FATE/CURADH BEAG
"Little Champion"
Chapter 6: Onward to Ireland
While Connla was busy with Cuchulainn, Scathach had returned to her domain after finishing her business in Ireland. It had been dreadfully boring political work, and she couldn't wait to return home and let out some pent-up stress on any giant Demon Boars unfortunate enough to cross her path. She didn't like how bad the situation was in Ireland, but she couldn't do much other than impart some much-needed advice to the land's best druids. She had to worry about Scotland first and foremost, and everyone respected that they were taking up her precious time to come help them. She was given several gifts for her trouble, and she opted to bring them as souvenirs to show to Connla.
Right away, Scathach noticed that something was amiss. When she approached the Gate of Skye, she saw that it had been opened very recently. 'Opened' was probably too loose of a term to describe it being 'forced, shoved, and banged on until it cracked open for an intruder'. Anxiety gripped her heart. Not many in this world had the capacity to wrench open the gates that she sealed tightly shut. At least she could rule out Connla since the doors had been beaten inward, rather than outward. Besides, Connla had been granted permission to open the Gates of Skye just once – when it was time for her to leave on her journey. She wouldn't be stupid enough to do something like this.
I don't like this…
That simple thought plagued Scathach's mind as she rushed in and leapt through the swamps. She found the place eerily absent of ghosts and local wildlife, especially with the number of torn carcasses strewn about and bloodying the bogs. Whoever the intruder was, they practically plowed through anything that got in their way. What frightened her even more was that the newcomer clearly knew where they were going, judging by the straight path being carved toward the castle. Normally, someone who wandered in here by accident would be totally lost and wind up back outside anyway. The illusions that Scathach cast obviously meant nothing to Dun Scaith's 'visitor'.
Oh, god.
Her terror intensified to new heights she never experienced before, as all of these clues pointed her to only one suspect. She hurried even faster to the fortress, dreading the worst possibility:
Please don't let Connla see him… Please, please, please, please, please…
Luckily, the countless corpses provided her with an easy path to follow toward her target. Once she reached the closest pond to the castle though, her worst fears were realized. She spotted her niece sitting next to a monstrous-looking man with blue hair. Her heart practically leapt out of her throat as she screamed with all of her soul:
"CONNLAAA~AAA!"
The pair jolted when they heard her call out that name in absolute panic. Cuchulainn froze on the spot. His thoughts became incoherent once again, but they were all focused on one thing:
Connla… Connla… That's right… I know I uttered that name somewhere…
The child warrior stepped back and looked around, bewildered as to what was going on. Suddenly, a crimson light glinted in the sky above the pair. Faster than one could blink, the light instantly pierced the earth between them, generating enough force to sunder the craggy hill into clean halves. Connla screamed as she was violently thrown backwards off of one half of the hill. Cuchulainn snarled as his feet skidded along the face of the other half, but he lost his balance and tumbled the remainder of the way. The moment he regained his footing, he immediately found himself slashing his polearm against Gae Bolg, wielded by a furious Scathach. For a few minutes, they were locked in an intense duel of flailing spears when Connla eventually rushed up to the scene.
"Teacher!" she cried out and brandished her spear to see if she could help.
"NO! Stay back!" Scathach shrieked with such urgency that it made Connla freeze. She and Cuchulainn leapt backwards after delivering blows that literally shook the air around them. She kneeled in front of her young pupil and implored, "You need to leave this place immediately!"
"Wha-?"
"This man is much too dangerous for you to meet! Run away, and don't look back!"
"But…" Connla whimpered, wondering how Cuchulainn could be a threat when he was so horribly wounded. He didn't have the best of personalities, but he was rather peaceable around her. Despite this, she couldn't help but realize that Scathach seemed unusually desperate to keep her away from him at any cost. It didn't make sense to her. If he had amnesia, why would he even bother going after Connla anyway? Why would Scathach try to kill him without asking why he was here?
Or perhaps… was there some kind of connection between them that she couldn't fathom right now?
"What are you doing!? Stop standing there and go already!" Scathach commanded as she conjured a volley of Gae Bolgs and flung them like bullets at the oncoming Cuchulainn. He tried to bat them away, but the fusillade overpowered him and threw him backwards several hundred meters.
