Random Fic thing - Dar Ellia
The ground is hard, dark stains from the blood of the thousands of students who have been here before you. An unbroken chain of tradition stretching back for millennia.
You are not impressed.
The dust stings and you lift your head, the swelling on your cheek tilting you off-kilter. The hilt's leather has already torn your raw hands to shreds but reluctant fingers close a fraction tighter as you push yourself up and the world threatens to slip out from under your feet. You shift position, feet apart and sword dipping until the point clinks against the rough stone.
A gust of wind sends your hair whipping across your face, snarled strands making your eyes sting as they blink a fraction too late. You hear - sense? - the movement even with your eyes closed and spin, sword flying up in a desperate block. The shock of impact nearly jars a scream loose but you won't let them have this satisfaction. The blades grate and shriek against each other, both of you pushing and grunting on opposite sides of the metallic cross.
You toss you head, flipping away most of the hair and disengage, swords twisting and screeching as you part. The swelling on your cheek is starting to throb - you swear you can feel the blood pulsing through it. There's no pain, just an ache that goes to the bone. There will be pain later - your teeth close on a flap of tissue and the sickly taste of blood coats your tongue.
They say that the Warrior is capricious. That She demands blood from her worshippers - not the blood on the altars of pagan Godlings, but blood on steel.
In the Temple, the Warrior is magnificent, terrible and awesome in Her wrath. Out here, in the bare barren training lands, the Warrior is small, petty and malicious. Even the statues, rubbed smooth and distorted by the elements, seem to smirk from their dwindling alcoves. You've been here for three weeks now, sleeping in rickety wooden huts and watching the stars, brilliant in the cold, clear night air, sparkle through the holes in the roof.
The clerics say that this is to teach respect.
You're a bad student.
All you've learnt is how to hate.
And so to bed.
Got a new start tomorrow.