Maren, Princess Natalia, and little princess were walking together when little princess suddenly said, "Can we go and meet Uncle Jorri, big sister?"
"Not right now. He is still being treated. We can meet him afterwards." Seeing her sad, she said, "Don't worry, Uncle Jorri is strong. He will not give up on us and Mother," Natalia said confidently but still worried.
Little princess nodded and asked something again. "Big sister, can you leave Alfie to me?" she asked while her head was down, not knowing if it was in shame or shyness.
"Hmmm." She looked at her and patted her head, saying, "Are you okay now? Does your head and body feel okay?" she asked concerningly, remembering her crying.
Little princess shook her head and with discomfort said, "Not really, but I have to go," declaring with a firm voice.
Natalia nodded and said, "Fine, you can go, but don't forget to take some guards with you," she reminded her gently. Seeing her little sister vanishing at the end of the hallway in her usual outfit with white shirts strapped in many leathers with tight black legging jeans, high boots, and waist clincher that fixed everything in one place, making her waist curvier.
"Don't worry, she is stronger than you," Maren said in her party dress from last night.
"Huh? What do you mean? I am her big sister. I am stronger than her," Natalia pouted in protest, who was wearing full black tights with a white royal full-sleeve one-piece skirted outfit above it. A layer of open coat tied to each other in golden chains with golden embroidery all over her outfit, black bands tightly wrapped around her wrists, with her short black-brownish hair fluttering due to some air sneaking from somewhere.
"She at least trains her body regularly, not like you who wakes up when the sun is shining brightly," Maren taunted.
"Huh? It's not like you also train. I could see some fat forming in your belly," she poked Maren's little squishy belly.
"You little wench, I am gonna kiillll yoouuuu!" Both girls laughed and fought as they kept moving toward their destination with sweet little Tyra on her shoulders.
Tunngg, Tunnnggg!
In the practice ground in the 4th rock, Alfie was training with his blades, wearing his usual slightly loose blue shirt and black pants with lots of straps flapping in the wind and on his waist, and a very tight black inner full-sleeve outfit. He used various moves on a metal piece, not really training but seemingly taking out his anger on the poor metal dummy.
TANGG, TANNG, TTAANG. He was getting faster and faster. TNG, TNG, TNG, TNG, TNG, TNG. His eyes getting bigger, his hand clutching the weapon in his hand more tightly than ever. TN, TN, TN, TN, TN, TN, TN. Getting faster and faster. N, N, N, N, N, N, N—
"You will break that poor fellow, Alfie," a sweet voice sounded and made Alfie snap out of it. He stopped and looked at the coming sweet little princess.
Alfie, breathing deeper, calmed himself and with a fake smile he said, "Hey there, little princess, you woke up. I thought I will get another holiday if you didn't wake up."
"Heehhhh, sorry to take away your holiday, Alfie." Little princess sat down on the long stairs while she kept her hand on her chin, looking toward Alfie.
"Hehe, no problem." With a big grin, he turned and started beating the poor metal dummy again.
Little princess didn't say anything, just watched him venting anger.
"He hasn't stopped for one bit," a mature old voice sounded. Little princess looked up diagonally and saw a white-haired man with still a strong glint in his eyes, his side band and long ponytail moving in the wind as his sharp beard seemed to be cutting the wind.
"Uncle Remek!" Little princess smiled as she hugged his arm covered in black armor as he sat down beside her.
"Are you okay, little princess?" Uncle Remek asked concerningly.
"Hmm, I am getting fine," she said as she turned her head to look at Alfie.
"Sorry, little princess. Alfie is a bit troublesome and didn't properly protected you this time," Uncle Remek sighed.
Little princess shook her head sweetly and said, "He is doing his best. I can see that. Don't pressure him too much, Uncle," she pouted in anger toward her uncle, who, watching her, smiled awkwardly, thinking, I am the bad guy here?
They sat together for a while, relaxing while the wind brought some warmth and faded away their night's coldness.
"That guy hasn't slept since last night. If you help him a little, then it would be nice. He is not listening to me. Only you could bring him back to reality." As Uncle Remek said this, he patted her head and got up, going to rest for himself.
Hearing this, she felt a little guilty. Shaking her head, she got up and went to the already sweaty Alfie and said, "Hey, hey, stop beating that and come fight me." She decided to save the poor dummy, who was slightly deformed, looking like a poor beaten fellow thanking for the saving grace.
"Hmm, you want to fight? Okay!" Alfie nodded casually—clearly not their first time.
