by Viola Grace
The instructor was waiting for her, and he looked shocked. “You aren’t finished mediating.”
“They didn’t require mediation. They were just arguing. People are allowed to argue; if they want mediation, they will call me.”
He nodded slowly. “Right. Go back to the dining hall and don’t speak to anyone about what you said or did. I will talk to your subjects and get your score.”
Kabyl nodded and headed to the dining hall. She got a glass of water and sat with her friends, chatting about the weather and the final exam. The instructors were listening and watching all of the cadets while the scores were tabulated.
It was the longest hour of Kabyl’s life.
Chapter Twelve
When they were dismissed for a free afternoon, Kabyl and Elioth headed to the practice area to engage in some hand-to-hand combat.
“Why do you want to hit something?” Elioth dodged as she struck, and she sped up her attacks.
“I was surprised. I don’t like to be surprised. I also have no idea how I did on that project as they decided not to announce our scores until tomorrow.” She struck at him again, and he moved in that supple way he had.
“You will have done fine. I had to mediate between a mother and daughter. It was interesting, but after our first discussion, all they wanted to talk about was my ears.”
She paused and snorted, switching to push-ups. “Of course, they did.”
He dropped next to her and matched her move for move.
He stayed with her while she worked out her frustrations, and she finally sat up and knelt while looking at the different cabins that had been delivered to the training center.
“Shit. I think I blew my test.” Kabyl ran her hands through her hair.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t mediate. I just sat them down and asked them to keep things quiet. The instructor asked me why I didn’t mediate, and I had to explain myself. That was when doubt set in.”
Elioth nodded. “You don’t like doubt.”
“No. I really don’t.” She groaned. “Damnit.”
“Would you like to fight again?”
She slumped. “No.”
He reached out and took her hand. “Just sit with me then. The silence can be calming.”
She frowned but then turned her hand to clasp his. She felt the heat on his skin, and she could nearly see the outline of his body against the cool backdrop of the trees.
Kabyl focused on him, and the world dropped away. When she came out of her focus, her pulse was calm, and she was able to breathe again. “Right. Thanks for that.”
Elioth smiled. “No trouble at all. You are sometimes focused so much in the action that you forget that your body is dealing with a heavy toll.”
“I was dealing with shock, as well. My grandmother and an old family friend were my situation.”
“Ah. That would explain the extra stress. What was the scenario?”
“Feuding couple.”
“Oh. So, a lot of stress and none of your normal projects and environment to distract yourself.”
She exhaled. “Precisely.”
“It is over now, and I can hear the work going on on the final exam route. What can you see?”
She smiled and took a few steps toward the normal course. She looked out, and the scope of the final route was astonishing. Dirt was churned and mounded up, leaving telltale heat traces. The freshly cut trees were lined and stacked in a number of areas, and it looked as if it was going to be a few miles of a challenging course.
She sighed and looked at Elioth. “You knew that this would distract me.”
“I had hoped.”
She grinned. “It worked.”
“Come on. Time for lunch.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and they walked back to the dining hall. She wanted to mention the proximity problem, but she really needed the hug.
He casually extracted his contact when they reached the dining hall, and soon, they were eating with their small group and speculating on what tomorrow’s efforts at mediation were going to bring.
From Kabyl’s perspective, she would just like to deal with a simple dispute. A fight and a dispute were very different things. Fights made her want to join in. Disputes were colder.
She was looking forward to a dispute.
Elioth was at her side the following day. She was wearing her full uniform tunic, and the belt that held the bow hidden in the buckle was on her uniform and his. Today, they were going to meet with the two disagreeing parties, and they were going to have to try and find a way to bring things to a satisfying conclusion.
As they walked out of the dining hall and followed their instructor, Kabyl murmured, “What if you can’t get by on your charm?”
“We will have to use yours.”
She grimaced. “We are screwed then.”
He chuckled and nudged her. “I believe we are on.”
There were two families, and each family was holding a goat on a leash. Kabyl winced. She had an idea why this situation would need mediation.
“Hello, I am Cadet Ambermarle. This is Cadet Elioth. What seems to be the problem?”
Her words triggered the explosion of information and conflicting opinions about what happened. She picked out a few details that were pertinent, and the mismatch of the goats was a problem. If the doe had been larger, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but she was half the size of the buck.
Both agreed that the buck had broken out of his pen and gone out to frolic with the doe. What seemed to be missing was how the doe had managed to be out and away from her herd when the buck came knocking.
She turned toward the family with the doe on the lead. “So, you are prepared to have this conception terminated?”
The younger couple frowned. “Why would we do that?”
“It is highly unlikely that, given the difference in the breeds of goat, that your goat will survive this pregnancy.”
The farmers with the buck were nodding. “We’ll pay the vet bills. We told them that it would be unwise to breed our goat to theirs, and we don’t wish to see that little darling suffer for it.”
