Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (21 page)

"Not
horrible. Don't ever drop your weapon, no matter how much pain you feel, but
running away is a good plan for a small person. Though I suppose you boys are
about to go into growth spurts?"

Guide
nodded at him, as if they were both people, not a commoner and a nobleman.

"Yes.
That's the plan, sir."

After
a bit he bobbed his head a bit and looked over at Karen.

"All
right. Meet here each morning. Earlier than this, since you aren't getting out
of classes or normal building work. Sir Derring, if you'd see to their
training? Tiera, you're with me. No shields. Remy!" That got a wave to the
being who was walking over anyway. "You get to take the loser. No shields,
staff weapons."

Then
the man proceeded to beat her in a way that he never had before. For the first
time Tiera really understood that she wasn't a fighter at all, or even learning
to be one. In that moment she was no more than a pell.

Something
for a
very
angry man to beat into submission.

It
was less than fun.

For
some reason she didn't understand, it was very clear that Kolb not only
understood that there were some new Ancients around, but that he blamed Tiera
for it happening. Worse, he knew she hadn't done it, and didn't seem to care
about that at all.

The
day before Remy had played with her, she realized, functionally killing her
three times. Kolb... Slaughtered her. Over and again. She had to leave her
healing amulet on the whole time and even that wasn't truly enough. She
realized that, if he kept going much longer, she was going to die, for real. In
the course of half an hour she had most of the major bones in her body broken,
half her face removed, literally, and many organs destroyed.

It
was so harsh that people didn't even pretend to practice after a while. They
just stood and stared. She was known to be decently tough and really strong,
but Sir Kolbrin was, right in front of them, killing her. He wasn't even really
taking any damage from it either.

Finally
she let her shield come on, not able to hold it off any longer. That just made
him mad. They'd worked together, as a group, to learn to fight with shields in
place. It had never
really
done a lot. Some joint locks worked, on
occasion, but that was about it, she thought. Now though she realized that
while she and Judy Kerry had been flopping around like fish, trying to hold
their Instructor down a bit had looked all right, it had just been playing
around.

Her
shield stopped working, and she lost consciousness, not even seeing what had
been done. When she woke up, a half bucket of water was busily being dumped on
her head.

Kolb
held it, but looked ready to continue then. He wasn't thankfully, which gave
her body a little time to try and catch up. She was actually losing weight, she
thought, the healing was taking so much from her, energy wise. She was suddenly
starving, on a level that she'd rarely felt, even with all the growth.

As
she sat there, gasping for air still, he spoke to everyone, loudly.

"You
need to get this through your heads now. We're in a war for the survival of
humanity
.
This isn't some tale where you'll win just because you're the hero. Things
won't just accidently turn out right in the end. Each of you needs to be ready,
and you simply aren't...
yet
. Yes, we have magic and that is making all
the difference. Without that, all of us, except possibly Remy here, would
already be long dead. These new students have the right idea and can see the
use of learning to fight, but that needs to be a signal to us all. We can no
longer live like children, playing our school games. From this point on, we have
to live and breathe
war
, or we will all simply perish." He looked
at the new kids who'd mainly been standing around, probably wondering if
quitting would work still and waved at them.

"You
builders need to become far better. Work smarter and do more, with less energy.
You... homemaking girl..." He seemed nearly at a loss when he looked at
Sheri, but
bowed
, probably to buy himself time to think of something. He
held it so long that everyone else finally did the same thing, as if honoring
her. When he stood he smiled a bit. "I can't help but notice that you're
the only one from your section to be here. That's truly impressive."

After
a bit he waved to Remy, who took a nice solid fifteen minute turn killing her
too. It was really close when she finally flew away, trying to live for real.

Kolb
laughed.

"Fine,
this time. From now on we're doing that once a week. Get with Count Lairdgren
and arrange for implanted devices for everyone. That, or do it yourself. In
fact, builders, work that out with the man. Don't count on Tiera for it. You
have three weeks."

Tiera
shook her head, which hurt in so many places she had to stop. Her words sounded
like mush still, but it had to be said. It only took three tries though.

