A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (3 page)

The fellow patted her back again, which got her to scamper away, in case he wanted to grab her hair again. That got him to laugh at her, but his words weren't insulting, seeming pleased instead.

"
Run away
. Exactly like that. We'll teach you to fight, but mainly how to survive, how to escape and protect yourself, and if need be, others. Today will mainly be about testing you however. We'll find out what you're made of. Combat is about more than just being large after all. Let's get to that. It's not going to be a fun few weeks for you, but I think you'll survive." There was an odd look on his face that spoke of having done all of this before, but he didn't explain it, even as she watched him carefully for attack and kept out of arm's reach.

She really didn't like his little shield trick with her hair. It made her scalp ache and she had a thought that he'd just tugged at her a little to make a point, not actually trying to rip at her like he could have. It was a lot less than fun to consider, truth be told.

Tiera was used to being looked at as she walked, and getting now that she'd been messing up horribly, she tried to smile at everyone again. No one smiled back at her yet, but that would take time. If it ever happened. The stone courtyard was gray cobblestone, which matched the look of a lot of the buildings and structures, including the tall wall around the fighters' section. It was just a practice area, and even though the thing was six feet high, she could see several heads sticking above it as she and Instructor Kolbrin marched toward it. He moved quickly, which meant she had to scurry a little, her legs being shorter than his. It wasn't hard though. Giants tended to move pretty slowly over all. Compared to her at least.

There were people inside the enclosure working with old fashioned weapons, swords, spears and knives. Most had on bulky armor made of leather or heavy cloth padding. A few worked without even that, counting on their skill to keep them safe it seemed. The Instructor pointed with his whole hand toward two padded forms beating the stuffing out of each other. Tiera didn't know enough to be able to tell if they were
good
or not, but it was clear that the heavier of the two was easily beating the other, hitting them three or four times for every blow the thinner person landed. They moved like women, but that was about all she could tell.

They danced back and forth, both in similar light gray practice armor. There were racks of the same thing over by a table that held a variety of weapons. She assumed those were for practice too, since waving around real force lances and explosives would have been insane in a closed space like this. She didn't need to be highly skilled with them to know that. It was just common sense.

After a while the two women that had been fighting stopped and walked over to them, clearly getting that they were being watched, if not summoned. The shorter of the two took her helm off first, smiling a bit as she looked at them.

"So, Kolb, is this my new target?" There was a very pleased tone to her voice, which got Tiera to stiffen. She didn't care who these people were, she wasn't going to just let herself be beaten. That didn't make any sense at all. Her face must have shown that, since the woman blinked at her and let the smile fall from her face.

Then the other person took her face mask off as well. It was Judith. Judith Kerry. Her worst enemy in the whole world. The girl had tried to beat her a few weeks before, right out in the open, claiming that she'd been rude to Henry. It had been an over the top reaction, probably meant as an excuse to hurt her, since the girl was only average looking and she was clearly jealous.

"Judy, could you help Karen with that? Tiera will need a good sparring partner. You can run with her in the mornings, so work that into your schedule-"

Tiera shook her head.

"No. I don't think so. I'm
not
working with her. She tried to attack me. This whole thing is a mistake. Thank you, but I'd rather not be set up for daily thrashings." She spun on her heel and walked away quickly. It was so clearly a trap, or maybe a punishment, that it was stupid. Did they think she wouldn't work out what they were doing? Morons.

She was about three paces away when Kolbrin took her arm. It wasn't hard, but he pulled her back slowly, so her shield wouldn't kick in, even if she was angry.

"Sorry? I just got in the other day, so I missed that..."

Judith filled him in, if not correctly.

"This little bitch told off Henry right in front of everyone, telling him he was too poor and ugly for her. I really
was
going to thrash her, but good luck there, the freak had a shield. Her brother had to humble her instead. I don't know as to if she's fixed herself yet, but he asked the Headmaster to give her another chance. I wasn't planning on beating you t
oday
though. It won't hurt my feelings if I don't have to work with you." She crossed her arms, letting her practice blade dangle a little in her right hand, the smooth wood dinged on the edges from hitting things.

Karen shrugged.

"I haven't heard about this yet. Not much. Ali mentioned something, but said that Timon had already taken care of it. What's the situation?" She seemed worried for some reason, but wasn't glaring like the other giantess was.

Tiera didn't know how to respond, since it seemed like her sister-in-law was telling tales about her to strangers already. They'd have to have a talk about that later. She hadn't been hanging around with Ali a lot, since it was pretty clear that she was angry at her. No one wanted to be around someone that was going to be cold to them all the time, did they?

The large man looked at Tiera for a few seconds and then heaved a large sigh.

"Young person school drama, mainly. Tiera here ran afoul of conflicting information, and thought that if a poor or unsuitable boy was linked to her they might be hurt by her family. Everyone else figured she was being a Doretta, not getting that she honestly thought she was being noble and protecting the youngsters that approached her. She was tested on it, under Truth verification, so it's real enough. Now we have to get her out from under the garbage storm it created." There was a sense that the man was keeping himself from growling the words, most likely thinking that it was really annoying.

Oddly enough Judith looked angry for a few seconds then let her face relax.

