Chapter 10 - Awakenings 2
"Not bad, not bad at all. Get your wind back and we'll start with the sticks." Lucivar said, hardly breathing heavily at all while clapping his firm hand on Rand's heaving shoulder. Rand just nodded and gasped for breath, looking over the training field to see if Min and Jaenelle had returned yet. When the worst of his cramps eased, he stood tall and stretched his arms and legs out so they would remain limber throughout the day. As he stretched, he thought about how the morning had progressed.
Rand had awoken early. Min had remained peacefully asleep when he got out of bed and dressed himself, so he resolved to let her rest until just before seven o'clock. The room given to him and Min was an interior room with no windows. When he left their room on the second floor he discovered that he and Min had slept from late afternoon until early morning. The morning sun was almost ready to peek it's golden fringe up over the horizon when he passed the first hallway window on his way downstairs. Rand had wandered through the Hall until the smell of baking bread lured him into the kitchen area. A very large, strong-looking woman greeted him cordially when he entered the huge kitchen and told him he was welcome to stay so long as he was not underfoot. She belatedly introduced herself as Mrs. Beale, the Hall's cook. She informed him that it was just after five in the morning and that breakfast proper would be served around eight-thirty, when everyone had finished the morning's exercise.
Rand obeyed the muscular woman without question, sitting on a stool at a small table out of the way of the many helpers in the corner of the kitchen. He felt fantastic, the combination of a completely healed body, a great night's sleep and the wonderful smell of Mrs. Beale's baking all worked to put him in a great mood. The cook noticed him sitting on the stool smiling, with his eyes closed, breathing in the fresh smell of new bread. She brought him a large cup of black, powerful coffee and gave him a small bun that had just come out of the oven. He thanked her and ate the bun, then tried the coffee.
"By the Light!" Rand exclaimed after his first sip of the potent brew. He had never tasted anything like that before. It felt like it would corrode it's way through his gullet on the way down. Mrs. Beale laughed uproariously at him, wiping the corners of her tearing eyes with her apron.
"Yep, that's Jaenelle's special morning brew you have there," she said to Rand, still chuckling. "A lot of people react the same way when they first try it. There are a few around here who are good for nothing when they first awake, Jaenelle being one of them. You finish that cup and I'll give you another bun and a mug for you to take up to that little sweetheart of yours."
"Thank you Mrs. Beale," Rand said, finishing his cup of scalding-hot coffee and leaning down to give the cook a kiss on the cheek. "You're a sweetie yourself."
"Bah, away with you." The large woman blushed and hustled him out of her kitchen, his hands full with fresh buns and a big mug of coffee for Min.
Min was just starting to wake when Rand entered their room. "Good morning farm-boy," she mumbled his direction while stretching out on the bed.
"Good morning to you, sleepyhead," Rand said as he leaned over the bed to plant a kiss on her lips. "I have already been around the Hall adventuring. I have brought buns and a very special beverage I think you might enjoy," he said proudly, gleefully anticipating her first sip of the coffee.
Min sat up on the edge of the bed and took the bun Rand offered. "Mmm, that's tasty." Rand beamed his amusement at her simple enjoyment of the bread. Grinning hugely, he offered her the mug he had brought. She sniffed the contents and then took a large swig of the still-hot coffee. "Oooh, mmmm..." She moaned in ecstasy, closed her eyes, and smiled blissfully as the robust liquid flowed down her throat. When she opened her liquid brown eyes again, Rand had seated himself beside her on the bed and was watching her closely. He waited patiently, staring at her with an amorous gaze, as she finished the coffee. He then took the cup from her, threw it somewhere towards the corner of their room, and pulled her back into the center of the bed. Rand spent the next hour or so ardently trying to put coffee, and everything else, out of her mind.
"My goodness! You're going to have to start bringing me breakfast in bed every morning, if that's what is going to happen," she said, laughing, as she finally got up from the bed and stepped over to the armoire. She turned back to Rand after she opened the doors and joked, "How are you feeling this morning? Good enough to go out for training?"