Connla squealed, "Where should I go!?"
Scathach clenched her teeth, realizing that the girl really didn't know of any other place besides the Land of Shadows. She let out a small sigh, then pulled Connla in closer and whispered as quietly as she could, "Listen to me. Head to Galway, the capital of Connacht, and find a man named Fergus mac Roich. He is a revered hero of that land, and was the one who taught your father the art of combat. If you tell him that I sent you, he will definitely take you under his wing. You might have to prove yourself to him, but I know you can do it."
"Uh… Okay…"
"Go on now, and don't worry about me. You know perfectly well that I am not easy to kill."
"I know. Still, please be careful, Teacher."
As the little girl clamored over the rocks leading down to the Land of Shadows' swamps, Scathach couldn't resist chuckling to herself a little.
How silly. An undying monstrosity like me, being told to be careful. Normally I'd chastise her for her lack of faith, but considering who my opponent is, it seems I will need any good wishes I can get.
With this confrontation as the starting point, the Little Champion was now on her way towards Ulster, as had always been destined for her. All the Teacher of Heroes could do now was pray that her pupil's fate would not play out the same tragic way as it did in Proper Human History. The necessary Pruning of this Lostbelt, and the protection of the Greater History as a whole, was going to depend on her skills and survival. As Scathach glared at Cuchulainn, preparing to face off against him with every shred of her strength and prowess, she was both worried that she might not have taught enough to Connla, and also confident that the girl would make it through somehow.
Connla scurried through the marshlands, bouncing along either dead trees or small platform Runes she generated to help her leap over the swamps. When she reached the furthest edge of a large bog, the soles of her boots smacked on some wet grass and moss, causing her to slip a little. She regained her bearings, then glanced back at the direction she came from hoping to spot Scathach somewhere. To her astonishment, she noticed numerous distant red flashes sparking in the thick air like twinkling stars.
What a fierce battle. I thought Teacher would end it right away with Gae Bolg… Does this mean that man also has a Gae Bolg to counter hers?
She hadn't seen Cuchulainn carry a weapon on him, but she also knew the Barbed Spear could be summoned to the wielder's hand at any time. She had no idea what would happen if two Gae Bolgs were thrown at each other with full force, and she definitely didn't want to stick around and find out. As she was transfixed on the crimson sparks, an unnatural chill coursed through her nervous system. She whirled her head around to see what was going on. She instantly realized that she was surrounded by a group of wandering spirits who had approached her while she was distracted. An ordinary person would have been terrified at the sight of so many skeletal entities glaring pure malice at them, but Connla only grew irritated from such a rude interruption.
"Gh! I don't have time for this!" she shouted and hurled purifying white flames from a Nauthiz Rune at the angry ghosts.
"KEEE~EEE!" the spirits screeched and scattered to escape the conflagration. These flames weren't capable of harming the living, but they could incinerate the undead with frightening ease. This effect could be enchanted on a caster's weapon as well, giving it the property to temporarily ward off ghosts with physical attacks. Connla did so with her spear, and she dashed through the horde while swinging the blade about multiple times. Several spirits were sliced apart and reduced to dust, and any survivors of her onslaught backed away anxiously. However much they wanted to add this girl's soul to their ranks, they learned the hard way that she was not to be messed with, so they opted to retreat.
"Get out of my way!" Connla commanded, smashing her spear onto the dirt to unleash the contained energy in her spear's Nauthiz Rune. The explosion of white fire prompted the last of her attackers to scatter with frightened yelps. With her path now unimpeded, she hurried to the cliffside where the Land of Shadows separated itself from the land of the living – the very same area where she had to go through the gauntlet that was her entrance exam so many years ago. Now it was all too easy for her to use platform Runes and some wind spells to propel herself high over the swampy trenches, making her appear to the hundreds of Demon Boars far below that she was flying gracefully. Her trajectory carried her to the opposite cliff, and her heels sunk into the mud as she struggled to come to a stop. She tripped a bit and vaulted like a gymnast to recover her balance, eventually falling to one knee and gasping for air.
Phew… That was the hard part. Now to find the gate.
