//------------------------------// // 6 - The Introduction of Druid Dawn // Story: Dawn the Derby Horse // by Meadow_Dawn //------------------------------// Dawn spent the next few days being treated like a regular horse outside of the stable during most of the day, and a friend inside of the stables when they took a break from training for the derby. Dawn would then shift into human form in front of Erin and they’d go get their fighting gear and spar. Granted, the equipment barely amounted to much more than PVC pipes or sturdy dowel rods surrounded by two inches of foam and then wrapped in a linen cover, but it kept things safe. Dawn grinned as she tried to play along, wondering if their sparring was how the Commander felt when her own combat training had started. Dawn tried to take it easy on her owner, but years of combat training was hard to ignore. Even when they fought with Dawn only using her shield, Erin did not get through her defenses until Dawn slowly taught her what she needed to know. Dawn kept much of her militaristic knowledge to herself. It wasn’t likely Erin would need to know how to perform SWAT maneuvers or permanent damage strikes in emergency services. That wasn’t her place to teach it. She taught deflection as best as Erin could learn. Erin grew frustrated but also held some admiration for her friend for their patience and knowledge. By the end of their practices, she couldn’t land a blow on Dawn, even when Dawn only used a quarterstaff or a bastard sword. Erin kept using her arming sword and her round shield, making progress in using the shield and sword for defense and creating openings in her opponent. Dawn discovered to her pleasant surprise that all of her equine strength and endurance was still preserved, though she had suspicions from the leatherworking as it was. It was distributed differently to match her form, yet she still looked slender beyond the chest that she sported. She smiled internally as she realized she took after her adopted mother’s curves in human form. Each swing that Erin had taken, she had to make sure not too much power was put behind it or else she could hurt Erin. One day before their meeting the group, Erin received a sprained wrist when Dawn accidentally got too involved in the combat and used more strength than she should have. She reached down to inspect it, medical knowledge already coming to her forefront and habitually tried to reach for her magic to assess and heal the damage. To both of their surprise, magic flowed from Dawn’s palm with a mild lime green glow and began to heal Erin, borrowing from Dawn’s stamina to do so. Once it finished, Erin flexed her hand and got a small explanation from Dawn about how she thought she didn’t have that magic available. It led to teaching Erin about how it sped up healing at the expense of stamina from both sides but Dawn repeatedly reminded Erin she was still experimenting about what worked and it wasn’t teachable. ----- The pair rode in the truck together, Dawn keeping out of sight as she got into the passenger seat until they were out of sight of the house. It was easy enough for Erin to drive the truck to the storage shed, where Dawn would sneak in as Erin loaded up the truck with their equipment. Erin was making sure she didn’t leave either armor piece behind, the commissioner was attending this session according to her last message. The drive was uneventful, taking about half an hour to get to the grounds where they would set up the fair. Dawn grinned as they came to a stop and found a good crowd of fifty participants, and it wasn’t the rehearsal day either. Dawn got out of the truck and joined Erin in getting equipment carried over, foldable seats being brought with to enjoy downtime. “Ho there Lady Erin!” a bigger, muscled man a head taller than her approached with a raised hand, “You’re just in time. Who’s your guest?” “I bring with me a guest who wishes to be part of our little fair.” Erin grinned, going with their agreed upon cover story “She’s a druid of my lands, who prefers to go by the name Dawn.” “Ah, well met.” He said, taking it in stride. “We don’t have many druids attending our festival, what brought you to us today?” “She’s relayed to me that she has been curious about our celebrations and has spent too much time away from civilization that she has become curious once more, if only for a brief time. She cannot speak, and tells me it is because she spends so much time with nature to where it hurts to try and has borrowed suitable parchment and ink to communicate.” “Interesting.” He grinned, “I confess curiosity, but will hold for later. We have bouts to take part in and then the long process of planning out where all the tents will go so our vassals may set it all up. Come! Be welcomed!” Dawn chuckled, making a rasping noise on accident, but took the offered hand and shook it, matching his strong grip to where he blinked and looked at her. “You are far stronger than you look maiden Dawn.” He observed, gesturing for them to go to the fighting ring, a set of ropes between posts that already had people warming up within it. Dawn pulled out her fresh mini notebook held in a saddlebag held on her right hip instead of at her back and wrote a response, -I get that a lot. Sometimes nature has its ways of surprising us, and I am similar in that way.