The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 62

PART 12

Over the next ten months they engaged in simulated battles during about a quarter of their days and nights. The rest of the time, life went on as usual: Chores, learning, training, sports, games, music, dancing, crafting, fabricating, building, visiting, picnicking at scenic sites around the islands, hiking, climbing, boating, enjoying one another’s companionship and love.

Valentia developed another specialty beyond magic; Mark found her to be an exceptionally promising student of the Ranger’s skills and trade he had learned and practiced for most of his life. He taught regular classes in the trade that were attended by a few of the other children and citizens of the colony on an informal basis, letting the regularity of their attendance be decided by their interest. His young human cousins were among his most regular students, but only Valentia attended every session with him out in the forest, and the two of them often went out to the woods for more advanced study. He knew she was the only one of his students that showed the aptitude and interest to make a career of it, or even a second career.

His abilities as a Ranger that he’d learned at his father’s side were supplemented and dramatically improved by the use of magic, and Valentia invented as many new techniques in this area as he did. They also developed incredible stealth. Within six months, she was as good a Ranger as he’d been when he was invested as a professional, and knew most of what he’d learned of it before living among the elves. Psionic teaching methods and adding his Rangers skills to the Skills of Visinniria spell had sped things up considerably. Valentia then suggested they take instruction from Theramin, to learn the elven versions of the skills of caring for a forest as well as the magical horticultural aspects of it, so they worked four hours per week with Theramin into their schedules.

Ten months after the four children joined the community war games, which was six years and eight months after the time-bubble was cast, they spent their weekend secluded in an emplacement inside a mountain on the north coast of Hiliani, making plans. Valentia was five, the twins had recently turned six, and Karzog was nearing twenty-one.

After breakfast on Firstday Reggie, Helemia, and Valentia began packing provisions, readying their armaments, and donning their armor.

“Going somewhere?” Mark inquired as he and his wives prepared to go to Yazadril’s house.

“We’re going out to play with the Sylvan kids.” Helemia replied, and she and her siblings burst out laughing.

“I see.” Mark nodded with a smile. “I doubt you mean that you’re going on a play date with some adult Sylvan and their dependant children, so you must mean you’re going out to play with the ones that’ve already been thrown out of the house because they’ve become too dangerous for their parents to keep them around. The ones about fourteen to twenty-four years old, who are already serious warriors and wizards, who spend almost all their time killing one another in order to raise their status, reduce the competition, and avoid being killed themselves. Those kids?”

“The very ones.” Helemia giggled.

“And what exactly are you planning?” Talia inquired.

“We’re gonna conquer ‘em.” Helemia grinned. “It’ll be fun, and besides, only one in eleven of them lives to reach twenty-five, which is a huge waste of resources that we might need to help fight the demons. After we conquer all the crazy young ones and stop ‘em from killing each other, we’re gonna get all the adults together and teach them about the state of the world. They still don’t know about The Just Alliance, or that Zarkog doesn’t rule Serminak anymore, or about the gods ending the Withdrawal, or about the Triax, and most importantly, they don’t know that the demons are coming.”

“They deserve at least a chance to prepare to defend themselves against the demons, if it comes to that.” Reggie stated. “And they breed extremely quickly, faster than any other humanoid race. If we stop the kids from killing each other, there should be about a hundred thousand of them here when the time-bubble ends, and they could help a lot against the demons. If we can convince the adults to work with us, and we’re sure we can trust them, we’ll start training them with everything we know that they don’t. And of course, we’ll also learn everything they can do that we can’t yet.”

“I admire the noble, practical, and adventurous nature of your endeavor, but I can’t help questioning the wisdom of it.” Alilia stated. “There are a few thousand of them, you know.”