Caracara's Hunt

Armed with that knowledge, Arawn materialized all the ether around him to hide his position while dropping to the ground. As he did that, something whisked above him. It had material weight behind it, so he guessed it was a dagger.

"Already dead?" Mutallu asked from beyond the light show protecting Arawn.

Instead of answering, Arawn brought more ether to himself and congealed it into blades They rushed out of the curtain of light like striking snakes, startling the teenager. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and he brought a storm of fire about himself.

It had no effect, however. Fire was one of the weakest elements against pure ether. It died out, leaving Mutallu defenceless. He jabbed at the ether blade with fury, but metal had no effect either.

With a flick of his wrist, Corwal dismissed the ether blade that was a finger"s length away from Mutallu"s abdomen. "Told you not to underestimate him. You can"t fight ether head on."

Something dangerous swirled in the youth"s eyes, and Arawn had a bad feeling about it. His joy at winning his first training match evaporated like a raindrop which had landed on a blazing inferno. There was no way that Mutallu was going to go easy on him now.

And he had no illusions that he was stronger than the youth with the straw hat. If he was, Corwal wouldn"t have suggested they train together.

As expected, from the next match on, Arawn did not come even close to winning. Corwal had been tricky to pin down when they duelled, but Mutallu seemed to be like flowing water. His moves were swift and unpredictable, following no pattern, yet always resulting in his victory.

When he fought, flames surrounded him like guardian spirits. They blinded and burned Arawn, coming at him from unexpected angles whenever he let his attention waver. He constantly had to be on the lookout for stray b.a.l.l.s of fire that might come from above or behind him.

a.s.saulted both physically and with magic, Arawn could only lose and lose again. At times, he felt like he was fighting a speed demon rather than a real human. Moment of lost vision, and his side was burning or there was a blade about to draw blood at his neck.

The torture lasted till Arawn could not stand up anymore. In the whole hour or more that they had fought, he had only left a few cuts on Mutallu"s clothes. There was no other sign of their battle.

He, however, was a sorry sight. Half his clothes were burned, and his skin was red underneath. Patches of his hair had been singed, and the smell was disgusting. It made him want to puke.

Or it could have been due to the kick he had suffered to his stomach. His insides were still complaining about that.

"How are you planning to bring him into a city looking like that?" Rain asked from the side. No one had went to sleep while he trained.

Corwal came over and extended a hand to help Arawn up. "Clothes can be changed while skills can"t be learned when you realize you need them."

This ended the conversation, and they finally went to rest. This should have brought joy to Arawn, but his body ached too much. Although he was exhausted to the point he could barely move his legs, he could not fall asleep. He just lay wrapped in his blanket, watching the stars above.

To his surprise, he was not the only one not succ.u.mbing to the night"s embrace. Some time later, Corwal quietly left his blanket and jogged into the trees. He didn"t return in the next half an hour until Arawn fell asleep.

The next morning, everyone was woken up before the sun had risen. They grumbled and sent Corwal dark looks, but he didn"t seem to care. He swiftly collected the few scattered tools in the camp and packed them up into the cart. While everyone rose, he saddled the horses and prepared them for the journey.

His energy disturbed Arawn. First, no one should be this active in the morning. Second, hadn"t Corwal slept even less than him? Where was he getting the energy to keep moving?

The road was monotonous, with nothing but trees and more trees on the sides, which lulled Arawn to sleep. He only woke up when they stopped to have lunch. This time, Rain chose to bring prey and returned in a few minutes with two rabbits. Arawn had no doubt she hunted in the same way Corwal had done it, by cheating with her magic.

He had no complaints, however. Fresh cooked meat was a lot better than dried jerky or hard bread. If not for the ether enhanced element usage, there was no way they would waste time trying to hunt.

The rest of the day Arawn spent reading his book. The next story continued Saint Theus" life, explaining the many miracles he had done. Each one was less believable than the last, but who was Arawn to judge. He had yet to find out why people were restricted to one element instead of being able to use all of them.

"Why are you reading that old thing?" Rain asked, her horse having fallen back to move by the cart at some point in time.

