Tristan’s Quarters in the Knight’s Tower

  Tina had been sleeping so good when she rolled onto her back. Her eyes snapped opened. She sucked in a breath as she arched her back. She fought back tears as she rolled on her side and curled up in a ball. Her back didn’t ached as bad as did before she went to sleep, but apparently having any pressure like her weight still bothered her back. She trusted her spirit energy to start healing her back while she slept. She took a deep breath and scooted to the edge the bed. She glanced around the room.

  Tristan was gone.

  Tina frowned before she shrugged and felt cool air on her chest. Maybe it was a good thing he was gone. She was topless. She frowned as she remembered he was been tending to her back.

  Tristan’s absence meant she could leave without him arguing with her about getting to the root of her family problem. She needed to get back home, but a little voice whispered the fact she was in Camelot. The legendary Kingdom where King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table lived. She was highly tempted to search for the Legendary Round Table. Who could say they had seen the table? An old familiar feeling drifted up from her core. The last time she had felt it was years ago when she went to Japan and took part in that Black Tournament. Excitement. A thrill of adventure. She missed the feeling.

  A smirk pulled at her lips. She bounced off the edge and summoned her spirit energy, contracting it to her back. Her back warmed. She stretched, slightly, reaching up, arching her back one way then the other. She let out a sigh as her back didn’t ache. She knew her spirit energy was at work, though she wished she could see how much of it still needed to be healed.

  Tina shook her head. She needed to hurry. She didn’t know how much longer Tristan would be. Tina shrugged down her loose shirt. She had pulled it up over her shoulders when Tristan was washing her back. She spotted her hiking bag at one end of the couch and strolled over it. She bent over and grabbed it in her right hand. She mentally prepared herself and double checked on her spirit energy, contracting it on her back. She hoped she didn’t injury herself more. She swung her bag onto her back. She winced when it made contact with her back. She waited to see if there was any pain. There wasn’t.

  It meant her spirit energy was holding up. She grabbed her sword belt and tied it around her waist. She eyed the quiver. It was nearly empty of arrows. She would have to restock soon on arrows and slipped her quiver into the belt. Her bow lend against the side of the couch and she reached out, grabbing it before she slid it into the quiver.

  Her eyes darted over to the close door. She couldn’t take the hallway down to that large common room she saw the night before. There could knights everywhere and assuming they would have a tight knit bond with each other, they would tell Tristan the moment she left. She glanced at the a pair of French style glass doors where a balcony stood behind it. It meant she would have take the glass doors.

  No risk, no gain, no fun. She told herself as she strolled over to the pair of glass doors. She unlatched one of the doors and pushed it open. She stepped through it and shut it behind her. She crossed the balcony and peered across the courtyard.

  The courtyard was wide and open, reminding her the football field the High School she had attend had in the backyard, minus the turf, of course. Tina was pretty sure the parts of the courtyard that had green was real grass. Except for the backyard of the temple like house Tina lived in with her mom, sister, and grandmother, she didn’t see very much real grass when she went off to college or when she stayed with her ex. The grass had stopped growing in the cities. It had been that way for years. She had noticed it when she went to High school in the nearby large city.

  Her heart squeezed at the thought of him as pain shot through her. She took a shaky breath. She squeezed her eyes shut as she willed back the tears that sprung forward at the thought of the asshole. She opened her eyes and peered at the horizon. She saw the trees of the forest, just outside the town walls. She scanned the walls. She wondered if she could see the men patrolling if she narrowed her gaze. She hummed at that thought and dismissed it. She knew she couldn’t. She blinked, watching people roam about like ants in the walkways of the castle where she could see, trying to directed her thoughts away from Ryan. Even thinking his name hurt her. She needed to address him as something else. Asshole seemed to be a good name for him, considering how he treated her and her family when she was allowed to see them.

  She sighed for what seemed the hundredth time and refocused on her current problem of Familial issues. She still didn’t know if she should seek out her possible older brother. She mused that she could and depending how that interaction went, she could either go through visiting the White Hall Estate or head on home, citing she already met one of them and wasn’t too pleased on how it turned out.

