Chapter 11: Chapter 9 – A Prince, A Frog, A Damsel

We had a family meeting about what had happened the day before. It was unpleasant to say the least. I am pretty sure that if my mom had not clung onto my father, he would have attempted to kill the Duke, and while I love my new father he was just a low level town's guardsman. He just did not have the oomph to make that happen. We moved onto schools and while we did not say it out loud to spare my father his dignity, we all knew we needed a school's power to block the Duke from coming after us again. I did not know which school the stranger at the end was from but it was obvious that the Duke was afraid of him. Whichever school he was from would probably offer the most protection simply through an intimidation factor.

So my family spent most of the next day repairing the house to the best of our ability waiting for this mysterious man to appear. We started in the kitchen and worked our way towards the door they had smashed open. The list of damages was mild but the bill to actually fix it was not. The kitchen floor now had a noticeable dip whenever you went in or out, there was a fresh coat of paint trying its best to coat over random spell damage, our door now had to have something leaning against it to keep it closed and our table now wobbled. My father had shown up at the end and had taken mother and me to a friends while he did most of the cleanup that night. While father was still helping repair the house, I could see his fists were clenched when he was not using them.

He was mad and while I did not show it, I was as well. I kept replaying what happened over and over trying to come up with alternatives that would have led me to be the victor but sadly my class had too much defense and no offense. I just had to accept this fact.

He did not show until after noon. When he did he stood straight as an arrow as if he was greeting a king and not a town guardsman's family. There was not a wrinkle to be seen, no hair out of place and no dust on his boots. He was perfect as if he just appeared out of an oil painting. "Ah we meet again, as always it is a pleasure…" He bowed to me and my mom and then turned to my father "…and you must be this talented young lady's father. It is nice to finally meet you."

My father puffed up at his words, "Yes that is correct. You must be Gideon. My wife has told me about you saving them. I am very grateful for your help."

"It was nothing. I was just at right place at the right time." He smiled and at that point I took note of how perfect he really was. The guy could have been a model and I briefly wondered what he would look like without a shirt on. I caught myself and cursed puberty and the hormones that were coursing through my body silently. I wonder if the purify spell could remove them. Sigh, probably not, I will just ignore this issue and focus on the adventure in the dungeon. Confident of my new plan, I began to listen to them talk again. "Yes, I came from the Royal academy and if I may say so this lovely bell would be a fine addition to our school. She will raise both the quality of our talent and the beauty of the females that go there." I blushed. Are you kidding me?  I knew this type of man from my friends before and while I was not good with the ladies I have seen these honeyed words used by a friend that went through women at a fast pace. So why did I blush? I was becoming more unhappy the more I heard but my parents were becoming just the opposite. Their smiles became so big I thought they might need a healing spell to remove them later.

I kept repeating "He saved our lives, he saved our lives" in my head and tried to ignore him. I saw him glance at me, "You should not worry my dear. I hear the Duke Oliver is in hiding. You see he has made a lot of enemies with his pastime and some have made moves to collect. He should be tied up for the foreseeable future." Did he think my frown was because of the Duke? And was that his name? Oliver? I think I remember Gideon calling him that yesterday now that I thought about it.

"Umm .. ok. Thank you." What else could I say? Stop flirting with me or I will gouge out your eyes? It seemed too harsh for the person that saved my mother and me. He went on like this for about a half hour and by the end I was not sure if my parents wouldn't just wrap me up to send me to his room. I laughed at the image and all three looked at me like I was insane. Cough, "Yes your school does sound nice." I managed to get out unsure exactly what they were currently talking about.

"So you agree to come to the Royal Academy?" He smiled again and I saw my parents look hopeful as well.

"Uh, Yessss?" I hesitantly said. What else could I do? The other schools were run by insane people and we needed a schools protection. I will just ignore this guy at school.

"Great, I will be looking forward to your debut inside the dungeon." He bowed once more and walked off like he was walking on a runway. He was just too perfect.

After he left, I looked at my parents and said, "Dungeon?" and my mother just lost it. She started laughing at me much to my puzzlement. "What?" I finally asked the confusion apparent in my voice.

My dad was the one that answered because my mother was still laughing, holding her belly as if it was in pain. "It is just that you stared at that young man ever since he got here with … well.. fiery eyes." My father coughed to hide his embarrassment from telling his daughter that she was looking at a boy like he was her favorite dish. "Then to top it off, my daughter, you apparently did not hear anything he said."

Son of a .. it was the hormones. Do they even know what those are? Damn it! My face flushed and I quickly moved on to ask the important questions. Which set my mom off again. She was not helping as my ears turned scarlet from shame. Yes! Shame because there was no way I was embarrassed; no way, not at all. "So, what dungeon? Isn't it too early for us to be put into a dungeon?"

