The evening soon came around and I had braided my hair, leaving half of it down and I put on my dress with the gold complementing my eyes and a brave face of course. I was not sure how tonight would go down, I just hoped as smoothly as possible. By the time I had arrived, most elves were already there and taking a seat. Some elves banged shoulders with me as I walked past, stupid elves. I sat next to some of the other guards much to my dismay, there were a lot of tables in the hall and it was decorated beautifully. The tablecloth must have been the softest I had ever felt, a lovely beige colour too.
The King entered and we all bowed and sat back down, "thank you all for being here this evening, as you all know my daughter has been away for quite some time" As he spoke the doors opened and revealed Princess Lily, she stepped forward in a blue/silver dress, one that I had never seen before, she must have found it in another city somewhere. You could recognise that golden hair anywhere. Her face was bright, and she looked well and as beautiful as ever, breathtaking some might say.
She took her place by her father, I had hoped she would look over my way which she did but her eyes never lingered on me, it was as though I was not there. I had guessed she had forgotten about the low elf she had been training.
Her father carried on his speech, "she returns from her travels, fighting off those not of our kind who try to infiltrate our cities, whilst away a suitor from the city of Eskao has asked for her hand, he will be arriving in a few days, I suggest we raise a glass, to my daughter, the future Queen of Atheldran". I lowered my head at that but I did not know why, something in my stomach felt uneasy at the thought.
I shook it off and raised my glass, Lily did not show any expression on her face, at least if she felt anything she was very good at hiding it when she wanted to.
The banquet carried on with our starter and then the main course, it was all very tasty, I mostly listened to those around me and their conversations. There was music playing throughout which became louder after we had finished eating, many got up to dance. It was quite the formal occasion which meant a more courtly dance, I stayed seated, looking over at Lily now and again but she was very engrossed in a conversation with her head trainer.
A guard who I recognised approached me, he had curly blonde hair and blue eyes, "good evening" he smiled. "Good evening" I replied. "May I?" he gestured. I nodded my head as he sat down, I didn't want to appear rude, I could use a friend. "Are you enjoying the evening?" he asked. "yes, it has been lovely, are you?", he took a sip out of his drink. "Yes, it is the same every year, I'm Laer by the way", it was nice he had gone out of his way to introduce himself. "I'm Gabi" I replied, giving him a small smile. "Will you be dancing this evening?", I hoped he had not want to dance with me because it would be a flat no. I shook my head. "How do you not have elves queuing down to the market I do not know, your beauty is striking" he was frank.
"My lowness is striking", he flattered me but I was not interested. "ah, that does not matter" he spoke of something he had no clue of because it did matter and it always had, that was how I was defined. I brushed it off, there was no point in arguing with him about it.
"How is training going? Everyone has not stopped going on about how you get to be trained by the Princess" he laughed. It seemed as though he was not one of them. "I'm sure you have heard", I had to be careful what I said, you never know who things could get back to and I was going to be smarter than that. "Well Damion thinks you are a perfect fit, he could not praise you enough, so that's something" he smirked.
I looked over at Damion briefly who was still in conversation with the Princess. "He is too kind, I am enjoying training for what it is worth and I hope to fulfill my role as best I can", I smiled. He placed his hand on my arm and went serious, "I know it has been hard but please if you do need any help, let me know, I know how hard it is to trust" That was kind and I could tell he was being sincere. "Thank you" I was grateful for his kind words.
He got up and walked off, leaving me to my own thoughts, so I decided to go outside and get some fresh air, they had a lovely balcony and garden there. Through the large doors, there was a bench that I went and sat on and gazed up towards the stars. "he seemed rather interested in you", I heard an angelic voice and footsteps creeping closer, but that was not just any voice.
I turned to my side to see Princess Lily looking down at me with a raised eyebrow. Oh how I had missed those golden orbs more than I cared to admit. I was almost shocked to see her there looking at me, I wanted to turn around to check that there wasn't somebody behind me.
"I think he is perhaps the first friend I have made here", I smiled. Lily came and sat down next to me on the bench. "Then why are you out here alone?" she asked. "I might ask you the same thing" I countered her. Lily smirked, her face even more graceful up close. "But I am not alone" she gestured to us being sat together. I remembered what her father had said about her suitor and the uneasy feeling came back, she noticed the change in me. "I am sorry that I could not contact you or tell you when I would be back" she apologised. I held my hand up, "It is none of my business" I stopped her.
