The sound of wood and steel clashing echoed out over the night darkened shoreline. The figures of two large women could be seen dancing in and out of range for strikes and slashes with their spears, or sword, and shield. Alanna had gone with a shorter grip with her spear and held her short sword in her off hand while Scáthach wielded her spear and shield combo. The druid was quick and strong but the style she was trying to implement was not working well for her. The weapons were just two different to be used with a standard sword or spear style. However, she was learning an important lesson and also understanding her current limitations. So, she continued to adjust her stance and strikes with her superhuman agility strength to develop something different if not altogether new.

  Scáthach's smile had somehow made it back on her face after nearly an hour of sparring. She was not being pushed to a great extent but she was being pushed to increase her speed and techniques. This little demigod in front of her was not the greatest warrior she had faced but she was learning or perhaps relearning at an extreme pace. Her martial skills were in an adepts range with room for significant growth but she was learning from every single thrust, parry, and slash. Her footwork was becoming refined as the druidess could somehow feel the slight imperfections in her movements and would make corrections in the next. Scáthach was in awe of her young charge and for the first time in centuries she felt excitement. Would she truly be able to train someone to surpass her? Her eyes held within them a light newly reinvigorated.

  The warrior and druid continued training for a while before Scáthach stepped back and lowered her weapon while relaxing her stance. "Good work." The warrior said with an approving nod. "You have come a long way and I can see the trials were good for you." Alanna frowned at the statement as she recalled the pain. Yet she could not refute the claim. Her combat prowess had increased and even though she had her druidic abilities and magic to supplement her, her fighting skill did increase as did her overall awareness in combat. She could almost feel the weapons piercing her flesh again. She would avoid getting stabbed in the future. She looked at Scáthach and smiled with a nod. "It was the hardest thing I have experienced thus far and while a part of me wants to deny your words," she paused and took a deep breath and closed her eyes pushing the memory of the pain she felt from the weapons and the curse of pain aside. "It was good for me."

  Scáthach watched the young woman carefully and nodded in satisfaction. The girl was young but she had a warriors heart. She would be fine. "Mastery of a weapon is mastery of yourself." The old warrior queen said as she put her weapons away and sat down on the large driftwood log. Alanna followed suit and cast a spell that had a large plant growing next to her with large green bulbous fruits that fell into her hands. She handed one to the warrior and broke open the other revealing a starchy fruit. The warrior nodded her thanks and broke open her own fruit and stared into the fire while nibbling at the slightly sweet treat. "You are starting to show the signs that you are mastering yourself." Scáthach continued. "I can see it in your every movement. Minute corrections. It is good to see." Alanna smiled and nodded her own head in acceptance and gratitude while she snacked on her own fruit.

  The warrior smiled slightly. "I do not want to pretend that I understand the world you live in. Yet I imagine what was true then is still true. The world has its violent times and we have to fight to keep what is ours. My sword and spear were the tools I used to showcase my strength and I used them to carve out a piece of land to call my own." She stared into the fire but her eyes saw only the scenes of the past. "I had to kill thousands to keep that plot of land and eventually I became something more. Perhaps I was a queen. Perhaps I was a warrior. Yet, I became a teacher or trainer if you prefer. Then I became a legend and even though it was minor I became a god. Not because I wanted to but because the people believed it to be true and in those times, that was all it took.

  Alanna paused in her breadfruit mastication and stared at the woman with a raised brow. "You became a god because people believed you were a god?" She asked. The older woman snorted and laughed. "Yep." She said as she popped the p. Alanna shook her head. "I know that quite a lot of people have lost their faith in God or any gods really." Alanna said thoughtfully. "I think it would be nigh impossible to become a god in modern times." Scáthach nodded in understanding. "It is not wholly relevant to what I was trying to convey." The warrior queen said with a smile. "I was trying to get to the point that I do not know what it is you fight for and I do not know what the battlefields of the modern world you live in are like. However, the reasons we fight will never change." Scáthach paused and looked expectantly at the druidess. Alanna took the bait and looked questioningly at the older woman. "What is that?" She asked. Scáthach smiled and looked back toward the fire and into her past. "To take what we want or to keep what we have."

  Alanna frowned and considered the warriors words. There were thousands of justifications made but like fractions they could be reduced to the lowest common denominator and every scenario she thought of ended with taking or keeping. "Huh," she grunted. "I never actually considered it overmuch." Scáthach nodded knowingly. "I did not either until I took a place for myself then spent years holding it. They made up many reasons to come after my land but in the end they just wanted what I had. I was called a witch a warmonger and a danger to the sovereignty of the land. This gave cause to the people. It was a justification they could be comfortable with yet it was still just a matter of them wanting to take and me wanting to keep." The older warrior woman smiled sadly. "The result was they came against me and were slaughtered. However, this just created additional enemies from families that had been broken. I had taken from them even as they tried to take from me. The justifications did not matter it is what we use to make ourselves feel as though we walk the correct path. It is easy to fight for a cause and to generate support for said cause when it is built on a foundation of passion. Yet hiding at its core lives an ugly concept be it pride, wrath, greed, or envy."

