11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven

T he ride leading out of the village is quiet, but that still doesn't help me feel at ease around the Skelly. Every now and then, they stop eating moss and look up at me with their dead eyes. If I grew up in a village like this one, I would have moved the first chance I got. Perhaps that's why Corvu left. Looking at him beside me, I wonder if it would be rude to ask why he left the family that loved him. It isn't my business, it really isn't.

"Why did you leave that village?" Smooth, Tia. I really don't know how to just butt out. He is momentarily surprised by the question but otherwise he sighs and responds,

"Aside from very few others, I was the only one that wasn't human. I just wanted to be somewhere else where everyone was different."

"That's why you left? "

"And kept going. I don't really stay anywhere for more than a few months."

"So, you're well traveled then?"

"I've spent the last six years travelling around this continent, and I still haven't been to half the cities around here. I'll find one to suit me eventually." It made me a little sad he hadn't found somewhere to call home after six years.

"Have you been to the Capital before?"

"No. I hear a lot about it though. We will stop in the next village we get to, though it's best to avoid talking to people if we can help it." I understand why it wouldn't be in our best interest to have long conversations with people, but I can't understand why he is so persistent about everyone being the bad guy. I suppose I shouldn't judge, especially since I misjudged him to begin with. My horse stops for a moment and takes a cautious step back. Attached to a tree along the path is a Skelly, and even though it pays us no mind, my horse is far from pleased. Corvu grabs my reins and pulls its face away, then keeps moving. Gecko's horse also has no problem maneuvering around to avoid looking at the creature. Why do I have to be so useless? Nearly a day of horse riding, and I should be able to learn quicker than this .

As the canopy above us becomes thicker, the direct sun fades out. Now I'm starting to think I'm seeing things. Amongst the moss and algae, small fireflies start to come out in the darkness. I'm stunned. There could easily be millions of them as far as I can see the forest stretch. If only places like this existed in my world too. Corvu's horse pulls up next to mine. He grabs my wrist and turns up my hand, only to place something that reminds me of bread crumbs in it. An involuntary blush creeps across my face as he smiles at me. I hadn't noticed that one of the nearby fireflies decides to settle in my hand to eat the crumbs, and then another. Only, they aren't fireflies at all. Lifting my hand up to my face to see closer, I can finally see what they are. They are the tiniest fairies, with bright green glowing wings. It doesn't look like they are interested in me, just in the bread on my hand.

Gecko giggles. I look up to see that quite a few of the fairies have landed in his hair. Corvu just scoffs, "They're probably confused as to why you're wingless, pixie-boy." Gecko tilts his head in Corvu's direction, giving him a foul look. I hadn't seen him do this before, but Gecko's eyes start to glow in the same strange green as the fairy wings. Corvu's saddle makes a strange jingling sound, and he then proceeds to slide off to the left side of his horse. He grunts as he hits the ground. When Gecko laughs, the fairies fly out of his hair.

"Gecko!" I say, "That's not funny he could have been hurt!" But he just looks at me like I'm crazy. The horses stop, giving Corvu a moment to get up and dust himself off.

"Don't worry. Tricksters are not built to be breakable." My forehead creases as I try to understand what that means. Corvu goes over to his horse and does the buckle on the saddle back up. He looks at me as he mounts the horse once again, but the expression on his face just seems confused. "Tricksters are freaks. I heard one got squashed by a boulder and barely broke a bone." That's just mortifying.

"Probably fractured plenty though." I mutter. He responds with his trademark devilish grin.

"Were you worried about me, Princess?"

"No!" I exclaim, a little too loudly. Gecko tries to hide his laughter under his breath but it doesn't really work. "Oh, you think that was funny?" I ask, trotting my horse beside his. I put the crumbs on top of his head, where the fairies seemed to already be enjoying hanging out. "There, now you can make some more friends." I laugh. Gecko isn't actually upset by it, in fact I think he kind of enjoys being covered in the tiny fairies.

