The air was knocked out of her lungs, she kept her chin against her chest. Like her uncle had taught her to do, to avoid head injury. Captain Arion Snemåne was still laying above her, clearly busy catching his own breath. But it was so uncomfortable, she has never been this close to a man before, that wasn't a member of her family. It seemed to take forever before he pushed himself up.
"I am so sorry about that, but I really couldn't move." he said, she was able to see in his deep brown eyes that he was speaking the truth. He kept looking her straight in the eyes, didn't look away or anything. He crawled back and sat down, still breathing heavily. Now she was able to push herself up, the magic that kept her alive for this long was rushing through her body looking for any kind of injury. Like it always did. The sword lay a couple of inches from her, no surprise there. She had left a too big of an opening, tears were stinging behind her eyes. There was no wonder that her father had left for dead, yesterday. She was useless, not even able to defeat a Lord-ling. She couldn't deny that he had some skills, more than her former opponent. But still, she was trained to do better. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked. She jumped up, not even grabbing the sword she borrowed, and run away to the cliff. Tears were now streaming freely over her face, how could she be so stupid. She was so useless, her father was right, her father was so right. "Kiara?" of course now this Lordling followed her to do what, comfort her. He just beat her in a fair fight. He said nothing to he, he just sat down and let the roaring sound of the sea overtake everything.
"Yesterday, I told you that I was part of a secret organization, the Core of protection, all members of this organization are blessed by Segeus with special gifts. We are not Children of Segeus, but we call ourselves, Beskyttelseskerne. My family, the Håber family, got the gift to close rifts." She said. He might not believe her, but she wanted to tell him all of it anyway. She saw it as some kind of reward for beating her. "My brother, Benjamin, is the last member of my family to have this gift. My father was so filled with hope when I was born, but I became in his mind the biggest failure. There was a bit of the magic inside of me, but not enough to close even the smallest rift. So I became my big brothers' protector, from the age of five. I was taught by my uncle to pick locks, and fight with various weapons, not only the sword. And I was sent out with my brother when I was ten. I have being fighting Riftwalkers ever since then, but a couple of months ago, Benjamin went off out of nowhere, and I followed him. As that was my job, he closed the rift, as that is his job. But I needed to face the first wave of Riftwalkers all by myself, and I ended up hurt. To say that my father wasn't happy about it, would be an understatement. I needed to heal, and that meant that his precious boy was on his own." She shock her head. "He threatened that when I ever got hurt again, he would leave me for dead. And that is what he did." She looked at him, and there was something in his eyes. Anger? Was he angry at her? Was he angry for her? She didn't know, but she had told him bits and pieces of her story.
"So, what do you mean, by rifts?" he asked. So, he wanted to know more about rifts and Riftwalkers. Which was fair.
"Alright, for some reason unknown to me. The barrier between two planes of existence, is very weak inside Snemåne estate. And from time to time the barrier breaks, that break is what we call a rift."
"And does monsters, are called Riftwalkers." he finished, she nodded. He got it, at least the bigger picture. "Why didn't your organization warned the King, my family?"
"We did, at least that is what I was told. According to history, we have shared this information on multiple occasions, with the higher ups of this country and your family member. But they all said that this was some sort of bad joke, that we were crazy. And that was even after we showed them a dead Riftwalker." She said, and he looked shocked. "Again, that is according to our history." She wanted to make that much clear, she herself has put some question marks on that part. But she at least wanted to share with him all that she knows. She gave him a smile. "I am so sorry about," she pointed towards her cheeks. "Even after a sparring match like ours, my father would call me useless for losing like that."
"What!" He said loudly, "that is crazy, you were amazing out there. You made me work, like you, my father, taught me how to fight from a very early age." This shocked her slightly, he wasn't the lazy Lord-ling at all. Her father had lied about that. "My father believed that I needed to be ready for anything, while figuring out what is going on in those villages. He also taught me to study my future opponent. I studied you, while you were kicking Tom's ass. But that didn't make things easier, believe me. Remember that I wasn't able to get off you, after I tackled you." She nodded, it was hard to forget that. She looked down at the sea, the calm emptiness of the fast open blue space. Kiara often wondered if there was some other island or place beyond it, where she would be able to start a new life. Away from her family, the duty that was placed on her. "Are you feeling better now?" Better might not be the right word to describe how she was feeling, lighter. Yes, she was feeling lighter. "Good, and your father is dead wrong about one thing." She wondered what that might be. "You are not useless." She smiled at him, she was glad that he thought so. She herself was not so sure about it, at least not yet.
*******
They have being sitting on the ground for quite some time, Kiara had lost track of time and not even notice the placing of the sun. It was nice sitting there, let her mind go everywhere and at the same time nowhere at all. She couldn't remember the last time that she had time for that, she rolled with her eyes. She never got the time doing stuff like that, her father wouldn't have allowed it to happen. Her days were cramped together with multiple training session, with various weapons, simple but at the same time not so simple cardio and strategy. A training session she shared with her brother, not that he has paid a lot of attention to what was said, otherwise he never had put her in a position where she could get hurt. She wanted to shake her head, he was not to blame for her situation. He was doing his job, it was once again her father who placed her into the job of protecting her older brother.
