Chapter Thirty Nine: The Test

All had remained quiet in the kingdom since the princess had returned back to the castle. This is given time for Penny and Ember to finally rest for a short time. They were both mentally and physically exhausted. This sleep, was disturbed however, by a rather loud knock upon the door. Ember was the first to wake, followed By Penny who had a hard time stumbling out of bed, tripping over thick blankets that had been provided within the house when they were gifted it.

Ember, yawning loudly, answered the door to find herself face to face with three guards. " Can I help you? " Ember asked, surprised to see them as the two had done nothing wrong since they had arrived.

" The Princess request your presence in the castle" one guard announced, rather loudly. " How does the Princess even know where we live? " Ember questioned as Penny finally made her way to the door. " The Royal Family makes it a point to know where all their citizens are " the guard answered before clapping his hands together twice, which teleported both Ember and Penny into the courtyard. It was now late in the evening and The two were greeted with Aurora standing in the courtyard, awaiting their arrival. " What do you want? " Ember yawned, as Penny rubbed her eyes, trying her best to fully wake up.

" I wanted to see you both again" Aurora smirked as she raised her hand to dismiss the guards who took their leave immediately.

" I wanted to ask you both something" She grinned even wider as Penny finally managed to to grumble out the words " What? ".

Both were still very tired, and wanted to just go back to bed but Aurora seemed to have no intention of letting the two do so as she approached them, her tone rather high pitch and bubbly. " I wanted to know if you guys wanted to train with me? " Aurora's query was something that both Penny and Ember neither wanted to hear nor wanted to participate in at this time. " Look, we probably would but we were kind of asleep when your guards woke us up. And honestly, we just want to go back to bed" Ember groaned in response to Aurora.

" Oh come on, it'll be fun" Aurora insisted which only made Penny and Ember even more bothered by the fact that they were woken up for this.

" Look, we said no..now please just - " Ember was trying to deny the request again but was stopped when a large blast from some form of green energy crashed into her, sending her flying backwards several feet before crashing on the ground. Penny immediatly rushed to Ember's side to check on her as Aurora lowered her hand, her grin, now seeming more and more evil by the second to Penny.

" I said..I wanted to train" Aurora spoke with a cold tone.

" What the hell is wrong with you?" Penny screamed back at Aurora as she tried to shake Ember, doing anything she could to snap her back into consciousness.

" What happened.." Ember groaned in pain as she began coming back to her senses. Penny, now looked back to Aurora, her eyes burning with rage. She wanted to Crush Aurora and deep down, Penny knew that she easily could. But this was not the time for that. This is what Aurora wanted. To provoke and to antagonize.

" If you are not going to fight me, then I'll have to play with the human" Aurora raised her hand up, as Embers body began being dragged by some invisible force, all the way back to Aurora. Once Ember had reached Aurora, her body floated up to meet Aurora at eye level.

" Do you want to know what I use to do with my dollies? " Aurora smirked as she lifted up her finger.

" STOP! " Penny screamed which caught Aurora's attention. " I'll freaking fight you, just leave her alone" Penny pleaded, knowing that Ember's life depended on the next few seconds.

" Hmm..good" Aurora smiled as she Flicked her wrist which sent Ember flying across the courtyard and crashing into a wall.

" If you want a fight, then that is what you'll get" Penny dissapeared from the courtyard and reappeared behind Aurora, kicking her hard in her spine which sent Aurora crashing into a statue across the courtyard.

Before Aurora could get back to her feet, Penny appeared above the Princess's body, reaching down, grabbing the back of her head, and ramming it as hard as she could into the ground repeatedly. However, instead of this causing a sense of remorse within Aurora, it only made her laugh. Penny, angered by this lack of caring, gripped Aurora's head tightly before throwing her across the otherwise of the courtyard and into a wall.

