Chapter Thirteen

  The Training of a Winter Hunter

  Cailean slept on the floor by the bed Gwen took. He thought it only right that his companion took the bed, and sensing Duncan’s intentions, took the hard floor to rest before Duncan dumped a pitcher of water on his head.

  Cailean shook awake, brushing the water from his face.

  “It’s sunrise,” Duncan said, “The day has come, the first day of your training, dry yourself and follow me young Winter Hunter,” he said, throwing a towel to him and leaving the room. Cailean took the rag and tried to dry himself. He got up and looked over to Gwen, she was still fast asleep in this early morning. Her hair just wafting over her face, he thought of reaching out and brushing it from her cheek, looking at her beauty. Her eyes were beautiful even if they were closed. I’ll see the spring is found, he said to himself as he put on his armor and strapped his sword to his side. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the first day of his training.

  Duncan was waiting outside, when Cailean walked out, Duncan, with pure mastery with one hand ripping his blade out and turning it to whack the broad side of it against Cailean’s chest and knocking him to the ground. He put his hands back and carefully got back up.

  “I wasn’t ready,” Cailean said.

  Duncan sheathed his blade and reached his hand out to help his student to his feet, “Winter doesn’t give a damn if you're ready,” he said, “I trust you’ve been conditioned, had your time to study?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Cailean said, “I’ve studied every text in the Winter Hunter library of Dinnet,” he said.

  “You’ve found an Uslaing’s droppings and they smell of berries, what do you do?” Duncan asked.

  “What?” Cailean asked, and his question was met with a balled fist bashing against his skull, knocking him down again.

  “Put out a trap of rabbit meat,” he said as he pushed himself off the ground, “Ursalings resort to the nutrition of berries when they can’t find suitable amounts of meat,” he said, “A simple snare can incapacitate them,” Cailean said. On his guard now, he brought himself back up and kept watch for another strike from his tutor.

  “Good, good, so your book-learned?” Duncan raised his blade, “Your first monster kill was a Spider Folk, or so you say, what’s the best way to escape its webbing,” he asked.

  Cailean drew his blade, “Discard the article of clothing they grabbed on with their webbing, it's worth losing a piece of armor if it means you can be unencumbered,” he brought his blade up against Duncan’s rubbing bronze against bronze.

  “And if they get your armor, on your chest?” Duncan slid his blade up and made a lunge toward Cailean as he exited the hovel, Cailean raised his blade and blocked the blow.

  “Slice the majority of it, bronze can pierce webbing,” Cailean said as the two started to duel, crossing bronze swords against one another.

  “Have at me Winter Hunter,” Duncan said, using every bit of expertise he could with his single hand. Their blades spun around one another. Cailean tried to get a hit, knowing that would be impossible against the great Duncan Hightower. He was right, the master was able to parry every blow.

  “Your swordsmanship skills are admirable, but there's too much book-learning in you,” Duncan shifted to the left, and swung to the right, slamming the side of his blade into Cailean’s side, “Come at me, I may have one arm but I’m not useless,” he said, lifting his blade to his face, “Slice my other arm off if you can, if you can do that, I’d say you could best any monster you would face in your quest, Winter Hunter,” Duncan dashed and took a great swing at Cailean. The young warrior raised his blade and blocked it, he ducked to the side, spun to the left, and tried to attack the veteran on his weak side. The blow was, of course, blocked with an expert pirouette, “Looking to attack your enemy's weakness, good,” Duncan smiled as he slid his blade up and tossed Cailean backward, serving the young student another whack to the abs with the broad side of his blade.

  Cailean tumbled backward, his ass landing on the ground. All this exertion was beginning to work his breath, it came out of his mouth in short bursts of steam in the winter cold.

  “You won't bring the spring back with so little effort, rise to your feet Winter Hunter,” Duncan said.

  Cailean pushed himself up, took his sword, and readied himself.

  “You know what your problem is,” Duncan sheathed his blade and approached Cailean, “Your working too hard, you’re trying to move your sword,” he said, walking behind him and moving up to his shoulder, reaching out to take Cailean’s wrist and try to guide his sword hand, he held Cailean’s wrist, “You can’t move the sword, you can’t think about the sword, move your wrist, not the sword, let the blade do its own work,” he said as he guided Cailean’s arm. “I trust you’ve been taught all the motions in training?” he asked.

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  “Yes,” Cailean said.

  “Well, show me the basics,” Duncan said, taking two steps back.

  “Guard, slash, parry, lunge,” Cailean said as he went through the motions he was taught. He raised his blade up to defend against the attack, then countered the attack by bringing his sword down, lifting it back up to block to defend against whatever monster he would be fighting, and then lunging for the killing blow.

  “Go through it again,”

  “Guard,” Cailean raised his sword, “Slash,” he moved his blade down, “Parry,” he raised it up close to himself, “Lunge,” he stabbed his sword forward, “I’ve gone through these drills a thousand times,”

  “A thousand times and you still don’t know how it’s done,” Duncan laughed.

  “I might not be the best warrior, but I did receive top marks in drill training, I know the moves, I can do the moves,” Cailean said.

  “And tell me how your fight with those Spider Folk went, I saw you, did you handle it with just the basic knowledge of the fundamentals? Or did you just swing your sword in every desperate attempt so you could keep yourself alive?” Duncan asked.

