Rojuun

Chapter 29

“I want to stay with Liselle and make sure she’s comfortable.”  Vevin stubbornly stood next to the bed with his arms crossed.  He didn’t want to leave Liselle’s side to fight the sstejj.  Tathan was staring at him with lowered eyebrows and Sir Danth was chuckling at the two of them.  Marrraa had come to get them and listened to the disagreement with wide eyes.  She remembered that both of these men considered Vevin to be the superior warrior.

“Vevin,” Liselle spoke from the bed with a stern voice.  “I’ll be just fine.  It’s bad enough that I have to stay in bed while everyone else does the work, but it’s not fair that your efforts should be taken away from them as well.”  She reached out and touched his arm.  “I know you care for me, but I’ll be displeased if you treat me like a figurine to always stand guard over.”

The dragon blushed, his cheeks becoming a dark purple.  “I’m sorry, Lady Liselle.  I just don’t want to leave you,” he said shyly, moving his toe back and forth on the floor.

“I know, Vevin.  Sometimes a girl needs a day alone to rest quietly though.  Go beat up some sstejj and have fun with it,” Liselle encouraged him with a smile.

His face brightened at that.  “That will be fun.  I should catch up on gill shots.  I bet I can pass Sir Danth and Tathan combined.”  He began doing what the rest of them assumed was a gill shot dance.  His smile was sharp and he did a spin.

“Go, boys.  Go with Marrraa and keep the workers safe,” Liselle said, shooing them away.

They each gave her a hug before going.  She settled back down under the covers, falling asleep as they closed the door.

***

The companions walked to the gate bragging about gill shots.  Marrraa had four trainees with her and they listened to the humans in awe, knowing the deeds to be true now that many Rojuun had witnessed it.  The workers who followed listened just as intently to the stories.

When they reached the end of the tunnel, Marrraa cast her ice/mist spell on the ones trying to get through the gates.  Once the sstejj were cleared, the workers went toward two tunnels a distance to the right of the main tunnel.

Each of the fighters was assigned one trainee.  Vevin and his trainee, who looked scared out of his wits, took the first group of four sstejj.  Vevin ran up to the first sstejj.  When it tried to bite him, he grabbed it by the jaws and threw it against another one to slow it down.  The workers and other trainees watched with open mouths.  Tathan, Sir Danth and Marrraa had seen it before, but still looked on in amazement.  Vevin quickly went back to his trainee and told him how to use his knives to attack it.

The trainee tried to move to the sstejj’s side to get a gill shot.  He misjudged, tripping over his own feet.  The sstejj sensed easy food until Vevin touched it with his hand.  Purple lightning coursed over the sstejj’s body, killing it instantly.  The trainee shuffled away on his butt as the creature’s snout landed between his legs.

“Get up!” yelled Vevin at the trainee.  Another sstejj attacked.  Suddenly a great magical whip was in Vevin’s hand.  It was dark purple with his trademark lightning coursing down its length.  The whip flew back over Vevin’s shoulder then came forward in an arc.  It hit the gills on the right side of the monster’s head, exploding through the gills on the left.  A loud snap echoed throughout the cavern on impact.  The force of it caused the creature’s head to crack as it crashed to the ground.  Vevin pulled the whip back, entwining it around his body.

The trainee was beside Vevin now.  The look on his face crossed between awe at Vevin and determination not to make a fool of himself.  He sprang forward as another sstejj charged.  The Rojuun trainee tumbled to the left and attacked the gills when he came to his feet.  The knife was pulled out of his hand without any damage to the sstejj, but the trainee recovered in time to jump up and land on the back of the creature.  He thrust two of his knives into the body for his first kill.