Rand laughed and smiled easily, laying on his back with his arms behind his head. "I'm great. And you, my love, are fantastic. I'm ready for anything if you are."
Min smiled to herself, thinking of Rand's enthusiasm and passion in the last hour, as she chose an outfit from the clothes provided for her and Rand. She chose a short-sleeved blue shirt and a loose pair of soft leather pants with lots of room for movement. "You'd better get dressed then. I don't think Lucivar is forgiving of those who turn up late. And trust me Rand," she couldn't contain a giggle, "you want to stay on the good side of Lucivar. At least until you've picked a few things up from him."
"Is he really that good?" Rand asked seriously as he stood up from the bed and joined her at the armoire. "You do remember that it was Lan Mandragoran who taught me the sword?"
Min appraised the completely naked man at her side. His tall, strong, and incredibly fit physique was impressive, but she merely smirked at him as he began to dress. "You'll see. Hurry up, and let's get going."
Rand didn't respond, but donned similar clothing to Min's and they left the room arm in arm. They ran into Jaenelle and Daemon on the ground floor, on their way out to the training grounds as well. They exchanged greetings with the two, who grinned at Rand and Min knowingly, and followed them out of the Hall and over to where Lucivar was already waiting.
He was pacing quickly, looking impatient and agitated, as Rand and Min approached. Lucivar gruffly explained that, as it was their first day of training, Rand and Min would be separated. Jaenelle would take Min with her, and Lucivar would take Rand. Today was an assessment day. They would find out what physical limits and skills Rand and Min possessed, in order to design workouts and routines from there. Rand and Min had been hoping to train together, but what Lucivar said made perfect sense, so they went opposite ways. Lucivar, Daemon and Clarity went with Rand north, while Jaenelle and Surreal took Min south.
After following behind the wolf and the two men to the edge of the forest, Rand joined them as they formed a small circle. Lucivar described the first step in his plan. "The first thing we need to do is get an idea of your stamina. We all run varying distances every morning to warm up before practicing with any weapons. We're going on a slightly longer run this morning. Let's see if you can keep up." With that comment, Lucivar, Daemon and Clarity took off through the woods directly north of the Hall.
Rand was a statuesque man, with long and strong legs, but he knew within a mile that he would definitely not be able to keep up for long. Even before his injuries, he was never a superb runner. The last couple of years riding horseback and Traveling hadn't done him any favours physically, at least in regard to long-distance running. He had heart though, so he gave it his all as he attempted to keep Daemon in sight through the trees.
The men and wolf from Kaleer slowed a bit when the forest thinned, waiting for Rand to catch them up. As Rand neared the group, he studied the men ahead of him. Lucivar ran effortlessly, his powerful legs propelling him forward with consummate ease, his large wings pulled tight to his back. His head was high and his back straight as if merely strolling across a lawn, not jogging at a fast pace. Daemon loped across the ground with the fluid, sleek grace of a predatory animal. He appeared to expend absolutely no energy while running. He was constantly ready to accelerate exponentially or turn in an instant. Daemon looked as if he might even be able to outrun Clarity, who bounded beside him easily at the pace they maintained so that Rand had at least some chance of keeping-up.
The men from Kaleer ran and ran, never seeming to tire. Clarity obviously thought it was silly to just run straight ahead, so he darted on and off the path, leaping boulders and flushing out small game from thickets of bushes. He never chased the small animals he disturbed, he just frightened them terribly and ran on. At one point, when Rand was flagging, Lucivar spoke to the wolf as they ran well ahead of the young foreigner. For the rest of the run Clarity followed within a few feet of his back, growling loudly when Rand slowed or tripped up. Rand knew the wolf probably wouldn't attack him, but a growling Warlord Prince on his heels certainly served as a good motivator.
The scenery was beautiful where they ran, but Rand had no energy to spare for sight-seeing. They ran for miles and miles, at least it felt that way to Rand. His legs were cramping badly and he had a terrible stitch in his side by the time he noticed that they had completed a loop, bringing them back to the training grounds behind the Hall.
