TRAINING

"Just a little more," Lia said as she brought the scissors in her right hand closer to the sleeping Aramith's face. Aramith groaned and muttered something, and she froze in her act. She waited to be sure he was only sleeping, then continued what she was doing. Once again, he shifted, but this time he opened his eyes to find Lia sitting on him with scissors in one hand.

"What are you doing?" He asked, and that was when he looked into her other hand and saw something black. It only took him a second to notice those to be hair strands from himself.

"Just relax, and I'll finish this quickly," Lia said and attacked his hair with the scissors. Aramith dodged the first but didn't move the second time. A dark aura covered his hair, and Lia came in fast with the scissors again, but instead of cutting any hair, the scissors broke when she tried to cut. "What?" Aramith used Lia's confusion at that moment to slip from under her. Now, this was what made him wonder. How did he get over there on that bed? This was still Mozrael's room they were in, and the sun was up. What was going on? He looked around and spotted her desk, where he'd sat the previous night, but there was a more pressing matter at the moment.

"What do you want with my hair?" Lia took a small bag she had and put the hair strands she'd collected into it. "Don't think I'm giving up just yet. I'll get what I want, just wait and see."

That was when Mozrael woke up to Aramith's surprise. He hadn't noticed her sleeping earlier. Who would, when the first thing that happens when you wake up is an assault by your unpredictable sister? She rubbed her eyes and then looked at the two faces staring at her. "Good morning," she greeted. Aramith replied to her then turned his attention back to Lia. "Wait, did you move me to the bed just to cut my hair?" "What do you take me for? No way I'll move you like that with my energy." Okay, that sounded suspicious.

"Mom," Mozrael blurted out of the blue. Aramith and Lia looked at her oddly. " Are you...awake?" Lia asked slowly as if Mozrael were someone who would find it hard to understand words. Mozrael looked at her then back at Aramith. "I mean you fell asleep earlier and mom came in and took you to the bed," she explained. Oh, so that's what happened, he thought.

"Did something happen?" Mozrael asked since she has just woken up. Aramith shook his head and got off the bed. He looked at Mozrael, then at Lia. "I'm going to take a bath and brush my teeth. I'll see you all at breakfast." "Heh?" Lia blurted. "What? I'm going to my place to bathe, is that so difficult to understand?" "Why can't you bathe here? Hey, it's been a long time since we all bathed together. Let's-" "Just stop it, I'm leaving." Aramith raised a palm to her face and then left. Lia watched him leave, then pouted. "What's wrong with him? He's been keeping his distance a lot these days. What's wrong with us all taking a bath? Did I do something wrong to make him angry at me again?" She turned to Mozrael "I...don't think that's the problem." "What? Then what should I have done? Maybe you should have been the one to ask him instead, I think he would have listened to you if you said we should all bath and play like we used to don't you think?" "I..."

Aramith walked fast to his room, making sure Lia wasn't following him. When he entered his room, he locked the door and locked it again with his power to be sure Lia can't break in if she wanted to.

He went straight into the bathroom and sunk into a large hot water tub. He reached up and touched the part of his forehead where Lia had struck the day before. "Seriously, what's it with her?" he thought out loud. "Always thinking of the worst things possible in any normal situation. Taking a bath? I can't believe her mind is still so immature." He stayed there a while, thinking about what the day would be like. Yesterday, he ended up being treated as a girl and had to go along with it. It would have been a major problem if she exposed him when they were outside that he was the known Prince, that would complicate things for him. What kind of impression would the people have of him after seeing him crossdressing like that? He decided to not think much of it. Lia's just immature and will grow soon. He just had to cope with it for a little while longer.

He came out of the bath feeling refreshed, combed his hair a little, then dressed up in white trousers, a white undershirt, and an elaborately designed six-buttoned black tailcoat over a black vest. He then put on white gloves, and black shoes then headed out. He went to the dining room but found Lia and Mozrael the only ones at the table already eating. Mozrael wore a green dress and Lia as usual wore a white one. He sat next to Mozrael and asked "Where's mom and dad?" "They got caught up in a lot of tasks, they told us to go have breakfast without them while they dealt with some things." "I see, but how about Gebreth?" "He said we should go to Jareth and practice our weapons." "Okay," he replied and started to eat. He'd barely finished eating when Lia got up and left the room. Aramith found it odd that she'd leave without saying anything to him, or Mozrael. Before he knew what he was doing, he was following her out. "Lia!" he called after her, almost running into a maid who was carrying some food trays. "Sorry," he told her, but she was rather apologizing so much to him, feeling that she was the one in the wrong. Weird how these kid royals are so humble, she thought.