- “Fair enough.” He said when he read it. “Has Lady Erin taught you our rules?” -I have been briefed over the last few days.- Dawn wrote out and displayed with a mischevious smile. -Let’s see what you young recruits can do.- He laughed as they reached the edge and set up their gear, “Well, I guess we should show you no mercy then!” Dawn simply nodded and finished gathering her two weapons and set them on the chair as she subtly summoned her shield and equipped it and the sword before joining the fighters waiting to join in. Erin turned to deliver the armor and stowed the money away before joining Dawn. It was a fun environment, the two fighters in the center being fit and familiar with each other. They proceeded to push their luck, fighting for a good ten to fifteen seconds at a time, blocking each other’s attacks until finally, after another minute, one fell to the other. “Good match!” The battlemaster called, stepping in, “Now that most of our company is here, let’s get this practice tournament going! Split up into pairs, find an opposing pair of your choosing, find a spot to battle, and begin when ready!” Erin looked to Dawn and smirked, “No question who we’re partnering up with. So, who wants to come face me and my druid!” A few turned to Erin and Dawn and snickered mildly, seeing a slender woman next to Erin’s more built muscles from farmhands and a pair stepped forward, a mid-sized younger man and his partner of a taller muscled man in black tabard and gold trim. “We’ll meet you in battle Lady Erim.” The bigger one said after getting agreement from him, “We will try not to be too tough on your guest.” “My name is Erin.” Erin said, sounding annoyed. Dawn pulled out her notebook and sarcastically asked, -So to even out our handicaps, then should I go without a weapon? Do not underestimate nature, for when pressed, she will show you no mercy.- “I don’t know if you should Sir Evan and Sir Oscar.” Erin said with a grin while giving Dawn their names, tall one was Evan and Oscar was his partner. She turned to them in warning again, “She’s good.” The smaller one laughed but shrugged as they took up a spot in the ring toward the corner, “We thought we’d offer. Don’t blame us when we win this challenge.” -May you find dignity in defeat.- Dawn wrote ominously before setting her notebook in her pack and standing regally at her opponents as she focused on her teachings. ‘Remember Dawn, do not take what they do for granted. The Commander had taught you much, but you still couldn’t beat her. There are better people than you anywhere you might care to look, and even in places you don’t.’ They held out their swords to each other, tapping their blades as the three who could speak called out the battle start, “Lay on.” Dawn spared no time in acting. She saw mild hesitation in Oscar’s stance and swung her sword at his shoulder. Oscar blinked and barely managed to get his sword into place to parry the attack. He batted the fabricked sword to the side as best he could, only barely making it scrape against the side. Dawn took a step forward, inviting an attack from the Two-handed sword Eric wielded as she swept her sword down to hit the leg. Oscar gasped and took a knee, keeping the now ‘dead’ leg on the ground as he was supposed to. Eric did not miss the opportunity to make a swing at Dawn. His sword hit her shield and he called out, “Break!” Dawn ignored it. Ordinarily, three strikes with that cue to a shield from a “great weapon” will cause a shield to need to be dropped as a ‘broken’ item, but Dawn only needed to block the one stroke. Twirling the blade into a backhanded grip, she sliced the weapon across Oscar’s chest, overpowering his guard as he was forced to yield and hit Eric with the same swing in the side of the torso. “Geeze Lady Dawn, give me something to do!” Erin laughed as they both were ‘felled’ without her being able to do more than watch. “Well done honored guest!” The battlemaster said, looking over to their group and saying, walking over as he kept an eye on the other guests. “Be ready, for the winners move on to face the others.” “Well done.” Eric nodded, offering his hand to Dawn and Erin and shaking them, “Taught me not to take a newcomer for granted again.” Dawn pulled out her book, keeping an eye on the field with an expert’s sight as she replied in writing, -It was good of you to do so, but not when you are warned. If the challenger is not ready after claiming they are, they are at fault.