Amelia walked into the training chamber some time later, quite pleased with herself. This time, she hadn't asked directions from Asané because she was determined to find this place for herself. And she'd only taken 2 wrong turns in the process, which was pretty good going, considering her poor directional skills.

Now, as she stepped through the doors, she could see that the room was once again empty. A row of terminals lined one wall, so she decided that this would be the best place to start her training and walked over to one of them.

"Right," she muttered as she read the screen. "Basic training...advanced training...expert training...attack training...blimey, there's a lot of training!"

Frowning, she finally decided on the basic training, seeing as she didn't actually have a clue what she was doing.

The lights flickered off for a moment, and Amelia thought there must have been a power shortage, or something similar. She was about to leave the room and find someone to fix the problem when the lights came back on and three digital figures appeared infront of her.

"Whoa!" Amelia gasped in surprise. Then, realising these would be her training aids, she stepped forwards to meet them and begin her training.

After a few moments, one of the digital figures began to speak.

"Welcome Amelia, today we will learn about self defence. To protect the Queen, you must be able to protect yourself firstly. My assistant will attempt to attack you from the front, you will block by thrusting your hand sharply to the face, cracking under the nose. This will be enough to confuse your opponent for a few seconds, giving you the chance to punch into the belly with your elbow, and then kicking them from their feet. Once you have done this, my second assistant will attack you from the back and grab you, putting their arms around your neck. You must then elbow into the stomach or groin, and then attempt to kick them from their feet, and turn to face them, delivering the final hit that will claim you are the victor...... Ready?....... Go!"

"Oh my god!" Amelia shrieked as the first assistant lunged for her. "Wait! I'm not ready!"

But there was no reasoning with the digital figure. It lunged forwards and out of pure reflex, Amelia thrust her fist out, catching him in the face. He staggered backwards and trying to remember what the instructor had said, she thrust a solid jab into the first assistant's stomach with her elbow. He doubled over in pain and she kicked the back of his knee, causing it to buckle and send him sprawling on the floor.

"Ok...that wasn't what I'd expected," she gasped, out of breath from the sudden attack.

However, the adrenaline had started pumping through her system now, giving her a surprising boost in not only confidence, but speed aswell, as she proved when the second assistant grabbed her from behind.

Elbowing him in the ribs, she forced him to loosen his grip enough for her to slip out under his arms. Then, crouching low on the floor, she spun in a tight circle, kicking out with one foot and sweeping his legs from underneath him. As he crashed to the floor, she straightened up again and curled her fist into a ball, jamming it down hard in his face.

"Ooh yeah! Ooh yeah!" She chanted happily as she glanced down on her two vanquished foes. "Take that you...you...whatever you are!"

"Excellent, now we will focus on targets that are larger than average weight...." Suddenly her assistants transformed into wookiees, who standing at nearly 8ft and very beefy.

"Now, you must learn to spread the weight of your opponent across your own body, same moves as before...... Go!"

"Wookies?!" Amelia exclaimed, horrified. "How the hell am I supposed to defeat one wookie? Let alone three!"

The figure that had been the first assistant, but was now a wookie, lunged for her again and immediately and Amelia didn't have time to protest.

Instead she swung up and out with her right fist and, probably due to good luck more than skill, she struck his jaw with a sure and solid punch. She even managed to knock him back a step with the force of it, or maybe the surprise of it.

For a second she grinned, seeing the light flashing from his lip indicating that she'd scored a hit, but then, two things happened at exactly the same moment: the first, was that he made a low angry growl; the second was that Amelia realised she had wounded at least two fingers.

She looked at her hand, her knuckles were red, split and bleeding. She was certain that she could not only feel the painful throb of her broken bones, but see it too. The pain screamed through her hand unheard by all but Amelia. She pressed her lips tight together and clenched her teeth, refusing to give it a voice, however much the pain demanded it.

Her attention distracted somewhat, she was not prepared for the sudden jolt of being roughly pushed backwards by a strength she had no hope of defending herself against. She heard a low snarling growl, but that was all she was really aware of before her back struck the solid wall behind her. She was left winded and her mouth opened as she hit the cold concrete, a sharp cry of renewed pain released.

