Light Consorting With Shadows Chapter 1 (updated)
So I went back to re-read some of the older chapters of Consorting with Shadows and quite honestly not happy with them. So far I have been working on chapter 1 and touching it up. I may or may not revise more chapters... we shall see. The new chapter is coming.. eventually! At the moment, I am stuck on how I want to approach chapter 11 so I have been working on revisions. Hahaha. Without rambling more... here is my revision of chapter 1!
Throughout the years, Aurora learned a lot in her studies, and her responsibilities as royalty. Quite frankly, these so-called duties as a princess weren't impressive. She hated dealing with politics, seeing how it brought out an ugly side in conversations. When she reached age 14, she learned how to sneak out of the protective barrier around Camelot. She could thank her brother for that; seeing how he skillfully climbed that stone wall without drawing attention. Unfortunately, her father would find out though, and would have to deal with a stern conversation from him. Today, after being dismissed from her lesson of the day, she overheard some commotion at the training arena. Many times she would sit with her family to watch duels between the knights. Over time, she started to yearn to train with a sword. But, would she ever be allowed to? Somehow wielding a sword did not align with her responsibilities.
In the center of the field, Sir Percival, Gawain, Sir Galahad, and Lancelot gathered close in conversation. The silver hedgehog and red echidna removed their helmets to wipe the sweat off their brows, as they quietly discussed what needed improvement for their next training session. Lancelot quietly chided in with advice, which the two knights accepted with great respect. Soon, the males started to gather their belongings, and departed from the training field. Percival, the only female among the knights, was the last to leave. She paused when noticing the princess had been watching them. The purple cat removed her helmet, and nodded in respect. Aurora returned with a nod, her lips turning upward in a smile. Before Percival was out of sight, Aurora climbed over the row of seats before her. She called out to the cat, the knight immediately stopped, turning to face the princess, who now inched closer to her. “May I ask you a question?”
Percival’s ear twitched, watching the young princess with curiosity. “Of course you may, m’lady.”
Aurora laughed awkwardly, “would it be possible for me to learn to wield a sword?” This question must have caught the cat off guard, and she shifted uncomfortably. “I know, I know. I’m a princess, therefore, I have no need to wield such a weapon,” she added dramatically, “I just find it so fascinating, and I’d like to give it a chance.”
She saw Percival’s eyes soften, “perhaps we can arrange something, princess. I can speak to your father-”
“Don’t bother… he’d say no.” The pair grew quiet, as Percival considered Aurora’s request. Percival looked over her shoulder, watching the rest of the knights disappear.
“I’ll discuss it with Sir Lancelot.” She whispered, then gave a quick and respectful bow before dismissing herself to catch up with the others. Aurora was not surprised with her response, the dark hedgehog was the head knight afterall. But, she had a feeling that he would not go behind her father’s back to train her. She felt more lost after this confrontation with Percival. With a deep sigh, she made her way back towards the palace to lose herself in more of her books. She only left her room when she was called for dinner with her family. After a quiet meal, she found herself in the royal library, looking for books about fighting, wielding swords, and such. It was a lot to take in. Some of the books spoke of how swords were made, which was boring to read; quite the answer she was looking for. After scanning through page after page, she snuck off to find their well-loved blacksmith. A twin-tailed fox named Miles. Perhaps he could answer some of her questions.However, he was nowhere to be found. While alone in his shop, she scanned over the various weapons that hung on the wall for display. The one hanging from behind the counter had a gold hilt. It was gorgeous. She was reminded of her father’s own sword, Excalibur but not quite as impressive.
“Rory?” The blacksmith startled her, as he entered his shop. He walked behind the counter, and laid out some worn out blades that he would restore at a later date. “Could I help you with something, princess?” He followed her gaze, “ah, she’s a beauty, huh?” He unlocked the case it was held in, and offered it to her. Carefully, she took the gorgeous sword from his grasp. Her fingers running along the engraving in the hilt.
