Winterfall

I must have fallen asleep as I woke to a beam of sun striking my skin. I stretched the top of my bed covers and peeked through the bond into Théoden's vision.

I felt that she was awake once more as Maria spied on me through the bond that we shared. I’m still in my room. I told her as it was just shy of five in the evening.

Thank you for letting me rest. Maria told me as I had let her sleep the hour of rest that I felt she needed.

Mhm. Am I off bedrest now? I know she wanted me to rest a full day and I basically did. I might of checked in on my guards through messaging or kept an I on her but I rested.

Yeah.

Good. Meet me in the arena for some combat training.

I heard her groan loudly through the bond. WHY….

Because. I have been in bed all day. I need to move.

Honestly… I felt her eye roll through the bond. Fine. She grumbled.

I’ll see you in ten minutes.

I slipped on my armor over a pair of comfy clothing and grabbed my equipment and decided to walk to the arena tonight.

I bumped into her once I left the castle. “You’ll go easy on me right?” She questioned me as she batted her eyes as she tried to plead for mercy.

I laughed. “Please. You put me on bedrest.”

I watched her eyes shift from a plea to shock. “Please…” She whispered softly.

“We shall see Maria. We shall see.”

I ended up walking ahead of her and reaching the arena before her. I flicked on the lights and grabbed the prop swords.

She let out a sigh as she watched me set a few things up. “I am going to have Peri create a weapon for you.” I told her. “One that can benefit from your magic.”

“A weapon?” She questioned me.

“Yes. You can’t always rely on magic to defeat your foes.” I told her, “I’m thinking of a short-sword made from materials found in the Fey to match your wild magic.” She gave me a questioned look. “Fey Gold is what we will use. It is a metal that shines purple and will aid your binding to the Fey.”

I could tell she didn’t know how she felt about owning her own weapon. I could sense that she thought her magic was good enough to fight. “I know you may think that Maria, but to be fair a lot of my own fights, I use a combination of weapon and magic. The more magic you use, the more you will feel exhausted as it drains your essence. Especially those higher level spells. Having a weapon at your side will allow you to preserve some of your spells for when you may need it the most.”

She nodded in response, “I understand that. I just never thought I would have to worry about carrying my own weapon.”

“I get that. Hopefully you won’t have to use it. But just in case.” I may have already put in the order while I was alone in my room. I figured I would ask for forgiveness if it came to it.

“You…” She shook her head as she read my thoughts. “Of course you did.” She may have felt disappointed but that frown was quick to turn into a smile when she saw the design Peri and I came up with for her sword. As her sword wouldn’t just be Fey gold but it would have shimmers of draconic silver running through it. Creating a beautiful sword for a beautiful girl. “As much as I disapprove of your method, Théoden, that sword is beautiful.”

“Glad you like it Maria. Now shall we get to training?”

I handed her one of the practice short swords and I held onto a longsword. We both took our stance and I gave her the nod to go ahead.

She lunged at me with full force behind her attack, missing my abdomen as I was quick to parry her attack causing her sword to clash against mine, creating a clunk noise that echoed through the empty chamber.

We continued to trade blows like this over the course of twenty minutes. Parry. Dodge. Lunge. Miss. The moves we were doing almost made it seem like we were doing some strange dance that was meant to captive crowds.

As we both began to feel worn down due to the constant bursts and falls of adrenaline I felt her heart race through the bond as I knew she was about to make one more final attempt.

I felt her bite her lip as she withheld her battle cry as she wanted to be sneaky. She utilized her own form of a misty step and appeared on top of my shoulders before I even had a chance to react. She brought down her sword into my neck. Thankfully, the tips of these practice swords were dull, otherwise I would have been bleeding some sweet crimson.

She hopped off my shoulders and looked at me with a grin, “Got you!”

I couldn’t help but feel a burst of pride course through my veins. Even though I knew she was about to make an attack she managed to block her exact plan, throwing me off guard. “Yes, yes you did.” I leaned down and gave her a kiss on the lips. She was my warrior princess and I couldn’t be more proud.

She pulled back from the kiss and looked up at me with her emerald green eyes and batted her lush eyelashes, “can we call it? I am starving.”

I laughed, usually it was I who often wanted to call it quits due to hunger. “I suppose… Perhaps in our dreams we shall train with a bit of magic.”

She rolled her eyes at me, “We just trained magic last night…”

That was true, however, magic resets each long rest. “Still, the ring charged up quite a bit today. I took some of it.”

She looked ashamed that her emotions caused this much havoc. “It’s alright Maria, I am used to it. But perhaps, that ring isn’t strong enough. Maybe I need to check with Peri to see if we can amplify it somehow.”

“Will that work?” She questioned me with hope in her eyes.

“Perhaps. Time will tell. But let’s get back to the castle. The mention of food and you have caused my own stomach to growl.” I joked as if almost on que a growl from deep within rumbled through my body.

She laughed, “Alright, let's go.”

I told her to go ahead and I would catch up. I had to put things back to where they were before I left. She followed orders and I eventually caught back up with her after a few minutes.

“I hope Roland has cooked up something good.”

“I’m sure he has.” Maria said with a grin.