"I... understand, I guess. Your people aren't city folk even and a lot of the outlier regional traditions are different... So, you really thought that Tor or Tim would come and beat the boys in the street if you were too nice to them? I..." She bowed suddenly which got the others to look at her funny. "I can see that. I wouldn't want to challenge either of them if I didn't have to. I don't know as to the rest of her people, but... yeah, I can see it. You don't have to worry though. Tor ain't nor a... Excuse me." She stopped for a few seconds and continued, her accent shifting dramatically as she did to something far more proper and cultured. "Tor isn't prudish and Timon seemed to be most upset with you seeming to be a Doretta. I'll take it upon myself to go to your home and make certain that the others there will not seek to harm anyone. I think we can work together, if that's the case. After you apologize to everyone, I mean." She looked a little too happy about Tiera being humbled like that, but there didn't seem to be a good way out of it, did there?

The idea of Judith going to Two Bends didn't make her happy either, but the bald Instructor seemed more than a little pleased by the idea.

"How long do you need?"

Judy shrugged loosely. "No more than a few hours, I can go in my off time, later today. I have a Fast Craft. It isn't
mine
really, I just have a piloting job with the Fast Transport service. I won't even have to miss classes for it. So, we can spend luncheon with Tiera knocking her head on the dining room floor and then set the rest to right after that. I don't want to miss out on the fun after all." There was no real sense of glee in the words at least, the girl holding her face still.

Tiera growled anyway.

"I'm not here for your amusement."

The bigger girl, who was clearly a woman, an actual instructor it seemed, the one called Karen, didn't seem upset or anything, as much as a bit wary.

"Well, why don't we see what you can do first, and then we'll cover some basic defensive tactics. That's should be a good place to start." She didn't look to the man for permission or anything, so it was pretty clear she expected to be in charge.

First she had Tiera run, just from one wall of the closed in space to the other and back as fast as she could. It was to be a race, originally against Judy, but an unarmored, very tall boy came walking over and nodded to her. She recognized him from the sea voyage she'd taken with her mother and two of her brothers. His name was David, she thought.

"A race? Well, I'm nearly as fast as anyone else here and not wearing armor. Beat me back and I'll put in a good word with Karen, so she won't beat you too hard." He smiled then and shook his head. "Just kidding. She'll beat you anyway. It's kind of the job description, isn't it? Shall we?"

It was said in a charming way, but one that sounded kind of relaxed. He was cute, in a very large kind of way, since he must have been close to seven and a half feet tall. Maybe a little shorter than that, but since she was just a tiny bit over five feet it seemed like a lot to her.

"On go then..." Karen spoke the words in a low voice, each of them standing with their right hand on the stone wall, everyone else moving to the side without waiting to see what they were doing overly. This kind of thing was done then, Tiera realized. Fighting area or not, they held enough races here that everyone got the idea. "Ready, steady....
Go
!"

It wasn't her plan to make the boy look bad, but she ran as fast as she could anyway, even knowing that she was supposed to always let men win physical competitions. Her older sister had informed her of that several years before. It was only polite after all, since their egos were so tied up in physical things. Karen was the one she had to impress however, not David, and if the boy hadn't meant for her to look good he would have run faster. She hit the far wall after just a few seconds and bounced, pushing hard and kicking off of it, since she couldn't possibly change direction otherwise. Her feet slipped a little on the smooth cut stones under her, but she passed the large boy and hit the first wall before he touched the other side.

Panting, she looked at Karen, wondering if she'd done too much, from the way everyone was staring. After a few seconds the large woman looked at Kolb and waved at her.

"Decent speed, but how's her endurance? We need to test that too." Her tone was nearly bored, even as they had to wait for David to sprint back from the far side. He didn't quit, even when it was clear that he'd lost their little race. He didn't seem upset either, just breathing hard for a bit as Karen got Judy ready for a longer trip. A few others were collected up for that as well.

After a while David spoke, waving at his face as if it might help him catch his breath.

"Alright, I'll put that word in, but I doubt it's going to help. That kind of speed has to translate to fighting, doesn't it? No one will cut you much slack now. Should be interesting to see."

They had to run several miles then, which was a lot harder for her. She kept up, but it left her feeling ragged and tired. Dave clapped her on the back when they were done, which left her feeling slightly awkward, since she'd broken a sweat, even with a temperature equalizing amulet on.

"Faster than Tor, but not as good on endurance even by a tenth. Are we moving to stones then?"

The big woman let her head come up once, and pointed, which got the thin boy to pick up a heavy looking rock with a metal handle set in the top, which he started swinging around. She was, they informed her, supposed to copy him. It was harder than it seemed, since she could pick the things up, but not really swing them, not without making her whole body spin around.

Karen nodded and pointed to a stone about six down the line, they were arranged by size, and this one was huge compared to what she was holding at the moment.

"Pick that one up. One handed first. You don't have to swing it. Just a straight lift, like this." She bent to demonstrate, picking the thing up to her own waist and letting it drop with a soft thud. "Go ahead."

It was really hard. Her hand hurt from the pressure of the metal as she did the lift, and the rock bumped against her leg hard enough it would probably leave a bruise. She got it up though, and then had to do it with her other hand, which was even harder. She dropped it a little suddenly then, but her new trainer seemed happy enough with the effort.

"
Good
, we won't have to spend six months coddling you then, before we get to the real work."

After that they worked on punches and kicks, as well as blocks for them, then some basic sword strikes. It took a while, but at the end of two hours she was covered with sweat and had to run again. This time to get to the girl's baths and clean up before math class. She was nearly late, which got Instructor Neytev to glare at her, but the dour looking man didn't say anything, just starting in on his daily lecture. He did the same thing each day. It was half an hour of explanation, followed by an hour of practice, during which you could ask him questions. If you got done early he gave you extra questions, but they'd each have a trick in them, so they were more interesting than the original work.