The three rabbits were scattered around the small clearing. One was off to the left and the other two were sitting side by side gnawing on a bush. My fingers twisted as I chanted the words to Snowball. I held it by my chin in the right hand, walked three steps forward and chucked it underhanded.

The moment I did, my hands started twisting through the runic shapes they had to make for Summon Lesser Beast. I held the horn in my right hand and chanted as the snowball rolled towards its target, the two rabbits sitting side by side. STRIKE! I mean, not really, I just hit with the snowball right at where the rabbits were side by side. It felt like a strike, though.

They turned with fury in their little beady eyes and started that leaping, bounding charge they do. As they ran, I continued to chant, holding the horn like a talisman. The two angry, frostbitten bunnies approached as my chant drew to its close.

I said the last syllables as they both leapt. Ducking, I held out the horn like a spear. One of the horned rabbits sailed over my head. The other impaled himself on the horn. It wasn’t a devastating injury, but did stop his jump. The beast fell at my feet. There he was, impaled by my summoned horned bunny.

I scrambled for my shield, the surviving rabbit gathering himself to leap again. It jumped just as I grabbed the leather strap. Rolling on the ground, I tried to turn the defensive disk so it would be between and getting stabbed.

Didn’t make it.

-3 hp

I had the shield now, and my right hand went to my belt, drawing my tomahawk. The bunny sized me up and was impaled by my summons. I whooped in victory. The summoned horned rabbit twitched its black ear at me.

“Come on buddy, let’s get that last one!” I yelled and stepped out from behind the bush. The horned rabbit was around fifteen feet away. I charged, my summons leaping and bounding beside me.

The bunny saw us coming and also charged. I met it in the air with my shield, deflecting it to the ground where it was impaled by my summons. 400 pounds of raw dwarven sexuality was too much for a fifteen pound rabbit to take on. The summoned bunny poofed out of existence. I gathered the three tails. One left.

I harvested the last tail with no problems. Grinning ear to ear, I exited the training dungeon. Instructor Falaise met me at the door. “Nice work!”

“Thanks! I felt really good about that.” I said with a smile.

“That volcano strider form you taught me. That’s a shield style, isn’t it?” I asked.

“It can be.” She nodded. “The more advanced forms are used by dwarven monks that don’t typically use shields. So it teaches general defense, but is certainly applicable to the shield.”

I passed Elyse going to take her turn. She looked pretty glum since being removed as squad leader. I raised my hand in a high five position as I approached her. “Get it!” I whooped as she looked up with surprise and slapped my hand out of reflex.

I caught a toothy reptilian grin as she went towards the door. That made me feel good. I went into my room and told everyone what I’d learned about the martial arts styles we were being taught.

We got word that evening, 19 more trainees had passed. That included Jackson and Izzy! Our entire room had earned their first priority point. Another trainee died. Gideon from fourth squad. I shook my head, concentrating on the positive.

“So Jax, where did you put the point?” I asked.

“Combat.” He flexed his bicep and it looked like he’d put on some size. “My attribute points went into strength and agility.”

“It’s wild how that happens. Back in the world you’d have to work out for weeks to get those types of results.” Niobe opined from her bunk. “Here you just put a few points in the right spots and bulk right up.”

“Izzy, how about you?” I asked.

“Magic.” The sea elf told us. “I still can’t learn any new spells, but I have a lot more castings per day of the ones I do have.”

The next day after physical fitness, I was back in the kitchen. Julian put me to breaking snap peas. It was mindless work, so I chatted with the women. The cut little girl was back, hiding in her mom’s skirts and peeping out at me.

“She sure is a cutie.” I told her mom, whose name I had learned was Karlinda.

“My thanks. People say she looks like me.” The woman smiled. She’d been beautiful in her youth but the hard life of a middle ages peasant was wearing her down fast. I didn’t dare ask how old she was, but probably well under thirty even though she looked forty-five.

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“Have you always lived here?” I asked the two women.

They both laughed. “No.” The older one, called Leandra, answered. “This is a veteran’s colony. Our men got paid out of the army and given land grants. This castle was abandoned and only a handful of hovels dotted the valley.”

“Aye, our men are cutting trees and proving land for farming next year to support the castle.” Karlinda told me.

“It’s powerful hard work too, especially with the way the ground is frozen.” Leandra shook her head.

“We work here in the kitchen for good coin. It helps until the farm pays for itself.” Karlinda told me. “This whole area was abandoned. The old lord died many years ago without an heir, so the title reverted to the crown. A drunken old knight was retired here to see to the grant, but he half drank himself to death before the doctor took it over.”

“Is it normal, having a gnomish noble in a human kingdom?” I asked.

