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The rest of the year went much the same. I woke up, I prepared breakfast, we went out to the forest to learn plants and animals, we came back for lunch then headed to a clearing for training. The only thing that was always different was what we trained on. Sometimes he'd teach me the three basic fighting styles (melee, magic, and ranged), sometimes a combination of them, and sometimes other random things that may or may not be related to fighting. Sometimes he would teach me how to use and control my elven powers, both the ones I have now and the ones I will have when I come of age and change. We usually ate supper late and I had little free time throughout the summer, autumn,and spring, unless you count when I learned new recipes I would find in the pantry.
I quickly learned that Kraine wasn’t all that he seemed to be, he was constantly surprising me, the first surprise was that he never ate meat save for the occasional fish. Another surprise was that he once had a daughter, named Jasmine, which explained the clothes in my room. She had died long ago when she was not much older than me. It made the wise man very sad to talk about her. He never talked about his wife, except to say that he had once had one, no matter how much I had asked on our walks and during the cold winter months we had spent mostly inside.
Finally came the time when I would have to leave for the haven. Kraine gave me a few parting gifts: a cloak of invisibility (of elven make), to protect me when stealth was key, all I had to do was raise the hood and no one could see me until I released the spell; a simple elf sword , it was thin yet strong, perfect for my small size; and finally an enchanted belt with multiple pouches, they could hold almost any item as long as it fit into the opening, perfect for runes and herbs and such. These gifts reminded me that it was my birthday, I was 8 years old. I was almost sad to leave, but I knew that such is the life of a protector.
Before I left, I had one last question to ask. “Kraine, pardon my asking but why do you look so aged when you are an elf? And where did you get that scar on your arm”
Kraine looked at me and smiled with twinkling eyes, his version of laughter. “Dear child,” he said to me, “do you not know by now that I cannot possibly be an elf? I am human, made to live long by use of a special potion I created, though as you can see it is not perfect yet. I have placed a vial of it in one of your pouches with it's recipe for your use, perhaps you can perfect it eventually. It is to be used sparingly, unless you're experimenting with it on plants. I had made it to fight all ageing and ailments in living things after Jasmine died, but I have only achieved longevity as you can see. The scar is from the last of the Ancient Battles, when I slew a demon.” Kraine was a human. . . and had fought in the Ancient Battles. That means he could have been older even than my escorts were last year. I barely managed to contain my surprise well enough to not stare open mouthed at the timeworn man.
I bow to him in respect and say,“Master Kraine, I cannot thank you enough for all this. I promise if I ever can recreate this potion and perfect it I shall send you a vial so you may have use of it.” I could see the ingredients were fairly simple, yet rare. I promised myself I would look into acquiring them. “Thank you again for all of your kindness. I wish you well as I travel around the cape of darkness.”
This time I had no escort but a map. I was old enough to travel on my own and I would need to hone my survival skills if I was to be a proper defender; besides, this shouldn’t be too dangerous if they would send me off without an escort.
I spent the night in the woods, it was a long way to the haven. It felt strange not to have a roof over me, but somehow right. The stars were bright here and there were many animals wandering the forest at the time. The peace was such a comfort and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
When I awoke, I realized I didn’t have much for food, so I went searching for berries. I headed out soon after eating and by midday I reached a grassy plain. There were flowers of all kinds there, tempting me to stop to smell them. I decided to move on and collect useful herbs as I passed.
By nightfall I found myself hungry, yet I did not want to stop yet as it seemed the haven was close at hand. According to the map it was far out in the wilderness away from humans and evil eyes, but we were already in the wilderness at Kraine’s hut. After a short debate between my tired body and my determined nature, eventually it was my reason that won. It would be strange for me to arrive late at night when everyone was probably sleeping. I ate a quick meal then passed out on my sleeping kit as I was unravelling it.
In the morning I awoke to the sounds of birds. I walked a short while to come face-to-face with a small gate, confirming my suspicion that I was near to the haven. I knocked on the gate and waited. Eventually I heard hurried footsteps and the gate creaked open and I saw a fairly short monk behind it. “Ah, you must be Sapphire. We have been expecting you! Please come in, the others are still asleep but Jana is just helping to prepare breakfast in the kitchen. I will help you to find a suitable room after you’ve eaten. My name is Roan by the way, I am the caretaker of the yard. I will give you a grand tour once you’ve met everyone.”