"In two weeks, there will the enrollment for people of lesser means. They have designed a course through a low-level dungeon and assigned everybody to teams. Each person will be judged on how they act within a team and how they do personally. The top thirty children will be admitted." My dad smiled at me, mirth dancing in his eyes. It was not that funny. I turned my head away and pouted.

It was not until I sat on the cart from the farmer that we had hitched a ride with, did I really get a glimpse into how much this world relied on magic. The cart was pulled by a six-legged lizard the size of a horse. Its talons were big enough to cut my little body in half. Even with that it was fastened to the cart with only flimsy looking leather straps. With just a look from the farmer, the amazing beast let out a snort and began its journey. No reins needed. No whip. No Nothing. It was strange to say the least but as we traveled, I saw men dragging full sized trees to another man that, with a wave of his hand, cut the tree into planks using saws made of air. I was fascinated and the trip, in my opinion, ended too soon.

We had quickly arrived at the farm we were to hide out in. I was re-introduced to my mom's friend Suzy, who I had met previously at the awaking ceremony. They wanted Dominic, her son, to show me around instead of his sister. I could guess why. It was not even that he was a bad kid but he was definitely ugly by my standards. His mouth was too big for his face and his forehead was sloped wrong. He looked like a frog. He was also very touchy feely. I have not hung out with many people of this world, so I do not know what the standards are plus we are guests. He made me feel super uncomfortable, so I hid out by the field sitting on a rock watching what I think are the cows of this world. They were wooly mammoth sized creatures without the hair. Instead of tusks or a trunk they had one giant tooth they used to dig up the ground. They then continued to munch happily on everything they had just dug up.

I also am stitching up my ripped cloak. It took some damage and I was afraid the enchantment might break if it got any worse. I would alternate glancing from the cloak on my lap to the beasts in the field.

This world was interesting, at least to me. To see a woman controlling the animals or a man slamming his hand on the ground, causing all the weeds within a certain area to be pushed out of the ground, was just fascinating. They replaced machinery completely from watering, to plowing, to harvesting the crops. They did it all with their magic.

I spent the next two weeks helping around the farm and avoiding Frog boy. I cooked and cleaned in the morning and tried to level my mace skill after dinner. Every time I thought back to the fight, I knew that they all outclassed me in weapon skill. If the first guy had not been overconfident, I would not have been able to knock him down so quickly. The second guy proved that. I could not beat him. It was my mother's wind magic that gave me an opening that allowed me to remove him from the fight.

Avoiding Dominic was no easy feat. Both mothers were against me. My mother took my staring at Gideon as an open invitation that I interested in boys again. That was why she was so happy and laughed so hard. She was so relieved I just could not bring myself to tell her I did not want to date or get married. My quiet non-answer was all she needed to conclude that Dominic should be pushed at me every chance they could. Things like "Honey, can you help Dominic get water from the well?" Or "Oh Dominic needs to get something from the barn. Why don't you go take a look at it?" It was never ending and if I did not slip away, I would not get any peace. This does not sound so bad but in this world boys and girls were not supposed to be alone together. The fact that they ok'd it means they are thinking we would be a good match and are waiting for something to happen to push the relationship forward. Honestly, I do not know what my mom is thinking. I highly doubt this family is strong enough to stop the Duke, should he find out we are here. Even if I was interested, isn't she worried that the Duke will just kill them to get to me?

I did not think spending two weeks here would be so bad but more often than not frog boy's hands would accidently brush across my butt or other places on my body. When I would stiffen at his touch, he would go on about how it was an accident but how many accidents can a person have in a day? I will not even bring up the big smile on his face as he "apologized". He is either the clumsiest person ever or he is the biggest pervert I have ever seen. Either way I did not want to be groped on a daily basis. I will be extremely happy to leave tomorrow.

***

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Without much fanfare, we left the following morning. My Father had come to pick us up on a wagon he had borrowed from a friend and we headed further out of town. I had thought that the test was in town but was told that it would be a day's travel away. Once we got to the main road, you could tell a lot of people were heading in the same direction; some walking, some in carts, while others rode animals. This was obviously a bigger event than I thought it would be.

The trip went pretty smooth. The risk of banditry and ambush was non-existent. The fact that there were so many people about removed those risks. Instead, high-priced items, foods and drinks would reduce your wealth much quicker and it was legal. When we finally arrived, there were tables, tents and thousands of people milling outside of a hill with a six and a half feet tall hole in it. It looked like it might have been a mine at one point. Upon closer inspection I could see a red haze that went from floor to ceiling about a foot in.

