Their time passed slowly, but they were making progress towards the North-East now. Bas had long ago explained this change in direction by both how undead not being relegated to the South would make more chaos and that more war graves were around there. The Empire was to the East of Malamut, but they had used the Carta River that ran from the North-East to attack. The swamps were only further into the South once the waterways kept splitting.
Raising the dead had gone well once again, but now Hazel was out of chalk. He and Bas went to the town to get more.
Tam and Orion weren’t interested in getting up and stayed at their camp. However, having already been woken up, both women soon got up and were ready for the day anyway.
There was a comfortable conversation between the two as the morning went on. Orion and Sirius were playing fetch with some bones. The bounty hunter found it quite funny to see Sirius’ bounding after fake prey with such excitement. Meanwhile, Tam was brushing down her steed. She seemed to have had the gray horse for a while, or maybe just really liked horses.
The topic of conversation was weaponry. Orion had enough experience after being a bounty hunter that she had faced a random assortment of weapons. A bounty had even tried using a chair to attack her one time. Tam really only knew about types of swords, bows, and some polearms from a personal standpoint; her knowledge of other weapons was purely theoretical and historical.
This led to the suggestion of an actual spar, which both agreed to.
The ground was a little bit muddy from the rain. Malamut always had much rainfall in Spring, even Summer. It was rare for their crops to die from overheating and the Summer weather meant good yields. The same applied to the neighboring country of Ahan, where they had far more plains to grow their food. Most plains were mixed with swamps in Malamut.
Orion immediately thought of ice and felt the cold magic settle into her hands.
Tam frowned. “You shouldn’t use your ice swords.”
“Why?”
Tam withdrew her blade and pointed to the runes that seemed to lie under some sort of transparent layer. “This is an anti-magic sword made by Norel the Strong.”
“Aren’t those stupidly expensive?”
“I was given it as a birthday present by a friend.”
“They must be a rich swordsman.”
“Not exactly.” Tam shook her head. “Do you have any other weapons?”
“Not really.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait for a proper sword fight.”
“We could use our fists?” Orion glanced at the knight as she suggested it. She was already pulling out gloves that had been knitted for her by Tam. Hand to hand wasn’t her best and she had a habit of splitting her knuckles open.
Tam considered it for a moment. She nodded and sheathed her sword, then unbuckled it and put the sword with her pack.
The two women backed away a bit and started maintaining distance as they moved in a circular direction. Basic rules of decency were decided. They sized each other up pretty quickly. They were about the same height. Tam had more muscle.
Sirius accepted rather quickly that it wasn’t a proper fight. She laid down and watched calmly.
The two women sparred for a few rounds then took a break. The water from their canteens was a bit cold.
Tam sat down by Orion.
Orion kept her eyes on her canteen. “Why are you with us?” Her tone was not harsh, or unkind.
“I’m from Alita. I was orphaned because of the war for the throne. I wanted to be a knight, even after the first knight I was assigned to. . .” Tam trailed off. She didn’t want to complete that sentence and so she did not. “I chose to become an escort knight because my friend needed someone he could trust to have his back.”
Orion had been thinking of Tam as a normal servant of Bas for a while before noticing that the two were somehow proper friends; they had faith in each other’s abilities. Orion shook her canteen a bit, watching the water splash around. “Whatever happened to you, did it happen in Winter or?”
“Sometimes when it’s snowing, I remember.”
Orion glanced at Tam’s expression and was quiet for a while. “I’m sorry,” was all she could find to say.
“I ended up meeting some great people afterwards because of that however, like Kern and Cornelia. They’re apprentices of Norel the Strong. Kern is a bit quiet, but he’s kind. He has a nice smile as well. Cornelia has been friends with Bas since childhood. Long curly hair. She’s very chaotic.”
Orion was pretty sure that this was the most she had ever heard Tam talk about herself personally.
Sirius wandered over and pressed her snout into Orion’s hands. Orion pulled off her gloves and petted her companion.
Tam cautiously reached her hand out and touched Sirius. When there wasn’t any negative reaction, she happily scratched Sirius’ head.
The three of them stayed like that until Bas and Hazel came back. They brought some pastries back and shared them with the rest of their party.
It wasn’t long until Tam requested, “Bas, let her borrow your short sword.”
“Sure.” Bas passed it over and then went to feed some fruit to the horses.
“No magic?” Tam suggested.
“Fine.” Orion took Bas’ sword and lunged forward boldly. Her range was less and she needed to close the distance. She parried Tam’s strike and backed up a bit. The lack of an additional sword was a bit hard to adjust to. She couldn’t block with one sword and then strike with the other. It was familiar and frustrating. There was a reason she had changed to fight with two blades.
Tam pressed forward. She adjusted her grip and struck out with the flat of her blade.
Orion stepped to the side to avoid it, used her free hand to off-balance her opponent, and swung. Her sword connected with Tam’s side.
Tam didn’t slow down from the failure of her previous attack nor stumble; she turned neatly on her feet and pushed the longsword forward.
Orion leaned back, but the sword tip was still just at her throat. She let the short sword in her hands tip down.
Hazel clapped his hands politely. “I noticed it before with the undead, but that’s an interesting style.”
Orion looked down at the short sword in her hands. “My mother taught me.” It had been half-hearted teaching once her older sister was successful at fencing on an international stage. She had not cared about that at the time. She did now.
It was strange to think about how much she missed from that life.
A/N
10/5 Posting
A bit more Orion and Tam content. It’s Tam’s turn to have some time.
I may take some time to write some extra chapters that would be inserted after chapter 20, so that may lead to delay in uploading. We’ll have to see.
