The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (8 page)

Gavin laughed even harder.

“I do much better in hand to hand, or using daggers. Something I can get in close and do some damage. I do ok with a bow and arrow though. I could try to give you some pointers,” said Maya.

Justin, meanwhile, was looking at her finger. He said a few words and the cut disappeared.

“It’ll still be sore, but at least you won’t rip it open again.”

“Thank you,” said Lucy.

“Show me your arm.”

Lucy rolled up her tunic and showed him her forearm. It was ugly, red, and purple, but she hadn’t ripped open the skin. Gavin stopped laughing. It was not funny that she was hurt, but he looked perplexed that she managed to hurt herself that badly with a bowstring. Justin mumbled a few words, and the bruise started to turn the ugly yellow color of healing.

“They do have leather thongs you can strap to your arm,” suggested Gavin. “Ask Tannin for one Thursday.”

“I might do that. Thanks,” she directed the thanks at Justin. Her arm looked normal again. “You’re good at that.”

“I’ve developed a talent for healing small injuries,” he said with a smile.

“Can you teach me?”

“You’ll learn soon enough,” said Justin with a laugh. “It’s not fair rushing ahead. Besides, you never know what you will miss if you do.”

That made sense to Lucy. It was only her second day. She did not want to reach beyond her limits. She just thought it might be a useful skill to learn if she continued to be this inept with weapons.

“Are we allowed to practice magic on each other?” asked Lucy as an afterthought.

“Sure,” said Gavin. “Practice is encouraged at all times. You learn through experience. See,” he pointed to a book that floated across the Dining Hall.

“The only thing that is not allowed is harming another student,” added Maya. “Intentionally that is. Accidents happen and sometimes people try things they are not ready for. They usually learn their lesson and a professor sets things straight.”

Lucy’s inner clock warned her that it was time to go to her next lesson. They wished her luck with the horses and she made her way to the stables. When she reached the stables she found eight horses already saddled. The stable master greeted them.

“Good afternoon, my name is Gareth. This is your first class, and I like to get my students on horses as soon as possible. You will learn all about horse care. A normal class will include saddling your horse, riding, unsaddling, and a brush down. That said; let’s not waste any more time. Please select a horse.”

Teachers sure seemed to like to jump into their classes. Lucy liked it but at the same time it was kind of a sink or swim approach. Perhaps they knew that some students were nervous and putting off the inevitable didn’t make it any less frightening.

Lucy walked up to a beautiful dappled gray. She was nervous, and she was sure that wasn’t going to make the horse any more comfortable with her. Then she remembered the moonstones and thought it couldn’t hurt to try. Lucy brushed her hand softly over the horse’s nose and thought as hard as she could.

“Hello, my name is Lucy. I have never ridden a horse before. I’ll try my best to do things right and I hope you will be patient with me.” Lucy almost laughed at herself. She suddenly felt silly for trying to talk to a horse with her mind. Then, softly at first but growing louder with every word, there came a response.

“
Hello Lucy, call me Ash.”

Lucy assumed this was all normal.

“
Any suggestions on how to mount?”
she asked
.

“
Put your foot in the stirrup, grab the saddle horn with one hand, my neck with the other, and vault on. I promise to stay still while you do this.”

“
Thank you.”

Lucy did as she was told and found herself successfully atop Ash. Darren was already mounted and smiled at her. Grant and Chloe made it up without much fuss. Philip managed to mount his horse on his fifth try and sat there looking terrified. Gareth mounted his horse and instructed them to follow.

He led them around the paddock at a walk, then a little faster. Lucy loved riding. It felt right and it was fun. Gareth took them out on a trail. Between her natural ability and mental instructions from Ash, Lucy had a wonderful time.

“
Lucy, you need to grip with your thighs, not your whole leg.”

“
Oh, thanks,”

“
Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“
Yes.”

The trail was long and winding so they mostly walked. As time drifted by, the class became more comfortable with their horses. Once they were back in the paddock, Gareth took them through some drills. He had set up cones for them to weave through. Lucy watched some of the others have problems with this.

“
Ash? Why are they having trouble?”

