Some Girls Do

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani was on her way to practice combat with some of the other guardians, who where helping her become a better Novice. She was more than glad to take the lessons, it was just basic fighting, nothing to dangerous, unless they placed a sliver stake in her hands, that might get dicey, but she knew that they would never give her one until her last year was over and she passed her trials. That was something that she worried about, was the trials, because students failed them all the time. If she didn't pass that she wouldn't be able to guard anyone, and she would be stuck repeating it again; she didn't want to go through that again, it would be bad enough the first time.

Dani passed the spa, and was surprised to see young Moroi girls going in; her mother never let her go other royals or even Moroi went. Her mother said to her that it wasn't normal for a Dhampire to go into the spa, unless they worked there or was running an errand. Dani just sighed and continued to walk past the spa, towards the guardian offices. She didn't really care for the spa, some girls did but she didn't. She picked up her pace and started to jog to her destination. She did need to build up her endurance; she knew that if she could run from Strigoi she should, and not try to fight. It was one lesson that was taught to them, or well some of them.

Dani wasn't paying attention to where she was running, she didn't even realize she started to run, her mind was else where. She was thinking about her friends that she couldn't wait to see back at St. Vladimir's Academy. Her graduation day, all of her friends and family seeing her get her Promise Mark. She was thinking about the first time she would meet up with a Strigoi, and would she hesitate, or would she go into battle mode, and take them out quickly, or would she die. She was to engrossed in her thoughts that she ran into someone. "Oh dear i'm sorry, are you ok"

[Lissa Dragomir]

Lissa was walking slowly towards the spa, naturally surrounded by her Guardians. Rose was also naturally right beside her, well kind of. Since Lissa had become Queen, the two had had to put distance between themselves in public. Rose Hathaway was her Guardian now and her best friend had to act like it. Both of them knew that and had quickly fallen into a routine. Dimitri was also on her other side and gave her a quick glance at Rose as if he heard something. The other Guardians were suddenly tense and alert as well.

The Dragomir stopped as her Guardians suddenly came closer to her, surrounding her and definitely invading her personal space. She didn't blame them though, it had only been a couple years since Queen Tatiana had been murdered. Lissa heard the sounds of running and Dimitri silently moved ahead to see who was running so fast.

Lissa couldn't see him get bumped into as he quickly caused the person to stop. The Queen motioned for her guards to give her breathing room and as they moved off, her jade green eyes were set upon a young Dhampir girl. She was making apologizes to Dimitri and had yet to notice her Queen. Lissa did not mind and said in a calm tone, "What is you name, Dhampir? What is wrong?"

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani was still apologizing, to the person she ran into. She still didn't see him as one of the queens guardians, till she looked up and seen it was Dimitri, and the moment she looked up she seen that the queen was there also. Dani almost froze, but didn't. She didn't know what to do, whether to bow, or say something. She just stood there, like an idiot. Her mother would scold her for this later, for not bringing the proper greeting to the queen. Dani wondered what would be done to her, a lot of images flashed through her mind.

"My Name is Danielle Ivashkov, Dani for short" She said then quickly added on "Your highness" she was still in shock over who she ran into and who was talking to her. Her hands got clam-y, and started to sweat. She hoped nothing bad would happen. It was an honest accident. Dani finally got her mind to calm down, it was just simple questions, it wasn't like they were going to throw her in jail over running into someone. "Nothing, Your highness" she said remembering to put it on.

"I started out Jogging over to meet with some guardians, to practice, so i don't hurt as much when school starts up, and they are helping me learn, what its like here at Court." She said explaining why she was running. "I just got lost in running, and i didn't pay attention to where i was going. "she said then turned and looked at Dimitri. "I am really sorry Guardian Belikov." She repeated again for the millionth time. She really was sorry. "I should have been watching where i was going" She finished.

[Lissa Dragomir]

The Spirit user smiled at the girl's quick explanation, she knew she was in no danger. More importantly, so did her Guardians. Like the nature of a Royal Guardian, Dimitri said nothing to the girl because Lissa had actually addressed Dani. But he did smile at Dani to reassure her. Lissa admired that about Dimitri for she knew that most other Guardians, including Rose, would have just remained exactly as they were as soon as their Queen spoke.

