Apparently, in the kingdom of Alynthi, it was normal to send women off to men they have never met before. Father is perfectly fine with sending Ali and me to the capital to court the 'prince'. He has never done anything for our kingdom nor will he ever. He is the most spoiled child in all of Alynthi and today the ladies from my village will be his source of entertainment.

"Father, Ali has a much better chance of winning the Prince's heart than I ever will. She is much prettier than me and has so many more talents." I pleaded, however, I knew nothing would change his mind.

"Aloia, do not make me repeat myself. I will not let you stay at home when the prince of our kingdom has requested your presence as well as Ali's" said my father as he filled out the paperwork for his shop. Although we do not make a fortune from our father's woodshop, we get by.

"Furthermore, do not say that you do not have any talent that might catch the prince's eye. I have seen you playing the fortepiano recently why you refuse to play in public is beyond me. Now be leave child I have work to do, busy yourself with preparing for tomorrow night." I stormed off, furious I did not get my way.

How could he not understand why I do not play the piano in public? Has he forgotten all about mother? About how she taught Ali and me how to play? Although Ali would rather sew as a child, I fell in love with the music I could make with my fingertips. After mother died, I refused to play for weeks and when I finally did sit down to play I only pressed a single note before tears started streaming down my face. I wept all night by the piano, but of course, Ali and Father refused to acknowledge it.

Thankfully, father does not know of my other talents or he would have dropped dead on the spot. If he would know that I was sneaking out at night, into the woods and training with arrows, daggers, and swords, I would be disowned. I could never tell father that I wanted to be in the militia for the upcoming war. I knew he would not understand what it meant to prove yourself. I realized midnight was approaching and went to my room to prepare for tonight.

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I waited an hour after the house grew quiet to make sure I was not going to wake anyone unwanted up. I quickly changed into my black attire, a pair of black trousers I had stolen from my father and a black undershirt. Although attire is big on me, I would rather be dressed as a man if I were to run into anyone in the middle of the forest at midnight.

I slowly opened the window from my room, careful not to make the hinges creak, threw my bag over my shoulder, and slowly climbed down the house. I had to create indents in the stone to make it easier to climb down. I scaled down the wall easily from memory and quietly ran into the woods. Although it was dark outside, I had gotten used to it from practice in the woods at night.

I have been doing this since mother died for the past 2 years. She was the one person who understood my longing to prove myself and told me to go after my dreams. When she passed away, sick in bed, a part of me passed away as well. I quickly stopped thinking about mother before tears started and focus on getting to my marked tree.

I had painted three rings on a tree the first night I came out. When I first started training and it took me half a year to finally shoot my arrow inside one of the three rings. Now I hit the center almost every-time. I focus on my sword and dagger more now but, it's hard without a moving target. I took out some arrows and a bow and started shooting at the tree.

I shot a few arrows hitting the middle every time, I was about to take out my sword to start practicing when I heard a tree branch snap behind me.

At first, I thought it was an animal and continued to reach for my sword when I felt something grab me from behind. I quickly thrust my elbow up and bring it down with all my force. I heard the person behind me grunt and fall on the ground. I turned around as fast as I could and got into a fighting stance with my sword.

"Wait, you are a girl?" asks a voice hidden behind a cloak.

"Er-Well I guess there is no hiding it now," I say as I get ready to wield my sword at his head

"I guess I'll just have to kill you, it was nice talking to you."

"Relax," he said calmly and puts a hand up to block my sword.

He tries to get back up but I push away his hand and pointed my sword to his neck. He quickly sat back down.

"I was checking the forest because I heard there were noises here at night. Now that I know it is a little girl I have no problem with you. And even if you were to kill me, I don't think spending life in prison is the best path for you. After all, killing the captain of the prince's guard is a federal offense" he said with a smirk on his face.