Stormsidi, Chapter Three (?)

The next day, the girl got out of bed on her own and walked to the window. There, she pulled the window open and closed her eyes, letting the morning dew air rush into the room, chilling it. Her fingers rolled and tapped along the windowsill, squeezing the rough stone. The air smelled salty. She pulled herself into the windowsill, barely large enough for her to sit in, and took the chance to have a look around while no one was watching.

There wasn't much to see- a small, grassy yard below, walled in. Beyond the walls was the ocean, rolling off into the distance. Other windows on the wall. A mossy patch covered the whole wall next to her. She gripped it and tugged it gently. It was very firm. She struggled to pull off a small portion of it, and held the grassy patch in her hand.

"Thinking of climbing out? I wouldn't do that." Her hand clutched the grass tightly and she pressed herself into the wall to make herself as small as possible in response to being startled. King was in the room, but she hadn't heard him open the door or walk in. "The lesser reason being that that courtyard doesn't go anywhere free. You're in the most heavily secured portion of this safecastle."

The girl looked to confirm with her own eyes. There were no doors leading out. Into the castle, yes. A small pool that didn't go anywhere.

"The greater reason being you'd fall and hurt yourself. You're still weak. You might always be weak." King walked up to the girl and took her arm, rubbing the skin. The girl's eyes followed his carefully, curiously, allowing him to touch her. "They're soft. Untrained. It's as if you've never used them, but still they grew. Just there for appearances. Very strange." The King's eyes met hers, and she felt studied. He was searching for answers in her face, a kindling of recognition of what he was saying. She had none to give.

He turned away, looking out the window. The girl could feel an air of unsatisfaction from him. "We're going to start you on exercises. Light ones. See if we can't build you up a little. Do you feel like you can handle it?"

The girl looked thoughtful, and looked at her arms. He was right, that she felt like a stick. She hadn't thought to question it. In her mind, she was still a ghost, just moving out of the fog into the world. So what he was really asking, she thought, was would she like to be real? Solid? Her fingers tingled, and she wiggled them, opening and closing her hands. She turned to King's face and nodded with a firm, sincere expression.

"Good." He gestured towards the bed, where new clothes were folded and waiting for her. "I knew you'd say so. Put those on." The girl clasped her hands together and opened her mouth wide in pleased surprised, and hopped off the windowsill, tumbling to the floor. The King moved to help her up, but before he could reach her, the girl was back on her feet and limping to the outfit, folding it out.

It was white, with royal purple trim, snug and short. "This will be your training outfit. It should fit you qui-" King coughed and turned away as the girl peeled off her nightgown and began to try out the outfit. "fit you quite nicely." He finished, looking out the window as if there was something fascinating on the horizon. A hand gently touched his elbow, and he turned to look at the girl. "Ah.. it does. Treat this uniform well. It's the official training uniform of.. well, it's important." He looked at the bed, then at the girl's bare feet. "Why didn't you put the shoes on?"

The girl wiggled her toes, and shrugged with a smile, looking at King's face.

"Well, okay. They'll hurt. If you still don't want to.. well, you'll learn." King said. "Now.. come with me." He walked to the door, and opened it. The girl followed him, and at his gesture peeked her head outside. The hallway outside was curved, such that she couldn't see it's end. A hand on her back pushed her out and she waved her arms wildly, trying to keep her balance. There were guards outside her door, looking at her with amused, curious expressions. She quickly straightened up and pretended nothing was going on.

"At the end of the hallway is a wooden door. Run to it, touch it, and run back here." King said, leaning on the door. "Go."

She ran. Her bare feet hurt as they hit the stone but she didn't care that much. She'd spent the last few days hurting much worse. There were doors all along the hallway, and she wondered in her head what was behind them. There was a burning sensation creeping into her shins and thighs. Her chest felt thin and the air was hard to suck in. It only took a minute to reach the end of the hallway, but she already needed to stop at the door and rest her head against it. The two guards nearby looked at her curiously.

"Ey, you the prisoner?" One of them asked. He was wearing a pointy hat but he had nice brown eyes, she noticed.

"Frederick!" The other guard said, making a cutting motion across his throat. "She's the GUEST. Of the Princess."

"Er, right. Sorry. You're not a prisoner. Can't let you past this door though." Frederick said, tapping the door with the bottom of the polearm he was holding.

