The second strike came from Riona, a swift and precise thrust aimed at Rowen's midsection. Like a dancer evading a partner's move, Rowen gracefully sidestepped the attack, the rapier responding with an elegant parry. The dance of blades continued, each movement a silent conversation expressing more than mere technique. They both feel the growing connection, it begins to feel like everything around them is fading away, sweet solitude. Nothing else matters but this moment. As the spar unfolded, the exchanges between Riona and Rowen became more intricate, a testament to their relationship, a feeling they remember the many years they’ve known each other. Playful glances and shared smiles punctuated the intensity of their movements, adding a sweet note to the otherwise rigorous training session. Their swords moved as if guided by unspoken thoughts, weaving a story neither had yet acknowledged. Despite the competitive nature of their duel, a gentle camaraderie lingered in the air. Riona and Rowen, caught amid the dance, exchanged looks that spoke volumes, their classmates unknowingly witnessing a connection that transcended the training hall. As the spar neared its end, Rowen thrust one last strike toward her chest. Riona jolts back but her left heel ends up outside of the circle, a blue light glows from the circle, indicating the foot that steps outside the boundaries. 

Rowen gleefully smiles, “Rooky mistake.”

Riona smiles back, her eyes showing her scorn for the outcome as she only looks down, “I know.”

Riona and Rowen head back to the center of the circle, their swords gleaming in the soft light, gracefully bowed to each other, a mutual respect forged in the dance of blades.

Though she lost, Riona looks up at Rowen during the bow and says, “Thank you, I needed that.”

Rowen smiles at her before another whistle goes off. The students change out of the armor before heading back to the classrooms to grab their things. They go through the rest of their day until the final bell rings at about 2 pm.

As everyone walks out of the school Riona stops Rowen and says, “Hey, that match earlier was actually a lot of fun by the way. We haven’t gotten to spar like that for a while, have we?”

“Well yeah, it’s been a few weeks since we’ve been paired up, ha. But yeah it was a lot of fun.” He hesitates before continuing, “Um, that- uh, are… you… busy later?” he says with a smile.

Riona blushes, “Oh, uh, yeah I am busy later today. Ya know, chores.”

Rowen's smile disappears, “Oh, uh, that’s ok.”

“But I’m free tomorrow, that’s when break starts.”

“Oh, I’m busy tomorrow, family stuff.” he chuckles, “How’s Friday?”

“Oh great that works, ok, that’s in…two days, not including today, obviously.”

Rowen's warm smile returned, “Yea.”

Riona giggles, “Welp, I should be heading home, I’ll see you then.” she gives him a slight nudge on the shoulder before walking away towards her house, “I’ll call you tomorrow so we can plan something!” she says before exiting earshot.

Rowen grins widely as he watches her go.

While she’s walking she thinks out loud, “Wait, did I just get asked out?” she thinks for a moment, “Oh shoot I did!”

She begins to now run to her house, a lot more excited than before, to the point where she almost completely forgets about her previous issues. Hendrick left earlier in the day, so he isn’t home when Riona arrives.

Hendrick was off from work today and struggled to find ways to keep himself busy.

He thinks to himself, “I haven't seen you in a while, let's pay a visit.”

He hesitates in front of a Graveyard-signed Kaleidoscope National Graveyard, eventually, he walks in and stops in front of a gravestone with numerous medals on it, chiseled with the words, Sarah Santi Thomas-née Larona. He stares at the gravestone and picks up the photo in front of it. The photo is of a beautiful woman smiling with dark green eyes. He kisses the photo before putting it back.

Hendrick sits in front of the stone with his legs crossed, “Hi love, I’m sorry I haven’t visited in a while. It gets hard, coming back here, I’m sure you understand. Riona can’t be here right now, she’s at school, she’s training hard though. She’ll be just like you one day, at least that’s what I pray. When we first found her in front of our doorstep, I really wasn’t sure at first, but your compassion has given me the best gift I could’ve possibly asked for. I consider her a gift from you, maybe a way I could make up for the wrongs in my life.-I really miss you, every time I see a photo of you I can’t help but remember your beautiful face, your little dimple every time you smile, the way you’d joke around when we hung out. The way your cheeks felt on my lap.” His eyes water as a single tear flows slowly down his face, “Every time I wake up, I roll over and imagine you're still there. I try to be strong, I really do, I need to be strong for her. If you were still here I know you and Riona would love each other, since she was still a baby when you left us. She’s so much like you in so many ways, she’s my pride and joy. Honestly, if I didn’t have her when I did, I’m not sure I would’ve been ok. I will protect her with my life if I must. I love her, and I love you.” He sits in front of the stone for a while longer before getting up and saying, “Hasta la próxima, mi estrella más brillante.” and kisses the photo one more time before walking away.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

