Trial and Error
Written by Script and Grothnor
Written by Script and Grothnor
Earlier in the week, shortly after departing...
Rin, as he had discovered in the hour leading up to the group's departure, hated riding. It was as though from the moment he laid eyes on her, his mount - a mare by the name of Piper - had been able tell how nervous he was, and that in turn made her nervous, which made him even more nervous. It had gradually (and repeatedly) turned into a vicious cycle that usually ended in one of the more experienced riders having to intervene to make sure he didn't fall off. It was embarrassing, to say the least.
It wasn't that he didn't like animals. On the contrary, he liked them a lot, as long as they weren't the kind that had too many teeth. But he'd never ridden before, and there was a significant difference between being fond of horses from the ground, and entrusting his neck to one from the saddle.
And so, it was hardly unexpected when, as they were riding along, one of Piper's equal-parts disobedient and confused moments of straying led him to bump her against one of his companions: Kerat.
"A-ah..." Rin went wide eyed, hurriedly pulling on the reins to direct the mare back to walking straight as best he could while inwardly praying that the orc didn't pluck him from her back and turn him inside out, or something equally dire (and unrealistic). "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean- this is the first time I've ridden ... Ah, s-sorry."
Kerat grimaced, "Grown fucking man and he doesn't know how to ride...." He grumbled audibly. "Hells, what's with all the Gods-damned fresh meat here?" The orc turned his scarred face in Rin's direction, suggesting he wanted an answer.
"I'm- I'm from the city," Rin muttered defensively. "There's n-never been much cause for me to learn, till now." The young mage withered slightly under Kerat's gaze, looking away and down at his horse. "And I may not be much use on my own, but my- my summons are m-more than capable of making up for it."
"Magic, huh? You ever kill anyone with yer magic?"
Rin frowned. "I ... once. Although arguably..." He sighed, shaking his head. "Cinder - ah, that's my fire elemental - killed one of the witch hunters that was pursuing me when I fled Liveria. I didn't even really see it happen. So I- I suppose it was technically my magic, but..."
"Liveria, huh? Hmm." Kerat looked away and nodded thoughtfully. "I guess you're not completely fresh then," he said. "Who knows, you might even be useful." He shrugged non-noncommittally.
"... I suppose stranger things have happened," Rin replied after a moment, the slightest touch of defensiveness to his tone.
Kerat scratched his beard for a moment before snorting in amusement. "Like joining a thousand year old princess to tell the Gods to fuck off?"
There was a pause, before Rin's face cracked a faint smile. "Yes, like that. It, ah, does sound absurd when you put it into those words." He chuckled nervously, turning to glance at the Princess. "So, ah, why did you? J-join her, that is."
"Why does a mercenary do anything?"
The mage raised an eyebrow. "M-money? You're- you're taking on the gods for money?" He stared at the orc with bemusement. "Well, I suppose that at least speaks of your confidence."
"Well, fighting's the one thing I know and I know it like the back of my hand." Kerat wore a pleased expression. "How long have you been doing magic?"
Rin took a few moments to consider, thinking back to the days when he'd first begun dabbling with books he hadn't been supposed to. "A little over ten years, I think," he replied, smiling faintly. "Less than that s-since I started summoning. I think it was, ah, eight years ago that I first performed a summoning ritual successfully. Before that, there were... er, mishaps. Minor mishaps. Th-thankfully relatively easily fixable mishaps." He coughed. "I, ah, put a lot of safeguards in place. Just in case."
"Yeah, I've been fighting for longer than that. Didn't have anybody teaching me either, just learned from my mistakes."
"We have that in common, then," Rin replied, smiling faintly. "Trial and error, where there was a lot of room for error. I suppose it's a good thing neither of us made too dramatic a mistake, at any point."
"Mmm..." Kerat agreed, getting lost in thought comparing the similarities between magic and fighting
Rin let his eyes linger on Kerat for a few moments more, before determining that the conversation was over and turning his focus back to not falling off of his mount.
Alleviating Doubts
"You just need to relax," Rin looked up from his intense focus on guiding his horse’s steps as someone addressed him from close by. As he did, Cináed was drawing his horse alongside him like it was the easiest thing in the world, laying a gentle and comforting hand onto Piper's flank. The reaction was immediate, as she settled into a far more comfortable walk than the unsettled, zig-zagging path she'd been taking under Rin's lead. "There you go, girl. It's alright."
