By: Chris Gilman
Chapter 2
Once out in the yard the others mark off an area while I walk around a bit, learning how my new body moves now. Jeff attracts my attention with a whistle and I look back to see him in a twenty-foot square of cleared dirt. Canos brings out the parties bag-of-holding and pulls out the practice weapons for us. He tosses Jeff a two-handed sword that he catches easily and swings in an intricate arc to loosen up his arms. Canos then pulls two more just like it out and hands them to me. They don’t weigh as much as I used to remember and the balance isn’t as good as the two swords they gave me, but they’ll do.
Jeff puts the point of his sword in the dirt and leans on the handle. "Now the first thing you should remember about fighting now as compared to what you used to do is that you now have a much greater reach. You won’t need to get as close to your opponent and you should use that to you r advantage." He stands up straight and hefts his sword, the muscles in his arms bulging as they take the weight of the mighty blade. "Now, are you ready to give it a try?"
I give both swords a twirl like I used to do with my shorter swords and bring them up to the ready, "GO."
With that word Jeff is in motion, I try to keep up but I am not used to fighting with swords so long and he smacks the flat of the blade against my side. I grunt and he steps back into his ready position. Bringing both weapons back up to the ready I begin my attack again.
This time I last longer but the result is the same. He brings the flat of his blade and slides it right across my stomach. Would have gutted me if the swords were real and we were out to kill each other. Still, the force he hit me with knocks the breath out of me and I drop both swords in surprise as I gasp. Once more he backs off again and waits for me. It takes a few more minutes then last time, but eventually I am ready again. This time I wait for him to attack me. When he does I try a desperate move.
As he makes his first swing I deflect it with the one blade as hard as I can. This leaves me open, but he is really open not having expected it. My other sword comes in from his open side and I give him a good smack with the flat that sends him rolling in the dirt, his sword flying. He comes to rest three feet away gasping for breath.
I know I hit him too hard and I lower both swords, "Sorry, you okay Jeff?"
With a look of discomfort on his face he nods his head as he sits up. After taking a few more deep breaths he finally speaks, "Nice trick, but remember it will only work against an opponent that is using one weapon." Canos helps him to his feet and he exits the ring while Canos takes his place. "Now, for more of a challenge. Canos fights duel weapon also, lets see how you handle him."
I look over at Canos; he stands there in his human form with his weapons sheathed. I give him a nod and raise both my weapons to the ready. Canos gives me a nod and I can see a twinkle in his eye, "Go when you are ready." He must be kidding; he doesn’t even have his weapons ready.
I give a shrug and charge, both weapons in motion. Before I reach him he has both weapons out and has shifted to hybrid form. His speed is phenomenal as he stops every one of my swings with his dancing scimitars. After a minute he starts pressing his attack and I can’t keep up to his speed. He forces my weapons away and makes an x on my chest with the swords.
He steps back shaking his head, "You thought I wasn’t ready for you didn’t you?" I nod my head as I feel a sheepish grin cross my face. "Never make that mistake in real combat or you will be dead. That is a little trick I learned a while ago, works pretty well too. Most people underestimate me and I take them out in less then a minute after I shift because it throws them off balance. Too many people just look at me as a human and don’t expect anything different." He brings both swords back up to the ready and points them at me. "Now, let’s go again." I bring both weapons up to a ready position and give him a nod.
This time he makes the first move and attacks me. His speed is still too fast for me and he does the same thing again. I frown at the lack of success. Canos sees this and gives me a smile, "Don’t worry kid, it will take time, but your reflexes will match mine with practice. You forget I’m ten years older then you too and know a few more tricks to combat." He sheaths both his swords and steps out of the ring. "Now for your next partner." He looks over to the right and Kelly enters the square.
I immediately protest, "I don’t want to hurt you Kelly, please don’t fight me. You saw what I did to Jeff, and I wasn’t even putting all my strength into it. If I hit you once you could be really hurt."
Kelly just stands there and grins. "Ahhh, but first you have to hit me, right?" I nod, "Then there is no problem. She brings out her short sword and dagger and slowly starts advancing on me.