Connla ran around the area in search of the invisible doors that led to the outside world. It took some investigation, but she eventually picked up on their magical energy and came close enough to finally see them through the many mirages that cloaked the entrance. She raised her spear up high and began chanting, "O power that is tied to your queen's name. Answer her student's summons and open the gate only once for me. The castle of shadows, I bid farewell to. Gate of Skye!"
The heavy doors unlocked themselves, then swung open toward the outside for her. Without hesitation, she rushed through into the land of the living, then looked back to watch the gates clamp shut with a heavy sound behind her. Their visage soon vanished, perfectly blending in with the local wilderness.
As of this moment, she was now on her own.
"HAH!"
"TAH!"
*FWOOSH!*
*BOOM!*
*CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!*
Back in the dreary bogs of Dun Scaith, the area had become a battlefield for two of the most famous warriors in Celtic mythology. Now that Connla had safely evacuated, Scathach was free to use her full might on Cuchulainn, with every intent of slaying the self-styled demonic god. She wasn't optimistic about her chances given that he was being powered by Dagda's Cauldron, meaning that any injuries he sustained would just heal right back within seconds. Even so, she had to do everything in her power to protect her youngest pupil from this monster's wrath… at least, long enough so she could complete her mission of destroying this Lostbelt. The fighting would last like this for a whole day, with neither gaining the advantage over the other for so many hours on end.
The duo landed several yards away from each other, and the grinning Cuchulainn taunted at Scathach, "What's the matter, Teacher? Are you getting soft on me?"
She wanted to retort, but she had to press her hand against her lower abdomen to heal a particularly nasty cut along her ribcage. It was excruciating to even breathe for a few seconds, but once she recovered enough, she replied with a feigned and bloodied smile, "Not in a million years. You'll have to try harder than that to kill me."
"Don't you worry on that account. I have plenty more where that came from."
"Ugh…"
"While I normally wouldn't give a shit about your problems, I'm feeling a bit generous. Prepare yourself, for today is the day I give you the glorious death you've always wanted. Your eternal life of monotony and stagnation will come to a violent end. Doesn't that sound wonderful, Teacher?"
"Shut it, beast," Scathach's eyes flared with pure hatred. "If you were still the Setanta I remember, then I would have been happy to accept your challenge. But you're not him. You're just an unholy creature wearing his skin."
"What does it matter who or what I am? All you should care about is that I will be your destroyer."
"And then what will do you after I'm dead? Take the Land of Shadows for yourself?"
Cuchulainn looked even more smug than usual as he said, "Naturally. If Medb has the territorial advantage in Ireland, then I just have to do the same for Scotland. I have to thank you for forcing Scotland's other rulers to bend the knee to your authority – it just makes it all the more convenient for me to assert my reign over this country."
"My god…" Scathach gasped. "Is your hatred for Medb that immense?"
"It goes without saying. Medb must die. That is what I have decided, and I will distort my own existence… nay, this entire world's very foundations to obey my decree. I'm sure you know the reason why I must go so far."
She glanced away uneasily and bit her lower lip.
"But there is one thing I must know before I destroy you," Cuchulainn said as he pointed his Gae Bolg at her. His expression quickly became grim as he asked, "Who the hell was that kid that you ordered to escape?"
"Tch… Why does some insignificant girl matter to you?"
"Fuck you, woman. No 'insignificant girl' would ever get to be the pupil of Dun Scaith's queen so easily. I believe you called out to her as Connla, correct? Is she someone important to you? A family member, perhaps?"
An indescribable mix of terror and fury welled within Scathach's soul as she tightly grasped her Gae Bolg and charged straight for him without any rational thought. Him declaring war on her and Medb was one thing, but when it came to Connla and her connection to Cuchulainn, the warrior queen refused to discuss it whatsoever. She believed it would be the absolute worst outcome for him to discover his lineage with her pupil, and she needed to do everything she could to prevent that from happening. It had become especially complicated when Scathach saw Connla tending to Cuchulainn's injuries, meaning they had interacted for some time before her arrival. She would have preferred to send Connla on her way without Cuchulainn ever meeting her, leaving them both ignorant of each other's existences.
But something bothered her about the whole thing…
Why didn't he harm Connla in any way? It can't be because she took care of him. He's too heartless for that. For that matter, how did he not realize who she was to him?
