Path of the Mother (Book Three)

Chapter 10 Perspective

Kualdo knocked her down for the third time in as many minutes. Missette growled and thrust herself off of the ground, to come at him again. They were both tired, and they should be. This training session had gone on for most of the morning already.

He stepped back after warding off her attack and brought up his stick to the salute position. Missette would have just kept going until she dropped from sheer exhaustion, but she knew better than to continue after a training partner called a break. The rules of training combat were pretty strict, and the punishment was a lot more physical work than she wanted right now.

Her mentor was several years older than she was. He was much better at fighting too. The marshal of their village paired them up together, not only to give Missette a challenging partner, but to keep her from hurting any of the less proactive youngsters at her age and level of training. He was pretty smart for an old guy and knew that Missette was getting better every day. Her tenacity, her strength of will, and her unwillingness to quit, more than made up for her smaller size and strength.

Kualdo already had to work really hard to keep her from getting past his guard. She just kept coming. No matter how many times he knocked her to the ground, or how many times he left a nice welt across her skin from a swat from his stick, she still wouldn't give in.

They both went over to the water bucket as soon as they tapped their sticks together to show their respect. While they were getting a drink from the gourds that were provided, he watched her. In his eyes, she was a very pretty girl. She might have been a little bit on the skinny side for his taste, but if he was going to have to face off against an enemy, man or beast, she was the kind of person that he wanted to be on his side.

She was slim, but it wasn't really skinny, it was more of an athletic build than anything. She had short cropped brownish hair that was bleached out by long periods of time outdoors and in the sun. She was always dressed like a hunter, with boots, and breeches, and tunic with a vest. She always carried a short sword and a knife, and when she was out and about, her bow was always on her back.

Missette trained every day. She hunted for her extended family, but it wasn't just to provide for them. She hunted to increase her abilities and to practice her skills. Ever since her mother and father died, she had one goal in mind, one purpose. She was going to hunt down and kill the Troll that killed her parents.

Her father went to look for Missette's mother as soon as she didn't show up at dark. He had a glow stone head strap and wasn't going to let the fall of darkness stop him from finding his wife. Missette was still just a little girl, but she remembered him leaving that night. She remembered how the town acted afterward too.

The next day, the town sent a hunting party to find the people who were missing. Missette waited for them to come back, and they came in pulling a cart later in the day. They found her parents, both of them. Her mother was in the woods, at the side of the trail, and her father was found in a cave about a mile from there.

Himrin the Hunter was with her father that night. He was found injured but still alive. He told the story of how they came up on the body of Missette's mother. She was lying broken and shredded in a pool of her own blood. She had been torn apart and was barely recognizable.

Near to the body, the unmistakable tracks of a Troll were in the soft earth of the trail. Himrin tried to talk Missette's father out of following a Troll at night. They should go back and wait for daylight and bring a hunting party in the morning.

Jakkum, Missette's father, wouldn't hear of it, and vowed an oath of blood to kill the Troll. He went against Himrin's objections, and the hunter wasn't going to let him go alone. They had known each other and been friends their whole lives. They both tracked the Troll to a cave at the base of the mountains.