Kedryn gently landed a dozen feet from the silverthread sapling, its presence beckoning him forward to at long last embrace his destiny. His journey through the Spines had been fraught with danger at every step. Where he couldn’t outright claim victory over the myriad of monsters the Spines had thrown his way, he had taken to the skies, dancing between heaven and earth like the Empyral Knights of old.
And like those who had come before him, he would claim his birthright.
Stepping forward with the confidence that comes from decades of conquest, Kedryn reached out his hand. All he had to do was touch the supple bark and attune his heart to the divine harmony that beckoned him… called to him…
“Corporal…” a voice rang out, so loud that it shook the very ground on which he stood. “I am not a wake-up service, so unless you get up in the next 10 seconds, I will assign Croon to be your personal alarm clock.”
“Whassat… ?” Kedryn replied blearily, the dreamscape in which he stood evaporating as his eyes fluttered open to reveal the bearded face of his commanding officer, glaring at him from a mere six inches away.
“Gah!” Kedryn yelped, slamming his head against the wall of his recessed berth as he jerked away from the unexpected site. In his defense, anyone who woke up to the good Captain glaring at them would likely have the same reaction.
“What the hell, sir?” he groaned, cradling his now aching head in his arms. That had hurt!
Both he and Glade were sharing one of the ship’s guest rooms which sported two recessed bunks that some drugged up boat engineer had deemed stylish. Crixus had mentioned something about the design helping guests not fall out of bed or something. Whatever the purpose, it felt like he was sleeping in a coffin. Still, he couldn’t complain. The bunk was the softest bed he had slept on ever since his arrival on Veil, even if it did smell like Gnoll.
“Time to get up,” Glade called over his shoulder, already walking out of the room. “Training begins in 10 minutes. Meet me at the aft of the ship. I recommend wearing something appropriate for movement and that you don’t mind having to wash later.”
Groaning, Kedryn let his head fall back onto his rag filled pillow before glancing out of the thick glass of their sole porthole. The sky was the steel gray color of pre-dawn light.
Memories of the previous night’s celebrations danced to the surface of his thoughts. Sailors and dwarves alike had drunk to their freedom until the dark hours of the night. Someone had even broken open a barrel of grog, a horrid smelling concoction that Krazzik and the others had immediately taken a shine to.
It wasn’t just freedom they had drunk to either, the group having toasted both Glade and Kedryn many times throughout the night. It honestly looked like the group was having a great time and he had been looking forward to joining the celebration when the Captain had pointed out that not only was he still underage, but they both had training the following morning. In short, no alcohol for them.
Yes, he had asked Glade to train him. And technically, he was still a part of the U.S. Army, which meant he might be beholden to their laws and policies. But that shouldn’t have kept him from experiencing his first ever drink fest in a fantasy world!
It wasn’t all bad though. A memory of Krazzik and Crixus having a drink off bubbled to the surface. It had involved everyone separating into teams, a card game, some sort of truth or dare obstacle race, and another barrel of grog. He hadn’t understood the rules, but apparently neither had anyone else.
The high point of his night had been when even Glade, the man with the perpetual frown, had cracked a smile!
Knowing he couldn’t hold off waiting any longer, Kedryn finally mustered the energy to roll out of his warm bunk. Afterall, he was the one who had asked to be trained in the first place.
Shaking his head to clear the residual fog of sleep from his addled brain, Kedryn pulled on his pants and a thick woolen shirt they had found amongst the goods in the hold the previous day. The shirt was far too wide in the chest for him and the pants easily two sizes too big, both clearly having been made for a large human male. But he couldn’t pass up the idea of having fresh clothes.
Yes, they would likely get a little sweaty from the morning’s exercise, but he had become accustomed to a little funk over the past several days. Besides, washing clothes on the ship couldn’t be that hard.
After putting on a pair of thick woolen socks, Kedryn reached for his boots, only to find they weren’t where he had placed them the night before. Curious, he created a candle flame to illuminate the room. They were nowhere to be found.
