Forget Swashbuckling
Keeta was not a warrior that was certain to her.
Her first experience with a sword was holding one in the third room of the cave.
She was right next to the deep water hole. The water was clear and pure, but
the hole so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. Walfoulm handed Keeta the
sword and he was about to show her the correct way of holding it when she fell
into the hole, the heavy metal sword weighing her down. She dared not let go,
for it was not her sword and she didn't have any money to pay for it.
Eventually, however, she dropped the sword and tried to swim back up. There
was one flaw; she had no idea how exactly she would swim.
Then she began to panic, the flow of water was
downward, and she was being pulled. She couldn't climb upward, and the rock
around it was worn smooth. She was losing air, she forced her eyes open and
they stung, her vision darkening on the edges and she swayed as the water pulled
her down. Now she only had a little patch that she could see through and her
eyes were drooping. What was the use? Why should I fight the inevitable? She
closed her eyes and was immediately shaken as something plunged into the hole.
She felt someone pulling her up, swimming to the surface as fast as they could.
She lost all consciousness just before Chargoun
pulled her out of the water. The blue Lupe found a dying pulse, but no breath.
He began the usual reviving techniques as Walfoulm left for his staff and powder
pouches (true to his name, he was a wizard). Just as Chargoun had Keeta's nose
held tightly and her head tilted back, and he was about to try and breathe air
back into her body, she squirmed and groggily opened her eyes, nose twitching
irritably. She froze and her eyes opened wide as she took her back legs and
flung him across the room. She launched into a battle stance and Chargoun, as
well as Walfoulm who had just entered the room, thought she would attack him.
Instead, she grabbed her throat and began coughing, falling over dramatically
and twitching.
Chargoun got to his feet and scowled. "To think
I saved her life… Twice!" he muttered as he walked past the chuckling Walfoulm
into the next room.
***
After Keeta had finally mastered her sword (dubbed Element Fighter for no apparent
reason) she went on to learn archery with none other than the now-hated LoveChargoun.
"You don't exactly live up to your entire name,"
Keeta muttered as she dragged the archery target behind her.
Chargoun was cheery, annoyingly so, as usual.
"Ah, yes, but deep down, you do love me," he said and batted his eyes in
her direction, causing Keeta to snort and roll her eyes. Deep down, she wanted
to destroy the perky canine.
She drove the target into the ground where Chargoun
had told her earlier as if plunging it through his chest. "So, can we start?"
she asked dully, walking over to the Lupe, but not getting too close.
"Of course, my lady," Chargoun drawled
on, ceremoniously handed her a bow and quiver of arrows.
"Thank you," Keeta said sarcastically and wrenched
the items from his paws into her own.
"Now, archery is not as easy as it looks,"
he said and sat on his haunches while swinging the quiver over his back and
pulling out an arrow. "This is how you load the bow," he explained and demonstrated.
First, he lined up the arrow in the centre of the bow frame and made sure it
was straight (which is very important) before putting attaching the arrow to
the string. "Now you hold it like this and pull back the string." He held the
lower part of the bow frame with one paw and pulled back the bowstring with
ease. "Aim… and fire!" he exclaimed and shot the arrow at the target, hitting
it dead centre
"Let me try," Keeta said, shoving Chargoun out
of the way. She lifted herself on her hind legs and was a bit wobbly but soon
found her balance. She loaded the bow as she was instructed and held it correctly.
She tried to pull back the string but it was so taught that she only pulled
it back about two inches. She let go and it bounced on the ground harmlessly.
She heard Chargoun's muffled laugh and turned to glare at him, causing him to
look innocent and begin whistling. Keeta rolled her eyes and shook her head
as she loaded another arrow. She tried a new technique. Balancing the bottom
tip of the bow frame in between her toes, she yanked back the string, tried
to hold it in her front paws, but failed as she couldn't keep the string back
and it shot into the air and hit a low-flying Pteri who fell with a squawk.
Both Keeta and Chargoun cringed as Keeta yelled, "Sorry!" in the Pteri's direction.
She tried again, trying to pull back the string
as Chargoun did. She finally did while positioning it at the sky, however, before
she could lower the bow, she let go of it halfway down and it hit FlamingFireCannon
in the shoulder as he began to fly in their direction. Chargoun fell to the
ground in a heap of laughter as Keeta threw down her bow and quiver, fell on
all fours, and ran like there was lightning striking her heels.
Chargoun was still laughing as FireCannon approached.
"You think that's funny?" he boomed, yanking out the arrow and throwing it on
the ground.
"Very!" Chargoun gasped, and began laughing
again.
Well, let us just say that what happened next
caused Chargoun to get back to the NeoRenegade cave limping…
***
Although Keeta practised, she never quite mastered archery, but she was an
excellent swordswoman. She was able to beat Chargoun most of the time, but could
never quite beat Walfoulm, something that was very hard to do. Since she already
knew physical fighting and knife fighting from her Chia-hunting days, she didn't
need to re-learn it. But she did need to learn magic, as did Chargoun.
Walfoulm, of course, taught them both magic.
Keeta caught on quickly, and was soon a master at red magic (or fire magic)
as well as green magic (earthen magic) and did fairly well with other magic
types as well.
Chargoun, however, was a disaster waiting to
happen. He managed to get Walfoulm's tail on fire, cause plants to grow out
of control and punch holes out of the rock in the cave. Not only that, but his
potions usually resulted in someone getting warts and other unpleasant things
all over their body or to fall down in a coughing, laughing, or sneezing fit.
It just was not Chargoun's area of expertise.
"Ameru disdaír Itaku!" Keeta bellowed and grinned
as a strong, swift wind blew through the cave and lifted her up off the ground.
"Amarkst Itaku," she ordered and she was lowered to the ground.
"Very good, Keeta!" Walfoulm applauded, causing
Chargoun to mumble and Keeta to grin. "Now, you, Chargoun," Walfoulm ordered,
turning to a surprised Chargoun.
"Oh… Yes, me…" he muttered and cleared his throat.
"Aredai mardei amerdi Itaku," he said and the room began to shake.
"YOU FORGOT DISNIL AFTER MARDEI!" Keeta screamed
as she grabbed on to the nearest stubby stalagmite.
"Oh…" Chargoun said, flushed, as Walfoulm reversed
the spell.
Walfoulm put a paw on his shoulder. "Do me a
favour," he said.
"Anything," Chargoun said glumly.
"Don't you ever say one word of magic ever again."
To be continued... | 