It did not fail to catch Lissa's attention that the young Guardian had not bowed or made any other greeting to her. This however, was no major concern for Lissa and she did not make a point of mentioning to Dani. She knew Dani would learn from her mistake later and Lissa wanted to ensure that Dani's instructor was not too harsh on her. Lissa made a mental note to discuss the issue later.

"Everything is alright, you need not to fear me, Miss Ivashkov. You are perfectly alright but I caution you to please pay better attention to your surroundings when you jog in the future please." Queen Vasilisa said kindly with slight sternness to her voice. If Dani had actually managed to bump into her, the Guardians would not have hesitated to take further action against the young girl. "How old are you? You look almost as if you are nearly ready for graduation. That must be really exciting for you. I remember watching Guardian Hathaway at her trials." Lissa glanced at Rose and the two exchanged knowing smiles and normally would have laughed but Lissa and Rose both knew their places/

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani was glad that she wasn't going to get into trouble. She was worried about, and it get back to her mother, and she would have been equally mad at her. Dani seen Dimitri smile at her, she thought she might fly away, but she knew that he and Rose were a thing, and didn't want to start anything with Rose, and cause a bunch of problems. She had her eye on someone in her class anyways, so it wasn't a big deal for her. Dani knew that most guardians would say anything with out being addressed from the queen if she was around, so Dani wasn't surprised that Rose and Dimitri didn't say anything.

Dani smiled and was relieved that no action would take place on her. "Well You Highness" she started "i am going to go into my last year at St. Vladamir's Academy." she finished. How could Dani explain her excitement, and her fear, about the trials. "I can't wait for them to be here, but there is a part of me who thinks i wont be good enough, and I'll fail and have to retake the trials again." She admitted to Lissa. Dani smiled. She knew that Lissa was friendly. Dani also knew that she was required by her up bringing to be nice to the queen, because you never know when someone might try to use your unkindness against you.

Dani smiled and said "I normally do watch where im heading your Highness" She was very alert, and watchful. It was all part of her training. "I just really have no idea where my mind went to." She really did wonder where here mind wondered to. She was going to ask if she hurt guardian Belikov, but that was something that was very hard to do, or well she thought so. "I hope i'm not making you late, your Highness" she said. She didn't bother to ask where Lissa was going because really it wasn't any of her business, she was just a dhampir, she wasn't required to know these things.

[Lissa Dragomir]

Queen Vasilisa drew herself up to once again acting like the perfect little queen-ling that everyone expected of her. She had let herself act normalish before the young guardian in training. But was that so bad? Lissa glanced at Dimitri and Rose before allowing herself to be herself. Her jade green eyes looked Dani over again.

Lissa decided that Dani needed some girl time. She also knew how to handle girl dhampirs who were on their way to become full guardians. She was Rose's best friend after all. So Lissa decided to ask kindly, "Do you want to come with me Miss Ivashkov? I was just on my way to the spa."

Her mind was already working, Lissa could not only get to know one of the only females in guardian training but she could also learn more about how guardians were receiving their training lately. Lissa hadn't expected much progress towards how she wanted the training done but maybe it was slowly working.

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani smiled at Lissa, and her guardians. She was glad that she wasn't making anyone late. She certainly wasn't expecting an invitation from the Queen to go to the spa, with her. She wondered what she would tell her practicing buddies, she would tell them the truth, she went to the spa because the queen asked her too. If her mother found out she would tell the same thing the Queen asked her to come, what was she to do turn down Her Royal highness. Dani didn't think that would be very appropriate, if she said no to the queen.

It was decided she would deal with her family and friends later, and she would accept the queens offer to go with her. "It would be a honor, your highness" she said with a bow. That time she did remember to do something. Dani didn't know if she should lead or walk behind her or beside her. So she just stepped out of the way and she would follow Lissa to the Spa, and let her do the talking and she would answer her questions to the best of her knowledge. She knew a lot about what was happening at the school, or well she thought she did.

