Ballad of the Faerie's Champion: Lessons - Part One

Queela reached a back leg up, scratching her ear. The Werelupe glanced over to where her two companions were lying, still dozing in the midmorning sun. The bright midmorning light gave their brown pelts a golden ripple, but this did nothing to lessen their ferocious appearances. With great hulking muscles, razor teeth, and long black claws, they had no need to fear sleeping out in the open. No creature would dare to approach them, even in their sleep.

     The rolling hills of the Brightvale countryside was an odd locale to see Werelupes- usually they didn't leave the forests. But here were three of them, snoozing out in the grass like hulking brown fur-rugs.

     With a grunt, Queela lumbered over to the two males and cuffed first one, then the other.

     "Orin, Tibbit," she growled. "Up."

     The other Werelupes growled, snapping up at her instinctively in their half-asleep states. But they lowered their heads submissively when the realized who it was, casting their green eyes downwards respectfully.

     "Let's move," she growled. "We'll reach Abyssal Acres by moonrise, and we can finally start searching for the little runt-squire that humiliated us tomorrow."

     "Are you sure the bratling is still alive?" Tibbit asked. "I make it a point to chew my food thoroughly."

     Queela's hackles rose, and she arched her neck over Tibbet's prone form, making him hunker downwards in instinctive submission.

     "Unlike you, I see if the prey-creatures have anything interesting to say before I attack," she snarled. "And they talk much of a Bori brat that was transformed by Illusen's magic after he saved a fief from Werelupes. Can you think of aught else it could be?"

     Orin looked off into the distance. The open fields eventually gave way to the harsh mountains that would lead to Drackon Ridge... and the fief Abyssal Acres beyond it. Through the pass ahead there was a massive storm, like a wall holding back the blue sky and golden sunlight that was soaking up the dew from the Werelupe's fur.

     That stormy area was their destination; a month prior their pack had allied with a group of bandits to move against the fief. Though the bandits had been chipping away at Abyssal Acres for weeks, the Werelupes had only come into the conflict at the last minute, meaning to surprise and overwhelm the defenders. And they'd almost succeeded.

     Except for that blasted Bori. He and his little friends had found out, and warned Illusen in time to stop the attack. Queela, Tibbit, and Orin, who'd been the ones caught and also the ones to let the brats escape, had been soundly beaten and exiled from the pack for their incompetence.

     "His friends went to find Illusen, but this time we'll make sure his friends are not around to save him," Queela snarled, padding over to the road. "We'll finish what we started- and get revenge for our disgrace and exile."

     * * * * *

     Squire Garrett Diamonte of Brightvale was lying on his back in gooey, brown-black mud. From the way it was seeping through his chainmail and into the fur on his back, he'd probably sunk at least an inch into the stuff. At least at that particular moment it wasn't raining, which was a tremendous blessing. It always seemed to be raining at this thrice-cursed fief where he'd been exiled with his knight-master after speaking defiantly to their king.

     He sat up, wincing at the loud slurping noise his slim body made as he pulled free of the mud. Thought it was hard to make out his exact pelt color under all the goop, the crumpled and sore faerie wings that were revealed when he rose gave the game away. He'd only recently acquired the things, and he still wasn't used to them- or the way they hurt whenever he landed on his back during a fight. He stood shakily, giving himself a cursory pat down to get the worst of the drying muck off. As he did so, a bright scarlet tabard was revealed, looking almost gaudy against the brown all around him. He lifted his visor, revealing the sky blue face of a faerie Bori. He pushed a sweaty lock of his midnight blue hair away from his eyes, his fingers brushing a jagged, diagonal scar across his right cheek as he did so.

     He was normally a quiet, introspective young Bori. It took a great deal of cajoling for most people to make him speak his mind or venture an opinion. It was much more in his nature to meekly go along with whatever he was ordered to do, and politely defer to those in authority.

     However, his purple Uni partner Ohu was an exception to this rule.

     "You're trying to dump me," he said accusingly as he stood, shaking out his shield arm to relieve the ache building in it from repeated impacts of his master's sword. "Ain't no way all this bucking is needful."

     "'There's no way,' not 'ain't no way' and 'needed,' not 'needful,'" Ohu retorted, "And of course I'm trying to dump you. It's part of your training to learn how not to get dumped. No, I don't need the fancy moves in a one-on-one practice duel, but on the battlefield there's no telling what could happen. Besides, maybe if I send you flying often enough, you'll figure out how to actually use those wings of yours instead of them just being inconvenient decorations for your back. Now stop complaining and defend yourself, boy."

     Gary could hear the soft chuckling of his knight master across the field, and he bit back a groan.

     "I thought you wanted a knight to train you properly," the blue Draik called teasingly. "It's part of my job to dump you in the dirt. Bruises teach better than a lecture ever could; you'll master this faster if I don't hold back, because you'll work harder to avoid accumulating more such injuries."

     Gary flicked his ear in acknowledgement of this. The man-at-arms who had trained him when he was a page often expressed a similar opinion. And the young squire couldn't deny the justice of it. After all, if he kept getting smacked in the same place over and over, eventually he'd work out where the opening was that kept letting those painful blows in. But he just couldn't seem to master mounted combat- it was as if his bum and Ohu's saddle were the same magnetic pole, and were constantly being forced apart.

     The blue Draik led his own speckled mare, Corey, back to their starting mark. "Ready to go again?" the knight called mercilessly. Gary sighed, and reached up a hand to Ohu's neck, feeling the Uni's bristly military-short mane scraping his riding glove. With a grunt, he hauled himself back up into the saddle.

