Lyght paused, laughing a bit at himself, “Damn… I’m not very good at all this sentimental stuff, but I mean it, I really do. Believe me – I will succeed. We will succeed.”
He paused, considering. In fact…
“I guarantee it.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Prepare for docking! All hands to landing positions, we’re a couple minutes away now, men”, Admiral Cerr yelled out in that booming voice of his, hands crossed behind his back, straight military posture ever in place. The mates scrambled away to do as bid, leaving their various games of cards and dice behind them as they headed off to prepare the ship for docking.
Lyght stood leaning against the gunwale, arms folded, high sea breeze whipping through his dark hair. He knew that the wind often picked up as you pulled off the sea highway, since coastal weather patterns reached the sea near the coast. Lyght also knew from his younger childhood that the weather was much more unforgiving the further north you went. Of course, they were pulling into port at the southern end of the Pride domain, but the air was somewhat crisp and cool – as it was liable to get in autumn. It still felt pretty cold to Lyght. He scolded himself; I must have been living in Kona for far too long if this feels cold to me now.
The ship they arrived on was a military vessel, which had been moored in port at the Southern tip of the Beauty domain (as there was no military base in Hope) by order of the King, for the express purpose of picking up Lyght, Mikael, and their Legend companion and bringing them up to the small military resource base of Gauld on the east coast of the Pride domain. They had trekked across Kona on foot to reach the ship, and were looking at another, much longer trek across Pride this time. They would, however, have horses for this one, the Legend had said. He had said little else. Lyght and Mikael had had to guess for themselves why they’d needed to travel on a military vessel. Maybe it was standard procedure for escorting Legion Academy prospects to Glory, but somehow Lyght didn’t think so. The whole thing seemed odd to Lyght, but then again, a lot seemed odd about their mysterious companion.
Apparently his name was Lyn, but that was all the Legend had really told them, however. Who he was, where he was from, what he liked and didn’t like, and anything otherwise about himself he had kept totally secret from Lyght and Mikael. It was pretty frustrating, especially considering that Lyght felt they were sacrificing a lot to come with him. The man was such an enigma, and Lyght felt like he was owed an explanation.
It was nothing doing so far, however. As Lyght stood out on the deck examining the nearing shoreline, he caught motion out of the corner of his eye – Mikael coming up the stairs from below deck. Mikael saw Lyght turn his head and push off the gunwale, waving him over. Mikael walked up, shaking his head “Nothing. He wouldn’t talk. You know how he is, he just… I don’t know, you don’t think it’s us, do you?”
“No, I don’t think so”, said Lyght looking at the stairwell descending below deck where the Legend had requested his own private living quarters. Of course, to one of his status, this had been granted. “I think he’s just naturally quiet. I would say I can relate, but really, I think he’s on a different level.” Lyght shook his head, “Though you’ve got a point, I would think he has it out for us too if I didn’t know better. Thing is, why would he have volunteered to come meet us himself and bring us back if he didn’t like us”?
Mikael snorted, “Easy, he didn’t like us once he met us. Too damn annoying for a ‘grown adult’ to deal with.” Mikael said this with a hint of sarcasm, smiling, but there was a hint of truth in it. Even if he didn’t really have anything against Lyght and Mikael specifically, the Legend named Lyn had a bizarre tendency to act like a very old, very solemn man. They’d first begun to notice it on the trek north to the ship, and even more since coming aboard. And it was all very strange, because the Legend had seemed receptive enough towards them when they’d been in Kona. Now, he was solemn and guarded when he did speak, which wasn’t often.
This by itself wouldn’t be so weird, if he didn’t look to be in his mid-twenties, in the prime of his life. How did someone so young attain such a vaunted position in the Legion, to the point where he would be in charge of teaching the next generation? Surely, they would want someone older and wiser to fill the role, right? Maybe Lyn acted wise beyond his years to compensate for his youth. Somehow, however, Lyght didn’t think so.
