Who was she? I felt like I’d just had a Marius-Cosette moment with this girl. I…couldn’t take my eyes off of her! Short in stature, wavy black curls, deep red lipstick, fair, cream-colored skin, a simple yet stunning black dress with a shimmering top—a Concert Choir Goddess. I caught myself staring, but if my breath was stole away just from looking at her, it was stole away even more when I realized…she was staring at me, too.
Those gorgeous, deep brown eyes glued to my face…commanding my every whit of attention…and…mesmerizing my very soul.
Who…who was she?
The lead excavator trudged through the icy bowels of this strange wreckage.
No one had ever seen anything like this before, but something told the excavator it’d been here for a very long time. Why, his team had taken several hours just to uncover enough of this…ship…to get inside to have a basic look.
Professional spelunkers and repellers trudged through the frozen steel around them as one small group veered off to the left from the main company.
The excavator decided to follow. When someone in his group broke off, almost always it meant that someone had found something. As he drew near, he saw immediately what had been so important to discover.
Two entry-level team members sat frozen in place, stunned at their find.
Through the surface of the ice, an image, though distorted by its frozen cocoon, displayed clearer and more proudly than anything the excavator had ever seen.
A red, white, and blue shield with a solitary white star at the center.
“What the…?” The excavator gasped.
“It’s true, sir, it’s really him,” one of the new team members confirmed, “it has to be!”
“Well, then what are we waiting for??” The excavator demanded. “Let’s get him out!”
Almost faster than he could blink, the entire company was suddenly on scene, chipping away, melting, and removing stubborn rage chunks of ice, working with fervor to remove the now near 90-year old Super Soldier from his cryonic tomb.
Finally, he was free.
And fast asleep.
“Comms!” The excavator yelled. “Get the President on the phone!”
“Who, the President of the company?” The comms manager asked.
“No, the President of Mars!” The excavator snapped.
The comms manager’s face paled when he realized what the excavator meant. “R-right away, sir!”
Several hours later, Steve Rogers lay fast asleep on an old hospital bed, completely unaware of the new America around him, and completely unaware that his world, and his universe, was about to forever change…
Her wits were no match to my blade.
Those were my exact thoughts as I easily parried Anna’s pitiful stabs, swings, and slashes. Why, I even turned my blade blunt side out as I side-stepped yet another ill-placed attack and knocked her knees out from under her.
Anna easily stumbled backward, losing grip and dropping her blade. “Hey! No fair!” She cried.
“All’s fair in love and war,” I commented with a smirk as I knocked her blade out of reach.
Hey, what was I supposed to do? Let it slice her as it fell?
I dodged a fish-boned slap that only made me laugh harder.
“I am NOT your love!” she hissed at my mirth as she very grumpily placed her fists on her sides. She’d yet to recover her blade from a mere four feet away.
I hadn’t meant to disarm her, but saving her from certain injury did necessitate such an action.
“I never said you were,” I said with another smirk. This statement only caused Anna further anger, which I found most entertaining. I had a very difficult time stifling another laugh.
“Men!” Anna seethed darkly as she clumsily picked up her weapon again.
My face went stone still. “Anna,” I suddenly chided her, “you must be prepared for all distractions. Do you not know how many men in this detachment think it is laughable that a woman has picked up a sword?”
That did it. Anna was furious I’d brought up her obvious and unignorable disadvantage. She charged at me, wielding her sword with both hands ready to thrust her blade at me the moment she got close.
I stepped aside again, but this time I did not strike her or her blade.
I didn’t need to.
Anna stumbled and dropped her sword anyway. The blade bounced out of her hands and would have run itself through her had I not cast my sword to the side, caught her left hand with mine from behind and brought my right arm around her abdomen, pulling her back just in time.
We stumbled backward in a mess of tangled legs and arms, and I slipped and fell flat on my back on the padded training mat, pushing some air out of my and Anna’s lungs simultaneously.
“What was THAT for?” Anna screamed, writhing and wrenching herself free.
“You would have died at your own hand had I not saved you, ungrateful wench!” I shot back.
Anna didn’t like that statement either.
Apparently though, her balance was bound and determined to make a fool out of her today.
Anna stumbled on my ankles and fell flat and forward.
Right on to me.
“Hey, watch it!” She snapped again, trying to regain her composure. Today was not her day.
“I’m not the one who fell face first, O intelligent One,” I jabbed.
Why did I enjoy teasing her so?
As my student, who in all honesty was not that much younger than myself, struggled to rise from me though, I felt such a feeling in my gut and chest as I’d never felt before.
I cursed silently. I felt this feeling before.
‘Not here, not now,’ I thought and pleaded to myself.
