Chapter 25: The Trainee

c/w: blood, violence

(~***~)

The next morning at the training ground Jade Fox was waiting for Angharad and Lightning.

"Boy, you're out of this training group," the instructor began. Lightning began to protest, but she gave him a hard glance that silenced him. "Because you are moving into the senior novices. Don't make me regret this. If you act like a baby we'll send you right back to training with them, understand?"

Lightning bowed to the teacher enthusiastically. He was leveling up! The boy tried not to skip as he walked over to the senior novice group. Jade waited until he was gone before she spoke to Angharad.

"You come with me," she told the elf. Angharad looked nervously over at Ginnar, who had a deep wrinkle between his brows. A few of the children were unsuccessfully suppressing smirks. Cloud whispered behind a hand to another girl.

In a stand of trees out of sight of any judging eyes, Jade rested casually against a bamboo pole, projecting a sense of ease.

"You've got quite the talent, girl," she said. "And you're hungry to use it. I understand."

"You do?" Angharad said, surprised. This is not what she'd been expecting.

"Yes, I do. Do you know how I learned the Tradition?" Jade asked the elf. Angharad shook her head.

"When I was a girl, my whole village died in a war. I escaped, and I wanted to make sure I was never helpless against such violence again. So I went to Temple Mountain. Do you know about Temple Mountain?" the teacher asked the girl. Angharad shook her head.

"Temple Mountain is where the Tradition is preserved and taught. It is reserved for dedicates called the Brothers, and for select boys they pick out. I told them I was an orphan and that I wanted to learn. The master assigned me many chores in the temple, saying that it was a test. So I did, for two whole years. I polished shrines and scrubbed floors on my knees. And I watched the boys train."

"When no one was watching I would practice what I'd seen until I knew the foundations of the Tradition as well as any boy. Finally, I asked the master if he would ever teach me. I showed him what I could do. But he said no. I would not have been selected as a boy, so why should I as a girl? Girls have never had a part in the Tradition – it was just an excuse. But he said I could stay and clean and they would feed me, since I had nowhere to go. As if making me into a servant was a favor!" Jade told her tale well. Angharad was leaning against a bamboo trunk, immersed.

"But as their cleaner, I had some keys to locked rooms. And I knew where they kept the scroll that held the secrets of the Tradition. Every night from then on, I would go into the scroll room and copy some until I had copied it all. Then I ran away and taught myself. For a while no one would believe me when I said I was a fighting woman, but my skills soon spoke for themselves. And here I am, training the next generation to resist those who ignore them at their own peril.

"So yes, I know what it is to have suffered injustice, and to want to learn to fight, and to be denied. People who have talent, and good reason to want such knowledge, should not be kept from learning."

"That is why I want to be your teacher," Jade said finally. Angharad perked up at that.

"But the Dashing King – " she started.

"Li Zicheng has given his blessing. You will be my private student. You can move into my hut. It is the proper way for a master and apprentice. You don't need to bother with the orphans anymore, or their childish chores," Jade said, focusing on the points that she thought the girl most wanted to hear.

Angharad was so excited. This was everything she wanted. And this woman, she understood – she really understood.

"I would love to be your student," Angharad said breathlessly. Then a thought occurred to her. She had just promised Ginnar she would not abandon him, and that she would try with the other children. "But…"

"Is there a problem?" Jade Fox asked, feeling annoyed. She'd almost convinced her.

"I can't move out of the orphan house right now. Or skip morning chores," Angharad said carefully. She didn't want to miss this chance. But Ginnar.

"Can I still be your student?" she asked hopefully. "It's just that I promised my friend. If you'd escaped your village with one good friend who had been with you the whole time – you'd stick together, right?" The elf tried to explain, feeling a little desperate.

Ah, thought Jade. Fine then, the girl could stay with the bearded boy for now. Jade could always find ways to pry them apart as she and her star pupil got closer.

"Loyalty is a virtue, apprentice," Jade told the girl with a smile. "But will you have enough time to study with all those chores? You have been progressing fast with little practice, but I am about to make things harder for you."

Angharad let a slow smile creep over her face. Her new teacher, she could tell the truth to.

"But I do practice. Elves do not need to sleep as much as you do. I have been practicing for three or four hours every night while everyone is in bed," Angharad said, feeling pleased with herself.

