1days ago ...

Jane was again training early this morning, it helped her keep her mind off everything happening. She was almost done when a commotion came to the training room. She heard running and panicked screaming until the training room doors burst open to reveal an out-of-breath stable master. He doubled over trying to catch his breath before addressing the young woman.

"Princess! ... have you seen Prince Arthur today?!" He crocked out urgently. Jane would be amused by the scene if she didn't know the old man was not the kind to make those kinds of scenes for no reason.

"Why? What happened, Sillas?" The princess inquired patiently. Her tone and calmness obviously took the man by surprise, he knew the young woman to be loud, and usually the kind to jump into action before assessing the situation.

After having worked out her sadness at John's sudden departure, Jane had decided to not let him down by doing nothing here while he was risking his life in the Wildlands. She was aware that for the past 4 to 6 years she had mainly done nothing except work on her combat skills, she never really took any other kinds of duties very seriously or cared for those things.

She quickly realized that John's absence had affected more than just herself, her mother, Arthur, and her father. It was almost funny, John was silent and never made a ruckus, he went through his day almost unnoticed by the castle inhabitants. He did his duties and helped when he could but mostly kept to himself, usually spending most of his day studying old history or strategy books.

Yet, his absence was felt within the castle in a way she hadn't expected. The vibe had changed from carefree to tense, people seemed more tired and ... sad. At first, the young warrior thought it was the news of their prince leaving for the quest but soon realized it was deeper than that. John was the bridge between the royal family and the servant, Jane suddenly remembered how many times she saw servants airing their grievances and problems to their prince like he was one of their own.

The sister had just now, in the last days, understood that her brother was acting like an unofficial soother of all the problems that roused from what it took to make a large castle run smoothly. Simple things like ensuring a worker that his brash and unladylike sister didn't mean any disrespect by her actions, stopping tension to rise, and creating an understanding instead of resentment. Making sure important problems were taken seriously by their mother who was the most active in running the castle itself, making the servant's feelings less volatile knowing someone was looking out for them.

Of course, the castle would continue running relatively smoothly with mother on top of things but the absence of the warm blanket that was her brother was nonetheless felt. So Jane had decided to step up to the plate and try to, at the very least, reassure people by trying to keep calm and solve some of those problems. She had no illusion to be able to replace her brother but if she could be the balm that her brother's departure left behind then she would try her best.

"It's Lety, your highness! I don't know what's happening but she is going crazy!" The stable master finally said after getting over his princess's new attitude. Jane almost lost her composure the moment the mare's name was spoken.

'Of course! That fucking menace would be the first problem she needed to solve after having decided on her course of action, why wouldn't it be! That damn horse was the bane of her damn existence!' The young princess thought with a vein popping on her forehead, fortunately, Jane managed to keep her cool but couldn't fully keep her annoyance from her voice ...

"Sillas ... I'm afraid you'll have to be more precise than ... She is going crazy! ... Lety is ... ... ... well, crazy is like her idle mode, you know?" Jane tried ... she was starting to really hate that horse.

"Y ... Yes princess, I was going to feed her this morning but when I opened her door she rushed out almost knocking me out cold in the process, She tried to go for the stable doors but I was quick enough to get out first and trap her in the barn. Now she's trapped in there but she's kicking up a storm ... ... I ... Nobody wants to be the one to try and go in there. I hoped the good prince could calm her down, your highness. " The stable master finished meekly at the admission that nobody wanted to risk going in. Jane didn't know why tho, to her it seemed only sane not to want to go in there with that menace.

"Unfortunately, Arthur is out doing the watch posts inspection round." The princess informed seeing Sillas's expression fall immediately. Dread filled her when she realized it meant she was probably the only person in the castle the animal wouldn't try to kill as soon as they entered the stable ... probably wouldn't try to kill her.

"Alright ... I'll go and put that damn pain in my ass back in her stall!" The princess said before blushing when her slipping outburst made Sillas tense ... she was a work in progress, some slips up were bound to happen OK!

When they exited the castle on a rampart overlooking the courtyard they were greeted with loud banging coming from the stable's double doors, Jane could see the doors bend with each strike from an undoubtedly very pissed Lety. They were about to descend the stairs when those doors exploded and not long after the white mare was jumping out of the stable in a very agitated mood.

The stable's hands were ready with ropes, their good training would prove adequate when seconds later they had the mare bound by multiple restraints. Jane's hopefulness changed to dread when she saw how the mare reacted, she was calm, pissed off but way too calm. Jane knew there was only one possible reason for Lety to be this calm in her current situation, shit was about to hit the fan.

"WATCH OUT!" The young warrior tried to warn but it was too late. She could only watch helplessly while the mare reminded those men who they were dealing with.

The stable hands had 2 ropes around her neck, 1 around her front-right leg, and another around the back-right leg. Jane knew they were trying to hold her still and trip her on her side without hurting the mare too much, but the princess saw the warning signs of Lety waiting for the right time. Both men holding the leg's ropes were wrapping around to be able to pull them from under the horse's other side and make her fall on her flank.

Lety waited for the moment the one on her back leg passed behind her, the poor man had taken all the precautions he could, he went as far as he could and tried to pass quickly but Lety was faster. The mare arched her powerful neck once to pull on the ropes holders and make them move forward a little before suddenly moving forward herself throwing them off-balance, then she pulled back once again with much more **** making them both fall on their knees.

Now with room to maneuver the angry mare reared back and sent a devasting kick right at the poor man's temple, he feel like a sack of potatoes and Jane prayed he was simply knocked out and not outright dead. After that, Lety took advantage of the chaos to charge at the man holding her other leg, fortunately, the man liked his head attached to his body so he simply let go of the rope and ran for the fence. The 2 remaining men were back up and trying to restrain her again, Jane knew it was hopeless so barked her order hoping to spare any of them needless injuries.

"Unhand the ropes! Let her go!" The warrior barked to the remaining men arriving on the training ring. The men obeyed at once letting go and backing off, Jane was now faced with the white mare and if her intuition was right the horse didn't intend to back down because of her.

There was a tense moment of silence while the 2 squared at each other, Jane was trying to calm Lety with her hand gesture while the mare was scrapping and tapping the ground loudly with her front hoof.........