Aramith caught up to her, but she didn't even acknowledge him. He tapped her on the shoulder, but she didn't respond, even when he spoke to her as they walked. A thought recurred and he looked back, noticing that Mozrael wasn't following them. "Go on ahead, Lia I have to check something quickly. I'll catch up with you at the training place," he told her, and run back towards the dining room. When he got there, he saw that Mozrael wasn't there as he'd expected, but he didn't meet her on the way there either. He asked one of the maids who were gathering the dishes about her whereabouts. She only said she remembered seeing Mozrael leaving the room, but knew not where she went. He left the room, then headed in the opposite direction.

Lia walked without looking around at all like she usually did, admiring the place. She had a displeased look on her face as she headed to where they trained. She arrived at the door, entering without knocking. There was a counter there with a grown, bearded man polishing a sword. He looked at Lia and smiled.

"Quite early to be seeing you here Lia," he said, then noticed something was wrong with her mood. "Did something happen to you? Where's Mozrael and Aramith?" he asked, also noticing that she wasn't in the company of her two favorite people which was odd. Lia didn't look at him at all.

"Ge-Master Gebreth said I should come here to train," she told him. He tutted, "He never told me of anything as such. You weren't permitted to come train here," he said. Lia finally raised her head to him. "He told me himself, I met him and he said I should come to train."

He shook his head. "Well, too bad Lia. You can go find him and tell him I, Jareth the keeper here won't give Lia access to train because she has no permission to train," he said "But he told me to come here," she protested. "Listen, Lia. You're not in your usual mood. I can tell this has something to do with Aramith or Mozrael. Tell me, did something happen between you guys?"

"It doesn't concern you," she looked away. "Okay then, but I'm not allowing you to go in to train without you telling me why you're unhappy with them, and you need to reconcile before I allow you to go in." "But you can't do that. I'm a princess and you're bullying me. I'll tell my father." she threatened. Jareth chuckled. "I sure would like to see you do that, princess. Tell your father I won't let you train because you have a grudge against your brother and sister." Lia argued back, but as she was doing so, she failed to notice the door behind her had been opened and that two people had entered.

"What's wrong, Lia?" "Jareth won't let me in!" She replied before realizing who it as she'd just spoken to. She looked at Aramith standing to her side with Mozrael behind him and frowned at him. "Is something the matter, Lia?" he asked. "Hmpf!" she pouted and folded her arms across her chest, and looked away from him.

Why is she always so difficult to deal with? He thought. "Well, what brings you here, Aramith and Mozrael?" Jareth asked with a smile. "Oh right, Master Gebreth told us to come here this morning to train, is that okay with you?" "Why not? You can go right in, you three, he waved them in. Aramith thanked him, and lead the way "Lia?" "I'll go in when I want to, not like you care or anything." she said bitterly. "Oh okay," he said and headed for the door to the left of the room which lead to the training room. Jareth followed after Aramith and Mozrael after they'd gone inside. once inside, he called Aramith aside.

Once out of earshot, he turned so his back was to Mozrael and flicked his finger at his forehead' It hit Aramith hard and he was about to shout in pain, but held his tongue. "Why did you hit me?"

"You may be smart, good with skills and greatly gifted and talented, but you're really dumb at reading people sometimes," he said sternly. "huh?" "Why do you think Lia's gloomy?" he asked. "How am I supposed to know, she always makes it hard to understand things. She hasn't even spoken to me since- oww" he held back again as Jareth flicked his forehead again.

"When you entered with Mozrael, she looked at the two of you, but only frowned at you specifically. She seems to be annoyed at you. I have no idea what you did to make her so unhappy, but if you don't make her go back to normal, she'll do something terrible, believe me you don't want an angry sister for even five minutes." He left after saying that without letting Aramith say anything.