Maria - The Blind Princess

"Daddy, the ear is for hearing, the nose is for smelling, the mouth is for tasting. Then how about the eyes? They cannot do anything to me."   The questions turned the middle-aged man into silence. He carried his 8 years old little daughter and gently answered her.   "Our eyes are for seeing, daughter. You may not know, but there are actually the birds flying in the sky. And our eyes are for seeing them..." "Then why cannot I see anything?" "...because your eyes are sick..."   The daughter could feel a tight hug from his dad. She cheered him up, with beautiful aquamarine eyes.   "Daddy don't be sad. I'm fine with this." Even though she didn't understand why she could hear her dad crying, she hugged him back. "That's why, whenever the difficulty bug beats you, you must not give up and fight it back. It'll be our promise?"   "Yes daddy."   She could sense the warmth from her father's hand. He holding her hand and gave on it a kiss. "You're the bravest person I have ever seen... ..my Maria."   ***   Maria was daughter of baron Beauvallet who managed a small area of territory. Her mother, who was heard conservatively wished to give birth to a son, already left her and her father to go with a wealthier man because she was a girl, even got a disability. Despite that, Maria's father spent all his love with her and wanted all happiness for her.   Baron Beauvallet also heard many stories and dramas of stepmothers so he didn't marry anyone else, sacrificed all of his marriage life for his daughter.   There used to be a time where baron Beauvallet asked Maria what she liked doing the most in the future. She answered: "I want to become a knight!"   "But knights are the job for man, and you cannot see anything. Are you sure you can do that?"   "Yes daddy! Did you use to tell me just fight back all of Difficulty Bug right? Please please daddy, I want to be a knight."   The moment Maria knew about the knight was the time baron used to guide her to watch the competition of royal knights which was celebrated once per year at the capital. Maria could hear the brave shouting of the participants, with the noise of the horses rushing and the intense sounds of the combat. Maria couldn't see the competition, she heard her father describe everything to her. The imagination of the cool knights appeared inside her mind. She wanted to ride the horse, hold the lance and become a cool knight like them.   Baron Beauvallet couldn't convince Maria since he saw the determination inside her blind eyes. There was just a problem. He couldn't find anyone who could teach combat technics for people with disabilities. He had no other choice than to teach Maria by himself.   "This one is a lance."   Baron let Maria touch the wood lance that he ordered for her practice. Maria kept saying wow at her first time touching a weapon.   "The first thing you need to take carefully, is your position. If you do like this. Your opponent will have a lesser chance to attack your weakness. Also, you're going to pay attention a lot to how you hold the lance. Usually, you just can hold the tail part while the head one is very heavy, so you will need to practice a lot to get used to holding them." "Yes daddy!" "The critical problem of yours… is the opponent can see you, but you cannot see them. So we will rely on your ears most of the time to detect them. Just focus, you can do it." "Yes daddy!"   Maria used that wooden lance to practice the defensive and attacking technics of a knight. Months after months, the longer she hold the lance, the little girl's passion kept burning higher. Her servants had to spend most of their time at the castle's garden to supply water and towel when she took a break.   Her father thought that Maria's life might be destined to become a knight. So he decided to gift her a horse.   "Yay! Thank you daddy!!!" Maria hugged baron after hearing his decision. "Tomorrow we will depart to the horse's farm. It'll be a long journey so it's better if you go sleep soon." "Yes."   ***   However... In the middle of that night, Maria got awaken by the unknown noises outside her bedroom.   "Huh? What are those noises...?"   Maria had a bad feeling so to prepare the worst case can happen, she raised her hands forward to find the lance. Another of her little hand looked for the door and opened to go to his father's room.   On her way, Maria heard one of her servants Gerald came and dragged her away.   "Young lady, you shall not be here! This castle isn't safe anymore!" "Gerald, where is my daddy?" "... Uhm.. Lord Beauvallet... is.."   Suddenly, they were both startled when a stranger yelled.   "Who's there??" "Young lady! We have to get out of here!"   Gerald hold Maria's hand and ran as fast as possible, passed through the sea of fire burning the furniture of the castle. He knew and saw everything, a group of strangers had entered the castle and killed baron Beauvallet. As a child like him, the only choice was to drag Maria and run away, before they were going to kill her. "Gerald! Please tell me! Where's daddy??" "Please follow me from now young lady! We have no other choice!" He didn't have the courage to tell her that her father had already disappeared...   Maria could sense Gerald suddenly stopped, made her falling onward to him. Because there were two strangers stopping on their way.   "I think we have found lady Beauvallet." "Don't!! You can kill me but please don't do that to young lady!!" "As you wish brat."   By super-sensitive hearing, Maria could hear the sound of the sword raising up above her. It meant she was in dangerous state and had to do something.   The swing of the sword fell on Gerald. But in an instant, when Gerald opened his eyes, he was surprised that the sword was stopped by Maria's wooden lance.   "Haaaa!!!" Maria shouted, like it poured more power for her. With the lance on both her hands, she charged forward and successfully stabled one of the enemy's abdomen.   She could hear the screaming of one of the opponents. But according to the difference of the voices, there wasn't one enemy, but two. Maria pushed herself backward, stood silently and focus her mind on the ears.   "Behind you!"   Gerald could never think he would kill a person with his self-defense knife. Unlike a calm Maria, Gerald could see the b****y scene so he was scared and dropped his tears.   "Gerald... Tell me where to go out.."   Maria understood everything that happened, even her father. Her voice mixed with the cry called all of Gerald's mind back. He grabbed her hand, led her to the emergency exit of the castle before the other enemies coming.