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The more time she spent at the castle, the more she liked it better than the Enchanted Forest. While she missed flitting through the trees and training with the other Sentinels, there was something relaxing about not having anything to do other than collecting information when she had the chance.
For the first time in a very long time, she could sit in the library guiltlessly to bury herself in books, only being pulled out of them when she felt the mark under her arm reacting to Travus. It was the part she hated the most. Not knowing exactly what King Travus was doing.
Finally, she made her way outside to the gardens. She’d made sure to get every window cleaned by the staff that resided in the castle, and the daylight certainly made the exterior look somewhat new. The roses were still caught within layers of snow, but they were unrelenting against the cold in their bloom.
She crouched down to touch their delicate petals and smell them, not to admire, but to confirm if they were even real. They had a scent, but she ended up pushing her nose right into a flower just to be sure.
“Y-your highness, I could…pick that out for you?”
She raised her head to find a staff member, definitely a gardener, looking at her strangely. Of course, he’d be worried. Who stuffs their whole nose into a flower so suddenly? But this was a matter of science, and the common folk wouldn’t understand.
“What rose is this?” she asked as she stood back up. “Why doesn’t it succumb to the cold?”
“It’s a regular rose, but I’m not sure about anything else, your highness,” he said. “There’s something about the mountain that makes it possible.”
“Is it the black iron?”
He shook his head. “I’m not so sure. We’ve only ever used that to make whatever metal is needed.
“Well, if it’s not too strange for you, I’ll be taking some of the snow inside with me later,” she announced. “And the dirt…and maybe a flower or so.”
“I-in your bed chambers?”
“Anywhere I can study it.”
“I’m sure his majesty will allow you one of the many rooms to be made into a study for you,” he said while looking over Aria’s shoulder. “Right, your high…ness?”
She looked behind her to find no one anywhere, but she didn’t entirely disregard the gardener. He had no reasonto lie or pretend, but she was starting to be concerned by Travus’s behavior.
He had no reason to hide around her unless…he suspected her of something.
I ought to be more careful, she reminded herself sternly before shrugging off the gardener's confusion and continuing onward on her walk. The snow was surprisingly not extremely cold on her bare feet like she expected it should be.
As she stopped by a wall to admire another group of flowers on a wall, her stealth hearing catches something whizzing in the air. Right towards her.
Her hand shot out before she’d seen it, grabbing the slim stick before it passed her ear. She clutched it so hard that it snapped under her fingers. When she finally looked at it, she saw the sharpened black point of an arrow.
Though she was aware the shooter had missed on purpose, she still looked toward where it came from with a prominent glare of displeasure.
“I’m not so easily startled, your majesty,” she sneered at Travus who was quite a distance away, standing near the castle. “Try again.”
“Impressive, Princess,” he called out as he handed his arrow to the guard next to him, marching over with anunsettling glint in his eyes. “Nothing really shakes you, does it? All the more possible to push the limit.”
She raised her brows at him with an attitude of challenge, crossing her arms as he loomed over her to cast a long shadow over her. His broad shoulders blocked out the sunlight completely, and she caught herself admiring his strong stature a little too openly. Free of his gauntlets, his arms were bare to the slight chill in the air. His armor only covered his torso, and his pants were dark, form-fitting, and textured.
“You’re not entirely invincible, though,” he said as his fingers reached out for her ear, his thumb swiping at a spot on her lobe that stung. With her quick reflexes, catching his wrist, she twisted his arm behind his back and had him on the ground without really thinking about it. It was so quick that everyone nearby was caught off-guard, even Travus himself.
But he was quicker, rolling over to free himself from her hold, and pinning her to the ground by her wrists with just one hand. The ice felt cold on her back, making her gasp as she writhed to free herself from his grip. One wrist came free, and she jammed the knuckles of her first two fingers against his eyes while swiping his legs out from under him, effectively turning him over to straddle.
The gardeners and guards tried their best to hold in their snickers, but Aria smirked down at him cheekilyas she got up and away, hands poised, and feet planted steadily on the ground. She could feel her nicked ear still bleeding slightly, but the satisfaction of her inflated ego overpowered it.
“You humiliate yourself by underestimating me,again.” she chuckled as Travus rolled into a sitting position to pull himself together. “There’s still space to retain your dignity, your majesty.”
Travus suddenly looked her right in the eye with a maniacal grin that had her flustered and worried.
“I was going easy on you, Princess.”
He tackled her, now knowing her strength, and they went rolling down the snowy slope of the garden towards another bed of roses, grappling all the way down. Every time she would slip out of his grasp, he’d pull her right back in. Every time she had him in her hold, he’d slide right out. It was a constant back and forth even on level ground and all the staff members of the castle snuck from their posts and peeked around walls to witness the commotion.