Roan had a kind face and I trusted him immediately. He took me to the kitchen where I found Jana in her human form helping some monks make some oatmeal for breakfast. There was also bread toasted over the fire and eggs boiled in water. Jana turned around and saw me. We both, still being young girls in spite of our heritages, squealed with joy and hugged each other. “Sapphire, I’ve missed you so much!” Jana was jumping up and down in such excitement I was almost afraid she would turn back to her centaur form right in front of the monks. “We must catch up later, but first you’re going to have to help me with this oatmeal before the others wake-up. It’s my turn to help out with meals.”
I was glad for the cooking practice I received while with Kraine, and that we ate oatmeal almost everyday for breakfast. After the oatmeal was cooked to a sticky perfection, I helped set the table. I found a boy about my age there, he was hard at work tinkering with some sort of project. He started when I put a plate in front of him as if waking from sleep. Jana introduced him to me as Ethan, “He’s a bit of an inventor,” she said, “tends to stay up all night on whatever he’s working on. Don’t expect him to talk during breakfast, he gets really groggy in the mornings, with or without sleep.”
Slowly, the others came in to eat. First came Melody. She looked well rested and ready for a day of training. Then came Seth, who looked rather tired, as if he hadn’t had a proper sleep for weeks. Jana told me that he always looks like that when he’s hungry. I must admit, he was kind of cute in spite of the bags under his eyes.
Breakfast was wonderful, with steaming platters of mouth-watering food. Melody, Jana, and I struck up conversation on the various uses of some basic spells. I saw Seth eat enough for two, I attributed that to the fact that he was a human male. Melody told me that he was the leader of our group, just like his father was for our parents' group. When breakfast was finished, the others went for lessons while Roan came to give me the grand tour. He lead me to a room with a small vine design painted on the front of the door. He told me that it had been the residence of a herbalist that had lived there at one point. When I walked in, everything was covered with assorted bark samples, dried herbs, and plant clippings.
He explained to me what the others were learning while I unpacked my few belongings. He then told me that the monks were informed of what I knew and that I would be joining their classes as soon as they reached a new subject. He showed me the classroom, the training grounds, the library, and the healing wing. There was also a sizeable vegetable garden. I found there were a few cats on the grounds, Roan said they were to keep the mice at bay.
After a lunch of soup and bread, Melody, Ethan, Seth, Jana, and I went to the training grounds for fighting lessons. I was glad for the sword Kraine gave me as the monks didn’t have one to spare for someone my size. It was clumsy work at first with the new moves I was learning, but I quickly got used to my blade. We then sparred with each other. I was paired up with Seth.
“I’ll go easy on you since you’re new,” he said. I figured I should show him just how quickly I had caught up. In five minutes I had him backed against the wall with the others and our teacher all staring in amazement at me. Seth surrendered and congratulated me. Our teacher, Joran, told me he was impressed and that he would love to teach me privately some more complicated moves if I was willing. I declined his offer, not wanting to seem too cocky on my first day, saying that I’d rather learn with the others as this was my first sword lesson here.
After a while we switched to archery. This I knew I was good at as elf children are all taught archery as soon as they can draw a bow. The archery teacher, Gilder, asked me to give tips to the others as all but Jana seemed to be having trouble holding their bows steady and aiming properly.
During supper, Ethan asked me how I learned the sword so fast if I just had my first lesson today, and how I was so good at archery. “I’ve had lessons in fighting with a long dagger before and what we were learning today was similar to some of the moves I’d learned then. As for the archery, I started learning that since I was four.” The others seemed satisfied with my answer, although slightly amazed, and Jana gave me a nod to imply that I did well in hiding my true identity. I retired to my room early, saying I was tired from my journey to the haven and from the day’s lessons.
As I lay on my bed I thought about all that had taken place before until I fell into a deep sleep.
 Girl of the Dragons · Mon Jul 05, 2010 @ 07:27pm · 0 Comments |
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