Gladiatorum {swordplay}

Arya let her fingers run through Eclipse's mane. She untangled the knots before proceeding to brush her hand down his body. Eclipse neighed and muzzled his face closer to hers. She felt his warm breath exploding on her face. They had just competed in the racing portion of the Equestrianism competition and in about twenty minutes, she would be competing in a showing jumping competition. She led Eclipse beneath the shade of a tree as she herself leaned against the trunk of the tree.

Yesterday had been an eventful day. After Lady Zelie and Prince Zander's match, Arya had been able to witness two more matches. The boys had won one of the matches, while the girls had come back with a victory in the second match making the two academies equal once more.

After showing jumping Arya also had a duel in the evening. She had been practicing in the morning back at the lake that Aaron had showed her. The lake environment made her feel calm and collected of her thoughts and emotions, something Arya loved. It was also quite serene with just nature surrounding it.

In the distance Arya spotted many people chatting amongst themselves as well as family members. She could vaguely identify Jennica's brunette hair as she seemed to be speaking with a few friends. Arya knew that she would be one of the greatest competitors in the competition but she also knew that they were completely unaware of the boy's strength and weaknesses. Arya had faith in Eclipse and she knew the trust the two of them hand was probably stronger than most horses.

She closed her eyes for a moment and blocked out the voices surrounding her. It was peacefully for a while until she sensed the presence of someone in front of her. Lazily she opened one eye after another to see that it was Aaron.

"Hi," she said.

Aaron gave her a minuscule smile, "Hey yourself."

"What are you doing here?" Arya asked him.

Aaron pointed to the seat beside Arya, "May I sit there?"

Arya eyed him warily before she allowed him to take a spot beside him. He leaned further into the trunk of the tree using it as support.

"To answer your question one of my friends," he waved in the general direction of a tall, lanky boy, "is competing in show jumping so I thought I would show up and support him."

Arya nodded but her eyes were focused on the boy in front of her, he looked extremely familiar. She had seen him before and then it hit her, he was Walter the son of the Earl of Dzfrah. He had come to the academy and danced with Jennica! Both Walter and Jennica were immersed in a conversation at the moment as well.

"He came to the academy once when we were dancing," Arya said lightly.

She felt everything but light. But Arya still knew that the best way to approach this would be to play casually. On the other hand, Aaron looked taken back which confused Arya. She thought that he would have known that the Narvanian Academy had sent in another spy.

"We were told that he was taking a short leave of absence since his father needed him. He could have been present when the Academy was looking for male partners and hence he became roped into dancing." Aaron replied, "But I assure you, he must have promised Lady Zelie to keep quiet about the Academy's preparations."

Arya closed her eyes and relaxed into the trunk, she almost felt completely at ease with his presence. She hadn't even known him for more than a quarter of the year yet she believed that he knew her very well. It was a bizarre feeling, believing that someone who you rarely talked to knew you so well.

"Is Walter good at showing jumping?"

Aaron let out a low chuckle, "You can't really expect me to answer that can you?"

Arya shrugged her shoulders. "It was worth a try."

Aaron looked at Walter before he turned towards her, "Since you tried so hard I'll let you in on a little secret."

He moved closer to Arya where the point she was wondering what on earth was he doing. His lips were mere centimeters apart from Arya's ear and she could feel his break tickling her ear, "He's very good," Aaron said in a low voice as his lips almost touched her ear.

He withdrew immediately and it made Arya wonder if she had imagined his lips so close to her in the first place. She looked away even though she knew that he was still gazing at her.

"How's Eclipse doing?" Aaron asked changing the subject.

"He's good, he got injured before we were due to come to Kathoria so I was worried but he has made a full recovery."

"That's good." Aaron said as he brushed Eclipses muzzle.

Eclipse surprisingly let him do so without complain. Arya was quite taken back, usually Eclipse hated being touched by others and was only comfortable around Lady Zelie and now it seemed he was fine with Aaron as well.

"If you are participating in the show jumping competitions please bring your horses to the red boxed area. To those who are not participating, you are welcome to watch, but please be seated around the white lines."

Arya got up and brushed herself off. She looked over to see Aaron doing the same. "Well I'm off now, but I'll be watching the entire competition so good luck."

Arya mumbled a thank you before Aaron was off.

"Isn't he weird at times?" Arya whispered to Eclipse. The horse neighed as if agreeing with Arya.

Arya grabbed Eclipses reigns and made her way to the boxed off area. Unfortunately she found herself stuck between both Jennica and Walter. Two people she did not want to see.

"Have I seen you before?" Walter asked her.

Arya ignored his question and continued to look in front of her even though there wasn't anything interesting going on.

"I'm pretty sure I have, I just can't put my finger on it..." Walter trailed off.

