A Ranger From Adamnar

Chapter 5

The next morning, Alana was already up when Neve came to shout the remaining third of the trainees awake, including Nata. Nata had generously given Alana the lower bunk and Laren had tried humiliate her for doing so, but Nata wasn’t having any of it. She just looked at Laren with a steady gaze, and when Laren stopped speaking said, “Are you finished bothering me yet?”

Laren was also a very early riser, completely prepared for the day before many of the other trainees were up. She sharpened her weapons in the pre dawn light. Alana could tell this annoyed several of the girls, but no one complained, at least not this morning. Alana had not slept much the night before so she was also ready when Neve arrived. Neve was dressed in loose running clothes and low, soft but sturdy leather boots.

“All of you who are ready will leave with me now. We’ll get in a training run before breakfast,” Neve said. Several of the trainees who were close to being ready scrambled to finish up and be one of those who got in on the training run. Alana wondered why they were not all prepared. If Neve did this every morning, why wasn’t everyone up and ready? As Alana walked over to Neve she surveyed the group of girls and women who surrounded her. They were without exception a serious group. Some of them looked like they didn’t want to be up yet, but knew the value of it.

“What will the other trainees do, Trainer Neve?” Alana asked as the group walked out of the barracks.

“Just call me Neve.” she replied. “They will wait around the barracks with nothing to do. If they’re smart they will regret it, if not, well, Ranger training is long and hard and you’ve only got six years to complete it or you’re asked to leave.

“I guess that counts you out, rat,” Laren said. She pushed Alana out of the way and moved next to Neve. “I hope we’re going to run hard this morning. Let’s really stretch our legs.”

“Back off, Laren,” Neve said without looking at her. She began to trot and the group sped up. She continued to accelerate slowly towards the main gate and out into the forest. She took them on an easy well-marked path that wove gently through the trees. For the entire half hour they ran Laren would not let anyone pass her and complained non-stop about how easy Neve was being on them.

Breakfast tasted better than Alana could remember any meal tasting. She sat at a table at the far end of the dining hall with Nata and a few other trainees she didn’t know. For much of the meal she just listened to their chatter and tried to absorb every bit of knowledge she could glean from it. As she was getting up to leave, she saw Ferris coming toward her. She hurried over to him and said, “Ferris, I’m so sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye yesterday.”

He smiled at her. “That’s all right, I know how Lord Retak rushes the new trainees. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” she replied. She noticed Nata waving at her. “I’ll see you around the stronghold I’m sure.” Then she hurried to catch up to the group. When she looked back, she noted with surprise that Laren had stopped to talk to Ferris. “Strange,” she murmured.

They ran more after breakfast, and then sparred with wooden practice swords until lunch. By the end of it Alana could barely lift her arms. After a long afternoon of riding and an evening of running, she could barely move.

In the morning, Neve’s call woke her up. She sprang out of bed but it was already too late to join the run. “Not so easy is it, rat?” Laren called back over her shoulder as she walked over to the group of trainees lining up next to Neve for a pre-breakfast run. Alana cursed under her breath and hit the side of her bed hard. The hour before breakfast would be a long one.

“Oh, it’s not that bad Alana,” another trainee called out. “You get used to it. Some people are just not morning people.” She got up from her bed and walked over to her and held out her hand. “My name is Ciaran.”

Alana reached up to take her hand and pain shot through her arm and shoulder. Her other hand reflexively went up to rub her shoulder as she shook Ciaran’s hand. “I don’t want to get used to not being a morning person. I don’t want to fall behind.”

“Yeah well, time will tell,” Ciaran said. She walked back to her bed and slowly got dressed.

“Holy crap,” a voice called from over Alana’s head. Nata was awake. “I can’t move.”

“You should massage your muscles before you go to sleep,” Ciaran said. “The harder you massage them the better you’ll feel in the morning.” Ciaran laid back down on her bed, propped herself up on her arms and stared off into space. Alana furrowed and wondered if Ciaran was taking this seriously. She hadn’t seen Ciaran fight or ride or run the previous day.

Although the male and female trainees slept in separate barracks, they ate and trained together. She and Nata were the only girls in their group of ten. Seven boys and Cadius rounded it out. Cadius spent the day knocking the boys around when they laughed at Alana for being such a runt.

“Thanks Cadius,” Alana had said at the evening meal, “but really, I can take care of myself.”

“Suit yourself,” Cadius said and downed another tankard of juice. He ate about three times as much as the other trainees.