"Good thing Nightlights are so peaceful," Corvu begins, bringing his horse up to our speed, ", can you imagine if all of these things wanted to hurt you? They can get to some pretty nasty places." I think it was cute they were called Nightlights, but I can't help but wonder,

"So they aren't fairies?"

"Oh, they're fairies, but the subgroup is Nightlights. Small ones that glow in the dark." Interesting. Without meaning to make it so obvious I grab the pen, or inkhold, and journal out from my satchel and write that fact down. Corvu appears to be okay with me taking down information and talks at a slightly slower pace. "Pixies are their closest relative, but most pixies are human-sized, maybe a bit smaller." It occurs to me I should just be grateful that everyone I had met so far spoke English. I couldn't imagine learning a new language at the same time as all of this.

"What group are Tricksters?" I question, although I probably should have thought twice before being so blunt about it. He hesitates to answer.

"Cursed." He mumbles, I heard him, but I wanted to make sure it was really clear,

"What?"

"There's a group referred to as The Enchanted. They are unnatural creatures that don't really fit in anywhere. The subgroup for me is Cursed." He seems upset by it, maybe that's why he tries so hard to help people. If I was known as a Cursed person I'd want to do whatever I could to prove people wrong. I feel like I understand Corvu a little better.

"I kind of thought you were an Elf when I met you." I smile, mimicking pointy ears with my two index fingers. "Elves do have pointy ears, right?"

Hesitantly he responds, "They do. But not ones this long and pointy."

"Is that how people know you as a Trickster? The ears?"

"It's...a combination of things." I look at him, tapping the inkhold against the journal, waiting for him to continue. I had to admit that even though riding a horse for several hours hurt, it wasn't as bad as going by foot for days, and it was handy for conversation. "Okay, so most humans know me as a Trickster because of my ears and teeth, but it's my eyes that probably give me away the most." I look at his eyes again and wonder what he means. To me they were just a light brown color. They were nice, but not that unique.

"I don't get it. My eyes are brown." I comment.

"That's normal for a human, and normal for many other Daemonaria. I look a lot like an Elf, as you suggested. But people will know me as a Trickster even if I keep my mouth shut and don't bare my fangs simply because Elves don't have brown eyes."

"Oh, so it's like an immediate giveaway. That's why you hide your ears all the time."

"Right. It's normal for humans to have brown eyes, so I rather people just assumed I was one and didn't judge harshly for other reasons." I spot Gecko looking at Corvu from the side of his eye. Perhaps, like most kids, he was feeling a bit guilty for his previous actions.

"Does it make you sad? Being judged for what you are and not who you are?"

"Sad?" He ponders that for a moment. "No, determined." He smiles confidently. "Proving that Tricksters aren't bad or cursed will be a long road, but one day I'll get to show it to someone. Then maybe others like me won't get picked on so much."

"It's a little sad that Tricksters get picked on. I mean, you've been nothing but amazing to me. I just wish there was something I could do for you." I sigh as the light from the sun begins to break its way through the canopy. There are less Nightlights around, even the ones that were in Gecko's hair have left. The clearing in the middle of this forest was abundant with wild flowers of varying colors and sizes. Some appeared to be ground covers, others as tall as my horse's knees. Corvu pulls on my reins and stops the horse right in the middle, where it's obvious many travellers had stopped to build camps since it was mostly just grass and dirt.

"There is something you could do." He states, dismounting. Cautiously copying him, I get off the horse. I hadn't yet decided on a name for her. I was thinking of just calling her White. Corvu pulls on the blanket he had secured to his horse earlier that day, from it dropped an assortment of weapons. I step back, startled. He pulls out a quiver and bow, then holds it out to Gecko. "It's fastened better than yours." He explains, trying really hard to keep a stoic expression as Gecko accepts the gift with excitement. "And for the Princess," He says, pulling out a sheathed rapier with a silver handle, ", you're going to learn to defend yourself. That's what you can do for me." I take the sheathed sword hesitantly and slowly pull it out to see the blade. It's genuinely sharp - no blunt instruments here. I am so worried about this. I'm pretty sure it will take me less than five minutes of training before someone accidentally loses a finger, and with my luck it will probably be me. The blade itself wasn't particularly special or unique, but the handle was strapped with a black fabric delicately intertwined with silver. Thankfully, it also wasn't very heavy, which is probably why Corvu picked it for me.

