Chapter 18: A horse is a horse of course of course

"Orlanth, what happened to the tree?"

We both looked at the burnt tree; there was nothing green left on the lower branches. The burns looked pretty superficial, since the bark looked intact, and most of the branches still looked healthy. "I was trying to do a small Fire Spell, because I couldn't get my tinder to light when I felt a surge of power run through me and it blew up in my face. It was strange, I never seen anything like it before."

I was getting a sneaky suspicion that his accident was not an accident.

"I'm good at Fire Magic, Master Ibaniz said so. He said that it was going to be my specialty. Really, I haven't blown anything up in a season."

He hasn't blown anything up in a season? I need to watch that.

"It was probably the stress from losing your home, just be more careful in the future."

Stress my ass, I would bet my dinner that Kassandra had something to do with our meeting. Didn't you Lady? I received a warm embrace in response.

The kid just looked at me like he saw a ghost.

I think that he can see when I communicate with my Lady.

"Master will you take me for a student?" He asked with scant hope.

"No, I cannot teach you what you need to learn. My path lies in a different direction.

"Besides Orlanth, I am not a mage, I'm a servant of Kassandra." I watched his expression.

"Men are Wizards, women are Priestesses." He replied from rote. I could tell that he had said or heard that phase thousands of times.

"You will just have to trust me on this one. My Lady has a reason for this, and I certainly am not going to question it. If you have a problem with it, talk to Kassandra. Otherwise, you will have plenty of time to get used to the idea." I was wondering if I could have business cards made, and just hand them out.

As if anyone besides the wizards and the nobility can read them.

I continued. "You will find when it comes to me, I will end up breaking many rules."

"Now that the rain is tapering off, I want you to help Meri with the horses. The two of you are going to be traveling together, and I want you to get along. I won't suffer any nonsense. Understood?" I looked at both of them to make sure that they knew that I was serious.

I was glad that the medieval mindset was one of obedience to one's superior. It certainly would make my life easier, considering that I only had one that I knew about, I definitely did not expect Kassandra to come down and give me orders anytime soon, and if she did then I couldn't see myself not following them anyway.

I didn't hear any talking from them, so I just relaxed and let the rain lull me to a much deserved nap. I could hear bickering quietly going on in the background, and lazily I ignored it. When they returned, without opening my eyes, I had them both start their evening exercises. When Orlanth stated that he didn't have any thing to take notes, with I had Meri go and get my backpack that was in my left saddlebag. I introduced the boy to a pocket pen and a spiral notebook. He was dumbfounded, but I ignored it and told him to get to work.

I eventually got up and checked on Meri, to make sure that she was correctly performing her sit-ups, I corrected her form and made her start over. For the boy, I retrieved a sheath for an extra dagger that I had stored. He needed something to keep his knife safe and portable.

"Here, attach this to your belt, and put your knife into it until we get somewhere for a custom made one. Now, show me what you have done so far."

"You aren't a wizard, you couldn't read it. Why do you want to see it?" I could see that he was calling me a liar and wanted me to prove that I could indeed read his spellbook.

"As long as you are in my care, I will make sure that your studies do not lack, now show me." I didn't care about looking at the spellbook, his notes on the other hand I did care about. I wanted to see what he wrote.

He reluctantly handed me the notebook. The writing started as a mess and quickly became very practiced; his letters were almost perfect by the end of the page. He wrote about his casting of the fire spell and the surge that went awry. He actually went into detail about the feeling of the external pressure that forced the fire from his pores. He did try to hold it back as he was taught, but once the pressure got to be too much he threw it as far as he could. That ended up being the tree. He still had no idea where the extra power came from.

I corrected the one spelling mistake that I saw, and told him that I want him to practice casting that spell ten more times tonight.

"Yes, Master." Was his conditioned response; I did not correct him and watched him go hunting for more fallen branches, since I would not let him use our semi-dry wood that Meri collected earlier.

When he returned I had him dig a small pit near our current one. Orlanth took his knife and drew a sigil on the wood while he concentrated. The wet wood smoldered, smoked and then finally a flame started burning. It did not seem like it took much out of him.

"Good, do it again." I said as I left to get Meri started on her next set of exercises. I found her on the other side of the large willow that we were camping under. She was trying to keep as much distance between her and Orlanth as she could. I couldn't really blame her.

I floated between the two making sure that everything was going as it should have. Before letting them retire for the evening, I let Orlanth use my bedroll, and I finally got to do my evening exercises while the kids crashed. The rain slowed to a very light mist I figured that I needed to practice in the rain too. I could hear Meri whisper something as I started my warm-ups, but silence soon followed.

I brought my mind back to my center and enjoyed a good workout. An hour later they both were still watching me when I took my first break for water. For the second hour, I really stepped up and did the advanced forms. I felt as if I was floating through them; it truly was a great feeling. Before I came to this world, I was good, but nowhere near this good. I know that a large part of it was the vastly improved condition that my body was in. My strength, speed, and stamina had all been increased, I accepted it as a gift from Kassandra and certainly wasn't going to complain.

The kids were asleep when I stopped well after dark. I checked the camp and made sure that the horses were secure, they were and everything was quiet. Seeing that everything looked good, I was able to settle down and meditate for the rest of the night undisturbed. I had learned earlier that I could meditate to replace sleep for a single night without any ill effects. I hadn't tried two nights in a row, I didn't want to push it.

The following morning was damp, with the willow leaves sagging under the morning dew's weight. I tapped Meri on the shoulder to wake her, and went to take care of my morning ablutions. Both kids were gone when I returned, so I got out breakfast for the three of us. Getting the animals ready went much quicker than normal, since we added an extra body.