They spun and twirled about like maniacs as their spears clanged against each other numerous times. Scathach was the image of grace and strength with her lithe movements and potent strikes, but it felt like she was fighting a brick wall with how impervious Cuchulainn was. No matter how she tried to attack him, he always had a response. In fact, she had found a rare opportunity to try and cut his arm off, but to her sheer horror, her blade stopped dead short with an unceremonious thud just an inch into his muscle.
"Trying to chop my limbs off? Not gonna work," he sniggered. "Ever since fusing with Curruid, my hide's become too tough for weapons to pierce through."
"You demon…"
"Yeah, I am. What are you going to do about it?"
Scathach instantly jumped back at that provocation and unleashed her strongest Dagaz Rune, blinding him with an intense burst of pure white light. He quickly shielded his eyes with his arm, assuming she would try to destroy his eyeballs with her spear while he was distracted. Once the light settled, he looked around and realized that Scathach was gone. That was not good. If he gave her the opportunity to pull off one of her strongest attacks, there was the possibility that he wouldn't survive. He dashed from his spot and went on the prowl for his former teacher.
Meanwhile, Scathach had retreated to the depths of the bogs, diving underwater to further mask her presence from Cuchulainn. She knew that time was not on her side. If he figured out where she was, she would never get another opportunity to ambush him like this. She had to make this count, or else she was doomed.
The weight of her Gae Bolg's searing energy pushed her feet upon the soft mud of the swamp's bottom. Unfortunately, the weapon's scarlet glow illuminating beneath the water betrayed her position to Cuchulainn, but she expected this to happen. She predicted that he would leap high above her to try and dive straight upon her while charging his Gae Bolg. If he did so, he wouldn't have enough time to counter her spear's curse, meaning she could kill him before he ever had the chance to throw his weapon. It was just those few precious seconds she needed to beat him at charging Gae Bolg's curse.
Just a little more…
However, Scathach grew perplexed when she didn't see Cuchulainn energizing his spear during his jump. Something else seemed to be happening to him. A sickly multicolored fog of reds, blacks and deep greens surrounded his entire form, obscuring him for a moment. Then she became utterly mortified when he burst through the cloud, revealing himself in a set of black-scaled armor and massive talons that she didn't recognize whatsoever. She barely recognized the man with his heavy horned helmet covering his whole face. She lost focus for a second, but those milliseconds were enough for him to plummet upon her much closer than she would have liked. She had no choice but to try and retaliate!
"Gae Bolg Alterna-!"
He crashed into the swamp with the mightiest splash imaginable, parting all of the water around him to expose the bottom of the bog. Right in the center, he had Scathach pinned beneath one of his claws, with the center talon piercing through her chest. Blood gushed out of her mouth as she felt her strength fading. He had just missed her heart, but her aorta had been severed, meaning she was good as dead at this point. Her Gae Bolg suddenly lost its energy and fell next to her.
I'm sorry, Connla… I have to… leave everything… to you. You must hurry… before this monster can…
Part of Cuchulainn's black helmet parted to reveal his face beneath. He glared directly into Scathach's eyes and demanded in a hoarse voice, "I'm not going to ask again. Tell me who that kid is. Now."
"N… Nev… er…"
"There's no point in acting defiant. I can tell you've trained that girl. You must have given her a great task that she needed to be prepared for, and obviously it doesn't involve fighting me. You know that would have been suicide for her. Challenging Medb would have equally been as reckless. I'm the only one in the world who has the power to stop that bitch before her true nature awakens."
"Gh…"
"… I see," he glowered as a realization dawned on him. "There's only one thing the kid can do for you. You're not trying to destroy me. You're just buying time for her to go after Circinus behind my back, aren't you? It's the only way to make all of this Lostbelt's problems go away, after all."
"…"
"Hmph. Guess I'll have to find that out for myself. I'll have plenty of time to do that once I've claimed your authority over Dun Scaith."
As Cuchulainn dug his talons further into Scathach's body, her vision faded to black. She struggled to think coherently, but there was only one thing on her mind as she lost consciousness.
Connla… be strong…
Suddenly, about a dozen smaller Gae Bolgs punched their way throughout Scathach's body, spraying so much blood everywhere that the soupy grey mud around them was dyed red. In some other timeline where the same thing occurred, she had lost 90% of her organs. This time, he wouldn't show her even an iota of remorse. Every single organ in her body was destroyed, giving her absolutely no opportunity to even think about healing herself.