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  The women were silent as they stared into the fire in reflection. Alanna smirked and looked at the women next to her. "Didn't you take the land for your own?" She asked with a bit of snark. The older woman laughed and nodded in agreement. "That I did. I wanted my own place and I took my own place." Her mirth died slowly as her past memories began to replay in her mind's eye. Alanna's smile faded as well as she thought about her own life and the world she was a part of. "We all think we own the land but it was here before we were and it will be after we are gone." She said aloud. "We are just squatters. The latest animals that mark their territory. Yet unlike the animals we do not know how or when to stop when we have what we need." Scáthach shrugged. "Perhaps or perhaps we fight because nature demands balance. We are the apex of this world so we must fight ourselves to maintain that balance."

  Alanna frowned and stared into the fire deep in though. Was this true? It felt somewhat true. If the world was united under one banner would we break it apart by our need for conflict? She did not know but had a feeling it would not last without a greater external threat. Yet life was conflict. The evolutionary imperative demanded it to determine who could sit at the apex. However, human life was not the only life out there. Bacteria could and did kill off humans and the correct series could wipe out the current apex species on earth. It was interesting and terrifying and she did not know why her mind went off on a tangent about it. She could appreciate that her world and Scáthach's world, while being the same physical land, was not even close to similar in a socioeconomic and religious context. Combat while at its base may have not changed overmuch the battlefields and weapons sure did. For most, in all the countries she had lived in, war was a foreign concept. It happened over there and never here. So, while it was certainly a "thing," it was never "real" to her or any of her friends and family.

  It was safe for Scáthach to assume that Alanna was wholly battle hardened. She was far more hardened than any of her generation, at least those that came from a similar local, but this was due to the memories of her past lives. They offered insight and helped subtly lead her in a direction her former self would not have conceived of. Yet, she was still largely herself. She was influenced by her past lives but she was also influenced by modern society and how she was raised. She could fight and had already made the decision to kill if necessary but that did not change her desire for self actualization or personal freedom. Additionally, it did not change how she wanted the world to be based on her own ideals.

  With their minds full of contemplation and concern the pair eventually decided to rest until the next morning. Alanna cast a growth spell around the small camp which caused several vines to grow up around them. It was not much of a defense but it would act as an early warning system for anything that got too close. With that out of the way the pair set up their sleeping mats and entered the realm of dreams.

  They woke up with the dawn and Alanna summoned water to wash up and for the refreshing drink. She brushed her teeth with her quickly diminishing tooth paste and brush and freshened herself for the day to come. Her traditional clothes were actually rather comfortable to sleep in even if they could over heat her if she were not careful. She had to remove the brat halfway through the night but otherwise it was comfortable. After a quick breakfast of breadfruit and a piece of smoked meat the two began to pack up the camp when they heard splashing sounds coming from the large body of water nearby.

  The pair looked up to see a pair of winged serpents pulling a chariot across the water and moving toward the women. Alanna titled her head in confusion and looked to Scáthach. The older woman seemed to be relaxed and just stared as the white serpents made their way onto the beach. The serpents were a bit odd considering they looked like large winged snakes yet everything about them and the chariot was just a bit off. For one thing were not at all wet even though they were traveling over the ocean or massive lough whatever this body of water was. Secondly, they were not leaving prints on the sand as they made it to shore. Perhaps the greatest oddity was the man standing in the back of the massive golden chariot.

  At first Alanna could not understand what was wrong even though she could see what was wrong. It was so bizarre that her mind simply refused to process what she was seeing. By most metrics the man in the chariot was gorgeous. His long curly blond hair flowed backward in the wind as his vehicle moved forward. He stood at nearly 2.5 meters and wore a magnificent cloaked brat over a chiseled nearly bare chest and abdomen. The brat extended down and around his legs like a kilt of sorts. It hung together with a golden clasp in the shape of a barrel at his left shoulder where the cloak billowed out in the wind. The whole outfit was made of a deep royal crimson color that perfectly meshed with his sea weathered and sun kissed skin tone.

  The man wore a confident smile as his massive arms were on display as his hands sat comfortably on both hips. He had one leg perched on the side of the chariot even as his other two were planted firmly against vehicle floor to secure his balance. Alanna just stared dumbfoundedly at the display it took her a full 10 seconds of staring before she realized what she had seen. She scanned the mans lower body again and frowned in utter confusion. He had one leg propped up against the top of the side of the chariot and two legs keeping his balance on the vehicle. It was too much for the druid who managed to peel her gaze away from the impossibility in front of her and look over at Scáthach who did not look overly amused or concerned. She just looked tired.

  The chariot whirled around in the sand and the flying serpents changed their directions back out toward the sea leaving the back opening facing the two women. However, somehow the three legged man in the back had turned around completely and in the exact same position without actually moving. "What is going on?" Alanna asked herself quietly. However, it was apparently loud enough for the man to hear as he laughed boisterously and took his hands off his hips and extended them out toward the women in a gesture of welcome. He seemed nice enough even though his face was a little too perfect which for some reason irritated Alanna. She couldn't understand exactly why right away but something about this guy, other then his impossible and just wrong third leg, was just off and when he took a step forward Alanna.exe stopped working. A humanoid body was not meant to move like that.