“Stop trying to hit it and hit it!” the Tutor called.  Endki gripped the hilt of his bokken and again whacked down at the grey rabbit in front of him.  The oaken tip of the practice weapon embedded in the soft loam, a handspan away from the rabbit.  The Tutor cackled.  “Can’t even hit a rabbit, boy?  Maybe you should quit now and serve soup in Walsuk Tavern until your teeth fall out!”

Endki ignored the man’s taunts.  The Tutor stood on a stone platform in the center of the training square, a closed-off zone filled with rabbits, squirrels, and sweating students.  A few of them seemed to have more luck than Endki, but most were in a similar bind, the tips of their wooden swords covered with dirt and devoid of rabbits.  The Tutor cackled and heckled them mercilessly, his jibes offering no or advice.  As the sun began to drift down from the treetops, Endki watched more and more of the other students throw down their weapons and quit.

“This is hopeless,” one of the would-be students said, throwing down his stick and stomping towards the exit gate.  Another nodded, his stick slipping out of his tired grip and falling to the ground.  Slowly, almost all the other students joined in, and as the sun touched the top of the wall separting the training ground from the rest of the world, Endki found himself almost alone.

“So, still here?” the Tutor screeched.  Endki deliberately faced away from the man as he reached a purple-sleeved arm up to scratch his white beard.  “Sun’s almost gone, and you’ve not slain a one!” the man yelled, even louder now that Endki’s back was turn and there was no one else to draw his attention.  “You won’t get ten, you won’t, you won’t!” he chanted.

“Creative,” Endki muttered to himself, and set himself square against another rabbit.  This one reached up with one long foot and rubbed at it’s ear.  Endki lunged, swinging his sword down powerfully from overhead, hoping to catch the creature in it’s moment of distraction.

He missed the rabbit.  He hit a rock.  Solidly.  The bokken broke with a sharp **crack** and Endki stared at it.

Gales of wheezy laughter came from behind him.  “Defeated by a stone, great hero you are!  Too bad, too bad!”  Endki turned to look at the man and found him leaning back, laughing into the sky.  “Oh, best day of the year, it is.  Their one chance, and they all blow it.  Go ahead, laugh!  Endless potential, useless in execution!  Laugh! It’s the only thing your measly existence—” A sharp **crack** and the old man slumped over, crumpling in half and spilling over the edge of the platform.  He landed on the grass with a soft **thunk** and Endki saw a woman jump down beside him, holding her own bokken beside her.

“Is he all right?” Endki asked the stranger as she strode towards him.

“All right?  You care about that old man?  We’re here to qualify, and his yapping is scaring the rabbits.  That’s part of the trick,” she replied.  “The other part is that we have to work together.  And I couldn’t do that until all the quitters left.  And now it’s just me and you.  And that,” she said, gesturing towards the sun.  “You know the score, once it disappears behind the wall, we lose.  Are you going to help me or not?”

Endki squared himself and faced her.  “I’m not sure you should’ve hit the old man.”

“And I’m going to pass this trial and get admitted to the Kingdoms.  Are you coming with me, or not?” she replied.

Endki looked at her, and then back at the sun.  It touched the top of the wall.  He let the tip of his bokken drop and extended a hand.  “Endki.”

“Clef,” the woman replied.  “And don’t you dare make a Muse joke.”

“I don’t know any jokes about Muses,” Endki said.

“Good, keep it that way,” Clef replied.  “Now, I’ve gotten four.  How about you?”

“None,” Endki admitted.

“Okay,” she replied, “then we’ve got our work set.  Sixteen.  Ten each.”

“What’s your plan?”

“Simple.  They seem to be enchanted in some way.  Notice how they seem really still and just move a tiny bit, barely avoiding your swing?” Clef asked.  Endki nodded.  “I had a bit of luck swinging just to one side of them.  Like I said, I got four, and clipped the tail or foot of another ten or so.  But it’s all a guess.  So I say we team up.  I swing at one side, you swing at the other.  Either way they move, we hit something.  Then chase it down.”  Endki nodded again, and Clef pointed towards a rabbit, munching on a bite of grass seemingly oblivious to them.  He’d seen the scene hundreds of times that day, and every time, his sword bit into nothing.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Here, pick up another,” Clef said, pointing to the discarded wooden blades that littered the ground.  Endki complied, and they spread out to surround the rabbit.  For a moment, Endki contemplated the absurdity; two young humans, carefully picking their way across the grass, trying to surprise a rabbit.  Enchanted rabbit, he reminded himself, the mental image making a difference in his mind.  They got in to position and Clef looked at him, and then nodded.  Endki nodded back.

Like a viper, Clef struck, her bokken darting towards the ground in front of the rabbit.  Endki had his raised over his head when the rabbit leaned out of the way of Clef’s strike, and easily avoided her sword.  His sword crashed down moments later, and the rabbit leaned again, still munching on the grass as they both missed.  Clef growled and attempted another poke, but the rabbit easily leaped over her sword and bounded away.

“What in the Wind was that?” Clef said, turning a glaring face up at Endki.  “It’s a rabbit.  You don’t need to crush it, you need to hit it.”

“Hey, I was!” Endki said, and Clef sighed.

“Look, I don’t have time—we don’t have time.  Shorter strike.  From your wrists and elbows, not your shoulder or back.  Put one hand above the other on the hilt.  See, the top hand pushes, the bottom hand pulls.”  She demonstrated, the wooden sword tilting rapidly in her hand as she exaggerated the motion she wanted him to perform.  Endki copied her and felt immediately felt a difference.  The tip of the wooden blade whistled through the air with a minimum of resistance, moving far faster with less motion than his previous swings.  “Better,” Clef said, “but we don’t have time to practice.  Ready?”

