Flash Acceptation

The dew of the morning still hung in the damp, cool air as the sun rise just kissed the horizon, enlightenment the land with the faintest of illumination. Much of the town was still covered in the aging woodland, leaving only small plots for the farmers, and a sorry excuse for a main street, loaded only the most vital shops to the people living there. But the pride of the village was that which little had actually seen. Within this small settlement rested the most crucial training facility of the country’s military, where the most elite went to fulfill the dream of all citizens, serving for their honored king, King Arlen.
The settlement of the facility resting in a large, flat field, cleared for the most beautiful, castle-esq. building where the schooling took place, as well as lodging for both trainees and staff, stables, indoor training quarters, cafeteria, and of course much more. Surrounding the main building were the most well kept training field and gardens that the government could possibly pay for. Hoof-prints permanently marked the routes in which they took through the woods for leisurely runs, while more declared where the joisting was practiced. All throughout the land that surrounded the main building, small make-shift circles were etched into the dirt where some soldiers-to-be had had their own, private sparing exercises. This place was known as Dubh Hall

By the time the first of the young men had began to stir, Alistriona was already dress, fed, and tending to her young stallion. Itching the back of her calf with her other foot, she carefully ran the hard-wired brush along the horses side, the fur warm and soft, despite the cold that continued to make Alist shiver. She was clad in the normal, casual wear; dark brown knickers, ending at her knees, tall white socks which covered the rest of her leg, ratty brown leather shoes, a rather oversized white shirt, topped with an aged brown vest, and a tethered old walking cap, which her long, flaming orange-red hair was hoarded away into.
Alistriona always found it best to get ready before the others rose, respecting their discretion, and certainly wanting to preserve her own. As her green eyes traveled up the white mane of her pride and joy, she merely grinned as she continued the tedious job. This very evening before they were to march before the king as they accepted more young men, mere boys, into the vigorous training that made Dubh Hall so famous.
Beginning to hum, Alist gentle placed the brush down onto the short, wooden wall that divided the individual ‘beds’ of each horse, and picked up the hoof pick, “Shall we, then?” she asked with a calm smile, twirling it slightly between her fingers.
At the sound of a throat being cleared, the hoof pick suddenly fell to the ground as Alistriona turned, startled, with a face of almost pure terror. The last thing she needed was more company, which she cared very little for.
Alaois was a very tall man, very young for his position, and always seemed to have a healthy glow to his skin, regardless of the constant poor weather that plagued their country. His wavy brown hair hung loosely around his face, coming to odd and choppy ends, while a small bit in the back was just long enough to be pulled back with a leather ribbon. It was his ice blue eyes that were the most striking thing about him, drawing attention away from his gangly build and unkempt clothes.
Making his way languidly to his own mare, which stood in the stall next to Alist’s own mount, he gave her a quirky grin as her muddled up his hair a bit, “Well, good morning, Lorccàn.” He said in a perkier voice then she had expected. It looked as though he had just rolled out of bed, not bothering to change or shave, judging by his subtle whiskers which gave him an even more disheveled look.
Fighting off the urge to bite her lower lip, Alistriona cleared her own through deeply, not at all ready to speak yet, “Morning, sir…” she replied in a soft tone, her voice off slightly from the norm. It was almost annoying to have the other people around Dubh Hall, ‘cause they always seemed to purposefully catch her off guard.
Carefully considering him as he went about his own business with his horse, Alist could merely just shake her head. Alaois was nothing but a typical male, and a poor one at that. In spite of of the fact that he was one of their instructors, she found that she had very little respect for him. He was disorderly, clumsy off the battle field, and rather simple minded. Within the few weeks that she had been attending Dubh, his traits were the easiest to read out of all the staff, or students. Perhaps they should have rethought hiring someone only years older then the students he would be teaching.
“You always up this early?” Alaois suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had she had just noticed had been stretching on, “Or have you just not gone to bed yet?” With that, he turned to face her, eyebrow cocked as if implying something.
Rolling her eyes ever-so-slightly, Alist forced a smile, “I’m, indeed, always up at about this time, sir.” Not that he would know. It then struck that he was actually up rather early this morning. He was often the one who was last to breakfast, and late to all of his own lessons, yet here he stood, apparently wide awake in front of her, “And what of you, sir? You yet to head to bed?”
Laughing at that, he leaned gently against his mare, patting her mane with soothing hands, “Well, I thought I might try a different approach to life. See how the other half lives.” He gave her another entailed smile, as if attempting to reassure her of the falseness to his insulting words.
Trying her best to keep the extreme lack of enthusiasm for his humor out of her face, she opened her mouth to reply when he, of course, cut her off, “I’m merely joking.” Releasing his horse, he leaned against the short fence that divided her from him, now completely feeding all of his attention to her. Alistriona almost shivered with nausea as she figured he was able to go into a long, tedious story.