At this point Jennica interjected, "don't mind her, she's usually like that. Broody, never speaking to people but you might have seen her when you came to the Narvian Academy or at the dance because she is our champion." Jennica spoke the last words very distastefully making it clear that she did not approve that Arya was the champion for the Narvian Academy.

Walter's eyes lit up. "No I remember now! She came to the boy's academy and she dueling with Sir Alexander in the classroom."

Arya looked at Walter in surprise. She didn't know that he had been there that day. Well then again she did have more pressing manners to attend to at that moment, namely Sir Alexander.

Walter turned to Arya, "Your fight was spectacular. I don't think I have seen anyone come close to touching Sir Alexander when he is serious yet manage to scrap a piece of his clothing! Did you know that Aaron was the only one who could actually do that? But that was only because Sir Alexander was training him and he probably revealed his weakness which Aaron must have exploited." Walter continued talking not noticing that Arya and everyone else had stopped listening.

"Have you met Aaron before? He's one of my closest friends and something tells me the two of you would get along very well." Walter stated before looking around the track to spot Aaron once he did he started pointing out wildly.

Arya spoke at last. "Yes we have gotten to know each other better over the past few days due to the current circumstance."

Walter turned to Jennica. "So she does speak." Jennica smiled, but it wasn't a sweet one. "I thought she was mute."

"There is nothing wrong with being mute," Arya said sharply.

Walter must have sense her tone, "I didn't mean it like that. I don't have anything against anyone."

He was cut off by the arrival of a main dressed in a uniform. He began explaining the rules that they would each get three jumps and had a time limit in which they had to perform the jumps. Whoever was able to complete the obstacle course in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of errors would essentially win.

Arya watched as the contestants went up one by one. When Jennica's name was called she had a big smile plastered on her face one that spoke of confidence. She led her horse through the obstacles and in the end she only had two shaky bars and not one of them had fallen. Then it was Walter's turn. He was extremely good and in the end he only had one shaky bar. Next was Arya's turn.

She led Eclipse to stand in front of the bars before whispering in his ears.

"You and me together boy, we can do this. Just trust me and we should be fine." She said and Eclipse neighed in response.

She nudged Eclipse motioning him to start moving. The first obstacle was not at all hard to jump over as the bar had been placed extremely low. As the obstacle course grew the bar height grew as well. Arya followed the same process to make the jump for everything. She would time the jump and indicate to Eclipse when he should jump. So far she believed that she had not touched any bars.

Arya came to the last bar which was the highest. Arya had not practice on such a high bar but she had a fair idea of how it was supposed to be done. She told Eclipse when to jump and they did so but she felt his hove slightly graze the bar. The bar rolled back and forth but did not come done. Arya sighed in relief. Overall it had been a good run. Now she just had to beat Jennica and Walter and the title would be hers. She patted Eclipse, she was ready.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arya stared at the open field which held the targets for archery. She could see Silvia practicing with her white bow as she quickly placed the arrows on the bow and released them. Arya knew that she was not showing off her entire skill as the bow didn't land in the middle even once. She was probably waiting for the actually competition to start where she was reveal her strength.

"Next up we have Silvia." The petite women announced.

She was dressed in the royal Kalvarian Army uniform signifying her strength. Silvia stepped up wearing a brown leather jacket and matching boots. Her white tunic could be seen from under the jacket although it seemed that Silvia didn't care.

Silvia stepped up and Arya could see the she was nervous so she did something much unexpected of her.

"Don't worry Silvia, you'll be fine!" Arya shouted.

Silvia looked around trying to locate her voice and when she did so, a smile lit up her face as it visible relaxed. The smile turned into a frown and she glanced beside her making Arya turn around as well.

There stood Lord Jagmior in all his glory. His reddish-brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail and his blue eyes were starring ahead. His mouth was in a grim line much like it had been when Arya had first seen him at the opening ball. What surprised Arya the most was the fact that he had been able to creep up on her and not make a sound. Not many people were that skilled and it proved a lot about him.

Arya looked back at Silvia who had gone back to focusing on the target. She saw her take a deep breath before placing her arrow on the bow. She exhaled as she released and the bow made it to the inner yellow ring but it wasn't in the middle.

"She has a good arm."

Arya was startled by the sound of Lord Jagmior speaking. She hadn't expected him to speak to her but he had.

Thinking that it would be extremely rude to ignore him, Arya replied. "Yes, Silvia is one of our best archer's in the academy."

He pointed to between Arya and Silvia, "So you both go the Narvian Academy."

Arya nodded.

"That's good, I was thinking about placing my daughter there how is it like?"