Jade Fox laughed in surprise. Oh, the possibilities with this girl. They were going to be very, very famous.

"You are very special, do you know that? Very well, I'll keep in mind that you need some assignments before bedtime that can be done alone in darkness and silence," she said.

(~***~)

Ginnar felt nervous when Angharad explained over breakfast, although he was touched that she chose to stay with him. The orphans' house had been a tense place for her lately. He imagined that she might have liked to get out of there.

He felt a bit better after chores. It had been another rice day, during which Angharad was usually antsy and distracted. But she made an effort to follow the conversation this time. When some of the children complained that none of their favorite games could be played in the Hidden Village because they were too loud, she'd looked thoughtful for a moment.

Then, tentatively, she said, "There's a game from my homeland that could maybe work while keeping quiet…" She looked around to see the others' reactions. They looked curious, but wary, to hear from her.

"It's called 'capture the flag'," she continued, as they hadn't rebuffed her. "There are two teams and each one needs a captain – "

"I suppose you think you should be captain," Lightning growled at her.

Angharad was so irritated with him, but she kept it to herself. "No, actually. Ginnar might be good at it, though. He's so interested in all the battle stories in class, right? It would probably be useful for this game."

Not trying to put herself in charge bought her a little goodwill. Ginnar was well-liked, so they were open to him being a captain. The young dwarf encouraged this conversation, asking Angharad to explain the game. They could pick captains later.

That evening after dinner the adults who walked by the orphans' house looked on in confusion as they saw children sneaking silently through the trees towards a laundry line that had been placed on the ground. By the end of the week the sight had become a normal occurrence. Whatever the kids were doing running around back there seemed to keep them quiet and amused, so the grownups let it be.

On their bellies, hiding under some branches during one game, Ginnar nudged Angharad with his elbow.

"This was a good idea. Lightning feels a little less sore with you, getting to be a captain. You might win some friends yet. You are lucky they like this elf game so much," he whispered to her happily.

Angharad beamed at him. "You know," she said. "I think it is actually a human game the elves learned."

Ginnar gave her a confused look. "It is a very long story…" Angharad said, redirecting his attention to their game.

(~***~)

On the first day of her lessons with Jade Fox, Angharad skipped to the training grounds while the other children walked to their classes. The young elf was ecstatic to be outside rather than stuck in a classroom, sitting all day.

In the practice area a dozen women had gathered. They were moving and stretching with the ease of long practice. Angharad stood to the side, not sure where she belonged. One of the younger women noticed the girl and offered to show her the warmup sequence.

Jade Fox arrived in time to see the elf going through the traditional stretches. As always, she was pleased with what she was seeing. The girl could already do splits and back bends effortlessly.

Jade approached the group and thanked her student for showing Angharad what to do. She then gave her experienced students a set of instructions they would be able to follow by themselves. Jade didn't want to be interrupted today.

"So, you're already good and flexible. I'd like to test your strength and what you've learned in the mornings so far. If you're where I think you are, we can move past the basic moves as quickly as possible and get to the fun stuff!" she said. She wanted to keep the girl good and interested. None of the early frustrations she saw teachers engage in so often, just to teach students a lesson in humility.

Angharad did as her new teacher asked, doing sit ups and pushups, carrying buckets full of water with her hands outstretched, walking across a low tightrope, and displaying the strikes and blocks she was already familiar with. Jade showered her with praise until Angharad practically glowed.

Satisfied, Jade showed Angharad a few 'building block' moves she was missing, then taught Angharad her first multi-step sequence. When they were done, Angharad had finally broken a bit of a sweat. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Excellent start, apprentice," Jade told her. "Now, since you can practice more tonight, I expect you to have that sequence memorized by dawn, yes? And I want you to spend the first hour on strength."

"Yes, teacher!" Angharad said enthusiastically. She was absolutely determined to keep impressing her instructor. It felt so, so good to get into the flow of learning this art that felt like it had been developed just for her. And to receive Jade's praise. She could imagine the same words being said in her grandfather's deep voice. It was a balm for her sore soul.

"Good," Jade said. "You'll be ready to pummel anyone who ever tries to capture you again before you know it."