So, Mikael and Lyght had been trying to talk to him one-on-one, to learn more about their soon-to-be teacher. This was turning up nothing of value, however. Lyght just sighed and looked towards the shoreline again; distinct buildings were visible now. It had been so long since he had been to Pride. Lyght had never anticipated that he would return in the fashion he now did, in the company of a real, live Legend. Not only that, but that he would be on his way to the famous capital city Glory, to undergo his own special training at the Legion Academy, would’ve seemed unreal to him at any point in the past. He had always dreamed of, and simultaneously dismissed, the possibility of something like this happening to him. It still felt surreal. He wondered how long the feeling would last.
“I guess we’ll have him alone to ourselves the whole ride from Gauld to Glory”, Lyght pointed out. “If we can’t get him to open up a bit during an entire week of riding, we will just have to accept that we never will. We’ll get him talking though – I’m sure of it. I mean… he’s a teacher, right? He can’t be as antisocial as he seems.”
“Yeah”, Mikael agreed, nodding to Admiral Cerr as he walked by, yelling at a pair of his men for loitering around. “And if we don’t learn what we want from him, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of our questions answered in Glory. I mean, this is the capital city of the entire Kingdom, North and South! I haven’t been there either, as you know, but I can’t help but think that it’s the place to be for Dreamcasters.”
“And anyway”, Mikael continued, walking forward to fold his arms across the gunwale and examine the upcoming port, “we’ll be filled in on all we need to know when we’re inducted into the Legion, right?” Lyght hesitated, but nodded. He was sure Mikael wanted to keep talking – he always did – but they were pulling up to the port as they spoke. Admiral Cerr walked up behind them (how had he gotten there that fast?) and said he’d need their help docking too, incompetent as his men were. Lyght just smiled and played along – he knew that Admiral Cerr just hated to see men aboard, even guests, not working.
As they pulled inside the port, Lyght jumped over the gunwale and landed on the wide wooden-planked dock below, as Mikael did the same on the other side. Motioning that he was in position and ready, Lyght reached out and caught the looped end of the rope thrown over the edge of the vessel by one of Cerr’s men. Catching it and looping it through his right arm in one motion, he ran with the thick rope past the ship to the very tip of the dock, and looped it down carefully over the five-foot iron peg bolted into the wood. Mikael had obviously done the same on the other side, for the ship stopped its forward progress are the ropes snapped taut, and by this time Lyght and Mikael were tying ropes down at the front of the vessel, docking it fully and bringing it to a stop, bobbing up and down in the deep blue water.
Planks were lowered and Admiral Cerr’s men began to climb down onto the docks, heading past Lyght and Mikael waiting below – presumably heading for the supplies needed to restock the vessel for its return voyage. As Lyght was heading around toward the landing ahead to meet up with Mikael, he saw a flash of deep blue out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Lyn jumping powerfully off the military ship – ignoring the planks altogether – a massive silhouette against the bright late morning sunlight. Oddly, considering his powerful twenty yard leap and fall, he landed in front of them with barely a sound. Without glancing at either Mikael or Lyght on either side of him, he just began to stroll towards the base.
Glancing at Mikael, Lyght just shook his head with a slight smile. Typical. With no other indication from the hulking Legend, Lyght and Mikael simply began to follow him towards the
small military base, trailing a few feet behind him. As they came upon the base, Lyght saw limited activity save for their own crew walking around tending to their tasks. He supposed the morning fishing crews hadn’t returned yet. The necessity of small military resource bases like these was based on the principle that the King had a large standing military to feed – and it was a clear principle of his to not take resources from his people for this purpose. This was one of the reasons people generally loved his leadership; Lyght had to admit that for his all his flaws, the King seemed to put people first. However, he had noticed deviation from this policy by the King whenever it became too inconvenient for him. He didn’t like to voice that aloud though, people tended to get really offended in Kona if you criticized the King. The way they saw it, he was the “Hero” who’d created the Dreamscape over a thousand years ago. Lyght couldn’t see how that was possible, but he had to admit that if this was true, he wanted to know more about the much talked-about, though highly enigmatic King of the Dreamscape.