Riona is greeted by a knock on the door about an hour after getting inside. Riona looks through the peephole before opening the door, “Oh, hey Cass. What’re you doing here?” Cass excitedly yells, “Heya Rio! Me and Thistle were doing some training, and he told me about this blight thing. He’s going to teach me some more magic on the way there, and-” “Cass, breathe!” Riona interrupted, a chuckle escaping her, “Where are you guys going?” “Citrine City, home of the biggest imbued object market in all the kingdom,” Thistle answered with a smirk. “Well, I mean, I read that somewhere. I haven’t actually been there before, but I figured it’d be the best place to look for stuff like that.”

Riona raised an eyebrow, skepticism in her tone, “Why do you need my help?”

Cass grinned. “Well, you're strong and good with the sword, there's creatures out there magic might not work on.”

“We could use the help,” Thistle added with a casual demeanor.

Riona pondered for a moment. “What about that, uh, the slicey dicey spell you have?”

Cass scratched her head. “Uh, well, I mean, that would work, but I get super tired after using that.”

“Hm, okay, fine, I’ll come. But I need to be home by Friday night, I have plans. Also, we’ll have to wait until later, I need to talk to my dad. I don’t know when he’ll be back, so just wait for me somewhere.” Riona requested, a sense of responsibility underlining her adventurous spirit.

“Okie dokie,” Cass responded with a carefree shrug.

“We’ll be at the south exit.” Thistle remarks before they both walk away.

Riona goes back inside and waits another thirty minutes before her father, Hendrick, comes home. He enters the house and closes the door behind him, letting out a sigh.

Hendrick greets Riona, still feeling a little gloomy from earlier, “Hey hon, how was your day?” Hendrick asks.

“Oh, um, yeah it was great, you?” Riona answers.

“It was fine.” He says.

“Just fine? You don’t get a day off very often, you didn’t enjoy it?” Riona probed.

He chuckled nervously. “I guess I’m not really used to it, heh.”

Riona hesitates, with what feels like a lump stuck in her throat, “Oh, um, I-” she began, uncertainty creeping into her voice, “would it be okay if I um-”

“If you what?” Hendrick interrupted.

“Can I go with Cass during break to investigate that magic blight thing?” she blurted out, the words rushing from her lips.

Hendrick's eyes widened in surprise. “What?! How far are you going?” he exclaimed, the sudden proposal catching him off guard.

Riona shrugged, her uncertainty returning. “Um, I don’t know.”

Hendrick takes a pause to ponder an answer, “No-no I won’t allow it.” he answers with a stern voice.

Unsurprised by his answer, Riona still challenges his response, “What? Why?” she queries, her determination undeterred.

“You're not ready to be out on your own like that,” he said, his concern made obvious in his tone.

“I can protect myself, you’ve seen me! You know I can protect myself!” Riona exclaims, her voice brewing with frustration.

Hendrick slams his hand on the table, “NO! Final answer! Accept it and keep training!” he yells, his patience running thin.

Riona groans in anger before storming off to her room.

Hendrick stops her saying, “Riona!” She stops and looks back at him, “You know I only say this because I love you, right?”

Riona scoffs without answering, she angrily goes to her room, closing the door with a loud slam.

“Riona!” Hendrick yells, and he sighs after getting no response.

He gloomily walks back to the table and sits down, resting his face in his palms. A few minutes later he gets up and walks down the hall to Riona's room.

He softly knocks on the door, “Hey, I know you're mad at me. But it’s not that I don’t trust you, honest. I just-” He sighs, “It sounds like it could be dangerous, and it’d be more than just your weight you’d be holding that’s all. Do you understand?”

He’s met with silence.

“Hon?”

He softly pushes her door open with a creak coming from the hinges, he peaks into the room to find her gone. The curtains from her now open window flapping in the wind. Her sword and squire armor missing as well, along with an old satchel.

He runs out of the house looking for her, calling her name, “Riona!” He runs around the town continuing to shout, “Riona, where are you!” When he doesn’t find her he walks back inside the house and lies in bed hoping she’d show up in the morning. He never stopped worrying though, leaving him anxious for the foreseeable future.