In that moment, the Land of Shadows' queen had well and truly died.
The man who stood victorious over her was now the underworld's new ruler.
He fell onto his knees, momentarily stunned that he had accomplished what he wanted to do for so long. He stared at Scathach's mutilated corpse, then gently scooped her onto one of his huge claws and leaned his face in towards hers. Without thinking, he locked his lips with hers in a gory and bloodied kiss that lasted for many minutes.
It wasn't just something Cuchulainn wanted to do with Scathach for so long. It was also the symbol of him inheriting her 'crown' as the king of Dun Scaith, thus becoming Scotland's penultimate sovereign.
Sorry, Teacher. But you know I have to do this. I'm the only one who can stop Medb now.
A whole day after Connla left the Isle of Skye, she had made her way southeast to around where present-day Fort William would be, though she didn't really have a clear path in mind. All that mattered to her for now was making as much distance from that dangerous battle as possible. On the plus side, she would no longer be assailed by angry spirits and Demon Boars, making the trip significantly easier. After leaving Skye, she had to go south for a bit toward the Ben Nevis mountains, but quickly curve southwest toward where the North Channel used to be before the two countries merged together. The trouble was that while she had a good grasp of where east and west were due to the sun's course, she was a bit lost on how to tell south and north apart without a compass. Using Runes to tell her the direction was an advanced formula that she hadn't learned yet either.
After some frustration, the exhausted girl sat on a fallen tree and sighed despondently, "This is bad… I have no idea where I am…"
She figured that it would be best to rest here for the night and worry about getting her bearings tomorrow morning. Her legs were rather sore from all of the running she had to do to make as much distance from Skye as she possibly could. Complicating things was that she was getting a bit hungry, yet didn't have much strength for hunting. She would have to make do with foraging berries for today. She found various bushes with blackberries, wild cherries and bilberries nearby and started eating from them. As she ate, she couldn't stop thinking about Scathach and Cuchulainn.
I hope Teacher is okay. She has to be. That man was her pupil, so he can't be stronger than her, right? Then again, I felt some kind of tremendous aura emanating from him, as if he wasn't human. Is he some kind of monster taking on a human form? I heard the gods of the old days frequently did that…
Once she thought that, her mind wandered to the possibility of Cuchulainn actually being a god. But then, which one? She was familiar with the pantheons of both the Tuatha de Danann and the Fomorians, and he didn't seem to resemble any of them. Then she had a pit-in-the-stomach feeling as a possibility crossed her mind.
Taoide Olc…
Connla didn't want to believe that Cuchulainn was actually the god of destruction. He did have a rough personality, but she saw that he wasn't really a bad person. The way that Scathach panicked when she saw him was also a point of contention though, obviously desperate to separate the two before engaging with him. Connla had no idea what to think anymore, and her mind practically blanked as she continued munching on fruit.
Suddenly, her skin prickled with goosebumps and she became alert. She whirled her head around several times to see if there was anything suspicious. Her time in the Celtic underworld had unintentionally primed her body to pick up on any unusual sensations or magical resonances, which was extremely helpful whenever she needed to sneak past any crowds of ghosts. She grew more confused as she realized her body was reacting to a presence in the land of the living, which she thought wasn't supposed to be possible. She stood up and hid one hand behind her back, which she charged a small Ansuz Rune on, keeping a fireball ready in case she needed it.
Connla slowly investigated the area, and that was when she came across two figures wandering around. She quickly eased up when she realized they were children around her age, if not a bit younger. One was a boy with neatly cropped short grey hair, the other a girl with similarly styled and colored long hair, but she kept some of it up in a pair of buns with the remainder looping around to resemble flopped rabbit ears. Both of them wore similar white clothes, the boy wearing shorts and the girl with a skirt. From how nearly identical they looked to each other, she figured that they had to be twin siblings.
"Wook, wook!" the girl exclaimed with a distinct lisp as she pointed at Connla. "There's someone there!"
"Heee~eeey!" the boy called out and waved to her.
Connla canceled her spell and approached them before asking, "What are you two doing out here?"
