The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (26 page)

“I meant we could go for a walk or something,” he recovered quickly. “It’s probably beautiful outside.”

“Oh,” said Lucy, with a sigh of relief. For a minute there she had wondered if he had gotten hit too hard today during one of the sparring sessions. “I’m sure it is beautiful outside, but we had a busy day and I’m tired. Besides I’m sure it wouldn’t be a good idea to be tired for Gavin’s workout tomorrow.”

“True,” he agreed. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight. Some other night perhaps?”

“Perhaps,” he smiled and walked away.

Lucy went into her bedroom, closed the door and sighed. She was exhausted.

Lucy awoke the next morning ready to work with horses. As she got dressed for the day, she took a moment to study her body. She’d been so busy that she hadn’t paid much attention to the changes that were happening. Her hands had calluses from weapons, training, and riding. For the first time in her life, her arms were muscled. She flexed her arm in amazement. She had never been able to do a pull up. She had tried every now and then, but her attempts had always ended in failure. She was pretty sure she could do one now. Maybe even two. Her stomach was flatter than it had ever been despite the sit ups she had always tried to work into her daily routine. She pulled on her green tunic. Lucy had always been semi athletic, but now her legs had muscles in places she didn’t even know muscles existed in. She admired the definition in her legs as she pulled on socks and leggings. Lucy noticed her hair had gotten longer as well. Normally she was in such a hurry to get to class that she didn’t pay much attention to it. A brush and a binder were her normal routine. She braided her hair out of her way and went to find breakfast.

After breakfast they saddled horses and rode. Lucy always felt a sense of happiness on a horse. Any stress seemed to melt out of her body and into the wind. Gavin ran them through a whole series of drills he had thought up the night before. They practiced walking, trotting, and galloping in a straight line, four abreast, zig zagging through trees, over jumps, and worked on turning as a group and individually without causing all chaos to break loose. It was all complicated and fun. Maya rode fine even though she didn’t particularly seem to be enjoying herself.

“Ok, next, I thought we could work on fighting as a group on horseback,” said Gavin.

“Somehow, I don’t think we’ll have to know how to do that,” said Maya.

“Why not?” asked Gavin, looking slightly disappointed at the thought.

“Not that we won’t necessarily have to do that, but it’s unlikely. Not to mention, if we do, I think we already have enough advantages over our opponents that it’s not going to be an issue. I am totally ok winging it when the time comes.”

Gavin looked crest fallen.

“On this one, I think I’ll agree with Maya,” spoke up Lucy. “People in my class are catching on to the idea, but no one is very good. It’s a hard skill to master. You’re so good, you’ll be able to take on most groups of four single handedly. I think I’d serve you better in that instance by staying out of your way and maybe throwing some magic into the mix.”

“I think I’ll agree with them,” said Justin, nodding towards Lucy and Maya. “We’ll be fine. We have other things to work on. Besides, if we slaughter every group in every challenge, it will take some of the fun out of it.”

“That’s true,” agreed Gavin suddenly looking worried about that thought. It was obviously something he hadn’t contemplated. “What if we are too good?”

“No such thing. Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll be challenged. They’ll think of something amazingly hard for us to do. I think we can let fighting on horseback as a group be our wildcard event.”

“Ok,” agreed Gavin. “I think we should still practice grabbing each other off the ground onto our horses, taking each other to a free horse, and helping them mount. That could be useful, and I’ve never done it.”

They agreed to this plan. The guys decided that, being naturally stronger, they should be the first to lift. Justin trotted up to Lucy, hooked her arm, and pulled as she jumped, and she managed to end up on the horse behind him. She had no idea if she would be able to duplicate what had happened, but at least they had managed to do the first part once, which was better than she had expected. She wondered how many times Gavin was going to have them practice this one. A useful skill to be sure, but what were the odds they were going to need it? She wrapped her arms around Justin, and he continued on to her horse, which Gavin was holding further ahead. Once they got closer he began to run while holding Ash’s bridle so she was moving pretty fast when they reached her. This is insanity, thought Lucy as she took a deep breath and pretty much jumped. The saddle horn jabbed her in the stomach as she landed hard. Winded, she managed to right herself and ride on beside Justin.

