The Drache's Love

Chapter 7, Cormac

We sat down to a simple but filling breakfast of porridge, eggs, rashers of bacon and toast.  I was unfamiliar with the juice served to drink, but it was icy cold and delicious.  This morning’s exercise had been chaos.  There were just too many different leg lengths, but somehow, the goblins, with shorter legs than all of the rest of us, ran faster than the rest of the company.  “Pathetic,” Melkree had called the effort.

“I suppose you all with have to talk with one another to make this exercise a success,” the captain had said, disgustedly.

Avva and I sat across from each other discussing the utter failure of the exercise.

“I just don’t understand how we’re supposed to do it…,” she trailed off.  I could see her brain working behind her eyes.

“Unless…,” she continued.

“Unless what?” I asked.

“He never said we had to start at the same time!” she exclaimed.

“You may be on to something,” I agreed and called one creature of each remaining race over.  They introduced themselves in turn, as did we.  Fridthor the troll, Gagga the goblin, Mog the orc, and Borglum the golem, whom we had already met.

“Avva has an idea,” I began, “Melkree never said we had to start running together.  What if finishing together is the point?”

“Well, goblins are the swiftest,” Gagga offered, self assuredly.  I had never liked goblins and was hoping the ones in this company would change my mind, but it seemed that they were likely all conceited creatures.

“And golems are the slowest,”  Borglum added.  I sensed that if the golem had been capable of rolling his eyes at the goblin, he would have.

“But then, the Drache are faster than the trolls, and the orcs and humans run at roughly the same speed,” said Fridthor.

Mog chimed in, “Then I think we know what order we should start in.  Golems first, humans and orcs together next, then trolls, then Drache and ending with the goblins.  But how to perfect the timing?”

Avva was ready with her answer, “Trial and error.  We’ll try it tomorrow when we run, and each of us will time the speeds of their respective race to get a better idea when to best start.  Perhaps to begin with, we should start three minutes apart and see how that goes.  Spread the plan, if you will.”

As we headed back toward the training grounds, Avva and I discussed what weapons we would start with.  I suggested bow staves.  She would be more comfortable with that than a scimitar.  I wanted to go easy on her in our first match.  I was growing to like this princess, and I didn’t want to bruise what little of an ego she seemed to have.  It was evident I had misjudged her.

We faced off.  I had thought to let her attempt the first strike, but she simply waited, circling me.  I decided to test her with a jab of my staff.  She batted it away with more force than I imagined possible.  She rebutted each and every attack that I attempted without breaking a sweat.  I felt almost as if I was being toyed with.

Then, suddenly, Avva went on the offensive, and I couldn’t keep up with her.  I, a Drache warrior, was losing to a human female.  I had never been so happy about losing a fight, ever.  This princess had surprised me in every way, and I was honored to fight alongside her.  

Before long, the others had gathered around us, watching with interest.  I began to wear down.  It wasn’t long before Avva surprised me with a sudden sweep of her staff, knocking my legs from under me.  I found myself on the ground, the breath knocked out of me with a bow staff at my throat.  

She bested me.

“Teach me your secrets, mistress,” I said, grinning broadly.

“Ha!  You’ll hand me my ass when we train with scimitars, no worries,” she replied.

She helped me up, and we continued with the staves.  When I made a mistake as she saw it, she would correct me and show me a better way.  We continued in this manner until we heard the horn blasts for lunch.  We ate, all the while discussing the best ways to execute different techniques with the bow staff.

We were met by a stoic Melkree when we arrived back to the training grounds.  He was still downright pissed about this morning’s failure of a teamwork exercise.

“We will not be doing combat training as a company this evening!  We will run until you can get it right!  If you can’t run together, you can’t fight together,” he announced.  I don’t think he expected the reaction he got.  We all grinned, down to a man/creature/woman, and the golems lined up to begin.  They all looked at him expectantly.

“Go?” Melkree said, confusedly.

They took off.  All of the golems running together shook the ground like a minor earthquake.  With each golemite footfall, I felt like my own feet were actually leaving the ground.  When the orcs and humans took off together, Melkree began to smile.  They quickly caught up with the golems, but slowed their pace to run with them.  Then came the trolls, and then the Drache, who both followed suit.  The goblins timed their start perfectly.  The rest of the company only had one hundred yards or so left when they started.  Yet, we all finished together.

Melkree seemed impressed.  “Perhaps we will start battle training.  You all seem to have the right idea, and we can perfect it as we exercise each morning.  Now, we will start with our battle formation.”

As the golems were damn near indestructible, they were our front line.  Behind them would be the trolls, to defend their sides.  They would be positioned under the golems’ arms.  Then came the Drache, who would provide the same protection for the trolls.  The orcs and humans would cover the Drache’s rear.  The only soldiers who did not have a set position would be the goblins.  They would bring up the rear, and attack where any opportunity presented itself.  Ideally, everybody would be defended from the front and behind, and the enemy would have to attack a wall of assorted blades and stone.  We worked on moving as a company, and filling in the inevitable gaps, until the dinner horn blared.  Avva and I fell in stride next to each other.

“You did good today princess.”