“Do you happen to have any… advice on how to wield one?”
Miles blinked at her, baffled by her question. “I can’t really offer a lot of advice, on that matter, I do apologize, Aurora.” He smiled apologetically, “however, I do know that you must learn to hold such a weapon properly before using it for its intended purpose.” He proceeded to demonstrate for her, using the exact same sword she had been holding. After he handed it back to her, the princess proceeded to hold it exactly like he had demonstrated, nodding in approval before taking the weapon and returning it to its home. He went on to explain that he could not allow her to take this sword, and claim it as her own until she was able to prove she could properly wield it.
Days later, Aurora did her best to find books about fighting and using a sword. None of these books really helped, she wanted hands-on experience with one, and she was determined to get at least… one chance. There were days she watched for the knights to appear in the arena, and unfortunately, they never showed. She soon overheard that they had ventured out towards the badlands as her father calls it, so she assumed that she wouldn’t see a glimpse of them for days.
It wasn’t until near sunset, she caught a glimpse of a figure in the training arena. She had been laying out on the grass flipping through a journal, Aurora then proceeded to stand to her full height, dusting off any dirt on the skirt of her dress. She inched closer to see Lancelot alone in the arena, with his back turned. She watched him remove his helmet, and wipe his dirty face with a handkerchief. Aurora couldn’t help but stare at his appearance, feeling drawn to him. She knew that other women found him quite attractive, which she hated to admit they were indeed… correct. She shook off this thought, and quietly approached the knight.
Lancelot’s ear twitched to the sound of her footsteps, his head jerking up in her direction. The tension easing when he realized who it was, “good evening, princess.”
Knowing how close he was to her parents, she found it weird that he didn’t call her by name, especially after all these years. “It’s Aurora. Can’t believe you’ve forgotten.”
He grunted before putting his dirty handkerchief away. When the princess didn’t say anything, he made his way to the wooden bench, removing one of his boots.
“I… hope it’s not a bad time. Has Sir Percival spoken to you about training?”
The knight winced, while massaging his right ankle. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to meet her emerald eyes. His brows furrowed as if he was processing what the royal hedgehog had asked, “I don’t recall; who is wishing to be trained?”
Aurora huffed, “I wish to be trained. I explained to her the other day-”
He shook his head, “no.” The knight rolled his ankle, before slipping his boot on again and standing to his full height. “It would not be appropriate, Aurora.”
She gave him a “are you serious” look, Lancelot seemed uncomfortable putting weight on his right ankle, he winced and turned away as if ashamed to display pain in front of the royal hedgehog. He felt her gaze on his back, and then heard her give a defeated sigh. “At least give it some thought, please.”
For weeks it was as if her request had been ignored, Aurora never gave up though. She even approached her older brother who was actually willing to teach her some pointers on hand-to-hand combat, through these sessions it kinda appeased her for the time-being.
Days later, the training arena was filled with townspeople looking for a competition between some of the strongest men or women in Camelot. While she sat with her family, she searched for a familiar knight amongst the crowd. At the bottom row of bleachers, she caught a glimpse of Lancelot but he wasn’t wearing any armor. Perhaps, he wasn’t on the roster for this tournament. Of all the knights Sir Galahad, and Gawain were the top fighters. It wasn’t until the last competitor won against Gawain would Lancelot return dressed in his armor. As expected, the challenger was no match for their head knight. However, he did put up a good fight and afterwards the two shook hands, before departing for their seats. Later that evening, random men and women would duel it out. While the sun started to dip into the horizon, townspeople started to leave their seats and make their way home.
They had just celebrated Mach’s birthday … a week ago, and now he was gone. He refused to make the vow to take the crown. Aurora felt mad towards him because now it was really up to her, as her birthright, she’d take the crown next, she’ll soon have to stand before hundreds of people and make a promise she wasn’t confident she could keep. The royal advisors were a nervous wreck, trying to sort through what their next approach should be. For Aurora, her studies increased ten-fold. If she wasn’t in her books, she was being taught proper royal etiquette. Lessons on how she should speak to others, appropriate clothing for different occasions, how to sit at the dining table, the most outrageous of all was how she should walk. She felt like these lessons were very outdated; and dreaded each day she had to endure such lessons.