"Well the academy is divided into two portions for either princesses and royals or common folks. The common folks have the choice of either taking the courses that the princesses take or they can actually train to become warrior but the catch is that they must take at least one lady like course. On the other hand, the princesses must take one of the courses that are offered to people training to become warriors. The Narvian Academy is able to host many study and tend to their needs at the same time." Arya explained.

"It seems like a good place," Lord Jagmior commented.

"It is." Arya replied.

Lord Jagmior nodded. "I'll think about placing my daughter there, thank you for providing me with the information."

"It was my honour."

Lord Jagmior left soon after leaving Arya in her own thoughts. The man had seemed extremely unpleasant at a first glance but when Arya spoke to him he didn't seem that gruff at all. It just showed how sometimes appearances did not at all show what was truly hidden inside.

Arya waited for Silvia to come over since her competition had finished.

"You were fantastic," said Arya.

Silvia had a smile lighting her face. "Thank you. It seemed that my hard work actually paid off."

"It usually does."

The two began walking towards the village area, "Say, who was the man was talking to you?"

"You mean the tall burly one? That was Lord Jagmior from Haxovola."

"What was he saying?" Silvia asked.

Arya shrugged her shoulders. "He said you had a good arm and then he was asking about the academy."

"That's really weird." Silvia commented.

"Well not that much." Arya replied. "The Heres Gladii also serves the purpose of promoting the academy so if we have people asking about it, that means it's a good sign."

Silvia agreed the two of them chatted until they made their way to the castle for lunch. All previous chats were erased as Silvia and Arya started talking about dueling and the different strategies they were going to use. It was time to kick some butt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And the next two people that will be dueling are Arya Ernest from the Narvian Academy and Duncan Albert from the Narvanian academy."

Arya stepped into the ring just as Duncan stepped from the other side. The two of them faced off as the crowd roared. Arya took this moment to look at her surroundings trying to soak in the experience. She was able to find Lady Zelie who smile at her and gave her a wink. She pointed towards her neck and Arya knew that she was referring to the necklace on her own neck. Lady Zelie was telling her that she had faith in her and she could do it.

Arya gave a half smile back to Lady Zelie and withdrew Anaz from its sheath. Duncan was doing the same with his own sword. Arya analyzed his blade to see that it was just as sharp as Anaz but it seemed to be cut at a curve. Very few people used blades like those and Arya had only seen them a handful of times. She didn't know the exact dynamics but she could predicate that he was a fast fighter.

The Kalvarian warrior explained the rules that they could draw out blood but not make deathly blows, if the sword was pointed in a direction that would have resulted in death the other person one. The warrior waved the flag in front of them indicating that they could start the fight. The two of them circled one another each waiting for the other to attack. Arya knew that she had the patience to draw Duncan in but she wasn't sure if the latter had the same patience.

Sure enough a little while later Duncan stuck at Arya who blocked the attack with her own sword. Just as he predicated he was fast, but not as fast as Arya. His body mass was more and while Arya did not have a petite frame, hers were smaller than his.

Duncan attacked again and again and Arya blocked, parried and skipped around him. She was memorizing his moves. Swordsmen usually had a pattern that they followed and if the battle drew out long enough they often became sloppy and their moves began showing.

Arya had a sense of his battle pattern but she was waiting a little while longer before she was completely sure. Once Duncan trusted at her left hip Arya blocked his move with her own sword. She let the swords clash against one another before she quickly released her sword and moved to the side.

Duncan was not expecting the abrupt movement and his sword plunged to the ground. Arya took the movement to making a slashing gesture that drew red drops of blood. It was the first time that Arya had actually drawn blood from and opponent and a part of her felt sick as she watched the rosy red drops fall to the ground.

The crowd on the other hand roared and Arya could feel the ground shaking under her. Duncan drew away quickly but his hand grasped his injury to stop the blood. Arya let him relax for a moment before she began a flurry of her own attacks. She made sure that every move was different so he could not pick up on her pattern.

Duncan managed to block most of her blows but Arya half way switched the direction of Anaz which left him open. She held her sword an inch away from his neck.

"It's over." She whispered.

The Kalvarian Knight waved the flagged in Arya's direction indicating that she had won. The crowd burst into thunderous applause as Arya lifted her sword in the air and allowed the diamond pendant to glint in the light. It was a victory for not only her but the Narvian Academy as well.

A warm feeling spread throughout Arya after her victory and it made her feel good. With a slight smile on her face she made her way to one of the seats to watch the next battle unfold. It was Yasmin versing another male member. Arya had a good gut feeling about this one. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ahh #389 in Fantasy!!! Thank you so much you are all the best! Thank you everyone for voting and commenting (your words always bring a smile to my face). Anyways, what did you think about the conversation between Arya and Aaron? Arya's match? As always, please remember to vote and comment. See you next week!