"Kiara, I think it is time to sort out your sleeping arrangements." Arion said, she looked over her shoulder towards him. He looked somewhat different, relaxed, at ease. Maybe, just like her, he has no time to do this kind of thing often.
"My sleeping arrangements?" she asked, he nodded.
"I prefer to keep the hospital ward, free and a small bird told me that she has learned to pick locks from a very early age. So..." he said with a sly smile on his face, she herself was the small bird. She wanted to chuckle, but at the same time, she thought that he was pretty smart for keeping the large tent for medical stuff open. She looked at the rows upon rows of tents. In her short stay here, she had seen that all those tents served a purpose. Some were for housing, others were used as temporary smiths, some were reserved for storing and prepare food. It looked more like a village than a camp. A village filled with men, and she was the only woman in here. That was probably one of the major differences with her home situation. Women were not excluded from the fighting force, no, they were forcefully included. "You can have my tent, it is the only one with some privacy. I can probably bunk with some of the other men. We also need to sort out clothing, and a chore schedule that includes you. Every one inside this camp has them, even me."
"You, what are your job?" she asked, not believing a single word. He was a Lordling, yes he could fight well. But doing ordinary chores, like laundry and cooking, seemed to her a bit of a stretch.
"Today, I am on guard duty. Meaning I will have zero sleep tonight, tomorrow I need to mock out the make shift stables and groom the horses." he said, and her mouth opened slightly. He was doing ordinary chores, just like everybody else. "I believe that you can help the firewood collectors for today. You either collect the firewood or distribute it to those who need it. The smithies, or the kitchen." She nodded, that sounded simple, and something she was able to do. "Good, now first I show you the tent, and then I drop you off by the soldier who is in charge of that group." They both got up and went on their way. His tent was not big, but had a separate sleeping area that she could close off. Which indeed gave her some sort of privacy. And a half hour later, she was walking in front of a cart to distribute firewood to one of the blacksmiths in the camp.
"Do you need help with that?" a man with a brown leather apron came out of the tent. He was mostly bald, his dark evergreen eyes were covered by thick black eyebrows. His face was covered with large soot stance. She could hear the roaring of the fire in the portable forge, outside the tent were wooden stands filled with all kinds of weapons. She shock her head, but he was not the first one who offered her help. All the blacksmiths and chefs had offered her help with the large stacks of firewood. But she had proven to each one of them that she was more than capable. She grabbed the first pile and carried towards the small stack that was already there. He chuckled, which was a low sound. "Here, it goes a bit faster if I help? I can see that you can do it yourself, but why should you." He started to laugh, and this time it was one of the deepest belly laughs she has ever heard. The wood was indeed unloaded in a matter of minutes.
"Thank you, but you didn't have to. I can only imaging how busy you guys are." she said, but he waved her words to the side.
"Every member of this small army is always prepared to help each other, no matter how busy we are. This camp has three blacksmiths and like you geussed I am one of them. I am resposible for the weapons. Markus over there does horseshoes and stuff for the kitchen. And Karel works on armour. You should go there next, he needs some of your measurments for a new armour. Apperantly the one that you were wearing is beyond prepare." the blacksmith said. That last part didn't surprise her to much, Riftwalkers are not known for their gentle touch.
"I will, thank you once again." she said while walking towards the cart, grabbed the wooden pole and started to drag it towards the forge of Karel.
"Ahh there is the wood delivery, do you need a hand with that?" and the same type of conversation started. She declining his offer, and him helping her anyway. Karel was tall, had blond hair, light green eyes. His face was clean, but covered in pearls of sweat. "Good that you are here, I need some of your measurments. Your former armour is dead, and not even the Gods can bring it back to life." He already had the measuring tape in hand. "May I?" she nodded. It didn't take long, he waved her goodbye and went back to work. Dinner was served in a large tent, just as large as the one that housed the hostpital. Food was simple meat stew with some patotoes, but she didn't care. As lonhg it was warm and filled her stomach, she had worked hard bringing the firewood around camp. But she was glad to do something useful, she sat down and took a bit. Her eyes grew in surprise, the meat in the stew was tender and melted away without one single bit. The vegstibles was not muchy, but still had their freshness and crunch. It was so tastefull, which she didn't expect. Did this camp have a set cook, like they have a set doctor, and blacksmiths, or is this also part of the core schedule and were all the soldiers responsible for preparing food? If so than this tasty, yet simple dish was even more surprising.
"It seems to me that you like your food," Tom, the soldier she has beaten over and over earlier this morning, sat down next to her. "No surprise there, James is a master in the kitchen. But I have to spoil your fun tomorrow there would be someone else cooking the meal and only the Gods will know what kind of gruel we will be served." He chuckled softly. "I have seen you pulling around the firewood cart, typical. The Captain didn't waist anytime to put also you to work."
"I do not mind," she said. "I rather urn my keep." Tom nodded in agreement.
"You are an amazing fighter, and a true asset." he said. She wanted to thank him, but he was to busy shoving down his food. Everyone inside this camp was so nice to her, it was so much more different than she was used to at home. Briefely she wondered how Benjamin was doing, but quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind. She was left for dead, not only by her father, but also by him. Her was no longer her brother, and she was no longer his sister. Tears stung her eyes, it might be easy for them to cut her out of their lives. Only for her, it was not that easy.