Since I was there to register, I had to make my way through the crowd and try to get to a booth set up near the cave entrance. It was easier than I expected it to be. Everybody was interested in who was signing up so once they saw somebody trying to get to the booth, the crowd would part letting them enter unheeded. It was so smooth that it looked like they had rehearsed it before we got here.

There were four people in the booth when I got there. Three were students by their look; two girls and a boy. The last one was an older man. The youngest looking girl bounced up to me. She oozed good cheer and without missing a beat she asked, "Are you here to sign up for the dungeon?" and when I answered yes she quickly whipped out a form and then rattled off a short list of questions. "Name? Age? Class?" That was it. I placed my thumb print on the document, was told I was in group twelve and that I should wait in that tent over there with the others. She pointed to a bright red tent that had a wooden board with a twelve etched into it. "Be prepared for a full day in the dungeon. We offer supplies over in that big tent at standard rates. Treat this as a real dungeon because it is. While we have teachers acting as protectors they are not always going to be there to save you so be careful." She was beaming so happily while talking about our possible doom that I checked out her health to see if she had mental issues. Apparently she was naturally like this; I was thinking she was on drugs.

Shaking my head, I went back to my parents to let them know and after getting a few silver coins from my father I proceeded to go to the bigger tent to buy supplies. The tent was stocked with food, first aid supplies, rope, cloaks, blankets, and every item you could ever imagine you might need in a dungeon. They even had high grade potions and arrays. Not that I could afford them. I bought a backpack, rations, first aid supplies and a torch. I did not want to spend all our money so I kept it cheap. After that I had nothing else to do but wait. I moved over to the tent labeled twelve to see if my team was there yet.

Once I got into the tent I saw three other children inside. They were all boys around my age. Going from left to right there was, a skinny child sitting on a chair with a staff leaning next to him, probably a mage or druid. The next was probably a farmer's child. He was buffer than all of us. He wore leather armor and had a sword hanging at his waist. Is he a sword's man or a tank class? The last kid was just standing there with a few daggers strapped to his hip.

I figure I would start introductions since they are just staring at me. With that thought in mind I said, "Hi my name is Alice and I am a healer." It was short and to the point. They just continued to look at me so I again prompted, "And you are?" I pointed at the skinny boy with the staff.

"I'm called Kevin and I am a mage." I then pointed at the boy with the sword.

He quickly stood up and in a voice that was louder than it had to be shouted, "Leo and I am a brawler" he seemed very happy to be a class thats main job is to get hit a lot. I wondered if he would regret it when he is older.

The last one answered without being asked, "Clyde, um.. I stab things." He poked his chest when he said his name like we would not know he was referring to himself. Stab things? Well I already knew there would be random people signing up so it would be based off our luck. I cannot complain about my group since I did not pick them. We just chatted until they came to get us. Well, we did send Clyde to get his supplies because he never got anything. Then I went to get him about a half hour after we sent him because he never came back.

About an hour passed before one of the girls from the booth came to get us. By then we had a game plan for our group. We would have Leo lead our group, then Kevin, and Clyde with me bringing up the rear. I would have liked Clyde right behind Kevin but I feared he was just a regular child that signed up to test his luck. I did not want the teachers to pull us out because of him. Luckily the others agreed with this setup and I watched them lead the way to the cave mouth.

Above the hill was a magic projection of others in the dungeon. The screen kept changing every thirty seconds or so but even on our short march I saw at least six groups. Most looked scared, they were kids after all so I would think that was to be expected. I saw one boy all by himself fearlessly running through a hall. I do not know where his party was. Were they kicked out, eliminated, or did he just run off? Before I could figure it out the screen changed and I heard the crowd that had their eyes glued to the screen booing. Without the context I was lost and before I could get more we were already at the cave mouth.

"You just walk through that red mist and you will be in the dungeon. It will last for twenty four hours or less if you can complete it. Good luck." She smiled at the end of her speech, turned around making her pony tail fling about and then ran to the tent marked thirteen.

"One second." I said then cast Armor on Leo. His armor glowed a golden color and I continued, "ok, after you." After that we entered the dungeon; three boys and a girl in a dress. I really have to have a talk with my mom about my wardrobe.

***

"What is this?" The man at the desk looked at the black liquid his assistant just placed in front of him.

"It's coffee, sir" the assistant shook a little while answering. "I saw that you were a little tired so I brought you a cup."

"I do not get tired," the man tried to stifle a yawn right as he answered. "Fine." Taking up the coffee with one hand he shooed the assistant out with the other. Maybe I should stop taking on more volunteers. It is getting to be too much.

***

"You lied to me! I want my money back." A tall handsome youth stood in front of his much shorter roommate. "She did not react."

"Gideon, some girls are just… ok ok don't look at me like that. I'll tell you what, how about one twice as strong for the same price?

"Fine, but it better work this time."

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