"How are you doing that?" Rin stared at the blonde boy with an incredulous frown.
Cináed smiled, laughing lightly. "Ah, I suppose it's not entirely fair. Animals tend to be more at ease around me... Thanks to my heritage, I imagine."
"Right..." Rin looked down and away from the angelic teen, biting his lip. "W-well, thanks, I guess. But relaxing is- it's easier said than done. I've never done this before, you know."
"If you trust Piper, she'll trust you," Cináed said. "Horses are very empathetic creatures. They can tell if their rider doesn't feel confident, and that makes them uneasy."
"...y-yeah, right. I know. I'm just ah, not very good at that." He flashed a nervous smile. "I'll get the hang of it eventually ... probably."
"Well, how about we talk while we ride, so you aren't so focused on worrying about it?" Cináed offered. "We've not had a chance to talk all that much yet. Sound good?"
Rin hesitated, eyeing Piper warily. He wasn't sure he wanted to take his focus off of her in order to engage in conversation, but he did want to get to know his new companions, and Cináed was definitely one of the more approachable of them. Besides, if he did screw up, the other boy could do his angel-touched thing, and calm her down. After a moment, he looked up, tentatively nodding. "Ah, sure. That would be n-nice, I think."
"Great!" Cináed beamed with an almost disconcerting level of enthusiasm. "So, whereabouts are you from?"
"Liveria," Rin answered after a moment. "The city. Ah..." That didn't seem like much an answer. "I used to live and work around the Great Library."
"The Library? Oh, wow. That must have been wonderful, having so many books at your fingertips." Sighing wistfully, Cináed gazed off at the horizon. "I had to make do with whatever books we could get from the traders who passed through town. Some of them started to bring them along just for us, since not many of the other villagers were particularly well read." He chuckled at the thought. "I'm from a little village in Renalta, called Elor. Nothing so impressive as Liveria itself, but, well, I like it there."
Rin nodded with a faint smile. "It sounds nice. I- I suppose it was good, having all those books. B-but I didn't... I didn't see a lot of other people, really. It would have been nice to- to be somewhere more friendly, like a village."
Cináed turned to look at him with a sympathetic frown, that quickly morphed into a smile again. "Well, hey, you get to see a lot of other people now, right?" He gestured around at the group broadly with a sweep of one arm.
"Ah, yes, I suppose." Rin gave their companions an uncertain glance over. Some of them seemed like the sorts of people he wouldn't want to disturb. "Wh-what sort of books, did you read?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation away from a direction that might lead to him having to try and make idle chit-chat with a templar.
"Oh, all sorts," Cináed answered, grinning. "But my favourites were the histories, and the legends. All the stories about Renalta before it fell." His eyes wandered over to where Kouri was riding a short ways ahead of them. "So this has kind of been like meeting one of my favourite book characters in the flesh, you know?"
Rin laughed, then caught himself a moment later, cutting himself off to avoid seeming like he was mocking the other boy. "Ah, no- I mean, yes. I understand what you mean. I've read about the princess, before, as well. Probably more, er, dry and academic texts, I suppose. But to a similar effect.” A pause, as he recalled Cináed’s display of obeisance the previous day. “You ah, hold her in very high regard.”
The other youth gave a slightly sheepish smile, nodding his head. “Well, she’s the princess of my homeland, and soon to be Queen! It’s only right. She doesn’t seem to appreciate all the bowing and other formalities that I’d thought would be proper, though, so I’m trying to cut back on that.”
Smiling wryly, Rin allowed himself another small chuckle. “I suppose she’ll be travelling and fighting alongside us for a long time. It ah, might get a bit awkward after a while. Not to mention impractical.” He hesitated, then, glancing across at where the princess was riding and mulling over his next words for a few moments before he went on. “She’s ... not quite what I expected.”
Cináed raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Just … she seems a lot more…” He frowned, trying to find the right words. “Vulnerable, and fragile, than I th-thought she would. Ah… not that I think she’s a bad l-leader, I just… the histories all painted her as, w-well, I suppose they painted her as more than just … human. It’s hard t-to see her standing up to an angel, let- let alone the gods.”
