The weather outside was bright and warm, sunlight touching almost everything in Knighton with gentle grace. Birds chirped in their nests and squire-bots lead their herds of sheep or cattle here and there. Even children who usually stayed inside all day had gathered their things to play in the sun. Yet despite the bright warmth of the outdoors, Clay Moorington had decided to stay in the Fortrex. Mostly to train, of course. And after a few hours of training alone, dear princess Macy Halbert had joined him.
Her mace was a heavy comfort in her hands and she gripped its handle tightly to keep herself from accidentally throwing it. It wasn't often the two of them got to train one-on-one, but when they did, it was a tough and even match for both. Truth was, they were both a little rusty. Clay had been working alone more often trying to get used to using his non-dominant arm to hold and wield his sword. And Macy had just been avoiding training alone with one of the other knights in general. It brought back bad memories of what Clay had forced her to do to him when he was stone. Now that they were finally facing each other again though, they began to slip back into the flow of battle easily. Macy dodged a blow from Clay quickly and darted away, a grin plastered on her face.
"You missed me," She teased lightly, dodging another attack when her leader rushed at her, "And again."
Clay rolled his eyes, switching to defense as Macy started to attack him in return.
"Yeah I noticed. Thanks though."
He ducked and swept Macy's leg out from under her with the side of his blade, satisfied with how she fell. A couple of seconds later he offered his dominant hand to help her back up.
The strange thing with his right hand- and arm in general- was that it constantly glowed now. Sometimes it was red or yellow, and other times it turned a sickly green. Most of the time it was just a bright blue though, as was the color it was now. Macy took his hand, flinched slightly at the strange buzzing feeling it had, and stood.
"Ugh," She started, "That makes 5 for me and 6 for you. Neck and Neck."
Clay shrugged, rubbing at his wrist at the sudden flash of pain that had shot through it when he lifted Macy.
"Yeah well it'll probably be tied next round. You're good."
At this, Macy snorted and hefted her mace over her shoulder.
"Or you'll kick my ass again. It could go any way, you know."
He shook his head and laughed quietly to himself. He had missed this. Halfway through the laugh though he doubled over a bit, left arm moving to clutch his right one. White overtook the blue color, stayed for a couple of seconds, then slowly began to fade back to blue. Macy was at her leader's side at once, eyebrows knit
together worriedly.
"Clay, you okay?"
His jaw was clenched but he managed a grunt of "I'm fine." which only made Macy
more certain that he was hurting again. She put an arm around his shoulder.
"Don't say you're fine when you're hunched over like an old lady. If you're hurting
that bad then we need to stop."
But Clay was stubborn. He shook his head then looked up at Macy, eyes narrowed in
determination to push through the pain.
"No, I need to-"
The holochamber wall lit up suddenly, cutting Clay off. Ava's face filled the bright
space, her dark eyes were looking at something else, but it was clear that she could
tell that both knights were in the room. She swept a strand of brown hair out of
her face before talking.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we've got some weird signals coming from south of
Organica. Strong magicy stuff."
Macy blinked, distracted from scolding Clay.
"Organica? That little town that makes teas and grows herbs?"
She nodded, typing something into the complex computer system the Fortrex had.
"The exact place. I've already let Merlock 2.0 know about it and he says we should
check it out. I'd get ready for a fight if I were you, we don't know what's out
there, but it could be anything."
Clay shook out his hand, shoving Macy off of him in the process. Free from her grip
he hefted his sword up onto his shoulder.
"Thanks Ava," He said, "We'll get ready."
The girl nodded absently before flickering off of the wall, leaving it blank and
white once more. When she was gone, Macy shot Clay a fierce glare.
"You're lucky she popped in." she said, "And we'll finish this conversation later."
Clay pretended not to hear her.