  She directed her gaze over the railing. She frowned. She let out a sigh. She remembered the fact Tristan’s room was on the 17th floor which meant she had to be at least 170 feet off the ground. This was going to be fun. Hopefully, she didn’t break her legs.

  Tina turned and sat on the railing before she swung her legs over it. She placed her heels on the edge of the balcony. She could do this. She won’t get hurt. She gathered more of her spirit energy and stepped forward from the balcony. Air rush around her. Her hair flew up above her head. Her shirt slid up over her stomach. Her heart thundered in her chest.

  Then it was over. Her feet slammed into the ground. Her knees bent in response. Her eyes narrowed as she watched as a small cloud of dust raise up and spread out around her. She bent over her knees. She waited as the energy from the sudden landed spread up then fly back down. She rose up and jumped her height. She landed on her feet again, the energy expanded. She smirked.

  Tina looked around the back area of the Knights’ tower. No body was in sight. However, when she glanced over her shoulder and saw a knight staring at her with an open mouth expression. His eyes widened. She waved at him. He closed his eyes.

  Tina immediately spirited to the left, heading around the tower. She paused, once she reached the bend and peeked into the court yard. Knights roamed. Women in long dresses traveled in groups, their laughter drifted through the air. The style of the dresses reminded Tina of medieval dresses - long, brushing the ground kind of skirts with long sleeves and some of the dresses even dipped in the front, showing off some cleavage, but not a lot. It was more like a tease. It was not like in the Cities where women were encourage to wear little clothing as possible.

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  Men in fancy looking clothes talked to each other in groups, standing straight and almost prideful. They talked to each other with respect and gave respect to the ladies whenever they walked past. Their pants didn’t hang below their butts which was a plus in Tina’s book. She got sick and tired of city men wearing pants so loose on them that a belt wouldn’t help them to keep the pants around their hips that she couldn’t wait to get out of the cities on the weekends.

  Pairs of armor wearing men - Castle Guards, her mind supplied - patrolled in various corridors. The way they acted reminded her of how the police used to act in the old movies whenever they had to control a large crowd of people. The last time she had seen the cops in action, a large crowd of protesters had surrounded the White House and tried to protest the Election of a Anti-United States President a few years ago, but they were all arrested and disappeared into the system. No media reported on what happened, but the rumors that floated out afterwards, told Tina it was nothing good.

  Anyway, it was surreal, seeing women dressed like respectable women and men acting and talking like men. Maybe Tristan was right, in a way. Maybe she was in Camelot. However, it would appear she had ended up in a Renaissance Fair then the Mythical Kingdom.

  She glance over her shoulder. There was no one approaching her that way. Her eyes roamed over the nearby building and saw an open door. She looked at the courtyard before she turned that way. She hurried toward the door and disappeared inside.

  The Inner Wall

  General Genesis marched along the top of the wall. He eyed his troops. While he was thankful the Funeral Ceremony had been pushed back a couple days in the wake of receiving the news of the Pope’s arrival, he was not thankful for the expose stress the waiting period brought. He knew as the next couple days continued his men would experience more and more stress over the situation.

  He frowned as he spotted one of the men standing beside a cannon, more like lending onto the cannon. The red head strolled over to him and saw the rank insignia on his upper left arm, near the curve of his shoulder. He eyed the name on the front of the tunic. Private J. Rogers. That name sparked something in his memory.

  Something about recent event happened in the Rogers household. A memory rush forward. Rogers had, personally, came to him, requesting a week off, stating his wife had been expecting a child, recently gave birth to a healthy son, but the childbirth had left the wife weak and unwell, he had wanted to be there for his wife and son for a week. Genesis had given the private a week off. The private had just returned to active duty three days ago when the news broke of the King’s death. He spoke up, “Private Rogers.”

  Private Rogers jerked away from the cannon. His blue eyes looked widely around before they landed on the General. He snapped to attention, his heels clicked together, his right arm flew up to form a fist over his heart and he called out, “Sir?”

  “How is your wife doing?” Genesis asked. He knew many of his men had families at home and while some of them hadn’t experience the wonders of having a child running around like he hadn’t yet, others were first time fathers like Private Rogers. He watched as Rogers’ face fell.