" Why don't you try and hit me with your magic? Just like you did Ember. A human, who you know is at a disadvantage" Penny hissed at Aurora who was slowly making it back to her feet, even though she was badly hurt, her smile remained. " I just wanted to see what you can do " Aurora laughed as she raised up her hand and fired a large green blast of energy at Penny who easily dodges it.

For whatever amount of training Aurora had, it was nothing on the level of what Penny had put herself through. This would never be a fight that Aurora would win but Penny knew, that the Princess had already known that. " So this is the benefit of a hybrid eh? " Aurora coughed out some blood onto the ground, as she collapsed, her body not being able to take much more of a beating.

Penny, seeing that the battle was over, walked back to Ember, picking her up in her arms and carrying her our of the courtyard and back to their home where Penny would do her best to heal her friend from the injuries caused by Aurora.

" I am so sorry that happened to you. There was no reason for it" Penny apologized to Ember who tried to brush off the attack. " Its fine. I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me" Ember didn't want Penny to worry but the savior seemed to have everything under control. " I remember telling you the same thing, and you never listened to me" Penny laughed as she placed her hand over Ember's injuries and began focusing on the healing energy coursing into Ember.

" I am serious and this is different. I have been in worse states that this in my life. I'll be alright. She got a cheap shot in, but that won't ever happen again" Ember tries to hide the pain from Penny who continued to focus on healing.

" I do want to thank you for standing up for me though. You didn't have to but you did and I thank you for it" Ember said to Penny who finally spoke.

" You would have and have done the same thing for me. We are in this together no matter what, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let someone like her take you away from me" Penny's tone was serious and yet warming. It was something Ember had not seen or heard too often.

" It seems like in this world, a lot of people get lost along the way. But I'll be damned if I lose you Ember. I will never let what has happened to others, happen to you and I. I have to better, I have to be smarter than all of that" Penny said, almost reassuring herself more than Ember.

" And you are..and you will be. Don't worry, I'm fine" Ember tried to push Penny away who refused to back down. " Let me heal you dammit" Penny insisted, as she had almost completed the healing that would be needed for Ember to make a full recovery.

" Why do you think she challenged us like that? " Ember asked, Having not expected something like that from the princess.

" While she knows I'm a hybrid. To be honest, I think she wanted to just see how strong I was. Maybe she's getting ideas for the future. Especially when you consider that Kara was also a hybrid" Penny explained.

" I don't think there was actual bad intentions involved with this. But I think she knew that I would never go at her with full force unless she did something like she did tonight. And she wanted to test me. And commas though she got her ass hand it to her, she also got her answer" Penny, whilst being glad she got to take out some of her aggression on Aurora, also feared that she had played a part in the decision Aurora would make in the future. But, she had to do something. Because there was a chance that she could have killed Ember if she didn't get what she wanted. Aurora was smart but unstable.

" Well at least she knows to not try to challenge us again.." Ember whinces In pain as she tries to roll away but Penny reaches up, placing her hand on Ember's shoulder to hold her in place.

" Yeah. But she will probably try that again at some point. And if I'm not mistaken, she is quite skilled in healing magic so she will be fine probably before she even goes to sleep tonight" Penny knew the royal family line was knowing for two things concerning their magic. The use of fire and their astounding healing abilities. This was part of the reason that most King's and Queen's lived for so long within the kingdom. They were almost completely self-sufficient.

" Well, if she does come at us again, we will be ready " Ember sighs as Penny finally finishes healing all that she can. " You can move Now" Penny releases Ember from her control and Ember immediately can notice a difference.

" You are truly remarkable. Ya know that? " Ember commends Penny who blushes slightly. " Nah..I'm the one with all the survival skills" Penny jokes.

" Well, you catch on pretty quickly so it won't take long before you are better at it than me" Ember thanks Penny again for the healing and decided to take this time to go back to sleep, which Penny decides would be best as well considering that healing magic still takes quite a bit out of her. " Goodnight Ember" Penny whispers as she watches Ember head down the hall and find herself a room, which ends up being across from Penny's room.