- “Agreed.” Oscar said, shaking his head before stepping over the rope out of the way. The other battles continued, none going over a minute, with the losers exiting the ring and the remaining pairs stood inside. “Again!” The battlemaster said. Such matches continued, Dawn trying to leave Erin openings for her to be involved, but the other fighters did not fare much better. In the next two rounds, Dawn proceeded to win within half a minute, the second of which after Erin was ‘felled’ and Dawn still won despite fighting two on one. Now only seven pairs were in the ring, and the battlemaster called out once more. “All fighters, this is the final round. All pairs free for all on my mark. Ready?” He called, waiting for everyone to raise their weapons, “Lay on!” Dawn struck quickly, to ensure that they would not be the first ones out. She whipped her sword at the pair on her right as soon as the words were released and managed to hit the leg of the fellow, a red tabard wearing fighter with a mace and shield. With them immediately crippled, she quickly went to assist Erin, who was barely able to block a similar strike from the pair to their left. Dawn engaged with the intent that the Commander had cultivated in her, ‘protect yourself and protect everyone you care about with you.’ Dawn barely managed to get her shield up in time to block a counterattack from his partner, another red tabard wearer, shifting to perform the same belly-slice move. The foe blocked the strike, barely managing to deflect Dawn and prevent her from continuing the strike like she had the prior fights. Dawn pulled back and quickly struck at his leg, letting him block it before swiftly reaching up to hit his arm. He let his weapon fall and brought his shield to bear, trying to defend against her and give his partner an opening. Erin managed to untangle herself and was barely managing to hold her ground against the larger, stronger foe. He had already rendered her shield useless, having tossed it out of the grounds out of the way so it wouldn’t be damaged, and was wielding her sword with two hands for better strength and leverage. Dawn pressed herself to move more quickly, moving around her current foe’s side so he would have less attention he could give to Erin and a better view for herself of the field. She noted how many were taking it easy as they kept an eye on her own battle. She frowned slightly as she realized they were none too eager to take each other own, preferring to use each other as fodder to wear her down. ‘Well, if that’s the game they’ll play, I can play.’ Dawn thought, not intending to be reckless, but reinforce the mindset that it was Erin and her versus everyone else. Dawn used her inherent speed and power to get past her opponent’s guard and forced him to block one side, only to swing around and hit him on the opposite side in the torso. Once done, she moved to Erin’s opponent and moved to attack his side. The red tabard swung wide as he quickly brought his sword to bear. He attempted to attack Dawn again, but rather than allowing her shield to absorb a blow, she simply dodged the attack, using her sword to block and slid it under his guard to hit just under his shoulder. He let out a growl of frustration and stood out of the way toward the rope, grumbling a false sounding “well done.” Erin and Dawn reassessed the field, only one other pair had fallen and the partner of the one who had their leg gone had also ‘fallen.’ “Us two versus 11?” Erin said quietly, “Hope you can keep this up.” Dawn merely tapped her shield’s symbol, her cutie mark emblazoned on it, thinking, ‘I am the bearer of the element of hope and went through a hell known as Camp Mendez, I’d better be hoping and delivering here too even if I don’t know yet if other’s hopes empower me here or not!’ Dawn stepped forward, taking a vanguard position to protect Erin as she stood, sword held at the ready and eyes unfocused, ready to react to motion rather than specifics so she could broaden her field of view. A new pair came forward and approached Dawn cautiously, both wielding shields and one wielding a flail. ‘Flails are problematic for both sides. Just as likely to hit yourself as your enemy. Let’s see what I can do to overcome that.’ Dawn thought as she stepped forward once to face them both. The others began to fight each other once again now that their biggest threat had something else to distract it. Dawn watched as the flail began to swing around lazily, as if the owner was still getting a feel for its motion. She turned to face this opponent on her left and favored shield arm more, deliberately leaving her right side more open as bait. Unfortunately for the orange crested fellow who took the bait with a short sword, he found himself held off by Dawn’s sword reach, despite only needing to face her sword. His partner, a lady bearing the same orange crest and what Dawn assumed to be his life partner as well, quickly took the opportunity to swing the flail, trying to reach over the shield to hit her arm. Dawn anticipated this, twisting the shield to catch more of the weapon and pulled up on it, effectively yanking it out of her grasp. She countered by attacking the remaining armed opponent with a shield rush, bowling him over and then hitting her sword on the exposed back of the lady fighter. The lady yelped in surprise and mild pain as she was taken and Dawn continued to whirl around before holding the blade at male’s neck after disarming him as well, unable to say what her thoughts were. “I yield.” He nodded, dropping his sword before rolling away to get out of the way once again. Erin watched this unfold and almost felt like she was holding Dawn back. She couldn’t let her guard down, but she could see they knew what they were doing. No wonder she wanted