“There are just some things that young’ins like you just might not have to worry about yet.” And this was, what she feared, was the horrid beginning of his enthralling tale. “I don’t know about you, but I feel I’m fairly good at handling women troubles.”
Alist chocked back a chortle.
“You might find this hard to believe, but I’m actually slightly too popular with the ladies. When the rest of the instructors and I hit the town, they almost flock to me.” With a shrug, he again ran his fingers through his hair, “But when it comes to commitment, I suddenly become more of a repellent then a magnet. I just can’t promise to settle, and for some reason, they don’t take too kindly to that idea. So my father, being the stiff, most boring man I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing, of course, takes this ‘issue’ into his own hands, and decides to…” He gave an awkward laugh, “Well, let’ just say your one of my candidates for Best Man.”
Alistriona found herself almost collapsing against her mount, both absorbed in his story and half falling asleep at the dullness of it. It also disturbed her as to how quickly he just opened up to her, as if she were holding a sign up that declared that she might actually be concerned. “I’m… terribly sorry, sir…” she uttered as she quickly fixed herself, feigning interest yet again.
Looking her over for a few, extremely uncomfortable moments, he gave a somewhat goofy laugh, “You are just so lucky to not have to worry about these things.
She rolled her eyes again, just enough for him to think she were possible joking.
“Hey, you know what…” Alaois declared suddenly, just as he was about to turn back to his horse, “Or all the months that you’ve been here, we have yet to spend time like this. I’ve spent some quality time with all my other students but you.” Adapting a smile that made Alist wretch, his eyebrows flew up his forehead, “How about we abandon this stuffy stable and get a bit of sparing in before the rest of those lazy bums come on out, huh? What do you say?”
“Oh…” Alist started, surprised and only slightly repulsed at the thought.
Now taking on a victorious smirk as he quickly made his was around the divider, “Splendid! C’mon. We can use the good swords before anyone else comes and gets jealous.”
“Great…” she replied, despite herself.
And within no time, she was standing outside in the cold, damp, overgrown grass, shivering slightly as she absent mindedly kicked at the circle Alaois had drawn out in the dirt. The heavy, long saber she had chosen now resting in the hilt of her dueling belt as she waited for him to return from inside.
With this free time, Alistriona shook her head with pity for herself, pondering how she could have possible allowed for this to happen. All she needed  was another reason so be even more upset with him. Grinning slightly, did at least realize that she could relieve some stress by knocking him as much as possible. She knew she wasn’t splendid at sword play, but she could at least hold her own long enough.
Before she could bury herself too deep in thought, out of the rear door bounded Alaois, baring two heavy sets of basic, leather, upper-body armor. Alist was surprise to see how easily he carried them, his strength startling her.
Dropping her armor in front of her, the smell of the leather almost overpowering the smell of the wet grass, she nodded him a thanks as she quickly scooped it up and threw it over her head. It fit almost perfectly, seeing as how she had a smaller build then most of the others who trained here. She was somewhat impressed by how well he had been able to guess the proper armor for her.
“Well, have at yee!” Alaois jokingly declared as soon as his armor was fastened and his sword was in hand. He pressed the tip of his blade right into her armor, controlling the pressure he applied just enough to keep it in that position.
Quickly grabbing the handle of her own sword, Alistriona quickly drew it, finding herself weighed down slightly by its overwhelming mass. His sword was light and swift, as far as she could tell, which caused her to curse under her breath as she, with great effort, knocked his away with a large swipe of hers.
Alist’s desire to beat him blinded her to choose her weapon wisely, evidently.
Within seconds, their ‘battle’ had begun. She noticed how he couldn’t help but utter advice at her faults, and exalt her better moves. All of this greatly bothered her, causing her to fight even more blindly then she had before.


Alaois had to admit that, though he had had his doubts, he was pleased with how well Lorccàn had improved since his first arrival to Dubh Hall. Lorccàn reminded him of himself, only years before. They all doubted that Alaois could ever succeed in teaching his peers, and yet was able to turn around and, not only sustain his job, in which he absolutely adored, but do so with flying colors. And now, as he aided Lorccàn throughout their sparing, he could see the same spark in his eyes that matched his own.
“Keep you defense up! You can’t spend the entire time on the offence!” he confirmed with a grinned as their swords clanged just inches from his face. Alaois could see Lorccàn’s frustration, but only continued smiling. This seemed to be just what Lorccàn had need.
Taking a sudden step forward as they fought on, both starting to sweat slightly, Alaois purposefully started taking the upper hand, “I’ll take the offensive this time. Defend! Defend!”
With a grunt, Lorccàn continued to attempt to strike, as if refusing to be defensive, but Alaois would let this one be more hard-headed then he, so the offensives clashed, all the while Alaois shouting out helpful banters, “Defend, Lorccàn! I’m not going easy on you!” he laughed.