After a week of the same drills her muscles were finally starting to calm back down. Ciaran never got up for the extra morning run. Nata asked to be awoken so she could join the run. She didn’t like Ciaran’s lackadaisical attitude and really did not want to be associated with her. Ciaran had a little bit of a following of trainees who were spending more time nursing their excuses than trying to get better.

Alana didn’t miss another early morning training run over the next four months. She discovered that, of all the skills she was now practicing, she liked running the least. She would much rather be on horseback. But, running was a part of Ranger training, so she would learn to be the best runner she could be.

Next to horseback riding, she loved fighting with the long sword best. She enjoyed it so much that eventually only Cadius would spar with her outside of regular practice because she “hit too hard.” Even though she came away from each sparring session with him stiff and sore from being knocked down time and again, she enjoyed them thoroughly.

After one such sparring session, Alana finally decided to satisfy her curiosity. “Can I ask you a question?” she said as she wiped the dust from the arena off her breeches.

“I suppose,” Cadius answered warily as they walked towards the small shed where the practice swords were kept. “Depends on the question though.”

“Fair enough,” Alana said with a smile as she handed him her swords. After a slight pause she asked, “Why did you decide to become a Ranger after being a Fighter for such a long time?”

Cadius smiled crookedly, which made the scar that ran down his right cheek crinkle up, and answered, “I guess fifteen years would be a long time to you.” He chuckled and went on, “It started because my brother hit me.”

“What?” Alana asked, “I don’t understand.”

Cadius closed the shed door and said, “You see, my brother’s a Priest of Asaeria and I was doing a lot of pretty bad things at the time so he hit me to get my attention.”

Alana grinned. “I guess it worked,” she said. They headed towards the stronghold library to begin the second half of their session. In exchange for help with her sword skills, she was teaching Cadius the Ranger lore he needed to know. She had also convinced him to let her teach him how to read and write.

“Yeah,” he said. “My brother’s got a pretty good right hook. But that only woke me up. I felt strange about what I was doing for a long time, I just couldn’t put my finger on why.”

“So you decided to train as a Ranger.”

“It was his idea,” Cadius replied. “He said there were fighters out there who stood up for the little guy and that I should try to be one. To tell the truth, I was surprised they even let me in. I’m not a very nice guy.”

Alana looked at him in surprise, “I think you’re very nice. You’ve always been nice to me.”

“Yeah well,” he said gruffly, “You’re special. I like you cause you got a lot of guts.”

She smiled and murmured, “Thanks.”

After they walked a little further in silence he said, “So, what about you? You look like you should be going to fancy parties and having pretty boys fall all over themselves to get to you. Why are you here? Your brother hit you?”

Alana laughed, “No, my brother never hit me. Although, I hit him once and broke his nose.”

It was Cadius’ turn to be surprised. “You broke his nose? What, he’s younger than you?”

Alana shook her head. “No, he’s older than me and taller than you. But,” she spread her hands out to indicate the breadth of Cadius’ shoulders, “not as wide. He was eighteen and I was fourteen.”

“And you broke his nose? You must have one hell of a punch.”

A pained look briefly flitted across her face. “Well, I was very angry at the time. I shouldn’t have hit him, really. But, I wasn’t thinking properly.”

“What’d he do?” Cadius asked.

Alana’s cheeks reddened slightly. “He said some very nasty things about my uncle and me. I lost my temper.”

Cadius frowned. “What nasty…” he stopped speaking as understanding dawned on him. “Oh, those kind of nasty things. I guess I can see why you’d get mad.”

“Yes well, I still shouldn’t have hit him. My uncle was always trying to teach me self-control. He’s actually the reason I’m here.”

“Oh, so your uncle’s a Ranger?” Cadius asked.

“He used to be,” Alana replied. “Now he’s a Novadi warrior.

“A what?” Cadius asked in confusion. Alana couldn’t hide her surprise at his question. It never occurred to her that someone would not know what a Novadi warrior was. Cadius saw the look, frowned, and asked, “Am I supposed to know that for the next level of Ranger training?”

Alana blinked, “Uh, no. I don’t think so. It’s just that…well I thought everyone knew what a Novadi warrior was.”

“Guess not,” Cadius answered with a slight shrug.

Alana frowned slightly as she tried to figure out how to explain what a Novadi was. “Well,” she began, “A Novadi warrior is someone who can use the life energy of the living things around them to fight. They can also use it to heal and to teleport and lot of other things. When they fight, they move so fast you can hardly see them. A lot of Novadi warriors used to be Rangers. Sometimes Grand Master Philip comes to the strongholds to find potential Novadi warriors. That’s what I’m hoping to be one day.”