I quickly bring both weapons up to the ready and watch her warily. I know she is fast, and I have seen her do things that almost appear magical when she moves. She throws her dagger towards my feet where a cloud of smoke appears and the next thing I know of she is sitting on my back with her practice sword against my throat. I drop both my swords in astonishment when I feel the sword against my neck.
She gets down and retrieves her dagger from where it imbedded in the ground. "Sorry there Rob. I know I did a dirty trick by using that dagger instead of a practice dagger, but remember that a fight doesn’t give you a second chance when your life is on the line. Be ready for anything."
I reach for the weapons I dropped only to have Canos reach them first. "I think we have beaten you enough for one day. Besides its time for dinner." I look up and see the sun just above the horizon. Gods, wee were fighting longer then I thought.
Jeff comes up and gives me a firm grip on the shoulder. "You didn’t do too bad for your first day of practice with new weapons and a new body. In a few weeks you’ll be swinging those swords like they were made for you." With a pat on the back he guides me towards the inn and the meal awaiting us.
***
After a leisurely dinner we settle down in our rooms for a good nights sleep. I am wakened in the middle of the night by the sound of my door being opened. Boy, these new senses are really acute. I keep my eyes closed and listen to the person approach. When I can sense them right in front of me I snap my eyes open and sit up.
The person doesn’t seem to be surprised by my motions. A cowled figure stands there in front of me. The robes and hood hide his identity from me, I don’t even know if it is male or female. A quiet voice reaches me, but still gives no clue about its owner. "You must be the one my brother wrote me about. I am sorry that he did this to you, but there is nothing I can do for you now. I tried to convince him that it was a bad idea, seems I was right."
‘His brother, oh shit. I bet he is here for revenge for his brother’s death.’
The hood moves back and forth, "No, I am not here to avenge my brother. If I had been a member of your group I would have done the same thing, brother or no. My brother had taken the road of madness with his magic. Now I am glad his soul is at rest. I only wanted to come here to see you and express my sincere apologies. And for now, goodbye." With that he simply disappears, almost as if he was never there.
I shake my head as if trying to clear something and look again. Yep, he’s gone as if he was never here.
With a bang my door flies open and Canos enters in his hybrid form. His eyes scan the room for an intruder. Then his eyes settle on me, "Sorry Rob, I have the room next to this one, and I heard someone’s voice. You okay?"
I nod dumbly, "Yeah, I’m fine, and there was someone here."
Shock passes across his face, "What, who?"
I shake my head, "Not real sure. He said that his brother was the one who did this to me. Which would make that person kin to the mage we killed. At first I thought he was here for revenge for the death of his brother, but he said no. Claimed his brother had taken a road of madness with his magic, and that he was glad that we had let his soul be at rest."
Canos scratches his head with one claw as he listens to me. "So what happened to him?"
I shrug, "He just disappeared all of a sudden."
"Have to talk to Elain about this in the morning," he mumbles. "Well, if he’s gone now you get some rest and don’t worry about this. We’ll talk in the morning. Sorry for kicking in your door like that." He leaves the room and closes the door behind him. Before it closes though I see other members of our party and hear whispers from outside my door for a few minutes before I finally drift off to sleep again. What a crazy life I’m having lately.
***
The rest of the night passes without incident and I wake feeling refreshed in the morning. My body obeys my commands better this morning and I surge to my feet without problem or effort. I don the halter I had removed last night and exit my room for the common room and the breakfast I smell waiting there.
When I enter the common room I see the others already there digging into a good breakfast. Elain sees me first and pats her hand at a cushion next to her. I walk over and sit down on the cushion, sure beats sitting on the hard floor. They place a plate full of food in front of me and I dig in.
Elain takes a sip of her wine before speaking, "So Rob, Canos told me you had an unwelcome visitor last night." I nod my head since my mouth is full. "Well since this person didn’t hurt you I don’t think we have to worry. If this was a sibling of the mage we killed he would easily be more powerful then us all put together if he wanted to be."
