Rueln Layheart

“Stance, Rueln,” Master corrected me, smacking my leg in the same spot she had done over a dozen times before. I winced, but kept my mouth shut and allowed Master Esra to correct my stance. It was only a minute later when she corrected me again. I was going to have bruises covering every inch of my arms and legs if this kept up. Finnley wasn’t doing any better. He was shaking his hand after Master Esra whacked it with her stick and sticking his fingers in his mouth.

It’s been two weeks since we left Giath and Master Esra hadn’t wasted a moment to start her training schedule again. This time, I wasn’t the only one suffering through hours of walking, running, and sword drills. She wouldn’t give us anything but a wooden staff to swing around until our arms wanted to fall off. All this was fine. I was gaining weight, which pleased Master Esra, and I was already feeling stronger, the intense exercises slowly growing easier the more we worked. The problem was when Master Esra began trying to teach us drills. 

Holding a sword for the first time, even a wooden practice sword, had a domino effect on both my body and my mind. Master would instruct me to mirror her stance, correcting me again and again, but my body always resisted me. Her stance felt wrong, somehow, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. The feeling of wrong-ness was Empress Vhal’s, not mine. Master Esra’s lessons clashed with the sword technique I—she knew. It was much older, and I wasn’t sure if it was Vhal’s opinion or mine that thought it was better.

“I’m not her,” I murmured again, scowling as I repeated the drill Master Esra had taught us. Even as I moved to complete it, however, my body resisted and moved differently than what I had intended. It was like I expected myself to have the physical body of an adult woman who had held a sword for most of her life and the endurance, flexibility, and strength that went with it. Instead, I overreached and stumbled before falling onto my rump with a solid ‘oof’. I was obviously still an eight-year-old boy who had never held a weapon in his life bigger than a kitchen knife.

“You are showing off again, Rueln,” Master Esra scolded softly. “You are still learning.”

“But I’m not!” I protested, offended by the accusation. 

 Master shook her head. “Now is not the time for excuses. Stand and try again.”

The silence to my right told me Finnley had stopped his own drills to listen. I glared over at him, and he grinned sheepishly and started up again. I had been Master’s first student and yet I was the one who had fallen behind. Finnley was two lessons ahead of me now, and would surely outpace me further if I didn’t figure out what was wrong with me. It was frustrating, and Master didn’t understand. I was tired of trying to explain it to her. One thing was certain, being an expert at something in a past life made learning it a new infinitely more difficult. 

“Rueln,” Master Esra sighed, moving closer to tap my feet with her stick. “Your stance is terrible. If you stand like that, then you will blow over by a good wind. Here, put your feet like this.” She showed me what she wanted, and I frowned, looking down at my own feet. It’s not right. I scowled, but I obeyed and corrected myself. “Very good. Now, keep the drills up, boys,” Master Esra instructed as she went to saddle Peach. “I’m making a run into the village. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Aye,” Finnley called, without looking up from what he was doing, though I was sure he was just as ready as I was to put the wooden swords down. He had been working most of the morning, just as I had, and my arms were tired.

As soon as the Master was out of sight, I threw my sword away. Crossing my arms, I refused to so much as look at it anymore. “I’m done. I just won’t be a swordsman. This is stupid. I’ll just pick something else!” I was pouting, and I knew it, but couldn’t seem to stop myself. 

“What’s the problem?” Finnley asked, finally stopping to frown over at me. “Ya were doin’ fine.” He walked over, picking up my practice stick, and tried to hand it back. “Here, try again. I can show ya if ya want.”

I shook my head and backed up. “No. You don’t get it. It’s not fine. I can’t get it right. I’ve tried and tried and it just doesn't feel right.” 

“What do ya mean?” Finn asked, scratching his nose as he studied me. “I heard ya talkin ta Master Esra the other night, but I didn’t get what ya were tryin’ to explain.”

My face flushed with embarrassment. “It’s just—I keep trying to—Ugh!” Throwing my hands up, I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Just forget it. I don’t know how to explain.”

“Well… Master Esra won’t be happy ya quit,” Finnley advised, only to grin and throw his stick down, too, before plopping to the ground in front of me. “Ya know, I could use a nap. What Master don’ know won’t hurt her.”

“She won’t be happy you quit either,” I grumbled, and turned my back to him. Finn was nice, but I didn’t think he would get my issue any better than Master Esra. There was no point explaining it to him. 

