Kate caught Gwelweil and Kreelan walking down the path. In the moment her head was turned, she didn't see the attack. She groaned as she landed on her back. That was the fifth time Romion had dropped her. Or was it the sixth? It felt like the hundredth.
Romion held his hand out to help her up. "I didn't know it was possible, but I think you are getting worse instead of better."
She grimaced. "I'm sorry. I got distracted."
"Never get distracted. In battle, distraction equals death." He shook his head. "Again."
Kate took up the defensive pose he had taught her. He kicked her legs further apart. "One day, you might actually get your starting position right."
She opened her mouth, but Romion attacked, and she turned her attention to parrying the blow. The next few minutes showered her in flurry of lunges, feints, and ripostes. Most of them hit the leather padding she wore over her armor for extra protection.
A hit to her ribs, a lethal stab of the heart with less protection and sharper swords, brought her down again.
"Enough." She held her hands up. "That's enough for today. I can't take any more of this punishment."
Romion sheathed his sword. "You won't get a time out in battle. Your enemy won't give you time to catch your breath."
"I know. But this is just practice. I get those things in practice." It was an old argument. They had it almost every day for the past month and it usually ended with them both mad and Kate having to beg him for help again in the morning. Sometimes Kate gave in and continued practicing. But Regkor wanted to meet in the library today while there was still light for her to learn her elvish. Tomorrow's apology and begging was going to be a doozy,
"You need to spend less time moping after your friend and more time practicing. Your sword fighting talent is barely above that of a young boy playing with a wooden toy."
"My sword is made of wood, too. We'd match." She waved her blade in his face and grinned.
"This is no time for joking." He swatted her weapon down. "Do you want my help or not? Make your decision and stop wasting my time."
"Like you have so much that is filling up your busy days. You should be happy to finally have some company and a reason to get out of bed. What did you do all day, cross-stitch?"
He grabbed her wrist hard enough for her to drop her sword. "What I do with my day is none of your concern. Get out of here." He let go of her and went left.
Kate stood in his backyard for a minute before she realized that the only way out was through the gate he had closed behind him. She tried it but found it locked. Romion wouldn't respond to her knocking either. She examined the fence surrounding his yard. It was one of the few places Kate had seen here that used brick. Extending above her head, she knew there was no way she could scale it.
She fished her watch out of her bag. Back in Zanor, she had found she got a lot fewer looks without the digital watch on her arm and, of course, Romion would have smashed it by now if she wore it in their fights. She made the conversion to the thirty-hour day that the elves kept and realized that she needed to find a way out fast or she would be late. She looked up at the trees above her. "A little help please?"
An elm branch lowered down. She held on to the branch and it rose back into the air. It began lowering her back to the ground on the other side of the wall, but she had an idea. The library was over a mile away. She aimed as best she could and hoped this wouldn't kill her. The branch creaked backwards. With a mental command, it whipped forward. Moments before the tree reached the end of its travel, she let go and flew.
The maple near the visitor's hut caught her. Twigs tore at her clothes. She hadn't thought of that and was grateful that she hadn't taken the padding off. She landed on a branch solid enough to take her weight and climbed down. On the ground, she looked up and saw the damage she had wrought. Patting the trunk, she said, "Sorry, buddy," and sent healing energy to it. The cracked branches straightened out and grew new leaves, filling in the hole of her descent.
She looked inside, but Regkor had already left. Or, more likely, he had never come home after leaving for the library that morning. It wasn't large by Kate's standards, but it was filled with scrolls that he'd never read, and he spent the bulk of his days there while Kate was training. She wasn't sure where Kreelan went while she and Regkor were busy but judging by the amount of time that Gwelweil seemed to be hanging off him, Kate wasn't sure she wanted to know.
Outside, she climbed up the maple and scouted her next flight. What she really wanted was an ent to carry her, but she hadn't figured out how to make the tree mobile yet. Judging by the panic that a tree walking through town would likely cause, it might be better to work in the forest on that one. If she ever had time to wander off amongst the greenery, she thought, making a face. She reminded herself that she was doing what she had come here to do, but she missed having free time.
She picked her target, and the tree sent her flying. Her landing near the town hall was a bit more dignified and caused less damage for her to fix. It only took another hop to land by the oak near the library. It was her favorite tree in town, reminding her of the large one that made up the eastern portion of the wall surrounding Fawla. The one that had made her sword and armor.
She guessed oaks were smarter than the other trees because instead of landing like a bullet, this one reached out and caught her in a basket of leaves and lowered her to the ground. A group of children stared at her, their game at the base of the great tree forgotten.
She smiled at them. "Don't try that one at home, kids."
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