"I want to say thank you," I sigh, ", but I have no idea how to use this thing."

He chuckles, "That's why I'm going to teach you. Strap it on, we'll start with some basics." I pull on the straps that are attached to the sheath, trying to buckle it around me. Why are there so many buckles? Where do they go? I try putting the longest one around my waist, similar to Corvu's, but I can't get the sword to stay by my side. It keeps slipping behind me. Frustrated, I grunt.

"I need help." I state, already defeated.

"Are you sure?" He questions. I'm not sure why he asked, there was no way I was able to get this thing secured around my waist. One of the buckles seemed way too small and another was facing the wrong direction.

"Yes, I'm confused."

"Okay." He says, coming over to me, pulling the strap around my waist, which makes me step closer to him involuntarily. Undoing the only buckle I had managed to close, he moves the straps around until they're in the right position, "Arms up." Following his instruction I do so, and he leans into me so get the strap around my waist, then squats to secure one around my thigh. No wonder I couldn't figure this out. I can feel my heart race as his hands go around my legs. I don't usually like people getting too close to me physically, but I could bear with it if it meant learning how to strap this thing on myself from now on. When he's done he stands up. His face is really close. His eyes are darker than they were a moment ago, though I don't understand why I think so. He takes a step back and pulls his sword out of its sheath. "Are you ready for your first lesson?" He questions. I manage to pull out the sword with little trouble and mockingly hold it up and say,

"En garde!" I smile, but he just seems confused. Even Gecko who was taking the horses further away whipped his head around to look at me. "Oh, right. That's French. I take it no one here knows French." I drop my arm holding onto the sword, further defeated than I previously was.

Corvu chuckles, "I think I understand what you meant based on that stance you used. We don't usually say anything here, the stance is more than enough. But we aren't starting with battle. Let's just start with basics. We will stop three times a day for half an hour of practice, increasing as you learn more." I nod. "We're going to focus on defence for you, until you're strong enough to actually plunge that thing into someone."

"Wait. What?" He didn't say anything about killing anyone.

"That reaction is exactly what I'm talking about. It's clear to me in your world humans are weak and uneducated in self preservation. What are you going to do when a giant Daemonaria comes out of nowhere and starts destroying your city? Do you just run screaming?" I resisted the urge to tell him about all the movies where that actually happens.

"Monsters and Daemonaria don't exist in my world."

"We've established that. They exist here, where you are, and if you don't learn to defend yourself, you won't be seeing that unusually peaceful world of yours ever again. You'll be dead." That last word rang in my ears over and over again. He was right. This wasn't my world. I can get hurt. I can die. "The Orcs especially will be out to get you and they will not hesitate to flatten your head with a club. So why should you hesitate to cut off theirs?"

Gulping I respond, "Cause they're tall and I can't reach?" He clearly wasn't expecting that as a response, he chuckles before continuing.

"You need to learn basics, unfortunately basics is all your opponent needs to kill you as well." He takes a couple steps closer to me as his voice deepens, "Lesson one," I let out a startled scream as he swiftly brings the sword to the side of my neck, ", distancing. You need to make sure your opponent is where you want them. Being within their grasp is not only going to make it easy for them to kill you, but they may also decide to go for your weapon." I feel like I should be writing this down, but I'd just have to take it all in and write it down later. "Lift your sword." He commands me, taking a step backward. I do as he asks but with another swift motion he uses his sword to knock mine so hard it flies out of my hand, it's tip cutting into the grass beside me. "Lesson two, try not letting your sword fly out of your hand every time you do battle with someone."

It didn't take much but I could already tell this was not my day.