Captain Strykar strode over to me and Darren, followed closely by the guards who were watching, most of whom were still laughing. When Darren saw the Captain approaching, he stopped struggling and instead began to whine.
“Captain! Sir! Tell this wench to let me out of here!” he called, tugging against the trunk with his free hand.
The Captain paused in front of him just long enough to look over my handiwork before turning away to face me without a word. Darren continued to plead with him, while the other guards surrounded him and began to mock him.
“Not bad,” Captain Strykar said to me. “You were too hesitant to attack in the beginning, but you recovered fairly well.”
Ooh, SUCH high praise.
“Thank you sir,” I said.
He nodded back to Darren. “Although, since he still has his weapon in his hand and you do not, the win goes to Darren.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “That’s ridiculous! The condition was to disarm your opponent, and HE did not disarm me. Arguably his inability to move should count to him being the one disarmed!”
The Captain tilted his head at my outburst. “Hmm, however it was Darren’s attack which caused you to fling your sword at him, thereby he is responsible for your lack of weapon at this moment.”
“Ugh,” I sighed with frustration, scuffing a foot into the dirt. I couldn’t really argue if he put it that way. “Fine, I suppose that’s true.”
Wait, did I just yell and argue with a noble? Oh shit.
“I’m so sorry sir, please forgive my attitude. I was..hopped up on adrenaline and didn’t realise what I was..”
Captain Strykar held up his hand, and my excuses trailed off before I could finish. “Don’t apologise,” he said, voice calm. “I believe it’s important for those under my care to be able to tell me when they feel I’m wrong without repercussion. And since I will be leading the group travelling to the capital, you will be under my care.” He gave me a crooked grin, hand dropping away. “I’m just glad you got over your awkwardness before we left.”
“Huh,” I said, taken aback by his response. “Alright then.”
This man is by far the strangest noble I’ve ever heard of.
The Captain nodded his head towards Darren, who was cursing at all the guards surrounding him. “Let him out now.”
I held out my hand towards Darren, opening my hand to feel the flow of my magic head towards the tree, and clenching it shut to force the transformation in reverse. In a few seconds, my original wooden sword clattered to the ground, and Darren staggered as he was released. He recovered his balance without falling over, and looked over at me with a glare.
“Jeeze Darren,” Ethan said, giving Darren a thump on his shoulder while laughing. “How could you loose to a civilian with little training? So embarrassing.”
Darren shoved Ethan away, seeming to bristle even more. “I didn’t loose! You heard the Captain, she lost her weapon so the win is mine.” It sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth.
“Sure bud,” Ethan said with a shrug. “Whatever you say.”
Darren stalked away, tossing his wooden sword hard at the weapons rack. The group of guards all snickered at him, clearly enjoying his upset. Captain Strykar frowned after him, but didn’t stop or reprimand him and instead turned back to focus on me.
“How much magic energy do you have left? Can you fight another round?” he asked, head tilted slightly to the side.
“Oh, yeah I still have plenty left,” I told him, flexing my hand and having the branches of fig tree arched around the fighting ring to retract back underground.
The Captain pursed his mouth. He looked at me assessingly, and almost seemed to be waiting for me to say something. Perhaps he didn’t believe me? Turning to the group of onlookers, he beckoned one over. “Clara, you’re up next,” he called.
A woman with vibrant red hair and a splash of freckles over her nose stepped forward. “Aye sir.”
For the remainder of the morning, the Captain had me spar with all of the guards who would be travelling with me to the capital. All were far more skilled than I was, but not so much as the Captain. I didn’t manage to win a single one. A couple times I managed to come close, almost knocking the sword from my opponent’s hand, but never actually managed to succeed. I was less hesitant to go on the offensive using my magic as I had been with Darren, making good use of the underground fig to try and trip or wrap up my opponent.
By lunch time, I’d suffered my eleventh defeat for the day, and Captain Strykar seemed to take pity on me.
