Winterfall

I went down to the kitchen first, as usual, but this time, I sat at the empty table instead of returning to my room. "Princess?" Roland, our chef, asked. "Are you staying for breakfast this time?"

I sighed. "It's time I started to return to normal. Whatever normal may be."

Roland's face lit up with excitement, and I knew he must have missed our conversations. "That's great to hear, Princess. As much as I enjoy talking with Théoden, I would rather have breakfast conversations with you too."

I laughed. "It couldn't have been that bad without me." Roland was among the few in the castle who knew of our relationship and often cooked for us.

"Please, that man has no sweet tooth. And to be honest, I don't know if he has a sense of humor."

"Now come on," Théoden said as he entered the kitchen and kissed my forehead as he took his seat. “I think I have a good sense of humor."

"You may think so," Roland said, causing me to laugh a bit more. He placed a few plates of food in front of the both of us. It was his usual assortment of breakfast foods: eggs, bacon, ham, and all the pastries I could dream of. I immediately grabbed a handful of fluffy, stuffed pastries and started munching on them. "You and your sweet tooth…" Roland teased as he handed me another cookie.

"What?" I asked as I took another bite, causing them to laugh at me. "Let a girl enjoy her sugar."

We ate the rest of the food that Roland served us in silence. Théoden left so he could do more rounds around the city, and I helped Roland out in the kitchen. Once I was done, I went to the library and nestled myself into a dark corner. I began to read one of the many books we found that had information about Marcel. I wasn’t able to learn much more, but it kept me occupied most of the day. With a few snacks and bathroom breaks, it was 8 p.m. before I knew it—when I was supposed to meet Théoden in the training room.

I went back up to my room to grab my bag that I had prepared earlier as there was hope that we would get to spend some time together after training. After I grabbed it I walked my way to our training area.

He was already there, his armor set to the side, leaving him to wear only a tight black shirt and black pants that fit him rather well. "You're not making this easy, are you?" I placed my backpack down and crossed my arms, staring at him.

He arched his eyebrow in curiosity, "What do you…" he paused as he connected the dots. "I see." He said. "Well, remember to focus on your target."

"And who might that be?" I asked, as it was just me and him in the arena.

"Well, me?" He asked.

His request took me aback. "I don't think I am comfortable practicing magic against you." I couldn't bring myself to risk his life in the name of target practice.

Sensing my unease, Théoden sighed. "You can't always hesitate when using magic against another person, you know. But if you'd rather not target me, I can summon my wolves." The spell that Theo utilized to summon them was called Evoke Spiritual Beasts.

"The wolves?" I recalled Théoden's fierce summoned creatures, known for their power and intimidation on the battlefield. Just the thought of them stirred fear within me.

Theoden looked at me with a mixture of disappointment and pride. I could sense he was disappointed due to me not wanting to face my fear. His pride came from the wolves as they had a well-earned reputation for being vicious beasts. Knowing my hesitation, he offered me an ultimatum, “It’s either them or me.”

That gave me two options. Face his nasty wolves or target him directly. I didn’t like either option. His wolves are scary, however, I’d rather face his wolves than risk hurting him.

With a sigh, I gave in. "Fine, summon the wolves."

With a simple gesture of whistling through his fingers, he called out "Ulv," meaning wolf. In an instant, two enormous creatures materialized on either side of me, their massive fangs bared and hungry, oh-so-hungry eyes fixed on me. Fear surged through my veins as the stench of death emanated from their gaping maws. These wolves could easily overpower my tiny frame. His wolves Alpha and Sephora amazed me yet terrified me at the same time.

My body soon began to be overtaken by fear, nearly paralyzing me. "Use that fear," he urged. "Channel the emotion to fight against Alpha and Sephora. But be warned, don't let it take over; they will take advantage of your fear."

Despite knowing what I had to do, I could only focus on the wolves' imposing fangs and the wretched stench of wolf breath. As Alpha and Sephora closed in on me, I struggled to pinpoint any vulnerabilities in them before my fear took control. Théoden commanded them to attack me and jolted me out of my fear, allowing me to regain control over the situation.

