XIII. Never

The morning was as beautiful to walk in as it was to wake up. The sun was warmer and Nä-ræl was grateful for it because it was winter and the weather had been extremely cold.

Nä-ræl trudged on in silence all by herself. A few guards had offered to accompany her but she politely declined as she didn't want them to interfere in whatever she had to do. A few guards, servants and chambermaids also came to remind her that she had a meeting with her parents but she just nodded at then and told them to go in peace.

She was not going to let her parents ruin her plans all because of a stupid meeting they wanted to have with her. She wondered what they wanted to tell her about.

The fact that it was dangerous to be out at night?

She shrugged the thought of and proceeded her journey up the short hill.

On getting to the top, she sighted the captain seated on the grass with Rapha opposite him talking about what she couldn't hear from where she stood.

"Milady," Rapha stood up from the ground and gave a little bow. "A pleasure seeing you, this fine morning." He said.

Nä-ræl nodded before saying. "Yes, my pleasure too."

"Child," captain Œrlan began and Nä-ræl groaned in annoyance. It seemed like the captain had taken a liken to calling her a child while she felt like she was far from it.

"I'm no child," She said glaring at him but captain Œrlan decided to ignore her and proceeded to speak.

"I heard you had a meeting with your mother and father, how did it go?" The captain ask.

Nä-ræl shrugged, "We shall speak about that matter later."

"Very well," the captain said then turned to Rapha. "Shall we?"

"We shall," The humble servant said, retrieving his sword from the leather sheath.

The two walked down to the foot of the small hill and took their stance opposite each other while putting on their fiercest looks.

Nä-ræl on the other hand, sat at the top of the hill to view the fight properly and to prevent her self from being injured.

Captain Œrlan, placed his right foot a little way off the left one and bent his legs at the knees, balancing himself to enable him to have a good start at the fight while holding his sword up vertically.

Rapha on the other hand did no such thing but held the sword which he had inherited from his supposed father in front of him in a diagonal position. The sharp edge of the sword facing the upward side, while the handle which he held in his hand was facing down.

With a loud cry, Captain Œrlan charged forward and struck with his sword. Rapha used the advantage of his position to easily block the incoming attack with his sword while jabbing the captain in the groin to weaken him.

However, it was as if captain Œrlan was immune to that sort of pain as he ignored it and used his own sword to pull down Rapha's sword.

After a tough bend, Rapha was finally able to free his sword from beneath the captain's. He struck from the top but Œrlan didn't have to do much as he expected it. Œrlan bent low, ducking the fatal blow and swung his sword to the right.

The captain's sword almost met Rapha's side but luckily for the servant, he turned around just in time and his sword struck his opponents sword. There was a spark that almost blinded Nä-ræl's eye as a result of metal clashing with metal.

Rapha lifted his sword and hacked it down that Nä-ræl feared for the captain safety but Œrlan simply moved to the left and used his knee to jab Rapha, sending him to the ground.

Rapha, who wasn't ready to fall at the feet of any man rolled to the left as the captain was about holding his sword to his neck. He stood up on his feets and balanced well watching the captain's every move.

Seeing that the captain did nothing but watch him and prepare for his next attack, with a loud cry Rapha ran forward and jumped, sending the captain to the ground.

Œrlan didn't have to do so much, he just rolled over changing positions with Rapha, so that Rapha was beneath him and he was above. He brought his sword close to Rapha's neck and whispered the one word that every fighter hated to hear, "Yield,"

"Never," Rapha whispered back.

Nä-ræl watched all these with utmost attention and interest. Her heart beating every now and then, fearing that one of them would make a mistake and slice the others head of.

She almost let out a high pitched scream when Rapha plunged his sword in the captain's side but was grateful and at ease when she saw that the sword missed.

Rapha tried rolling the captain over so that he'd take the captain's position over him but to no avail.

"Yield," the captain whispered again.

"Never," Rapha, upon seeing that the captain would not let down his guard even once, he struggled under the grip of the captain and finally he was able to push the captain off him.

He plunged his sword forward, towards the captain as far as he could but was met with nothing but air as the captain was so fast. He looked round about him, upon not seeing the captain, he turned to his back and was sent flying to the ground by a kick in his groin.

Captain Œrlan placed a foot on his groin but didn't press down, instead he leaned forward and whispered that word again while Rapha groaned in severe pain.

"Yield,"

Although he was in severe pain and the sheer desperation to surrender was there, he whispered the word that he knew the captain would hate to hear.

"Never,"

The captain dropped his sword, letting it clatter to the ground. He removed his foot from the groin area of Rapha's body and stretched out a hand to help Rapha up.

Rapha however didn't take the hand of the captain so as not to appear weak but instead rolled over and stood up slowly still clutching his groin.

Seeing that the princess was watching him, he retracted his hand and faced the captain.

"Come here boy," the captain said, beckoning to Rapha who was still in pain even though he tried his best to mask it under a tough expression.

Rapha came forward, and the captain stretched forth his hands and inspected Rapha's eye. He muttered something so low under his breath that even Rapha who stood at his front couldn't hear him while Nä-ræl watched with interest.

"Your supposed parent is Sir Redmonë and his wife?" The captain asked him.

"Yes, captain."

"Pray tell me why you aren't in the army?"

"It was Lady Annabeth's wish that I shouldn't join, after sir Redmonë passed away."

The captain nodded and took Rapha's hand in his, using his index finger to trace over the lines of Rapha's palm. "Wait a minute," Œrlan muttered under his breath scrunitizing the plan in his hand very well. He looked up at Rapha in the eye and used two fingers to widen Rapha's eye as if Rapha was an interesting specimen.

"Strange," the captain muttered picking up his sword and sheathing it while deep in thoughts. "It was a nice duel by the way, I'll see you in a little while, I have to do some research." The captain called out to Rapha, whispering the last words that Rapha had a hard time hearing it.

Nä-ræl who had been watching the two with keen interest stood up from her position on the ground and dusted the behind of her dress.

She was overjoyed to see that during the course of the duel, there was no blood spilt. She walked further down to Rapha who was sheathing his sword and stood behind him nervously twirling with her fingers.

"Milady," Rapha gasped as he turned to face Nä-ræl. Their faces were inches close that once move forward, their lips would be touching each other's. His breath fanned her flaming cheeks while she looked down to hide her blush.

Rapha, being aware of the proximity between them took two steps backwards before clearing his throat awkwardly much to Nä-ræl's dismay.