Firstly I would like to appologise for taking sooooo long to upload, I know I'm a terrible person for it, but I had exams and I kinda lost faith a little that people were reading this and thanks to one reader in particular, (you should know who you are =D ) I found the enthuiasm to write more. I have spent a while trying to get this chapter as perfect as possible...I hope you like it!

PLEASE comment...seriously even if its just a smily face it will be encouraging, cs there's nothing worse than putting your writing up and getting no/not a lot of response...

I will shut up now and let you continue (and yes i know i broke my no author's notes rule, but im starting to think it was silly)...but seriously...im shutting up...

Enjoyyyyyyyy!!...

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Here's a recap of the last thing that happened in chapter 26...

“You don’t need to miss me now.” He smiled and kissed me again, soft gentle kisses that started at my mouth then slowly moved along my jawbone and down my neck, making the sensation from a few moments before flow continuously down my back. I felt a small sigh escape and the kisses became more intense as I pulled myself gradually towards him.

He lifted me off the seat and up into his arms then softly laid me down on the bed. We kissed a while longer and then slowly began to take of our clothes. I marvelled at how smooth his skin was on his chest in comparison to his rough hands and sighed again as those same hands ran over the skin on my shoulders and waist. He seemed to be trying to memorise every curve of my body but eventually desire got the best of us and we came closer together. I felt a mummer pass my parted lips as he pushed into me and wrapped my arms around his neck as we made love under the silken sheets.

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I woke up in his arms and felt him smile against my head as I snuggled closer into his chest. The sunlight seemed to lazily shine through the widows as I looked up at him through hooded lashes. “Hello my Beautiful Creature, how did u sleep?” he smiled at me with a gleam in his eyes and I felt myself blush slightly.

“Very sparingly; as I recall someone kept waking me up.” He laughed at me and nuzzled into my head.

“As I recall you weren’t complaining.” I felt myself blush again as a smile crept onto my lips. I looked down at the sheets and realised I was naked as the soft silk brushed against my skin.

“What time is it?”       

“A little after ten in the morning.”

“Ten?”

“Well we didn’t get back to your room until late and then we did do a lot of exercise last night.” He gently laughed and briefly kissed my lips, drawing it out and making me hungry for more. I felt the heat rise and scowled to myself at this loss of control over my body’s reactions.

“I think we should probably get out of bed now and do something,” my stomach rumbled, “like get something to eat.” Rowan nodded and I grabbed the top cover which had been kicked to the bottom of the bed and wrapped it around myself. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something in Rowan’s gaze that made me feel uncomfortable whilst I was not wearing any clothing. I grabbed some training clothes out of the large wardrobe and headed to the bathroom which I had not noticed the day before.

When I walked in and had shut the door I let the cover drop and allowed myself to be in awe of the splendour around me. There was a large round bath in the middle of the room, sitting on a step above the usual level of the floor. The bath was made of a grey metal and had intricate detailing on the outside of a forest scene and in the bottom of the bath was a large cushion which looked to be waterproof. I wandered around it slowly before noticing a door in the step below the bath which was about a foot wide, opening it slowly I saw a fire pit with flames dancing hotly under the floor. I put my hand into the water of the bath and it made my naked body shiver at its warmth, before I could stop myself I had climbed in and was revelling in the clear water.

I washed myself slowly, feeling all the muscles in my body relaxing due to the glorious temperature of the water and because cushion beneath me was deliciously supple and seemed to fit every contour of my body. Eventually I came back to reality and realised that Rowan was on the other side of the door, probably waiting for me. Begrudgingly I climbed out and dried off with a towel that had been carefully placed on an arm of a sofa. I pulled on my training clothes and examined myself in the mirror; my cheeks were more flushed and my eyes seemed brighter. I wasn’t sure I liked it; I didn’t look like my usual self.

Rowan looked up as I exited the bathroom and smiled at me with a tender look in his eyes which I couldn’t refuse, I was in his arms in seconds kissing him slowly and tracing his lips with my tongue. “Come on Beautiful Creature, we need to get you something to eat, other than me.” I laughed and followed him down the halls and back to the room which I had labelled as a ‘holding pen’ the night before.

The room had changed rather drastically; in the centre was a table which could have sat twenty people. As we took some seats near the end of the table a servant rushed to our sides, “Orion has especially ordered you a breakfast of fruit, specifically designed to attend to your dietary needs.” The servant announced to me as a silver plate was set on the table, on it a selection of fruits. There was also some porridge and warm bread on the table, I thanked the servant and then when he was gone, served myself some of the porridge and slipped in a few raspberries and slices of nectarine. It was delicious.