  “Not good, sir,” Private Rogers confessed, “The healers are trying to help her, but they can’t figure out why she isn’t getting any better.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Genesis replied, “What about your son?”

  “He’s healthy as an ox, and just as strong as one. He will make a fine warrior, one day,” Rogers’ face lit up at the mention of his son, “However, my sister is acting as his wet nurse until my wife is better. Sis has a new born of her own as well so she said it won’t be much trouble to nurse another one for a while.”

  “That’s good to hear about your son, Rogers,” the General agreed. He eyed Rogers’ face and saw the purplish lines under the other man’s eyes. “Go home to your wife, take the rest of the day off. Return to duty the day of the Funeral Ceremony.” Rogers opened his mouth to argue, but Genesis went on, “You came to active duty three days early because you heard the news of King Uther’s passing. Right now, your wife needs you more then we do. You also are no good to me when you are less then at the top of your game, Private.”

  Rogers paused, thinking about what Genesis had said. The private nodded and said, “As you order, General.” He slapped his fist back over his heart then turned, heading to the stairs off the Inner Wall. He disappeared from sight.

  Genesis turned and continued his stroll on the Inner Wall, eying his men as he went past them. A flicker of movement caught his attention. He paused, looking down at Sir Tristan as the Violent Knight started head into the town. He frowned when Reno stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building and approached Tristan, speaking to the knight. Reno’s expression was hard to read until Tristan replied to what Reno had said and his second in command’s expression changed into a furious one. That caused Genesis to raise his eyebrows. Reno was not known to have short lease on his temper.

  Reno’s voice reached him, “What is stopping me from telling him that his sister is here in Camelot, instead of on her way to the White Hall Estate, and in your rooms?”

  What the hell was Reno going on about? White Hall Estate? The only one he knew of that should be traveling back home was his sister. He blinked as the information sunk in. His sister was in Camelot? Genesis frowned, looking up at the horizon, in the direction where he knew the White Hall Estate stood. He knew Reno wasn’t talking about Natalie. Natalie would have already tracked him down and demanded for him to show her around the castle. However, Natasha and Valentina, on the other hand. His eyes widened as it clicked in his mind. The letter from his grandmother. Victor and Vincent read it. His father had made mention of the letter before they left.

  It said something about his sister, Valentina, coming home from where his mother took her and Natasha. It had been years since he had seen the three of them. They had left a few days before the end of the Era of the Kingless Kingdom for some reason. He didn’t remember what was the reason, assuming he was told it. However, his father wrote to his mother on a weekly basis, if not daily, and she wrote back to him. He knew his sister was skilled in archery, but was learning how to wield a blade. There were other major accomplishments his mother wrote about and his father read out loud to him whenever he received a letter. If Reno said was true, Valentina was here in Camelot. His heart skipped a beat.

  Thinking, Genesis watched as Tristan pushed past Reno and stormed into the courtyard. The general turned and walked over to the other side of the wall, watching Tristan go over to the Knights’ Tower. He reached a decision and hurried away from the wall, heading down the stairs. He pounded down the stairs.

  It had been years since he had last set eyes on his sister. The last he had heard, Valentina was suffering a heartbreak from a relationship ending. The way it was described to his father and to him, Valentina refused to get out of bed for weeks, now. She shouldn’t be here. He remembered an important line from his grandmother’s letter, saying she had hired ninja from the Hidden Bark Village to bring her to the Estate. If it was true, something had happened and Valentina ended up in Camelot instead of the Estate. Perhaps she escaped from the Ninja.

  Genesis’ thoughts jumped around as he tried to figure out the truth of the situation. If Valentina did escape from the Ninja, why would she come to Camelot and not try to return home to their mother? He knew it would be something he would have to figure out. He sighed.

  Genesis reached the courtyard, stepping off the stairs. Reno was at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at him with a surprise expression. The General didn’t say a word to his second as he brushed by him and walked as fast as he could without drawing attention to himself. That was the last thing he needed. Especially, Valentina was here in Camelot. He had to see her for himself.

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