One evening, she got a break when her mentor had fallen ill so she had more time to waste that didn’t require her to take notes, or lectured on how many times she rolled her eyes. Quietly, she snuck off to the stables and found her cherished horse and went out for a long ride outside of the protective walls of Camelot. She ended up falling asleep just outside of Camelot, her horse grazing nearby. Aurora was woken up by some of her bodyguards, and almost had to drag her back home. A couple days later, she had another mentor training her, lecturing on every single thing she did wrong. “Don’t make that face,” she’d correct her, “sit straight, your back must not touch the chair.” The elderly woman continued on, “you must stand whenever a male comes into the room,” Aurora scoffed at that; only earning a glare from the woman. “Work on your attitude, princess.” Day after day, it was the same thing, same procedures, same lectures, the same out-dated books that she wondered if they were even translated properly.
The next morning, she had enough. She claimed to her mentor that she was feeling ill. Her lady-in-waiting followed her back to her room, asking if she needed fresh bedding, a bath, or perhaps some hot soup. Aurora denied each offer, and collapsed on her bed. Her maiden left her, while the princess screamed into her pillow… trying to block out her mentor’s lectures ringing in her ears. When she calmed down, she looked at her opened window, the fresh air was quite refreshing to say the least. She got up, adjusted some of her pillows to make it convincing to any visitors that may be coming to her room. She slipped out, and stood outside on her balcony. Scanning below for the best way to climb down, she climbed over the railing, her footing catching onto some bricks, preventing her from slipping. Unfortunately, she ended up losing grip and fell into the bushes below her window. Causing her dress to rip, when she saw the damage, she just ripped the whole skirt off, revealing a pair of gray pants. Feeling like she could move quicker now without the heavy dress, she ran off. She needed to let off some steam. She came to a halt when she arrived at the empty training arena, she approached a little dug out where a wooden shelf was built to hold various weapons. Aurora eyed the weapons before her, there were a few before that seemed awfully deadly (it reminded her of Sir Lamorak's weapons of choice); not exactly appropriate for her first use. There was a much lighter sword that caught her attention, and carefully she removed the sheath it was in, as she walked towards the arena where 4 wooden mannequins stood. Standing a few feet away from it, she recalled how Miles held the sword before using it, and remembered all the times she witnessed the knights using their own swords. Aurora stared the lifeless mannequin down, and swung, hitting its neck, decapitating it instantly. She grinned, and held the hilt of her weapon even tighter before she approached the next 3 "opponents". One by one, they were either decapitated by the head or by the waistline. After finishing off the last one, she ended up striking it twice at the shoulder, and the legs, causing it to crumble to the ground. The rush of adrenaline made her dizzy. She loved this.
“How did they wrong you, princess?” The sound of his voice startled her, causing her to whirl around rather too quickly. Lancelot’s eyes darted from the weapon she held, then searched the area where the mannequins lay scattered.
Aurora finally felt like she could catch her breath, she brushed her bangs out of her face, feeling sweat pour down her forehead. “That felt amazing…” The young princess' lips twitched into a proud grin, “are there more of these?”
Lancelot blinked, and then walked over to hoist one of the mannequins that was missing a head, but was able to somehow get it back into the ground to stand to its full height. The knight was careful with his next few words, “you seem… frustrated.”
When Lancelot started picking up more pieces of the other mannequins, she attacked the one the knight had just repositioned, saying each word through gritted teeth as she swung her weapon, “you can blame my brother for that.” Her lifeless opponent crumbled to the ground.