She shook her head and stuck a thumb in the athletic shorts she was wearing, pulling them out and letting them make an audible snap sound as they slapped back against her skin.

"Oh." Frederick said. "You're training. Right." He looked to his companion, who shrugged. "You know, I remember that outfit. I think the Princess wore it when she was being trained."

She widened her eyes and looked down at the outfit, checking it out again.

"Didn't know that, huh? Eh.. maybe I should shut up."

"Yeah, maybe." His partner grumbled.

"Well, you should start running back. Her mentor's pretty hard on her, I doubt he'll go easy on you." She nodded and began to run back, turning to wave at them. Frederick waved an arm back. "Good luck!" He shouted.

"You shouldn't encourage her like that." His partner said.

"Why not? She seems nice."

"Yeah. Seems."

Frederick rolled his eyes.


She had to walk back for the final few meters, as her legs simply hurt too much. She flopped against the wall near King.

"Done already? That's.. well, that's to be expected. I thought you might be capable of more, considering.. well, it's fine. A good warm-up."

The girl looked up at him with a nervous, somewhat horrified expression as he grinned back down at her.


He made her do fifty push-ups in sets of ten. Inbetween, he had her do crunches, jumping jacks, and run the door again. It only took an hour, but by the time he was finished she practically collapsed into his arms and let him drag her to the bed to lay her down. He called for the maid, who then helped her out of her clothes and into the bath- giving her privacy, of course, until the girl walked out covered in suds and pointed to her back and then to the maid, who was cleaning up the bed. The maid, flustered and embarassed, agreed to help her wash up.

"Well, my name is Rose." The young maid said as she scrubbed the girl's back as she sat at the edge of the bath. "Guess you don't have a name yet, but I'm sure we'll figure something out with that. I guess you only know me from my cleaning stuff up, but that's really not all I do. I've actually gone through all the training the Princess' servant has to offer already.. well, the basics, at least. Supposedly she's getting even more intense training. At one point I was doing 12-hour training. Can't imagine how much worse it has to be for her. She still has time for her duties, though, you know? Anyways, I went through it because I'm in line to become a handmaiden. My mother was one, and everyone thinks I will be one too. It'd be a good life, I think?"

Rose was very, very talkative. From her, the girl learned that the Princess enjoyed swimming, her manservant was rumored to have been a former General of the former King, and that the King had died two years hence. When Rose found out from the girl's clueless reactions that the girl didn't know anything about the Stormsidi or its history, she clammed up and muttered to herself that someone else would have to explain THOSE basics to her.

She replaced the bandages when the girl was dried off. It was still a painful process, and the girl almost didn't want to see what was underneath. There were scars. She had been pretty badly hurt. Her upper right arm had been burned. Her abdomen had a nasty scar on the left side. There was still blood visible on both thighs. And she almost blacked out when the maid touched the neck bandages. She ended up quietly whimpering as the maid gingerly peeled them off and replaced them. The maid whispered softly to her. "It'll be okay, just close your eyes and think happy thoughts. Good, warm food. You can go back to bed after this. It'll be comfortable and soft. Won't that be nice?" It didn't help. She thought of eggs.

She thought of warm beds. She could only imagine the bed waiting for in the next room. When she tried to think harder, she could only feel a deep, cold fog, embracing her, and she shivered. Rose asked her if something was wrong, but how could she respond? She stared at the water in the tub. It looked murky and foggy. She thought of beds, and she could feel a cold bed against her. A rainy day, the rain blowing in through the window. A sense of loss. A feeling of quiet rage. She could see something in the water. A face. Was it hers? It was silent. Rose was speaking, but she heard nothing. It was a cold face, with grey eyes and a sad expression. Her face. She toppled into the water facefirst, staring at the bottom of the tub. Her eyes burned.

She could feel herself being dragged out of the tub. She was breathing, and after a minute, she was being dried off and pulled into the bed. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and waited. A cold fog. Someone talking. Pushed too hard. Had to be done. Need to be strong. She pushed through the fog and opened her eyes. King was beside her bed. He gently touched her shoulder. She nodded at him, and did her best to smile. She wished she could tell him what she saw in her head. It felt like he could fix it, if she told him. He had that kind of presence.

But she couldn't. So she just laid in bed, and slept.