"Ten
days. Sooner is better, an attack is coming." She didn't give specifics,
but Kolb waved to her, as if saying that it was true. It probably didn't matter
to him though, did it? Not as long as the work was done.

She
wanted nothing more than to sleep then. It was pervasive and her eyes tried to
close on their own, over and over again. It wasn't her plan for the day, but
she left then, even though it was very early in the day, and went to bed. If
Kolb wanted to have a problem with her missing the remainder of class, he could
yell at her later for it. Later. One way or the other, she was sleeping, even
as her body cried out for food. She found a few mouthfuls of dried fruit and
meat left and devoured them as she laid on her student's bed, her feet almost
dangling off the end.

Then,
with a bit of jerky still in her teeth, she went out. The world went black, and
as far as she could tell, nothing changed around her at all, until nine hours
later, when Sheri showed up with a basket of food. Tiera didn't even talk. She
just sat up and ate, not caring if she didn't seem sane. When that was done she
drank all the water in the room and laid back down.

She
woke in the night, with Karen snoring in her own bed, and managed to work for
two hours on her new project, but it was all she could do. Her body made her
sleep again after that. In the morning, late, for her, Karen already gone for
the day, she forced herself up, and went searching for food. It was still
breakfast time, so she hit the dining room and made a real pig of herself, not
even brushing her teeth first. No one stared at her though, but she still felt
mainly dead.

She
kept that up for the rest of the day, not going to classes at all, just eating
and sleeping. She did keep her build going, working whenever she had a chance
to. Sheri and Ali came each day, bringing more food. It wasn't until the fourth
day of this cycle that they really got a chance to talk to her though.

It
was Ali that spoke, talking to her like she thought something was horribly
wrong.

"Tiera?
I... We know that Baron Kolbrin was mean to you, but you need to go to classes.
Even if you drop his, you should leave the room more. And bathe. You're
starting to get a bit ripe." It was worried sounding, but also a joke.
After a fashion. It was true too.

Except
for one thing.

She
wasn't depressed. Just tired.

"That
isn't it." She yawned, but managed to stand up anyway. "Oh, sorry.
Kolb almost killed me and Remy did too. I mean, as in I
really
almost
died. I was pushed right to that edge, even healing the whole time. It's just a
thing, but it's taking my body a bit to recover, that's all. I'm not
trying
to dodge out on my work, I just couldn't help it. I do feel better now, I
think. I'll go and get a shower. I promise." She made her voice go cute,
like a little girl, but it didn't work that well, since it was deeper now than
it used to be. Not manly, which given her size had to have been something Tor
had added in for her.

Standing
she grabbed her gear and went to the bathing area, with the other two right
behind her, as if they weren't sure she hadn't been lying to them. It took a
while to get really clean, but she did feel a lot better, the water and rest
helping a lot. So, even though it was pretty late, she managed to get to her meditation
class in time.

That
went remarkably well. She'd figured that her eyes would keep closing on their
own, but she managed it all right. Doris did wave her over at the end, even as
everyone else walked out, looking at her with the corner of their eyes, as if
she didn't get it.

The
white haired and old looking woman regarded her head on, but without judgment.
A good part of that had to do with the deep trance she lived in all the time.
It was what Tiera tried to do, but it really wasn't the same thing yet.

"I
noticed you missed several classes. Is everything well?" The tone was so
soft and peaceful that Tiera redoubled her efforts to stay as deeply as
possible, speaking or not.

"Kolb
and Remy Two nearly killed me, in practice. It took several days of sleep to
recover. I feel better now and will request that next time they only do a
quarter of the damage, so that I can make all my classes. I'll also attempt to
do a better job holding a deep state as I live, to help make up the time I
missed. I'd give my off days to you in repayment for that time, but I can't. I
have to work." It was all true, even if she did sound very flat.

Lifeless.

Doris
just nodded a few times.

"That
would be wise. I'll see you then, in a few days."

