Merek's Ascendance (9 page)

             
Finally, knowing the Trainer was watching him, he let the arrow fly.

             
It crossed the space in barely a second, but it didn’t have enough speed and hit the ground a few feet before hitting the target.

             
Merek lowered his shoulders, a little saddened.

             
“Not a bad first shot,” John said, keep trying. “No one gets it right on the first shot.”

             
Merek nodded, slightly reassured, and took aim. This time he pulled the string further back before letting the arrow loose again.

             
It still didn’t hit the target, but that was because it sailed over it and smashed into the wall behind it.

             
“Ha ha!” John laughed, and Milly joined him. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been the one to teach you! You shoot like me!”

             
“Yeah, maybe you should have let the actual archer teach him,” Milly said.

             
“Yeah, like that sullen bum would have taught him anything. He just would have shrugged and ignored him, like he does all of us.”

             
John’s voice had dropped when he said this, and even Merek only just heard him.

             
“Sorry?” Merek said when neither one spoke further, “who?”

             
“Guy at the end,” Milly said, gesturing her head to someone who was hitting the target dead on every time. He was dressed in a simple shirt and trousers, and his long black hair matched Merek’s in terms of length. But the upkeep of the other man’s was more apparent. Nothing was more obvious, however, than the look of absolute sadness on the man’s face.

             
“He looks… very sad,” Merek observed. Milly nodded.

             
“He won’t talk to anyone. He’s been like that for a few months now, keeping to himself and saying nothing. We can’t even get him to explain why he’s so sad. He just is.”

             
“Can still peg a target from fifty yards, though.”

             
“Yeah, there is that.”

             
“Too much talk over there, not enough arrows!” the Trainer shouted, and Merek felt what he strongly suspected was a small rock bounce off of his butt.

             
“Does he always throw rocks at people?” Merek asked as he lodged another arrow and fired it. This one actually hit the wood, if only just.

             
“He tends to clean up the courtyard while we practice,” Milly said, “that way he can be doing something too. Or so he says.”

             
“Personally,” John interjected, “I just think he likes throwing rocks at us.”

             
As if for emphasis, another rock sailed past Merek and hit John on the arm.

             
“See?”

             
Merek laughed before drawing back another arrow and letting it fly.

             
He lost track of how long they practiced, but by the time it was over his shoulder was sore from pulling the string back so many times. Little did he know, his workout was just beginning.

             
“Next up, the obstacle course!” the Trainer yelled, leading them to the ropes and the wall.

             
“Oh come, Trainer!” John yelled, “Give us a minute!”

             
“Perhaps you’re not ready to be a knight,” the Trainer replied, “if you tire so quickly in training, I’d hate to see how quickly you’d tire on the battlefield.”

             
John said nothing else, only shrugging his response.

             
“Fine,” he eventually managed to say, “then I’m going first!”

             
He hopped up to a wooden platform that overlooked the ropes. Merek found he had grossly underestimated the scope of the course. While he had only seen the ropes and the wall, there was practically a maze of obstacles behind it. There were beams that crisscrossed with each other, as well as wooden posts that were grouped together.

             
Merek found he didn’t have the first clue what to expect, and that unnerved him slightly.

             
“Alright then loudmouth, you get to be first,” the Trainer said, “and as congratulations for volunteering, you get to take the high road.”

             
“Me and my big mouth,” John said, and his customary smile faded for the first time, a serious expression replacing it.

             
Merek’s concern only increased.

             
“GO!”

             
Merek jumped as the Trainer shouted, and John was in motion. Without hesitating, he jumped into the rope pit and tried to walk to the other side, falling every other step.

             
“What’s the point of that?”

             
“It’s supposed to keep us light on our feet, and help develop our focus on staying upright on uneven ground. The higher path is for balance and coordination. The lower path is for reflexes and durability.”

             
“Supposed to?”

             
“Yeah… it’s really difficult.”

             
“So I see,” Merek remarked, watching John fall over himself in an effort to get to the handles ten or so feet above the ground. A pool of mud was under it, assumedly to break the fall if anyone slipped. Merek rather doubted that was its only function, however.

             
John made it to the handles hanging from two beams, and started to cross using only the handles as handholds. Silently impressed, Merek watched as John grabbed handle after handle. But even as Merek watched, he saw that John was nearly panting with the effort of crossing. The man was already tired.

             
Merek stretched his sore arm, making sure it was ready when it was his turn.

             
John made it to the wall, and started to slowly climb it. Merek was less than impressed with John’s progress with this challenge; he seemed to grab handholds after taking several calming breaths.

