hugo tries to argue, to beg.
‘But, King Fenris, you ordered me t…’
‘Silence! Or I will behead you myself!’ King Fenris yells.
Sir Hugo is silent. I can see he is thinking, trying to figure something out. I assume he is trying to figure out a way to save his head. King Fenris nods at me, giving me the approval to kill Sir Hugo. I am in shock at the approval. Why would he want me to kill Sir Hugo? Especially if he is his most loyal and trusting knight, it is clear Sir Hugo is remorseful and would be too afraid to harm me again, so why wouldn’t King Fenris want to save him? Sir Hugo and I keep staring at each other. Sir Hugo looks at me, pleading and begging with his eyes. I’m not mad at him anymore. My eyes change from anger to pity. Sir Hugo can see my hands and arms begin to tremble.
I swing the sword. Sir Hugo closes his eyes tightly, knowing this is his end. Instead of swinging the blade toward his neck, I swing it down to the ground in front of him.
The sword impales into the dirt.
Sir Hugo opens his eyes and looks at the sword in confusion and relief. The army is silent and watches on in suspense. Sir Hugo and I both take a deep sigh of relief.
‘Princess Maia?’ I turn to see King Fenris as he stares at me with confusion.
‘He doesn’t need to die,’ I say.
I turn to stare back at Sir Hugo.
‘Sometimes we need to fight back with kindness and not violence… Sir Hugo, I’m going to forgive you.’
Sir Hugo smiles and nods in gratitude. His eyes begin to well. He quickly looks down so no one can see his teary eyes.
I kneel and wrap my arms around Sir Hugo, embracing him. He places his hands on my back and hugs me tightly but sincerely.
Even though he is a big scary looking brute and sometimes may smell bad, he is a misled little boy inside. I stand and look around,
‘Let this be a lesson for all of us, that not all wars need to end in bloodshed!’ I yell and smile proudly in victory.
‘Now, don’t you all have training to get back to?’ I tell them all.
They laugh, shake their heads, disperse, and continue their training.
‘Shall we head back to the castle Princess Maia so that you can get ready for your ball?’ King Fenris asks, annoyed. I nod, and we approach Nimble and ride back to the castle.
