Arion opened his eyes to the familiar pattern in the sparver's ceiling board; the slightly faded pattern of a flowery field. Something to look at when trying to become tired. The pine the bed was crafted from emitted a soothing fragrance, reminding you of the kind carpenter who presented the bed as a gift to an old friend, Arion's grandfather. A soft knocking sounded from the door. Arion rubbed and sat up in the bed, yawning off the remains of sleepiness he had. The knocking repeated and was a bit harsher and impatient. Arion stood up, walked over to the door, and lifted the drawbar. One of the maids entered and entertained herself by centering and recentering the orchid's vase. This was Arion's personal maid, Maria. Contrary to her name she was prim and had difficulty concealing her disdainful judgement. "You rose late again Your Majesty." He chose not to reply, to which she sighed "Come. Your Majesty's breakfast has been prepared."

        Arion followed Maria to the dining hall. She stiffly pulled out a chair for him to sit in, and almost bruised him when shoving the chair back forward. She silently stomped off to do her duties. Arion's hands still felt weak from sleeping. Hence why his fork slipped from his fingers not long after. This is the moment in which Arion noticed the tense atmosphere around the table this quiet morning. The atmosphere remained like this all morning until Arla, Ariel, and Arion dropped their forks and left the dinner table. As assigned this morning and for years now, training was to begin. Starting with swordplay at 9:30. He pulled out his pocket watch and noticed it was a quarter past nine, fifteen minutes from swordplay training. But today was different, for tomorrow was his thirteenth birthday, which consented the end of Swordplay, Archery, Equestrianism, History, Arithmetic, Calligraphy, and common etiquette tutoring. This means he must witness all of these teachers leave. 

        Once arisen, he would go to the royal academy of arisers, or Raa for short. If he didn't arise, he would be executed on the spot, such is the cruelty of society. Nobles who didn't arise would be killed. On the contrary any commoners would be spared but unfavored. Nobles have a royal bloodline to uphold, any defects are a threat to the cleanliness of the bloodline, this won't do. Such are the teachings of Arendriel.

        Arion walked slowly to the yard, as if to prolong the inevitable; Sophie, his swordplay tutor, finally leaving him after all the years they spent together. Sophie, soon catching him dragging his feet, suddenly throws two spears at his head with perfect accuracy. The spears soared through the air and curved elegantly towards him. Now awake and aware, Arion swiftly dodged the first spear, grabbed it as it flew
past him, and used it to bunt the second spear. He then throws the first spear and uses it to adjust the angle of the second, causing it to fly toward Sophie, with the first spear on the ground between them. Before he can retrieve the spear on the ground, Sophie dashes towards him at breakneck speed. As she sprints past the spear on the ground she steps on the tip, causing the other end to fly up into her
outstretched hand, all while running. She then pins Arion to the ground with one spear pointed at his head, the other at his back.

        "I give!" Arion yells from the ground. Prompting her to lift her spears from the ground. Every match was like this; quick and decisive."Your foresight is lacking. Predict your opponents response to your actions." Sophie states curtly, only to set up with a duel wield of an arbalest and a messer. Arion picked up a falchion, and, now ready, they both stand still in their respective rectangle. The intricate pattern on the ground consisted of several lines and rectangles to embody certain rules of the game. There was a wooden barrel on the side with many different types and styles of weapons to choose from.

        The battle begun after they both counted to ten with near perfect accuracy in their heads. As they were far apart to start, Sophie decides to use her arbalest, firing it thrice in quick succession. One aimed to the left, another straight at Arion, and the final one to the right. This was to block off Arion's path of dodging within the large square Expecting this, Arion had a plan. He jumped over all three and
promptly sliced them all into two with his falchion. He then tuned his falchion over to the blunt side and struck the tail end of the arrows toward Sophie. This is when her messer came into play. She blocked them all with the side of her messer and, at the same time, she reloads her arbalest and fires another two shots where he was about to land. Arion lands with his feet spread and successfully avoids one arrow, but Sophie predicted this and shot the second round where his other leg would end up. It pierces his leg and he bends over in pain grasping the arrow tightly.

        The arrow had pierced all the way to the bone. Arion bent over in pain, his face going pale, but Sophie just stood there in her ready stance, seemingly not caring. Arion clenched his teeth and sliced off the part of the arrow that was outside of his leg with his falchion. He stood up and Sophie prepared to attack. In a split second Sophie, who planned this from the start, was halfway to Arion, who was still gatheing himself. But Arion predicted this move and dashed towards her, ignoring the pain in his leg. Sophie lifted her messer upright before they collided. Arion flipped his falchion over so that the sword was pointing towards him, planning to block her strike with the hilt and slash her at the same time. Just when Arion was about to carry out his move, Sophie jumped over him with a front flip. Arion didn't turn around in time and she shot her arbalest at the back of his head and swung her messer directly down as if to slice him in half like a tomato. Arion had to rely on quick thinking, Dodging her messer would be foolish for she would change the
angle of her messer and slice him anyway. The arrow was a weak attack just to pin him from simply turning around. So instead of running or attacking, Arion chose to duck under the arrow, lift his falchion sideways above his head to deflect the arrow back at her, and continue the motion to cover his back from her messer. It was a Success. Though Arion was at a disadvantage for being on the ground, he didn't
deflect the arrow for no reason. The plan was to buy him time to get up while Sophie was busy blocking the arrow. There was just one problem; She could use her arbalest while blocking the arrow, and that's exactly what she did. She fired her arbalest right where his head would be if he got up, leaving him still pinned to the ground. Sophie then used this opportunity to shoot her arbalest once again at his back. But before she could fire her arbalest, he lifted his falchion skyward and into one of the holes on hear arbalest, ripping it out of her hands and throwing it onto the ground. Now without her arbalest, Sophie, not wanting to risk retrieving it. jumps back into ready position. Arion was now successfully on his feet and ready to go despite the throbbing pain in his leg. Knowing that Sophie has excellent foresight, Arion chose to throw his weapon at her abdomen, forcing her to expect the unexpected. Using the time this bought, he picks up her Arbalest and fires twice at her sides to prevent her from dodging. Sophie had no choice but to block, but this left her unprepared from Arion's attack. He ran at top speed towards her at an angle from the right, hoping this would work. Sophie blocked the sword and the arrow to her left in one strike, This allowed her to escape in the opposite direction as Arion. Arion was too fast for her though, and had caught up to her in no time.

        Sophie attempted to slash at him, but this is exactly what Arion wanted. He ducked down and grabbed his falchion, which had perfectly landed where it needed to. Sophie turned her messer over and quickly swung at Arion once more. Arion stood up and blocked it. She thrusted forward and would have gotten him, If he hadn't have pushed her messer away in time. Their weapons still making contact, Arion slid up her messer and struck the hilt with so much force that he accidentally dropped his falchion. The ring from it was deafening, and this certainly was not something Sophie expected. Arion had no choice but to fight unarmed. Sophie took this chance to swing again. Arion jumped over it, and Sophie redirected her swing
upward. This was his chance. Arion jumped off her messer and landed beside the blunt side of the messer. He swiftly placed one hand on the end, gripping hard and pulling back with the other hand near the hilt, pushing forward. Sophie lost her grip and the messer left her grasp. With the messer now in Arion's clutches, he thrusts it towards her neck, stopping short. He had won against Sophie for the first and last
time.