Zenora

Anna had woken me up this morning, by just storming into my room without even knocking. Only then, I realised that Brock had left me already earlier. He had told me that he needed to help with preparations early, before we went to sleep, but I didn’t hear him leave at all this morning. Last night, I had beautiful dreams of Brock and me, together forever and I couldn’t stop smiling.

“The whole castle is wide awake already, for at least two hours Mills! Get out of bed!” She yelled at me.

“Why the rush? You want to see Dennis, get all sweaty from training me, huh?” I just blurted that out, remembering that time when she laid so close to him when we were still on Earth.

She got red cheeks, redder than any tomato that I have seen. I was just kidding actually when I said that, but I guess I hit the right nerve there. She tripped over her own words, so I knew, that was the actual reason that she woke me up this morning. I was a bit surprised that she gave up so soon though, normally she would’ve lied her way out, to not be embarrassed.

“Well I have to have a good reason to see him like that!” She yelled to me again.

“You could always ask him out.” I said to her calmly with a smile on my face, but she shook her head, disagreeing with me.

To change the subject, she had asked me why I looked so happy, as I’m normally a drag in the morning. I couldn’t explain that to her yet, I had to wait for Brock to talk to my dad.

“Sorry, can’t tell you yet. Maybe later this day.” I said with a huge smile on my face. Anna didn’t like it when I held secrets for her, but she had to wait, a little bit longer.

We went out to the training fields behind the castle and I told Anna I would be back in five minutes. Miles stayed with Anna and sat next to her on a bench. I wanted to see Rhydon for a moment, as I haven’t seen him in quite some time. We had transferred him to a pasture behind the training fields, when we arrived at the castle with him. That night when Brock had to ‘fulfil my destiny’.

As I walked closer, I saw Rhydon sleeping on the grass, he was laying on his side, basking under the morning sun.

“Hey sweet pea.” I said to him when I was a few yards away from him. He immediately stood up and ran towards me. I held out my hand in front of me and he stopped exactly there. His horn touched the inside of my hand and then he rubbed himself against me, when he took one step forward. He nearly knocked me over but I stepped side-ways and laughed at him.

“You have grown, since the last time I saw you!” I said cutely and he turned his head to a big basket that was close to the fence. It was filled to the rim with delicious fruits.

“Yes, I have been bringing him fruits daily ever since I got here.” A familiar voice said behind me. I turned around and I had to think for a moment who it was.

“Aah, your Argent’s master! I’m sorry I’ve never asked your name.”

We talked for a few minutes and he told me his name is Axel. He has been feeding Rhydon ever since he got here, as he was curious about the creature that his Princess had tamed. He actually got transferred to the army here, when he won the competition at the Hunters Lodge. They rescheduled the tournament for that day, as arrangements had to be made for my safety. When three days later the competition was held, he had won with a fair amount of points compared to the number two. I thanked him for feeding Rhydon and congratulated him with his victory. I was wondering how Argent was doing now.

“See for yourself.” He said and whistled loudly.

The silver-grey wolf came running towards him, and sat next to his master with his head up in the sky. He had this shiny, full grey fur, it almost looked like it was actually made of silver. His paws looked very good taken care off and his eyes were bright. I told Axel, that he had taken care of his wolf very preciously, while I stroked the fur behind Argent’s ears.

“Ever since I saw how you behaved around all the pets, I started to mimic your ways, and Argent and I have a much better connection since that moment. I don’t know how it really works, but I can ask him some simple questions now too and I seem to understand him much better also.” He showed me a trick he could do with Argent. Axel told Argent to walk around Rhydon, and then come back, to sit next to him again, Argent barked softly and did what his master just asked. I was amazed by what he just did, am I not the only one anymore that can do these things? I’m wondering if he could do more things.

“In four days, I’m going to train with Archeops, would you like to join me then as well? Maybe you are capable of doing more than you think and I can help you with that.” I asked him and his eyes started to sparkle. He thanked me and agreed to meet with me and Archeops then.

We finished our conversation, and I went back to the fields, to start my training with Dennis. I haven’t done training in a few days, so I’m actually glad that I can work-out again. We both ran two laps around the fields to get warmed up and then we stretched our muscles at the bench where Anna was sitting on. She was practically drooling already, looking at the naked chest of Dennis.

Dennis grabbed two training swords and tossed one over to me.

“Let’s see what you can do, as I have noticed you have become quite a bit stronger.” Dennis said, challenging me to start our sparring session.

We started charging into each other and we continuously blocked or avoided the attacks thrown towards another. After about twenty minutes, Dennis got a bit sweaty, and I could see Anna was liking her view. Dennis either didn’t notice her gaze, or he was good at not showing anything. I didn’t have one single drop of sweat yet, so I decided to take it up a notch.

My swings became more ferocious and I could tell that Dennis had to brace himself more, with each movement I made. His eyes got wider in surprise, when I could land a hit on the side of his body. I kept going and hit him a few times more, going faster and faster with each movement. I hit his other side, arm and shoulder. Then I knocked his sword out of his hands with a swift motion, and then, when I was about to hit his neck, I stopped when the blade of the training sword touched his skin.

Dennis his breathing was out of control and he looked at me like he just saw a ghost.

“H-how… how did you do that?” He asked me and I was confused.

“What do you mean? You have trained me yourself with the sword, why do you look so surprised?”

Anna came rushing in towards me, and looked at me with the same ghostly eyes.

“What did I do? Could you just tell me, instead of looking at me like this!” I said annoyed.

Anna explained that when I charged into Dennis and hit him, my movements were so fast that they were hardly able to follow them. I laughed in disbelieve at what she said.

“Could we try again? I want to see what you guys are talking about.” Dennis nodded and took his training sword from the ground.

We both took our stance and I tried to focus on my agility. I looked Dennis in the eyes and we both charged at the same time. Within a split second I hit his sword out of his hand by swiping my sword horizontally, then I bumped his chest with my shoulder which made him fall to the ground. Then I jumped up and took the sword in both my hands and pointed the tip of it downwards. A loud yell came out of my throat, as I impaled the dusty ground with the point of the dull wooden blade. It was latched into the hard, dry earth, right next to Dennis his face. He had turned his head away, and had his eyes closed. He knew that I wasn’t going to hit him, but when he opened his eyes, he still looked a bit in awe of my destructive force.

This action didn’t even tire me at all, I was still on the top of my energy. Yes, my heart was racing from the adrenaline, but how far could I go? I really wanted to test my limits, as a battle was about to be held, in less than a week.