Riona walks toward the castle town gates and sneakily leaves, she meets Cass and Thistle outside the south gate, leaning on a tree along the dirt path leading out of the town.

Cass sees her, smiles, and asks, “So, what’d your dad say?”

Riona loses eye contact, glancing to her side, “Oh um, he said it was fine.”

Thistle stands up straight, no longer leaning on the tree, and says, “Great, we should get a move on while we still get sunlight.” He waves his hand, gesturing them to follow, “C’mon.” He turns around and begins his trek across the dirt path, using his staff as a walking stick.

Cass jogs over and walks next to Thistle, while Riona hesitates, looking behind her once before following behind them.

Cass looks up at Thistle and asks, “So this place isn’t too far right? These little legs can’t take more than a mile and a half of walking.”

“Not too far, it’s right outside the border.” He responds while pointing forward, “Past those chrome caves you guys saw before, but we’re not going through there. Gonna take a detour.”

“Oh ok. Anything you can teach me on the way there?” asked Cass.

He puts his finger to his chin saying, “Hm, I don’t know. Ever heard of the magical art of silence?”

“Oh, no what’s tha- oh. Hey!” Cass pouts.

Thistle laughs before Riona walks closer up to them and chimes in, “Wait, outside the border, you said it wasn’t outside the border? The royal guard doesn’t have dominion outside the border. What if we get in trouble?”

He responds, “Don’t worry, we’re only gonna be outside for a second. Once we get there, we need to look for a sensor. We can use it to track this blight back down to its source.” he walks some more before continuing, “Also I said ‘in all the land’, I never said it was within the border.” he gives a small smirk.

“I…ok I guess it’s whatever.” she steps back again and relaxes a bit.

“After that, I know someone who can help us figure out how it works,” Thistle adds.

While walking down the dirt path they reach that fountain from the day before, what was brimming with life only 24 hours earlier is now withering and dried up. The fountain no longer gushes the life-giving water it once was, the plants around the fountain withering at the seams.

Thistle stops and looks at the fountain, “I noticed this yesterday, this isn’t good. If this keeps up there won’t be any life left in this forest.”

Thistle gets an idea, he holds his staff to the fountain and his staff begins to glow an aqua blue. He strains and struggles, the fountain squirts a few more bursts of life water but doesn’t fully awaken.

Thistle, visibly tired and panting says, “I…I tried. I'm sorry.” he slumps in front of the fountain making a silent promise to restore it to its previous glory.

Cass sees Thistle's glum face and reaches towards him before pulling her hand back. She looks at the fountain and reaches her arms out, straining in the same way Thistle was. Riona stands behind at her side watching in anticipation, but nothing happens. She falls to her knees and makes a sorrowful face, feeling disappointed in herself.

Thistle looks back at her and reaches out his hand to help her up, “It’s alright, the effort was there. We’ll find another way.”

She gives a small smile before accepting his help and standing up. They continue to walk down the path except for this time Thistle uses the light from his staff to guide the way through the fog, taking a different path than before. Cass looks up at the staff in realization and pouts some more. Though they made it to their destination, she was disappointed she didn’t have the idea to use the light spell she knew last time to guide them. When exiting the forest instead of the chrome caves, they’re met with a grassy valley lush with giant stones and blooming lilies.

Cass looks out at the valley in amazement, giving off a huge smile, “Woah, those are huge! I’ve never seen rocks so big, or boulders, or stones, or whatever they’re called! They’re huge!” Cass runs over and jumps on one of the rocks while the others follow the path around.

Riona watches Cass carefully as she jumps on and investigates the stones with curiosity, “Be careful!” Riona calls out.

“I am!” Cass responds.

Then suddenly and without warning the ground begins to rumble violently, and Cass loses her balance and falls backward on the rock. Some of the smaller but still pretty big rocks started rolling in the direction of the giant rock she was standing on.

Riona looks down at the rising dirt and yells to Cass, “Cass look out!”

The boulder begins to rise, causing Cass to fall to the ground landing on her face. The rocks that rolled towards it created a more humanoid form. It has a jagged sharp mouth with geos for eyes, along with other rocks making up the remaining limbs. The monster turns around, its massive statue blocking the sun from Cass’ entire body. It loudly roars at her before lifting its leg in preparation, the shadow over Cass darkens.

She turns her body around and realizes what’s happening, “Agh!”

Riona sprints over and grabs Cass off the floor, picking her up as the monster stops down where Cass used to be.