Heritage
Training

There are so many of them! Starflower and I hid amongst the trees, peering into the army camp, soldiers clad in silver plated and gold plated armour, going back and forth. There were soldiers training with their weapons, soldiers gathering supplies. I ducked when Paradox strode across the camp, examining his soldiers. Anyone could recognize me, I had taken off the damn helmet and it was daytime now. Starflower and I stopped at a clearing not far from the camp to sleep off the rest of the night before approaching the camp. And I felt really nervous, I wasn’t sure to how I could blend in.

“I don’t know about you, girl,” I whispered to Starflower “But I suddenly have cold feet. Literally and figuratively.” Starflower snorted and tossed her mane. I peered through between the trees and spied Vincent who was carrying some wood across the camp. “Oi!” I hissed “Vincent!” Vincent paused and looked around. I peeked around the tree again and waved to him. His eyes widened and he quickly dumped the wood into another elf’s arms and quickly made his way towards me. I stepped back slightly as he slipped between the trees and stared me down.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he hissed “You should be at the Northern Palace with Princess Pearl and Dune…”

“It’s not my style to just wait around,” I said with a shrug.

“And why the suit of armour?” Vincent asked, poking my breastplate “You’re not seriously going to fight, are you?” I nodded. He raised his eyebrows. “Do you know how to fight in this suit of armour and with a sword and shield?” I shook my head. “Then how are you going to fight?” I gave my best pleading look and Vincent stepped away warily. “No, I don’t want to be responsible for your death.”

“Then I expect your training to be exceptional,” I grinned. Vincent sighed and folded his arms.

“No, it’s dangerous and I won’t let you,” he said firmly.

“Fine, I’ll go and get Dune, he’ll be happy to help out here.”

“No, don’t you dare!” Vincent lashed out and grabbed my wrist.

“Vincent, I will make sure Dune will be here in a nurse suit, being your personal doctor unless you help me train with this suit of armour, sword and shield.” We stared into each other’s eyes long and hard before Vincent sighed.

“I suppose I should find you a place to rest and a stable for your Florony,” he murmured in defeat “But why? Do you really have to pull out all the stops to just go onto the battlefield? Do you know how brutal war is?”

“If it’s anything like fighting Cannabec, then I have an idea,” I shrugged “I’m prepared for anything.”

“Believe me, my father said that before going to war for the first time,” Vincent sighed “His stories were surprisingly graphic for a traumatized veteran.” He sighed again before standing up straight. “Right, can you see through your helmet?” I picked the helmet up and carefully clicked it around my head. I flicked the visor down and found that the vision was better in the daytime. I gave a nod and Vincent took Starflower’s reins and we followed him into the camp. He handed the reins over to a shorter elf, instructing him to take Starflower over to where the other Floronies were.

“Oi, Vincent, Lady Selina says she can’t train with you this afternoon,” one soldier called and we paused briefly to listen to him “One of the squires has had a nasty accident with magic and she’s helping him heal.”

“Alright,” Vincent nodded.

“Who’s the short kid?”

“Late recruit.” They called me short! I fumed underneath the helmet but then realised how tall the soldiers were compared to me so didn’t fuss. Vincent steered me through the crowds and to a rather large tent with silver linen. The tent was lined up with different flat mattresses for beds, all neatly aligned, each with a small bag of personal belongings. All except for one.

“Wow, looks comfy,” I remarked.

“Hey, welcome to life on the frontline, princess,” Vincent smirked. I slapped him sharply. Vincent stumbled and rubbed his cheek, blinking in surprise. “Wow, that was pretty effective with that armoured glove.” I flexed my hand with a smug smirk under my helmet. Suddenly I felt pretty powerful and I liked it. “Now, if Selina is held up then I can quickly help you go through basics this afternoon.”

“Great, how am I going to hide my femininity amongst these other soldiers?” I hissed “One of them might just walk by and notice me.”

“You might need to move around at night so no-one can see your face but you seem to be hiding your breasts pretty well. Not like there’s nothing much to hide anyway.” And that merited another slap. “Ouch, since when did you get all sensitive?”

“You insult my body, you insult my genes, you insult my family, you insult my honour,” I snarled.

“Spoken like a true princess,” Vincent commented. He had two bright red cheeks so I spared him the slap for calling me a princess. “Right, now you’ve had experience with fans, you’ll probably need to start holding the sword with two hands then.” He took a look at the sword by my side and fingered the scabbard. “Wait, this is King Merzeiha’s armour, elves will recognize this!”

“Only if they took a good look at the shield and sword!” I protested.

“Zelda, this is very dangerous, you know that, right? Zack’s army will be coming across those plains any day now…”

“For my heritage, I’m willing to do anything!”