They regrouped to discuss how it went.

“Lucy, you were supposed to let Justin help you onto your horse. You didn’t need to jump. It didn’t look very graceful,” chastised Gavin.

“Graceful? Who gives a damn about graceful? I proved I can do it. Not very well, or gracefully, but if I’m on the ground, I proved I can get back on a running horse. I have no intention of doing it again. I’d like to see you do it gracefully!”

“You most certainly will do it again,” said Gavin. “We’ll all do this until we get it right.”

“Or die,” muttered Maya under her breath to Lucy.

“No kidding,” she replied rubbing where the saddle horn had hit her.

“Perhaps, let’s do it in stages. First let’s work on helping someone up behind us, then, we’ll work on the rest,” suggested Justin.

The idea seemed to have merit, but it was still a comedy of errors. The first time Lucy tried to help Gavin up onto Ash, he got excited and pulled too hard toppling them both from the horse. Ash snorted in laughter, and Justin had to heal Lucy’s dislocated shoulder. They weren’t worrying about bumps, bruises, or slight sprains right now, but anything that prevented them from continuing the general insanity inflicted on them by Gavin’s excitement needed to be healed. Maya and Lucy got the hang of lifting each other up pretty quickly. Gavin’s second attempt to mount behind Lucy went well. Once Gavin seemed satisfied that they could all handle that part, they moved on to the next.

Switching horses, while both are in motion, and the person in front of you is using the stirrups, is not as easy as it looks. They decided to try having one person on horseback leading the horse that was going to be mounted while the other two rode towards them. Despite Gavin’s earlier criticisms of Lucy’s lack of gracefulness, he didn’t manage to do much better. There wasn’t anything to hold onto or push off of. Lucy had Justin take his foot out of the stirrup while she switched over to see if it helped to use that, but she found it worked better to simply jump and hope. In a vain attempt to avoid more bruises, she tried using magic once, but Gavin informed her it was cheating and doing this was for her own good. She wasn’t sure how he arrived at that conclusion, but she was too sore and covered in dirt to argue.

They had all missed lunch by the time Gavin decided they were proficient enough to take a break. By proficient, Lucy assumed he meant more likely to land on the horse than to fall off it. Or that the injuries were leaning more towards the less fatal side of things, because none of them had managed to master the skill. Lucy thought Gavin oddly enjoyed the challenge though. He succeeded in every physical challenge thought up by an instructor, but he had thought up one that was going to take him some time.

“I am one big bruise,” said Maya, limping out of the stables after unsaddling and brushing down her mare. “I literally hurt everywhere. I hurt in places I didn’t think it was possible to hurt.”

“Is any of is serious?” asked Justin.

“It’s all serious,” complained Maya, “but don’t worry about it right now. I’m going to take a long bubble bath and assess the damage. I might have you heal some of the worse ones after that. Besides, you already said you wouldn’t do anything about muscle soreness, which accounts for half of this. After a bath, I’ll be able to tell you if anything is pulled and you can heal that.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Justin tiredly. He didn’t look in topnotch shape either.

Gavin came out of the stables looking cheery, and they all resented him just a little for that. After all, good idea or not he was partially to blame for their current pain. Of course, they did participate of their own free will so they couldn’t blame him completely, but none of them were in the mood to feel rational at the moment.

“I was having so much fun, I forgot to notice I was hungry,” he said in some amazement. “I’m going to find some bread and cheese. Are you coming?”

“I’m immersing myself in hot water until dinner time. I’ll see you then,” said Maya and limped off without another word or backwards glance.

Gavin looked at them questioningly.

“I don’t intend to soak until dinner, but I’m definitely in the mood for some therapeutic hot water. Food is the second priority right now,” explained Lucy.

“Normally, I’d join you for food, but I’m showering first,” said Justin.

Gavin shrugged, “Suit yourselves. I’m going to grab some food and eat on the way to my room for a shower,” and he walked off.

