36 of Spring 503 AV Casting a look behind her to spot any of her family's guards Ziela hurriedly closed the backdoor in the wall and continued her way on a small dirt road to a more quiet place were no one that knew her could find her. She couldn't stand being inside any longer, all the women in the house chattered on about was Ziela's rapidly approaching marriage and what a lovely match it was for her. All Ziela could think was how damned her life was, everything was decided and already planned out for her and no matter what she did or said could change that for as long as she stayed in Zeltiva. Feeling the by now comfortable weight of her dagger in her pocket gave her hope that she one day may be free from her invisible shackles to a life open to her like an empty book that she could write as she so pleased. Lifting her dress to avoid the puddles and mud that remained from the last rainfall Ziela watched her surroundings become less and less inhabited, not that there were much land without settlement but at least a few more secluded places were she could train her skills with the dagger. Ziela had no doubt that she with her meagre skills with a dagger couldn't even begin to save her neck in Mizahar but she did not intend to let that stop her from her plan, if she failed then at least she had died free instead of locked in a marriage she didn't choose. Finally she could see the clearing a head of her, though clearing was much said as it was more of a field behind a row of trees and vegetation that barely shielded the place from the first line of houses. Ziela cared little for being seen by common people as they had had no right off correcting her, a women of higher birth than the average citizen but she still did not yearn to be seen as people could still tell her parents. Feeling satisfied that she was alone Ziela pulled the dagger from he pocket and removed it from its small scabbard, admiring the way the sun played over the polished, smooth metal before fixing her grey eyes on the targets she had placed weeks earlier to train her marksman skills. It was a tedious task to train when she only had one dagger, Ziela aimed and threw the weapon, hitting her target much more often than she had done when she started, but for every throw she had to go over and pull out the dagger from the target before heading back and throw again. Even in her unguided training Ziela felt that she was good with the dagger, it felt right to have its weight in her slender hand and she improved more quickly than she had thought from the start. After training for over an hour Ziela sheathed her dagger and sat down on a rock in the shade, heaving deep gulps of cold water that she'd brought in a canteen, not so ladylike and her mother would certainly have gotten a smaller chock had she seen her daughter now, then again she would probably be more upset over the weapon training. |