There was also the matter of provisions at Under Hill. As we talked, Brenda asked if she and the other Home-Wives needed to stay at the table with us, and I assured them that they did. She needed to be aware of what we needed at Under Hill as much as I needed to know what she needed here. If we were all aware of the plans and needs, then we could all help and offer ideas that we might not have otherwise. I included the children for the same reason. Tanya had been invaluable last night, and Jack had been a key to several things over the past few weeks. We could work out some details in smaller groups, but the major goals had to include everyone.
As far as provisioning, I asked Val to take charge and work with Sheena and Dawn, but to take either Brenda, Alice, or Stacy with her as she worked out what to buy and take to our safe room at the bottom of the stairs. Nova asked why that was necessary and after I explained that I wanted someone who focused not just on our battle needs, but also our emotional and comfort needs, she got excited and asked if she could be part of the team to shop for us. She said that she didn’t know about battle but wanted to learn but felt that her role could be just what I suggested to start with and to think about our needs for rest and comfort while Adventuring. We all talked about it and it was decided that Nova would be in charge of that, but that Stacy would accompany them at first and make suggestions.
Val, Sheena, Nova, Stacy, and Jack would work out the details, buying what we needed and arranging for a cart to carry it. We decided that when they had enough to warrant a trip, that they would hire a cart and Harmony would go with them and store what we needed in the safe room. I wrestled internally with the idea of them going without me, but it was my idea and I knew that it was the best training move right now. I had to trust them to be out of my sight if the danger wasn't great. Sheena and Harmony would be careful to make sure that they were safe. I was stronger than most of the girls, but Sheena was at least as strong as I was, and they could manage well enough. I would stay in constant contact through our Elven speech but rely on them to do that work.
Our shopping list included torches, lamps, oil and the clay pots for throwing, food, bedding, medicines, darts and blow pipes, bows and arrows, the knives that the Kobolds had left to us as throwing knives for Harmony, water, and whatever else they found that they thought would be necessary.
As for me, I would stay at home, and when I wasn’t doing some other planning, would help with outfitting the offices and Jack’s war room.
At the end of the day we got together and reviewed. The provisioning had gone well and without incident. They had taken one cart full of supplies and when it was unloaded at the entrance to Under Hill, Val sent Nova and Jack back to the village for a second load. Val saw what we were doing, giving each one roles that they could fill, and though Jack was too young to take the cart that far by himself, he and Nova together could be responsible for deliveries with no trouble at all. Later, if need be, he could take Stacy or one of the others and bring us what we needed and restock for us, even if the Adventuring Party wasn’t at the safe room to help them. I was proud of Val for thinking of it.
The next day, we spent in training. Sheena and I took the girls who needed to learn, and Jack, out to the orchards and practiced with the wooden swords called “bokken”, and to fight empty handed using hands and feet. Nova was a very quick learner, but they all were. Harmony advanced very quickly. Sheena was skilled, but it had been 200 years since she had practiced, and she needed to refresh her skills. After evaluating where she was at, we decided together that she would teach basic techniques and then I would show where the skills could be refined. It seemed that perhaps my clan had advanced a bit in the 280 years since Sheena had learned her craft. The actual facts were that Sheena had stopped truly training with a master when she was just 30 and though she had learned by experience, she hadn’t refined her skills much in 280 years. My suspicion was that she hadn’t even studied that hard when she was still at home. It may have been why her mother had wanted to insist that she stay in her village and become an armor-maker. It was unusual that even a mother would want her child to stay home if they were destined for Adventure, so maybe her lack of a heart for real training had been the reason that Sheena had been encouraged to stay and settle with a husband at home. She was certainly deadly and fierce enough. It wasn’t that she was a poor student now by any means. I suspected only that she hadn’t been as disciplined when she was young as she needed to be to become truly proficient. Sheena had much more practical knowledge than I did, but I was clearly the senior as far as technique. But now that Sheena was “naked”, she learned very quickly and was more able to understand the nuances of the training.
