Chapter 14

Ryder

       "I need your help," Mae suddenly said, walking into the training room while I was practicing with my sword. 

       Lately, my siblings and I have been training as long and hard as we could with all the recent attacks going on. We never had so many fights in such a small amount of time, so we had to really make sure we were prepared.

       "With what?" I asked.

       "I want to learn how to fight," Mae said. "I've been helping out with what's going on with Dirk recently, and I'm worried they'll come here again when I'm here because I won't be able to do anything."

       "Well, there's a low chance of them attacking here with the barriers Jerome put up, but sure, I'll help you learn how to fight," I said. "What kind of fighting do you want to know? Physical or with a weapon?"

       "I'll try it out with a weapon," Mae said.

       "And you don't get a choice in which weapon, since I only use one," I said, walking over to the weapon stand and grabbing a wooden pole before handing it to Mae.

       Mae raised an eyebrow. "The weapon you use is a sword. That does not look like a sword."

       "You really think I'd let you start training with a sword right away?" I asked, putting my sword down and picking up another pole. "You need to learn how to swing properly first, and all these weapons are well so you can't train with a fake one. Come on, it's either train with this pole or not at all."

       Mae sighed and grabbed one of the poles. "I really hope this actually works."

       "Don't doubt me," I said. "This is how I was trained. Pole first."

       While I was teaching Mae some basics with the pole, Tulip ended up walking in the training room. She then set on a bench, her chin resting in the palm of her hands as she watched us.

       "Are you just going to sit here watching?" I asked.

       "Yes," Tulip said. "Don't mind me. Just carry on."

       I tried my best to ignore Tulip, but it didn't help with her occasionally squealing whenever Mae and I made the slightest of contact. At least I now knew why Tulip wanted to sit and watch.

       She just loved shipping people and fangirling.

       After a while of training Mae, she wanted to take a break, so we sat down on the floor. "So, why have you been willing to help us Protectors out recently?" I asked.

       Mae shrugged. "It's a lot more interesting than sitting down and doing nothing. Besides, Dirk is messing with supernaturals. I'm one, and I don't want anything bad to happen between other supernaturals. We could end up going into another war because of him."

       "Well, with the way Dirk is handling things, I wouldn't doubt it," I said. "I still want to know why he's doing this. And why it seems like he's only attacking Miami when he doesn't even live here. I mean, he lives close by, so why not attack a city where there isn't a Protector Circle HQ?"

       "Who knows? Dirk has always been a very confusing person," Mae said. "It might be only because Jerome lives in Miami, and they never got along."

       "Speaking of Jerome, has he been practicing spells in the spell book?" I asked.

       Mae nodded. "Yeah, he's at out apartment right now with Nolan helping out because some of the spells were in puzzles. Well, that's what he tells me. Jerome will use any excuse to see Nolan right now."

       Tulip suddenly sat down with us. "I heard Jerome and Nolan in the same sentence. How are they doing? Are they together yet?"

       "No, not yet," Mae said.

       Tulip huffed. "At this rate, they're not going to get together until Nolan's, like, twenty."

       "Hey, cut him some slack," I said. "You know Nolan. He's always been a reserved type of person. It's not easy for him to open up to people."

       "Same with Jerome," Mae said. "Well, it's not like he's a reserved person, he just doesn't trust people as easily. I've been very surprised to see him want to spend a lot of time with Nolan lately."

       "So what I'm hearing is that they'll eventually date," Tulip said. "That's good enough for me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see how my other ship is doing."

       "Which one?" I asked. "You have at least a dozen."

       "I do not," Tulip said. "And if you must now, it's Attichid. I must see if Atticus and Orchid are still going strong."

       I chuckled as Tulip got up and left. "Wow, she really seems to love relationships."

       "Oh, you don't even know the half of it," I said. "If any one of her ships break up, she'll go crazy. Literally. Even fictional ships. It's quite scary. So, ready to get back to training?"

       Mae stood up. "Can we actual engage in a fight now? It's boring swinging this pole back and forth, and blocking the way you tell me to. I want to see if my reflects are good enough."

       "Alright, if you insist," I said. "Want me to go easy on you?"

       "How can I learn anything if you go easy on me?" Mae asked.

       I shrugged. "It'll be your funeral."

       "My funeral?" Mae asked. "Come on, how hard can it be?"

       Very hard for Mae.

       In less than ten seconds, I had Mae's back against me while I held her arm with the pole in one hand and had my pole lightly up against her neck with my other hand. "What was that about wondering how hard it could be?" I asked. "Don't underestimate a Prince and our training."

       "Noted," Mae said.

       I released her arm and moved my pole away from her neck, and she turned around to face me. Because of how I was holding her before, she was standing quite close to me. And stupid me couldn't help but get lost in her beautiful green eyes.

       I had never been interested in anyone since, well, ever. I had always been so focused on being a Protector that I never really thought about anyone.

       But with Mae here?

       Everything was changing.

_______________

Heck yes it is Ryder. 

Once again I FINISH BEFORE MIDNIGHT because I can and no one can tell me otherwise. And the blocker still doesn't work. Well, kind of. It has been messing up my computer a whole lot because my computer now thinks another device has the same IP address. :/

ANYWAY gif time? Yes.

Aww I miss them. I need more moments of them I can gifafy BECAUSE GIFS.