to come along! Dawn engaged the next set of pairs facing off, no other groups had expected her to finish so fast, and Dawn managed a sneak attack against the backs of two pairs engaged in a shield shoving match. The pair flailed their weapons back as they noticed their opponents looked past them at something, but Dawn deflected with her shield and weapon both, pushing them back before hitting their backs successfully and engaging the remaining pair without pause. The two were barely ready for her, getting their shields in place and then trying to push against her with them to tie her up. Dawn pushed back, her shield caught between the two of them. She barely slid back an inch. The one on her left was off center enough that he started to slide to Dawn’s left, risking flanking her badly. Dawn took a step back, keeping her shield in the way of the left person and began her attack on the right figure. The left one tried to bring his sword up to attack, mirroring them. Erin moved forward, getting their shield to push the left figure back, unbalancing the attack and causing it to miss, but losing her sword arm in the process. Dawn blocked and parried the right attacker’s attack before getting him in the torso with a quick counter under his shield. Dawn turned to support Erin, who was barely holding her own with her off arm shield, getting it locked with her enemy’s as they raised their weapon to strike at their side. Dawn quickly hit them on the back and their strike was fended off by a dodge from Erin. Out of the seven that would have remained, there were only four now. Dawn only then noticed the cheers and small bets some of the others were using among each other on the outcome, but she continued to tune them out once again. “Final Six contenders! Who will win?” The battlemaster called. Erin whistled quietly to herself, feeling eyes split between her and Dawn. She didn’t expect to last so long, but this was an amazing match. She would definitely have to ask more later. Erin watched as the group sent three fighters to Dawn, as if by mutual agreement needing to take her down, and only one went after her, the only two bladed swordsman left. Dawn frowned. Erin was as good as gone then, and it was a good strategy. She eyed everyone and brought her weapon up, batting aside one attack attempt with ease as the three coordinated their attacks and Dawn found her hands full handling them. Erin watched Dawn but turned back to face the fourth one who paid Dawn no mind and went toward her. Erin took a deep breath and quickly picked up a dropped short sword in her shield hand after she slid the shield off. Erin barely managed to pick up the sword in time to deflect the incoming blade attack like Dawn had taught her, sending it away from her body and tried to make a counter attack. He brought the blade up to block and shoved the weapon across her body before getting ready for another swing. Erin brought up her weapon to do the same, hoping Dawn would be able to help her out soon. Dawn was having her own issues. After blocking the three successive attacks, Dawn had to rely more on dodging the attacks than fully blocking so she could keep herself from taking a hit. ‘Remember what the commander taught you. Against uncoordinated yet outnumbered enemies, make them fight against each other first, whittling them down one by one… still, if I could get a strike on Erin’s foe, that could get things more even.’ Dawn blocked another attack from the center fighter with her shield, lifting up her left leg from the attacker to her left, and deflected a blow with her blade and tried to counter, only to be blocked by the middle one’s shield. She risked a brief glance to the side and saw Erin deflect another blow like she was taught. Dawn mentally nodded and calculated the odds of getting that target downed. It would almost definitely be successful, but risk Erin falling to the three she’d leave behind. As long as Erin kept being defensive, she could last as long as her stamina did. Erin continued to counter as best she could, getting worn out and frustrated. This was the best she had done in battle yet and despite a mild burning ache in her arms, she didn’t want to give up just because the enemy’s weapon was heavier and had more strength behind it. Erin remembered how Dawn handled the situation before, going in as he raised his sword for an attack and slashed at his body by getting in close. He dodged, pulling his body back and giving another diagonal over the shoulder strike. Erin squeaked involuntarily and ducked while bringing up the blade barely in time to make it miss her collar, going past the shoulder entirely. Erin tried again, slashing upward now that most of his blade was below her waist and being pulled back. Her opponent was surprised and had started to pull back his stomach again, only to lose his arm in the fight and the crowd roared in support of both sides. He nodded his acknowledgement of her hit and tried to wield the sword one handed, a large strain on his arm even if he was strong enough to do so. Erin decided to go to the offensive, forcing him to rotate the blade in such a way that it acted like a post, a shield for him to use, but