(I want to thank you for the warm reception of Chapter 1 of this new series, and I want to thank those that sent me personal messages. You know who you are. It has indeed a long year, and sometimes the only way to escape is into the imagination, whether it be our own or into a really good story. As an aspiring storyteller, I have written several stories and shared them here on Literotica, but none have been as well received as this one. This has really...affected me because I am always afflicted with stories playing in my head, and my mission since I started publishing them here has always been to grow as a storyteller. No in quantity but in quality. So, with that said, I hope I can do this story justice, and that you will love it as much as I do. -Pinkender)
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Chapter 02- The Guardian
I moped around for the rest of the week, wishing Silvain would hate school so much that she would come running back home to me. I never stopped missing her, but as the days progressed steadily, other things began taking more and more of my attention away from focusing on my loss. One such thing was my father, Summerset Vale, who began by getting me up early one morning, "Come on son, it's time for you to learn your place as the Lord's heir to this farm."
Though mother and father had the habit of calling the Valeland the farm, in reality father owned several million acres, or a county in the northwest of whatever continent we were on in this new world. There were about fifty thousand Alfar and two hundred and fifty thousand Animal families, and the Valeland was considered a small Lordship. There was only one city, Valeheim, and it was centrally located in the county. It is also where all the Alfar lived while the Animals lived throughout the countryside in small villages called Kottrheims.
As soon as Summerset closed the door I rolled out of bed with Bastet right behind me. She was, of course, eager to accompany me as my shadow while I in turn shadowed my father all day as he went about the business of running the Valeland. As part of my schooling he taught me economics, management and politics while mama taught literature, history, and theology. Once I turned twelve, she also started testing me for any aptitude for magic. Then when I turned fifteen mother and father handed me over to Andra and Leandra for self-defense and weapons training.
It was strange at first because I had only ever seen Andra as the household butler, but the reality was that he was the Master-at-Arms among the Animals while Leandra, Andra's daughter, was fathers Magistrate.
Leading me through the training yard, he led me to the armory and once inside, he took me to a room where there was every conceivable weapon stored in boxes or in wracks, "Master Viridian," He said in a commanding voice, "From this day forward I will be training you harder than I would any of my enlisted men. I will train you so hard that if and when the day should arrive that you need to utilize my training, you will defeat your enemies and most importantly survive."
"Yes sir," I answered.
"Good," He said with a nod, "Then today I want you to pull out every weapon in this room. Swing it around. Test them out on a few of the dummies. I want you to find the weapons that feel right in your hands, and here's a safety tip; keep the sharp pointy end pointed away from your body. I'd hate to come back and find that you've killed yourself in some ridiculous manner."
"Yes sir," I answered again.
He gave me a curt nod and then he left to attend to other business. Walking around the room I started with the long knives. I remembered reading so many fantasy books about heavy armored knights with swords and shields, knife wielding rogues and damsels, and dual-wielding rangers, and as I put myself in my imaginary heroes' shoes I tried a variety of different weapons, but nothing felt right. I even picked out two scimitars and pretended I was my favorite goodly Drow for about thirty minutes, but even those didn't feel right.
Turning in a full circle, scanning the entire room again for something that would resonate with my spirit. In a far corner, on top of a box near the armor, I spied a pair of gauntlets. Walking over, I looked at them closer. They were steel coated with silver and decorated with gold filigree, very much in the Alfar style. These gauntlets weren't the standard armor, no, these were reinforced and padded down the forearms to the elbows. The was a plate to protect the back of the hand with serrated knuckles like claws for breaking bone, and ripping and tearing.
With shaking hands I started buckling them on. I was having a difficult time when Leandra suddenly appeared at my shoulder, "Would you like me to help?" She purred in a husky voice.
I jumped nearly out of my skin from fright, then as my heart slowed to a more normal pace, I answered, "Yes please."
Leandra smirked as I turned to her, and as I held out my arms with my palms turned up it was interesting to watch her much bigger hands deftly work the belts and buckles, and tighten the gauntlets until they felt like they were a part of my arm.
"You want to make sure you get them good and tight before you use them," Leandra said in almost a whisper, "Otherwise they will shift and expose you to attacks, you could bruise or break your arms, or worse."
"Um...thank you," I answered.
"These gauntlets are not the weapon," She continued as she cinched the final buckle and then turned my hands over so that she ran her fingers across my armored forearms. Then she pointed her finger and poked me in the chest, "You are the weapon. To use these properly you will have to train your entire body in the martial fighting techniques. Hone your skills until you are the blade that cuts down your enemies. Otherwise you will most likely only get yourself killed."
"I...understand," I answered, accepting that I was going to need to learn martial arts. I had always wanted to learn Karate, Kung fu, or Judo in my previous life, but never got around to it, and then eventually lost interest.
"You will have to train hard," Leandra reiterated.
"I will, I promise," I answered.
"Okay," She purred with an almost sinister smile, "It turns out my father will not be training you now..."
Turning away from me she walked across the room and took off a wide belt she'd been wearing as part of the tack of her station, and then she found a pair of gauntlets and began strapping them on. It was while she was putting on a leather Gi that she looked towards the door and yelled, "If you are going to hide and watch Bastet; you might as well come in and learn how to protect your Lord."
My eyes opened wider in surprise, though I shouldn't have been, she was always shadowing me. I turned to look at the door, and sure enough, a second later Bastet stepped into the room. She came over to me and dug around in the box my gauntlets had been lying on. When she found a pair, Leandra helped her put them on before she found two more Gi and told us to put them on. Once we were ready she lined us up behind her and began slowly teaching us the first forms of her martial arts.