Arawn raised his head, surprised. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"Not wrong, but… are you planning to become a priest?"

"Priest?" Arawn asked, straightening up. His eyes involuntarily went to the old handbook in his hand.

His relationship with G.o.ds was as tenuous as his relationship with the living. He knew they existed, or at least so people claimed, but that was it. He didn"t know their stories, their legends, nor why they should be worshiped.

"You"re reading the holy book," Rain said while giving him a strange look. "No one reads the holy book for fun. That"s what you have the priests for. They tell you all about what"s there in their neverending sermons."

Arawn rubbed his finger against the book"s worn cover. He hadn"t known he was holding something so precious and important.

"Where I grew up, we had a different religion," he said quietly. "I just want to learn about what your people believe in."

He was sure that this was the reason why Corwal had given this particular book to him. Although he was a Bretian, at least by blood, he knew little about his people. His knowledge didn"t even extend to something as intrinsic to every culture as their belief system.

His answer seemed to surprise Rain. She tilted her head, giving him a once over. "Aren"t you a Bretian?"

"Yes, well, in a way, but... Where I lived, people were more of a mindset that strength is all that matters. As long as you were powerful enough, even the G.o.ds would favor you."

"That doesn"t sound like any religion I know…"

For some reason that interested Rain, and she stayed by his side till the evening. Her questions focused on his past at first, but once she realized that he really wasn"t going to speak about it in any detail, she listened to him murmur the pa.s.sages while reading them. When he made any mistake, she brought his attention to it.

It was a relaxing couple hours, and Arawn all but forgot about what awaited him once they settled. Even though it was really late and the sun had set, Corwal still demanded that Mutallu and Arawn spend some time training.

This resulted in nothing but more bruises for Arawn, and once the torture ended, he dropped asleep like the dead. With such exhaustion, he was starting to forget what bad dreams were.

The next morning, they were woken up before the sun once more. At this point, Arawn wasn"t the only one feeling grumpy. Val and Betty were looking at Corwal with murderous gazes. They didn"t seem awake even after they ate breakfast and saddled their horses for the journey.

Rain seemed better off, but she wasn"t too happy either. When they were about to set off, she demanded an explanation for the hurry.

"It"ll soon be two months since the princess was kidnapped, and you ask me why I hurry?"

That ended the discussion before it could begin, and they left their clearing in semi darkness. There were no other travelers at first, but soon, they saw a family of four with two goats traveling in the opposite direction. Soon after, a merchant wagon pa.s.sed them, also going inland. Throughout the day, they saw only a couple travelers going in the same direction as them.

When evening came, Arawn began to dread his fate. He wasn"t totally defenceless against Mutallu, but when he was close to hitting him, Corwal would simply dismiss his ether blades. But when Mutallu attacked, his strikes were always physical so Arawn would get hit.

"Why don"t I change with Mutallu today?" Rain suggested when they finished their dinner. Her smile was dazzling when she aimed it at Corwal.

He looked her over, then nodded. "Feel free."

Arawn was about to cry in joy. He could not believe he was going to escape his horrifying evening just like that.

It showed up that he had hoped for too much. Although Rain did not go out of her way to hit him, she did not go easy on him either. Her attacks were elusive and tricky, constantly turning around his expectations. One time she might trap his legs with earth, another make a pit for him to stumble into, while another surround him with rock shards.

Without her even using the fly technique, she subdued him like he was a child. His attacks never even came close to hitting her. Whenever he attempted to trap her within the ether blades, she would just jump on a rock and raise into the air, avoiding all he had prepared.

The next day, she took up to train him as well. After that, Val and Betty stepped forward. They were more interested in pitting themselves against someone as unusual as Arawn, but he didn"t mind. He finally had people that didn"t suppress him until he could do nothing at all!

With exuberance bursting from him, he fought against them with all he had learned so far. And he won. It wasn"t too easy, but if he tried for real, it wasn"t impossible. All the things he had to learn to survive against Corwal, Mutallu, and Rain could be used offensively against Betty and Val.

While busy with the constant training, they reached the border and joined the line. Once they were allowed through, they would be back in Ayersbert and could focus on their mission once more.