Hi everyone, I'm MB, better known as druidrose here on Wattpad, and I am so excited to be participating in my SECOND Wattpad Block Party! A HUGE thanks to KellyAnneBlount for putting together another great event and I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I am being a part of it!

This time around, I going to do something crazy!

I'm going to share something new.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Something absolutely and completely new.

Nothing having to do with the Empire Saga this time around.

Nope, this time I'm going to give you a new world, new characters, a new plot.

And YOU are going to be one of the first to read it!

So, without further delay, I present...

THE HEIR AND THE GENERAL

The sounds of blade against blade rang out through the war camp deep within the mountains nestled in the Northern Kingdom. Renya, daughter and heir to its King and Queen, leapt and circled around the mud-packed training ring as the warmth of the spring day, even within the mountains, made the hair that escaped her dark braid plaster against her sweat-soaked brow. Even the material of her thin shirt clung to her chest and back, having had discarded her leather jacket over an hour ago. Her legs barked in pain as she moved, but she would not stop - not when she was facing her father's General in that ring, circling across from her. And especially not when her father and mother were observing them from the outskirts.

Rikkard, King of the Northern Kingdom, had been adamant against sending his firstborn to the camps, and even in their letters and conversations, Renya felt as though he was still in denial as to how quickly the time went by. Even as he stood just outside the sparring ring with his wife by his side, watching her match blades with Thressan, his own General, she knew he still considered whether or not allowing her to come to train here was in her best interest.

He used to sing her lullabies every night for years, even past the point where she was deemed too old for them. Renya knew she would always be his little girl, even when she was a thousand years old- he would forever only see the dark haired little girl who danced around the house with him when no one else was around to watch, The same dark-haired child who would bring in various creatures and bugs from outside to present to the Queen as presents, who had been less than impressed by the slimy things but would never shatter her daughter's spirit by rejecting them.

That Queen, her own mother, Fayth, was the daughter to a powerful Lord in the Western Kingdom, and their traditions were far more fluid than those of the North. So, they had raised her with a combination of Northern and Western traditions, both, for they had wanted her to understand the best of both of their Kingdoms, as well as an understanding for both of their peoples, rather than raising her with the intolerance and hatred that seemed to run rampant within their world.

It had taken some serious arguments from Fayth to convince Rikkard to send Renya to the camp. Eventually considering those pleas from the two most important women in his life, the King conceded, but still sent his daughter to the war camp far later than most warrior children were shipped off for training. And, of course, he wouldn't abandon her to mercy of the camp's Lords like the other warrior children were either, so he'd stationed Thressen at the camp, telling anyone who may have asked that it was a mere coincidence that his General and his daughter's presence coincided so perfectly.

And so the King and Queen continued to visit their daughter as the years went on, and less likely than Rikkard would have liked, Renya knew, but still, they visited. The King would use the visits to tend to matters that needed his attention while he was there, but he also made time to watch Renya as she trained, which was usually with Thressen, and she didn't know if it was because the General wanted to keep a closer eye on her per his King's instructions, or because they knew she had kicked the ass of every other warrior within her age group without remorse.

She was good. She was damned good. And she would do everything within her power to show her parents, her father, that their decision to allow her to train at the camps was not only in Renya's best interest, but for the best for the Northern Kingdom as a whole. She was the Heir after all.

And today was no exception

The King and the Queen had arrived the night before, unexpectedly. Her father told her it was a simple visiting to the camp to make sure its Lords were handling the new recruits as well as they should be. Renya knew, though they would never admit it, that they truly were checking in on her. Especially her father. But she knew. And it was that thought alone that put an additional spring in her footing as she raised her blade and again lunged towards Thressen.

The General himself had been in her father's service for longer than Renya had been alive, and they had grown to be friends. One of the benefits of the immortality of her people, she quickly discovered, was that those who surrounded you as a child never truly left you as you matured. Not only had he already spent centuries within the camps across the Kingdom, but most of his time was indeed spent training Renya, whether he preferred it or not.