“Isn’t this just a little bit extreme?”

“I’m making a point!”

“You’ve read too many books!”

“Is that such a crime?”

“It’s crazy.”

“Also I want to keep an eye on Aura.”

“Ah-ha!” Vincent pointed at me accusingly “There’s the true motive!” I threw my hands up in defeat.

“I’m worried,” I confessed.

“Of course you are, you’re like a mother phoenix who never wants to let the weakest of her offspring to take flight,” Vincent sighed.

“So you admit, Aura doesn’t stand a chance on the battlefield!” I sighed “Why does he insist in fighting?!”

“Why do you?” I hesitated and folded my arms.

“My mother came to me one last time and told me she was proud,” I muttered “I…I don’t want to let her down! For all that guidance to go to waste, for her sacrifice to be in vain…” I fought back the tears and Vincent took my helmet off. I protested but he hugged me tightly, petting the back of my head.

“You looked like you needed a hug.” I hugged him back tightly and buried my face into his chest to hide my tears.

“What’s with these engravings?” Vincent asked as he examined my father’s sword “They look like ritual summoning words…”

“Don’t know,” I panted as I finished my lap in the heavy armour “Ugh, can I take this off now?” The weather was so unbearably hot today and frankly, I felt like I was going to faint. Vincent handed me a gourd of water as I began stripping to the armour underwear.

“You should be careful with this,” Vincent said as he swung the sword back and forth whilst I quenched my thirst “If this sword can summon creatures, it’ll be a power which can cause so much destruction.” He handed me the sword as I gave him back his gourd, smiling.

“Please,” I said as I held the sword up “I’m pretty sure I can’t summon anything with my inexperience.”

“I don’t know, Zelda, summoning is very easy to do but controlling what you summon less so.” I laughed. It can’t be that simple! I took a deep breath and sighed.

“Koha wonono jit su tomo obi!” I chanted loudly.

“Zelda!” Vincent hissed in alarm.

“See, nothing, ow!” The handle burnt my skin and I let go of the sword. It landed in the ground and a red glow flashed through it, dispersing a shockwave into the ground. It was silent for a few moments before the ground began shaking.

“Zelda, I told you!”

“I know, I know!” Oh no, I didn’t think it would actually work! The ground split open between us and a wrinkled, wooden, grey hand crept out and slammed itself down before me. I stepped back as a large tree with arms, legs and a face crawled out and snarled at me.

“A tree-man?!” Vincent exclaimed to which I shrugged helplessly “You can summon treefolk?!”

“I didn’t know it could happen with me!” I protested feebly.

“Your father used it, you’re his daughter, what did you think could happen?!” OK, he had me there. The grey tree-man swaggered in front of me and took a swing at me. I got hit and pushed back as Vincent snatched the sword. I might have a minor bruise but it didn’t really hit me that hard. “No good, it’s unstable! We’ll have to kill it!”

“We can’t unsummon it?” I asked as the tree-man roared.

“That’ll attract attention,” Vincent muttered as he sheathed the sword into the scabbard before it could do anymore damage “Zelda, get away from it before it kills you!” My heart was beating so loud, I could barely hear him. I could just see the ugly old tree man swaggering over me, swinging helplessly and roaring. Someone grabbed me by the arm and got me out of the way before it could land a fatal blow. “Oi, Zelda!” Vincent shook me and I turned to him. “You need to hide unless you want to alert the whole army to know you’re here!”

“Uh…yeah…” I murmured and Vincent shoved me into the bushes, throwing the piece of armour, sword and shield in with me. A handful of soldiers came, led by Gardenia who stared up at the monstrosity in shock. She turned to Vincent with wide eyes who shrugged.

“It came out of nowhere, I was just collecting water when it suddenly appeared.” Gardenia looked at her soldiers in gold coloured leather armour, nodding to them and pointing around the tree-man. It swayed and swiped, the soldiers ducking and using their magic to bind it. Orbs of energy of different colours flew around, hitting the tree-man, constraining it and hitting it. It screeched and roared in pain, making me plug my ears because it was all giving me a headache. That was when I saw the reason why Gardenia was known as the best knight under Paradox’s command.

It was scary. Her whole being just glowing gold, even her eyes! They went completely gold, no pupils at all. Her hair levitating, actually her whole body left a good foot from the ground. It was like she was possessed or something as her massive lexicon levitated itself in front of her, pages turning rapidly as she pointed to the tree-man. Her mouth opened, yep it was completely golden inside too, and she condemned his existence, telling him to rest in peace now because she was here to send his wandering soul back into the reincarnation cycle. A circle of gold lit up underneath him and he roared in agony. Before my very eyes, he disintegrated into nothing but dust.