Kabyl watched the fluctuation in the heat patterns of the younger couple. The husband said, “You didn’t tell us that!”
Elioth shifted forward. “You deliberately left your doe out where she could be easily located.”
There was more yelling, but eventually, the young couple admitted that they had put the doe out in the hope that the buck would come across the property to her. They knew that his enclosure was damaged because the other farmer had admitted as much. They had no idea that the two breeds of goat were not size compatible.
They really loved their little doe, so they agreed that the vet bill was a good way to end things. The farmers accepted the offer of help to rebuild the fence and offered to house a buck of the same small breed as the doe. The younger couple just had to purchase it. It would be able to reside in the buck pen until one of their herd was ready to be bred.
The buck herd could be expanded to avoid inbreeding over time, and the farmer and his wife were willing to help out the younger couple who had moved to the country for a simpler life.
So, what had started in shouting and accusation, ended in a pledge of cooperation. It was a successful mediation. Kabyl thanked them for their cooperation and waited while they called the vet for the termination. The doe was truly adorable, and death by large kids was not the way to see her go.
With the appointment set, the younger couple was on their way to the vet with their little goat while the farmer and his wife got their buck back into their transport and rumbled away. The peacekeeper in their area would be following up to make sure that the agreed-upon concessions were adhered to.
This time, Elioth had a clipboard, and the details had been signed off on by both parties.
They walked back to the instructor and handed him the clipboard, giving him the rundown on their experience and observations.
>
Mediation was the most frequent exercise of the peacekeeper’s skills. If they didn’t know how to improvise and adapt, they wouldn’t go very far and would require more on-the-job training than was normally offered.
“Wait for your teammates and go to get your description and map of the course for tomorrow. You will have six hours to work out your plans.”
Kabyl blinked and nodded. “Right. Okay. Wait for the team and then get the map.”
The instructor smiled. “The commander has the maps in his office.”
They nodded and headed back to the dining hall.
Elioth asked, “How do you think we did?”
“Pretty good. We got them to agree, we got them to cooperate. The animals won’t be harmed by their actions, hopefully. If they give the doe the shot today, it should simply stop the pregnancies and either absorb or pass them.”
“How do you know about livestock?”
“I don’t, but I know about goats and chickens. They are some of the more winter-hardy animals back home.” She shrugged. “The mistake that was made here happens a lot in folks who just want more kids with no respect for the doe and the danger she is in.”
“So, you have seen the result before.”
She shuddered, and it was enough of a reaction that he dropped the subject.
They had tea in the dining hall, and when the rest of their team was finished with their mediation exams, it was time for the final prep for the course. Tomorrow was going to be a challenging day.
Chapter Thirteen
Kabyl, Elioth, Echo, and Ormin stood together as a team, the other five teams were clustered together, and they waited for the notice that they could take their position. Their team was going to be the fifth to launch. All team members had to cross the line for their completion to be counted.
Kabyl had eaten a heavy breakfast. For her, there was going to be a lot of changing shapes to get through all the obstacles. She was not allowed to go around or over them. Her dragon was going to have a blast.
The commander stepped out and stated that this was one of the best classes that had been his pleasure to witness. He wished them all luck, and team one could begin.
The first team shot down the course toward the first obstacle. The timer waited the two minutes necessary, and then, the second team was loose.
Kabyl’s team waited, and they knew what they had to do. Echo was going to fly to the first obstacle, and Kabyl was going to flip out her wings and carry Elioth and Ormin to the initial challenge.
Team three was on their way, and team four was poised and sweating.
Kabyl just stood with a bland expression on her face, mimicked by her team. When it was their turn, they got the go-ahead, and the shifts went first.
Kabyl got her wings, was thrown into the air by Elioth, and then, she swirled around to the boys, and they extended their arms to her. She grabbed them on her way past, and with Echo’s shift, they were at the obstacle before team two was even there.
It seemed that they hadn’t read the fine print and that they weren’t using their beasts.
The maps declared that they could use their beasts during any part of the course provided that the stations were completed as directed. It was in fine print, on edge, but it was definitely there.
Kabyl set her passengers down, and Echo landed next to them. They lined up at the edge of the obstacle, jumped to grab the gearing system, and pedaled their way uphill for a hundred meters. The weight shifting was pretty difficult, but when they got to the top, they let the gears work down their way back to the next team. Kabyl grinned and caught her breath, then shifted her wings on, caught some air, and then proceeded to haul Elioth and Ormin to the next obstacle.
They did the whole thing in silence. Behind them, they could hear other teams shouting and cursing, but they did all of their work quietly.
As Kabyl flew, she saw the judges stationed along every five hundred meters. She was flying them to save on their strength so that when they had to run through the old mines later, they would have some reserves to draw on.