Little princess also nodded as she, from her belt, took out a small-shaped rod which she flicked and converted to a long shiny pointy sword. She put one hand behind, legs apart, slightly got lower, and pointed the pointy sword toward Alfie, who, seeing this, brought his dagger closer to his face and pointed toward little princess.
Both dashed toward each other. With the pointy sword in her hand, she, with her long-legged small body, brought her right arm straight toward Alfie and stretched her right leg as much as she could, making her tight legging stretched as much as possible. With clean posture, she went directly to his neck.
Alfie saw the coming pointy sword, tilted his head a little bit, and using his dagger now at his left hand, grazed the sword with extreme precision, deflecting it. But it bent with the dagger, its end, like a flick, grazed his lower chin area.
SWIIIIINNN! A sharp metal tune sounded in the air as both weapons met.
Not bothering with this, Alfie moved forward. Now in a weird place, little princess's body stretched, saw Alfie coming with his dagger toward her neck in his left hand. Little princess, with no expression, waited for a moment, then suddenly she, on her lower stretched foot of left leg, put some power and made it rise, then left off the pressure on her left feet as she fell down more downward. As she bent her knees of left leg while falling, she fell down and got support from her knee, from which, at the last moment, she tilted her body to the right side. Her right arm still elongated and so was her right leg. She, looking to fall on her right side, saw Alfie's dagger missing, as his arm came into her eye's perspective. She, with her left free hand, grabbed his hand and directed his body toward her bent left feet. To avoid it, Alfie stumbled a little and took more steps away from her body diagonally behind.
Little princess, with her falling body, used her hand, which was already present behind her back. By using momentum, she tilted her body to let the left palm hit the ground properly. Then, with her palm as support and knee on the ground, she brought her elongated right leg inside a little toward her body. And with all three supports, using her palm as a pivot, she let her fall on right side and with her body weight shifted she with her elongated right arm with sword and right leg in 90 degrees made an arc of 120 degree from her left side with her knees still tucked at 90 degrees.
Now in perfect place, her leg and right arm facing Alfie's back, who was just about to turn around, saw little princess's tucked right leg in the air, her small round ass in his field of view. He got distracted for a moment, then—THUUMMPPPP—her leg, like a strong spring, shot towards Alfie and hit him in the chest, which made him fly, making his body curve with force, with dust fuming like a blast of fire at the contact of hitting.
Little princess, now in a running position with her right long leg elongated and her right hand holding the sword on the ground facing the same direction, with her flexibility barely able to save herself from completely lying on the ground, she got up, tapped her clothes for dust, and saw Alfie getting back up with a kick-up and starting to run in speed towards her. Lowering his already small body, Alfie ran in crazy speed making wind pass through without disturbing him, his long clothes' flaps flutter in the air, he, with extreme speed, reached little princess, who was taking a breather. She saw Alfie and used her sword to poke directly to the oncoming Alfie.
Suddenly, Alfie dove from his already lower running posture, missing little princess's sword, and grabbed her feet with momentum and made her fall down sideways. Seeing this she made her sword fall toward the head of Alfie who was holding her feet while she fall herself, her sword making a beautiful arc by slicing air, going toward his head as she fell sideways.
Alfie left her feet and rolled sideways to avoid incoming attack, using his dagger as a deflector he try to deflect her sword again, but still got hit with a scratch on his arm.
Little princess, after falling down, used her legs as a windmill and got up and dashed forward. Alfie also got up.
TANNG, TIIN, TANNG, TIN, TIN, TANNG. Little princess poked at him with her sword with one hand behind her back, while Alfie deflected with his dagger. When Alfie moved forward, little princess, with her steady steps, retreated backward in speed like a rabbit, not giving Alfie room to come closer. She used her footsteps beautifully, keeping Alfie at bay, whose clothes were now getting cut a lot with little princess's flexible sword.
A dance started as little princess, with her long legs and short body, danced forward and backward while Alfie, with his strong balanced body, danced with her. As dust rose from their feet, they got covered in it. Only their shadows of dancing could be seen as voices sounded: TINGG, TNGG, TANNG, TING, TAN, TING, TANG.
This continued for several minutes as they gave themselves distance and again ran toward each other. With the same move, little princess stretched her body and poked at him, but this time she let the sword go, and, like a bullet, it went towards Alfie, who, surprised, was barely able to dodge. But then he saw little princess with her long legs came close toward him, closer, more closer, and with a tackle on his hips, brought him down.
DOOMMMMM! They fell down with little princess's head on his chest. Alfie was raising his hand to grab her head when he heard, "Let's stop, Alfie. As you can see, I am fine. You haven't failed, my big sister and me, we are sorry for this to happen." Little princess said while hugging his waist and putting her head into his chest with her one leg stretched and covering his two legs like a bridge.