She should have been in the banquet not out here with me, under the moonlight she looked radiant. I knew I had put up a wall since she had been gone and she must have sensed it as I was very short with her, her face held confusion. "Did something happen whilst I was away?", I held my hands on my lap tightly, "no it did not, Damion has been very kind", she could not say anymore as her guards called for her, "your highness, your father is looking for you" they urged her.
She took one more look at me and sighed, it made me feel bad that I caused her to sigh, she did not say another word as she got up and walked back in.
I inhaled as she walked past me, her scent was strong tonight or maybe my senses were getting stronger themselves, it was like breathing in the nicest-smelling flower you could have ever come across.
For Lily she did not understand how Gabi was feeling, she knew that she had been gone a while and was angry she could not tell her where she was. It frustrated her more that this girl she barely knew affected her this much, Lily was embarrassed at the announcement of the suitor, there was no way she was going to marry this man, she did not love him nor would she ever. Lily only believed in marrying the one she was mated to and that would be it for life.
On the other hand, Gabi had never thought she would meet the one she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with.
Lily returned back inside after a few more minutes, she had enjoyed the fresh air and was feeling a little better. The night had really started to take a turn and liven up with the more that the elves drank, she would not drink anything tonight.
I scanned the room and found Lily straight away, talking to her father animatedly, it's like they knew I was looking in that direction because her father then looked over at me, muttering something to Lily who then also looked over. Could they be talking about me?
Lily turned her back to Gabi and cut off their eye contact, her father looked angry it was as though they were arguing. Gabi saw Princess Lily storm off not before they made eye contact one last time as she left the room essentially sneaking out of the banquet. The King eyed Gabi from across the room, watching Gabi watch Lily leave, he wanted Lily married.
I left as soon as I could without appearing rude and made my way home, it had been a successful night aside from the obvious, I couldn't help but feel I was being watched as I made my way home, I stepped up the pace to get there quickly, adjusting my body in case I needed to defend myself. No harm came as I stepped inside my house, I looked out the windows but could not see anything.
I was glad that tomorrow would be Sunday, a lovely day to rest.
I spent most of Sunday inside organising, going for a run, and relaxing in my back garden.
I arrived at training early Monday morning expecting Princess Lily to be there, I looked around for her but she was nowhere to be seen just as Damion was not there too. "Care to spar with me?" Laer approached me from behind. I shrugged my shoulders and took one last look around before following him to pick up a sword. We began to spar, I was so focused on making sure I followed everything Lily and Damion had been teaching me that I had not realised the others had stopped to watch us, they could not believe that I was the same girl.
I saw a chance to get one up on Laer so I decided to take it, as he swung for me, I dodged it quickly as I was fast and took the chance to knock his sword out of his hands and kicked it away, he was also shocked as he was a skilled guard.
He was not going to give up as he dodged my swings and gracefully jumped about me. Lily had walked out with Damion to see what was going on, she was immediately worried that this guard had goaded Gabi into fighting and it was all going to end badly, she wanted to intervene but Damion stopped her. "This will be a good test for her" Damion advised. Lily soon recognised the guard to be the elf she saw Gabi talking to last night.
Laer knocked the sword out of my hand and ran straight at me to tackle me, I managed to stop him from throwing me to the ground as we were scrapping and pulling at each other's clothes. I tried to trip him up which was not working and even got some jabs in but as he was stronger I would have to work tactfully and hope I could distract him.
He managed to pull one of my hands behind my back and pin it which hurt as I screamed "ahh", the other elves were laughing which angered Lily, she glared at them which caused them to stop very quickly. I used my feet and kicked up at Laer causing him to let go of my arm, he came at me but this time grabbed my shoulders whilst knocking me over as he kicked my feet out from under me simultaneously.
It looked like the fight was over as he pinned me down, he thought he had won but I would not give up. "So how about that date?" he smirked. I leaned up towards him, making out I was going to kiss him which caused him to loosen his grip on me, just as he did I flipped him over so that I was now pinning him down with his hands behind his back as he fell onto his front, "nice try" I couldn't believe I had beat him.