The next obstacle was the belly crawl. She set the guys down and banished her wings, picking up the object she was supposed to carry through the course. She walked to the chute, got on her belly, and started to crawl through mud. She had a sudden impulse and blew lightly to freeze the mud on the course. It was a lot faster to crawl when the mud was semi-solid.
She grunted as she pulled herself through the mud and saw Elioth clear the course on her left, Echo on her right, and then Ormin as Kabyl came out last.
This was where they had to run. She kept the oval baton and held it against her as they ran up the hill toward the mine entrance. They had to hold the baton and keep it safe for two more obstacles.
Kabyl had plenty of energy, but she was not the fastest member of her party. Elioth was in the lead with Echo behind them, and Ormin was next. Kabyl brought up the rear.
She caught up with her group and passed them, her night vision coming in handy as she sprinted past her friends, avoiding the rocks, and then, a hand came down on her shoulder, and she led them through the darkness with only a few snags on the stone before they squeezed back into the light with their batons intact.
They got out into the light, breathed deeply, and headed for the next obstacle station. Zipline.
Putting the batons into their clothing would have broken them, so doing the line with one hand was the only way to go. It was a long way to go, dangling from one wrist.
They looked at each other, nodded, and each slid their hand into the loop.
Kabyl tested her strap, and when it was solid, she took a few steps, held her baton in the crook of her right arm, and shot off over the tree-filled expanse, sliding along as her eyes teared up from the wind. She twisted her left wrist, and it slowed the speed. It put a lot of wear on the cuff, but it did let her get control.
There was a volunteer at the landing platform, and he stepped aside as she landed. She twisted her wrist free and winced at the red marks.
Her team thudded into place, and as Elioth landed, his tether came apart. The catcher looked at it and whistled. “That was close.”
Elioth looked at his baton. “Good. Still in one piece.”
Kabyl exhaled, and she nodded toward the next path. She started out at a light jog and soon saw the staggering forms of the first team. There were still two more legs of the exam. They were going to have a helluva time.
Echo was next to Kabyl, and she smiled. They gave a silent thumbs-up. After the next obstacle, they could hand over their batons.
The group in front of her was half shifted and half human as they moved. It was a waste of resources and energy. They were going to need their beasts for the final push.
Kabyl’s group hung back and waited until the first group was on the rolling logs before walking up and catching their breath while they waited for the previous group to clear the first log.
They got up with their batons still held carefully, and they all walked along the logs with their beasts helping. Echo extended her wings, as did Kabyl. Ormin did a three-point hop across with his beast in play, and Elioth simply walked without the log knowing he was there.
They repeated their efforts on the second and third runs of the log, each time, they had to wait for the first group to clear it.
Weirdly enough, they didn’t seem to have their batons with them.
At the end of the run, there was a line of men holding boxes. Kabyl recognized one of them and nearly fell off her log. Instead, she focused, kept herself calm, and walked up to the first of the men standing there with the box they had open. She settled her baton into the care of the familiar face. She ran her hand across the batons of her team as they placed them in the case. It wasn’t much, but it was all she could do since the previous team had pulled their batons out of their tunics.
They trotted off on their second to last phase of the run. The thick expanse of the trees was difficult to navigate, but Echo kept tight to t
he group, and after a moss-ridden cascade of trees, twigs, and slapping branches, Kabyl was focused on completing the course in good time and making sure that her team was with her.
Team one had disappeared from the forest in front of them. It wasn’t like they were hiding or had disappeared by normal means. The part of forest they were in had just ceased to have traces of them, and a wave of fog began to roll toward them.
Kabyl looked into the forest, and while there was no one there, she could see the heat signatures. “Shit. Magic.”
The others stopped in place. Kabyl sent a wave of cold ahead of them, and more trees began to appear. She and Elioth took the front, and Echo and Ormin took sides. They walked slowly and as silently as Elioth had shown them to walk.
Kabyl kept the fog clear ahead of them, and they kept tightly together. The fog couldn’t withstand the cold. Kabyl looked behind her, and it closed around them. She kept their path away from the heat sources and between the trees.
When they were nearing the edge of influence, she paused and held them back. She stepped forward and dropped for twenty feet before she caught her descent and returned to the edge of the cliff. She kept them on the pathway that she could see from the outside, and a glance at the dragons that were waiting on the ground told her that this is what they were hoping for.
She guided her team down the path and hill, landing and walking with them to the second to last obstacle. The exam was almost over.
Chapter Fourteen
The span of overhead bars was rough, but doing it with one hundred pounds strapped to her legs was horrible. She swung from one bar to the next, keeping momentum, but by the time she had reached the end, her arms were humming.
Echo was behind her, and as she dropped to the ground, Kabyl helped her unstrap from the leg weights after she had done her own.
Elioth was helping Ormin, and soon, they were on their way to the last leg of the exam. The terrain was rough and rocky. This was the moment to use their beasts.