In the next two hours Rand developed a completely new appreciation and respect for the people in this world. Every person he had met the day before was a deadly warrior in their own right. Every member of the Dark Court residing presently at the Hall was trained, and drilled mercilessly, to react in prescribed ways in emergency scenarios. Disregarding their Jewel Power and the Kindred's complete contempt for weapons wielded by those not counted among 'their humans', these people were, each and every one of them, masters of their chosen weapons. A few had three or four vastly different armaments picked as personal favorites, or specialties. Rand and Min saw skills displayed with knives, bows, frying-pans, short and long-staffs, and several different styles of one and two-handed swords that they could barely comprehend and had definitely never seen matched. Even the people not technically part of the Dark Court, servants of the Hall, locals with and without wings and their friends all came to train and learn from Jaenelle's males, especially from Lucivar. Many of these servants and common trades-people would easily qualify as Weapon-masters in Min and Rand's world.
These people lived a long time, but Rand was astounded by their proficiency. Lucivar himself was an indefatigable army of one. It seemed as if there was nothing that could stop the overwhelmingly powerful and bewilderingly fast man, with any physical weapon. Daemon flowed like water, except he flowed where you would never expect him to go. He baffled opponents, anyone other than Lucivar, with deceptive and intelligent feints-within-feints. His kinesthetic senses were so acutely honed he was able to gracefully appear as if dancing to an enjoyable tune, while fighting a furious battle. They were all impressive, but Min and Rand were amazed and shocked when Jaenelle and Lucivar took center stage.
Lucivar was a fearfully quick and adept warrior, but Rand and Min were alarmed by the sheer ferocity of Jaenelle. When the two combatants rushed at each other, with their two-handed warp-wood staves cocked back, they both emitted primal growls. Most of their fight thereafter was fought with only the occasional grunt or slight hiss being heard over the almost deafeningly loud and incessant crash of 'practice' weapons. Moving into attack routines and defensive maneuvers so rapidly that neither Rand nor Min could hope of following, the two skillful warriors carved a complex and ferocious path across the training ground. Lucivar had a longer reach than Jaenelle, and he used his powerful wings to great effect during the fight. Jaenelle was fast as lightning and just as terrifying to watch close-up.
Over the two or so minutes the battle had lasted, Rand had just barely started to understand the true flow of the fight. Lucivar apparently scored a good hit and the fighters stilled. Rand and Min hadn't seen the hit, but they both felt Jaenelle's snarl like a blow when she demanded, "Again." The fearsome tone of the snarl, and the cold that had suddenly robbed all of the heat from the previously warm morning, caused all within thirty or so feet to pause, immobile in stiff anticipation. Lucivar nodded slightly before the contest began again with a glacially-cold intensity.
Jaenelle bounded and whirled with magnificent grace and speed. Lucivar somehow matched her and they each spun a brilliant weave of death with their sticks, only to be countered by the other's perfect deflection or intuitive evasion. The flow of the last few strikes in the battle became manifest to Rand the instant Jaenelle performed a certain move. A form Rand recognized as Black Pebbles on Snow was executed with great precision; she parried Lucivar's stave and made a diagonal down-cut at the man's torso. Lucivar flexed his large wings and barely shifted his weight to avoid her powerful slash and executed his own attack with a beautifully polished version of Ribbon in the Air. Once her stick had parried Lucivar's initial attack, Lucivar would be able to use his superior reach and wing-assisted agility to strike Jaenelle's unprotected side in a strong, devastating slice of his stave. Rand saw that she had no way to avoid the practice blade about to crack her skull.
To Rand and Lucivar's utter astonishment, the woman was able to shift her head and shoulders below the aggressive slash. With a squatting Heron Wading in the Rushes movement, she spun on her left leg, leaving her back and the back of her head completely undefended while she threw her other leg around to sweep the man's feet from under him. She had thrown her sword-arm out in front of her, away from Lucivar completely, to leverage strength for the trip, swinging her right leg underneath Lucivar's center of gravity. Jaenelle's insanely risky and innovative ploy worked only because Lucivar was advancing for the slash and the possible follow-up cut. He was unbalanced marginally by the force of his strike at her head, and the last place anyone expected slender Jaenelle to move was toward and, somehow, underneath the rushing mass of muscle that was Lucivar. He went crashing to the turf on his side as she stood gracefully, right where he had been swinging his stave, certain of victory, a split-second before. She moved immediately to him, smiling widely now and extended a hand.
