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One week later, I’m back on my feet and into my regular lessons. Harille says he’s never seen someone heal so quickly in all his years of healing, he actually thinks I mixed up some kind healing potion so now he wants me to give him the recipe. It’s going to take a while for me to live this down, Harille doesn’t forget things easily and is very persistent in what he believes.
I’ve been worrying about everyone seeing my mark, but no one has mentioned it so far. Maybe Harille thought it was something to do with where I came from, not that he knows, like part of some ritual or something like that. Either way, no one seems suspicious.
Today, Gilder and Joran are teaching us at the same time. They have us learning how to defend against attackers with arrows when you have a sword and no shield (which we usually won’t have), and attackers with swords when you only have a bow and arrows. It’s rather complicated and new to me so they have me working with the others on the lessons today. I have a bow and arrow and am on the defensive. I was paired with Seth, apparently we are a good challenge for each other. This lesson requires a lot of agility on my part, makes me glad I’m an elf. I’m ducking a blow from Seth’s large longsword, which he can barely hold up, when all of a sudden I hear the twang of a bow behind. I manage to drop down just in time to dodge the incoming arrow, dragging Seth down with me in the process, only to end up in a heap on the ground with Seth on top of me and the Professors looking down on us with disapproval.
“Now, now, now, Sapphire, you know to listen for anyone approaching from behind you. Why didn’t you turn to face your new opponent?” scolded Joran, yet with a slight hint of jest in his voice.
Seth hurriedly scrambles from on top of me, more than a little red faced, and I stand up to face our teachers and answer Joran’s question to hide my own embarrassment. “I heard Master Gilder coming up behind me and decided he was observing, therefore I continued engaging my current opponent, Seth, remembering the all important rule to never turn your back on an enemy who is engaging you until you can be sure it is safe to do so. When I heard your bow releasing I took all possible measures to avoid a close range hit that I could manage from such short notice. One never usually suspects treachery from one of their own, hence my hasty, and rather messy, drop down. I’m sorry, Seth, if I have hurt you in any way when you fell with me.” I know full well that Masters Gilder and Joran are testing me, and I also know how to respond to them.
“Good answer, Sapphire,” said Gilder, “but you must always be on your guard for everything behind you and never let your guard down on any side, even when you think there is a friend behind you. I am glad, however, that you remembered not to turn your back on an opponent who is engaging you in combat.” He then calls to everyone else, “ All right! That’s enough for today everyone. You now have free time before you have to go to horsemanship.” Our teachers, despite the fact they are monks and there are only five of us here, always act like we are at an actual combat school. I guessed long ago that this was due to the fact that they didn’t want to make us feel strange or anything like that.
“Master Gilder,” I asked, “would you please set up the agility course for me? I would like to do some work on my dodging and climbing speed.” I find keeping myself agile very important, especially since I’m an elf and should be exceptionally agile anyways.
Gilder set up the course for me. This particular course had swinging ropes, moving obstacles, and climbing walls, as well as many other agility improving feats to accomplish. After I had gone three rounds on the course, Seth came up to me. “Do you mind if I challenge you at this course? It looks like a good challenge for me, and I bet I could beat you.”
“Okay, you know how to do this course from watching me. First to the tall stone at the end wins.” I'm sure I have a competitive gleam in my eyes upon saying this.
It was a good race, Seth is surprisingly agile for a human, but in the end I won by about ten feet. Seth was covered in glistening sweat, which somehow accents his features. He has fairly tanned skin, like all of us do from training in the hot sun all the time, and a tall, muscular frame. His eyes were a gorgeous shade of light blue and had a soft look to them, in great contrast to his short, dark hair and chiseled facial features. If I wasn’t betrothed to Justin, I would actually start entertaining the notion that we could be a couple, but honestly, he probably doesn’t feel anywhere near the same way about me.
All of a sudden, the whole ground seems to be alive. This is worse than when the wolves tried to invade, it's like there is something underneath trying to shake the very foundations of the temple from under it. Then, the walls collapse, and the shaking stops as suddenly as it had started.
“Everyone inside now!” screams one of the monks. We all gather in the dining hall, curious as to what was going on. “I’m afraid we have been discovered. The wolves that attacked last week were scouts, sent by Durion.” Jana and I exchange worried looks, this was serious. Unfortunately, the others don’t know who Durion is, as Ethan soon demonstrates.
“Woah, hold up! Who’s this Durion guy, and why have we never heard of him if he’s this big threat that you make him sound to be?”
I answer him quickly so the monk can continue. “Durion is the evil underlord. He wants nothing more than to take away all freedom from the peoples of the realm. He also has an ability to control predatory animals.” I stop there, though I could have gone on about what he truly was, but that would have been saying too much too soon. I don’t think the others are ready to know about elves and other humins just yet.
