Shadow of Death

by Blackdust

Chapter 4

Endurance

"Bluemane! You can't be serious! Training him already? He just got his names! He needs to learn the history behind being a Shadow first!" Brightwill shouted at Bluemane.

"Why should I? I won't be here long enough to really care. All I want to do is avenge my village. Anything else that you want to teach me is meaningless." Roseshield said.

"See, Brightwill? Even he agrees with me. It's pointless to try and teach somepony that doesn't want to learn. And the first lesson is hoof and word magic." Bluemane said, turning and trotting away.

"Look, Bluemane is as unforgiving as they come. If you get stumped just tell him that you're still new." Brightwill told Roseshield.

"I know. I expect him to make me regret ever dying in the first place. Let only come back." Roseshield assured her. Then got out of the bed and quickly trotted out the door and down the hall to try and catch up to Bluemane. This place is big... Or they cast a shrinking spell in a regular sized house to get more room out of it. Roseshield thought as he saw the the roof was farther up than should have been possible, even with the help of pegasus builders.

"Just now figuring out we're shrunk, newcomer?" said the pegasus, Ashtail, from above Roseshield.

"Um... I pass out because I was called by Death to get my new names, and then wake up in a bed in some house. I didn't know I was shrunk, because I wasn't aware of my body." Roseshield said.

"Wait, what?" Ashtail said, so shocked that he fell a few feet from shock before he remembered to flap his wings. "Are you saying that you died before becoming a Shadow?"

"If by die, you mean get most of my chest blow open by some weird spell from that thing, and then watch as the love of my life was torn apart before it let me die, then yes. I died before I became a Shadow." Roseshield answered, slightly annoyed that he would lose Bluemane if he kept talking to the pegasus.

"Blue teaching you the basics of being an element of life and death?" Ashtail said, noticing that Roseshield kept trying to catch up to Bluemane.

"Yes. Now leave me be." Roseshield snapped at him, going full gallop while Bluemane was still only trotting.

"You do know that you won't catch him unless you use hoof magic. Or word magic." Ashtail said flying lazily near him.

"Ash, shut up. You passed it because you cheated. We failed to take into account how much you like to fly, even on the ground." Bluemane told Ashtail.

"And how in the tartarus am I supposed to figure that out?" Roseshield, who'd been going full gallop for a good minute now, demanded.

"Well the first test is an endurance one. It's meant to help us see how many spells you might be able to handle before taking a toll on your body." Ashtail explained.

"And how long am I going to gallop? An hour? Two?" Roseshield snapped at him, fully pissed off now.

"Neither. You're going to gallop until you collapse. Then we'll see how long you were going and judge you off of that." Bluemane said over his shoulder.

"Fine. But I won't stop. No matter the cost, I'll kill that thing. Even if I take a 'toll' as you put it." Roseshield snapped at them both, well and truly fed up with their idiotic ways of training.

"So you say. But when you reach that limit, will you truly have the will to focus enough to cast? And when you get the rogue at your mercy, will you-" Ashtail started to say, but dropped a few feet as Roseshield shot a focused blast of magic at him. "Damn that was close! Watch where you shoot those things! Even though we can't die they still hurt!"

"Then shuddup! I WILL kill him! He massacred my village! He will die for that!" Roseshield yelled, then felt something inside him snap and he practically flew into Bluemane.

Ashtail simply landed and stood there with his mouth open in shock. Bluemane seemed just as surprised. Brightwill came out of the small room at the sound of the resulting crash, and stopped dead in her tracks, also amazed.

"Why are you staring at me like I just did the impossible?" Roseshield asked, still highly annoyed at all three of them.

"Bluemane is our strongest enchanter type word mage... And you just snapped his enchantment like it was a twig..." Brightwill said, recovering first. "I'll give him his next lesson. The lesson of patience."

"Sure... thing..." Bluemane said between breaths, having been almost knocked out from the force of the impact.

"Patience? How can patience help me kill the rogue that slaughtered my village?" Roseshield snapped at her, then regretted doing so as she slowly walked over to him with an intent to kill in her eyes, face, and movements.

"Patience teaches us when to stay our blade, and when to strike out. Patience allows us to assess the foe so that we know where the weak points in their guard are." She stopped just in front of Roseshield. "And patience teaches us from those that fall before we get our turn to fight. Now, will you listen, or will you continue to be a foolish foal that only thinks about the hate they feel and how much they want to hurt." Brightwill said, staring him in the eyes.

"I... I'll listen..." Roseshield said, unable to look away from her eyes, afraid that if he blinked, she would kill him.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

So what do you guys think about the hoof and word magic? I think it's going to be great trying to work it out! I already have some "spells" in Latin that I plan on using at some point. Also thinking about shortening Roseshields name to just Rose. That or Shield. Cast you votes in the comments! PM votes will not be counted!

Comments

[Blackdust]

7067504 Thanks! Just published another chapter if you wanna read it!