The Lost Rose

Part 2 - Chapter 11

- Why can't I?

- Because it's not what ladies do. You don't need to know how to defend yourself because there are guards everywhere to do so, Uncle Jacob replies as I follow him through the hallway.

I have been trying to convince him all morning to let me train and learn how to fight.

- Why are the boys training then?

-Listen Roese, he stops walking, I don't make the rules. This is how it is.

-You are the king. You can break them; I hold his gaze. You have no excuse.

-Who is going to train you? The boys don't have time for this and if the other regents learn that you are training then...

- Then what? We have discovered electricity, women can rule as much as men can do but they won't let me train? To defend myself?

- I don't know Roese, he shakes his head. What if you hurt yourself?

- What if? I'm not made out of sugar. I think this conversation shouldn't even happen. I'm training, I put my hands on my hips.

I watch him, with a decisive expression on my face. I find it crazy how a developed society can have such sexist and unfair rules. With enough training, I can wield a sword too. I might not be able to carry the heavier out there or knock out a 6 feet man but if the fight is fair, with enough training I can win.

-You'll take lessons then, he gives up. But because you don't know anything about fighting you will have to start from the beginning.

-I'm a quick learner.

-Wait and see, Roese. These guys out there have been training all their lives. It's not a few weeks of training that will allow you to defeat them.

-And mopping around and not doing anything won't help either, I remind him.

He opens his office door while I'm jogging away.

- Thanks Uncle Jacob! I shout from the other end of the hallway, turning around.

The next day, I meet Cam at the gym.

I asked for his help and he promised to help me. He didn't seem annoyed by it at all. I think he doesn't like to train that much so it's nice for him to have a partner.

Cameron likes the ocean not a gym full of sweaty people, beating each other.

- I would like to call myself a great teacher, he tells me.

We walk inside the gym, towards the lockers.

- I'm just starting so I don't need you to be perfect Cam, I put my stuff into a locker and close it.

I follow him and we walk into another hallway with rooms on each side of it. I can hear people training, swords clinging, grunts, strangled laughs.

No women around here. This is a gym for all of the richest families of Eden so that must be the reason: they don't want their daughters to fight and hurt their pretty face. I think it must be more diversified in the gyms out of the citie, in the slums and other small towns.

People have fewer social barriers there because nobody expects anything from them. At least not like they expect princesses to stand tall and be pretty. They also expect us to be smart too, yes, but not to be sweaty and fight.

It's a fact that women have less muscular mass and are less strong than men, but for me fighting is also about the technic. Find your opposant weaknesses, exploit them, avoid punches, be fast, light on your feet. It's as much muscles than brains.