The heat had returned three-fold to their battle during the second round. Both combatants were still breathing heavily and sweating profusely when they finished the quiet talk they had together for a few moments right after the fight. They turned, and arm in arm came over to the observers and laughed about the way they sometimes got a 'little frenzied' while sparring.
Rand understood clearly that they had been sparring against each other for years, and that their fighting was akin to chess, stones or especially sha'rah. The fantastically intricate and difficult game of the mind that had been lost to time in Rand's world was an apt analogy for the complex physical game the masterful warriors played. Most moves were planned many steps ahead, gambits feinted and stratagems discarded, sword strokes parried and countered in long advance of physical execution. Agility and acuity of mind played as much, if not more, of a role in Jaenelle and Lucivar's game as physical fitness and awareness. They walked away after a moment, keeping mobile to cool their bodies down, leaving Rand and Min agog at what they had just witnessed.
They had no time, however, to sit and chat about it just then. A few of the Kindred had come out to the training grounds to help Rand and Min adjust to Kaleer. They soon became very glad the animals were willing to show them a little of what Kindred were capable of. They would never make the huge mistake of thinking anything in this world a simple 'animal' again.
Lord Ladvarian had arrived at the Hall the previous night. The small cute dog, and a couple of the other Scelties that had come along with him, helped to illustrate to Rand and Min that even the most benign appearance meant nothing here. The enthusiastic and charming dogs could make themselves invisible, protect themselves and attack with Craft, or could physically attack in devastatingly intelligent and dangerous patterns to confuse enemies or assist allies.
Kaelas, the massive black and white-striped Arcerian cat had made his way to the training grounds by the time Ladvarian and the other Scelties had shown Rand and Min some of their skills. He was waiting beside a friend of his, one who would be more than happy to help Jaenelle's new friends, he explained. Rand thought he was slowly becoming inured to the strange, amazing people and their interesting companions. But a man cannot be expected to calmly greet a tiger larger that any cat Rand had ever seen standing casually beside a unicorn larger than any horse Rand had ever even heard of.
Prince Mistral, the Red Jeweled Warlord Prince of Unicorns, explained that he had been on a mission to find and talk with Jaenelle, or Saetan, when Kaelas informed him of the strangers at the Hall. Kaelas had said some very interesting things about Rand and Min, and because his business was not urgent, Mistral had decided to accompany his friend to the training field instead of possibly waking Saetan. Rand and Min both stood in confounded glee for a moment while Mistral explained his appearance and then let them respectfully, and somewhat fearfully, approach him.
*I'm sorry, Prince Mistral,* Min began, on a common thread, for her and Rand both as they drew to within a pace of the spectacularly beautiful creature. *You will have to excuse our reactions just now. We have only been here in Kaleer for a couple of days, or been conscious for two of them passing at least. And I'm not sure about Rand, but right now I'm having trouble believing that you truly exist. Between the Craft that Healed Rand's wounds, these people's physical prowess with weapons of every shape and size, and seeing you and Kaelas hanging out at the edge of the field together...* She turned her pretty face to Rand, then seemingly asked the air itself, loudly, just in front of Rand, "Blood and bloody ashes, am I dreaming, or is this the Twisted Kingdom?"
Rand was similarly dumbstruck, though he was capable of holding it in. Until he realized that he suddenly found Min's daft reaction to the huge, sparklingly white unicorn to be the most wondrously hilarious thing he had ever heard or seen. He collapsed onto the grass in delighted laughter, and Min soon joined him. They folded over themselves in wild amusement, with more than a bit of hysteria mixed into it, for quite some time. They both had sore bellies and tears still streaming from their eyes when they arose.