Both women shook their heads. “No one ever heard of such. Gnomes usually keep to their crannog’s away from humanity. That Mingelt is an odd one.” Karlinda confided.

“Speaking of that, this gathering being trained is the talk of the valley. All the races working together. Fae Elves and Ogres.” Leandra gave a confused smile while shaking her head. “Who’d a heard of anything like that?”

“So this is a human kingdom?” I asked.

“It is, of course.” Leandra nodded.

“Mike!” Julian called from the back of the kitchen. “Take these out to the guards on the wall.” He handed me a bunch of baskets of food with heated rocks at the bottom. ”The storms blowing up. They’ll need this to keep warm. Once you get back, I’ll have hot drinks for you to run out there.”

“Ach, that means it’ll be difficult to get back home.” Leandra shook her head. “Hope it blows over soon.” I took the baskets. They weren’t heavy and with my long arms I could carry eight at a time. That had me using my feet to open the door, which is when I discovered my feet were almost as good as hands. Not quite as dexterous, but strong.

Once the door opened to the parade ground, the wind howled in. There was light sleet or snow coming with it, but mainly it was just freezing wind that seemed to cut right through you. I had to lean into it and ran over to the first tower.

The first manned guard station outside was at the top of the tower. Two humans were huddled around a smoky brazier. “Thank the gods.” The first one that saw me said. They each took a basket.

“How many of you are up here?” I asked.

“Three per tower in this type of weather.” The guard told me. They had fur-lined cloaks wrapped around their armor with hoods pulled up over their heads. Leather gloves covered their hands.

“Aye. That’s one looking out from the tower. One on patrol and one recovering from patrol.” The second guard, a bearded human with salt and pepper hair, told me.

“How many towers are there?” I asked. The salt and pepper guy seemed to be in charge, so my question was directed at him.

“Uh,” He counted on his fingers. “Let’s see, four corner bastions. The two gates, one north and one south, each have two towers. Then the two in the center of the east and west walls. That’s ten, right?” He looked at his fellow, who was tearing into the warm bread and sausages.

That guy gave a muffled, “I fink tho.” around the bread. I took that as assent.

“How do the patrols work?” I asked. “I’m trying to figure out how best to distribute these baskets.”

“Well, there’s the tower leader.” Salt and pepper beard told me around the warm sausage he’d bitten into. ”Then there are two patrols, one going left and one going right. The patrollers go from tower to tower.”

Another guard came up the stairs from below. “Oh, great!” He said and got his basket. “Thanks mate.” He sat down near the brazier and ate his bread and sausages.

The north door to the tower opened. Wind screamed into the tiny stone room. The brazier guttered. A guard entered and slammed the door behind him. He leaned his halberd against the wall and went to the brazier, holding his hands out over it. “Cold as a witch’s teats out there.”

“What would you know about teats McGilvary?” The first guard, now finished with his meal, put his basket down and wiped his face. McGilvary made what I assume was a rude gesture, making fists and knocking them together in the first guard’s direction. They all laughed as the first guard took a halberd and opened the door. He leaned out into the wind, going on patrol. The door boomed shut.

I handed the new arrival a basket. He nodded thanks and tore into the still warm bread. “There usually aren’t so many on normal wall duty.” Salt and pepper beard told me. “But it’s hard to see in these conditions and the commander knows we’ll likely hide from the wind in the tower.”

I nodded, the glimmerings of a plan forming. “Okay guys, off to the next tower. Stay warm.” They all wished me the same. I just ran along the top of the wall to the next tower. Visibility was next to nothing. I could hardly see the wall, much less the ground below. Keeping my hand on the crenels, I slowly made my way into the wind.

Getting to the other tower, I handed out my baskets. One guy had already gotten one, so he got skipped. I slowly made my way to the next tower and handed out my last two. The guards were all huddled around their braziers for warmth and barely acknowledged me.

Back down the stairs and across the parade ground. In the middle of the cleared area, I encountered Izzy. She’d been used to bring hot food to the guards as well. She was skipping along with a huge smile on her face.

“Don’t you LOVE this weather?” She asked.

I was hunched over, moving into the wind. Sleet had frozen my moustache to my beard. I cracked the silver wires of my hair so I could open my mouth. “I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. In case it’s a serious question, no, I do not.”

“Really?” She cocked her head to the side as if curious. I noticed she wasn’t wearing furs like I was.

“You’re serious? You don’t mind this?” I waved an arm, taking in the whole area.

“Back in our world, I was ALWAYS cold!” She said, jumping up in the air and twirling around. “Here, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.”

“Ugh, stupid elf.” I grumbled. “Literally doesn’t have sense to come in out of the rain.”

“Aw, is the big tough dwarf intimidated by a superior race?” She teased. We went back into the kitchen to grab the hot drinks.