Legacies of light

Location: Stables

Walking out of the changing room I look down at the clothes I am in and jump around. They have given me quite comfortable clothes to change into for the sake of practising.

“Usually I don’t get to wear pants, they really are comfortable.” Jumping around with my new range of motion I start to smile brightly.

And as I do, my brother says, “Laeg stop embarrassing me.”

Noticing all of the people watching me, I see my brother's bright red face and moments later I have the same expression, and say, “Sorry.”

With an annoying grin, Setanta says, “No please continue.”

I hold myself back from kicking him in the face, and say, “I am done.”

Setanta then proceeds to laugh, but then Ferdiad hits him directly in the face. “Don’t feel like you can’t hit him due to his position, if you don’t you might lose your sanity.”

“HEY, DON’ T TELL MY LEGS TO ATTACK ME!”

As they talk I stare at Ibar and say, “My little baby brother is looking quite handsome today.”

Hitting me in my side Ibar says, “Don’t treat me like a child.”

“But you are one.”

“So what, right now both of us hold the exact same position. I am your equal and you better remember that, I am not your brother but Ibar Mac Fergal and I hope you remember that.”

Ferdiad signals us to follow him and as we do, we see the two horses Macha, and Crunniuc who we instantly go and pet.

But then Setanta says, “We have two new friends for you guys. The girl on the right is Liath, and the boy on the left is Kooacht.”

Me and my brother go and pet them as well, and then I ask, “What is the point of these two?”

“You guys will be controlling a heavy chariot so four horses will be necessary.”

“I see, but we can’t train these guys without knowing their strengths individually.”

Ferdiad says, “That’s fine, we have lighter chariots that only need two horses to pull them as well, so we will have you guys train with Macha and Crunniuc to begin with and then change later.”

Ibar says, “That sounds good.” Looking at me, Ibar says, “Sister let’s do this.”

“Right,” I say with passion.

-Break-

Standing in our chariot we hear screams from the men standing on the sidelines who say, “Show us what you got!”

“Let’s see that skill that puts the Lúcogadh to shame.”

“Make house Faoláin shine!”

“Let us see those skills your prodigy.”

“So, us what the future legs of Gorias can do.”

Hearing their praise me and my brother look at each other and have incredibly obnoxious smiles.

Soon after this, a man signals us and then we start to go. We ride on the same track that Ibar did yesterday, and as we ride I make sure to handle the horse while Ibar makes sure to gauge how much strength remains in them.

We start off at a good speed with good control, but as we continue to go around, we start to cut some of the turns close, and I say, “Ibar you're not telling me how the horse our doing stamina-wise.”

“I can’t really tell right now the strain the chariot is putting on them seems really inconsistent, I think you need more steady control because as things are going now I won’t be able to tell.”

“Easier said than done.”

As we continue we start to lose more control and more speed, as if all the coordination we have no coordination.

My brother screams, “SISTER YOU NEED TO TIGHTEN UP!”

“IT ISN’T THAT EASY!”

Every time the chariot shakes I get distracted which loosens up my control, I need to maintain a better balance. The difference between controlling a horse directly and through a chariot is also quite steep, there is a slight time lag between my input and responsiveness.

As we hit a rock the chariot shakes again violently. A chariot has a lot more surface area than a lone horse so keeping track of the terrain is something I also need to do as well now.

Φ Looking at the horse my sister is trying to control I start to sweat, and while I do my sister says, “How are the horses doing?”

“They are being annoying!”

“What the hell does that mean!?”

“Just tighten up your control and I will be able to tell you better!”

Normally when riding a single horse you only have to worry about understanding the sole beast to bring out its best, so I simply thought that if we understood both of the horses it would be no different.

But I was wrong these two horses are competing with each other, while also being individually unique. So I have to worry about how they individually function alone, plus how they get on together.

When one starts reaching its limit the other picks up the best to prove its superiority, and then the one that was tired starts to overexert itself to catch back up. It is chaos.

Φ Me and Ibar start to struggle on the track. The way we are moving is completely unsightly not even something one would expect from a novice.

As I struggle to reign in control, I look to the crowd, and there I see a bunch of the men who were just cheering for us staring at us with vicious eyes. It is like they are watching our every movement, and they say failure is not acceptable

Then in that same moment, I feel the weight of our positions crash down on us, and looking at Ibar I notice he feels the shame. Then as we continue to ride Ibar says, “Sister reign them in.”

Snapping back into action, I say, “R-Right.”

But as I try to reign them in and slow down the horse picks up, and Ibar says, “I made a mistake they both still want to beat the other.”

Suddenly the horses move even faster which I was not prepared for and then in a very turbulent moment me and Ibar completely lose control of the chariot and are sent flying out of it.

But while in the air about to fall to the ground, we hear, “Red branch battle arts; Sky flower.”

Then before we hit the ground we are grabbed out of the air by both Setanta and Ferdiad. Shaking me, Setanta says, “Are you ok?”