“
Their horses are trying to go one way, but the people are telling them to go the other way and not very successfully I might add.”

“
I assume you can handle cones. I’ll hang on, you weave through, deal?”

“
Deal.”

“
Are you going to go left or right first?”

“
Right, I think.”

So they did. Lucy let Ash have her head and they went through beautifully.

“
Well, done,”
congratulated Lucy.

“
Of course,”
replied Ash.
“Any horse can weave through cones.”

Every time they went through, Ash moved faster until they were weaving through the cones at a gallop. Lucy laughed. She was having so much fun. She never knew riding a horse could feel so freeing and exhilarating. Gareth seemed impressed.

“You know,” said Darren pulling up beside her, “If the only thing you can’t do is shoot an arrow, I might have to be jealous.”

Lucy laughed, and Ash ran through the cones again.

When the class was done Lucy dismounted, thanked Ash for a wonderful first class, and stumbled out of the stables. It felt odd to walk after sitting on a horse for so long. Also, she could feel how tired her inner thigh muscles were. She was going to be sore tonight. At the edge of the paddock, on the way to the school, she met up with Justin.

“You ride well. Looks like you are a natural at something else,” said Justin.

“You watched?”

“Some, I got out of class early and knew you would be here.”

“Well, admittedly, I only deserve some of the credit. Ash did all the work.”

“Ash?” asked Justin quickly, suddenly very interested.

“Yes, the horse I was riding.”

“Ok,” replied Justin, trying to figure out a way to nonchalantly find out more information without giving any himself. “How did she do most of the work?”

“I introduced myself, just like with the moonstones and she instructed me on what to do. We had a deal. She would run through the cones and I did my best not to fall off.”

“I’m glad you two had a lovely chat.”

“Oh, we did. I can’t wait until next class. Do all the horses talk?”

“Yes and no,” replied Justin carefully. “All animals talk; not all people listen. Nor are they always able to communicate.”

“You can talk to them, can’t you?” asked Lucy.

“Yes, I have talent in that area. In fact, where I work is with the magical creatures. That’s where I picked up the talent.”

“Can I come to work with you sometime? I’m curious to see what other animals I can talk to.”

“Sure,” said Justin slightly surprised, but pleased. “Just remember that not everyone can talk to animals. Don’t expect that others do.” He didn’t want her to know how rare it was that she could talk so well with her mind so early, or even that she could do so at all. It might hamper her growing abilities to know what was usual and not. “By the way, where are we going?”

“Oh, there’s some time before dinner, and I’m disgusting. I’m going to take a quick shower before dinner,” replied Lucy. She reeked of sweat, horse, and dirt.

“Ok, I’ll meet you in the Dining Hall.” Justin turned and walked the other direction. He paused, turned around, and came back. “It might be better if you didn’t tell other people you can talk to horses, even Maya and Gavin.”

“Ok,” agreed Lucy, even though she thought it was odd. Why did it matter if people knew?

Justin could see that she was going to need more than that, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem to be catching on quickly. The more you seem to be able to do, the more people will expect of you. Also, the more surprised people will be if you are unable to do something.”

“Like shoot a bow?”

“Like shoot a bow,” Justin agreed. “That could end up being a lot of pressure on you, and it is only your second day of classes.”

“True.” That line of reasoning made sense. “I’ll keep it a secret for now, but I’ll still keep talking to horses if that’s ok. It’ll make my riding class easier.”

“By all means keep talking to horses. I’m not telling you to ignore a gift. Please practice it. I’m just advising you not to shout about what you can do.”

By this time they had reached Lucy’s room. She smiled to Justin and entered.

Justin walked down the hallway thinking hard. Lucy was showing more and more promise by the day. It had taken him weeks of concentrating to talk before he had gotten a response from a lemur. Sometimes, even if animals heard you, they did not trust you enough to answer back. Sometimes, when they answered back, you were not listening hard enough to hear them. It had taken him a year to master the skill. At present he had not found an animal he could not talk to. Lucy, out of fear of failure, had called out to a horse, and it had responded. As far as Justin was aware, he and Nerek (the Creature’s teacher) were the only people here who could do it. He knew other people here could talk mind to mind, but people to animal was rare. Justin was highly intrigued by Lucy.