She used to call him Uncle Thressen when she was younger, and she knew that had been one of the oddest things he'd ever been called. Which is why she kept doing it. He adored her as an uncle would, that she knew, but every time she addressed him as 'Uncle Thressen', he'd all but winced and it gave her a sick sense of satisfaction that only a young girl could appreciate after annoying an adult. She also knew her father was well aware of his distaste for the sentiment, which is why the King never once corrected his daughter, if only to simply be a pain in Thressen's ass. He succeeded, time after time, because Thressen refused to damper Renya's spirits, or allow Rikkard get the better of him, if only out of spite.

And there they were, after years and years of training together, sparring in the ring as they had so many times before. The cold air from this altitude was only made Renya colder as the sweat clung to her back, making the crisp wind swirling around her feel like pinpricks again her skin. But she was accustomed to chill in the air by now, and welcomed it as she continued to move. Even when Thressen blocked her blade with his own, the sweat shining on her forehead soaking her skin, she didn't care. Renya was an entity all her own, and she was going to prove to her parents that allowing her come to this camp, after all this time, was more than worth it.

But Thressen chuckled heartily, easily side-stepping her next lung as she dove at him after another rotation around the sparring ring. "No need to show off just because your parents are watching you, princess," he purred from where he stood only a couple of feet away, his blade slack at his side as he smirked down at her.

Renya stumbled back where she stood, but not because Thressen had blocked her attack. They had been blocked and attacking all afternoon- she would have been insulted if he hadn't blocked the easy lunge she just shot at him.

No- it's at what he said, at what he called her, that made her stagger.

Growing up, she knew exactly who she was, and what was expected of her. One doesn't grow up as the daughter of the King and Queen of the Northern Kingdom without realizing there would be more expected of you. But Renya never let it dictate who she was. Female or no, she was just as good as any other King's Heir in any of the other Kingdoms, and definitely better than most of the males in the camp she currently called home.

She would never allow the battle she fought to train there to ever have happened in vain. She would always remember the conversations her parents had behind closed doors, late at night when they thought she was asleep, about her going off to train. Her father, a warrior himself, was surprisingly more hesitant, and of all people it was her mother who finally convinced him to let her go.

She remembered seeing her father's tattoos growing up, laced around his sword arm, his strong, warrior hands that held her so gently even when there was so much blood on his hands.

She wanted that. For him. For herself.

And she would show them she could be just as good - if not better- the anyone else. She would be a warrior, female or not, the prick of a General in front of her was one of the greatest opponents to her progression.

After training with him ever since she could hold a blade, Renya had always been able to keep up with Thressen, yet he still would not allow her to take the Passage. And she knew, deep down, that it was her father who pulled held tight to that leash. She adored him- truly she did - but even at her age of maturity, he still treated her like she was a child back home, running through the palace.

And now her father and mother both stood on the outside of the training circle, watching her train as if to assess whether or not sending her to the camp was a valid use of time and resources.

And the arrogant male in front of her dared to call her out in front of them.

The rage within Renya grew at his taunt, and she readied herself into an offensive stance as her grey eyes- her mother's eyes- trained on him, and she dashed. Not at him, but to his side, sliding into the mud beyond him at break-neck speed, swinging the flat of her blade against the backs of his knees, knocking him off balance as she sprung to her feet. Bringing her leg around to the side of his head with a roundhouse kick, she sent him sprawling to the ground.

Thressan had allowed himself to grow smug at Renya's reaction, and in that smugness, he had also underestimated her skills, and she knew he let his guard down. Only when he was flat on his back, blinking at the sky in surprise, did he realize the same.

She stood over him with the tip of her blade just piercing the skin under his chin, her eyes wide and her chest heaving with adrenaline. A trickle of blood welling up where the the point her blade met his skin, but he lay there, too surprised to do a gods-damned thing about it.

"Do not call me Princess!" she growled through clenched teeth, and for a moment, she realized all it would take would be one graceful slice to spill his life's blood onto the mud.

Renya hesitated, only for a moment, remembering her place- who she was and who was watching- and instead decided to channel her anger by taking the blade and tossing it across the ring, storming towards her cabin without another look back.

*****

I hope you enjoyed this little preview of my new story! Be sure to add THE HEIR AND THE GENERAL to your reading list to stay up to date, and don't forget to enter my giveaway, where I'll dedicate a chapter in any of my stories to three lucky winners!

Thanks so much for reading!

-MB

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION: druidrose will giveaway a dedication on a chapter in any of her stories to three lucky winners!

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