Hadwin stood before the two, arms crossed. He and the other members of his group had placed themselves between Akna, Cadmael, and the Sacred Oak, preventing the two from completing the challenge. A tiny thread of K'iinu enabled Icthaka to hear their conversation more clearly.
"What is it?" Akna asked, her voice dangerously calm.
Hadwin sneered, "What happened to your teammate? Looks like he betrayed you after all, didn't he?"
Akna stood her ground, ever unwavering, "Cut the chase, what do you want?"
"It's obvious what he wants." Cadmael crossed his arms, the traces of his usual easy going personality fading. He looked Hadwin in the eye. "I can't even believe that we used to be friends. What happened to that? Now you're willing to make a mess out of our clan just for... whatever this is."
Hadwin shifted, snarling, "Someone like you wouldn't understand. You were a late bloomer, barely favored. It was never supposed to be. What could you possibly know about anything?"
Cadmael looked like he'd been struck in the face. Akna was the one who spoke, "Murda, piece of trash, how could you say that?"
Her energy rose in level as she called on Caaso's blessing, a golden flare rising around her.
Hadwin matched her with his own roaring K'iinu. It stirred the air, the barest hints of shifting teal. Beside him his teammates also drew on their favor. Alone, Hadwin was no match for Akna, but outnumbered, the odds didn't look good.
The key was look. Ichtaka wasn't worried. Beside him, Yunuen smirked, "Oh, my, this is going to be interesting."
While Akna struggled sparring with Hadwin and another skilled K'iinu-user, Cadmael still refused to call upon his blessing. He barely avoided the brunt of his opponent's K'iinu. They were not a couple of worn out raiders taken off guard— they were the top students in the third year.
Akna fell backwards, Hadwin making a move to attack. Finally. Ichtaka felt Cadmael's own K'iinu enter the atmosphere. The boy's energy was originally a calming stream, ever flowing at its pace, but now it looped and gushed in rapid circles— strong like a waterfall. His patron, whom he avoided so much, had nevertheless lended him greatly. An emerald green flare came around him. It shifted between golden greens and a deep, forest shade. It looped around Akna, and the fiery heat of her energy multiplied. She sprang to her feet with even greater speed than before, her golden K'iinu flaring brighter.
Hadwin backed up half a step, turning to Cadmael. "You were hiding this all along? Why didn't you—"
"Show everyone? Flaunt it? Prove to them I finally got useful?" Cadmael asked.
Hadwin opened and closed his mouth, then looked away.
"You know, after that, I thought I could prove that K'iinu wasn't everything to myself, and to people like you." Cadmael said, his voice a near yell, "That even though I did end up with favor, I could be something without it."
"You don't get it." Hadwin ground out.
"No, maybe I don't." Cadmael said, "But for all my stubbornness, there are more important things I care about."
It happened in a blur— Cadmael's flowing energy that couldn't be pierced, Akna's amplified K'iinu sweeping away the attackers.
Yunuen crossed his arms, snorting in his I-knew-it sort of way. Lachina rolled her eyes at him.
Ichtaka noticed that Chief Ahau was watching with an approving gaze.
The duo were a spectacular sight, but-- Ichtaka sighed internally-- even with the oaknuts from Hadwin's team, it wouldn't be enough for them to win.
YOU ARE READING
The One Who Dances on Shadowed Feet
Adventure"Before they were the legends, oral tradition passed down from generation to generation, before they were heroes of the War of Seven Forces, and before all the stories made them but little less than the very gods they drew power from in the eyes of...