Lancelot frowned, and stepped closer to the flustered hedgehog. “You should never wield such a weapon when enraged.” He reached for the weapon in her grasp, she inched away, and put the sword in its protective sheath. “When in battle, you have to control your emotions-”
“I’ll remember that when I am taking down another mannequin,” she gestured towards her fallen “enemy”. Lancelot stifled a laugh, before crossing his arms. “What? Are you gonna lecture me now? It’s not appropriate for a princess to wield a sword?”
“It seems like I don’t have to.”
Aurora walked back to the shelter where she found her weapon, and returned it to its proper resting place. “It just felt nice to relieve some of this… pressure.” Aurora ran her hand through her unruly quills. “I’ve been caught up in ridiculous lectures, constant reminders of my responsibility to Camelot when the time comes…” Throughout her rant, Lancelot said nothing at all. “Listen, I’m sorry about the mannequins, I-”
“... “ Aurora froze, his crimson gaze finally meeting hers.
“Get plenty of rest, meet me here at sunrise.”
After getting back to her room, Aurora took a quick bath, ate whatever was left at her door that she missed out during dinner, and then settled in bed. She tossed and turned for what seemed like hours replaying that moment with the knight in her head. Aurora always thought he’d continue to refuse her request, but yet, yesterday he vowed to train her. Eventually, the princess got exhausted after tossing for hours and fell into a deep slumber. At sunrise, she woke up to one of her maidens arriving to check on her, when she came to her bedside, Aurora pretended to be sound asleep and soon she left the princess to rest. Quickly, she climbed out of her bed, and went through her wardrobe to find appropriate attire for her first training sessions. She found some trousers that she would wear often when she went horseback riding, and then a leather top. Instead of climbing out of the window, this time, she slipped through the long hallway. Hardly anyone walked through the palace at this hour, so she was able to get out into the courtyard, wearing a hood over her head. It didn’t take her long to reach the training arena. Lancelot was nowhere to be found. Had he forgotten? Was she late? She almost felt disappointed, until she noticed that the sword she had used yesterday was embedded into the side of a mannequin. Aurora approached it, and slowly was able to pull it out. Before she could even blink though, Lancelot was able to knock her weapon out of her grasp with his own. She stumbled on her feet, falling on her bottom. She frowned as he stood near her, “lesson one: be aware of your surroundings at all times.” Aurora snorted playfully, and reached for her weapon again, only to be shoved away with Lancelot’s foot. “You can’t always rely on your sword in a fight,” he pointed out, and grabbed the hilt of her sword, now holding two weapons. She growled in frustration, and charged towards the knight. She missed him by an inch.
Aurora was quick, she could thank her father for inheriting that gene. After kicking, punching at her opponent and lastly, she retrieved her weapon after surprising the knight with a knee to his gut. The princess beamed with confidence when Lancelot stared at the end of the blade, the tip of the blade on the knight’s chestplate. “Now look at who is taken off guard.” She panted. “How’s it feel to lose against a princess?”
“Hmph. We’re just getting started.” He went to draw his weapon, the blade against her own weapon. In comparison, her weapon looked almost dull and realistically didn’t stand a chance. She wondered if she could somehow force his weapon out of his grasp?
An hour went by and the pair were still going at it, weapons drawn, Lancelot calmly providing advice on how Aurora should handle the next move. Both hedgehogs were growing weary from the session, Aurora’s arms felt like jelly by now and she kept dropping her weapon, when Lancelot attacked. Once in a while, he would ask if she needed to take a break. She would respond by rushing at him, with a grin on her face, as if she found renewed energy. He was ready, and held his sword ready for the impact. He swung and her blade broke, shattering all the way to the hilt. Aurora cursed under her breath. She half expected him to charge forward, but instead, he removed his helmet and ran a hand through his unruly, and sweaty quills. “Perhaps, we should end this here.”
Aurora practically drooled at the sight of the knight before her. However, when his eyes met hers, she collected herself, coughed into her hand and wiped at her brow, “I guess.” She sounded so disappointed that this training session had to end.
