Year Three

  Doreen of the Water that Moves Briskly looked over her shoulder as she walked

  down to the pond created at the base of the Flaming Hills. Several streams collided

  there at the end of their runs. Her totem rode on her shoulder, silvery and transparent

  at the same time. It chattered in her ear as she walked.

  “I know I can’t avoid Bernie forever,” Doreen said. “I just want to avoid him today.”

  Doreen pushed through some brush and found someone sitting with his back to a tree.

  A dog made of wood lay at his side. He looked up and smiled halfheartedly. It was

  the kind of smile that said ‘Look, a stranger has intruded and I don’t see any way to

  be polite about saying go away.’ The dog flicked an ear, but otherwise didn’t move.

  “Look, Woody, a visitor,” said the stranger. He smiled a little more. “How do you

  do?”

  The dog turned his head away. He settled in, curling his wooden body around like a

  comma.

  “Sorry,” said the stranger. “I promised him a lazy day. He gets cantankerous when he

  doesn’t get to just lay around.”

  The dog made a noise of disagreement, but did not move.

  “You know it’s true,” said the stranger. He petted the dog’s side.

  “We can leave,” said Doreen. She started to turn away. She wanted to avoid trouble,

  and these two had trouble written all over them. A man in light blue clothing and a

  wooden dog had no reason to sit at the edge of the training grounds. As soon as the

  other students found out, they would converge on her and cause problems.

  Her totem leaped from her shoulder. It raced across the grass and leaped on the dog.

  It stared at the man in blue with its glassy eyes.

  “Interesting shape,” said the stranger. “Why does it look like a squirrel? I would have

  thought a water elemental would pick another shape closer to its element.”

  “Tapper is great as an undine,” said Doreen. “Why is your totem a dog?”

  “Totem?,” said the man in blue. “Woody isn’t a totem. He’s my familiar.”

  The dog barked before settling again.

  “And he doesn’t like squirrels,” said the man in blue. He picked up Tapper with the

  palm of his hand. “He has them at the top of his list of animals he hates.”

  Tapper leaped to his shoulder. The squirrel patted his face with a paw.

  “He’s very friendly,” said the man in blue. He reached up and stroked the watery

  surface of the totem.

  “I know,” said Doreen. “We’re supposed to be getting ready for the tournament next

  month. He won’t fight the other totems. He runs.”

  “That doesn’t seem so bad,” said the man in blue. He cradled the squirrel in his hands.

  “There doesn’t seem like a lot of things he would be good facing.”

  Woody grumbled.

  “It doesn’t matter how much you sleep, you’ll never get any better looking,” said the

  stranger. He stood. “Can you pull out of the tournament?”

  “No,” said Doreen. “If we lose, they’ll take Tapper and render him back to

  nothingness.”

  “That seems a little extreme,” said the stranger. He tossed the squirrel into the air. The

  beast elongated to land on his shoulder like a silver ribbon. He smiled. “That’s very

  good.”

  “He’s really fast, and really helpful,” said Doreen. “He doesn’t like to fight. And if

  he can’t fight, then the school doesn’t want him to exist, and they won’t let me stay.

  I’ll have to go home and admit I couldn’t make a simple totem work like I needed.”

  “Maybe all he needs is some coaching,” said the stranger. “The problem is all my

  talent lies in other directions. What do you think, Woody? Maybe you could teach

  him something.”

  The wooden dog lifted his head. He regarded the three of them. He barked once

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  before he got to his feet. He walked over and barked at the totem. The squirrel

  dropped down to the ground. They marched off together into the trees.

  “Don’t worry,” said the stranger. “Woody is great at that sort of thing.”

  “What sort of thing?,” asked Doreen.

  “Coaching,” said the stranger. “I know he looks all polished and everything, but he

  knows some back alley tricks.”

  “You said he isn’t a totem?,” said Doreen.

  “That’s right,” said the stranger. He smiled. “What do you know about the world?”

  Doreen paused. She felt that this was a trick question. How much did she know

  beyond the basic history of her nation, the cold war with the shapers across the

  mountain chain to the west, and other nations further south. She had heard tales of the

  creature called Geoff who killed with a blade sharper than any steel. There were even

  stories of places across the ocean.

  “Just what I have been told at school,” said Doreen.

  “So not much,” said the man in blue. He looked at the pond, rubbing his head. “The

  spellwork your people do is deprived from a simple spell learned by the first shaper.

  He used it to move his chosen element with his mind, and then he learned to control

  more than one. But his control doesn’t grant any sentience to what he does.”