“That’s enough for today,” he called out to all of us. “Go rest up for the rest of the day. We’ll be leaving for the capital at dawn tomorrow, don’t be late.” Then without waiting for a response, he turned and began walking back in the direction of the mansion.
I sat heavily on the dusty ground, legs aching and tired and breath coming in laboured gasps, and let my wooden practice sword fall next to me. The group of guards slowly dispersed, some walking off in pairs and talking as they did. Jayce, who I had just finished sparring with, came up to me and offered a hand to help me up. I accepted it with a groan, letting him pull me back onto my feet.
“You did well,” he said to me, patting my shoulder and giving me a reassuring grin. “Don’t forget we’ve been training like this for years, not everyone can hold their own as well as you did when they have almost no experience.”
“He’s right,” Clara said as she approached us. “And how much damn magic energy do you have? I thought you would have passed out from overexertion by the fourth match.”
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I scratched my neck. “The normal amount?” I said, feeling a bit unsure.
Jayce and Clara glanced at each other, eyebrows raised, before Clara turned back to me with a small shake of her head. “..No, no you certainly don’t just have the normal amount,” she said, delicate eyebrows lowered in a slight frown. “Most people can’t pour out nearly constant amounts of magic for a few hours and still remain conscious afterwards. Even amongst the Lycan guard, it takes us years of training to be able to use our magic constantly for two hours at a time.”
Jayce was nodding in agreement. I chewed the inside of my lip while I considered. “Well, both my father and brother have similar amounts of magic to me. Maybe an earth magus just naturally have larger amounts than a fire magus?” I suggested.
Clara hummed and crossed her arms while she considered, and Jayce scratched his head. “I haven’t heard anything like that before, but..maybe?” he said.
“Aah, who knows?” Clara sighed with a shrug. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. It will be helpful having someone with such a large magic capacity.”
I left Jayce and Clara at the training grounds, bidding them farewell for the day and trudging my way back to the mansion. After a quick lunch and bath back in my room, I collapsed onto my bed and sighed as my weary body relaxed into the soft mattress.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning, I was sitting atop the same horse I had ridden into Windscar, only this time I was leaving the city. I had my cloak wrapped around me against the cool air and the hood up over my head, which muffled the clatter of the horses hooves and clink of armour and weapons. A hint of orange light could be seen on the horizon behind us, beginning to shine on the large mountain range in the distance. Small birds zipped and swooped overhead, chasing insects for their breakfast, and I could hear the occasional small animal startle in the grass next to the road as we passed and scamper away.
I rode near the middle of the group, Clara riding on her horse next to me as the first one assigned as my guard. Captain Strykar and Duke Strykar fronted the group, leading the way down the road which would take us east through the mountains. The rest of the guard rode in pairs in front and behind us, none speaking as we moved further and further away from the slowly waking city.
The mood was tense, everyone on edge and twitching at the slightest sound nearby. Captain Strykar had advised everyone that the area directly around Windscar was a high risk of ambush from the Tarnished, since they would be able to blend in with the groups of people coming and going from the nearby farms at this time of morning. The few groups of people we did come across on the road all gave us a wide berth, going so far as to walk well off the road in order to avoid us, apparently picking up on the atmosphere around us.
As the sun rose higher and began warming the air around us, everyone gradually began to relax a bit. Quiet banter began to be shared amongst the guards, and hands were no longer gripping the handle of their weapons. I removed my cloak, no longer needing its protection, and breathed the fresh air deeply. I hadn’t realised it until we’d put some distance between us and Windscar, but being essentially confined within a crowded city had been horribly suffocating. The smell of so many people living against one another was cloying, nothing like the sweet scent of green grass budding flowers I was used to.
Gradually, the neatly kept fields of farmland made way for long stalks of a pale yellow-green grass that shifted and swayed in the wind. It reminded me of the sea, with its endless movement and whispering shushing sound. There was no longer the occasional house to be seen in the distance, and any travellers along the road had stopped appearing once we’d passed the last residence.
