Training

A couple of years passed and I had gotten used to the strict training regimen. I was able to do much more in much less time now.

Erthor threw a sword at me. A real one. I had been using a wooden one to train up till now. "You should use this for training from now on. So that you can get the feel of the real thing. Give me 100 swings." He sat down comfortably in the shade of the tree after ordering me to do that.

I was fifteen now. If father agreed I'd soon be heading off to the magic academy. A real sword was heavier than a wooden one but it was still easy for me to swing it.

" How about you show me the fire magic we studied the other day?", he said right after I was done.

I changed my stance, my right arm straight in front of me, with my right foot in front of the left, then I changed their position and conjured up fire by reciting the spell I had learned in my mind. A circle of fire appeared in the air and I moved it around with my hands creating a wheel of fire which I aimed at a tree burning it to the ground.

"No need to take it out on the poor tree", Erthor grumbled.

I never did understand why he was teaching me all these techniques when I'd be heading off to the magic academy anyways. I mean it probably helped with me mastering how to perfectly conceal my wings constantly, but that could have been done even without all this intense training.

"Your father said he'd be sending a carriage for you tomorrow", Erthor said out of the blue.

"Huh?", I replied.

"To go to the magic academy?"

"This is the first I'm hearing of it! I didn't pack anything yet and it's already evening. Why didn't you tell me earlier?", I frowned at my teacher.

"You don't need to take anything with you. He will provide you with your clothes and other things. Just pack a small bag of important things. You have enough time."

I ran back home. No point in arguing with him. I went straight to mother.

She smiled at me," oh you are home? "

" Did you know about tomorrow? "

Her expression changed to a worried one as she said," You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No I mean. Well I want to. I want to meet other people, but it's just that, that annoying Erthor just told me a day before, and you didn't mention either."

"Well okay, I'll be coming with you anyways, but you'll have to go to the academy's living quarters alone. They aren't that far from the main palace."

I smiled and nodded and she patted my head even though my height had already grown more than her's. I smiled awkwardly at that.

" How about you show me those beautiful wings of yours one last time before we head off to the palace tomorrow? "

For some reason my mom would look at my wings from time to time like she admired them and reminded me constantly that they were amazing. She was probably constantly trying to cheer me up. Not that I needed it because I wasn't superstitious and the wings might actually be helpful someday. The pure look of admiration wasn't something I disliked either though.

I unconcealed my wings. They seemed to have grown quite large compared to when I was small. My mother touched my wings, "look at how big they got, and they never fail to amaze me with that beautiful colour."

I smiled awkwardly. They were black and purple with some sparkly things. I won't lie I'd have preferred it if they didn't have all those sparkly things on them. Funny that people would be scared of these.

" Oh look at that! ", my mother suddenly spoke as she touched something on my head. "W-what?", I replied.

"Your horns are coming out!"

"My what now?"

"Your horns."

"Wait,why? Will I have to learn to conceal them too!?", I asked the first question that popped up in my head while touching the tiny bumps on my head. How come I never noticed them before? I mean well maybe my hair could have covered them but still...

"No silly, they'll only be visible when you unconceal your wings."

"Oh", well that's convenient, but I'm starting to feel like one of those magical girls in anime with all this transformation thing.

I reconcealed my wings. "Let's just eat. I want to head off to bed early."

"Alright", my mom smiled.

------

I was looking outside the carriage window as it passed the busy streets of the town. We were heading to the city and it would take about 2 days to reach there. I was pretty excited looking at all the shops here since it was the first time I left that forest.

It looked pretty peaceful like one of those towns I often saw in old age movies in my past life.

My mother smiled at me, "enjoying the scenery?"

I nodded.

"Want to take a closer look?"

"Can I!?", I excitedly asked my mother and she giggled at my childish expression and nodded.

I blushed before asking the carriage driver to park somewhere and we got out of the carriage.

"Let's get something to eat", my mother suggested.

We went inside a good looking diner. The meat there was like heaven. I ended up eating alot more than I usually do. We looked at some shops before heading off to the carriage.

After a while we were surrounded by tress again and the sun was about to set. So I decided to doze off to pass the time.

Soon the carriage stopped with a jerk and awoke me. I frowned looking outside to see why we had stopped. It seemed there was a crowd of people in front of the carriage.

I rubbed my eyes before saying, "I'll check it out."

I elegantly jumped off the carriage and walked to one of the crowds people that was on the outside.

"What's going on here?"

"The soldiers", he replied.

Very informative. Thanks. I gave him an annoyed look before pushing through the crowd to see what was up.

A small boy was sprawled on the ground and a soldier was hitting him.

"what do you think you are doing?", I asked addressing the soldier.

He gave me a glance before saying, "buzz off before I decide to replace you with him."

Ah. Typical asshole huh?

"I'll give you three seconds to explain yourself. 1..."

"Ha. You gotta be kidding me."

"2", and the punch of the soldier tried to hit my face. I dodged ofcourse and kicked him right in the stomach. "3", I smiled.

"You are dead", he growled at me before launching another attack. I dodged again and punched him in the face knocking him out.

Then I walked over to the boy on the floor. Healing magic wasn't my forte. I actually sucked at it but it would have to do for now. I placed my hand on the boys forehead giving him some relief as another small boy who was probably this little guy's twin came rushing forward crying.

"Take care of him now. Go take him back home", I smiled but then a whip hit my back and I frowned looking behind me.

Oh so more typical assholes have appeared.

"What do you want now? Can't you see I'm busy?", I said as I glared at the new soldiers.

"You impudent brat. Did you think you'd get off easy after hurting a soldier?"

I shrugged. Then they started attacking me and I dodged while landing attacks on them, but I suppose they were smart and realised they couldn't win fair and square. So they decided to play dirty.

A soldier held a knife to the throat of one of the twins and ordered me to stop fighting and so I did. Then they proceeded to beat me to their hearts content. Bunch of cowards, I though to myself.

"Stop this right now. Do you have any idea what the punishment for harming a royal is?", a strong voice rang out from the crowd. It was mother . I sighed. She didn't need to see this.

The soldiers seemed to recognize her and quickly moved aside bowing to her. Wow what a change in behavior. I frowned at them before turning to my mother and sheepishly grinning at her.

She glared at me. I nervously looked away. "You come with me", she said to me and I obediently followed.

We were back on the road and mother was using healing spells on me. She was way better at it than me.

"We should have brought the soldiers",she sighed. "This way of traveling subtly is good as long as you know how to not draw attention to yourself", she frowned at me again before bonking my head.

"No more stunts like that."

"But they were harming kids", I pouted.

She sighed. "You shouldn't concern yourself with others. This is just how it works around here. You can't go around saving everyone."

I felt a bit disappointed to hear that from her but I stayed quiet and looked outside the window.

We were inside a town again but I felt sleepy, perhaps due to the healing magic so I dozed off quickly.