Knighted || EXIST Prompt #1
The world you live in is essentially the same.. present day, same technologies.. except everybody lives in castles and is trying to work their way up to knighthood (including women). Detail a typical day in your life.
Word Count: 1042
The voice sounded miles away, and the auburn-haired girl turned over in her bed, wiggling further under her blankets. "Princess Venus! It’s time to get up!" Drafty castle air washed over her, and she released a lazy groan as she realized her warm, down-filled blankets had been snatched away.
"Just five more minutes, Annette."
"I gave you five minutes. I gave you an entire hour!" The princess merely nodded and waved her hand dismissively. "Your lesson is due to start in ten minutes!"
"Annette!" The young princess’s eyes flung open, and she tripped out of bed, scooping herself up in an instant and scrambling around like a hungry rodent without a sense of smell. "Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?" she asked in accusatory fashion to be met with the resounding sighs of all the ladies in the room.
With her training clothes on and a buttered croissant hanging out of her mouth, Venus hurried outside the castle to the training grounds—a trek that normally took at least twenty minutes. Outside the splendid crystal castle, past the gardens and stables, a circle—no more than fifteen feet in diameter—comprised of small black stones lay on a bed of dusty sand. A short distance past the circle stood a wooden shed which stored the training dummies and mock weapons. Several wooden benches surrounded one half of the stone circle upon which sat three boys and four girls around the same age as the princess. In the center of the circle stood the Knight Sovereign who took down the evil queen and stole back their kingdom many years ago. Her strawberry blonde hair sparkled like gold underneath the autumn sun. Even when she smiled, the tragedy of war held solemn in her eyes.
The princess made it to the outdoor training arena five minutes late and her hands fell to her knees as she labored for oxygen. The Knight Sovereign pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"Late again, Princess?" Venus downcast her eyes. She was always running late. It was a trait she inherited from her father—a trait for which she’d been admonished time and time again.
"I’m sorry, ma'am." Hushed laughter prodded at the princess's composure as she took her seat beside the other students and her cheeks reddened in shame.
"All right, children. Up until now you have been practicing your attacks with the pells. Today, however, you will be practicing with each other." Whispers broke out amongst the students and their instructor cleared her throat impatiently before continuing on. "I will be splitting you up into pairs and you will be sparring with the jukto," she paused to motion to the barrel of wooden practice blades beside her. "Before we begin, allow me to make it perfectly clear that this is not a fight, and anyone caught using excessive force will dearly regret it."
Each of the teens grabbed a sword from the barrel and arranged themselves beside their assigned partner. The princess stared up her tall, fair-haired opponent with a sense of dread. Yoomi was the best in the class, and Venus was the worst. Not to mention, she always seemed to have an unwarranted amount of animosity towards the princess. Venus often wondered if it was because Yoomi's father chose to abdicate the Elysion throne to Venus's mother.
When the instructor blew her whistle, the princess of Venus ran at her opponent and brought her jukto down—an attack that Yoomi easily evaded. The momentum caused the princess to fall flat on her face.
"Do you really expect to be anything like your mother when you can't even take this seriously?" Yoomi chided as she twirled her jukto in her dominant hand with a justifiable complacency. Her words stabbed right through to the princess's insecurity. She knew all too well that she could never match up to her mother. Ready to prove Yoomi wrong, the princess pulled herself up and swung the sword like a baseball bat knocking Yoomi to the ground.
"Princess!" Venus froze as the instructor called her name. "What did I say about excessive force?" She could feel tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I—"
"Yoomi is bleeding. This isn't how I raised you!" It was too much. The princess ran off into the gardens, liquid embarrassment streaming down her face.
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"Gaeul!"
"Damnit." Soolee cursed beneath her breath as her daughter ran off crying. In her attempt to not show favoritism, she'd really screwed up this time.
"All right. Class is dismissed." She ignored the excited cheers of the students that would soon be replaced by avalanching rumors about Gaeul and headed off in the direction her daughter went. She knew exactly where to find her: underneath a large tree that bloomed year round. Soolee used to read to Gaeul beneath that tree when she was just a little girl. Soolee couldn't believe her daughter was already fourteen.
Gaeul was exactly where Soolee expected her to be, legs hugged to her chest, letting out tiny sobs. Soolee sat down beside the girl and wrapped her arms around her. The girl's sobs got louder as she tried to speak, the tears suffocating the syllables.
"I'm so-sorry, m-mama." Soolee quietly shushed the girl, imploring her to wait until she was calm to talk about it. When Gaeul was finally serene within her mother's embrace, she tried again to explain herself. "I'm useless."
"What? Oh, honey. You're not useless—"
"I am. I'm nothing like you. I could never be a soldier. I'm clumsy and stubborn, and I can't be on time to save my life." As she listened to her daughter, Soolee couldn't help but chuckle. "Why are you laughing?"
"Well except for the last trait which you so obviously received from your father, you described me."
"You?"
"I wasn't always this strong. I became this way out of necessity. There wasn't anyone fighting and I had a duty that I was born into." Soolee tilted her daughters face up and gently brushed the tears from beneath her eyes. "You do not bear that burden. All you have to do is be yourself, and one day you'll become a fine lady."
"You really think so?"
"I know so."