Alpha made the first move. Alpha ran towards me, using the weight of his body he lunged himself in the air, and aimed towards my upper body. Compared to Alpha, I felt tiny. His massive frame would put him at almost twice my weight and just over half my height. So, I knew his lunging attack would hurt like hell. Thankfully, I managed to evade his attack by maneuvering a few feet to the right of him and ducking to avoid any slashing with his claws. As I ducked, I noticed a vulnerable spot underneath him. And in my brief training prior to this, I knew that a vulnerable spot meant more damage.

However, before I could fully calculate my next move, Sephora, who was just as equally as large as Alpha lept towards me from the other side. Mimicking Alpha’s attack.

Feeling fear rise within me, I recalled our training sessions where we discovered the impact my emotions had on my spell casting. Harnessing my fear to fuel my attack, I aimed my attack towards the same spot on Sephora that was on Alpha. Using the word "brann", I summoned flames and utilized the spell Ember Essence and used them to attack Sephora, sending her into the air, and with a thud she fell, her body engulfed in flames.

"Good!" Théoden shouted as he dismissed Sephora, and the overwhelming smell of burning flesh filled the air.

With Sephora defeated, Alpha stood behind me, growling menacingly. All I could feel was his hot breath on my back as he prepared to strike. Théoden's voice cut through the tension, reminding me not to let my fear overtake me. "He feeds off fear," Théoden warned, watching me closely as I stood my ground against Alpha.

As Alpha attacked me again, his powerful jaws bit onto my side. I cried out in pain as his fangs tore into my flesh, blood seeping through my clothes. Staring at the wolf that had just wounded me, I was stunned by my inability to evade his ferocious assault after successfully avoiding his first strike.

As Alpha prepared to launch another attack, fear surged through me; remembering my lessons, I used the overwhelming sense of fear to empower my wild magic. I steeled myself and spoke the word "brann" once more.

My attack this time was overly charged. The pain I felt in my side mixed with my overwhelming sensation of fear surging through it, doubling the impact of my spell. Alpha fell to the ground and whined as the flames torched his skin. Just as Theoden dismissed Sephora, he dismissed Alpha before the overwhelming smell of burning flesh took over.

"Great!" Théoden shouted as he walked over to me to check me over. He placed his hand over the area where his wolf attacked me on my side and healed me further.

I breathed as the pain in my side eased, "Those wolves have a nasty bite."

"Why do you think I summoned them to the frontline with me? Shall we call it here?"

"No. I want to know what other types of damage I can do."

He looked at me, surprised, considering I had just taken a nasty bite from Alpha. "Very well. From basic training, you should know that there are numerous damage types, each with its own unique word, so in place of fire, try using the words like lyn for lightning or syre for acidic spells."

I understood what he wanted me to do. He re-summoned the wolves in the arena, allowing me to practice using different types of damage. I managed to fight well against the wolves, dodging most of their attacks and shifting between lighting (Volt Surge), poison (Toxic Mist), and acid (Acidic Surge) attacks. When I was done, I decided I wasn't a massive fan of poison or acid, but the others I was okay with.

After about an hour of practice, he finally stopped summoning the wolves. He could sense I was getting exhausted, as this was First time practicing magic. Unless you count my run in with Marcel as practice, considering that evoked it. The few wolf bites on my arms and side still had a bit of sting to them, even though they were pretty much healed.

"Let's take a rest," He said, sounding as drained as I was.

"But I need to practice," I tried to argue.

He smiled at me and hugged me. "Yes, but we don't have to do everything at once."

I allowed his aura to consume me, soothing any nerves from battling it out with his wolves. As we stood in the dim light, I could feel him tighten his grip around my waist, pulling me as close as possible. He ran his hand through my hair, twirling a bit of it around his fingers, and whispered Mi Amor... almost seductively in my mind. Can I have you tonight?

It had been a while since either of us could enjoy each other’s physical sensations. I knew his desire was profound—I could sense it through our bond—and I knew how he acted the other night. He wanted me, and I knew that he knew I wanted him too. He wanted me in more ways than our dreams could provide. I looked up at him with a smile on my face. "Yes..." I breathed lightly as I kissed his lips.