Chapter Text
After an afternoon of searching through the garden’s, Claudia finally found the perfect weapon. The stick was about two feet long. It was thick on one edge and narrowed out slightly as it went on. The best part was that there were no other twigs branching off.
“Did you find one yet!”
Jocelyn came running towards Claudia. Jocelyn had long since picked out her sword. The branch was smaller and thinner than Claudia’s. Despite being the daughter of a blacksmith, Jocelyn did not seem picky about her choice of weapon.
“Yup!,” Claudia said proudly, displaying her sword. “You know this wouldn’t be a problem if your dad just let us borrow some swords.”
Jocelyn nodded in agreement. Like Claudia, she didn’t grasp why two seven year old girls shouldn’t be allowed to play with sharp objects.
“Same rules as last time! If you get hit with it, you can’t use that part of your body. If it hits a vital spot, your dead.”
Jocelyn nodded in agreement, gripping her imaginary blade tightly. Then with a yell, the two girls charged at each other. Claudia blocked every attack Jocelyn threw at her. She was on the defensive, and she guarded herself well. With a quick flick of her stick, she hit the arm Jocelyn was attacking her with.
“That hurt!” She yelled out.
“Lost your arm,” Claudia merely taunted.
Jocelyn quickly switched arms, letting her wounded arm hang limply at her side. With Jocelyn using her off arm, the fight got much easier. After blocking a few more hits, Claudia’s weapon make contact with Jocelyn’s side.
“No fair! Your Mom’s a knight, so of course your gonna win!”
“My mom’s never around to teach me! And your dad’s a blacksmith, shouldn’t you know swords!” Claudia shot back, getting somewhat annoyed at her friend.
“I want a rematch!” Jocelyn shouted, already shrugging off the pain in her side.
“You guys are such losers! Using sticks to fight! I get fight with a real sword.”
It was easy for Claudia to connect the haughty voice to a name. Prince Rylan had made it his life’s goal to taught Claudia. Apparently the fact she didn’t have a dad made her some kind of target for him. For the last few weeks he had been tormenting her mercilessly, but he was still a prince.
“Well not everyone can be as lucky as you,” Claudia said sarcastically.
“True, not only do I have money, power, but I have two parents who love me. You don’t even have one.”
That was it. It was Claudia’s fault that her mother was away all the time. Being a knight meant traveling a lot. It wasn’t like she could take Claudia with her. She snatched Jocelyn’s stick from her hands and quickly tossed it too the young prince. He barely caught it.
“How about you show me how good those lessons of yours are, prince,” she told him, spitting out the words.
“Gladly.”
Claudia charged at the young boy, her stick grasped firmly in her hands. She easily dodged his lunge and swung her weapon at the Prince’s calves from behind. The stick hit him and he fell to the ground. Claudia was getting ready to hit him again when she her her name yelled. She quickly dropped the weapon hoping that it hadn’t looked as bad as it had seemed.
Standing before her was an older chubby man, sporting a long black beard. She recognized him immediately as Jocelyn’s father.
“Dad? What are you,” but he raised a hand to silence Jocelyn as he caught his breath.
“An adult! Good you can tell my father what this trash just did!” the prince shouted.
“Sorry prince, but I don’t have time to deal with you right now,” the blacksmith stated bluntly.
In normal circumstances Claudia would have relished the way the prince’s cheeks glowed in embarrassment. Something in the man’s sudden appearance kept her from laughing however.
“Claudia, your mother is dead.”
The words spilled out of the man’s mouth easily. He had a look a sadness on his face. She could hear the prince let out a laugh. But everything else seemed to go numb. Her mother couldn’t be dead. She was the best knight in the kingdom. She just couldn’t die like that.