Regaining myself, I say, “I am ok, please check on Ibar.”

Setanta lays me down, and says, “Ok.”

As he runs over to Ferdiad and Ibar, I sit up and look in the distance where I see faces of disappointment, but worse than that in the distance I see Lugh Ó Faoláin. He stares for a moment and then walks away, and as he does I feel like I am being crushed between the jaws of a wonderbeast.

-Break-

Location: Laeg room

In the arms of my maid Lúidín, I am carried to my room where I am quickly stripped and washed by her and Innéacs. They start to change me into other clothes and brush my hair, but as they do I stare into the mirror in the room without so much as a word.

Throughout my body, I feel such intense shame and embarrassment that I feel like I could genuinely die from it. This combined with the physical and mental fatigue I was already feeling makes me feel like a corpse walking.

Suddenly Innéacs says, “When I first arrived in this castle I broke two castles worth of plates.”

Turning my head, I say, “Huh?”

Lúidín says, “You’re putting that quite lightly, more like five. If we also combine that we the amount of clothing you destroyed, and the jewellery you accidentally ate, you might have actually become one of the biggest sources of expenditure within the empire.”

Innéacs who usually mutters under her breath, has an embarrassed face and says, “Says the girl who actually lost Setanta when he was a baby.”

Also, embarrassed Lúidín says, “How was I supposed to realise he would climb into a Tiritrex mouth and go across Tir na n-iontas!”

“five kids yet still couldn’t handle a baby, how shameful.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a woman who has never even been on a date with a man.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a woman who fell in love with a man who brought her to a bog on the first date.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a woman who is on a watchlist by all of the men due to her stalkerish behaviour.”

As the two women start to turn red from exposing each other's secrets, I turn to them and say, “Are you two ok?”

Filled with vigour, they say, “We are fine.”

“I just wanted to tell you that it is no big deal.”

“Ferdiad's talent has spoiled us a bit but don’t think people have given up on you.”

“The moto of the house of Faoláin is the refined crude metals, so no one has lost hope in you.”

In unison, they both say, “Try your best.”

Hearing their words I feel some relief and then I say, “I will.”

-The next day-

Location: Training grounds

Φ Along with a group of warriors me and Laeg run around the ground, but as we do we lag behind.

Laeg says, “It has been two hours I can’t go on!”

“How the hell do they still have stamina we are horse beastkin, we should be better at this than them.”

Setanta running up behind me and my sister says, “You can only go so far with your natural abilities.”

Laeg says, “Did you lap us?”

“Obviously, since I am a wolf.”

“You sure you don’t have some wonderbeast blood in your veins,” I say annoyed.

Ferdiad also coming up behind us says, “It’s more than likely considering that we can inherit parts of other wonderbeasts in our blood.”

“UNFAIR!”

Setanta with a smile, says, “Hey I run twice as many laps as everyone to be fair, so you better keep up with me slow pokes.”

Setanta runs forward and as he does we chase after him.”

-Two days later-

Location: Ord Room

Looking directly at us our teacher says, “The main houses that dwell in the red branch are named after their progenitors and are known as.

Of Gorias, Faoláin the Shining, Fuinseog the Hunter, Serlasracht the smiths.

Of Murias, Céilús the ingenious, Máirseáil the storm, Cumhaill the wise.

Of Falias Éire the bountiful, Cathal the protector, Sealbhóir the tricky.

Of Findias, Laoch the fierce, Biorg the spiritual, Lúcogadh the swift.

-Four days later-

Location: Training grounds

Φ Laying on the ground after falling of our chariot, I go over to my brother and pick him up while saying, “Are you ok?”

He opens his eyes and makes a fist out of anger, then he looks over to the crowd of unimpressed people, whose eyes are like daggers at us.

Sadden, he says, “We failed a fourth time.”

-Seven days later-

Φ Feeling something hit me against my head, I am forcefully brought awake, and as I do I see our language teacher saying, “Is this boring to you.”

With my head low, I say, “No.”

“Then you better pay attention, not only is learning the human language of the saviour's song important, but improving your vocabulary in relation to our language is important as well.”

Laeg covering for me, says, “We are just a little tired.”

“So what? If you cannot learn these skills then you can just get up and go back to your home. There are many who want your positions.”

My sister and I lower our heads in shame and continue to work.

-Three days later-

In Lúidín arms I am being carried back to my room and as I do, I close my eyes due to exhaustion.

But while I am being carried, I hear some other servants mutter, “Isn’t that the useless girl.”

“Setanta caused lots of problems for that one and her brother, but unlike Ferdiad, they haven’t produced anything.”

“Well what do you expect from ones such as them, it is unfair to expect them to be as amazing as our Setanta or Ferdiad.”

As they speak I clench my fist in shame. You truly are an utter failure.

-Two days later-

Location: Stables

As me and Ibar are caring for the horses in the morning, Setanta suddenly appears with a tired Ferdiad and says, “Both of you come with me it is time to go on an adventure!”

We both look at him and say, “Huh?”