The following day was more of the same, training in the orchards and swimming at the pools. Most of the girls were a bit muscle sore from the previous day, and though I insisted that we run from the village to the orchards to improve our stamina, I had us take more time to study our new books and only intermittent periods of skills training.
Each day that we went to the orchards, I took whoever wanted to and we went down to check on our safe room underground. We took weapons but didn’t bother to light torches all the way down the stairs. We carried torches and made our way down and back. Each time, we found they area undisturbed.
The third day, we spent more of our time running. We ran from the house all the way to Gerald’s farm. We visited for a little while and then ran to the orchards again. The children weren’t with us. It would have been too far for them to keep up, but they did meet us later. Jack and Tanya were confident to make the trip from the village to the orchards by themselves as long as it wasn’t dark. The area was really very safe now.
We spent time training and studying the books and Dawn, Sheena, and I began to discuss the details of the armor that would be made for us. We couldn’t start construction for a few more days because the leather wasn’t ready yet, and when it was, it would still take another week or more for the garments to be made. We discussed the possibility of making partial armor and then going farther into Under Hill, finishing the sewing of the armor later. In the end I decided to wait and complete the armor before our next excursion. If we went with the armor just partially completed it would just delay us in the long term because an excursion would take Dawn and Sheena away from the work. It might have been different if construction could continue while we were away, but that wasn’t possible. No one but Dawn and Sheena were trained to really do what we needed. The leather worker in the village was capable of making passable boots and gloves, but Dawn and Sheena would make things that were superior in many ways.
Good progress was being made on the house during this time. Jack had his room and the offices were workable, though still not fully completed. Each morning and evening we all drank the potions that Val and Stacy prepared for us and we all drank a bit of the Milk of Honey provided by Brenda and Sheena. I took part in the collecting of the milk each evening and enjoyed the process very much. So did the women. I made sure that they enjoyed it as much as I could. Of course, I had wonderful times with all of them doing “wifely activities” both at the pools and at home.
The milk had a marvelous effect and we were hardly ever tired or sore after the first day of hard training, and each day was easier than the previous one. Nonetheless, I did insist on a day of complete rest at home at least one day each week. On that day, we all sat in the garden or walked in the market or sat at the cafe. Gerald and Jean, and sometimes Anne would visit. Anne preferred to stay at home and have us visit there when possible. She was very much at home at Gerald’s farm and felt no need to leave except to visit the market occasionally. She and Jean had arranged for regular deliveries of what they needed and there was seldom a real requirement to go to the market for anything. Jean enjoyed visiting at our house as often as she could though, seeing both her sister and her daughter and laughing and talking with them. She was very interested in the milk, being both a healer and part elf, and she quickly developed the habit of drinking a bit with
us each time she came.
By the fifth day, the first of the leathers was ready for inspection. Dawn and Sheena thought that they were fine and took what was available and started making armor. They started with the children. Neither Jack or Tanya would actually be in battle, but both wanted the green leather armor to match what we would wear. By starting on the pieces for the children, the women would refine their techniques and be more experienced with the particular qualities of these materials by the time they started on the protective clothing for the rest of our party. By the end of the day they had a skirt and vest for Tanya completed. Jack protested that he should have been given his armor first because he had the greater need, but I mollified him by explaining that Tanya’s armor was practice for making armor for the rest of us and that he shouldn’t mention that to her.
As the training went on, Sheena was increasingly surprised and somewhat ashamed of her own previous arrogance and lack of true skills.
One morning I woke early and noticed her down in the courtyard studying the books that we had. I went down to her and asked why she was up so early.
She said, “Ronin, it’s time for me to learn to be an Adventurer Monk. I would offer to withdrawn from the party, but I don’t believe that you will allow me. So, I need to actually be what I have claimed to be for three centuries and never was. When I train with you, and with the girls, I see that I am a…well, look at this.”