Prince Mistral was not offended, and so had waited patiently as the hilarity subsided. He had grown used to humans, Blood and landen alike, since the horrible massacre of his kind had been perpetrated in Sceval years before. He had overcome his own prejudices and learned to judge all people and animals by their actions, not their race or species. The very protective Arcerian cat had already explained that Min was becoming a good friend of Jaenelle's, and that Rand had shown Kaelas no reason not to let the young man live.
Mistral also knew that he cut an intimidating figure. Even people who knew of the existence of unicorns in his world often balked when meeting him the first time. He would have it no other way. It would not do for the Warlord Prince of Unicorns, and mate of the Queen of Unicorns to be some smallish, runty, commonplace stallion. He was one of the offspring of Kaetien, who had been the most impressive of his kind. In the last couple of years he had put on his last bit of growth. Mistral was now the largest and strongest unicorn in his herd, in his territory, and in all of the Realms Jaenelle and Saetan knew how to access.
He was an incredibly tall and massively muscled stallion in the peak of his prime. He stood over six feet tall at the withers and his long arcing neck and thick, spiraling conical horn made him look monumental. His great height placed his perspective above almost every creature in his world, and so he was slightly impressed at the height of this Rand al'Thor. It was not often that Mistral had to keep his gaze almost straight ahead to look a man in the eye. He stared at Rand for a moment after the two humans rose, their eyes locked on each others not five feet apart.
The young man had a great amount of raw strength and determination in him, Mistral saw immediately. He was clearly a young Warlord Prince just cutting his Craft teeth, but he was already formidable. Kaelas and Jaenelle's acceptance of these strangers, and the fact that Mistral had often found himself genuinely enjoying the company of some humans, combined to make the Unicorn Warlord Prince's decision on how to treat Rand and Min an easy one.
To ensure they understood that he was no hallucination, and mostly because he enjoyed shocking people, the unicorn stallion strode to Min's side and told Rand curtly to put Min on his back. As soon as the little woman touched his back, Mistral accelerated quickly away from the group of humans. He had intended only to take her on a short but wild and terrifying spin before dropping her off in her lover's arms, hopefully laughing.
Mistral was very pleasantly surprised when the diminutive young woman clamped her strong legs firmly around his girth with a shriek of laughter, and fearlessly grabbed thick handholds of his mane in her tiny fists within a step of take-off. Upon recognizing that he had a skilled rider on his back, the unicorn poured on the velocity and they embarked together on an epic romp around the training grounds at speeds a pitiful horse could never dream of accomplishing. The delightful psychic scent of the young witch, and the playfulness and enthusiasm of the mind he connected with while romping, completely endeared Min to the Warlord stallion. They jumped and leapt and raced around the grounds at fantastic speeds for many minutes before heading back to the group near the weapons-storage building.
Min had never felt such velocity and Power before, and had never been as exhilarated as she was while she and Mistral seemed to fly across the field together. Mistral showed her how to share physical sensations when connected psychically. The feeling of actually being the stallion, while still feeling the wind rippling through her own hair, was phenomenally pleasant and useful. Min's close connection to Mistral allowed her to perfectly anticipate turns and jumps, transforming unicorn and rider into something fluid and inseparable. She was delightedly laughing when the two trotted back to Rand, and she was so happy she jumped right off of the tall stallion's back and into Rand's arms.
Ten minutes later, when Min had stopped quivering with excitement at what she had just experienced and had kissed Rand at least thirty times after knocking him flying coming off of the unicorn, they were laughingly told by Jaenelle that breakfast would be served soon. They emphatically thanked everyone present for the instruction that morning, and they all dispersed to clean up after the workout and get ready for breakfast. They were walking toward the Hall, arm in arm, talking about unicorns and Blademasters when Min blurted, "I don't care how long we end up stuck here, Rand. I love it. I just love it."
***Warning: The next chapter is sexy, sensual and downright licentious. (X-Rated) Do not continue reading if you are easily offended. ***
Reviews are appreciated, good and bad. Thanks. I will gladly fix errors if they are pointed out to me... maybe...probably...