“Odd…” he mumbled, giving one more cursory look before dousing his magic and leaving his room. He didn’t want to be late, nor did he want to be caught using his magic. Krazzik, Bragden, Riya, and pretty much everyone else in the Slaghammer clan had pulled him aside and warned him not to use any of his pyro magic in front of the humans.
It was strange to him that fire magic was not only banned, but any who practiced it were outright hunted. He would need to be careful how he used his magic in the coming days.
The first couple of warnings had been endearing, even if the dwarves had done so with their typical brand of colorful language. But the experience had quickly changed from endearing to full-on annoyance as it seemed that every single dwarf had taken it upon themselves to warn him of the dangers of using his magic in front of others.
“They aren’t as slagging tolerant as we dwarves are,” Kedryn mimicked Bragden’s last words of advice before stepping over a passed-out human he hadn’t met yet, as well as a couple of dwarves, on his way onto the deck. If it hadn’t been for the sour dwarf’s perpetual scowl, Kedryn would have thought the whole clan was playing some sort of joke on him.
Shivering from the brisk wind, he hurried up the stairs to where Glade was waiting, the gray light of dawn outlined the mountainous backdrop of the Spine Mountains to the east.
From their vantage point, Kedryn could see others strewn about the deck in various states of coherence from the night’s previous celebration.
“Glad you could join me,” Glade said, tossing an unknown bundle to Kedryn before he had finished climbing the stairs to the upper deck.
Kedryn snagged the gear without breaking his stride, his 23 points of dexterity making the movement feel as natural as breathing.
“We’re training with knives today?” he asked, somewhat surprised as he identified the blade.
You have found a Star Silver Dagger! A magically created dagger formed from alloys consumed by a Magma Beetle! Sharpened by a master smith and affixed with a wooden handle wrapped Ice Drake leather, this weapon is not only unique to this world, but it will be difficult to drop. +2 to damage, +2 to grip.
Damage:7-11
Durability: 195/195
Grade: Superb
Rarity: Unique
Value: ?
Note: Enchanted with an unknown temporary enchantment.
The barest of frowns touched Kedryn’s lips. He wasn’t necessarily disappointed with the idea of training with knives. Glade had shown several times to be quite adept at handling this kind of weapon. But when he had asked to be trained, Kedryn had envisioned something… grander. Like learning how to infiltrate an enemy stronghold or something.
Still, knife skills were something he needed to learn, and his higher dexterity would give him an advantage. But if that were the case, wouldn’t it have been smarter to train with blunted training weapons?
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“Bragden enchanted the blades before he and Riya left so we can train without risking ourselves too badly,” Glade said as he began to stretch. “As we discussed last night, we’ll set sail the day after tomorrow, after Patch and his boys have finished moving all the goods to shore. Until then, we’re going to take advantage of the time and train.”
Kedryn nodded, drawing the knife from the sheath to inspect the blade. He had no idea what he was looking for, but it seemed like the responsible thing to do.
Three glowing runes were drawn in faint blue light along the knife’s sparkling blade. He briefly wondered what the runes meant before admiring Gird’s handiwork with the dagger.
“I highly recommend you take the time to warm up,” Glade said, still stretching. “This world may make us faster and stronger as a whole, but it doesn’t prevent us from pulling a muscle or rolling an ankle.”
Kedryn nodded, putting the knife back in its sheath and tying it to his belt. Then he started going through the various warm up drills he had been taught during his time at basic training.
“I’m happy that Crixus was so… excited, after he accepted our offer,” Kedryn said, looking at the passed out Navigator who was leaning up against the helm. The slave collar was off his neck, the man having gleefully nailed the magical item to the bow of the ship as a statement of his freedom. Every other sailor they had freed had quickly followed suit. “After you took his collar off, he practically swore undying loyalty to you.”
“Don’t remind me,” Glade groaned. “But at least we have transportation to… blast. What was the name of that town again? Tamui, Binnuye…?”
“Fennue,” Kedryn chimed in.