Sighing, I walked over to Master’s new bay gelding grazing nearby. We named Apple to go with the theme of fruit, which he didn’t seem to mind too much. The only problem was he expected to get an apple whenever we called him by his name. He was friendlier than Peach, and more than willing to beg us for attention. If Peach were here, she would have nipped him in the rump to scare him off, but it never kept him from coming back. “Hey buddy,” I said, offering him my hand to lip. The gelding snorted into my palm when he found I didn’t have any treats for him. Good-naturedly, the gelding went back to grazing as I sank down to sit in the grass. I smiled at the animal, but it quickly slipped away again as I fell back into my thoughts. 

I knew what my problem was, but I didn’t understand how to fix it. Frowning, I tugged some grass up and started tearing the green blade apart a little at a time as I tried to work it out in my head. There had to be something I was doing wrong. I didn’t hear anyone else complain about being reincarnated. Eidke sure didn’t, not even when the gods punished him and he lost his sight. 

“I wish I could ask Eidke,” I mumbled, suddenly missing my brother. The ferocity of the emotion clouded my vision for a second and I quickly blinked the sappy tears away. I had no reason to miss them. I hadn’t even been gone a month yet. Trying to push the emotions away and refocus on my problem, I wondered what Vhal had done when she had faced this problem. If she wasn’t delusional, anyway. She was so sure though, but no matter how hard I tried to find out more with what memories of hers I possessed, nothing was clear.

 The minutes turned into an hour before I gave up and stood, only to stiffen at the sound of galloping hooves. Jumping to my feet, I jerked around to look up the road towards the village and groaned. Master Esra had caught us slacking. Finnley sat up with sticks sticking out of his dark hair and a look of guilt covering his face, but he pulled himself to his feet and picked up our practice swords. I felt him just pressing mine into my hand after running over to me when our Master pulled up to the camp with a strange man riding at her side.

Having caught both of us slacking on our orders, she scowled and dismounted. “Since neither of you bothered to listen to the instructions that I gave before I left, you are to pack up camp without my help. Be quick about it.”

Swallowing, I glanced over at the stranger, then nodded and went to do as I was bid. I couldn’t help the occasional look at Master and the man, noticing they seemed pretty familiar with each other. At one point I lingered too close to them, trying to listen, only for Finnley to step on my fingers when I reached for my blankets. Hissing, I waved my hand in the air, then stuck the now red appendage into my mouth and gave him a look that he didn’t bother noticing. 

When I looked back, I caught Master Esra’s eye and guiltily hurried to help Finn. The older boy was quite efficient packing up from his years on the road with his family, so I followed his lead. It took us only a few minutes before we were standing with the gelding loaded and on the lead line. With our own packs over our shoulders, we stared up at Master Esra, waiting for further instructions. Well, Finnley was staring at her. I was looking over at the stranger again, only to see him grinning at me when he caught me looking. 

“This is a fellow guild member of mine, Fayr Gaylden. He asked for a favor, so we’ll be helping him out for the next week,” Master Esra explained, introducing him. He was a tall man, blonde hair long and braided back from his face. His well-trimmed beard had silver streaks in it, making him look older than I thought he was. At least he wasn’t ancient looking like old man Fhal Ghran, though I guessed he was at least ten years Master’s senior. 

“Ya’re in the same guild as Master Esra?” Finnley asked, taking a step closer and gazing longingly at the man’s sword on his hip. “What rank are ya?”

Fayr chuckled and nudged Master Esra lightly with his elbow. “Eager, isn’t he?” he said before he addressed Finnley’s question. “I’m two ranks below Esra since I joined later than she did. I used to be a soldier in the capital, but had a change of career after standing around looking pretty got too boring.”

Not really all that interested in the man’s story, I sniffed and returned my attention to Master Esra. “What’s the favor, Master Esra? How can we help?”

“The favor,” she began, reaching a hand over to pat Peach’s neck when the mare pawed the road, “is escorting a caravan through the mountains. You two will care for the horses and act as lookouts as needed. The road is well used, so I don’t expect there will be much excitement in it, but that doesn’t mean I want either of you to treat this with disrespect. This is a job and what I’m training you to do. Do you understand?”

She eyed me more than Finnley, which I thought was completely unfair. I was trying to take this seriously. We acknowledged we understood her, and I reached to take Apple’s lead from Finn when I noticed Master Esra holding out her hand like she expected me to give it to her. Hesitating a moment, I did, but the confusion must have shown on my face because her friend explained, “You’ll ride into town with us. The caravan we’re guarding is more than ready to be on their way.”

“Alrigh!” Finnley exclaimed and helped himself to Fayr’s offered hand to mount his large horse.