What did the King do that made him into the “Hero” we know today? It’s said he defeated humanity’s “enemies” when he created the Dreamscape… what enemies?
And though there was a great sense of nationalism about joining the military, Lyght just couldn’t see what the fighting force was for. As long as he had been alive, and as long as anyone’s memory went, there had been no wars or fighting in the Dreamscape. Sure, there was crime – worse in some places than others – but Lyght couldn’t see why a large standing military would help with that.
Regardless, small fishing bases like these fed the army, so they persisted in many places throughout the Dreamscape. Lyn was using this one now to obtain supplies and horses for their trip west across Pride, to the capital city in the north central area of the domain.
As they walked, Lyght noticed a short man in his thirties – clad in the white uniform with the spiraling orange flame over his heart, the official military standard – call out to Lyn and motion the Legend over. The soldier was standing with three massive warhorses, top-military grade animals complete with light armor even, along with packs of food and supplies leaned against a building next to them. Though the three beasts looked more than capable of breaking free of the man’s grip on their reins, they were calm as their three soon-to-be-riders strolled up.
Lyn nodded to the soldier, who seemed unsurprised to see a real Legend walking up to him. He must have been one of the “cleared” high-ranking military officers who were permitted to interact with Legends. This was one of the few things Lyn had told Lyght and Mikael on the trip here. Lyn and the officer exchanged a few quick words before Lyn thanked him for his effort, dismissing him to his regular duties. Apparently, and unsurprisingly, Legends outranked and could command any member of the regular standing military.
Lyn swung up on a massive black warhorse – which wasn’t far considering his size – with a practiced, fluid motion, indicating for Lyght and Mikael to do the same. Lyght slung his pack over his shoulder, and used the stirrup to jump up into the saddle and settle himself in. He tried to orient himself – it felt weird to be so high off the ground. Although he had ridden horses before with his father – which was when they could afford them, so not often – he had never rode one of these giant warhorses for any distance. One thing was for sure, once he got used to it, it felt pretty good to be sitting up at this height. Though not short himself, Lyght always looked up to Mikael in height. In was good to sit pretty much eye-to-eye with his two traveling companions.
Lyght glanced over at Lyn, giving him the thumbs up to show he was ready. The Legend kicked his heels lightly into the horse’s side, sending it into a trot out of the base. Lyght and Mikael followed in a similar fashion, a few paces behind the massive Legend. Even after being with him for the entire journey over, it still struck Lyght that they were in the presence of a real, actual live Legend. The Legion wasn’t even really supposed to exist; he had always half-thought them to be a group from the past that achieved mythological status, a group that had never really faded from the collective psyche. In this, and apparently many other assumptions he had previously held, he had been proven wrong.
They quickly left the base behind, heading out into the rolling hills and lush, open forest that made up the eastern coastal strip of the Pride domain. Soon enough, they would emerge from the wetter coastal environment to the drier, sunny grasslands that made up most of Pride. Lyght glanced up at the sky, now overcast. Rain could pop up any time in this part of the domain, he knew that all too well from his early-life travels with his father. More than once their tents got flooded in these hills. Apparently their luck was about to be as bad now, Lyght felt and driving wind and could just make out the fringes of a storm system appearing on the horizon. The storm looked… odd though. Somehow… toxic looking. That didn’t really make any sense; but whatever it was, Lyght didn’t like the look of it.
Squinting at the horizon as he was, Lyght originally missed Mikael trying to discreetly get his attention. When a motion caught the corner of his eye, Lyght looked over and saw Mikael raise his eyebrows and tilt his head at Lyn, as if to say, ‘Should we do it?’ Lyght paused thoughtfully. They hadn’t been riding long. Mikael always did have penchant for jumping the gun early in important situations. Lyght had hoped to save this conversation for later, but considering the oncoming storm, they might as well start now while they had a chance. He nodded at Mikael, giving him the go-ahead.