“Thank-you, Sapphire. As I was saying, the majority of your training has now come to an end, but you may still live here and train your battle skills. Unfortunately, we monks must now leave you five now as our purpose has been fulfilled. You may keep your horses and weapons as well as your books, but everything belonging to the monks must leave with us. You shall eventually learn to sustain yourselves, you will need to as being a protector means to live mostly in solidarity with each other until the next generation can ease some of the burden from you. Now we will say good-bye to you all. You may see us sometime in the near future, you may not. But never forget the things we have taught you.” And, with that, all the monks left, save for Roan who was to stay to care for the grounds for us when we're not at the haven.
None of us move at first. We all knew this was coming, but none of us suspected it would be so soon. We don’t even know where to start. Eventually, Jana and I move. She to pack food and provisions, and I to prepare the horses. We both knew that the best way to start was to find out where those wolves came from, and we sure aren’t going to be able to do that standing around here.
I get the others to start packing their things, but to pack lightly as we may need to move quickly at some points in our journey. I get the horses ready, though that doesn’t take long as the monks seem to have done most of that for us. Then I go to my room to pack my things. I have a lot to pack, herbs, runes, clothes, my bow and arrows, my sword. I could wear the cloak, and maybe the sword and quiver. I am so glad for Kraine’s gift of the pouch, there are a lot of herbs to bring and you never know what you’ll need.
When I finally have what I’ll need packed into saddle bags, I find Jana loading dried food bags onto one of the horses. “Do you really think we’ll need that much food, Jana? We will find some towns and I can forage very well.” I say this rather jokingly, but I can see Jana doesn’t seem to see it that way. “Hey, what’s wrong? You don’t look so good.”
“I’ve been feeling strange all week. I looked it up, if a centaur is out of their proper form for too long, it can have a very negative affect on them. I think that’s what’s happening to me, I’m fading away. I have to get into my proper form before it’s too late.” I noticed the bags under her eyes and the pale colour of her skin, which I had to look very hard for as she had the naturally dark skin most centaurs are born with.
“Don’t worry, Jana, we’ll find a place for you to run around for a while.” I know how important this is, she could lose her mind if she isn’t in her true form for too long.
Before long, we’re heading out to find the wolves. I have to jump off my horse, Starlight, quite often to search for signs of the wolves. That task isn't as difficult as it normally would be as it rained the day before the attack and it hasn’t rained all week since, therefore the tracks are relatively easy to spot, considering they’re a week old. It's rather quick going, considering the wolves weren’t very organized after the death of the alpha male so there are many tracks breaking off from the main group. We travelled at least twice the speed as we normally would; Seth wanted to move quickly so we wouldn't lose the trail.
As night fell, we set up camp. There wasn’t to much to do besides build a fire and establish where everyone is sleeping, I took all the tack off the horses so they could sleep comfortably.
“We should set up a watch,” I suggested as Jana and I prepared a small supper the first night, “everyone watches for an equal amount of time.”
“Why would we need to set up watch? There are no enemies in this area yet, we’ll be perfectly safe.” I could see that the fact most of the others were brought to the temple when they were about two-years-old prevented Mella from realizing all the reasons for the need of a watch. I learned while travelling to Kraine’s hut from my escorts to always have a watch set no matter where we are.
“We need a watch because, though there are no prominent enemies here, there could still be bandits and wild animals who would have no qualms attacking a group of sleeping teenagers. Besides, it will be good practice for us here, in relatively safe woods, for when we get into more trafficked or hostile areas. The more you wake up, the easier it will be for you in the future. I’ll take first watch, there are five of us and about ten hours for us to sleep in, if you want to wait until full light to move out, so we’ll each get about two hours of watch duty. Whoever’s on last watch should prepare breakfast.”
“I’ll take second watch,”said Seth.
“Then I’ll take third,” I know this is hard for Mella as she does not like getting up in the middle of the night, I admire her determination.
“Ethan can take fourth watch and I’ll take last and prepare breakfast,” announced Jana. As an aside to me she then said, “I’ll be able to run around a little while everyone’s still asleep.” I tell here that’s a good idea.
We all eat dinner, with a few complaints about the portions being to small, and I get set for my watch shift as the others drift to sleep. I must admit, it is rather interesting to have all the skills I learned with Kraine and at the temple being put to use. All the lessons at the temple were basic theory, but this is real life and much more difficult. I’m glad Kraine saw fit to teach me tracking skills, even if we never caught anything with them. The summer stars shine bright on the camp; I string my bow and lay it on my lap as I recall the constellations by their elven names. It makes me think of home.
 Girl of the Dragons · Fri Jul 23, 2010 @ 02:44am · 0 Comments |
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