"Now walk towards me," the Black Knight ordered, his voice a low, cold rumble as it emanated from inside his helmet.
Like a child learning her first steps again, Amelia watched the ground as she tentatively moved one steel encased foot in front of the other. One, two. One two. One, two. She counted as she felt her feet crush the snow and heard the clank of all her plate mail. This was her first time doing this and she did not want to embarrass herself. She was the one who'd asked him to teach her how to fight in full armour.
They were further out from the town and near the trees where the woodcutters would do their work with saw and axe. The sky was in the middle of greeting the sky, but the birds could be heard chirping their morning song already.
When she was a trainee back in her world, Amelia had never been allowed the luxury of plate mail that could only be afforded by the rich or nobility, for she was the only child of a blacksmith from a village with no name that its folk could recall, and that could not be found on any map she had seen. And when she deserted from the army of her country and joined up with their enemies to fight for what she believed was the right side, she had taken to being atop a horse for battle but even then she wore little more than boiled leather and occasionally chain-mail when her comrades could afford it. But when she was summoned by the Order of Heroes, who had access to an entire kingdom's treasury, she had decided that it was something she wanted to try, if only because she thought it would be hard, and yet the Black Knight made it look so easy.
Plus she heard about what happened when her friends had tried to fight Surtr in single combat. If she could learn how to walk in full armour, she might be able to do what they could not, so they won't have to.
If the thought had ever crossed Amelia's mind that she was just a child, she had ignored it. In full armour, a child could stand against anyone.
"That's it," her teacher grunted. "Good. Very good, girl."
He never called her by name. He'll call her girl, ma'am, miss, and even milady – despite Amelia being a common girl from her home – but he'll never address her by what her parents had christened her so, even when she told him to use it.
From another person, Amelia would have considered such behaviour to be rude, or patronizing. Like her army commander because she knew he couldn't remember her name. But when the Black Knight did it, it almost sounded…gallant.
She wasn't watching where she was placing her foot next. It pushed through the snow and slid forward, forcing her centre weight off-balance as her front foot went too far from where her back foot was. She threw her arms out to steady herself but immediately felt herself teeter from side to side as she gasped in surprise.
She saw the Black Knight move from his seat on the tree trunk and dart towards her with a hand outstretched, but she was already falling as she moved her head too far back and began to topple.
The world through her eyes flew upward. As she cried out in alarm, Amelia felt the back of her head hit the cold snow as the chilly sensation covered the nape of her neck.
She heard birds tweeting, as if laughter.
"Do you think this is a game?" The Black Knight thundered over her, his helmet peering down. "Do you know what can happen to a man in full armour when he is lying on the ground in the middle of combat?"
"No."
"A halberdier can crack his breastplate open with his axe. A lancer can trample him with his horse. A man-at-arms – a child even – can flip his visor open and stick a knife inside." Amelia felt the Black Knight nudge her leg with a foot. "Like this, you can't guard yourself. You can't run. You can't fight. On his feet, a knight is a pillar, the mountain upon which the tide can only crash against in futile rage. On his back, a knight succumbs to the waves and sinks beneath without a trace. "
For a moment, Amelia was ashamed. But then she remembered that the Black Knight only admonished her for her safety. Scolding not for scolding sake but to ram home a lesson that was vital for her survival when she took the battlefield again.
Still, he could at least take off his helmet.
Amelia got to her feet, a task that was very difficult in full armour. The Black Knight did not lend a hand to help her, but did advise her on how to make it easier. "Move to knees and hands, and you'll be quicker about it," he said. When Amelia was once more standing, he looked her up and down with a tilt of his helmet, before he added: "Against hardship, you may stagger, and you may stumble, but you must not fall. Ever. Not when your life is on the line." Then he crossed his arms and stepped back. "Now let's try to do this again."
Amelia shook her head ruefully.
"What's your first lesson today?" the Black Knight asked as Amelia started to walk again.
"Be a mountain," the girl from Grado replied.
"We might make a knight of you yet."