Angharad felt the wild fury that had been making its home in her breast for months flare up. It fueled a sense of will so fierce that she thought she could try smashing a board in half with her fist right this second, as she'd seen older trainees do. All in good time, she tried to calm herself. But not too much time. She was going to work at this like it was her only food and she was starving.

(~***~)

The months began passing. Angharad trained for three sessions every day: dawn, afternoon, and the first watch of the night. Jade Fox almost always kept her separate from the other students, except when the girl needed practice sparring with a variety of opponents. Jade taught her all of the advanced sequences from the stolen scroll, constantly praising her star pupil for her special qualities. Just as Jade wanted, the girl was soon eating out of her hands.

In weapons, she focused the girl on long handled weapons such as staff, spear, and glaive. She could learn sword later, Jade reasoned. Although the girl was only a head shorter than many of the Eastern adults, she wasn't going to grow quickly. She would benefit for a long time by using weapons that extended her reach.

For good measure, Jade instructed the girl in the proper use of daggers at close range and for throwing. In hand-to-hand combat, Jade helped her come up with strategies to use her light weight to its best advantage and make up for its downsides. She put the girl through endless rounds of strength training until her high kicks and punches carried enough weight to send even an adult man stumbling backwards.

Ginnar watched Angharad training outside the classroom window sometimes. For all that he'd given her flack for being so obsessed with fighting, he had to admit: she was amazing at it. By the sixth month Angharad was sparring with the real warriors, no holds barred for her young age, and she was well-matched with many of them. When he listened to tales of battles past, he would sometimes wonder what a good general would do with one fighter that was such a wildcat.

Ginnar was nervous, though, that his friend sometimes seemed furious and off kilter after especially vigorous training sessions. Her comments about what she'd do if she ever caught up with the man who'd sold her made him uncomfortable. He had no trouble believing that she was capable of beating the man bloody. She might even kill him. But he wondered if she'd regret it once she'd actually done it for the first time outside of the safety of a practice session.

Still, Ginnar found that Angharad was easier with the other children now that she was burning off twelve hours of restless energy every day. She happily followed along in 'capture the flag', letting others shine. Jade had puffed her up so much that Angharad no longer felt she had anything to prove in such a childish game – except to show Ginnar that she could get along with his friends. That goal she pursued as relentlessly as every other she undertook until the other children accepted her, albeit with some confusion. She was a unicorn in a herd of bemused ponies.

(~***~)

It was around this time that the mood in the camp started to shift. Whispers were circulating that the Imperial troops were moving uncomfortably close to their encampment. No one knew if it was because they were discovered and an attack was imminent, or just a coincidence.

At afternoon training one day, Angharad noticed that half the class was missing.

"Where did they go?" she asked Jade Fox. She was feeling restless, as she suspected the older students were out actually doing something.

"Zicheng sent them on a mission to spy on the Imperial troops on the other side of the wood. I told him he should send you – you are faster and quieter. But he won't consider it. You're too young, he says," Jade explained to her student. She was as itchy as the girl was to see her prodigy in action. If Zicheng had his way, Jade would be an old woman before Anhe was allowed to do anything real.

Angharad took her frustration out in practice that day. Going through the twenty-six glaive positions over and over, she imagined stabbing at the guards who had planned to capture her parents. Eat metal, she thought fiercely. If Jade had taught her anything, it was that fury gave her energy. She could use it to bring power into her blows.

Suddenly, a disturbance on the other side of the camp interrupted her thoughts. Angharad's sensitive ears could hear a low buzz of people gathering near Zicheng's hut. The sound of muffled weeping rose above the hum of voices talking over each other.

"Something's happened," Angharad told Jade and her fellow students in alarm. "Everyone is gathering in the village center."

The students dropped their weapons and ran to join the nervous villagers. In the center of a ring of onlookers, the young woman who had first shown Angharad how to warm up was lying on the ground in her mother's arms. An arrow protruded from the right side of her chest. Her green outfit was dark with blood. The woman's mother clawed a thin veil of green silk off her daughter's face, trying to ease her laboring breath.

"Where are the others?" Jade asked another trainer in the crowd. The man shook his head at her.

"No one else has returned. A soldier saw one of them hiding in the brush at the edge of the forest and the army took chase. Our fighters led them in the wrong direction. She thinks they have all been killed, but we can't know for sure if someone has been captured and might be forced to talk." he reported with sobriety.