There
was a seated half bow, and a gestured toward the door. It was a slow and gentle
thing that the white lady made as if it were perfectly natural, and not an
affectation at all. For her it might be. She was thousands of years old, so had
some practice in.

Tiera
went back to her room and did more work on her build, which seemed to be
growing pretty well, as far as she could tell. It felt almost like it was
ready, which was fast work. Perhaps it hadn't been as hard as she thought it
would? That, or the way she'd done it was just that efficient.

She
rested more, awakening when Sam Builder and Guide came in with Karen. It was
pretty clear they weren't there for extra combat practice or anything. She
waved a bit and then rolled over, trying to sleep. When she woke up however
there was a warm presence at her back. Spooning her. She was, she decided, all
right with all the people that had been there earlier doing that, and she still
had her night clothes on, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Resting well, she
didn't get up until it was nearly light out.

That
meant she nearly yelled when she realized that the person behind her wasn't
anyone
she knew at all. Or, well, if she was honest she knew that he was familiar in
some
way. He had blonde hair, and seemed like she should know him, even though she just
didn't. They certainly weren't people that would sleep in the same bed without
talking about it. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that the boy, who was
still asleep, was grinding against her, and clearly hadn't finished yet.

That...
What was she supposed to do? If she stopped him, that had to be fair, and not
her being a Doretta, didn't it? Her rolling over and hitting him in the side of
the neck decided that for her, since it made him scream and wake up a bit.

Across
from her, in the other bed, another person was sleeping. It took a bit for her
to make out who it was, since the boy was skittering from her bed in terror.
She made herself go back to a calm state and focus, and worked out that it was
Sara Debri. They weren't close friends, but she liked the woman well enough.
Looking at the boy, who was a few years older than she was, Tiera noticed as he
fell over Karen, who was asleep on the floor, cuddling Sam to her. They both
would have been stomped if not for the magic of shields.

There
was a bit more yelling suddenly, some of it panicked, as Sara jumped up and
started hitting the man that had invaded her bed. He had, on the floor, a
bedroll made up, so at least tucking him in with her hadn't seemed to be the
actual
plan. He'd probably done it in his sleep.

That,
or he'd been trying to molest her on purpose, which would have his head in a
box.

Only,
she knew, that
wasn't
going to happen. Instead she'd just let Remy beat
him for a bit. That worked pretty well and was already established as training
there. No one could say much against it after all, with that being the case.

"Um,
not to be a bitch, but since you were just trying to have sex with me, maybe we
should exchange names? I'm Tiera?" She nearly threw in the Countess Baker
part, but left it out, since so far the young man actually seemed decently
freaked out by what had happened. It was part of why she'd said have sex with,
instead of rape. So far this was annoying, but that was all.

The
boy bowed, and stared at the bedroll accusingly.

"I
went to sleep on the floor, I promise! I wasn't trying to do anything
yet!"

She
blinked a bit, and then sighed.

"Yet?
So you admit you were going to later?"

The
boy suddenly calmed and smiled in a way that was a lot more flirtatious than it
had been. "Well, yes, of course. You're very pretty. In fact, we could do
that now, if you want? I'm already up after all." He wasn't shy about
looking down at the bulge in his pants either. He would have gotten more out,
except that Sam stood up and punched the man so hard he ended up sitting on the
bare wood floor of the small space.

Tiera
looked at the shocked face on both boys and nodded to her new hero.

"Thank
you Sam. Now, again; hello, stranger I don't know, I'm Tiera!" It came out
decently bright and cheery, so she stood and hugged Sara, since,
clearly
,
she was getting up already. Not that it was all
that
early. The girl who
was tiny in her arms now, swallowed hard and hugged her back warmly. Enough so
that Timon would have been jealous even.

"Sorry
Tiera. That," she let a delicate finger range out, accusingly. "Is my
younger brother, Kurt. If it was any
normal
boy I'd suggest you cut him
some slack, even with what he was doing. It's
him
though, so prison time
seems like a plan? My little brother is a well known pervert. I can't defend
him. Not
won't
, I actually have no basis on which to even try."