Frowning, Cináed looked across the princess himself for a few moments before shaking his head and turning back to face him. “I don’t think it’s so hard to see, myself,” he said, smiling confidently. “Just look at all the people that have gravitated to her, and the respect that she commands from people like Gregory and Marcus. All of the final decisions are hers, and they respect them, even when they have years of experience. I’m sure there’s a lot we haven’t seen of her. In any case, I have faith in her, and so should you.”
“I- I do, I do,” Rin hurriedly insisted. “I just worry, is all. It’s, ah, what I’m best at, apparently. I still wonder why- why it is they brought me along.” He shook his head, glancing around at the rest of their companions. “Everyone has so much more experience than I do.”
Cináed shrugged. “They have more experience than me, too,” he pointed out with a reassuring smile. “But I’m confident we can both make a difference, all the same. We wouldn’t have been allowed to come along if they thought we would drag everyone down. Beside, you’re like a four-in-one package deal, right?” His smile broadened into a grin. “Speaking of, you should introduce me to your summons, sometime!”
Rin blinked. “You… really?” he questioned, surprised that Cináed was taking an interest.
“Yeah! I’ve always been interested in stuff from other realms. What... it’s planes, right? What planes are all your summons from?”
“Ah, they’re elementals, so they’re from their respective elemental planes. Nyu is from the shadow, Cinder is from the fire, and Lumos is from the light. Nyu and Cinder are the ones that can actually hold a conversation, n-not that Nyu does very often. Lumos is more like… I suppose a dragon-puppy would be an apt analogy.”
“Cute!” Cináed laughed delightedly. “A dragon puppy? That’s amazing!”
“Heh.” Rin smiled, shaking his head bemusedly. “Y-you’re quite easily impressed, aren’t you?” His smile abruptly faded as soon as the words left his mouth. “Ah- that- that came out wrong, I’m-”
“Nah,” Cináed interjected, shrugging. “It’s fine, you’re right. I am! There’s so much out in the world that I haven’t seen, whenever I hear about or see something new… it usually seems impressive. I want to see as much of the world as I can, someday. Maybe after all the things I see while doing that I’ll be able to take more in my stride, but till then, I reserve the right to get excited over dumb things!”
Rin gave a little relieved sigh, his smile returning. “I don’t think it’s dumb. I’m sure there’s a lot out there I don’t know anything about, too.”
“Less, though,” Cináed grinned. “You had that library, after all. You should show me around there sometime after all this! All of those books, someone will probably have to remind me to eat.”
“Mm…” Rin frowned and hesitated, thinking back to the terms on which he’d departed his home. “That might not be possible, depending. I don’t think my mother, or my city for that matter, want me back any time soon. My magic…”
Cináed’s smile faded slightly. “Oh, that’s right. I guess summoning magic probably falls under the umbrella of ‘bad’ by Liveria’s laws, right?” Rin nodded, and he went on. “Well, it’s no matter. By the time all this is over, we’ll be heroes, and we can go there with a royal writ. Let them dare try and stop you then!”
Rin laughed, and once more found a smile returning to his face. Cináed seemed to make it difficult to be downcast around him for very long, something that he could greatly appreciate. “Maybe you’re right,” he said softly. “And ah, thank you. For, well, alleviating some of my doubts.”
The younger boy beamed at him. “It’s my pleasure! We won’t get anywhere if we’re too hung up on doubts and worries to push ourselves forwards. And hey,” he reached out and gently nudged Rin, gesturing down at Piper. “We’ve been talking for a good ten minutes, and you’ve not steered wrong once.”
Rin blinked, looking down at the horse. Cináed was right. He hadn’t even noticed.
“I told you it was all about not worrying.” Cináed noted.
“Ah, so you did,” Rin laughed nervously, trying not to let himself become too self-conscious of the mount again. “Thank you for that too, I suppose.”
“In return,” Cináed began with a grin. “Tell me more about Liveria! I’ve read about it, but what was it like to actually live there, for you?”
Rin raised an eyebrow at his insatiable curiosity. “Well…”
The two continued to talk for quite some time, as every time Rin thought that the conversation was dwindling, Cináed would produce another question or push the topic further. It was almost exhausting after a while, but in a pleasant way.
If nothing else, it kept his mind from worrying.
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