I became more comfortable with Clara as we rode, eventually beginning to talk with her. She had an incredibly sarcastic sense of humour, which reminded me very much of my family, so chatting felt very familiar.
“So, what was that Darren guy’s problem yesterday?” I eventually asked, recalling his sour attitude before and after the spar. “He seemed to have a pretty large chip on his shoulder.”
Clara snorted. “Yeah, he’s a real peach,” she responded with a roll of her eyes. “He’s the youngest son of some noble or other, got a real superiority complex. He’s always complaining about being assigned posts he thinks are beneath him, and refuses to do most chores around the barracks. Not being able to instantly beat you must’ve been a real blow to his pride.” She chuckled darkly. “He’ll probably start coming up with excuses as to why he couldn’t win.”
“I bet he’ll say Rowan cheated somehow,” Jayce called cheerily. He was riding just behind us, and edged his horse a bit closer. “That’s what he said the last time he lost to me.”
“But you did cheat,” retorted Ethan as he rode alongside Jace. “You oiled the handle of his sword so it slipped out of his hand in the first few minutes of the fight.
Jayce put a hand to his chest, looking offended. “I didn’t do that to cheat! I didn’t know he was going to challenge me to spar that day, I’d oiled his handle hoping he would drop it on his foot during the training.”
Clara and I laughed while Jayce and Ethan began bickering. At one point Clara told Jayce and Ethan they sounded like an old married couple, which caused them to unit against her in their arguments. Their playful banter provided welcome entertainment as the morning progressed. We paused for lunch as scraggly trees began to appear more frequently throughout the landscape, doing little to provide any shade from the harsh sun. I found myself wiping drops of sweat from my face, wishing I’d thought to buy a hat while still in Windscar.
Clara seemed to notice this, and handed me a slightly battered straw hat. “It’s my spare one,” she explained when I tried to refuse. “You can use it until you can buy one.”
I thanked her, glad to have the bit of protection from the sunshine the hat gave me. Our lunch break was short, Duke Strykar and the Captain ordering us to get moving and make the most of the light. The trees soon began to become thicker and bushier, soon beginning to combine into a very sparse forest with small shrubs collecting beneath them. The road we travelled on curved further south over the afternoon until the mountain range we were heading towards was sitting to our right.
Halfway through the afternoon, signs of civilisation began appearing once more, signalling our approach to the town that sat at the entrance of the mountain pass. Carts carrying freshly felled trees began to share the road with us. The large, sturdy horses pulling the carts nickered at our horses as we passed them, and the people driving the cart would stare at us curiously.
Before long, the outskirts of the town of Lindow became visible. Humble stone buildings with thatched roofs lined the cobblestone road, its residents moving about to conduct their daily business. A large dam butted up against the town, glimmering orange from the sun. It caught the cold fresh water which constantly flowed from the mountains, spilling over the dam wall to the east where it mingled with the salt water that pushed in from the sea. Small boats were lined up along a few piers that hovered over the water, fishermen hauling in their catch for the day.
Captain Strykar signalled for us all to pull off into a small clearing before the town, the few old stone fire pits scattered around the short grass showing the area to be a traveller’s area. Everyone dismounted, removing the packs and saddlebags from the horses before taking the saddles off to give them a break for the night. The members of the Lycan guard began to set up camp. They moved in almost perfect unison, each person clearly having done these tasks often enough that they no longer needed to be instructed on what to do. I stood to the side, feeling a bit useless. I didn’t want to get in their way, but not helping in some way was bothering me quite a bit.
Noticing me standing to the side, Ethan called out to me. “Hey Rowan! You any good at cooking?”
“I’m.. alright at it. I can at least manage not to poison anyone,” I replied while scratching my neck.
“Ah then you’re already better than Hunter and Clara, can you get the food started for us?” he asked, pointing to the pile of packs holding the cooking supplies and food.
I gave him a smile and nod, then moved to the nearest fire pit to begin.