Her comment puts my mind to rest some. I was a little worried about having someone appear in my room last night. But her reasoning seems valid. If that person wanted to hurt any of us they could have done it easily enough last night.
We finish our meal in peace with light conversation, but I only concentrate on the food. I eat far more then I ever could have as a human, but again I have over twice the amount of body now.
When we finish Jeff speaks up, "Well, as much as I would like to stay here we need to be back on the road today. We can continue your training on the trail Rob, but we need to continue on our way to Grimain and our contract waiting there for us. If we wait too much longer we won’t get there in time and we will lose it."
I hold up both of my hands, "No complaints here. A good march would do me some good with the exercise."
"Okay, everybody but Rob go get your stuff and meet out front in five minutes," says Elain. "Rob, you come with me. We have some new gear for you."
She leads me to her room and we enter. "Here," she hands me what look like saddlebags for a horse, "these will work better then a backpack for you. Inside is all the basic gear you need and a few extras. Now let’s see here." She helps me put the saddlebags on and secure them with a strap under my belly. "Now can you reach that strap?"
With a quick test I find I can bend my upper torso in ways that will allow me to reach any part of my lower body or belly. "Yep, that should work pretty good Elain."
She gives me a grin, "Good, because tomorrow you get to do it yourself."
I give her a grin, "No problem." I reach back and open one side’s flap easily, "This is better then any backpack. I can easily search for anything in them without having to take them off. This is turning out to be so cool."
Elain is smiling, "I’m glad you are starting to see the bright side of this. I was worried about how you were handling this the other day."
"Yeah, but I am starting to see the upsides of this little problem."
"Here is something else for you." She hands me what looks like a bunch of leather straps with a few buckles.
I hold it up with both hands and examine it. I look up at Elain, "What is it?"
She gives me a grin, "I know, it looks like a torture device, but it is for those new swords of yours. They are a set of shoulder sling straps. Here, let me help you put them on, they take a little practice to get on right the first few times."
With help it takes me twenty minutes to get the straps on in such a way that they will not interfere with my movements and will allow me to unsling my new swords without any trouble. "I think that will do it," I tell Elain.
She grabs a bundle and unwraps it, "Here, see if you can sling and unsling them easily enough." She carefully hands the blades to me handles first.
Taking one blade in each hand I slip them into their places easily. Each blade settles into its place and the weight isn’t much. Heck, it is hardly noticeable. I flex my shoulders and find that neither the blades or the straps trouble my movement or breathing. "Looks like they will work out pretty good Elain."
Elain lets out a laugh, "Yeah, and if there is anyone who wants to cause trouble. The look of that much steel on your back should dissuade them, that is if your size doesn’t do the trick in the first place."
I give her a grin in return, "We’ll see." Looking around once more I don’t see anything else to grab. "Looks like we are ready to go."
"Good, come on, the others are probably waiting for us already."
She grabs her backpack and I give her a nod, together we exit her room. The others are waiting in the common room for us already. When they see us enter they give us a nod and we head out the door. Once more on the road to Grimain, and the adventures that await us there.
***
"Ah, once more on the road," Canos takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, "it had been too long."
I give him a funny look. "We were only in that town far a few days. You couldn’t have missed the road that much."
"Ah, but if you had grown up in the woods as I did you might understand me better. You though decided to follow the path of the warrior. While I choose to follow a similar path, but I am more in harmony with nature. Most rangers like me are huntsmen or forest wardens because of our love of nature." He gives a nervous laugh, "Maybe if I didn’t love nature so much I wouldn’t have been out in the forest that one night when I was attacked."
"I guess I can understand that," I reply after a moments thought.
"I doubt it, but thanks for the sentiment anyway."
We keep walking till about noon when we stop for a brief lunch and rest. After our brief stop we continue on till darkness starts to fall. Nothing has attacked us and we have seen no one else on the road. It was just another general, quiet day on the trail.
