Elfborn: The Quest

Chapter 2: Unforeseen Complications

The young Hybernian ducked to let the steel blade whistle just over his head as Leo went for the killing blow in his first attack.

"Uncle! Don't you recognize me?" he cried as he pulled back, eyes wide. "It's your nephew, Lash! Please, don't force me to hurt you."

"Nephew??" Leo barked in disbelief, resetting himself. "I haven't seen any of my nephews in well over eleven years! I wouldn't know him from you even if the Primate of Gaul himself pointed you out! And it won't be me receiving hurt!" And once more he was moving to the attack.

Again Leo's arming sword hissed just wide as Lash twisted hard to avoid the determined overhand cut across his body. It was a struggle to hold back the new instincts the young Hybernian seemed to find burning through his muscles, nearly forcing him to go on the attack. 'A gift from the elven ghost,' he mused darkly as he hopped back to avoid a high-speed series of cuts and slashes from the big knight that followed the overhand strike. 'If I'm not careful, that gift is going to see my uncle dead!'

"I am your nephew, Leo," he insisted, eyes narrowed as he watched Leo for his next move.

"Then prove it," the big man hissed, moving in quick. Another tight cut went underneath him as Lash leapt straight into the air nearly a full meter, tucking his legs beneath him to let the sword cut through nothing but space before dropping lightly back to the floor.

"Give me the name of my brother's favorite horse. Not the one he rode on state occasions, but the one he went hunting with. No one but our family should know that!"

Lash blinked, his mind working.

"It was Sasha, a bay gelding," he exclaimed, reasonably confident as he ducked under yet another hard swing, the blade close enough to nearly give him a haircut.

"Wrong!" Leo snarled and Lash had to move fast to avoid getting cut in two. The sword bit deep into the rough wood of the tent pole where he had been standing as the lean young man darted to the side.

"Then it was Asgard, the black stallion. I keep forgetting you left the Black Hills when I was only ... urk!" The blade gleamed in the dull light as it missed Lash's face by a hair's breadth.

"Seven!" he finished grimly as he regained his footing from his wild scramble back. "He took Sasha as his hunting mount after Asgard went to stud when I was nine."

Then Lash instinctively threw his hands up as Leo came with another overhand cut. This time, however, the young Hybernian wasn't prepared for the swift attack. Caught flat-footed, his body moved for him. And he found himself slapping his hands together to pin the downward-bound blade between his palms just in time to stop it from cleaving his head in two.

Leo grunted as he found his sword abruptly held as if caught in stone. He looked in surprise to see Lash's grim face.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked dryly. Then, his body still moving by instinct and now filled with new ones, Lash used his grip on Leo's sword to flip his uncle, armor and all, over his shoulder where the big man crashed heavily into the stool and its bag of medical tools, still standing after Leo had earlier destroyed the table. There Lash stood, gazing at the groaning man with a thoughtful expression on his face as he dropped Leo's sword with a clatter to the floor.

He was still gazing down at the staggered knight when the door to the examining area was abruptly pulled open. Having gone for reinforcements when he saw his men about to be defeated, the sergeant had returned in force. This time a full two dozen soldiers, backed by four more knights, poured into the tent, intent on taking the lean Hybernian down.