9 Chapter 9

-EDITED-

Ember got up with a groan, she wasn't mentally prepared for this. She really didn't want to deal with someone she was in the middle of a breakdown. She growled silently to herself as she opened the door to reveal her maid. She looked at the maid with a confused face.

"Yes?" Ember asked with one a chocolate brow raised.

"Get ready for training, because you missed it yesterday, the queen has ordered that you train twice today." The maid robotically said and handed her the training clothing. The maid shut the door before Ember could respond and the sound of the other door closing filled her ears.

Ember sighed and looked down at her outfit and undressed from her sleeping clothes and put on the outfit. She walked out and gazed at Atherton for a second before going on her way. She made her out of her room, tying her laces after she left and walked down the meeting area where Wilbur stood with a busted lip and a lightly bruised cheek.

"Follow." He said gruffly, he began walking down the same hall they had yesterday. She felt awkward, and this path wasn't helping. She had physically hurt him and he was still being forced to train her. She almost had the gall to laugh at the situation but she also felt guilty. Sure, maybe he deserved a slap but a straight-up punch wasn't needed on her part.

She tightened her ponytail as her ears twitched, picking up all the noises around her, even if she didn't want to. She sighed lightly as the tension only became worse, she could almost cut through it. She kept her head down and her tail tucked between her legs. If only any grown Nekos could see her now, they'd yell at her.

Nekos were proud creatures, not one to admit they were wrong or to give up on a goal. So seeing one tuck their tail was a sign of defeat or disgrace to them and their family. Ember felt dirty for tucking her tail between her legs but she couldn't keep up the facade of everything was all right. Her dog was a dog-human, the queen would have her head if she wasn't possibly the chosen one and unless she owned up to her part in the prophecy, she would have her head. Ember groaned mentally, everything was just falling apart around her and she couldn't do anything but watch it crumble before her. The semi-stable life she had led up to this point was thrown off balance and there was no chance of her getting it back and she knew that.

But that didn't mean Ember had to accept it. She hated the idea of just laying on her back and waiting for someone to walk up and just kill her. She was never a person for just giving up. Even now, she needed to prove herself, to say she wasn't a scardey-cat. She furrowed her brow as she went into her mouth. She sighed to herself and Wilbur groaned.

"Would you get off your pity pot? You punched me, big deal. I give you props for punching me, but I would never recommend you do it again or else I will let the queen have your head. Prophecy or no prophecy." He growled and Ember squeaked. "So, are you going to disrespect me again?" He snapped.

"N-No." She squeaked. She didn't wish for her head to be laying in front of her father. She shuddered at the idea of her head being off her shoulders. That just introduced a new phobia all on its own. She didn't want this life, she didn't wish for it. But Wilbur was right, she had to get off her pity pot. She couldn't just complain about her situation. She just had to make sure she got out of it alive or putting up the biggest fight she could. She wouldn't wish this fate upon anyone else and she wouldn't let someone take it.

"All right, I'm ready to take my spot in the prophecy," Ember said with determination running through her veins.

Wilbur smirked, "Good, but we need to train you before we bring you to the queen, I doubt you two are good terms, considering the whole, punching me in the face thing." He commented.

"Hehe, yeah, that's one reason we aren't the greatest terms," Ember muttered to herself.

"Huh, what was that?" Wilbur asked. Ember had to give it to Wilbur, if it wasn't for the comments yesterday, she wouldn't know about his rasis. But that just meant he was bottling it up and that it would explode and she knew that it wouldn't be pretty. Either, she would kick his little butt or she would break down. And if she chose the first option, she would lose her head and for the second, her dignity. And she would much rather lose her head than her dignity.

Sure it sounded stupid to anyone else, but if you were a Neko, you could understand the meaning of dignity as you weren't given much of it as they sucked it out of you the minute you're born. Suddenly Wilbur stopped and opened a set of wide doors and she peeked around him and saw her worst nightmare. Work out equipment. She shuddered, she knew he would probably focus on her strengths but as they walked in, she began to notice other things.

The room was a different set of colors, brown and grey, an ugly but complimenting pair. They filled it with workout equipment but also jungle gyms the equivalent of adult playgrounds. She noted all the gymnastic equipment, and she shuddered at the heights of some of it; it looked like she would break her back if she fell and she would if it wasn't for the mats and foam pits. She had to hand it to the builders of the palace; They knew how to make a really nice training room. She looked over to her left and noticed the swimming area and she could already hear the laughing from Wilbur as he saw her pathetic doggy paddle.

Wilbur looked down at Ember, "I look forward to seeing your suffering." He stated.

"Thank you for your honesty." Ember grinned, "So what we starting on first." She asked.

"Well, we're starting off with that." He said and pointed at the rock climbing area and she gulped. Sure it was very stereotypical, but she was terrified of heights, hated them with a burning passion, actually. She looked at him with a begging look.

"Please don't make me start out with that." She pleaded.

"If we're going to train, we got to pinpoint your weaknesses and strengths. If you wanted a walk in the park, then you should have gone with one of the other ones." Wilbur snapped towards the end.

"But I couldn't. You were literally assigned to me." Ember retorted.

"Actually, I got to choose who to work with. When I heard about your spunk, I chose you immediately. Mostly because the other ones wouldn't dare to try to training someone so disobedient." Wilbur admitted.

"Nice cover-up," Ember whispered. What he said wasn't entirely a lie, but it was mostly a lie. She knew a lie when she heard it and he chose her not because the others would not choose her, but because he wanted a challenge. Which were her intentions to seem impossible to deal with? But despite her best attempts, she got one of the worst trainers. Not because he was a bad trainer, looking at his build, he looked like a great one. But because he was impossible to deal with it constantly.

She couldn't stand the idea of dealing with him twice today, she wished she had just kept her mouth and fist to herself and she would have had to only deal with him twice today but she didn't. She sighed to herself as he brought her a pair of shoes.

"So we will start off with rock climbing, to see if cats can really climb." He smirked as he handed her the pair of rock climbing shoes, "So, start climbing." Wilbur smirked.

Ember sighed and took off her shoes and put on the rock climbing ones with a few grumbles here and there of the complaint. She walked up to the wall, and she glared at it with pure hatred. She was thankful no one else was here to see her failure to climb something. She was horrible at climbing anything. But now she was going to climb an entire wall. She grabbed onto the first one and put her foot under it.

"No! Wrong color, what color your hand's touch must be the same color that your feet touch." Wilbur snapped at Ember and she grumbled and put her foot on the correct color. "Great, now lift with your legs, not arms." Ember mocked his words silently as she climbed up the wall. She looked up at the top of the wall with a gulp and faltered on her climbing, her grip loosening and she suddenly felt herself falling but not by much as she just hit the padded floor.