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“Wow, one journey to the restroom, and now you’re here stealing my troops,” said Soren walking into the courtyard.
Rayla rolled her eyes.
“I thought I could help you,” she said.
Guards were formed in columns, waiting for the next instruction or activity to continue with their training.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” He asked in a whisper.
“I’m fine, the physician said I’m ready to work out again.”
“Well, sparing with forty agile guards is more than just working out.”
“I’m fine,” Rayla reiterated sounding upset “It’s been almost three weeks since I gave birth, it’ll be fine.”
Soren shrugged as Rayla turned to the guards, signaling with her hands to repeat the warm-up sequence one last time.
“Does anyone know you are here?” He whispered.
Soren knew he was annoying her, but it was for her own well-being. He had been there the last nine months to witness all the pregnancy complications, he knew the physician said Rayla should take things easy, they literally forbid her from any activity that would include physical effort during the last period.
“Callum does.”
“And he agreed?”
Soren could feel Rayla’s growing anger, yet he wouldn’t falter. After all, he was just worried about her; that wasn’t a crime.
“Yes, Soren, he did. In fact, he was supposed to come but Selene started crying and he’s trying to calm her.”
“Okay, then," he granted "Would you like to give the next instructions?”
If Callum knew, he wouldn’t push further. Perhaps Rayla was in a position to fight, and he was just being paranoid.
By the final part of the training, they needed to conduct a round of sparring. After seeing Rayla doing well with almost every exercise, Soren grew confident she would do just fine beating everyone.
“Okay, class, for the next part, you’re gonna come at us, so form in two lines,” he instructed.
In less than half a minute everyone was in place. He recalled the first training with Rayla and how surprised she’d been to see that humans could also be disciplined and competent.
Soren and Rayla also took their places at the center and back-to-back, wooden weapons out. Rayla adjusted her ponytail before nodding as a signal for the first guards to attack.
The guard meant to attack her, took a deep breath before lurching at her. Rayla dodged her easily and managed to make the guard trip over her feet, sending her straight to the ground. To finalize the attack she aimed the sword at the guard’s chest.
“Dead,” she said.
The guard snorted. And Rayla would’ve offered her a hand if it wasn’t because another guard was already attacking her.
This time his sword brushed one side of her abdomen, but since it was wood, nothing happened, otherwise she might have a scratch. Nevertheless, he wasn’t quick enough to retrieve his arm making it easy for her to grab and twist it taking care of not hurting him but just causing enough pain for him to let go of the weapon. Rayla pick him with the point of hers at the abdomen.
More guards came at her by turns, all trying new techniques and failing. A life of training was paying off. Still every time it was difficult to keep her legs from trembling.
“Dead,” she said.
Behind her, she could hear Soren’s steps and the clash of the swords before a little scream when a guard fell down and Soren dismissed him.
After that small distraction, she felt the presence of another soldier behind her, she turned just in time to see a redheaded jumping with her sword raised, aiming for her head.
Rayla fell to her knees, dodging the attack, her back touching the concrete and her arms raised in an effort of the point touching the girl’s abdomen. However it was futile and it only served to make her hurt since, as the doctor said, her abdomen and pelvis were still gathering strength and she shouldn’t push herself like she was doing.
The redheaded girl landed gracefully and immediately ran to her. With the pain fogging her mind Rayla was barely able to bring herself to her knees again. Even her breasts started hurting. She swept the leg, but her opponent jumped over it. She tried with the other leg but got the same results.
Rayla was already panting and her pelvis was on fire, as well as she started feeling her legs losing movement. The girl was once again running at her, she tried to use her arms to move backward but thanks to her weak legs all she did was fall down completely to the floor.
She was waiting to see the point of a wooden sword aimed at her, but all she saw was Soren’s back. She tried to chuckle but it came more like a sob. Gathering all her strength she managed to sit down, her legs outstretched, the pain waning.
Soren’s sword was against the girl’s, but it didn’t last long. In a sudden movement he did what Rayla tried: swept the leg, making her lower the sword to jump and giving him an entrance to her side. She yelped when the wooden touched her.
“Dead.”
After that, he turned to Rayla and offered her a hand. A bit reluctant, she took it and used it as a support to stand up.
To her surprise and relief, that girl was the last in line.
“Another important part of this is teamwork,” announced Soren “Helping your partner and knowing how to do it when they need it can be decisive in a real fight.”
The guards nodded. The cheeks of the redhead girl were almost as red as her hair as she approached Rayla.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you,” she said in a soft voice, not daring to look directly at Rayla.
She smiled and patted her shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. You’re fierce, and I like it.”
The girl’s eyes widened, and she blushed even more.
“Thank you. And congratulations on your daughter.”
The comment about Selene caught Rayla off guard.
“Oh, thank you,” she said.
The girl nodded still shy and left.
“Are you okay?” Asked Soren.
Rayla took a shaky breath, her hands traveling to where just a month ago she was carrying a baby.
“I thought I would be able to manage this.”
Soren snorted “Don’t be too harsh on yourself, you did just fine.”
Shrugging she bit her inner cheek, and her friend rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Hey, you just gave birth to one of the most beautiful babies I’ve seen in my life, you don’t need to prove anything to anyone, it’s normal if you aren’t as resilient as you were before.” He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “You’ll get to the level you were before eventually, now enjoy your family, okay?”
Rayla closed her eyes with force, not wanting to cry in front of a crowd.
“I can try.”
“That’s the attitude!” Soren punched her slightly on the shoulder before guiding her to the insides of the castle “Don’t worry, training is done anyway for today.”
“Thank you, Soren,” she muttered as she walked to her bedroom.
She found Callum heading out.
“Rayla,” he said, his smile turning into a worried grin at the sight of her watery eyes “Are you okay? What happened?”
