“Put your backs into it, Kites!” Karina called as she stood to one side, supervising their efforts.

Etraon had seen other trainers taking their trainees to select new practice weapons from the armory over the course of a week and explaining the various qualities that one would look for. Unlike the other trainers, Karina had her trainees running laps around the barracks.

Despite how hard she worked them that morning, she often pulled them aside for water breaks or a quick rub down of sore muscles. She took great care to never rest them for too long as to allow their bodies to cool down and thereby make it harder to start back up again. It took several instances of seeing such a theory in action for Etraon to finally understand the reasons behind it, both mentally and physically. It had been two weeks since the start of their training, and while they had not yet so much as touched a weapon, he was already beginning to feel a difference in his body.

“Sirena! Catherine!” she called them about an hour and a half later, “in the tent. Now. You four,” she continued, turning to face the boys who were just about to pass them by, “keep running until I call you back. And remember, I will know if you’ve stopped. Don’t even think about pulling anything funny.”

“Yes, ma’am!” they responded quickly, continuing to run, though at a slightly slower pace than they had when they had first started.

The first few days of running had been torturous, leaving them all gasping for breath and water, and while Karina had been lenient about letting them take breaks as needed, she had begun to limit how long such breaks would be. They passed the tent twice more, but there was no sign of Karina and the girls outside. Shrugging his shoulders once to Windsor, who had looked at him and hung a question in the air between them, Etraon continued running.

By the time they had returned to the vicinity of the tent for a third time, Karina was waiting for them. She tossed them each a towel and beckoned them towards her. Giving crisp orders to douse themselves with warm water and to roughly soap off their bodies before returning to see her, she ushered them into the tent, where a large tub of hot water and several large bowls awaited them. The boys might have been tempted to spend their time splashing the water all about the tent any other day, but, given that the tubs had been provided for them in the middle of their training session, it was clear to them all that Karina intended for them to get the process over with as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“Hurry it up in there,” she called through the tent flap. “Whoever has his trousers on, please come out.” As it happened, Etraon was first. With a quick, worried look over his shoulder to Aurelius, he stepped out of the tent after his cousin replied with waggling eyebrows and fiendish grin.

It was very unexpected for one’s trainer, female trainer, Etraon added as an afterthought, to ask one to come out in the open air shirtless and bare-legged from the knees down, no less. He faced Karina with a stoic expression, determined that if his pride as a man was to be so put to the test, he was, at the very least, not going to show any sign of weakness. His ears tingled slightly with warmth and he found himself praying that he wasn’t blushing as she stared him up and down and walked in a semi-circle around him, nodding occasionally and muttering to herself in a hushed tone. Whatever she seemed to be focusing on must have been awfully important because Karina didn’t so much as smile at what he now suspected were his rapidly reddening ears.

“Um…is there something that I should-?”

“No,” she stopped him in a flat tone, devoid of any emotion. A passerby might have mistaken her tone as cold, but by this time, Etraon knew it to be the voice of focus. Karina would only speak in that manner to the Kites when she didn’t want them to interrupt, and they had all learned to keep from feeling offended when she took that tone with them. “You,” she said eventually, startling him. “Would I be right in saying that you’ve never been able to touch your toes?” The question was about as random as they come, but from Karina, Etraon had honestly been expecting something more bizarre and inexplicable. Nevertheless, his mouth hung open stupidly for a moment or two before the fact that she was still waiting for an answer registered in his mind.

“You could tell just by looking at me?” he asked incredulously.

“Just answer me, Etraon. Never mind how I know.”

“Uh…yes. I mean, no. I mean, yes! You’re right! I can’t!”

Karina rolled her eyes skyward and muttered something that sounded very much like ‘boys’ under her breath before she continued speaking again.

“How far can you reach?”

“Just past my ankles.”

“I’ve got good news and not so good news for you, so listen up.”

“Yes!”

“Since you’re so excited, I’ll give you the not so good news first.”

“Oh.”

“I want you to spend a good fifteen minutes stretching after every bath you take from now on. Watch carefully now, I want you to follow this sequence exactly, and do it every time you take a bath.” Etraon blinked at her owlishly, wondering why she had repeated herself. “That means I want you to take a bath every day,” she clarified.

“I do,” Etraon protested, wondering why she had bothered to say it at all. He was mildly insulted at what he felt that she was insinuating, that he, the Crown Prince of their country, was a stinky, unclean, dirt-spattered individual. Of course, Karina had suggested nothing of the sort. His attempts to corrupt his impression of her was neatly shunted to one side with her reply, something that he felt was distinctly unfair.

“You’re one of few, Etraon. Many who grow up elsewhere don’t have parents who make them wash every day, or worse, perpetuate the thought that daily baths are unhealthy.” She smiled briefly at the look of disgust on his face, clearly satisfied that they had a similar view regarding the issue. “Back to our original subject, your body is naturally easier to stretch out after a bath because the hot water relaxes your muscles. Practice when you’re relaxed and you’ll see results, good and proper, in your training sessions.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“And as for the good news,” she began, before pausing at the sight of Damon peering out from behind the tent flaps. “I…will speak with you at a later time. The others have been waiting for a while and it must be quite chilly without a tunic on. We don’t want any of you catching cold, now do we? Go on,” she told him, shooing him back towards the barracks. “Get dressed and I’ll meet up with the rest of you in the armory promptly after lunch. You can take a break until then.” He nodded and scurried off, just barely managing to ignore the urge to stay behind and eavesdrop on what she would say to Damon.

Such behavior is unacceptable for anyone, more so for the Crown Prince, he scolded himself. He slapped his cheeks lightly, just enough for it to turn red without stinging, and, deciding that he had rid himself of such stupidity, continued on his way.

-----

Author's Note:

xoxo,

Elfarine