Back at it

The morning hours come, and I begin my morning as I would any other. I tidy up the room and assure that anything terrible is handled. After I tighten the window, I step out of the room to take in the sunrise and make sure everyone is at their post as I survey the workers in their task when I hear the door to Elaina’s room open. I turn to find her checking in on the workers. I step over to check on her.

“Are you ok? I never see you with us.” I ask with a strange affliction in my voice.

She picks up an egg and turns to me.

“I was going to surprise you with an omelet, but I never knew you get up this early.” She tells me disappointedly.

I give a wave to the cooks to bring over some ingredients and pans.

“Well, let's fix one, but let's step in to get out of the cold,” I tell her, happy.

I pick up the stuff, and we head back in, and I kneel to start a fire. We get the eggs and garnish. However, as we were cooking, I look over and see her smiling. I can’t figure out why she has been acting, but it feels like she’s acting differently, so I decided to ask.

“You know, the past few days, you’ve been doing things I’ve never seen you do. The tea, then this what's gotten into you.” I ask, concerned.

She flips the egg, and a look of discouragement falls over her face.

“I want to impress you.” She tells me with what seems like tears in her eyes.

“What?” I exclaim in disbelief at what I'm hearing.

“I don’t know how else to explain it, because when it was my moms turn to pick someone, she had my dad in min. he loved her, but he was the youngest brother of the three, so she used the rule to pick him out of all others. Lucky for her, he won. I have no dought in my mind you can win, but I know nothing about you before the night we met.”

All of this is news to me. First of all, I never knew that about Elaina’s mom, and I would have never thought she would care about me, let alone want to impress me. I grab a box and make up a to-go plate for her.

“Well, if you want to know more about me, we halve a long ways to go until the next stop, so I’ll tell you along the way,” I tell her confidently.

I see the expression on her face change to a burst of excitement before returning to normal. We pack up and set off once again, heading to the tournament. For the first time, I'm nervous about a fight. She trusts me, has faith in who I am, but I’m just afraid of failing. As we ride alone, we enter into the forest of dreams. It’s the neutral zone between the four houses. It’s here that the queen and king rule from their ruby castle.

As we enter the forest, the fall colors of the leaves are shining in full bloom. I look over here, looking out the window.

“If you would like to know something about me, I’ve love fall ever since I can remember. I even remember when this world got all of its colors.” I tell her reminiscently.

“What do you mean got its color?” she asks, bewildered at my comment.

“Well, initially, the leaves just fell off, and that was it, but one day there was an artist who could bring his art to life. Many people were afraid of what he might do, so he used his powers on his mind when he was being cornered one day. It caused a glorious explosion bringing all the colors of his mind to the world ever since it's been beautiful.”

Her face changes dramatically.

“I thought it was just a myth.” She exclaims.

“ That’s what we wanted you to think; even with all this power, something like that might scare people,” I tell her.

She sinks into her seat.

“That’s amazing.” She says

I lean back and look out the window as well.

“Yeah, hopefully, I can tell you something more in the future,” I say

We ride along to the crunching of leaves until I hear a snap as a carriage wheel breaks. I step out to canvas the situation, and I notice the wheel is smashed. Judging by the way it caved in, it was done on purpose. I hear the faint whistling of an arow behind me. I move to the door, slamming it while two arrows bounce off my chest. They didn’t hurt, but I could feel something strange in my chest. It tingled like I had been shocked. I see the archer in a tree and grab the wheel, throwing it at them.

It pierces one of them but knocks the other out. He’s a small man in a brown cloak. I can see that his bow is broken, but he pulls a sword emitting a blue-gold glow. I knew this must be a member of a rival family.