Lancelot approached her, and she went rigid when his gloved hand reached for her cheek, wiping away some fresh blood, not even noticing that his sword had pricked her skin. She felt her body grow hotter upon his touch. “You put up a good challenge, Aurora.” He grinned, “I am almost impressed.”
She bristled, “what do you mean almost?!”
He collected the broken pieces of her weapon. “We’ll have to see at the next training session.” Lancelot stretched, “you fight like your father. If you want to impress me… “
Aurora’s face burned with embarrassment, and anger. “I’m not training to impress YOU, my fair knight.”
Lancelot raised a brow at the snide reply, that wasn’t exactly what he had meant. “I… “ He coughed, “I didn’t mean any disrespect. I believe you have your own unique way of fighting, perhaps use that for the next session.” Lancelot looked off towards the west of them. “Until then, we both should get some rest.” The princess was growing tired, and honestly quite hungry at this point. From the angle of the sun, it was probably after noon by now. Her and her family would be dining together soon.
When they returned to Camelot, Aurora stared tiredly at the stone steps. Normally she could just run up these steps, like everyday, but after the training session, her body felt like she was run over by a herd of horses. She glared at the back of the knight who went ahead of her, taking the steps just perfectly fine. With determination, she took the flight of steps that seemed to get further and further as she went up. The princess noticed that the knight now waited for her at the top. She refused to meet his gaze, and focused on her steps. To her embarrassment, she started slipping. Before Aurora met the pavement, Lancelot was quick to her side, his strong arms catching her by her waist. He scooped her into his arms, and carried her into the palace. Ignoring her pleas to put her down.
He dropped her off at her sleeping quarters, and then disappeared after her maiden came into sight. Soon, Aurora was stripped of her disgusting clothes, and was encouraged to take a bath. She didn’t fight this as the hot bath seemed to ease the body aches. After the princess was more… presentable, she joined her parents in the dining hall. Her father was speaking to the royal advisor before food was carried in by the royal servants. Before they began eating, the advisor approached the princess. “Are you feeling better, m’lady?” Aurora almost choked on her water, before nodding frantically.
“Yes, sir. I needed that rest.” He gave a short nod.
“Wonderful. She looks forward to seeing you in the morning.” He gave a bow to the royal family, before disappearing. Aurora rolled her eyes, and scoffed loudly. Her parents glanced her way, but didn’t say anything on the matter as they started eating their delicious meal.
“Are you hurt, Rory?” Her mother reached over to touch the fresh cut on her cheek. She assumed it came from the briar bushes that was below Aurora’s window that previously scratched her when sneaking out.
Aurora swallowed, “it was from training, actually.” The young princess soon confided with her parents that she was taking lessons on how to fight with a sword. “I just wanted a change of pace“ she admitted, “these lessons are ridiculous! Can you believe that she has me…” Aurora went on, “Lancelot volunteered to-” realization hit her like a train, “he didn’t talk to you about-” Her father looked angry. She panicked. Would the knight be in trouble for going behind her parents back? “Listen, d-dad, it was my idea! Don’t punish Lancelot,-”
“Rory, you should have come to us about it beforehand…” Aurora wanted to remind them of how she wanted to learn how to wield a weapon, and was basically told it wasn’t a princess’ place to fight.
“Believe me, he didn’t want to train me. But, I was frustrated, ok? I wouldn’t take no for an answer,” she saw her mother grinning at the king. “I wasn’t aware that he didn’t talk to you guys.”
“Let your father talk to Lancelot, okay? He won’t be punished… I can assure you of that.” Beside her, Sonic winced when Amy pinched his thigh. Relieved, Aurora settled back in her chair, and chugged the rest of her water.
“Could I be excused?” She went to stand, pushing her chair in before a servant could even approach. “I am bushed.” Her mother nodded, Aurora quickly gave them a hug before rushing to her sleeping quarters. The princess fell asleep almost immediately when her head hit her pillow.
Aurora rightfully belongs to @e-vay!
Let me know what you think! I may revise the next few chapters... we shall see haha.