Mikael took the initiative, of course. Quickening his horse a few steps to draw even with Lyn, Mikael glanced at the Legend sideways. When no comment was forthcoming from the armored juggernaut, Mikael just smiled and said conversationally with a note of irony, “Sooooo… Where are you from?”, like he was being introduced to somebody new by a mutual friend. Lyght had to stifle a laugh. It was just like Mikael to talk to a superior like that – like they were really an equal. Lyght guessed that Mikael didn’t really view anyone as his “superior.” Maybe that was why he could be so blunt, yet confident in his communication.
“Now see, if I told you, I would have to kill you.” Lyn said suddenly, turning to meet Mikael’s eyes. There was a moment of shocked silence. Lyght was sure Mikael was thinking the same thing he was; did we just hear a joke from this guy? Him?
Lyn just shook his head and chuckled quietly, the first time he had shown amusement either. Lyght was astounded by the sudden change in demeanor. “I’m kidding of course, but if I did tell you, which I don’t care to, really, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
“Now”, Lyn continued on, unprompted, “I’m aware that you two are going to try to use this extended period of time with me, when I can’t get away or avoid you, to question me further about any number of things. So, I figure I might as well get this over with and tell everything that I plan on telling you, just so we’re clear what can be discussed at this point and what can’t.” Lyght and Mikael nodded at this. It was honestly more than Lyght had expected.
Lyn paused thoughtfully for a moment, then unclasped his Legion cape and looked back and forth between Lyght and Mikael, as if making a snap judgment. He threw the cape to Mikael, saying, “Real quick, put that on.”
As he caught the flowing, deep blue cloak, Lyght could see that even Mikael was somewhat shocked by being suddenly asked to don a sacred piece of the famed and revered Legion uniform. Lyn just nodded, urging him onward, and Mikael took off his trademark white cloak, exchanging it for the cape. He turned, admiring himself in the outfit, then looking back at Lyn frowning, wondering what this was about. Despite himself, Lyght felt a pang of jealousy.
“I gave you that”, Lyn explained, “to demonstrate the reality of what it is to enroll at the Legion Academy. There are only two of you here, so you aren’t necessarily the best example. The actual acceptance rate of the Legion is somewhere between one-fifth and one-fourth of those studying at the Academy, depending on the year. This number is the amount of people who are able to hang in the program until the end – not an
easy feat itself –then pass the final test, which I promise you is very, very difficult.”
“What you need to understand”, Lyn said, eyes on the darkening sky, “is that, in all probability, at least one of you won’t make the final cut. It’s fairly likely neither of you will. Oh, don’t worry”, Lyn said, looking down at them, “we still find uses in the capital for those who don’t make the Legion. But let me make one thing abundantly clear…”
“Unless you quit the program early on or drop out, you won’t be going home to live in Kona again. Not permanently, at least. You will go where you’re commanded while on assignment for the King, with two weeks of leave every year if you are not in The Legion. Legends, you see, never take a break. We have a crucial mission to fulfill. Again, I can’t fill you in on that until the time when, or if, you become initiated into the Legion. This is all I can tell you at the moment, but I wanted to make this clear so you know what you’re getting into.”
Lyght looked over at Mikael, and was somewhat surprised to see his friend didn’t look all that concerned. He shrugged, and said “We knew what we were getting into, Lyght. We never really thought we were going to return to Kona permanently, did we?”
It was something of a surprise to have the question put to him so bluntly, but after a moment of thought Lyght shook his head. He had always known, in a sense, that once he decided to go out on this limb, he could never go back. And despite that, he had chosen it anyway. He had to feel confident in that decision; and he did. Or at least, for now he was. He hoped that wouldn’t change if he met adversity. That was one thing he could be sure was coming. No, he hadn’t made the easy choice, but he’d made the right one, he hoped.
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