“Lady Gardenia!” I turned my eyes away from where the tree-man had once stood to see Gardenia had collapsed after the spell. She was carried away and Vincent snuck into the bushes with me.

“Are you alright?” he asked and I opened and closed my mouth in awe.

“I…we couldn’t unsummon it, could we?”

“No, if something summoned wants to go, it will go away at its own accord.” I looked up at him and I could feel that I was shaking. Watching Gardenia just wipe that tree-man like that really spooked me. She could do that to anything and anyone but clearly at the price of her consciousness.

“What do you know about summoning?” I asked.

“My big sister nearly killed herself with summoning, I never went near the art,” Vincent shook his head.

“It might be useful for the war, I could summon treefolk to help us against Zack’s army.”

“No!” Vincent said sharply “I draw the line here! Summoning can take years to master and you can’t do it in these next few days.” I opened my mouth then turned away and sulked.

“Fine, I just thought it would be useful.”

“Yes, it would be very useful to have an unstable tree-man attacking our soldiers and everything else and we’ll have to sacrifice Gardenia to send it back into the reincarnation cycle.” I hesitated and sighed hunching my shoulders.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again,” I murmured.

“Zelda, you have to promise me,” Vincent said sternly and gripped my arm “No more summoning, it’s dangerous and it includes taking souls out of the reincarnation cycle after one of their lives ends. What do you think happens if there aren’t any souls available?” I paused and paled.

“People don’t just randomly die because of summoning, do they?” I murmured.

“Not randomly but the moment you start the ritual, a soul will be searched out and a last minute death will be planned and happen for the sake of the summoning.” I swallowed nervously and Vincent petted my back comfortingly. “Come on, let’s go back to camp. I’ll help you into the armour.”

I sat cross-legged facing the sunrise in my daily meditation practice, petals scattered around me. The birds were singing and I felt at peace. I felt a bit worn out and tired from Vincent training me to run and use a sword and shield. He was furious when training me in combat, his new katana could cut through air if possible. He still commented that it just wasn’t as good as the katana his father gave him and I could understand. I miss my mother’s fans. Her kimono was safe in the Northern Palace. I smiled happily as the sun warmed me as I sat there after taking a dip and settling for a towel around my body instead of a kimono.

“Good morning, princess.” My eyes opened slowly as I felt a shadow and I was face to face with Cannabec.

“What is it now?” I asked venomously.

“No need to be so hostile,” Cannabec smirked as he sat down in front of me “Just admiring the view is all.” I reached out and grabbed the drying brown shirt, quickly pulling it on so I could shift the towel down to cover my waist and legs. I glared at the demon bitterly.

“Why are you here?” I hissed.

“Zack’s army is on its way here,” Cannabec hummed as he made a walking motion with two fingers “I hope you’re prepared because they’re not going to play nice, even to a beautiful princess like you.” He snatched my father’s sword out of my reach and admired the scabbard. “Such a naughty girl…” he sighed “Stealing her daddy’s armour and weapons.” I snatched the sword off him and cradled it, keeping a stern eye on him.

“Why are you here?” I hissed again. Cannabec chuckled, leaned over and pulled one of my hairs out. I winced as he examined it in the light.

“I’m going to be leading Zack’s army whilst he hides in his office, tail tucked between his legs,” he said and grinned “Still want to fight?”

“I’m better equipped, I’ll be fine against the likes of you,” I sneered to which Cannabec laughed.

“Fireproof armour won’t stop me alone,” he said as he reached out to touch the scabbard but I slapped his hand away “And even if you would summon treefolk perfectly, you forget I can light them up with a click of my fingers.” To prove a point he snapped his fingers and one of the trees in the forest behind him went up in flames. I swallowed and took a deep breath.

“I will fight for my race and for my family,” I said calmly as I couldn’t take my eyes off the flaming tree. Cannabec smirked.

“This will be very interesting,” he purred before disappearing in a flurry of green flames. I let out a long exhale as I shook my head and turned away from the tree that was on fire. I began changing into the armour and clicked my helmet in place once I was finished. My heart was beating erratically and I found it hard to control my breath. I clutched my sword close to me and cradled it, as if it would protect me if I did. I felt dizzy, as if I was going to faint. I was terrified. I didn’t want to go out and fight, I’m not brave like Aura, strong like Paradox or powerful like Gardenia. I didn’t want to risk my life, there was this side of me that wanted to turn and run far away. But then I remembered I had a score to settle with Cannabec and I swallowed all that fear down. The demon who was behind killing my family, Aura’s family, Vincent’s family and Dune’s too. How long had he been poisoning Zack’s mind? It didn’t matter. He was going to pay. And with a deep breath, I disappeared into a flurry of petals to go back to the army camp. I will make sure Cannabec will pay for what he has done.

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