After finishing my food I followed Rowan to the armoury and then realising he was intending to train sped off to my room, moving as quickly as a humming bird’s wings. Once there I grabbed my sword from where it had fallen on the floor the night before and then ran back to the training ground. Rowan smiled awkwardly as I ran back to his side and made him jump with my sudden appearance.

“”Where did you go?”

I held up my sword with a glint in my eyes. “Let us go and train.” I smiled and followed him to the middle of the training field. This would be the first time I would be able to use my skills against another fighter since that first embarrassing time I’d held a sword towards Senkrad over a year ago.

I looked at Rowan’s sword and will the edges to become blunt with magic, the metal obeyed, and I then did the same with my own, placing shields of magic around Rowan and myself that would protect us of any injuries that would do more than bruise. I explained to Rowan what I had done and then we both grew tense with anticipation of our fight.

I took the fifth stance of the Tingure as Rowan took the eighth. The Tingure when being practised and perfected as the dance of the sword had to be followed in numerical succession, but whilst in combat, you had to use each stance and movement to undermine and in reality, kill your opponent; it was all about using those perfected stances as a weapon. I smiled at him, and could feel the fighting haze settle over my senses, giving in to the instinct to stay alive. Rowan looked at me in an unsettled manner and then attacked.

I swung my sword over my head and moved into stance fourteen, cutting off the blow that would have landed on my shoulder. Dipping to the floor in the twelfth stance I swung my leg out at his feet and then my upper body progressed upwards and my sword would have sliced open his stomach had he not dodged out of the way at the last second. As he swung his sword at my neck I bent my body in half backwards and following the motion did a backwards cartwheel, kicking him sharply in the chin. He stumbled as I reversed direction and leaped towards him with my blade whipping around at waist height; he deflected the blow with the edge of his sword and gave out a short grunt with the effort. His lack of stamina surprised me as I had barely quickened my breathing, but I was not going to let up on him. Flying into the first stance I whipped my sword around and then as Rowan raised his blade to stop it I changed the angle at the last moment, bringing it down so that it bounced against the magical shield I had put up around him. The shield paralysed him for a couple of seconds so that he knew I had struck a deathly blow and he groaned in an irritated manner but if the shield hadn’t of been there, Rowan’s intestines would have been pooled out across the grass of the training ground.

Rowan started panting as soon as the shield let up and looked me up and down. “Were you even trying?” I paused for a moment; I had been thinking carefully about what I had been doing, but I could see I hadn’t been putting the same amount of effort in as he had.

“I was trying to be calculative about it; I am biologically a lot faster and stronger than you, to put all my effort in would not have been fair.”

“So you weren’t really trying?”

“I was, trying. I just wanted it to be as fair as possible.” For a brief moment anger flashed across his eyes but it was gone as quickly as it came.

“Yes, you’re right. Sorry, I just don’t like losing.” He laughed and the annoyance from a moment ago disappeared. I un-blunted our swords and let the shields around us drop, “I believe that I challenged you to an archery competition my Beautiful Creature.”

“Yes good Sir, I believe you did.” I laughed as he slid his sword back into its sheath and placed his arms around my shoulders, steering me to the archery targets on the other side of the grass. I picked a bow and arrows from the few that were provided and then walked to stand twenty feet away from the matted round targets. I strung the bow let out a few practise arrows to test the feel and elasticity of the string before turning to Rowan, “So how are we going to point score this one?”

“Well, to begin with we can have five arrows each and the winner is the one who can hit a bull’s-eye.” I nodded and pulled back the string, the arrow making a satisfying thud as it connected with the centre of the target. Rowan’s arrow matched mine in sense of accuracy. We both repeated the same thing, both getting bull’s-eyes. “How about, the looser is the first one to miss a bull’s-eye?” Rowan asked, his eyes twinkling at me. On his fifth arrow, Rowan missed.

We stopped competing after that. Instead we slowly went through the Tingure together, keeping in time. I had felt so connected to him at this point; our bodies moving simultaneously and both of our swords dancing brightly in the sunlight made me feel close to him in a new way I hadn’t experienced before. It was another aspect I had begun to discover about him, he looked so relaxed yet fearless as he moved his sword through the stances.

Eventually we finished up, the sweat pouring from our faces and backs. We walked back into the castle together, although this time Rowan went to his own room and I went to mine. Before we parted he kissed me on the forehead and told me what time the evening meal would be. I wandered down the hallways sighing; I hated all the pomp and display of palace life and this evening's dinner would be just as tedious as last nights.