"Just pwaying," the girl said. "It's a nice sunny day, so my bwother and I awe wooking for tweasures."
"Treasure? In the middle of a forest?"
The boy wagged his finger and said, "You never know. Some pirate might have buried a pot of gold around here back when the island was on the ground. That's what our Auntie says."
"What awe you doing here?" the girl asked Connla.
"Um… actually, I'm kind of lost," she admitted. "I'm on a journey to Ireland, but I don't know which way is southwest."
"Weally? That's easy! Just go that way!" the sister exclaimed as she pointed in a particular direction.
"How do you know that?"
"My bwother and I always twavel between Irewand and Scotwand, so we know the woad vewy well!"
"Why do you two travel so much? Neither of you look much older than me. Don't you have a home anywhere?"
"All of nature is our home," the brother said. Clearly, he appeared to be the mature one of the siblings, making the sister the playful one.
Connla raised an eyebrow, completely puzzled by such a response. "You don't say… So you're something like feral children?"
"Feral children? What is that supposed to be? We just live out in the woods with our Auntie."
"Oh," the warrior girl murmured as she realized they actually were with a guardian. "Where is your aunt right now? Can I speak with her?"
The sister shook her head. "Auntie comes and goes when she wikes. She twusts us to be good while she's gone though."
"So she's not here?"
"Nope."
"Hmmm…" Connla folded her arms and pondered what to do. She was worried about leaving the twins alone in this wild environment, yet she needed to be on her way to Ireland. There was also that strange sensation she experienced when she first spotted them, which she found rather difficult to ignore.
"Oh, I know what that look is," the boy said with a sour expression. "You're worried about us, aren't you?"
"Well… I mean… I'm sure you two know how to take care of yourselves, but… I'm sorry. It's kind of hard to explain."
"If anything, I'd say we're more worried about you getting lost again."
"Really?" Connla scratched her head and chuckled sheepishly. "I think you might be right."
"Maybe we should go with you. We know these lands like the backs of our hands."
"Is that okay? Wouldn't your aunt be mad if you took off just like that?"
"Don't wowwy!" the sister blurted. "Auntie always knows how to find us!"
"She does? Who is she, anyway?"
"She's a bwack bird."
"Whaaa~aaat!?" Connla shouted in total disbelief. "A bird!? So you are feral children!"
The twins stared at each other with uncertain expressions. The boy then said, "We still have no idea what you mean by this 'feral children' business. Is it supposed to be an insult?"
"Oh, no, not at all. It just means you're children who have been raised by animals. Since you're being cared for by a bird, that means you're feral children, right?"
"Huh. I never thought of it that way. I thought it was pretty normal, especially with how Auntie tells us lots of stories to help us fall asleep."
"The bird… tells you stories? You mean she can talk?"
"Of course she can. Did you think we were being looked after by some dumb animal?"
Connla turned on her heel to glance away from the twins as she contemplated this development. She thought to herself, I see. If this 'Auntie' character can talk to them, it has to mean she's a goddess taking on the form of a bird. That would explain why they're so well-learned despite living in the remote wilderness. The question is, which goddess are we talking about here?
"Awe you okay?" the sister asked. "Do you have a tummy ache?"
"No, I'm fine. I just have a lot on my mind."
"Auntie always says that thinking too much can be a bad thing. How about we stawt wawking for a bit befowe we find a pwace to camp for tonight?"
"Good idea. I would like to get moving anyway. Oh, but before we do, we should introduce ourselves."
"Oh yeah!" the brother blurted. "Where are our manners? I'm Fir, and my little sister is Fial."
Connla briefly explained about her geas, then rolled up her sleeve to show them the name tattooed on her arm. Fial stared at the marking, then said, "So your name's Connwa?"
"Yes. I'm from Dun Scaith, under the tutelage of my aunt Scathach."
"So your auntie awso waised you! That's so neat! We have wots in common alweady!"
"I guess so."
"Well then, let's get going," Fir said as he led the way for his sister and his new friend. "Let's make it to the tip of Loch Etive before nightfall, then we'll continue to the end of Loch Awe by this time tomorrow. After that, we should make it to Sgaradh, and you'll be home free."
Connla wasn't sure what he was talking about, so she murmured, "Sounds good to me."