Hi!

I loved to hear everybody's thoughts on Bree on the last chapter!

At some point while reading your comments I imagined that if Bree was an animal she'd be grumpy cat...

The lovely cover for this chapter is by Mahina Barritt!

Enjoy the chapter!
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Recap:

In the last chapter, Hailey tried out different weapons under Bree's critical gaze. As she showed more facilities with the bow (hitting the target every time, whereas with the dagger she threw them all in the sand), Bree tells Hailey that will now be the weapon she trains with.

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Chapter 26

Autumn and I were standing near the now empty training arena.

"You won't start training until tomorrow, but when you do it'll take up half of your day. I won't have as much time to see you, then, so we should make the most of the time we have right now." Autumn told me.

I agreed with her. "We'll still find some time to hang out, though. What do you want to do right now?"

"I don't know, anything in particular you wanted to see or do?"

I started thinking if there indeed was anything, when Autumn called out to someone behind me, "Jeremy!"

A guy whom I would guess to be about two years older than me turned his head towards us and, at Autumn's beckoning, started walking towards us.

"That's my older brother," Autumn informed me.

I could probably have figured that out even if she hadn't told me. Jeremy had the same diamond-shaped face and black hair as his sister, the latter of which hung in loose curls around his head. Whereas Autumn's wings were purple though, her brother's were a dark blue.

"I'm going to hang out with Hailey tonight, and the twins are somewhere around the castle, in case Mum asks," Autumn told her older brother.

"All right, does 'tonight' mean you're sleeping over or that you'll be back for dinner?"

A smile spread on my face. Sleepovers were a great way to bond with your friends, and I really wanted to get to know Autumn even better.

"Oh yes, Autumn, you should sleep over! My room is more than big enough."

Autumn looked pleased by the idea, but she asked, "Are you sure? I don't want to bother you."

"Of course, I'm sure!"

"Awesome! Thanks, Hailey."

"So, you are sleeping over," Jeremy answered his own question. "Autumn, I'll find the twins if you do the dishes for me tomorrow night." Seeing Autumn's skeptical look, he added, "Mum told you to look after them, not me."

Autumn sighed and rolled her eyes. "All right, deal."

Her brother was called over by some friends and promptly left us with a "Have fun and don't do anything stupid!"

Autumn rolled her eyes again, even though he was too far away to see us now. We decided to go back to the castle and drop by the kitchens for some food. We were walking through a long hallway, chatting about everything and nothing in particular, as only good friends do, when a polite voice interrupted us.

"Excuse me, Princess. The king wants to see you."

By his outfit, I gathered he must be one of these guards who stood watch in front of some hallways for no apparent reason -well, none that I could see, at least.

"Hailey," I corrected, "Call me Hailey."

The guard nodded, even though he looked a bit confused, and Autumn and I followed him to my grandfather's office.

"Hailey," the king greeted me with a smile. He noticed Autumn hanging back, unsure if she was allowed inside the king's office or if she should wait in the hallway, and said, "And who's your friend?"

"That's Autumn," I smiled.

"Well, Autumn, come on in." She obliged and closed the door behind her. "Can I trust you not to disclose any information revealed in this room?"

Autumn nodded solemnly, "Yes, Sir."

"Good," he motioned towards the two seats in front of his desk, and we sat down.

"Hailey, I just wanted to tell you that I will be leaving in a little less than an hour. With the impending battle, I need to go North and help my first in command gather the troops."

He waited for me to nod my understanding and continued, "Anselm takes charge of the castle while I'm gone, so you're in good hands. Before I left, I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything you needed, though."

I shook my head. "Everything's great, Grandpa, thank you."

He smiled again, "I'm glad to hear it."

"Can I ask you a question, though? Well, in addition to the one I just asked," I added quickly before he could reply with 'Well, you just asked one!' which was one of the things my dad did all the time that got on my nerves. Right now though, I wouldn't mind hearing him say all the corny replies he knew if it meant he was standing right here next to me.

The king chuckled, "Go ahead, Hailey. Ask any question you want."

My eyes strayed back to his desk, and more precisely the old-looking phone sitting on it, as they had been doing during the whole conversation. "Does this phone work?"

The king looked surprised by my question. "It does, but you can't call the human world with it."

"That wasn't why I was asking. Sorry if this sounds rude, but isn't it kind of dumb to have messengers running -or rather flying- around if you could just make a phone call to get all that information?"

I had been wondering that ever since I saw that phone, and I just had to ask.

Thankfully, the king didn't seem mad that I'd just insulted his communication system. He laughed and said, "You're right, it does seem a bit pointless, but I assure you there is a reason behind this. First, we Winged would rather wait a little more for a message the old fashioned way rather than be able to call or text like humans if it means our beautiful landscape won't be polluted with cellphone towers and the likes. That means telephone usage isn't very widespread."

I had to agree that made sense, but still, that wasn't very practical.

"Next, there is an interruption on the line near the city that's already surrounded by the enemy, and we don't want to risk being helpless should the enemy dismantle any more of our telecommunication. Lastly, there is also a chance that our enemy could listen in on these conversations and thus find out our plans for defeating them."

I nodded. It must come with being king, but I was impressed as to how well he pointed out each of his argument, like he was explaining his reasoning to some important council rather than his clueless granddaughter.

"We don't use only Winged messengers, though," the king added, "we have -what is the best way to explain this to you- well, humans would call them carrier pigeons, but they're more than your average pigeon." He paused to make sure I had understood every thing he had just said. "Any more questions? No? All right, well before I let you two girls go, I have something for you, Hailey."

He opened a drawer of his big wooden desk and handed me a long, slender box. I turned it in my hands uncertainly.

"Go ahead, open it."

My fingers found the two golden latches of the dark box and opened it.

"Wow," Autumn breathed beside me.

I carefully lifted the bow from its well-cushioned box and ran my fingers along the engraved designs, a flurry of little feathers, mesmerized.

I finally found my tongue, "Thank you, Grandpa, it's absolutely beautiful!"

The king smiled, and his eyes seemed to light up just a little brighter.

"I'm glad you think so. Apparently you showed aptitude with the bow. I have to warn you, it won't always be easy, but when you look at it you can be reminded that I have total faith that you can become a great archer."

I smiled widely. "Thank you so much. I promise I'll make you proud."

"I already am. You can get one of the guards outside to string your bow for you, it'll give them a distraction from standing around all day," Grandpa winked. "Oh, and before I forget: Your grandmother was a firm believer that the word 'Damsel' should never be paired with 'in distress'." He smiled fondly at the memory of his late wife, then handed me a small object wrapped in tissue paper. "This was hers, she would have wanted her first granddaughter to have it."

I had tears in my eyes. It was too much. I was about to tell my grandpa so, when there was a knock at the door, which opened right after. A man peeked into the room.

"Your Majesty, we really do have to get on our way."

"Rightly so," The king answered after a look at the clock. "Well, Autumn, it was nice meeting you. Bye, Hailey, I'll be back soon. Oh and girls, please keep quiet about my departure." I gave him a big hug, and he then left, following a hurried-looking man.

We were ushered out of the king's office so the guards could lock it, and I stowed the small package from my grandmother in my jean pocket to open at a more peaceful time.

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I have to say I find this chapter's last words awesomely ironic. Haha, 'peace'!

And no, I'm not giving away any spoilers! *grins evilly and flies away majestically*

I do have a question though: what are your thoughts on the pacing? Some people tell me they like it better now that it has slowed down, some have told me they found it too slow now, sometimes even a bit boring, and apparently liked it better in the beginning when it was more fast paced. So tell me what you think!