She turned the book that she was reading, the Monster Manual, to a page that she had marked, and read, “The brute simply kicks down a door and fights what he finds. He doesn’t live long but can be useful if the party is not especially skillful.”
She said, “Ronin, that’s from the introduction that describes the basics of Adventuring. I never read that before. I never read the basics or introductions to anything. Ronin, my previous partners and I were all fools. I was no monk. Do you know what kept me alive for 95 years? It wasn’t my fighting skills, I’ll admit that. No, it was my elven cloak of invisibility. Do you know what it should have been? It should have been my years of careful diligent practice, listening to my grandfather and the other masters of my clan. But I was too proud even then. I knew the word Shoshin, but I never practiced it. Do you know why my mother encouraged me over and over to be an armor-smith and not a monk? Because I wasn’t suited to it. They knew that I wasn’t what I thought myself to be. I think that after I left, my clan must have held a funeral for the poor foolish girl who would certainly be dead before long. My mother gave me the cloak the night that I ran away. I thought that it was a great gift and honor. Now I suspect that it was her attempt to keep me alive just a little longer because I was so unprepared for what I was doing. Ronin, my swordsmanship was better than my partners. Do you see? They were worse off and less skilled than I was. Every single one of us, every one that joined us and every one that died, was a simple brute. And we kicked down doors and didn’t live long.”
She paused and started to cry.
She said, “Ronin, why did you accept me? Thank the heavens that I did not fight with Harmony that first day. I would have been dead before I knew what happened, like that man in the alley with Dawn weeks ago. She would have slipped past my weapon and opened a fatal wound and I wouldn’t have realized it until I was nearly dead from blood loss. I thought that I was her teacher. But she was right, I didn’t teach her, I simply inspired her to teach herself. And I was a fraud. Why did you take me in? I know that you know all of this. Harmony did. Why?”
I said, “I did it because I loved you. And I did it because you are one of us. I didn’t choose you, I found you.”
She said, “But I was worthless.”
I said, “Are you worthless now?”
She said, “I am studying. I am training. I will be better. The others still have more innate talent than I do. I have seen more, but I understand less.”
I said, “But now, you are a Monk.”
She said, “No. I’m not. I want to be.”
I said, “Sheena, did you ever see one of the teachers test a novice for his first rank?”
She said, “Many times.”
I said, “And how many of those were asked by the teacher to evaluate their own skills and tell him if they deserved the rank promotion?”
She said, “Many. Perhaps six out of ten.”
I said, “And how many of those said that they did not deserve the promotion?”
She said, “Perhaps two out of ten.”
I said, “And what did the teacher say to them? I’ll tell you. He said that he would decide who deserved to be promoted and who did not. He told them that they didn’t have enough experience to know when they should be promoted and when they should be held back. He told them that they could and must trust him to evaluate their skills, not themselves. Sheena, I am young, but for now, I am the only leader we have.”
She said, “Ronin, you are my Master. As you say, I am not experienced enough to judge your skills compared to other teachers, but you are better than any I have known. Perhaps our grandfathers were better. Certainly, they were. But I can learn more from you than I did from my elders all those years ago. If my grandfather had not been so respected, I would never have been allowed to train as far as I did. Ronin, did they scoff at me and did I bring shame on my family for pretending to train?”
I said, “Do you trust your teacher?”
She said, “I suppose that I must. I don’t know what skills they truly had because I never really studied. I went through the motions, but I never learned more than to imitate their movements.”
I said, “The past is behind us. That’s easy to say but hard to truly accept. It isn’t an answer. We live with our past until we find a way to put it to death. You will find your way forward. Sheena, I love you. I am very glad that you came to us and accepted us as your family. And that you are with us in our Adventure. We said from the beginning that we were stronger with you than we were without you. That is the truth. And I promised that I would never lose you. I will never lose any of us. And that’s why.”
