Book 2 Chapter 7: A Trick Test

Vero felt the dream fade and he sat up, only to realize it was night out. He looked over to see Filtiarn asleep on the bed in front of the door. There was something moving near the tassels and he peered at it and then reached out. The pile began to move and he noticed the small thin rope with something on the end sticking out of the pile. He kept quiet and grabbed the rope and with a quick action, severed it before quickly letting go of the end. Then he retrieved the part that was in the tassels. It looked like a spiny nut, known for catching fur. Vero gingerly set it away from the range of his tail. He didn’t need a repeat of that. Though he had to hand it to the would be thief. That was a pretty clever trick. It was a good thing that he and the Ulrika kept one on their waist at all times, but this could have been quite the haul if he hadn’t woken in time to notice it. He grabbed the tassels and clipped them to Filtiarn before waking him.

As the Ulrika awoke, he blinked a few times to clear his eyes. Vero let his ears flick several times asking if he was awake. Eventually, the Master’s ears flicked that he was. Vero pointed to the tassels and before Filtiarn could ask, he pointed over to the spiny nut. Filtiarn watched as he signaled that someone had tried to steal the pile with that and some string. Filtiarn nodded and grabbed his worn cloak before the two silently picked up and moved the bed from the door. Vero grabbed the spiny nut as well and they went out of the room. Vero picked up the scent of someone nearby and he signaled to Filtiarn with his tail to follow. The two made their way around back and heard scuffling as someone dashed away. Vero caught sight of the gray fur under the moonlight. A Yowlume. He dashed after and threw the spiny nut, satisfied that it had caught in the guy’s tail. He then signaled for Filtiarn to stop and the two watched the guy disappear behind some buildings. They returned to their room, a little more vigilant now, and waited for sunrise. They arose early and started their training, having divided the tassels out again. And waited for the head instructor to greet them. The others came out and the crowd that gathered was already eyeing each other’s tassels.

“Don’t worry, master. No one dares to steal on the day the head instructor comes. It’s bad form and you could get kicked down to level one,” Filtiarn said in his ear. Vero still remained vigilant. He wanted to see if he could spot that creative yowlume from last night. He also smacked a hand that was coming for his own tassels right before the head instructor appeared.

The first thing Vero noticed was he was human and the man didn’t speak. Instead he signaled with his fingers and several of the robed ones who stood behind him jumped over the people and landed next to certain individuals. Two landed next to them and then one signaled with their ears and the other cupped their hands to imitate the ear signals; instructing them to look at the head instructor.

Vero was surprised. He hadn’t known anyone else to use this language before let alone a human, and he looked at Filtiarn briefly before noticing the subdued prompt to obey. He then looked at the head instructor and felt the robed one assigned to him inspect the tassels.

Then they stopped, looked at the head instructor who signaled at them before grabbing Vero’s shoulder. He waited while they moved in line of sight and they began to instruct him to follow. He frowned and asked about his servant and the Yowlume looked surprised.

The ears and tail quickly moved in communication and Vero understood they were surprised at the level of communication and asked his name. He shook his head and asked about his servant. They answered that he was already selected, so not to worry. Vero nodded and flicked his ears, asking them to show the way. The head instructor seemed to sign to Vero’s guide and they responded with rapid flicking of the ears. Vero barely kept up, but they were giving a report of sorts. There seemed to be more signals than Vero knew so he had a hard time understanding. The instructor pointed beside himself and Vero noticed his guide flick his tail to signal Vero to come with him.

They came and Vero also noticed Filtiarn following with his human guide. Vero didn’t feel he could ask Filtiarn what do, and he tried to keep his eye on the Master as well as what was going on around him. Several others were gathered, but none were brought as close to the head instructor as Vero and Filtiarn.

The head instructor came over and held out his hand. Filtiarn came forward and unfastened all his tassels and handed them to him. Vero did the same. The instructor looked at them surprised.

“You do understand what this means,” he stated and Filtiarn nodded.

He looked at the tassels and then another human came over and began what Vero assumed was him counting them.

“How long have you two been on floor two?”

“Two weeks,” Vero said calmly. He noted the reaction of the head instructor. And the man snapped his fingers. His guide quickly brought a dagger to his throat and Vero noted that Filtiarn was also in that state.

“We’ve come for the impossible challenge,” Filtiarn said in the old tongue. The head Instructor quickly paid attention to Filtiarn and came up to him.