“So, these Novadi are just faster and stronger than other fighters?”

Alana shook her head. “Not just that. Novadi warriors champion causes. They look out for the little guy, like you said before. But they take an oath to always do good. They’re almost like Paladins except they don’t get any healing powers from the gods. All of their healing powers come from life energy.” They reached the small, one room library.

Cadius rolled his eyes as he opened the library door. “Paladins. Ugh. What a boring life that must be.”

Alana bristled a bit as she passed him and looked around the library, “I said they were like Paladins. They’re not actually Paladins. And besides, I’m pretty sure my uncle’s life is not boring.” She lowered her voice so she would not disturb Lord Herton, who was sitting in the corner of the small but well stocked library, “Let me tell you about this bar fight in Nel Burath…” They sat down as far away from the library’s only other patron as they could.

When she finished her tale, Alana pulled down the book they had been reading. After a month Cadius was nearly done with it. She handed it to him and he read for a half an hour while Alana helped him with pronunciation and meaning.

As Alana was about to leave for the barracks, Cadius looked up from his book and said, “I have a question.”

“What?” Alana asked.

“How does this place stay in business?”

Alana blinked in confusion. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

He waved his arm around. “All this—the training, the weapons, the servants, the food—it all costs money. But we don’t pay anything to be here, none of the trainees do. So where does the money come from?”

“I…don’t know,” she replied. I never thought about it before.”

“Perhaps I can answer that.” They looked up to find Lord Herton standing by their table. Alana stood up and kicked Cadius under the table when he didn’t move right away. Lord Herton smiled and said, “Please sit.”

“Thank you my lord,” Alana replied.

After they all sat down, Lord Herton said, “Strongholds on Ranwar are supported, for the most part by the kingdom, city-state, or barony that borders their region of protection. So, for instance, this stronghold is supported by the Candril barony.”

Alana’s eyes widened slightly. “You mean Baron Candril pays for all this?”

Lord Herton nodded. “For the most part. Remember too, Rangers are adventurers. Any Ranger who lives here pays a tribute out of any money they make or treasure they find.”

Cadius raised an eyebrow. “Huh.”

Lord Herton looked amused. “You don’t approve, Cadius?”

“I…” Cadius looked to Alana for help, but none was forthcoming. She just stared at him.

“That’s quite all right,” the Ranger lord said. “It takes time to get used to something like that.”

“I’ll say,” Cadius muttered. “So,” he asked after a moment, “what if Baron Candril decided he didn’t want to pay the stronghold anymore?”

Lord Herton raised his brows. “Well, it wouldn’t go very well for Baron Candril.”

“What, you’d attack his barony or something?”

The Ranger lord frowned. “No Cadius, that is not the way of Rangers. However, without his support, we would be unable to protect his lands from the creatures of the forest. The last Baron Candril who stopped supporting the stronghold lost a thousand head of cattle a week until he resumed his support.”

Cadius eyes went wide. “Well that would do it for sure. No need to attack him.”

Alana was getting a bit uncomfortable with all the talk of Baron Candril..“I’m going to head back to the barracks,” she said. “I’ll see you in the dining hall. Don’t forget to work on your writing.”

“I won’t,” he replied. “See you later.”

“Goodnight Lord Herton.”

“Goodnight Alana.”

After Alana left, Cadius took out a piece of parchment and a quill to work on some writing. Lord Herton watched him for a moment and then said, “Pretty girl, huh?”

Cadius shrugged without looking up and mumbled something that sounded like, “I suppose.”

“It must be difficult,” Lord Herton continued, “For a man like you to be around a beautiful young woman like that and not act on your natural instincts.”

Cadius looked over at him and frowned. “How do you know I’m not?” he asked, completely forgetting to address Lord Herton properly.

Lord Herton raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you think we know what goes on with the trainees?” he asked, deciding not to call Cadius on his slip.

“Yeah well,” he answered gruffly, “she’s a good kid. I don’t want to mess her up.”

Lord Herton smiled and stood up, “That’s an admirable thing, Cadius. You will make a fine Ranger. Goodnight.”

Bemused, Cadius replied, “Goodnight,” and added belatedly, “My lord.”

“Ciaran,” Alana asked one morning, about five months into her training, “How long have you been a Ranger trainee?”

“Oh, about five years,” Ciaran answered with a faraway look. She was slowly sharpening her dagger. She had been at it for about an hour when it should have taken her fifteen minutes at most.