Hearing this, Alfie dropped his dagger, and—BANNGGG—he hit his hand on the ground, raising some dust, mixing up with the larger cloud of dust. Then he brought his hand to his head and covered his eyes.
Little princess, tired, fell towards his side, making her leg rest on his leg. She tucked away at his side, resting on the ground, making themselves dirty from dust which was slowly getting cleared by the wind. Fortunately, everyone has gone to work, she thought with them in this weird pose lying on the ground. She smiled sweetly. They stayed like this for some time. When little princess looked up, she was flabbergasted. She saw Alfie sleeping with his mouth open, clearly blacked out.
"Hey, hey, don't sleep here. Wake up." She slapped his face and barely woke him up. While in tiredness, he walked slowly toward his room, which was more like a single room in the 2nd rock where others also lived like a dorm but more clean and co-ed—clearly a place for young working people.
She helped Alfie and said to her guards to rest beneath the structure and guard here. As he went and opened the door, having a key for herself, Alfie, seeing the familiar room, yawned and was about to go to the bed when he was grabbed by the collar by little princess.
"Hey, don't just sleep on the bed with your dirty clothes." She pulled him and sent him to the bathroom with his changing clothes.
Jeezz. She flicked the sweat from her forehead and saw the whole room clean. Rather than that, there was nothing to clean. It was an empty room with a few essentials. She saw Alfie's birthday dress lying like a rag. She sighed and picked it up and brought it to the cupboard to put it safely. When she opened it, she saw not so many simple clothes of Alfie stored inside with a suitcase with some dust on it. She opened it and saw many girly clothes, not her style, but she smiled and touched them sweetly. This was hers. Whenever problems arose and she couldn't stay in the palace, she came here and stayed with him. These were her emergency clothes.
Checking these clothes which were neatly stored, clean and proper, made her heart warm. She checked each of them and cursed, Moooo, big sister, why didn't you give me any normal-looking clothes? She saw many outrageous clothing—of course, arranged by her big sister. She had worn them before, so not much problem, but clearly not used to them. Seeing her clothes in dust from all the fight, she chose one with her eyes closed and closed the cupboard, waiting for Alfie, who was about to sleep while standing when he came from bathroom, in simple pants and shirt, and—POOOFFF—got into the bed and slept like a buffalo.
Little princess smiled, got up, and went to clean herself.
When she wore her outfit and checked in the mirror, she saw herself in quite an extravagant outfit with a skimpy white halter crop top that clung tightly to her small full breasts, the thin crisscross straps at the neck barely containing her cleavage. Below, her ultra-short pants which reached only till her crotch level, her smooth long legs showing their beauty and her toned slim body glimmering in water.
Uwwaaahhhhh!!! She was feeling shy now. She had better options, but realizing her sister's talk from the previous morning made her turn bold. With fidgeting, peeking by opening the door, she saw Alfie sleeping, quite relieved yet annoyed. She looked sideways as if someone was there and slowly came out, covering her body with her hands. She came toward Alfie, who was out cold.
Pheewwww, why am I so tense? she thought. When she saw cuts on his face caused by her sword, she, in a hurry, went to the drawer and brought medicine in it and slowly and calmly put it on Alfie, who subconsciously frowned. Seeing this, little princess smiled.
After finishing it, she put it beside the table. As she was bending and putting down Alfie's hand, which was outstretched below her slim body. The hand suddenly lifted up and came toward her body, making little princess panic.
Uwwwaahhhh! Alfie's hand subconsciously grabbed her waist as she, in a half circle—puffff—got beside him, sleeping in his hold, tucked to his body. They were of similar height, but feeling the touch of Alfie on her back made her squirm as she, like a turtle, snuck at his body. Alfie suddenly, with his other hand, touched the back of her head and said, "It's okay, little princess, you can sleep again," as he patted her, making her relax.
Actually, she was very scared from what had happened. Her mind was still aching a lot. She, with the warmth of Alfie, closed her eyes while saying, "You should have asked properly before throwing me around." She tucked her head on his chest as she smiled and slept peacefully while Alfie breathed a sigh of relief and slept...
END OF CHAPTER
Sometimes the fiercest warriors carry the heaviest guilt, and the strongest comfort comes not from words, but from simply being present. Alfie's relentless strikes against that metal dummy weren't just training—they were prayers of apology, carved into steel.
In moments like these, when two people understand each other's pain without speaking, we see that protection isn't always about standing in front of someone. Sometimes it's about lying beside them in the dust, proving that even when things go wrong, they're not alone.