The woman on the ground gurgled for a few breaths before her chest ceased rising and falling. The mother frantically beat on the girl's chest and listened close to her mouth for any faint air, but Angharad could tell. She breathed no more.

Li Zicheng had been watching in distress. It was always terrible to lose good people. She was too young for this. Morale was going to be very low.

"We need to know what they know," Jade Fox opined to the gathered villagers. "We have to send someone else to spy on the army. I can send in one of my dancing girls posing as an entertainer," she started.

The Dashing King shook his head vigorously. He did not like making fighters into courtesans any more than he liked employing child soldiers. People did not appreciate movements that turned their daughters into whores.

"No more spies. There is too much risk of them leading soldiers back to the encampment. We cannot conceal ourselves well enough, clearly. In the morning we start breaking down the camp and preparing to move further into the wood. It will take at least three days – we must move quickly, but do not waste any resources," he said decisively.

Jade Fox turned and walked away from the crowd, feeling angry. Zicheng never listened to her ideas. He was too high-minded. This movement would never win against the dirty Emperor if they were unwilling to get their own hands dirty.

Angharad followed her teacher. She could feel the irritation coming off Jade in waves.

"We need to know what they know," Jade hissed in frustration. "Moving the village will not change that."

"Tell him again," Angharad urged her. "Tell him I can go. I can hear better than any of you. I don't need to get as close as they went. And I can climb high up into the bamboo, where it's leafy. They won't see me," she reasoned.

Jade glanced at the girl, wheels turning in her head. After a long pause she whispered, "Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. The camouflage suits are kept in the weapons shed. No one guards it at night. A person could move through the treetops at night and not disturb any birds. An unnatural silence in the forest can be as telling as a noise."

Angharad stared at her teacher. Was Jade telling her to do what she thought she was? Defy the leader and take off on her own in the middle of the night? Jade was looking at her with a serious look – a challenge – in her eyes. Angharad decided that's exactly what her teacher was telling her to do.

"Rejoin the other children, Anhe. There are things I need to do for the rest of the day," Jade told her. She hoped the girl had understood her message. It was time for this fledgling to try flying.

Angharad walked back to the orphans' house thinking hard. What Jade suggested was well within her capabilities, she knew. She knew where the army was stationed. It had been the talk of the town for days. She was certain she could stay hidden from them if she wished to.

Ginnar caught up to Angharad just as she was thinking about the woman who had died in her mother's arms less than an hour ago. The woman had been friendly and a good fighter. The loss of her made Angharad unspeakably sad.

"Ginnar, are you sure no one knows what happens to mortals after they die? She really will not come back somewhere else?" Angharad asked him, catching him off guard.

"Aye, no one knows. The Eastern people have different stories than dwarfs do. I have heard them say they believe a soul will be born again – but as a different person, or even an animal or a demon – without any memory of who they were before," Ginnar told her. He could tell it pained his friend to hear this, but he hoped she would take death seriously while she was doing all this training in the art of killing.

Angharad nodded decisively. She was going to do it. Jade was right, they had to know what the army knew. The lives of all these good people, from Ginnar to Li Zicheng, were at stake. And if they were lost, they were lost for good. She was willing to risk it all for them. The worst thing that could happen to her is that she would go home, leaving them all behind and never knowing their fates.

Angharad spent the rest of the evening turned inward, waiting for the village to fall asleep. The moon rose and silence fell. In the silver quiet, the young elf set out on her first mission.

(~***~)

Notes:

On names: I'm continuing to do some very Tolkien things with names – for a reason. 'Mount Doom' has nothing on me. 'Temple Mountain' is meant to be a sort of conglomerate of Wudang Temple and Shaolin Temple, which are real places with their own legends I don't want to compete with. Both are Kung Fu learning centers. Wudang is predominantly Taoist and Shaolin is Buddhist, based on what I've read. I'm picturing more of a Buddhist temple community, with fighting arts, but in a mountain setting like Wudang.

The 'Tradition' is a martial arts tradition, meant to be much like Shaolin Kung Fu. Not being a martial artist, I don't want to co-opt names of real disciplines with their own legends and histories.