  “I’m just trying to do what wiser men told me to do, I just tried to obey my teachers,” Cailean said.

  “Listen, boy, the standard moves are useful, it’s good soil, but you have to improvise, I saw you against the Spider Folk, you’ve potential no doubt, you just need to uncouple yourself from your book learning, when you’re in the field you need to trust your instincts, your gut, you have a gut don’t you?” he asked.

  Cailean drew his blade, “Come at me,” he said, “You one armed bastard, come at me,” he raised his sword to the guard position.

  “Now,” Duncan smiled, “Now you’re showing the true sack of a Winter Hunter,” he drew his blade. He lifted it up and touched his tip to Cailean’s blade, “Think you can handle me, boy, I may only have one arm, but I’ve years of experience on you,” he slashed his blade down and Cailean arced his blade up as Duncan blocked it, Cailean retreated to parry the next blow Duncan attempted, “Lunge!” Duncan commanded as he jumped to the side and dodged Cailean’s blow, “Parry!” Duncan slashed his sword in a killing fashion, had Cailean not been fast enough Duncan surely would have caught his throat and ended the young Winter Hunter’s life. “Lunge!” Duncan jumped to the side, and had Cailean been a bit more experienced surely he would have caught his master between the rips.

  Duncan took a step back, and held his blade up, “Oh, you’re coming along young Winter Hunter,” he smiled, and his smile turned into a laugh.

  Cailean held his blade up, straight, and pointed right to the legend before him, “Make me better, I have to be better,” he said.

  “Why?” Duncan asked before making a deadly slash that he knew Cailean could parry.

  “For the spring,” Cailean said as Duncan pulled his blade back and parried a counterattack that Duncan threw at him.

  “For the spring?” Duncan flipped the sword in his hand and with a quick blow was blocked again by Cailean’s blade.

  “For Gwen!” Cailean slashed his blade down and pushed Duncan’s sword to the ground, he rushed his blade up and kicked his leg forward to knock the sword out of Duncan’s hand and bring a simple sparing session to a blade at his mentor’s throat.

  Duncan smiled, “So you’re sweet on the little sun kissed girl, aren’t you?”

  Cailean took a deep breath, and lowered his sword, “If you’re going to teach me, teach me,” he said, sheathing his blade.

  Duncan started to laugh, he picked his sword back up and sheathed it, then started to laugh even harder, “You’re a Winter Hunter all right, I’m sure that you’ve had your doubts, misgivings, but you’re a Winter Hunter if I’ve ever seen one,” he put his hand on Cailean’s shoulder, “So tell me, about your Gwendolyn,” he said, “Tell me about that little Sun Kissed girl you fancy so much, don’t worry, she’s still asleep,” he said, “Just we men talking,” he said.

  “She’s sun blood, the fate of spring is with her, I swore an oath as every Winter Hunter does to see the spring is found, if she can bring the spring, I have to protect her,” Cailean said.

  “Don’t feed me that boy, don’t feed me the oath,” Duncan shook his head, “If you say anything ten thousand times the words just become meaningless, I see the way you look at her, you may think you look at her in a way no one notices, a way she may not even notice, but you look at her like any man looks a pretty young girl,” he smiled.

  “I can’t think of that right now, the important thing is the spring, I have to get her to the Druids, I told her, promised her, I would get her to the Druids, and then at the end of this horrible season, her blood can bring the Spring back, that’s all I care about,” Cailean said.

  “She’s all you care about then, if that isn’t love I don’t know what is,” Duncan said, “Love is the heart’s Spring, and Spring is a time for love, tell me, young Winter Hunter, after you bring her to the Druids, if your quest is won, after her sun blood brings the spring back, what then? Will you stay with her? Will you protect her?”

  “If that is the life the Goddesses put me in, yes, yes I will protect her,” Cailean said, “I’ll protect her for as long as I can,” Cailean looked down. He remembered that he didn’t have a destiny to live happily ever after with the beautiful woman he was escorting, he remembered the warning of a great and glorious battle that was on his horizon, a battle he would die in.

  “I trained many winter hunters, we see things other men can’t begin to fathom, tell me, have you seen the Lady?” Duncan asked.

  “The Lady?” Cailean felt a chill go up his spine, knowing the answer but too afraid to confess to it.

  “The Red Lady, I’ve known a few of my students who saw her, all dead, all with glorious deaths, deaths in battle, they say that every Winter Hunter sees the Red Lady, and if they’re lucky the first time they meet her is at their death, only the poorest bastards have to deal with the Red Lady before their final reward,” Duncan took a seat by the hut.

  Cailean joined him, “What if I told you I had seen her, seen her cleaning my armor,” he looked down taking a deep breath, trying to find wisdom talking to his elder.

  “Cleaning your armor,” Duncan raised his eyebrows, “So you’re going to die then,” he said, “A death of destiny,” he looked forward, “If you fancy the little Sun Kissed girl, you best lay with her while you have the chance,” Duncan pushed himself off the bench, “You’ve got a great destiny before you, better live it up before the Red Lady comes calling,” he said, “Come,” he said, “Let’s have another drink, keep those demons at bay,” he said.

  “Metaphorically you mean?” Cailean asked.

  “Sure,” Duncan said.