Anna was still struggling to rise…and I was terrified to realize something…
I wasn’t sure I wanted her to now.
Her head snapped forward, eyes suddenly opened wide and deadlocked with mine.
I cursed again.
“One more, one—one more lesson, E—Ezra?” She stammered.
“Y—yes, child,” I clumsily replied. “L—let us try that again.”
I silently berated myself as I helped her back to her feet.
Anna was my student. Nothing..nothing more.
I don’t recall the rest of the lesson. Neither did Anna, though I do recall that she at least never again dropped her blade, never stumbled or tripped again.
Her eyes were unfailingly focused on me.
Was she…was she feeling…what I was feeling?
I suddenly realized why I enjoyed teasing her so much.
Her short temper was extremely, endearingly, and unequivocally—attractive.
My entire frame froze, rooting me to the spot as I realized my deepest fear.
Had I fallen in love with a student? Someone whom I’d been entrusted to train and mentor?
I didn’t get another moment to process my sudden and rather unwelcome emotions.
“Ezra?” Anna timidly asked. “Are you o—are you…okay?”
I tried to respond. My head wouldn’t move left, right, up, or down though.
I was supposed to be training this girl. Protecting her. Helping her.
“E—Ezra?” She asked again.
I opened my mouth to speak again, but Anna wasted no time with her next move.
She thrust her hands forward, one grasping the back of my head and the other arm firmly around the back of my neck.
And kissed me.
Her wits were no match to my blade. Right?
Right?
Our hero was outmatched and outnumbered. He paddled down the raging, churning river to escape the attacks of the Bullrunner warriors.
Their chief, Taja, ordered a massive price on his head. Dead. After taking out the top general and the chief’s battle-hardened wife, Reyan is in deep trouble.
Reyan rowed with all his might. He was worried that the warriors would catch up to him, as they knew these waters far better than him. His only consolation was that their chief never sent them out on the River when it was any like this. Too many warriors and villagers were lost before, but that didn’t mean the warriors couldn’t navigate the dense, thick forest on either side of the broiling waters.
The current was on his side, but he could hear the warriors catching up quickly behind him. He only hoped he could make the lake in time. At a massive approximate thirty square miles, he would be an impossible catch once free.
Reyan doubled his already exhausting strokes. Luckily he was quite the accomplished horseman, otherwise the increased speed over the raging rapids would have ousted anyone else.
Reyan, luckily, was not just anyone else. He was the many times great-grandson of a Scottish Warlord, with the stamina, combat, and strategy training all passed on down through the direct bloodline from Father to son.
Even if Reyan was caught, he wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Oh sweet, the dreams of ignorance bliss! Oh harsh, the reality of the world that’s true! But wait, why at such a time as this Would fact derail the wonderer’s view?
‘Tis known by frugal laborers many That sweat, blood, and tears earn every penny Such folly it is to believe you can dream Why, only by hard work all rewards you can glean
‘To dream or to live’ is the question I ask you now Of course! You want to make your mark! But how? Only those born with good fortune can rise Their success we all see with naught but our eyes
But by whose definition is it, ‘To dream or to live?’ That is the real question here, you see So remember, before you next leave at five, This one simple lesson: success begins right here…with me.
It’d been a week. A week since I’d seen my best friend Adara. A week since the failed assassination attempt on her life in the palace.
How I missed her terribly. She complimented me in every way possible, even though she and I had virtually nothing in common. We’d been best friends for as long as I could remember when the King took me in as a child.
It was only by the King’s orders that I, or anyone stayed away for that matter. Why?
Adara was the King’s daughter.
Why was I not allowed in the palace then when she and I are best friends? Good question. I just happened to be away from the palace for a reason I don’t even remember now.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Adara. Everything about her made me melt. Her rich, full, very dark brown, almost black hair with equally rich brown eyes. Fair, snow-white skin, a captivating, mesmerizing smile, and the very way she walked made me weak at the knees every time she approached me.
Yes, if you couldn’t tell…I’m secretly in love with my best friend. But what terrifies me the most is I think she is secretly in love with me too.
That’s what made this separation so hard.
You see, my father was killed in battle when I was barely a month old, and my mother died of dysentery when I was only three. That’s why the King agreed to take me in, and I studied to become a Knight just like my father.
Every attempt or request I’d made to see her had been denied. No one was allowed to see her. Only the King.
I was warned the last time that because I’d requested clearance so many times now that the King himself would come out to tell me I was not welcome to see Adara.
I couldn’t ignore the growing suspicion though that someone was deliberately keeping her away from me, someone that secretly wanted her all to himself…
And I was being prevented from keeping her safe…
