Chapter 3 - Arbell's Realization

Grayford’s snowfield - Second day after finding Arbell

It was early in the morning when the small group packed up their stuffs before getting back on the road. Displaying years of rigorous training, in less than a few minutes everything was done and everyone ready to go.

Maya was already seated in the carriage soon joined by Arbell who wasn’t accustomed to the early waking. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she greeted her companion.

"Hello Arbell. Quite difficult to wake up this early, right ? Unfortunately that’s a needed thing when being part of the military."

"Don’t know if I’ll ever be used to this. How can you even keep that straight attitude ? You woke up not even 30 minutes ago and everyone is already on the road."

"It’s all about training." Replied a far-away Fey.

"Remember Arbell, I told you I’d teach you about herbs. Well there’s a lot of stuff related to herbs so I guess it could only be an introduction for now. Anyway I was going to tidy up my knapsack and the medical trunk. Want to see ?"

This inquiry had the advantage of completely eliminating the sloppiness in Arbell’s eyes. "That would be a great idea!"

Maya got a dozens of bottles out of her knapsack. Some symbols were written in the etiquettes and few were suspiciously coloured. In the bottom of the bag lied small stacks of of well-preserved herbs, they weren’t annotate so it must have took someone knowledgeable to make sense of it.

It’s just when the gaze of Arbell went back to the bottle that she finally understood. It wasn’t some symbols… it was the name of the liquid. And she couldn’t read it. It was absolutely not a language she had known in her previous world nor it was something she could make sense of.

"This… What does it mean ?" said Arbell pointing at the first etiquette she could see.

"Oh. It makes sense after all, it’s written in Enberly," replied Maya "It’s the official language of Enberfelt. I wouldn’t worry too much about it though, not a lot of people know how to read. It’s the least of the worry for commonners doing manual labour same could be said for the soldiers. Only Fredrick and I learned."

Being able to speak freely with this world inhabitants didn’t push Arbell to question her reading proficiency. In her previous life she was totally dependent on it : she read books, reports, apps on her phone, whatever was displayed on her computer, in fact almost everything required to read. But here ? She didn't know. Up to now she didn't got anything to read save for those bottles.

"Say... Maya... How reading could be useful here ?"

"What do you mean ?"

"If one was able to read, what could he read ?"

"Oh. Only a small number of things actually. Reading 'God's Testimony' and all the military reports are the most common use of reading proficiency. Then you've a few more niche usage, like bottle etiquettes or recipes."

"God's Testimony ?"

"Yeah, the Church Precepts... More or less." She lowered her voice "I should avoid saying this, but as an herbalist and doctor, I'm not too much on the side of the Church and their miracle..."

A dark look displayed on Maya, while she clenched her teeth "Miracle... Miracle has yet to save -" She didn't finished her sentence, maybe thinking about whatever or not she could share this. After an internal struggle, she changed the subject. 

"Let's not." To close the subject Maya took Arbell’s hand and put a bottle in her palm. Her visage regained the lost colors and her warmful smile came back "So here’s some Tomoka’s juice ! Tomoka’s leaf are known for their painkiller properties making it one of the most important stuff to know as an herbalist."

While explaining, she took out a bundle of leaf from the knapsack with quite the curious form.

"I’ll show you how you can obtain juice. Just wait a second."

Digging in the trunk she didn’t take long to find what she was searching for : a kind of small bowl. "This is made to be heat resistant. Put a little bit of water and then a half-dozens of leaves. Once done you place the whole thing on a fire and let it boil ! That’s not really a ‘juice’ but the water gets infused and consequently gets the painkiller properties."

That’s an infusion immediately thoughts Arbell. The most difficult part is to know which leaf, plant or fruit to use.

Maya put another bottle in Arbell’s hands. "Moonberries jam." she simply said. Examining the contents of the bottle, Arbell was taken by the beautiful glowing red jam akin of her newly discovered red hair. "They are a great source of energy and vitamines."

After a short pause, she kept going "That’s the two most important confections you need to know as an herbalist. Ingredients are not hard to found either, just make sure to not make a mistake when foraging. It can prove to be fatal..."

"For the jam, don’t you need sugar to make it ?" asked Arbell. Maya’s eyes twinkled "Oh so you know this already ! That’s true, you need sugar. Fortunately we have a lot of plants in Enberfelt that allows us to produce sugar in necessary quantities."