  “I don’t think I want to hear any more,” said Doreen.

  “Pay attention,” said the stranger. “You’ll need this if you want to win the

  tournament. So listen.”

  The man in blue gathered his thoughts, watching the pond. Doreen turned to look at

  the water. She could see images in the water. She frowned. One of the fleeting images

  was her companion talking to an elderly man on his death bed.

  “The first shaper wanted his work to continue, but he felt no one would follow in his

  footsteps,” said the stranger. “When he died, he promised to return to teach his skills

  to others. In that gap between the first and second shaper, a fraud appeared to try to

  take advantage. He knew enough of shaping to almost pull it off, but he realized that

  he could use another magic from across the ocean and combine it with his shaping to

  give his power a body of its own. Things looked good for him until the second shaper

  arrived. The fraud was exiled with his new talent, and told never to return.”

  “You’re saying that Emperor Silver Gleaming in the Moonlight was a shaper,” said

  Doreen. “Don’t tell anyone else. They’ll turn you in for heresy.”

  “Here’s the part you should take away,” said the man in blue. “Tapper is only as ready

  to fight as you are. You have to want it before he will do anything. If you don’t want

  to win, he will never win. Silver Moonlight, a more pretentious name than the one he

  was born with, fought off scores of shapers with his ability to summon a water snake.

  You can do the same if you want to.”

  “I thought his totem was a rock oxen,” said Doreen.

  “No,” said the stranger. “It was a water snake.”

  “How do you know this?,” asked Doreen. She didn’t hide her disbelief.

  “I was there at the start,” said the stranger. “The schism happened while I was doing

  something on the other side of the world. When I returned, your people had split in

  half with one side on this side of the Demarcation, and the other over there.”

  This man was insane, decided Doreen. There was no way he was thousands of years

  old. Silver Gleaming in the Moonlight had led his people to their new home at the

  dawn of their recorded history.

  “It’s Doreen Loses her Water,” said a snide voice. “Who’s this? No one is allowed on

  the grounds other than students and masters. Looks like we have someone to take in

  for punishment.”

  Doreen rubbed her face. Bernard and his friends stood at the edge of the clearing

  around the pond. He invoked his totem. A bird of flame sat on the special bracer he

  wore. He grinned at her.

  “One of your fellow students?,” said the madman.

  Doreen nodded.

  “Could you leave?,” asked the stranger. “We’re having a private conversation.”

  “The only talking you are going to do is to the headmaster,” said Bernard. “What do

  you say about that?”

  “I invoke dueling privileges,” said Doreen.

  “You hear that,” said Bernard. “Cowardly Doreen wants to duel me.”

  “I think I have the right to duel first,” said the man in blue.

  “No, you do not,” said Doreen. “This is between me and Bernard.”

  “You can have the other three,” said the stranger. “I want to show your friend some

  manners.”

  “You can have the other three,” said Doreen.

  “It’s not satisfying ripping sycophants apart,” said the stranger.

  “I invoked the privilege, I get to choose who to fight,” said Doreen. “And you don’t

  have a totem.”

  “I don’t need one,” said the man in blue. “I’m the Queen’s Knight. That’s enough.”

  “Hold on,” said Bernard. “You both want to fight me with your weak totems?”

  “I’m fighting you,” said Doreen. “He can take on your halfwits.”

  “Fine,” said the Queen’s Knight. “When do you want to start?”

  “Now,” said Bernard. He swung his arm. His firebird swept out its wings and sprayed

  fire at the pair. Doreen jumped to one side. The Knight held up a hand and sent the

  flame at one of the other duelists. That forced the minion to dance out of the way to

  avoid being burned to a crisp.

  “Tapper!,” Doreen screamed. “I need you.”

  A streak of silver dived into the pond. The water joined into a more coherent form.

  The giant squirrel looked down on the combat. A massive paw slapped Bernard into

  a tree. The other duelists turned to flee with the giant elemental chasing them.

  Tapper fell on them like a tsunami. Doreen heard screams as the wave vanished in the

  trees.

  Woody strolled into view. He settled on a dry patch of ground under a tree and curled

  up to nap.

  “Do that for your tournament, and you can’t lose,” said the man in blue. He gave

  Bernard a kick in the stomach. “Good job.”

  Doreen fought back the urge to vomit. Tapper, back to his normal height and weight,

  climbed up to her shoulder and patted her face.

  She smiled as she tried out various explanations to explain what had happened. She

  definitely had to leave out the crazy guy so someone would believe that she had been

  attacked.