After a moment to recover, she stepped forward again, looking up into the face of her attacker.

"Oi, do you mind?!" She snapped angrily, flexing her throbbing knuckles to assess whether they were still useable or not. "It's supposed to be me hitting you!"

He was smiling, pleased with himself, but Amelia smiled right back at him through her pain. She saw his confidence waver, and it was enough of a gap in his armour for her to launch her second strike.

Ducking under his next punch, she dug her elbow sharply into his ribs, causing him to double over. There was no way she could ever kick his feet out from under him, however, unless she was smart and planned the attack carefully.

She saw him straighten up again, seconds later and glare at her with a murderous look. Charging towards her, Amelia made the split second decision about her next move. Dropping to the floor, she curled into a ball. The wookie tried to stop, but his momentum carried him forwards and he tripped over her, sailing through the air to land in a crumpled heap on the floor.

"Oh my god!" Amelia gasped as she staggered back to her feet. Ok, so she'd now floored the gigantic wookie - but it felt like she'd also dislocated her back. Still, the wookie didn't get up again, which was a good sign. She'd completely forgotten about the other wookie...until now.

Thick, tree trunk arms encircled her neck, choking her. Her throat felt like it was being squeezed tight closed and she could barely breathe. "No fair!" she managed to gasp, as tears filled her eyes and blinded her. She tried to stand more upright...get some air into her lungs. And then the idea struck her. She didn't need to move much. Just enough to be able to shift her weight on to her left leg so that she could raise her right foot...

The wookie was laughing now as he tightened his grip, mistaking Amelia's movements for futile struggles of freedom.

"Yeah, you can laugh," Amelia snapped. Almost there now. Almost there...

"You...won't be so smug...in a minute..."

There! Slamming her right heel down on the wookie's ankle, she forced him to lose his grip in surprise. Wrenching herself free, Amelia kicked out for his ankle again and the wookie collapsed down on one knee. Staggering backwards, as far away from him as she could, Amelia fought for breath, gasping and shaking her head as she tried to regain her vision. When she looked up again, she saw a gigantic fist coming straight towards her, and didn't have time to react. It caught her squarely in the jaw, sending her reeling backwards against the wall again.

"Ah, you sneaky...low-life...cheating..." The insults that followed were quite colourful, but the wookie's thunderous laughter drowned them out. As Amelia touched a finger to her painful lip, crimson blood dripped onto it, and she knew he'd split her lip.

"Right...payback," she muttered darkly, stepping forwards again. The wookie curled his fist sharply into her gut, forcing her to double over in pain, and then a sharp elbow to the back of her neck had her crashing to the floor, gasping in agony as pain ripped through her body. She was breathing heavily, and felt very dizzy, but the adrenaline was pumping through her body now, giving her a much needed boost that allowed her to slowly get back to her feet.

"You asked for it," she growled.

Bending low and charging at him, her shoulder caught him in the stomach and her momentum carried them both backwards into the wall. Before the wookie could recover from this sudden attack, she grabbed his head and slammed it sharply into the wall. Then, stepping to the side, she allowed him to stagger forwards, before she kicked the back of his knee, sending him crashing to the floor. Once again, she curled her fist into a ball and jammed it down hard into his face.

When she was sure he wouldn't get up again, she stood and looked at the two fallen wookies, her eyes almost black with anger as she breathed heavily, trying to calm her wild nerves.

And then the pain hit her again and she winced in agony, wiping the blood from her lip with her sleeve, then cradling her injured hand close to her chest.

"Ok...wookies hurt," she decided, making a mental note for future reference.

"Very good, for now your training is completed in self defense, your knowledge is at an acceptable level to survive an attack. Return to your teacher for further instruction...... Thank you and goodbye"

The digital instructor disappeared, leaving the room empty.

"Great, so I get beaten black and blue and you're thanking me? What is this world coming too," Amelia grumbled. She was in a very bad mood now. Still, she'd completed her training - that was reason to lighten up a little, she supposed.

Leaving the room, Amelia wandered back towards the courtyard at the back of the throne room where she hoped Asané would be waiting for her. After all, she didn't want to have to search the whole palace in such a state.