The One Knight Stand

.: Party Favors :.

12 | Party Favors

"Far" obviously meant different things to different people.... Or, um, animals.

Windsor's even temper only lasted so long, and during private rides he slung Blue across the training field with a sadistic glee.

"You dirty inbred mule!" The squire screamed, head barely reaching the horse's muscled ankle. "You brute!"

Coughing up dirt, Blue staggered to her feet and shoved Windsor's flank without much effect. This only encouraged the Khmaw to nip at her shoulder, evil eyes blinking rapidly at the promise of a carrot and a good brushing down.

"As much as I don't like it, we have a job to do, and I have a family to feed. I know you don't fully understand normal emotions like compassion and humility but just this once I'm going to need you to shape the fuck up."

The impending Three Kingdom Exhibition might've added to Blue's near constant crabbiness but it's not like she would've ever admitted that.

Analyzing the fact she even cared enough to enter her name in the matches, representing Anachakar's Finest under the flag of King and Country, made her so physically ill she would awaken at the dead of night and ask herself what the shit she was even thinking.

Even worse was the Prince's face once Pilar told him Blue accepted the invitation. You would've thought she single handedly slayed the Great Beast of the Grey Sea and recovered the severed head in his honor.

Prince Bo, overcome with emotion, placed a cautiously warm hand on Blue's (tensed) shoulder and mouthed a delighted thank you only she could see.

'This isn't for you, Your Majesty.' Blue huffed. She tugged Windsor back to the stables with a grimace. 'This is for the gold.'

But to think... Bo's amber eyes shining with approval and pride at her expertise, confirmation he made the right choice when he contracted her to be His Knight.

No! No, no, no! Ew, no!

Either way, Blue's path to knighthood shortened exponentially. While the other squires had all the time in the world to master the rest of their core skills, Blue, Torrance, and Wu only had until November to complete any gaps in training.

This was especially worrisome for Blue, who hadn't accomplished a single freehand climb without landing flat on her back with a mouthful of rocks (how was that even possible?).

Oh, yeah, and Blue was absolutely mediocre during her swimming test.

Waist deep in the palace lake, Pilar sneered at Blue's weak doggy paddle. The squire thrashed against the seaweed and surface moss, scaring every living creature within a mile radius. Meanwhile the other squires darted from one end of the shore to the next like water spiders.

Reptilian fish people. All of them!

Blue petulantly blamed her poor form on a cramp and spent the rest of the hour floating on her back wondering the last time she saw a clean body of water not devoted solely to growing rice.

"I'm doomed." That night Blue scrubbed her stinky secondhand armor until her wrists ached. "Absolutely doomed."

The dents riddling her chest plate formed a smiley face. The squire glared at the happiness born from systematic abuse.

"What're you smilin' at, punk?"

Realizing she was arguing with an inanimate object yet again, Blue resigned herself to fitful sleep in the barracks.