The Last Light, Chapter Five

 

Chapter Five

The next day, Landan was woken at the break of dawn by a bucket of water being tipped over his head.

“Wake up, sleepyhead!” said Killian laughing.

Landan sniffed. “I wasn’t sleeping, I was waiting for you to wake up,” he said, which was received by a snort.

He looked around, and saw that Areena was the only other one awake.

“Why am I up?” asked Landan, moaning.

“Why are you?! Self-defense? Yesterday? Marcillious?” said Killian shaking his head.

Landan groaned. “I thought that was a bad dream,” he wailed.

Killian gave a short bark of a laugh, before handing Landan two buckets, ordering him to fill them up, and then bring them back to the camp. With much complaining he did so, muttering and wrapping self-pity around him like a blanket.

“He's not coming back any time soon, is he,” asked Areena, smiling wryly.

Twenty minutes later, a grumpy Landan marched back to the camp, carrying two buckets, neither of them having as much as a cup of water.

The instant he walked into camp, he was tackled from all sides. Four masked people, wearing black, punched, kicked and tripped him. Suddenly, a wild fire blazed in Landan's heart. He span, kicked the legs from under two of his opponents, and waited for his other adversaries to attack again. Instead, they took off their masks. Marcillious and Areena stood grinning in front of him. Melody and Killian were wincing on the ground behind him. Landan spluttered.

“Do you really need an explanation?” asked Areena, shaking her head as she pulled Melody up. He nodded. “We knew that in an emergency you would be an amazing fighter, as you have proven, but you don't try hard enough when you know that it is pretend, and you won't really get hurt. So, we set this up to get you to practice.”

Landan looked at his friends, then sighed. He picked up his buckets and walked back to the river, this time, not spilling any.