"Lucky you. At least you can actually touch the guy." Ashley was glum after picking every tiny detail out of Cassie.
"So do you just go right through him?" Cassie asked.
"Yes. But I think that right now, that's the least of my problems." she frowned and looked out the window. "The stars are veiled, and I'm not even quoting! Look, they really are. It's actually kind of pretty." Cassie joined her friend at the window and she looked at he misty stars hanging above the silent moor. "I told you so."
"Do you think we'll die?" Cassie voiced the question that had been plaguing her mind all day.
"I doubt it. Things just don't work out that way." and Cassie was so relieved by the answer that she didn't bother to think about the questionable explanation. In truth, Ashley had her own doubts, though she didn't voice them.
Nobody slept well that night. Or the one following. The two girls tossed and turned, dreading their almost certain doom. Saber and Kyler were restless and easily distracted. Both for different reasons. That last night, they stayed up, polishing their weapons and speaking little. Ashley and Cassie blew off their steam by drilling their music over and over. Abbe and Jaz joined them for a little while, but they didn't have no much to worry about and so eventually bid them good night and good luck. Everything basically depended on the people of the past. No pressure right?
The dawn rose red. Distant drums could be heard, as of yet invisible just over the western horizon. Aiden stepped into the room, and the terrified pair whipped around in fright. And then their pinched expressions turned to smiles at the small girl's attire. She was fully decked out in silver mail with her hair tied back from her eyes. A sword at her hip and a red cape about her shoulders, she looked the part of any gallant knight. Only she was just short of four feet and no warrior could look that intimidating. But the look in Aiden's eye said quite plainly that she was ready to draw blood.
"Love the look," Cassie said wryly.
"You think so?" Aiden asked fingering the cape. "I wondered if I looked a bit overdone."
"Not at all," said Ashley smirking. "Wish I had something like that. I might live." Aiden's eyes widened.
"But you do! Didn't I tell you? Oops. Well, here you go." Leaping into the wardrobe, and digging in the back, she pulled out two more coats of mail similar to the one the small girl was wearing.
"No capes?" Cassie asked disappointed.
"Sorry," Aiden said apologetically. "We're a bit short on fabric and dye this time of year you know. Oh yes, and I've had special sheaths made for your instruments so you can wear them all the time!" She dug around a bit more and produced two belts with oddly shaped pockets in them. Undoubtedly made to hold a flute and a clarinet. Ashley held hers by the tips of her fingers, disgusted.
"This is hideous and tacky and why can't we look cool like you?"
"Because I'm the wise all knowing person in this particular good versus evil story, and I have to look the part. And because you are destined to become the greatest players of your instrument of all time, and so thus must also look the part as well. It's not my fault I got the better looking part."
Ashley refused to speak to Aiden for the entire time it took to ready themselves for battle, which admittedly wasn't all that long. They met Saber and Kyler in the great hall, where they were looking grim, but all in all not terribly worried.
"How can you act so calm?" Ashley hissed. Kyler frowned, confused.
"What is there to be worried about?" Ashley shrugged.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe DYING!"
"But we are warriors. Risking our lives is what we do. Fearing death will only make death itself more likely."
"But I'm not a warrior. I'm a high school student! This kind of thing isn't supposed to happen to me. I was supposed to go on a nice excursion band trip to Ireland to play in the St. Patricks Day parade! Now I find myself thrown seven hundred years from my home where people don't even know that the world is round! Now because of one of my best friends, I have to fight in a war and risk my life to save the world from MY evil band director! Why couldn't it be Innerlochs? It's never them!" As she finished her rant, she was shocked to find tears on her cheeks. Kyler pulled her close.
"I understand little of what you said, but I feel your terror. But know, that if your life is lost, it was supposed to happen. If you decide not to go into battle today, but you were still meant to meet your end on THIS day, it will happen in some other fashion. And if you were not, then you will live."
Somewhere, not far off, Cassie and Saber were having very much the same conversation.
"Our days are numbered lass, from the moment we take our first breath, death is inevitable, so there is no use in worrying over it constantly." Saber took Cassie's shoulders and shook her gently.
"Death is simply one of the greatest mysteries of life," Kyler continued. "Like air. Have you any idea what air is made of?"
"Yes actu-" Ashley was promptly cut off.
"Precisely, air is a mystery of life, and yet, it is because of air that we live."
"And besides," Saber was saying. "Has this whole experience been entirely bad?"
"No," Cassie admitted.
"So what good has happened to you?" Kyler prompted.