Endki nodded and they tracked down another rabbit, again flanking it.  This one was close to the wall, and Clef set herself against it, motioning for Endki to approach at an angle.  He did, and she mimed the wrist motion again.

“Why aren’t we talking?  It’s a rabbit, it can’t understand us,” Endki asked.  The rabbit turned, looked at him, and casually bounded over the wall.

Clef growled.  “What part of magic rabbit is hard for you to understand?”  Endki held up his hands in protest, and Clef ignored him, stalking away towards another corner of the space.  He trailed after her.  This time, as they flanked the creature, he maintained his silence until her short nod, and their swords swung together.

Endki missed, the rabbit dodging just forward.  Right into the path of Clef’s blade.  With an audible **crack** the rabbit disappeared, and a small number “5” floated in the air where the rabbit had been, formed of blue smoke and quickly disappaiting.

“Hey, I think they’re magic rabbits,” Endki said, turning a smile to Clef.  “And congratulations.”

“Are you dim or are you just—” she began angrily, then saw his smile.  “Ok,” she said, conceding a smile of her own.  “15 more.  And you’ve got to strike ten of them.”  Endki nodded.

Clef crushed three more rabbits before Endki scored his first.  When the smoky “1” drifted up in the air after his bokken connected, he broke into an exhausted, but broad, grin.  Clef didn’t match his expression and simply gestured at the wall.  The sun was halfway hidden behind the wall.  Endki swiveled around, looking for another target.  The rabbits seemed scarcer now, and the shadows of the space deepened with each passing moment.

Three rabbits later, Clef reached 10 and Endki had only 2.  “We need a new strategy,” she said, “or you’re not going to make it.”

“What do you propose?” Endki asked.

“I’m not sure.  Maybe I try to strike weaker, and just stun, so you can finish them off?”

“It’s worth a try,” he agreed.

It worked once, but six attempts rabbits and only the one score later, they had to admit the approach wasn’t consistent.  Then, the breakthrough.

It was the shadow of the rabbit that gave it away.  As the gloom lengthened, the shadows were harder and harder to see, but Endki swore the shadow of the rabbit leaned just a bit before it dodged his weapon.  Two attempts later, he had the pattern down.

“You see!” he pointed excitedly as the smoky “4” floated up from his previous strike.  “They lean.  It is their shadows, watch the shadows.”  Within a few more moments, his total was up to 7, and Clef was dumbstruck.

“I don’t see.  What in the world are you talking about?”

“The shadows!” Endki said excitedly.  “Look, I’ll do this one alone, you just watch.”  Clef nodded and stepped back, and Endki isolated another rabbit. They were getting scarce.  He focused on the creature, forcing his breath out slowly, lining up the tip of his wooden blade with the creature’s head.  He waited for a moment, watching the rabbit, and then it happened.

The shadow… slid.

Like it had tilted before the rabbit itself moved.  A moment later, the rabbit moved in the same direction, and Endki’s strike was there.  A smoky “5” floated into the air.

“Did you see?” he asked, turning to Clef.

“Not even a little,” she said, looking confused.  “Are you sure—”

“It’s the shadow!” he replied.  “Look, I’ll—”

“End,” she replied, “the entire place is covered in shadows.  And that rabbit was standing it the shadow of a tree.  It didn’t cast a shadow at all.”  She pointed to the spot at the ground, indeed deeply covered in the shade of a tree.  The sun was almost gone, and there were very few spots of open ground.  “End, if it’s not a shadow—”

“What did I see?” he asked.

“That’s my question,” she said, and then quickly looked up over the wall.  A single figure stood on top of it, framed by the last bits of the sun.  “Hurry, the Arbiter is here.  No time.”

“Arbiter?” Endki asked.

“No time,” Clef replied, “I need to turn mine in.  Go get your five more!” she ran off towards the figure on the wall.

In moments, Endki had done just that.  The more he practiced, the sharper the shadows… or whatever they were… seemed to be.  Within moments, he could pick a new target, pinpoint how it might move, and strike.  As the final “10” floated into the air and disappeared, Endki turned. 

A new man was sitting on the center platform.  “I am the Arbiter,” he said, “and I suggest you make it through the wall in the next moment or two, or I am afraid you will have failed.”

“But—” Endki began, and turned towards the wall where he’d last seen Clef.  She’d gone, and the previously stone wall had been replaced by large red gate, one half of which was standing open.  As he watched, it flickered.

The Arbiter waved at him from beside the gate, and Endki blinked, trying to figure out how the man had made it there.  And where did the tutor go? he thought.  The Arbitrar shrugged at him and turned, as if to close the gate.  Endki ran, covering the ground faster than he ever had before.  As the portal swung close, he dove at it.

He swore he missed.  He swore it closed in his face, that it thudded shut, that he was trapped.  That he’d failed.  Instead, he landed on a dusty road.  Bewildered, Endki turned, seeking the gate.  Behind him there was nothing but forest.  No wall, no gate, just the setting sun, low over the mountains.

I was running towards the sun, Endki thought.  What—

“Welcome,” a voice said, and Endki turned to see Clef sitting on a boulder next to the road, her wooden sword casually leaned over her shoulder.  “To the Kingdom of the Winds.”