The Princess and the Assassin

II

Irmina

Why can I never beat him?

My hands scrape the ground as I fall back onto my bottom. Jax stands above me, a smirk on his face. I suck my teeth.

"Is that all the princess of this kingdom, has got to offer?" He asks, stretching his hands and cracking his neck. Getting up, I brush the dirt off of my backside and hands.

"Let's go again then." I put my hands up, ready to go for the tenth time. Jax chuckles, shaking his head. He leans against the tree behind him as I huff.

He's done.

"If you want to grow, you have to start thinking with your head and not just your heart. You lose all your strength and just mindlessly, hit at your opponent. It was easy to knock you down, have you learned nothing from the last 2 years?" He asks, as I hang my head in shame.

He's right. I know the techniques and I know how to use them, but I just... I don't know. I freak out and lose them.

"You can't lose your cool when in a fight. You've already lost the moment you have. I think next time we meet we'll have to go back to strategy. You're not ready for real fighting." He says. I open my mouth to protest but no words to challenge his come to mind.

He's right. He always is.

Nodding, I pick back up my cloak. Jax tilts his head at me, saying his good bye and with that, he disappears among the shadows of the trees.

I don't know who Jax really is, or why he decided to teach me swordsmanship and combat, but he's from the Moon kingdom. Only they can move with the shadows.

A large sigh leaves me and I turn, heading to the bush where my cloak lies.

All this time, and investment put into learning everything and I screw it up by losing my head. Mother would be disappointed.

Grabbing the cloth, I wrap it back around me. The strings at the neck hang as I get a hold of them, tying them together.

Mother was the greatest warrior our kingdom ever saw. She wasn't a princess and yet my father fell in love with her due to how beautiful she was when she fought. The whole kingdom did.

I'll never reach her standard.

I shake my head, pulling the hood over my eyes slowly as I begin my walk back to the castle.

Feeling bad for myself will only discourage me further. I just have to keep working hard, even when it's hard.

That's my best effort.

Birds tweet by me, flying off into the sun as my eyes follow them. They fly high and away, off to wherever they want to go.

When will I fly? When is it my turn to go pass these trees and go off to wherever I want to?

When is it-

Rustling in the bushes ahead, snap me out of my thoughts. I stare at them.

Jax is gone, so why would there be anyone in these woods? So close to the castle?

"You already noticed. You're better than we thought." A voice comes from beside me as I look over. Above me in a tree, a woman dressed in all black stares down. She holds 3 small daggers in her hand, all thin and sharp. I narrow my eyes at her.

"You know the crime for killing a princess isn't death, it's torture for as long as you shall breathe. They make sure to keep you alive." I say, keeping my eyes on her as the sound of feet hitting the ground surrounds me.

An ambush? I might really be in trouble.

"Then all we have to do is make sure we don't get caught." The black mask around her face hides her expression as I take off my cloak. I drop it beside my feet.

Figures drop from the trees, including the female assassin. Five assassins surround me.

Time to see if all this training will count.

An assassin rushes my side, I turn, dodging their knife as my hand comes behind them, landing on the nape of their neck. They collapse, unconscious on the ground as the others watch silently.

"Kill me first before you talk about getting away with it." I say, looking around.

They all come at me, knives out and ready to attack me.

Assassins always have poison on their knives. Even with my poison resistance, one cut would put me out cold for a day. Then my father would find out I left the castle.

I'd be trapped.

The assassin closest aims for my legs, their knife sharp. I step back, elbowing another in the face as I stomp on the hand of this one. I twist out of the way, leaving the center of them as they almost crash into each other.

I was taught by a member of the Moon Kingdom, I've picked up a little something in the last couple of years, even if it's not much.

A sharp stabbing pain skims my arm as the poison seeps into my bloodstream.

But I was watching them. None of them did anything...

Another assassin?

"Took you long enough. Jevy got knocked out." Her voice fades as my vision blurs. My knees buckle and I hit the ground.

"Just shut up." A male voice comes from behind me, sounding far away as the world around me darkens.

This is it. I lost. I'm dead.

Jax was right. I had a lot more to learn.

I'm sorry, Mother.