‘CRASH!’

“Argh”

I grunt holding in the pain making sure not to let it out so I don’t look weak in front of her but as she held the wooden sword to my neck, I realize that was pointless.

“Stop! Elina takes the win!”

Our teacher tells and Elina smiles and gets off me and offers her hand and I gladly accept it.

“Good match”

“Good match”

I reply to her and her soft smile and green eyes for a moment managed to take away the pain on my back. 

She then turns to her friends and flies to them celebrating another win while I fly to my side and lay down.

“That was bad. How do you plan on proposing to her if you keep on losing to her?”

I look at Aaron as I then undo the buckles on my gambeson.

“Ill just ask her.”

“You know you can’t do that. If your stronger than her only you can propose to her. Its tradition.”

I scoff at him. It’s a stupid tradition. I mean I respect traditions but…

“Don’t you think we are taking traditions too far sometimes?”

I ask Aaron looking at him finally freeing myself from the gambeson. The pain on my back now lessens a bit.

“I don’t think we are taking it far enough. After all its not the weak fairies that protects this forest it’s the…”

“Strong”

We both tell at the same time. We both look at each other for a moment then laugh.

However soon my attention went to her. Elina was getting ready to leave. She is beautiful no doubt and a great fighter but for some reason I had a strong attraction to her.

“Ill be back”

I tell getting up and walking to nearest door and as if he knew it Aaron tells.

“Good luck.”

Thanks.

I enter the tunnel looking around and finally find her.

“Elina”

I shout and her green eyes turn to me. I walk to her quickly and see her full beauty in the sunlight. Her brown hair and white milky skin glowed in the light like the moon, her wings glowed like newly minted silver coins and her smile made from her pink lips made her the embodiment of feminine beauty. Sometimes It was even hard to believe she is the strongest fighter in our year.

“Cedrick, is your back ok?”

She tells sounding genuinely concern. 

“Yes, it is fine.”

I tell despite it still hurts.

“Anyway I wanted to ask, has anyone proposed to you yet?”

“Ahhh”

Suddenly she blushed looking like she is really embarrassed. Her face giving a smile that is fake like she trying to hide something but still it was cute.

“Well around seven guys proposed to me but, they couldn’t beat me so you know.”

“Ah”

That moment everyone words including Aaron comes into my head. Only the strong can marry the strong.

I look away from her eyes and for the first time I see something I never expected to see form her.

“Are those scars?”

Elina looks at the paws of her hands.

“Yeah, I have been training a lot so I got these marks.”

She tells showing me the her hand. Those were the same marks Elite protectors had. Fighters who trained to the point where their hands would be rough and full of scars.

“Anyway I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to practice now.”

“Practice? Don’t you want to celebrate?”

“No, I can’t.”

As she tells that suddenly the smile on her lips goes away. As if there was something bothering her.

“I really don’t have time for that.”

I nod.

“Ok Ill see you in the morning.”

“See you.”

She waves her hand and leaves. I wave back and then look at my hand. It was soft, it didn’t have the same scars as her not even close. I then look at her and again everyone words come into my mind again.

I soon come back to Aaron and look at him as he puts on his gambeson, soon getting ready for his match.

“Aaron, tomorrow onwards can you spar with me.”

He looks at me.

“Why?”

“I need to be stronger than her.”

The next day I wake up early as I can and soon fly to the academy training ground and as I do I find Elina already flying around hitting her targets with her sword avoiding the obstacles.

She was fast, faster than arrow… ah she miss a target. Oh no,

“Elina!”

I shout as I see her falling down. I try to move but before I could she stops her fall and lands safely on the ground and sits down. Sigh, that’s good.

I look at her a little longer but it doesn’t seem like she knows I’m here despite me shouting her name earlier. 

“SHIT!… SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!!!”

She screams hitting the sword on the ground and for the first time in the years I knew her she acted in a way that seem like she was frustrated and unhappy.

I try to walk up to her to check on her but then I feel a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey Cedrick I was looking for you.”

I look back and find Aaron. Then I look back at Elina still kneeling on the ground looking at the target she missed.

“Come on let’s go. It’s not nice to disturb her.”

He tells dragging me and I look back as she still looks at her target she missed. 

Wait, is she crying? I look at her a bit longer but not enough to see if she was actually crying. However soon I stopped thinking about it as my practice started thinking it must be my imagination.

For the next two years I would learn and train pushing my limits. Sometimes I would quit but then I would come back to train again. Sometimes it was frustrating constantly pushing myself but despite that with more and more small wins and more and more small successes I felt like all my efforts was slowly being paid off.

The speed and skills in my flying has gotten better and I have managed to increase my strength which allows me to now carry more bigger swords and wield them easily. My hunting skills have also greatly improved but there was still a question in my mind, Am I strong enough now to beat her?

I can feel a small nervousness in my stomach and beads of sweat running down my cheeks. I put on my gambeson and then as I put on my glove I see the scars on my hand. I feel the rough skin on the paws of my hand as I touch it. The soft feeling has completely gone.

“Good luck”

I look at Aaron and nod.