Dani smiled happy to follow her into the spa. She never really entered the spa area at all, she only went into the office to drop off packages. She was glad not to see anyone she knew there, well if she did she could tell them to tell the Guardians that she wouldn't be by till later. Then just her luck Another novice walked into the spa. Dani smiled and said "I will return in a moment your highness" she took a bow then walked to her friend. She spoke rapidly then wrote a note, and instructed him to take it to the practice hall and give it to a group of guardians waiting for her. She thanked him, and walked back to Lissa "Sorry about that Your majesty, i had to re-schedule my practice, but everything works out fine" she said bowing again upon her return.

[Lissa Dragomir]

"That is not a problem." Lissa smiled at Dani, pleased that the girl was already learning from her earlier mistake. When they entered the spa, her jade green eyes watched as everyone within viewing stood and bowed as low as they could. "Rise, please." Lissa was still getting used to this. Every time she entered a room with multiple people, it was the same thing. Lissa was not the kind of person who lavished in other people's ways.

Lissa turned to the person at the front desk, "Do you have room for three?" Lissa asked, intending for herself, Rose, and Dani to have the complete works today. The female Moroi quickly moved a couple things on the schedule and said of course there was plenty of room. Lissa nodded and started walking toward the manicure area. She turned her blond head towards Dani again, "Where are you at in your training exactly?"

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani was still a little bit in shock that the Queen had invited her to the spa with her. Dani didn't really care what her hands looked like, she knew she should, but she really didn't. She just rubbed lotion on her body everyday so she didn't look all rubbery. Dani kept her nails short, and unpainted. Her mother had mentioned to her that she should really take the time to dress up, but Dani didn't see the point, because she sweated the make-up off, and her hands were the work of her profession.

Dani followed Lissa to the manicure area, Dani didn't know what color to put her nails, she never really thought of it. She guessed she would go with a dark color. Dani gave a smile "well when school gets back in session, they are going to start teaching us about stakes, even thought we are taught about them since we are little. They plan on going deeper into the subject, or so they tell us. They want us to have more time in combat classes rather than in the actual classrooms." she informed Lissa. "I get to take my field experience this year, and they say that its going to be different, but we don't know how." Dani looked at Lissa. She didn't know why she was interested but she would tell her all the information they gave at the end of the previous year. "Then at the end of the year we take our trials" Dani said to Lissa, she was a little bit nervous about the trials. She knew what to expect but she didn't know, because they made it different for every student, it was the same course but they trapped people everywhere.

Dani smiled and said "I'm actually ahead of the rest of my class" Dani looked at Lissa "I'm one of the top students, well in theory I'm one of the top students. I have one of the highest marks in my class. So im farther in my training" she said to her, and told the lady that she wanted dark blue. "I'll probably get a practice stake before the rest of my class. I work out every summer, and through all the breaks. I also read every one of my text books, and i talk to other guardians about their experience in killing strigoi. Your Highness" she added at the end of her explaining where she was at in her training.

[Lissa Dragomir]

Lissa quietly listened to what Dani said, it was obvious that the younger girl was by far took her training seriously. That was very good. The Queen nodded at the right moments and she was particularly interested in the difference from the previous years. Surely, the Moroi and guardian fighting combined wouldn't start so soon... There was just no way, it hadn't been made even remotely law yet. Was there? She looked at Rose and saw a slight smirk on her friends face. It suddenly clicked, that was how.

"I think you will enjoy the difference in the regular training. How is your fighting technique? So, you haven't even touched a stake yet?" Lissa silently added that this had to change. She understood the reason for waiting so long but she believed that if the young trainees were ready for stake training, then they should not have to wait to start learning until the rest of the class caught up. But then again, that also had to do slightly with the age decree and Lissa quickly shot down all of the previous thoughts. It just wouldn't be right.

"How often do you fight with each other, side by side? Do you also fight single handedly?" Lissa asked, wanted to really get a sense of what guardian training was now and how she could change it for the better in the future.

