Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

~My Training Begins~

As if my vivid dream wasn't frightening enough, I woke up surrounded by a bunch of good looking girls.

They giggled and scattered when I bolted upright. Several were holding lipsticks and other cosmetic... things. In horror, I felt my face and found it was covered in those things.

"Oh my God, he actually slept through the whole thing!" one said.

"I know, couldn't he have, like, given us more fun and woke up during the middle of it?" another said.

"But then I wouldn't have got to put on the mascara!" someone piped up.

Great. I get thrown into a girls' room for the night and wake up with a full-face makeover.

"Hey, isn't he the guy from the news?"

"Yeah, he had one shoe!"

"Oh my God," the 'oh my God' one said. "You know Zyra? That is so cool!"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Will you sing for us?"

I was bombarded with so many questions and comments that all I could do was stare and rub the make-up off my face. Once I got rid of these girls, I really had a bone to pick with Zyra.

I mustered up all the courage I had and yelled, "Scram!"

The girls giggled and ran out of the tent.

I swung my legs over the bed, removed the fluffy pink bunny slippers that had mysteriously been put on my feet while I slept and opened my drawers. I was surprised to find my old clothes there. I slipped some on and went outside.

The complex was amazing: I saw buildings where teenagers were trained in combat, magical and not. There was a large amphitheatre-looking thing with kids having duels in it. Some rode horses around a racetrack and through a forest. But the strangest things were the arenas where people were fighting, wielding magic against each other. I saw fire, water and sparks fly between two girls training together.

All in all, I was terrified.

A man that looked in his twenties, robust in stature and broad-shouldered, came over to me and clasped my hand.

"So you're the new recruit, eh? My name's Tirenus." His smile was friendly enough but my hand was breaking in his. He seemed to realise my pain because he let go. "Sorry. Don't know my own strength sometimes. Well, I daresay the whole population of Laistrynia saw you on the news yesterday. You must be something special to catch Lady Zyra's attention."

"Uh, yeah," I said lamely.

"But she insisted that you be trained, am I right? So, what have you handled before? Spears, swords? Do you know your path of magic yet?"

"I... don't know, sir." I looked down at my sneakers.

"Ah, I completely forgot: you're a mortal, aren't you? Of course you wouldn't know any of this. Well, I can take you straight to the beginners arena then. Fillonius!" he called, and a man in full medieval battle armour clanked beside him.

"Fillonius," Tirenus said, "will show you around the camp, bring you to the beginners' arena. Once you're done there, you'll be exploring magic with me."

The knight put a gloved hand on my shoulder and brought me away.

On the tour I saw the combat arenas, more tents, the armouries, the game forest and special buildings for different styles of magic. Above the door on one stood a marble statue of Zyra, beautiful as ever, smiling serenely down at the students that exited the building. We stopped at a covered pavilion.

"Inside here is the beginners' training facility," Fillonius said, his voice made tinny behind his helmet. "Some more trainees will be joining you shortly. But before that, you must choose a weapon." He showed me a wall with a miniature arsenal hanging off it. I scanned it and tested the weapons before finding an iron dagger that felt just balanced enough.

"Are you sure that's the weapon you choose?" Fillonius said. "Knifes are only wielded by the wise and quick of feet. Are you either?"

His expression was impossible to read under that helmet. I didn't know if he was making fun of me or giving me honest advice.

"I'll try it for now," I finally said.

He walked out of the pavilion, leaving me alone.

Something caught my eye: hanging from the ceiling on a chain was a beautiful sword. It was gold and silver, the metals fused together in such a way that they seemed to spiral from the hilt. The edges gleamed wickedly. I wished now I had that weapon instead of the one I had in my hand.

But it was too late to change my mind: a bunch of burly looking kids in armour walked into the pavilion, laughing and dragging some smaller kids behind them. I knew that they weren't the beginners.

"He doesn't even have any armour," the kid in the front said. I presumed he was their leader because he was taller and buffer than the rest, and he held himself in such away that the others seemed to shrink behind him. "Surely this isn't the challenge Tirenus sent for us!"

"Maybe spies don't need to have armour," someone said behind him.

Spy?

The leader-guy shrugged. "Eh, More blood splatter without it." I knew I was in trouble then. And I confirmed it when the kids threw down the youngsters, drew their swords and charged me.

I dodged the first attack, then somehow I managed to parry away another. I tried reaching blindly with my own weapon but it only found the chest plate of the leader. It didn't faze him at all. Swords were jabbing and slicing in my direction, but none found their mark. Still, I was fighting what seemed to be an army. This battle was only going one way, and I couldn't do any damage with a short blade like a dagger. What I needed was something longer...

An idea struck me. I backed up to the weapon rack, swinging the dagger to keep away my attackers. I used my left foot to find something sticking out far enough to use as a foothold. It found something, though I didn't know if there were many more there.

Before my fear got the better of me, I reached out with one hand and grabbed a thankfully blunt hook. I quickly put the dagger between my teeth and started climbing. The mob yelled taunts up at me, but I didn't look down. A sword grazed my ankle, making me wince, but I kept climbing.

When I was high enough that they couldn't reach me, I got a bearing of my surroundings. The pavilion was high, but that sword wasn't far away. Not within reaching distance, but barely within jumping distance.

So? I jumped.

I knew I wouldn't make it, and I could see the mini army sticking their swords above them, ready to impale me. But by some miracle, a freak gust of wind blew them off their feet and buffeted me higher. Once again, I was flying. How many times had I been flying in the past forty-eight hours? I think I counted six.

I grabbed the silver chain and unknotted it at the bottom, freeing the sword from its bounds. I swung towards the entrance to the pavilion and landed unsteadily on my feet. I looked behind them, at the entrance, now seeing that I probably didn't need this blade anymore and that my monkey-climbing had gone to waste.

I just ran.