Rayla rested her head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“What happened, my love?” Callum muttered.
“I’m fine, just hormones and maybe some bruises from training. Can we get in?” She signaled to the bedroom’s door.
Nodding he opened the door again and led her in.
Rayla stopped at the entrance.
“Wait, where’s Selene?”
“Ez is with her at the nursery.”
Rayla nodded. The pressure was relieved from her chest, she would have time to talk with Callum without interruptions.
“Good,” she whispered, massaging her temples and going to sit down at the edge of the bed. Callum followed her and intertwined their fingers.
“I think I pushed myself too far trying to prove I could still be useful for the crown guard duties.”
“You are useful,” Callum reassured, turning his body to face her, she did the same.
Their eyes locked and Callum could tell she wasn’t telling the full truth.
“Perhaps not in active duty, but you can and are helping with strategy."
For the way her gaze fell down to inspectorate her body, now he had a clearer idea of what was this all about.
Callum had done a lot of research about pregnancy in the past nine months. One of the things that most caught his attention was the fact that the woman’s body could take almost two years to go back to its natural state.
Somehow Rayla seemed to know this and she was obviously trying to prove herself she was built differently since they both knew all too well that two years could be a long, long time. And her physical abilities meant a lot for her.
It wasn’t for less, Callum supposed, Rayla spent almost all her life training, she didn’t know life any other way.
Even when she needed to stop because of the pregnancy, she looked for ways to keep moving, like going from one side of the castle to another just because she wanted to.
Yet, now she wanted to train as she used to without realizing her body needed time.
“I just haven’t feel like myself lately,” Rayla admitted, sniffling and leaning to him.
Callum cradled her in his arms.
“Don’t get me wrong, Selene makes me happy, I love her, but… It’s difficult to accept I may need to quit some things.”
He brushed his fingers against her cheek.
“You don’t need to quit anything, love, maybe just put a pause, but I assure you we will adapt. You don’t need to go full in with training, everyone here and beyond is aware of your abilities.” A small laugh escaped his lips “It would be difficult to forget the warrior that returned the dragon prince to his mother.”
She chuckled, “Tell that to the poor children, who surely need to memorize our names for their history tests.”
“See? You know you’re amazing.”
Rayla’s lilac eyes widened as the deja vu of their night in the oasis passed through her mind.
“You don’t need to feel better now,” Callum continued “We can take the day off, I’m sure Soren and Ezran can take care of Selene, and you can relax and do whatever you want, I’ll do as you say. If you want me to go…”
“Stay,” she burst out. Callum looked at her eyes. “Stay,” Rayla repeated steadier.
Her husband nodded and kissed her hair, squeezing her closer to him.
“For the moment we can stay like this,” she said “Though I’m not sure Ez and Soren can manage on their own, Selene will want to eat eventually and she’ll cry until she gets it.”
Callum hummed “She’s got Ezran appetite.”
Rayla nodded, bringing her legs closer to her body to be completely cuddled by Callum’s warmth.
Closing her eyes and resting her hand over his heart, she thought about his words and how she felt.
Suddenly she was very aware of herself.
Her still a bit round belly and her breasts were the main change, which even though the physician said could go back to normal eventually, right now felt strange.
As she had proven this afternoon, she would need to get used to these changes. Though her round abdomen wasn’t the problem, it was more the sensitivity of her breasts and how easily they hurt, if she recalled right that was due to breastfeeding, so she would need to live with that for at least six months more.
Her ear was right above Callum’s heart, making her hear every beat, a constant rhythm. Rayla’s own heart started to synchronize.
Even if she wasn’t sure why she felt uncomfortable with her body after the pregnancy, she knew she didn’t regret having a daughter.
But if she could advise herself about anything nine months ago it would be to be prepared for a lot of physical and emotional changes even after the baby was out, because back then even though the physician mentioned these changes she paid them no mind thinking (wrongly) that she was somehow immune.
After all her skin wasn’t flawless, like was the stereotype for a princess, she had scars from fighting almost half of her life, plus Rayla knew she was strong, which led her to believe her body could manage a pregnancy without much problem.
Oh, how wrong had she been. The last months were full of problems, from throwing up to feeling extremely exhausted and sick thanks to her defenses going low.
Yet hers and Callum’s baby was pretty much healthy and the delivery was easier than expected. Now it was just time to let her body gather strength before going full-on training again.
Rayla could wait, she would need to. And if she could spend that waiting time like this, wrapped in Callum’s arms, then it couldn’t be that bad.
Her eyelids were closing as her mind drifted off when the door swung open.
Groaning, she opened her eyes and impulsed herself into a sitting position. Callum was facing the door, his brow furrowed at the sight of his brother carrying a sleepy baby in his arms.
“Guys,” said Ezran, “I think she poop.”
He held the baby in front of him.
With another groan Rayla let herself fall down on the mattress again. Callum stood up and went to check on his daughter. He grimaced at the obvious disgusting smell.
“You need to learn how to change diapers, Ez” noted Rayla from her spot at the bed, her hands were over her face “You can’t be the greatest uncle ever and not know the basics.”
Even though she couldn’t see him, Rayla knew the face he would be doing. Preparing to politely deny it and get away before they told him to do something he clearly didn’t want to do.
Callum must have had the same line of thought because he leaned his head to the washroom and took Ezran by the shoulder, guiding him there.
“Rayla’s right, and it just happens to be my time to change her I’ll use my opportunity to teach you,” he said with a smile.
The king pouted and complained.
“Hey, you may be the king but Callum still is your older brother and that baby right there is your niece, so get to it” teased Rayla.
Ezran scratched the back of his head “Just because I love you all too much and want to be helpful.”
Rayla grinned “That’s the spirit! Now go and change that baby so I can sleep a little.”