             
If Merek didn’t know any better, he’d say John looked… scared.

             
“Is John… afraid?” Merek whispered to Milly. She only nodded, her face screwed up with concern.

             
“John’s always been afraid of heights,” she replied, “but the Trainer says he needs to conquer that fear. I agree, but seeing him… it kind of makes you worry.”

             
Merek nodded, sharing the feeling. If John fell, that was certainly going to hurt. While there seemed to be a bed or mattress of some kind at the bottom of the wall, falling was still a very unwelcome option.

             
But John made it to the top of the wall without needing it, though when he got there he refused to open his eyes, instead feeling for the way down.

             
“Open your eyes!” the Trainer shouted, though not unkindly. “You’ll never conquer yourself if you always hide from what you fear!”

             
Merek looked at the Trainer, wondering just how correct the man was. After all, he had hidden just fine from what he had been afraid of.

             
John opened his eyes, visibly steeling himself for what was to come. When he saw how high he was, he didn’t close his eyes, but Merek was sure it was a near thing.

             
“You can do it, John,” Merek whispered, nodding to spur the man on. He didn’t know if John saw him, but he seemed to move a bit quicker, seemed to be a bit surer of himself than he had a moment before.

             
“Alright new guy,” the Trainer said, gesturing to the platform, “Let’s see what you can do.”

             
Merek nodded, stepping up to the platform.

             
“You take the high road, too. You’ll know it when you see it.”

             
Merek nodded again, and tensed in preparation.

             
“GO!”

             
He exploded off of the platform, not stepping down but taking the rope net in a big leap. His momentum only carried him about halfway, but he was expecting that. He was also expecting the rope to give out under him, and drop him to the ground.

             
So when he hit the ropes, he rolled. This was no different than crossing streams that had a downward hill on the other side of them. While he would have preferred to have his staff with him, he could make do without it.

             
Because of his head start, Merek crossed the rope net in half of the time John did. The handles, however, presented a more unique challenge. While he had pulled himself through trees by swinging branch to branch, this was far different. He had nothing to plant his feet on, so he was dependent on his arm strength.

             
He still managed, if only just. When he landed at the foot of the wall, his arms stung with pain, but he pushed it away.

             
The wall should actually be fun.

             
He scaled it in no time. This was no different than the sheer cliffs he had (stupidly) climbed during his exile. Easier, actually, because the handholds jutted out and he didn’t have to blindly hunt for them.

             
He was over the wall and down the other side within two minutes, and he had hardly broken a sweat.

             
Then things got very tricky.

             
There were two beams in front of him, one higher than the other but both too narrow for anything more than one foot at a time.

             
“The high road, I assume,” Merek said as he sized up his next challenge. Each beam led to a different set of challenges based on which beam he took.

             
Shrugging, Merek stepped on the high beam. The moment his foot made contact it shook, nearly throwing him off-balance.

             
“Of course, that would be too easy.”

             
Merek stepped quickly but lightly, trying not to shake the beam more than was necessary. He almost fell three times crossing the ten foot long log, but he managed to stay upright – if only just.

             
Then the real challenge began.

             
He was faced with another rope net, this one leading skywards towards another platform. Assuming he was supposed to climb it, Merek jumped to the net without preamble.

             
His momentum promptly flipped it over so he was staring at the sky.

             
Oops.

             
It took more than a little work, but he was able to use his body to flip the net back over, and he climbed more carefully now.

             
When he finally reached the top he was sweating and trying his best not to look it.

             
In front of him there were beams that crossed at different paths, some leading to dead ends and others leading to other paths. Only one led him to where he needed to be.

             
And of course, they all moved.

             
Merek was about to start when he noticed he had caught up to John. Despite the fact that there was a net under them, John still seemed almost paralyzed with fear. He was halfway across the challenge, but his legs weren’t moving and he was actually shaking so much Merek was worried he was going to fall.

             
“You alright, John?” Merek called.

             
“Uh… Yeah, ‘course,” John replied, trying his best to smile and failing. “Just taking a second to take in the scenery, you know.”

             
“If you say so. Looks more to me that you’re stalling, my friend.”

             
“Yeah, maybe a little bit of that too.”

             
“Heights really aren’t your favorite thing, huh?”

             
“Nope. I like my feet on the ground, thank you very much.”

             
“Well, the sooner you press through this, the sooner you’ll be back on the ground.”

             
“Unless I fall. If you fall, Trainer makes you do the course over. Until we get it right.”

             
“Then we’d best do it right on the first try, huh?”

             
John actually laughed, looking back at Merek for the first time. “Yeah, I guess so.”