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani smiled and was all to happy to talk about fighting with the Queen. "My teachers would call me aggressive, i go after my target." Dani said to the queen and smiled. "I rarely use defensive, i have taken some of the guardians i practice with here a number of times because they thought i would go into defensive position when they attack, but i don't i take their attacks and continue moving with them. It doesn't always work though sometimes i am the one who gets taken out, so i mean i would say I'm a pretty aggressive fighter" she said with a smile and pointed out the fact that she wasn't all as mighty as some of her teachers tell the other students.

"Well to say I've never touched one would be a lie, i held my Dad's when i was younger, but to fight with one, no I've never fought with one." She explained to Lissa. She was glad she was able to talk to the queen with out feeling like a babbling fool. Dani watched the lady doing her nails work, it was really fascinating. Dani never got her nails done, she never really felt like she had the time to do anything girl-y as her mother would put it.

"The novices we normally fight one on one, but some times we have others join our class, and when that happens we fight in a team." She said not really wanting to diverse that sometimes some of the moroi students who were learning to fight though other students, stopped in on certain classes and took part in the fighting. There was no one stopping them from learning to fight. It's one moroi and dhampir then the other one is moroi and dhampir. So the novices can step in between the moroi if something happens. Then even some of the moroi use magic against each other, but they were placed fire against fire, water against water, so on and so forth. The Moroi rarely came, because they didn't want to get in trouble for missing classes."Sometimes if there are enough guardians that want to, they put us in 2 groups, and they place like 4 guardians in each group, and we fight that way against the guardians." Dani said to her, "It makes out combat classes interesting, Your Majesty," she smiled at Lissa.

[Lissa Dragomir]

Looking over her now perfect looking nails with simple white polish on them, she smiled sweetly at the lady and looked at Dani's fingernails that were just now getting painted. "Nice color choice." Lissa grinned at Dani, who was obviously enjoying the attention.

Lissa also realized very fast that Dani had no problems with talking about her training and how good she was. There was usually no problem with that as long as Dani did not get overconfident. She had been in the middle of quite a few fights and she knew that overconfidence against Strigoi was often a death sentence. She didn't mention any of this to Dani though.

"So everyday, training is basically slightly different. That is very good. I know that I would like to see the trials this year and personally welcome our new trainees when they join the ranks of our dear Guardians. Do you have any questions for me?" Lissa asked, for she felt like Dani might have a couple questions of her own.

[Dani Ivashkov]

Dani smiled and said "Thank you" she referred to the nice color comment. Dani really wasn't used to this much attention and she liked it, but she wouldn't do this everyday just because she had other things that she needed to do. She was kind of glad that she ran into the queen she got a day off, but she knew that this wouldn't happen everyday, and that she still needed to be focused on her duty, which is they come first. She had to take her job seriously.

She smiled and thanked the lady when she was done painting her nails then turned to Lissa and said "Yes in one way or another they are different, which i like because it never gets boring, or dull" Dani was glad for the change ups in her classes with people coming in and out of the classes. Dani thought about the questions she wanted to ask, but she didn't know how to phrase them so that they sound appropriate, and not like she was trying to be nosy.

"What is it like to be Queen?" she asked, she really wanted to know because its not something someone gets to do everyday. "If you dont mind me asking, You highness" she looked at her and really wanted to know. It wasn't like Dani was going to ever become a queen, but she might get lucky enough to one day guard a royal, or even the queen or king of Moroi.

[Lissa Dragomir]

The Quees nodded in understanding. It was very good that the Novices got different training everyday but also kept going back to the main values and made sure to master them all. She wondered how Dani actually was in a fight. She had no doubt that Dani was quite good, in order to be a woman guardian, you had to be good, but performance meant more then words to guardians. She obviously was no guardian but she had staked a Strigoi, so she knew a little bit more then most Moroi were even concerned with.

Lissa laughed, "Being Queen is fun for the most part. I'm still new to all of this and there are definate perks. But it isn't all fun and games, not nearly. I am constantly in meetings about many different issues. There is a responsibility that I must bear for all of our kind. But one that I bear proudly and happily if it means I can help make our world a better and safer place. What else do you wish to know? Anything specific about being Queen?"