     "Yes sir, Master Valrigard."

     Gary had very quickly learned to hate this muddy field out by the Drackon River. Thought at first glance it was an unassuming place- an open field intersected by a broad river and surrounded on almost every side by high rocky cliffs- for the young squire it represented everything that had gone wrong with his life over the past few weeks. It was where he and his friends had been ambushed by bandits a month ago, where he'd almost lost his life in an entirely one-sided fight against a trio of Werelupes, and it was really the only place open enough to practice mounted combat.

     But at least Valrigard was a patient teacher, and he had a good sense of humor about his squire's limitations. If the Draik shown the sort of disappointment Gary felt he had every right to, the squire might well have been entirely miserable every moment he spent out here.

     Gary gave his wings a few short flaps, trying to uncrumple them to alleviate some of the soreness. Given the chance he'd not have chosen faerie as a coloration for himself- it certainly made him more vulnerable in combat. He'd been yellow up until that Werelupe fight, with short coarse fur. Now, thanks Illusen's efforts to save his life, he was pale blue, with flowing silky fur and two large gossamer wings sprouting from his back. He still wasn't entirely used to the change.

     Then the squire pulled his visor back down, and focused again on Valrigard. Unlike Gary, who favored a short arming sword and shield in combat, the muscular Draik used a two-handed longsword. There was more force and reach to Valrigard's weapon, but Gary's strategy offered better defense. Of course, all the weapons, including both Uni's horns, were heavily padded. This was meant to be practice, not a death match. But the metal and bone under the padding was still hard enough to bruise.

     There was no signal. One moment Gary and Valrigard were staring each other down across the field, the next both Unis were thundering towards each other. Ohu was significantly larger than Corey, and riding the purple giant felt akin to riding an avalanche- and was often just as dangerous.

     Corey's horn slashed at Ohu, who brought his own down to parry it. In the same instant, Valrigard swung his sword at Gary, and the squire blocked it with his shield. He gritted his teeth as the force of the blow made him slide sideways in the saddle, and clenched his knees as hard as he could into Ohu's sides. Then both the Draik and his Uni drew back. Ohu aimed a kick at Corey's chest, but the smaller Uni was more nimble, and she easily ducked back away from the blow. Almost immediately, before Ohu really had time to settle on his feet again, Corey lashed at his exposed neck with her horn.

     But to her evident surprise, Gary's sword was there to meet it. Valrigard took advantage of the squire's awkward position, half bent over Ohu's neck, and brought his longsword arcing diagonally towards the Gary's helm. Ohu, having recovered from his kick and seeing the danger to his rider, charged forwards with his head low, slamming into Corey with his sheer weight and making her stagger. Gary, who was clinging to Ohu's neck with his shield arm, was yanked down so that Valrigard's shield just missed his head.

     In that instant, the squire didn't think- he just reacted. As Corey struggled to get her balance back, and Valrigard tried to pull his heavy weapon back, Gary lunged upwards with the hilt of his own sword. He slammed into Valrigard's wrist, making the knight gasp in pain. The Draik's grip on his sword already weakened by it's trajectory, he instinctively let go of it and could do nothing but watch as the weapon sailed across the field to land in the mud. He stared after the sword in total bafflement as his Uni danced under him, and Gary found himself equally thunderstruck. Had he... had he just disarmed Valrigard?

     "That... That was..." The Draik stammered, clearly caught very much by surprise. Then, he grinned, his wings fanning with excitement. "That was well done, squire, well done indeed! We'll make a knight of you yet!"

     Gary felt him face growing hot with embarrassment under his fur, but he couldn't help also feeling a tiny glow of pride at his knight-master's praise. Pulling off his helm to wipe the sweat from his forehead, he replied, "Thank you, sir."

     "Formal as always," Ohu remarked cheerfully. "Most squires your age would be smug as can be at disarming their knight master."

     "That was dumb luck. Watch, he's going to dump me in the mud again the very next go," Gary retorted bluntly. "Assuming you don't."

     Before either the Uni or Valrigard could reply, a shrill whistle cut across the field. All four of the warriors looked around in startlement.

     "Don't mean to interrupt," a blue Shoyru in the livery of a messenger from the fief's castle said, fluttering over to them. "But Lady Ayame is wishful of seeing ye twain. She said to tell you that you've a visitor."

     "A visitor?" Valrigard repeated, nudging Corey with his knees to get her to walk closer to the messenger. Ohu followed without any prompting from his own rider.

     "Aye," the messenger replied. "'Tis a most esteemed one at that- the Lady Illusen."

     Gary's ears shot up. When he'd fought the Werelupes several weeks prior, and Illusen had saved his life with her magic, it hadn't just been his physical body she'd altered. Gary had discovered a while later that she'd also unlocked an ability to use earth magic in him. Magic he had no knowledge of how to use, and pinned down at Abyssal Acres, no one who could teach him how to use it.

     He could feel it even now; he had once described it to someone as feeling like he was constantly jittery, constantly charged with electrical energy. It made every cell of his body tingle, and though he'd gotten better at ignoring the sensation it was still something of a distraction when he was bored or tired.

     "We'll head back right now," Valrigard said gravely to the messenger. "Come on, squire."

     "Yes sir," Gary replied, simultaneously grateful not to have to be dumped in the mud by his contrary Uni anymore that day, and apprehensive about what Illusen might have in store for him.

     As he followed his knight-master, Gary was startled by a dark flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. He jerked around, trying to pinpoint what he had seen, but there was nothing except the stone walls of the cliffs all around.

To be continued...