Heir of the Sword

07 | liberi

liberi {Children}

Arya trotted lightly in fear that the little girl might be thrown over her horse. She had to calm Eclipse before letting Jenny sit on him. Aaron had taken the other boy, William on his horse. Silvia and Damien were speaking to one another in hushed tones. Their conversations ranged across various topics including animals as well as people they disliked. Arya had moved on ahead since she didn't want to hear such useless banter but now she found herself beside Aaron. He was quiet, which worked well for Arya.

Arya felt a tug on her cloth and she leaned forward to listen to what Jenny wanted. "Can we go really fast? I want to defeat William since he beats be in everything."

Arya almost smiled slightly. This young girl had spirit. "Do you want to let your brother know?"

She nodded before turning to her brother, "William, do you want to race?"

The boy looked up from his conversation with Aaron. He looked at Aaron as if to ask his permission if he could agree. Aaron nodded indicating that he was okay with it.

"Jenny, you're going to lose." He taunted.

The little girl shook her head swinging her braid in the action, almost whacking Arya across the face. "We are going to win!" she cried.

Arya glanced at Aaron and he looked right back at her. His mouth was curved into an amused smile and Arya was pretty sure that he thought he was going to win. Well it would be a great time for rude awakening. The bond between Arya and Eclipse made him one of the fastest horses in the land.

"One," he mouthed.

"Two,"

"Hold on tightly." Arya whispered to Jenny.

"Three." They both finished and they were off.

The forest seemed blurry as they blazed past the trees. The horse's hooves hitting the ground with speed could be heard as they let out their true speed. Arya could hear Jenny's gleeful cheers but she focused on the race ahead of them. Aaron's horse was ahead of them by mere inches but they had not signified the end of the race.

Glancing ahead Arya could sense they were nearing the end of the forest as the scenery was changing.

"Till that tree," she shouted, the wind carrying her words.

She assumed that Aaron would have heard her message. It was time to wrap up this race. She pressed her heels into Eclipse indicating for him to go faster. Eclipse obliged and for a moment they were ahead of Aaron and William. They gained speed again but Arya wasn't willing to loose.

"Come on Eclipse, we need to beat them." She whispered.

Eclipse seemed to have heard her thoughts as they crossed the invisible line by a hair. She was panting hard as was Eclipse.

"We won!" Jenny cried.

"No you didn't!" William said.

"William, Jenny and I won." Arya said glancing at Aaron, expecting him to deliver the news of loss to the boy.

William looked at Aaron hopefully and Arya's cold heart warmed a little.

Aaron crouched down to the boy's side. "It seems the girls won today but that doesn't mean we won't beat them in another race." He said.

William looked relieved as he went back to patting Aaron's horse.

Aaron's eyes were fixed on her horse, "That is one fast beast," he commented.