“High pain tolerance or not, I can’t help resenting him at the moment,” Lucy said to Justin.

He smiled at her. “How about you?” he asked.

“How about me what?”

“How much pain are you in? Do you need me to heal anything?”

“Oh, I think it’s too soon to tell. I hurt everywhere, but I think I’ll wait until after a bath, and we’ll see where bruises are forming or if anything feels wrong as opposed to sore.”

Justin nodded and off they limped.

“You know, if I’d been watching us today, I would have been rolling on the ground laughing.”

Lucy laughed, and then groaned. “Please don’t make me laugh, it hurts too much. You do have a point. I suppose Eric’s got tears in his eyes by now from laughing so much.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Justin, trying to appear interested rather than overly alert.

“I get the impression that he has a good idea of what goes on around here.”

“That he does. I bet you’re right. He probably hasn’t gotten any work done since the moment you jumped onto Ash that first time.”

They parted at a hallway and limped separately to their prospective rooms. Lucy reached hers and began to strip off her filthy clothing. It was full of dust from all the times she had fallen. She could already see bruises appearing, and the area where her stomach had hit the saddle horn was dark purple. She ran bath water for as hot as she could stand it and slowly sank into the tub. She grabbed her shower gel and washed all the dirt off of her body. She washed her hair and then simply lay there, unmoving, enjoying the hot water. When the water grew tepid, she decided it was time to move. She started to get up, but a sharp pain in her stomach forced her back down. She tried again, and a cry of pain escaped her lips. Something had to be wrong. A bruise shouldn’t hurt this much. She sat there, waiting for the pain to subside.

Lucy considered her options. She could wait a few minutes and try again. She could try to figure out what was wrong, but she didn’t even want to touch the bruise for fear of causing more pain. Not to mention, depending on what was wrong, trying to move might injure it more. The conclusion she came to was that she needed help.

“
Justin?”
she asked tentatively, trying to keep the pain out of her voiced thoughts.

“
Lucy?”

“
Are you done showering?”

“
Yes, why?”

“
Not to sound alarmist, but I think something’s really wrong.”

“
What kind of wrong?”

“
The, I don’t think I can get out of the bathtub without passing out from pain wrong?”

“
I’m on my way. Can you drain the tub?”

“
Yes?”

“
Ok, do that, turn on the shower if you can and rinse yourself off, I assume you are covered in suds.”

“
Ok.”

There was a knock at her door.

“It’s me,” Justin called and entered.

He moved towards the bathroom. He could see the towel rack. He grabbed the largest one and handed it to her. He took a second towel and laid it on the bed. He went back to the bathroom.

“Are you decent?”

“As decent as I’m going to get under the circumstances,” Lucy replied.

Justin turned around, bent down, and lifted her as gently as he could, cradling her against his body. She winced in pain. He laid her on the bed on top of the other towel. Lucy wrapped the towel underneath her around the lower part of her body. Then, she lifted the first towel high enough to expose her purple bruise. Justin inhaled sharply and knelt down next to the bed.

“How did that happen?”

“Remember the first time I jumped?”

“Yes.”

“I landed on the saddle horn.”

“Ouch. Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“I thought it was bruised, nothing more.”

“I’m not going to promise this isn’t going to hurt.”

“I’m not going to promise I’m not going to cry.”

Justin started to feel the bruise both with his fingers and his senses. He felt her flinch in pain but kept on. He couldn’t look at her face. He didn’t want to see how much pain she was in. He knew he had to keep his emotions out of it, and seeing her in pain might give him the burning need to beat Gavin into oblivion. It might not be entirely Gavin’s fault, but it was Gavin’s idea and that was enough. Justin told himself to calm down. First, he had to make Lucy better.

“I think you have some internal bleeding.”

“That sounds like fun,” Lucy responded trying to sound like she was in less pain than she was.

“This is going to take a few minutes.”

Justin closed his eyes and concentrated. He searched out what was wrong and fixed it. He’d done this on animals before, but this was the first time he had done it to a person. He hoped he was doing it right. He took his time. Finally, he opened his eyes and watched as the purple bruise turned to green and slowly faded.