And, as if in slow motion, they both hit their marks. Eyes going wide, Alaois watch as his blade cut right into Lorccàn’s shoulder, just as he felt Lorccàn’s own sword grazed past his leg. Lorccàn’s face mirrored his own.
He dropped his sword quickly and threw his hand onto Lorccàn’s upper arm, using his free hand to then gently pulling aside the sliced shirt. As the bastard he was, he had cut far too deep. Without returning his gaze to Lorccàn’s, he started tearing his own sleeve off, as if on instinct, “I… I need you to remove you armor and fest…” he said shakily, only then realizing that Lorccàn had been speaking all along.
“I’m so sorry…” he repeatedly uttered, his voice slightly higher then usual.
Shaking his head, Alaois attempted to give a calming smile, “It’ll be alright… you’ll be fine. Just take you armor…” he said in an unstable, yet soft voice as he aided Lorccàn in taking it off.
As soon as Lorccàn’s rest was removed as well, Alaois was able to better assess the cut as blood pour over his own fingers, “Oy…” he uttered, unable to stop it from crossing his lips as he realized how bad it was. He was almost on the verge of tears, “We’re going to have to remove your shirt, too…”
Lorccàn’s hand flew onto his own, face paler then average, causing his freckles to stand out strikingly so, “I’m fine…” he lied.
“This is no time to be noble.” Alaois replied sharply, more sternness behind his words then he had intended. He was finding it harder to breathe suddenly, and his whole body now quacked as much as his hands.
Looking into Lorccàn’s eyes, though, Alaois didn’t see pain, but fear, as Lorccàn’s own eyes were filled with years, “I’m fine…”
Shocked, Alaois found himself speechless. The blood continued to drip down Lorccàn’s arm and off of his fingers, forming a quickly growing puddle in the dirt below.
Shaking his head, Alaois released Lorccàn’s arm suddenly and grabbed the collar of his shirt, “Don’t be so dense…” he uttered as he began popping the buttons, slowly, so not to shake Lorccàn or ruff him up any more than he already was.
Fighting off Lorccàn’s feeble hands as they tried to loosen Alaois’s grip. Only four buttons down did he finally stop, slowly releasing Lorccàn as he stumbled backwards, bringing his bloodied hands to his forehead as head looked, shocked beyond his own recognition, as the faint mumble of Lorccàn’s pleads echoed in his ear.
Without putting any thought into it, he blindly began wrapping Lorccàn’s shoulder with is shredded sleeve, making sure to tie it tightly, all the while keeping his eyes on Lorccàn’s petrified face.
Holding her shirt closed, Lorccàn backed away as soon as Alaois had tended to his wound, “Sir, please…” she began, voice filled with hysterics and fear.
Alaois placed his finger just before Lorccàn’s lips, not wanting to smear the blood from his hand onto Lorccàn’s face. He actually wasn’t surprised to find himself nervously smiling, “No… don’t… it’s alright… we’ll just…”
Lorccàn grabbed Alaois’s hand with both of his own, “I beg of you, don’t tell anyone! If they knew, God only knows what they would do to me!” she clamored in one breath, desperation written clear across her head.
“You’re safe… you’re safe…” Alaois found himself uttering soothingly, his widened eye softening. He then found Lorccàn falling into him, head resting against his chest. Smile allaying, her embraced her.
Although he should see her face, he could hear the weak grin in her voice as she uttered against chest, “I don’t feel so well…”
Not sure what to do, Alaois looked down at the top of her head, gently removing her cap so that her long hair cascaded down her back. Things seemed a lot more obvious to him once the whole picture had been revealed.
On instinct, he began rubbing her back, “We’ll go into town, and get you fixed up first off, alright?”
She nodded against his body, though she did so feebly.
Then, with a gasp, she looked back up, into his eyes, “Your leg! How are we going to get there?”
Arching a brown, Alaois looked down at the leg in which he had felt her blade graze, though now he found his own gapping wound, his leather boot soaked completely through with his own blood, “Nice… shoot…” he found himself laughing.
As though she hadn’t heard his joke, Lorccàn continued to look up to him, fretting, despite his best attempt at a smile, “I’m so sorry…”
Shaking some sweat soaked hair from his face, he patted the back of her head, “I have yet to feel it, so I think I can make it into town before the pain kicks in.
Again, the joke didn’t faze her.
With a grunt, he suddenly scooped her up, supporting her head with one arm, her legs with the other, leaving her wide-eyed with surprise.
Alaois now started to feel the searing pain of his leg as soon as her added weigh was placed upon it, but he was able to ignore it long enough to already start walking. Though Lorccàn attempted to struggle out of his grasp, but he merely smiled, “Relax... you’re safe…”
And with that, she finally smiled.