Adventures of Jessa: the Adventures Continue

25

Questioning Ricardo will have to wait though, a message from the King requesting them to join him comes  before they can leave the room. Jessa wants to grind her teeth at this interruption, but attending to the king is important as well.

Before they leave they gather all the leaders and those that will be staying they give instructions to. The merchants will be doing their best to exchange products and make them some money while every one else will be preparing to leave or going with them to see the king.

Mostly the king wants the general, prince and princess to look over the troops and give them pointers. Jessa is less than impressed by the standing army of the king. She asks and gets permission for her and Dhiren to spar in front of the troops to show them what they should be able to do. They even keep it slower than they normally do so that the troops can learn.

There are shocked exclamations with the troops at the ferocity they are displaying. There is even a more shocked silence when Jessa manages to win against Dhiren once more. 

It is perhaps that that keeps her biting remarks at the ineptitude of the army not so nasty and far more politic than she had been saying before the sparring match. After the army sees how good she is they are far more afraid of her, especially since she was hardly breathing hard by the end of the workout.

Suddenly they all start doing better as she watches them critically.

"I would leave someone here to train them, but unfortunately the guard we have can't be left behind." Jessa thinks that her guard that she hasn't worked with much is far beyond the abilities the humans are displaying. Even the weakest of her body guard could easily defeat the soldiers.

"Ah, Princess Jessa," the king looks over at her and swallows what he was about to say. "Forgive me, Jessa, I wish that you could leave someone as well. No matter, my general has been talking to General Brightblade and taking note of what he is being told. I have no doubt that after your and Prince Dhiren's stunning display they will improve." Even the king is in awe of their performance.

The elves and even some of the dragon guards snort at his words.

The king looks over at them in confusion and no little affront of those of lesser rank. "Why are they showing so much derision for my words?"

Neither Jessa nor Dhiren are pleased by the show of disrespect the guards are showing the king. Neither of them chose to answer the question the king asked instead they have one of the gold dragon guards speak. He is one of the ones that snorted in disbelief.

"Forgive the disrespect your majesty," the dragon about bites his tongue off as he manages to actually get the words out. He hates having to give respect to one he considers under him in rank. "But neither Jessa nor Dhiren were going full out. They were going slow enough to make it possible for your people to learn from them. When those two go full out it is very difficult to even follow the moves they make, even the elves have trouble doing so." He doesn't say the dragons because they haven't told the king about any of them traveling with Jessa and Dhiren.

"I see. Jessa, Dhiren, if you would be willing to spar once more after they finish only this time go full out I would dearly love to see that. Until then, I would ask that you come inside and help me prepare some battle plans." The king gestures and they follow him. Half the guards staying to work with the humans, the other half following their crowned princess and prince inside.

By the time they are finished Jessa is more than ready to relieve her stress by going full out against Dhiren. 

Dhiren feels the same. He's more than a little frustrated and he knows that Jessa is as well, although she's hiding it admirably well.

The king waits for the the general in charge to finish things for the day. Jessa and Dhiren are then ushered once more to be the center of attention. The soldiers, although exhausted, are more than willing to watch the visiting nobility fight once more.

By the time Dhiren and Jessa finish the fight this time Dhiren making it a draw there isn't a sound to be heard. They then knew that the rumors about Jessa and Dhiren were if anything understating the truth. They had all heard the rumors about Jessa taking out the nest of bandits. Before that day none of them could believe just one person could do what Jessa was rumored to have done. Now there is no doubt.

It also makes them nervous about ever having to fight against the elves. The sun elves have an even greater fighting ability, or so it is said. After the truth of some of the more unrealistic rumors were in fact truth they wonder just how bad things will be in this upcoming war.

As their thoughts circle around to the upcoming war they finally understand that they can't ignore or be lazy in their practice. Not just their lives but that of their families and friends are truly in danger.

Jessa and Dhiren had strongly suggested that the king have the people start storing up food and weapons, linens for bandages. The king had listened intently and put forth orders. He even asked the caravan guards to think about joining the army.

Soon as they work their way back to the inn after their long day at the castle the feel of the entire city is far different than it had been the day before. Every where they looked they could see major preparations for war.

Jessa does her best to hide her feelings as she watches children running about helping their parents when possible or hiding from given work.

"The true victims of this upcoming war. They are innocent in all this, yet they will be the ones paying the highest price. The chances of most of them losing one or both parents, siblings, friends is almost a sure thing. No child should go through that."

"No, love they shouldn't. But we are giving them the best chance of survival. That's the best we can do. We need to find out who is behind all this and end this conflict as soon as possible so that in the future the children will be able to run and play and be children." Dhiren says holding her close as they come up to the inn.