Avalyne Empire Stories

4th Story - Medrauta

"Again!"

Padraig's voice cracked like a whip as he forced me to repeat the sword drill yet again. Annoying ass son of a bitch.

"Mother fucker..." Although I kept my voice as low as possible, I doubt my little protest managed to slip past that bastard's ears. Honestly, he wasn't really this much of a pain in my rear most of the time, but for some reason Padraig decided to really go to town on my ass today. I didn't fuck up anything today or yesterday, so it's just like... What gives, dude?

Again and again, my sword fell on the training dummy in front of me. Left, right, overhead, right backhand, backstep, parry, thrust. Rinse and repeat. It was the same old sequence that I'd performed countless times in the past and I'd long gotten tired of it, yet Padraig continued to insist that I practice it day after day among everything else that he'd taught me.

To make matters worse, it was the very first sequence that squires learned, and although it had been new to me on my first day, I'd been a squire for nearly three years now! None of the other squires practiced this combination. In fact, I doubt they even remembered it. So why was I the only squire in the entire Imperial Order who was forced to continue this charade?

Good fucking question, because I sure as hell didn't have the answer.

I finished the sequence yet again, only to have Padraig repeat the same command. Normally, I was pretty good at following orders. Exemplary, even. But I had my limits, and he was slowly beginning to approach one of them. Actually, no. He'd pushed me past the breaking point, and I wasn't going to do this stupid shit anymore.

I took up my stance in front of the training dummy, appearing as though I would actually continue carrying on his stupid ass orders. I cut left, right, and then I gathered all my strength before sending my weapon crashing down on the training dummy's head. Although my training sword was blunt, it was still made of steel and more than capable of completely smashing the dummy into pieces.

I puffed my chest out in pride as I admired the fruits of my labor. Wooden pieces littered the ground before me, mercilessly reduced to splinters and sawdust by none other than my blade. A rather fine piece of work, if I do say so myself. There was no way this thing would get repaired before the end of the day.

"Whoops. Looks like the training dummy was a bit too weak for me, Padraig. Mind if we move on to something else?"

Padraig narrowed his eyes, but showed no other signs of displeasure despite the shit-eating grin plastered on my face. "No, that will be enough for today. You are dismissed, Medrauta."

"Cool. Seeya tomorrow, Padraig. Same time?"

Unfortunately, he didn't respond. Instead he simply turned and walked away without even a second glance. Honestly, I have no idea what the hell even goes on inside that man's mind. One second he can be chastising you and the next he's praising you. Either that, or he can be a hardass and a taciturn fuck like today. Talk about weird.

I picked up my towel resting on a bench not too far from the training grounds, planting the blunted training sword into the soft dirt beneath my feet. Normally, I'd be sitting down by now, but today I felt like staying on my feet for whatever reason. Maybe I was still a little pissed off about how Padraig wasted my time, but then again, he used to be the order's commander, so there must've been a point to his training. Hopefully, at least.

"Medrauta! What's with the long face?" Esmeralda grinned as she approached me. The dark-haired, emerald-eyed squire was a longtime friend of mine. Although I wasn't exactly a well-received recruit in the Imperial Order due to my background as an orphan, she was the first one to extend a helping hand to me. I had no idea why she was so chummy with me, but I guess some things just happen. Besides, I wasn't complaining either. She was great at brightening the mood despite her questionable intellect at times and a pretty awesome sparring partner.