He was quiet and pensive until dinner. Then, he returned to his charming self. To the best of his knowledge, the happy, tired, and freshly bathed Lucy had not noticed his odd behavior. At least, he hoped not. He was waiting for her to try mind reading some time and end up successful at it. He decided that in some cases, it was better that she should find out accidentally that she could do some things. Thinking she should be able to do certain things, trying too hard, and failing at first could become discouraging. He definitely did not want Lucy discouraged.

Lucy plopped into her chair at dinner and told Gavin and Maya how much she had loved her riding class. Maya was happy for her.

“See, I told you it would go ok. I admit, I’m a little jealous. Like I said earlier, I still don’t ride well. We should go riding together some Saturday, and you can share with me the secrets of instant success,” teased Maya.

“Riding would be fun sometime, but I can’t share with you something if I don’t know how I do it,” replied Lucy. She was glad she could say something completely true without revealing she had talked with Ash.

“Sorry Maya, she can’t ride this Saturday, I’m going to try to teach her how to use a bow without injuring herself,” said Gavin with smile.

“I think it might be a lost cause,” teased Lucy. “Are you sure you are up to the challenge?”

“I still can’t believe it went that poorly.”

“Believe it,” Lucy assured him.

“If you change your mind, let me know.”

“Ok.”

Gavin amused the group by telling them the events of his potions class. He liked classes that had simple instructions he could follow. He had trouble with some magic, and he wasn’t attuned to the subtlety that potions could involve, but he could handle the basics. He was amused by how wrong things could go when someone was incapable of following simple instructions. A girl in his class, he didn’t name names to protect her, managed to add twice the required amount of Potamogeton crispus. Normally it could be used to bring down inflammation in the legs, but, with these other ingredients and adding too much, it had a reverse effect. Her potion started spewing blue smoke and anything it touched began to swell. It took Nicodemus a good ten minutes to get the class under control and put everyone right. Lucy smiled at the story. She felt bad for the girl, but it sounded like amusing things like this happened often, and since no one was hurt, it was ok to laugh a little.

Maya took a last bite of cookie and stood up. “I’m going to a lounge to study. Coming?”

“I’m going to grab one more dinner roll, then I’ll be there,” said Gavin picking up his stack of books.

“I’ll just grab my books from my room and meet you there. Someone want to quiz me on magical water plants of Kinowenn?” asked Justin.

“No problem, but only if you return the favor and quiz me on verb tenses,” Maya glanced at Lucy.

“I do have some reading to do, but I’m tired and sore. I think I’ll get in my pajamas, cuddle into bed, read, and then call it an early night.”

“Sounds like a good idea. Tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Lucy got up and walked to her room.

It was one of the few times Lucy had walked around the place without Justin walking with her. She found she kind of missed him. Once in her room she did put on her pajamas and crawl into bed with
Spells for Everyone
. It was a highly interesting book and Lucy had fun flipping the pages with her mind. Lucy reached the end of her assignment, closed the book and stretched. She was going to be sore tomorrow. She snuggled under her blankets, thanked her moonstones, and fell asleep.

Lucy woke up the next morning and groaned as she climbed out of bed. She had learned one thing. Tuesdays and Thursdays were going to be hard on her body. She ate breakfast and went to Intro to Other Worlds.

Kara jumped right into lectures about other worlds, asking them to keep all her previously asked questions in mind. Lucy was an attentive student and excited to learn. She settled back on her cushion. However, Lucy quickly learned that not every world was to her liking, and it would be difficult to hang on Kara’s every word for worlds that held no interest for her. Today they were studying Crieterinan. This turned out to be a highly violent culture. They flourished on war, bloodshed, and harsh sentences for minor crimes. Move over Hammurabi. It sounded like the women were just as bad as the men. Lucy had no desire to go there. Besides the fact that she would not enjoy it, she was sure she would get herself killed before sunset. After deciding that she would rather go anywhere else, Lucy tuned out the rest of the lecture. She was thinking about Ash and looking forward to her next riding lesson.