“Right, Fennue,” Glade said, his brow furrowed. “Yeah, I’m likely not going to remember that. What I do remember is that from there it’s about 4 days overland to Asylum. We’ll help Bragden and Gent settle affairs with the Dwarvish Consulate, sell off or trade what we can for what supplies we need for us and for Storms’ Rest, and then you me and Riya will head out to her people.”
“It sounds like we should arrive with plenty of time to spare for the quest,” Kedryn said happily.
“Let’s hope it stays that way. Also, I’m going to be keeping my ear to the ground for any of our teammates along the way. I’d appreciate it if you would do the same.”
“That goes without saying,” Kedryn said, though he wondered how they were going to find any of them. He didn’t know how large Veil was, but it had to be as large as Earth. The analogy of finding a needle in a haystack felt too simplistic for this kind of problem. It was more like trying to find the one black grain of sand amidst miles and miles of white sandy beaches.
Before he could really comprehend the enormity of the task, Glade interrupted his thoughts.
“Before we begin, I wanted to get a general understanding of your fitness level and experience. I don’t need your physical fitness scores or anything like that, but any generalized talents, like sports, athletics, martial arts and the like would help me be aware of what areas I need to pay special attention to.”
“Sure,” Kedryn said with as much nonchalance as he could muster, though inside he cringed. This was not one of his favorite topics. “My dad wanted me to try out a lot of different activities growing up. So, I played a variety of sports, including basketball, soccer, and baseball. I also swam on my high school swim team and did some track and field events. Mostly hurdles. Sorry, I never got into martial arts or hunting. In fact, the first time I shot a gun was in basic training.”
“Were you any good?” Glade asked.
“With what part?” Kedryn asked back, though he was certain he already knew what the Captain was going to say.
“To all of it.”
“Not… really,” Kedryn said, dreading the judgment that was most assuredly going to follow such a statement. Though, he didn’t want to lie either. If Glade was taking the time to train him, then the man needed to know the truth. And the truth was that he had been terrible. Emphasis on the past tense.
“You don’t have to answer this question if you don’t want to, but I’m going to ask it anyway,” Glade said, not bothering to look up as he did some weird yoga move that didn’t look at all natural. “Why do you think you weren’t good?”
Kedryn grimaced, his mind actively resisting flashing back to those horrible, recurring moments that played out again and again, regardless of which sport his father had decided to inflict on him.
“I mean, I liked swimming alright. It was just me and the water, you know? I didn’t have to worry about…” he was going to say the others on his team, but that probably wasn’t something the good Captain needed to hear. Instead, he transitioned to, “… dropping the ball, or missing a shot. You know, being the weak link. I can be honest with myself; I didn’t have great coordination back then. But, problem solved, right?”
He accentuated his point by going into a handstand.
Glade wasn’t smiling. In fact, he wasn’t even looking at him. All he was doing was continuing with his warmup routine.
“Let me guess,” he said in an all too serious voice. “You were picked last, ignored, benched because you didn’t know the plays, and when you were put in, it felt like your own team either played keep away from you or blamed you for losing them the game because you were totally and utterly lost on the field. Am I close?”
Kedryn more flopped than rolled from his handstand onto his back, his embarrassment evident as he looked away from his commanding officer.
“How did you know?” he choked out, embarrassment flooding through him. Why? Why was he feeling this way now of all times? It wasn’t like Glade had been responsible for his personal shortcomings.
“Thought so,” Glade sighed. “I’ve seen it more times than I care to admit. Hell, I exploited those kinds of weaknesses when playing other teams.”
“You’re telling me you bullied…?”
“What?” Glade looked taken aback. “No! You’ve taken the wrong point! I didn’t bully anyone. More like conducted targeted psychological operations against precocious teenagers on other teams.”
Kedryn must have shown his confusion because Glade stopped his warmup and focused on him.
“Let me explain. When I played football, me and my boys would target the overzealous idiots who thought they were the kings of their little fiefdoms. You know the type. The ones who think they are god’s gift to mankind, and everyone should appreciate their presence.”
At Kedryn’s nod of understanding, Glade continued.