Alana stared at her a moment, took a deep breath, and said, “Ciaran you’re wasting your time. You should be a Ranger already. You certainly have the skills. You should have taken your Ranger trial already.” Ciaran didn’t seem to notice or care. She just sat there looking at Alana with a slight smile on her face, slowly sharpening her dagger.

“Ciaran, the dagger is sharp enough. Stop that and listen to me,” Alana said. “I’m serious. You’re not trying hard enough.”

“Ranger training is a lot harder than you think, Alana,” Ciaran replied, holding up the dagger to inspect the edge. “You haven’t gone very far in to it yet. You’ll see.”

“I don’t think it’s as hard as you’re making it out to be,” Alana said.

“Well, then, good luck to you,” Ciaran said.

“Thanks, but you know what I mean,” Alana said. “You’re missing the point. I don’t think it’s as hard as you are making it out to be. You could be finished now if you’d just apply yourself a bit more.”

“What do you care?” Ciaran asked, finally putting down her dagger and whetstone on her sloppily made bed.

“More importantly,” Alana shot back, “Why don’t you care?”

Ciaran sighed and looked out the window of their barracks.

“Hey,” a trainee from Ciaran’s group of slackers piped up, “Why don’t you leave her alone? Can’t you see she’s doing her best? Why do you have to give her such a hard time after she helped keep Laren off your back?”

Alana looked over at her and said, “You’re not helping Ciaran and you’re not helping yourself by following Ciaran’s example.”

“What are you talking about? Ciaran’s a good trainee and she’ll be a good Ranger some day.”

“That’s the point, Eva,” Alana answered her while still looking at Ciaran, “She should be a good Ranger now.” Then she continued talking to Ciaran, “Ciaran, you need to try harder or you’re not going to be a Ranger.”

“Thanks, Alana,” Ciaran said sarcastically, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Alana turned away exasperated.

“Give it up, Alana,” Laren said as she walked past them down the bay toward her bunk, “Ciaran’s not Ranger material.”

“Well, Laren,” Ciaran asked, “and why aren’t you a Ranger yet? Didn’t you start a year after me? If you’re made of Ranger material, why aren’t you a Ranger yet?”

“Back off Ciaran,” Laren said while loading her backpack for the day’s long training run. Laren was so far along in her Ranger training she was already performing all the same tasks Rangers performed, just under the supervision of a Ranger Trainer. Laren was at the last of four levels of Ranger Training.

“You see, Alana,” Ciaran said, “Laren has a very different problem that keeps her from being a Ranger.

“I said back off,” Laren said. She turned around and started to walk back up the bay towards them. Alana stepped in front of Laren and stopped her. Laren still stood a good foot over her.

“There is not going to be a fight here,” Alana said, looking straight up into Laren’s eyes. Several of the other trainees perked up in their beds or stopped what they were doing, hoping Alana was wrong.

“What’s this Ciaran,” Laren said while looking down at Alana. “Are you having the rats do your work for you now? Your pack of sloth’s not good enough anymore, you gotta branch out?”

“Alana, don’t bother, she’s not worth it,” Nata said of Ciaran.

“Nata, everyone is worth it.” Alana said.

Alana turned her back on Laren. She wasn’t sure that was the smartest thing to do but she could think of only one way to diffuse this fight. “Ciaran, you have no right to pick on Laren when you yourself haven’t walked in her shoes and really aren’t even willing to walk in your own shoes.”

Ciaran looked at her strangely, not expecting Alana to take Laren’s side when Laren had been picking on Alana nonstop since she became a trainee. “I don’t get you, Alana,” she said and started packing her backpack for her day’s training.

Halfway there, Alana thought, and turned back around to face Laren. Laren had an odd expression on her face as she looked down on Alana. She furrowed her brow once and walked back to her bunk to pick up her backpack, and then walked out of the bay without saying another word.

“Alana, you are completely insane,” Nata said as she jumped down off the top bunk. “Both of those two girls need a good stiff beating. You should have let them just fight it out.”

“Nata, shut up and get ready,” Alana said as she too finished packing her backpack for the long run they were going on, deep into the forest. Today they would run all day and all night with only short breaks for meals and a little bit of rest. When they finally made camp, they would be staying in the forest for three days before they returned to the stronghold. The trainees much farther along in their training gave her and Nata knowing glances and half hidden smiles, but none of them would say what was going to happen on this run, or why it was different from any other, apart from being much longer.