“And how do you know that language?” He asked. Filtiarn remained silent. But Vero noticed the subdued command to escape and capture the guide. Vero twitched and felt the knife get closer to his neck. He sighed. This must be another test. He closed his eyes and reached up to scratch his back. As he did so, he swiftly used his other hand to move the danger at his neck, while the hand at his back brought forth a hidden dagger and he pushed his ‘captor’ away. Filtiarn also did the same, but he had the head instructor targeted. Vero quickly kept the other human guide away from Filtiarn.

Vero expected reactions. Something. Mostly, the guides were startled and reacting, but the head instructor seemed calm, and if Vero’s glance told him anything; was he pleased? The head Instructor held his hand up and the guides stopped. Vero noted the murmuring of the crowd and onlookers quieted.

“Very well,” the head Instructor said as he signaled to the other robed ones. Vero noticed the supposed young one that Filtiarn had told him to observe when they first entered. The one who had counted the tassels handed them back to them and Filtiarn put his back on, with Vero following suite.

Filtiarn moved in close and whispered near Vero.

“Loose all but one tassel in the first round,” Filtiarn said. Vero wondered why, but at this point it was all according to Filtiarn's instruction. The new robed ones flicked their ears for them to follow and Vero realized that the others were being brought before the head instructor. He kept pace with the guides and watched for further instruction from Filtiarn… who had put on another wrapped bandage on his forearm. Vero wondered what that was all about. First an eye, now an arm.

He didn’t get to ponder on it for long as they were guided to a young forest with a cleared circular training platform in the center of it. He looked out at the trees and realized that no one from outside would be able to see in unless they were from a higher level. Around the edge of the arena was a strip of water.

As they came there, Filtiarn pulled out his sword and dipped the tip in the water. Vero was about to duplicate, but Filtiarn’s tail said to stop, so he didn’t copy the movement.

They entered the center of the arena and the youngest of the robed ones stepped forward. Vero noticed he still had that limp and he sighed. Would this be fair? Filtiarn walked forward first and Vero noticed that none of the other guides came forwards. Was this to be a one on one fight? He sat back content to watch and learn.

While the two began to exchange blows and contend with each other, Vero noticed a female Yowlume approach him. She stopped and faced the arena when she was a hairs breath away.

“You’re awfully confident,” she said and Vero ignored her. He was curious about the battle and he wasn’t too keen about her. She wore her robes in a way to accent her figure and the way she carried herself reminded him of too many of the ladies back home that had come after him and Filtiarn.

“Not the talkative type,” she pointed out. “By the way, what is your relation with that one? You’d have more tassels without him around,” she said and Vero wanted to laugh. If only she knew. He smirked and she noticed. Vero noticed her tail maneuver around them, towards where his tassels were.

“Something funny?” she asked and he pushed himself off as he slapped her tail away. It was obvious what she did. Even off the field they needed to be wary of the robed ones. They didn’t seem to have tassels for them to grab, so once he and the Ulrika were down to one each, this would become more interesting.

She eyed him with a amused and interested flash but then her expression turned hurt. Truly, the Yowlume here were superb at shifting their expressions to get you off guard. He walked away and got closer to where he could observe the battle.

Filtiarn struggled against his opponent. But Vero was able to see that he merely toyed with the Yowlume. He wondered if he would be able to put on a show in his fights. Perhaps when he could land an unexpected blow on Filtiarn. He sighed and noticed the other guides standing nearby.

There were seven in total that had weapons visibly on them, and another seven without. But Vero knew not to underestimate this place. It was no doubt the they were as loaded as Ylva usually was.

Filtiarn was just getting the Yowlume before him to yield when suddenly Vero felt the urge to duck. A dagger passed right over his head. He jumped back and saw two of the guides coming at him. He signaled to Filtiarn and met him on the arena as the other unarmed guides swarmed at them.

Filtiarn tapped him and Vero reached down for his tassels. Was this some signal about them, was that instruction earlier about this? He realized that Filtiarn had shifted his tassels while they were surrounded. Then he pulled out a throwing dagger and flicked his ears to tell Vero to protect him for a second.

Vero did as instructed and fended off the assailants and attacks. He warned Filtiarn as the guides changed to throwing daggers and the Ulrika stepped forward and Vero briefly caught the sight of the tassels tied to the ends of the Ulrika’s throwing daggers.

Filtiarn threw one at each of the guides and they ran to retrieve them. While they did that, the two charged at the closest attackers and forced them to submit before throwing more daggers. Vero felt it odd that despite the ploy being used before, these guides kept trying to retrieve the tassels. He would need to ask Filtiarn about this after the fight.

Finally the ‘weaponless’ guides were all taken out. The girl from earlier along with a Human stepped on the arena. She didn’t have her weapon drawn and Vero stepped back a step. Something about her was off.