"That true ? I’d very much like to see this !"

"You'll have to visit my workshop then… Let’s put the bottles back in the knapsack for now. We’ll resume tomorrow, the night will be soon there." Then Maya dropped her voice and with a shy look said : "I could also teach you how to read etiquettes."

But suddenly, Albert who was dragging the carriage suddenly stopped his track.

"No good. Beasts ahead. Two."

It didn't take seconds for Fredrick to shout out his orders : "Everyone take your position now. Maya and Arbell, out of the carriage get behind Regulus."

But the soldiers didn’t need those instructions to be where they needed to be, ready to face the incoming menace. Everyone unsheathed their weapon at once, it was the same kind of dull sword, absolutely basic not too short nor long. Their wasn’t even a need to describe them for how plain they looked. Arbell’s gaze went to the one person next to her : Regulus. He was the only one with a different weapon and a whole different one at that… He was wielding an… hammer. If the swords were plain, the hammer was something else : quite enchanting, like it had that special something to it.

Wait… I didn’t even thought about it but maybe magic is possible here ?! A world of sword and magic ! Well sword, hammer and magic it seems... I can't wait to see them spewing fireball or even icicle from their swords... Waiiiiit, maybe they'll chant ? Oh !!

But once the beasts were close enough, Arbell - surprised by what stood before her - shouted "Bears ?!"

"A be—are—z... ? What is it ?" replied Regulus.

"The beasts in front of us !"

Fredrick explained : "In Enberfelt we call that a Raourg, they are not a big threat but we need to be vigilant. Their claws are strong enough to deliver a deadly wound."

There's damn bears - or beasts whatever - in front of us and he his calm enough to explain something ?!

The beasts had stopped for a while, gauging their opponents before charging at once on the vanguard composed of Fey, Albert and Claire. The soldiers were ready and probably anticipated such violent charge. Near its target, the first Raourg raised his leg before striking at Fey with his claws, mightly.

*CLUNG*

The sound of the metal meeting claws could be heard. Fey successfully parried the assault without any trouble, before making the Raourg losing its balance by projecting his leg. At the same time Albert rushed in to slash the other front leg. It was now Claire’s turn to finish the job, dealing a deadly slash to the disoriented beast. Now defeated, the Raourg dropped dead.

Meanwhile the second one was stopped by Fredrick himself. The claws didn't meet his sword but his shield instead. It was sturdy enough to completly offset the shock. The commandant responded to this attack with a violent yet precise slash. As it wasn't enough to finish off his opponent, he added a jump with another slash which pretty much settled the score.

It was fast ! They must be skilled, they didn't even break a sweat. Though, there was no fireball or icicle... So magic doesn’t exist after all… Maybe i did read too much fairytales…

Just thinking that, her right hand glowed. A fairy then appeared in her sight. She was so taken aback that her gaze merely followed its path. She thought it was an illusion, a dream, something out of place, maybe a recollection of her past… Until it disappeared, leaving faint orange glow in the air… and a beast charging at them in the horizon.

She shouted at whoever could hear it "Be careful !" while pointing towards the dangerous form.

Without second thought, Regulus charged at the Raourg firmly gripping his hammer in his right hand. You could think that fighting on the snow could impair their movements, or at least make them more warry of their footworks to avoid a deadly slid. But none of this happened, they were not even sparing an extra second on where they would step, it struck as simple as walking on an even ground.

Just as Arbell saw Regulus setting forth on his quest to vanquish the Raourg, she understood. They weren't just kind to her because she was injured and probably chased by Grayford. They weren't just giving her information and a sort of freedom because they were kind-hearted. They just knew. Knew they were skilled enough to end her life at any moment. It was just how the Second Recknoning Squad were powerful. 

As to mock her previous blissful ignorance, she witnessed Regulus getting in range of the beast. Quickly - in a fraction of seconds - he stretched his arm gripping the hammer, and sent it flying on the Raroug, delivering an amazing blow.

Now, Arbell clearly wasn’t that knowledgeable about weapons, save for hammers. She knew the most basic knowledge that everyone was aware of, including that a hammer could send off someone or something a few meters away, provided the target wasn’t that heavy. In that case the Raourg could very well weight as much as a bear - if not more. So with all that basic knowledge, Arbell knew that it wasn’t possible to send that kind of beast kilometres away in a single blow… it couldn’t possibly happen … right ?