“Thanks”

I put on my helmet and fly to the arena and as I do I see her score board. 125 – 0, that was her winning streak for all the official fights only.

I hear some fairies wishing me luck but overall, most of them were cheering on for Elina.

I get to the center of the arena and shake her hand.

“Good luck.”

She tells her voice still soft as ever.

“Good luck.”

I reply.

“Fighters get ready.”

Our teacher tells and we both fly up to the air my eyes on her.

She draws her sword which is like a needle while mine was a bigger sword that was fit to kill larger animals. She is definitely going to have the speed and flexibility advantage.

“Get ready.”

In that moment I see her soft green eyes change to that of a focused hunter and her soft smiling lips turn to that of serious warrior.

“Fight!”

Shit! She’s fast. She just flew right at me. Lucky I was able to block…

Shit she is too fast… left right up down back and forth she is going everywhere.

‘CLANG!’

She is pushing me up. I can’t keep up with her speed… wait, I know this move.

I look up and she see her flying at me, dammit!

She is pushing me down I’m going to crash! Wait if I can, got it!

I immediately move my large sword and using the momentum of her push against her I was now on top and using all my weight and speed was pushing her down.

“ARGHHHH!”

‘CRASH!’

“Stop! Cedrick… Cedrick takes the win!”

I look at her and she looks paralyzed. I get off her taking my sword off her and look at her. Her green eyes widen and then looked down and her chest going up and down breathing in fast.

I look back as I see my mostly shocked classmates watch us and many cheer loudly as if they have just won a major war.

I look at Elina and offer my hand.

“Hey good match”

Suddenly Elina gets up and walks over to our teacher.

“I want a rematch with Cedrick”

“Elina the fight is over.”

“I WANT A REMATCH!”

Suddenly the arena goes quite and I see the woman I admired so long, someone I saw who was strong was now crying.

“I WANT A REMACTH PLEASE!”

“Elina I can’t…”

“PLEASE I WANT A REMATCH, I DON’T WANT TO BE SOLD!”

She kneels down breaking into tears and soon our teacher was holding her.

After that all fights were canceled and our class was silent on what happened because she was part of our class and because we all respected her but still, everyone was wondering including me what she meant by selling her?

After the day in our academy was over I head over to the place where I knew she would go to after our classes ended. The training ground.

As I enter the training ground I found her flying again, Her flying was incredible as ever and even faster than she was two years ago.

I fly up close to her much as possible.

“Elina!”

I shout catching her attention and she stops this time and looks at me.

“Can we talk.”

I ask and she nods.

Soon we both were on the ground and I hand over a cup full of honey water from my water pouch. She accepts it and I sit next to her.

“Sorry”

She first speaks.

“Sorry the way I behaved earlier.”

“Its fine.”

I tell and she looks at her cup. She still looks sad and embarrassed so she keeps her eyes away from mine.

“Can you tell me, why did you say that? Why did you say you don’t want to be sold?”

She looks away clearly seem like she didn’t want to talk about it. Shit maybe it was too soon to bring it up.

“I had a sister who used to also be in our academy.”

I look at her while her eyes were on the water in the cup.

“Just like everyone in my family my parents wanted her to be protector too but she wasn’t good. She was always last in class and my parents really hated her but she was really kind.”

She goes silent again for a moment.

“One day she had a fight with a captain son and after that incident my parents sold her off to a slave master.”

My eyes suddenly widens as I look at her. Wait have I heard this story before?

“I beg my parents not to because my sister fought for me and they told me they didn’t sell her because she fought someone they sold her because she was weak and if I didn’t want to be sold off, I shouldn’t be like her.”

In that moment I didn’t know how to react. I mean I was angry but also a bit…

“Wait then all those practices, is it because you didn’t want to be… sold?”

She didn’t reply and was silent and without her saying anything I think I understood her answer.

“Ok. Anyway, changing topics have you accepted anyone’s proposals to you yet?”

She giggles her sad lips for a moment gone.

“No not really. A lot of men proposed to me but beside you no one has beat me so…”

I immediately get up and stand in front of her and reach out my hand to her.

“Ok then. I propose to you, Elina Silverleaf of the silver forest.”

The green in her eyes suddenly got lighter and I see her lips partly open as I recite the proposal.

“I promise to take you as my wife, in both day and night and in both war and peace to protect you from all evil that could harm you…”

I tell and add a line of my own to the proposal.

“Even from your parents. I promise to use my steel to guard you till the end of my life. Do you accept?”

I tell but she remains silent, lips open a bit more but she doesn’t say anything until,

“Are you, serious?”

“Yes, I’m willing to offer a seat under my home to you and you don’t have to be worried about your parents any longer. You can live freely with me, without fear. This I promise.”

I see her look down gently biting her lower lip and then she looks at me. There was small blush in her cheeks with small smile and a tear in her eye.

“Thank you but, I need sometime to think.”

“Ok”

I tell with a small smile and nod.

She soon drinks all of the honey water and then kiss my cheek and flies away.

I look at her hoping she accepts my proposal.