“Once we identified them, which honestly isn’t that hard, we would steadily apply concerted pressure on them until they broke. We would usually start small, like goading them into a false start, or double up on them when we blitzed. Simple things that most wouldn’t take notice of. But we would do it as a team. Consistently. As time passed, the pressure would get to the little starlets and they would begin to lose control, which would then affect team dynamics. We got so good at it, that by half time, our opposition would be so busy fighting among themselves that we could practically walk the ball into the endzone.”
A troubled look crossed Glade’s face as he paused for a moment.
“The unfortunate drawback to our strategy was that these same starlets often took out their frustrations on others. It was what usually began the team’s breakdown. It is a sad truth that mankind first looks for faults in others before first looking at themselves.”
“I don’t know sir, that sounds like bullying to me,” Kedryn said, wondering just how scary this man really was if he had been doing those kinds of things before joining the military. “And messed up. I mean, these were high school football teams, right? Did your coach know what you were doing?”
“In a way you’re right, it was a form of bullying. It is also human nature to exploit weaknesses in others, especially in sports. Was it right for us to do that? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. But we’re getting off track,” Glade waived Kedryn off. “What I wanted you take away from this conversation is that team dynamics are everything. Talent is essential to any endeavor, but self-indulgent starlets with no concept of teamwork are nothing more than a catastrophe waiting to happen. In your case, you didn’t experience anything like a team. You were neglected, which is even worse. Do you know why?”
Was it just him, or was this conversation distinctly uncomfortable?
“Because… I was neglected?” he ventured.
“That is part of it,” Glade said with a nod. “But more so because the team suffered for not having access to your unique talents. Since our arrival, we have benefited from your alternative solutions to challenging problems. Don’t get me wrong, your education gap in basic tactics is woefully inadequate.”
“Ouch,” Kedryn winced.
“But what you lack in knowledge you more than make up for in your eagerness to learn. You not only have proven yourself under pressure, but you have learned to thrive on this backwards world. All good qualities that I have benefited from. What you experienced growing up were people who consistently fell into the trap of failing to develop the talent available. Its why in the Army we train to a minimum standard for everybody who joins. Understand?”
“I think so,” Kedryn said, trying to reorient his thoughts. “What you’re saying is that my teams when I was younger should have involved me from the beginning?”
“Sort of,” Glade said. “What I am saying is that your team was responsible for developing you from the beginning. Not just your coach, but the entire team. Only through deliberate development can a team flourish and avoid falling apart because some over inflated idiots can’t accept their own mistakes.”
“Ok…” Kedryn said, taking the time think about what Glade was saying. “But what does that have to do with what you’re about to start teaching me?”
“Everything,” Glade said, standing up from his stretching. “What we are about to undertake is going to stretch you both mentally and physically. I can’t promise I’m going to get it right, seeing as we don’t have proper facilities, a dedicated cadre of training officers, or even a valid training curriculum. What I can promise is that I will endeavor to share with you everything I know to the best of my ability, which includes how to endure under pressure, the ability to think when everything around you is going to hell, and above all, how to trust in those around you. That said, I’m going to ask you one more time, do you really want me to train you? After this, there is no going back.”
Kedryn jumped up from the deck, his heart pounding with excitement. This is exactly what he had been hoping for.
“Yes sir!” he cried, grinning from ear to ear. “What are we going to learn first?”
Thoughts of hand-to-hand combat flit through his mind as he remembered the knife strapped to his waist. He quickly cast his gaze around the upper deck, noting several sailors and dwarves scattered about. Maybe he should suggest they move the unconscious men to the side before they begin?
“This first event,” Glade said, stepping in close, “is about learning to trust your team leader while you are finishing your own task.”
“What’s my task?” Kedryn asked eagerly.
“Your job is to make it to the shore alive,” Glade said with a smile. “My job is to make sure nothing eats you along the way.”
Before Kedryn could process the entirety of what his commanding officer had just said, Glade’s strong hands grabbed him by the collar of his new shirt and tossed him over the railing.