That evening we cook our travel rations and set up our watch rotation. I draw first watch alone. My new eyes can see slightly better in the dark with the aid of the campfire and I settle down next to the fire keeping an eye out for anything moving.
About an hour passes without trouble, but then something catches my attention. I can’t identify what it is, but there is something moving out there. My enhanced senses can pick up the quite sounds of the movements. And my defense mechanism is in high gear.
I scan the woods without appearing to. I reached to my back and pulled one of the swords out of its sling and set it in front of me, and taking out an oiled rag, begun to rub it down, appearing to clean it. With my tail I nudge Canos. I see him slowly open his eyes and with a wave of my tail. I see him close his eyes again as he took my unspoken meaning.
Suddenly I know someone is coming up behind me. AS slowly as I can I bring my hand up and grip my other hilt still in its sling. When I can sense the intruder only about ten yards behind me I draw my other sword, stand up, and shout, "AMBUSH!"
With a flurry of bodies and steel the intruders charge out of the surrounding trees as my companions and I jump to our feet to face them. The closest one, the one that was sneaking up behind me, makes a slash at where my lower body had been while I was sitting. As he misses and is thrown off balance one of my swords come around and separates his head from his shoulders. His body drops to the ground, but three more dark clothed men take his place.
The others are up now and we stand in a circle with our backs to the fire. Our attackers number at least twenty and they surround us entirely.
One of them steps forward with his sword held at the ready. "You are to be punished for passing through our woods, give us your money and weapons and you can go." At his demand a low growl escapes from my throat and I raise both swords into a defensive posture. He grins at me and shakes his head, "Be a good little kitty and drop your toys before we have to hurt you for killing Joaine. Of course I should thank you, he was an incompetent fool."
Several of his men can be heard gasping behind me, soon followed by the sound of their feet hitting the ground as they run away. A hand taps me on the shoulder and a deep voice speaks in my ear, "Let me deal with this little upstart."
I give a little grin, "Sure thing Canos," and step to the side, out of his way. "Here, take it up with my friend," I say to the man standing in front of me.
"Don’t give me any of tha…" He falls silent in mid sentence as Canos steps forward where he can see him better.
Canos has shifted to his hybrid form and is now standing there with his swords in their sheaths looking down at the little man who appears to be in charge of this group. He stands there looking at the little man piss his pants as he looks up at him. "Now what were you saying to my friend here? I think it was something about we should drop our weapons and give you all our money, is that right?"
The poor bastard is so scared he can’t even form words as he stands there. But one of his men isn’t so scared, probably too stupid to be. "Yeah, that’s right fur face, now do it."
Canos lowers his head and shakes it back and forth. "I thought that was what you said."
With a roar from Canos we are all in motion. Each using his skills to the max as we deal with these opponents. I hold back and let the bandits come to me. Fighting in this defensive manner keeps me ready for them as they rush up to me and keeps them from swarming me.
Jeff and Canos though, being the more experienced warriors, are wading right into the thick of it. While Elain passes out some punishment in the form of a few of her spells, Kelly is hopping around delivering the killing blow or back stabbing an unsuspecting bandit from behind.
After ten minutes the fight is over and we stand around panting over the corpses that litter the ground. I look around and see only slight wounds, just scratches really. Slowly we come out of our battle fever and survey what we had faced. "Thirteen bodies on the ground, means that some got away, and they might be back," I tell the others. They nod in agreement and after a quick check of the bodies we decide it would be best to press on and rest in the morning.
Elain and Kelly are looking very tiered as we walk through the night. "Here, give me your bags, all of you. This new body of mine seems to have more stamina then you, I’ll carry the bags tonight so we might make slightly better time and get out of this neck of these woods." Holding out my hands for their packs they slowly turn them over to me and I secure them on my lower back. The weight is hardly noticeable to me, though I must be carrying at least an extra hundred pounds.
When Canos sees that I have the packs settled he speaks up, "Okay, let’s keep going. About daybreak we will stop for our much-needed rest. We should be far enough away from our friends by then." With nods all around we continue on, not yet knowing just what we are facing in the weeks to come.