"I've made new friends, I've learned a lot, and I can now play my flute really well." Ashley answered after a moment's thought.
"I've fallen in love," Cassie said dreamily, the brunt of her fears forgotten. Saber kissed her forehead swiftly.
"And then, My dear Cascada, after a battle where death has been all around you, you remember just how…Enjoyable life can be. Cassie opened her mouth to speak, but no words found their way to her brain and a hot flush doused her face. She had been blushing far too much of late.
Saber smiled at her embarrassed reaction. How could he have so quickly fallen in love with this maiden who knew more than he could ever dream of trying to learn, and yet she was ignorant of so much? Including many of the simple pleasures that made life so worthwhile. He shook off the feeling of sweet romance, and adopted a sterner expression.
"And now Ashley," Kyler finished in a saintly voice. "We must go out to fight, for glory, death, and the survival of this good world as we know it."
"And we don't even have capes," said Cassie sullenly. Unable to keep himself serious, he smiled yet again and took his own from about his shoulder, dusted it off, and handed it too her.
"It may be a bit long, but I present it to you fair lady, with my compliments." Cassie accepted the green mass and fastened it. A cape made to fall just above the knees reached to her ankles.
"Come my friend!" Kyler called from across the room. "There are men out there whom my sword is most eager to meet!"
"Have you any idea how wrong that sounds?" Ashley asked. Kyler paid little attention. Apparently, he was eager for battle. Ashley espied Cassie decked out in a cape of forest green. She made her way over. "You get a pep talk too?" she asked nodding towards Saber. Cassie sighed.
"I love him." After that, there was very little time to talk as they were pushed by the onslaught of battle-hungry men towards the door.
Once out of the door, all senses went on alert. The drums were louder now, and the tiny, dark specks lining the union between sky and ground were the only indications of the enemy's approach.
She was Mrs. Conrad again, but she was no less intimidating than Lord Darnoc itself. Beneath her heavy breastplate, she wore a tunic of the brightest orange which clashed horribly with her green leggings. Around it all, her own black cape billowed threateningly in the early morning breeze. Somewhere behind her, the bass drum beat out the age old rhythm. The very pulse of life. Beside her, Knat stood, his own tiny sword held at the ready. She held up her trumpet, and blew a whole note. When she took the instrument away from her mouth, her face was red, and she was breathing heavily, in great pain.
"You are the worst soldiers this world has ever had the misfortune to have!" She said. "This is your chance to redeem yourselves, and to find honour! In my experiences, the actual event goes much better than the practices. Let's hope this is one of those times! Or else you will all die! Now, when you meet this army, who is in all respects better than you, I want you to march in line, and in step with that bass drum! And you are not, under any circumstances to kill the little girl in the red cloak! I will handle her myself! Is all of this clear?! Good. Mark time! Forward march! One, two, three, four!" And so it began.
It was pitiful how little thought it took to take the life of another. As Ashley and Cassie put all of their hastily learned skills to the test, neither recalled thinking of much. It was like all free will had been shut off, and their thoughts were pre recorded and set into their brains. Challenge, block, duck, block, cut. Challenge cut, NO! duck! Ow. that's gonna hurt later, block, stab. Another one down, a few thousand more to go. Occasionally, during a quiet half second, they would glance around to see how the others were faring, and they would catch glimpses of their friends fighting similar battles, but before they could take a really good look it was back to Challenge, duck, block, OW Dammit! My arm! Oh you're going down! Cut., slice challenge…. The body never seemed to tire, and the veil over proper thought never seemed to lift. Until…..
Ashley would never have known if it had been a minute, an hour, or a day, if it wasn't for the fact that the sun rose and set. A loud cheer at last broke through the haze in her mind. She looked up, and suddenly all of her senses returned. She looked around. She spotted Saber, bloodstained and filthy, but with an expression of triumph radiating on his face. Kyler was near him, grim victory written on his features as well, but pain shadowed it. Cassie was not far off as well. She looked just as dazed as Ashley felt. She was blinking rapidly with a frown on her face. Her new cape hung limply from one shoulder and she was looking apprehensively at her sword, now stained with blood. She was looking around too, and nodded when she saw Ashley. Something bright caught Ashley's eye amongst all the black and brown on the ground. She gasped in horror. There, in a bloody heap, lay the old man Annod Yawnoc. She looked around frantically for Cassie, but she was busy reuniting with Saber. She turned away. A tear came to her eye. Who would slay this poor old man? She looked at him more closely. A strip of bright orange fabric was clutched in his left hand.