was unable to attack while he did so. Erin glanced back at Dawn, and noticed she only had to face two opponents, but missed how Dawn did it. She deflected a counter attack her opponent tried to make with her distracted, and then attacked at his torso again, with him barely dodging out of the way. Erin continued this dance, both of them moving out of ready sight of Dawn’s fight, focused on each other. Erin would attack, he would try a counterattack, inviting hers, back to his block and her attack. They continued this for what felt like forever in the moment till he suddenly gave a strong sigh of frustration and nodded, straightening up. Erin looked at him confused until she noticed the applause and Dawn standing slightly behind him, sword sideways with a smirk on her face. Erin was slightly disturbed as she noticed Dawn’s eye briefly looked different. She swore she saw it with a slitted eye with yellow hues by the iris, but when Dawn blinked, it was gone. “We have our champions!” The battlemaster called, “Lady Erin of Waterhold and her druid, Meadow Dawn!” There was cheering and many weapons raised in the air in celebration as some came forward to congratulate them. “All right! Battle time is over! Everyone get going or help us outline the layouts for the tents! We have a lot of work to do so the crews can get to work.” He called out. Dawn smiled and gave handshakes to those that came forward and congratulated her, wondering how she did what she did, but she gestured to her throat, opened her mouth, and waved her hand to indicate she couldn’t talk. Erin watched and the others went to work getting out of their combat gear and started getting the fields marked with appropriate lawn paint to help indicate where they wanted different tents or tables for the fair. A large board was leaning against a truck with the outline of the layout for the fair with a transparent sheet over it to protect it from the elements gave a guideline for everyone’s markings and doubled as a backup reference for the hired setup crew. “Well, we’d better get going.” Erin said to the leader, “Thanks for letting us join so late Tom.” “Not a problem Erin. It was surprising to see all our experienced fighters trounced so quickly.” He chuckled, “If anything, I’d suspect she did this professionally.” Dawn pulled out her notepad and began to write a reply, using her shield as a portable desk. -It was fun, but it helps to have actual combat training with a shield and a variety of weapons. I had a good teacher.- “Oh? I used to be military till I got my knee busted up.” He replied with curiosity, “Didn’t hear too many soldiers trained in shields and you look too young to make it to a specialized group. Hair’s too long unless it’s a wig.” Dawn smirked, then shrugged before writing her reply, -I’m afraid that’s classified. I’m older than I look though.- “Fair enough…” he shrugged, “I know better than to ask a lady her age.” -I’ll probably stop caring when I hit 500.- Dawn wrote back, which gained her a belly laugh from the group leader. “You really think you’re going to live that long? If you make it, let us know your secret so some of us can live with you.” -Trust me, if I could, my husband would be the first to get it if he wished.- Dawn said, smiling despite hiding her dead seriousness behind that statement. Erin looked at Dawn and wondered how much was her playing along and how much was making things up as Tom smirked and gave his reply. “Well, I’ll let you both get home. I don’t want to keep you. Come to our rehearsal and festival like planned ok?” “You got it boss.” Erin answered after a pause, forgetting Dawn couldn’t answer. Erin and Dawn climbed in the truck once everything was packed away, Erin started talking at Dawn, giving a list of things she wanted to find out, and Dawn would do her best to try writing them down. Eventually the questions slowed and Erin rambled, letting Dawn think. She had fun, and it was nice to be with other people instead of non-sapient animals, but she missed her family. “Hey Dawn.” Erin asked, getting her attention after a bit of quiet, only a few minutes away from their home, “You said back there you would stop caring about your age when you hit five hundred… Are you five hundred?” Dawn shook her head. “But… will you get to be?” Dawn looked away, not wanting to say anything on that subject right then. It was dangerous enough that Erin knew as much as she did, and didn’t want to give more. “Another secret huh?” Dawn nodded. At least if she told them that’s a secret, they wouldn’t push too hard, she hoped anyway. “So basically you probably will and don’t want to lie to your friend… Huh… You really haven’t told me a lot about you then, huh?” Erin asked, looking over to Dawn again briefly. ‘Damnit girl… I am not that transparent.’ Dawn thought, not reacting so she would avoid encouraging them. Erin drove home and pulled into the driveway, going past the house to drop off their equipment first. Thankfully her dad didn’t stop her despite them being slightly later than usual, or else he would have seen Dawn for sure. Dawn got out of the car and snuck her way over to the stable without incident and took up her horse form once again.