I waited for Sheena to ask, “Why what?” and she smiled when she did, knowing that I was imitating Tanya and Jack.
I said, “That’s why we are here at home instead of at Under Hill. That’s why we are waiting for our armor to be made. That’s why we are training every day and not rushing to start before we are ready. A leader always has a plan.”
She said, “Yes you do. And you keep us safe and from getting lost.”
I smiled and said, “Safe but still in danger. We will be as safe as our skills and planning and teamwork make us as we face dangers bigger than others would expect us to handle. We will be as safe as possible as we face the danger, not because we avoid it.”
Sheena said, “I know that I belong here. I am learning nakedness every day. And I have never studied so hard in my life. Ronin, I love you. I will never lose you. I will never lose myself because I belong to you and our lives are not our own. You belong to me and to the others. And I swear that I will care for them as much as I do for you and for myself. We must be inseparable. I see it. We are one. I love you.”
For the next several days, we continued to train, we continued to study, and the girls continued to work on our armor. Both Harmony and Nova studied traps and locks. We found as many different kinds around the village as we could buy for them to practice on. When they had some skill at disarming them, they began practicing how to make their own. Some were as simple as a piece of thread across some part of a doorway or dust carefully scattered in front of a passage to indicate trespassing. Some were deadly automatic dart or arrow traps or even traps that would drop the flaming oil jars that we used.
Dawn and Sheena studied the armor designs and fitted each of us for a very good set of protective clothing. Each piece was tested and modified and tested again. Each piece was fitted and tailored until it was perfectly comfortable and perfectly suited to our movements. One thing that I had not seen before was a design for fingerless gloves for Dawn as
the primary archer in the party. My own gloves, and those of the others, covered the entire hand. But Dawn had the fingers of hers cut off, allowing her a better feel for both the bow string and the arrow. My own hands were likely to be more in danger from teeth, claws, or weapons. Dawn stayed at more of a distance and needed the extra feel of her fingers as she fired her bow.
Val’s gloves were unique as well. Mine were tight and went to the elbow. Val’s were made so that she could very quickly pull a strap and pull the part covering her hand away so that she could do any healing that was necessary. I wasn’t sure about the need for them at first, but the girls demonstrated that the design allowed Val to remove her gloves in under three seconds where mine took me over six. And she could get them back on in almost the same amount of time. It was possible that the three second difference might be critical and the determining factor in a life or death situation.
I had been concerned that we would get bored and anxious to get back to an Adventure, and for the first few days we were, but as the days went on, we became more engaged in what we were doing and less concerned with rushing into a fight. We all felt more and more ready each hour. And the expectation was that when we did go, we would be going for an extended amount of time and would accomplish something big.
Each day or two, we added to our provisions stored at Under Hill. I estimated that we were stocked for at least two weeks as far as food went. We had enough torches and oil and clay jars and medicines for even longer. We stored arrows, throwing knives, darts, poisons, and spare weapons. We had bedding for six of us: me, Val, Dawn, Harmony, Sheena, and Nova. We would plan to go a reasonable distance each day, retreat to our safe room, and if possible, create a new safe room farther along in the areas that we had secured that day.
It was normal for an Adventurer to upgrade his armor or weapons based on what he found in the loot, or to buy better equipment when he came to a village. Neither of those would work for us. Except perhaps for weapons. The armor that we had made for ourselves was superior to anything that we were likely to find. None of us would wear heavy metal plates. For armor upgrades we would rely on our ability to collect better raw materials from the hides of rarer monsters and beasts. As for plates, some creatures had very hard scales that we could incorporate into our equipment, but even if we found complete sets of ready-made armor, it wouldn’t fit us the way that what we had now did. No, what we could find on the Adventure would become material for our own customized designs, not something that we wore ourselves.
The Heart of the Falcon: The Guardian Maidens Book 3 Page 29
