A Busy Morning

"Did you enjoy your first day of swordsmanship training?" Raynold asks as he escorts Ruby to her room to get ready for breakfast.

"It was really fun. The knights taught me the basic stances then we did some practical training then we took a break where the knights began to tell me stories about themselves. They all came from different areas of the duchy. I thought the area that Father and I went to yesterday was the duchy, but apparently, it extends out so far outside of that busy place."

"It seems that you learned a lot. You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"I don't think so. I feel fine. Nothing like the pain in my ears from yesterday."

"That's good but... do you really need to take the wooden sword with you to your room?" Raynold asks, pointing down at the sword on Ruby's hip.

"Norman said that it would be good to practice on my own when I have free time so that I don't forget what I was taught."

"Uh-huh..." -That idiot! What was he thinking? What if Miss Ruby gets hurt while practicing by herself, and there isn't anyone around to watch?- "Just be sure to be careful, okay? Even though it's a wooden sword, it can still hurt you."

"I'll be careful."

---

"Good morning, Lady Ruby," Professor Brian greets as Ruby enters the library.

"Good morning, Professor Brian."

"I heard that you have started swordsmanship training. That's very brave of you."

With Raynold's help, Ruby takes her seat at the desk in front of the chalkboard. Raynold then excuses himself and leaves the room.

"It was more difficult than I anticipated, but I should be improving significantly by tomorrow's practice."

"Well, it's always good to hear that you have the right motivation. However, have you also been improving your writing?" Professor Brian asks as he sets a piece of paper on the table. "You mastered the alphabet during our first meeting, and your ability to read is incredibly advanced. The only downfall is that your handwriting looks as if a toddler were given the pencil. Of course, with time, your handwriting will improve, but the duke will be officially inducting you into the family in a month's time. You will have to write your name on the family registry, and you won't be able to rewrite it if you mess up, so it is best that you quickly improve on your writing now."

Professor Brian writes Ruby's name on the chalkboard. "For the next ten minutes, you will be writing your name nonstop until you can confidently write it down neatly and without messing up."

"Why do we have to learn how to write when we can just say what we want to say?" Ruby asks as she begins her assignment.

"That is because there might be someone you want to talk to, but they are far away. In that case, you will have to write a letter to that person since you can't talk in person."

"Why not ride the carriage to go see them?"

Professor Brian walks over to Ruby's side and looks down at the paper that she is writing her name on. "You won't know this now since you are just a child, but when you get older, you will find that the responsibilities that you will need to perform will take up most of your time. You will find it hard to make time to leisurely go where you want and speak to whomever. That's why we write letters. Even if it is short, a letter can hold a lot of meaning despite not being told by the sender himself."

"How will we know that the person we send the letter to will understand the meaning that you are trying to convey? What if they can't hear the innuendos that naturally come from our tone as we speak, and they misinterpret the letter?"

"Then that is when the person sends a letter back asking for an explanation if he doesn't quite understand. Even if the person does understand, he will send a letter back in response."

Ruby couldn't find the words to respond to Professor Brian's answer. She simply nods and continues on with her writing.

---

"Does your hand hurt?" Raynold asks when he notices Ruby's hand being slightly redder than usual.

"A little bit. Professor Brian had me do a lot of writing exercise and take notes during class so that my handwriting will improve," Ruby replies as she tries to lift her teacup off the saucer.

Raynold sees Ruby's hand shaking a bit, so he kneels down and lowers Ruby's shaking hand so that she won't drop the teacup. "Give me your hand, Miss Ruby," Raynold says as he holds out his own hands. Ruby complies and places her hands on Raynold's. "I'm going to massage it a bit to make it feel better. If it hurts, just let me know, and I will stop."

As Raynold massages Ruby's hand, she couldn't help but stare at him with wonder. "Raynold, why are you so nice to me? Even when we first met, you were very polite and treated me kindly despite being a girl found asleep in a mine."

Surprised by the sudden question, Raynold glances up at Ruby. "Well, if I had to put it into words, maybe it was because it just felt natural to treat a young lady with courtesy. You didn't do anything wrong, so there was no need for me to treat you roughly."

"But aren't you supposed to be my father's aide? Why are you always with me when you're supposed to be next to my father?"

"That's because you don't have a knight assigned to you yet. Actually... wait a minute... I wonder why we don't have a knight assigned to you. I will bring that up with Duke Stoneborne once I send you back to your class later. It would be best for you to have one for your safety."

After massaging Ruby's hand, Raynold stands up from the ground. "Does that feel better?"

Ruby observes her hands by opening and closing them to see if they hurt like before. "Mm. It feels a lot better. Thank you Raynold."

"It's my pleasure, Miss Ruby."

While Ruby takes a sip from her tea, a twinkling red light from across the garden catches her attention. "What's that red light?" Ruby asks as she points in the direction that the light is coming from.

"What do you mean? I don't see a light."

"It's there, next to the red flowers by the fountain."

"I still don't see this light that you are talking about."

Curious, Ruby gets up from her chair and starts making her way over to the red light. As she gets closer, the red light grows brighter until it looks like a small ball of fire once Ruby is right in front of it.

"Miss Ruby, why did you suddenly run over here?" Raynold asks as he catches up to Ruby.

"The light... it's lonely..." Ruby reaches out her hand to touch the light when Raynold suddenly grabs her arm.

"Miss Ruby, I don't know what light you are referring to, but I'm not going to let you touch anything that I can't see. You could be putting yourself in danger."

"But the light is asking for a companion. It wants to talk to someone."

"You are very kind, Miss Ruby, but it might be trying to trick you so that it could hurt you."

"Let go of my arm, Raynold." Starting to get a bit irritated that Raynold isn't understanding her, Ruby's body begins to heat up until it burns Raynold's hand off of her wrist.

Raynold quickly retracts his hand and scans it to find that it has actually been burned slightly.

-This is bad. I can't see what Miss Ruby is talking about. Not only that, but she actually raised her body temperature hot enough to burn me. Is she angry? Oh no... Will she start to lose control like Doctor Pledais said?-

Unaware of Raynold's thoughts, Ruby holds out her hand to the twinkling red light. As soon as the tip of her finger touches the light, the light beams brightly, uncovering a little red fairy. Surprised for the first time, Ruby falls backward as the fairy tries to talk to her.

"Hey, hey, who are you? How did you manage to turn me into a physical form? Only high level mages can do that, you know. Aren't you just a child? Where did you come from?"

While the fairy zooms around Ruby, berating her with questions, it notices a mark on the back of Ruby's neck. "Oh my!" the fairy mutters to itself. "You're one of those children."

"Who are you?" Ruby finally asks after she stands up and pats the dirt off of her dress.

The fairy flies around to face Ruby. "Me? Who am I? My name is Rouge. I am a fire fairy."