“We would like you to perform the last rites of our family and neighbors,” were words Kiao never thought she would hear. They weighed on her heart. Death was something she saw and then sent to someone else to tend to. She never once was so personal with a burial itself. The most she would do was sing as she had for Lyndon’s burial when his body was returned. However, there were many each year for wardens. There were for those who dies during duty and those who were blessed with dying of old age. She didn’t go to all of them. Some didn’t need her to attend however, she went to many of them. They never felt as close to that one.

She needed quiet time after the request, so she went directly to her cart, flipping through the book of prays that Brother Jaron had given her. She was supposed to memorize them all but the most she had done was memorize the first year's blessing as she blessed more children than anything. In what little time she had, she decided to try to memorize the final rite’s pray. However, sitting in the confined space made her mind wonder. She thought about her friends and wondered if they were okay. Did their world get upturned? Did the storm affect them? Did the world end for another town for that matter and on their way back, would all they see was a path of destruction?

Kiao rubbed her face and Emmery manifested herself. The ermine appeared on her shoulders and rubbed her hand on her chin.

“I’m not completely well about this. I want to go home,” she told Emmery. It was the first time during her mission that she wanted to go home.

There was a tap on the side of the cart. “Ko-ko it’s me.”

Kiao leaned forward and slid the window panel open and was greeted by Briar’s face. The young leaned on the window frame.

Kiao went back to studying. “What is it?”

“I want to talk. Stop hiding,” she said.

“Not hiding, I want quiet time. And about what?”

“The mighty second warden is being a jackass jerk.”

Kiao lifted her eyes first from the book and then her head. “Excuse me?”

“Well, to start, telling my girl to leave because he’s trying to be ‘considerate’ and doesn’t want her to ber where she doesn’t want to. He embarrassed her!”

Kiao closed the thin book and leaned on the frame of the window. “I think she was probably equally embarrassed by your reaction, but she, in the end said she didn’t mind and Xylia isn’t meek.”

Briar shook her head. “She should’ve stayed. This is an experience we all need. The world isn’t a fun adventure all the time. What’s going to happen if she goes to the Sisterhood? Does she think frozen bodies munched on by bears and wolves any better?”

“In his mind, she was a weak link. Instead of keeping her here, he had the option to remove her, so he did,” reasoned Kiao. “It’s called band management. I trust him to know what is best.”

“It’s not what is best. He’s basing her off his experiences. Especially the gorge.”

Kiao sighed. “That is going to cling to him for the rest of his life. He may have forgiven himself for his cousin, but he’s seen band mismanagement. He’s trying to keep this situation clean. Which brings me to something he wanted to tell you. If when it gets too tense here, he wants you to leave.”

Briar crossed her arms. “What do you mean, leave?”

“He wants you and the remaining huntresses to leave. Me and him will stay here and try to quell anything that may happen.”

“Above and below,” Briar growled. She turned away. “Soletub!”

Kiao’s shoulders sagged, and she sighed at her referring to him by that insulting childhood name and scooted from where she sat and then out the cart. “I don’t need them getting into a fight,” she muttered to herself.

The young monk was by the road looking down it when Briar marched up to him.

“Leave, you want us to leave,” she roared.

He looked over her shoulder to Kiao rushing towards them. “I was trying to explain what you told me earlier,” she shouted.

His gaze focused on Briar. “Yes, if things get tense here, I want you to leave,” he explained.

“Why? Because you’re a monk of an order who didn’t want to bother escorting their own priestess because it was so much trouble!”

“Briar,” said Soletus calmly.

“If it was so important to have someone here worthy to deal with a situation, maybe there should be a real band here.”

Soletus firmed up his voice. “Briar!”

“And don’t you Briar me,” she said, poking her finger in his chest. “You keep on making decisions without me, and my approval. I’m in charge of the huntresses, not you. You aren’t a first warden, and you became a second warden because of your father. And if he was here, he wouldn’t push us aside like were a joke!”

Soletus grabbed her hand by the wrist. His expression tercherous. “This has nothing to do with me pushing you aside. I’m sorry for not discussing this with you, but are you very unaware of the precarious situation we are in. People think Kiao called that storm on them. If they turn on us, I want them to target Kiao and me, not you!”

“But we can help defend her,” pressed Briar. “If we are good enough to escort her, then we are good enough to fight for her!”

“Briar, this situation requires as little fighting as possible.”

“Because you are too afraid to have us fight. You don’t think we can handle it!”

“No that’s not reason,” he shouted loud. Kiao didn’t know how he didn’t manage not to force his voice at her as he was prone to do when he was upset. Though he had formed some control over himself. That even then he showed as recognition form on his face that he lot his temper. Something he was trying to improve on. He let go of Briar’s wrist and then back away. “You know what? Prove to me that you are a good leader. I challenge you.”

“Fine,” said Briar, punching her fist with her hand. “I fight you and win. I’ve done it before.”

“Not a duel,” he explained. “Duels only prove individual fighting prowls. That has little to do with being a good leader. Get the huntresses. Tell them to get their canes and come down here. Bring my staff.”

Briar did what he said gleefully. Kiao walked the rest of the way towards him. He started to unwind the sash around his waist.

“Sorry, I probably didn’t enter a conversation with her very well.”

Soletus’s jaw was tight, and he took off his jerkin in silence and then pulled his shirt off over his head. “Hold these,” he requested softly. He then put his jerkin back on. “I don’t want to rip my shirt and I want my sash clean.”

“So this is about fighting,” she asked.

“It is, but not the way you think,” he told her and then stood straight, legs apart, and his arms folded behind his back. He was silent, impressively stoic, standing there before he broke it with a growling sigh of frustration. “You know, for once in my life, I want people just to listen to me without question.”

“I know,” said Kiao.

“I could be a real true stern strict jackass about it. I should just become Enforcer Icus, give something for Briar really to complain about.”

“She was fine this entire trip until now. Do you think she might be over-compensating? That she is projecting?”

Soletus shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve gained more of a response of thoughts from the other huntresses. Perhaps all of this truly doesn’t bother her. And I’m just soft.”

“You’re not soft.”

Soletus let out a grunt.

“You’re like a pastry, as Mien puts it. Well, specially a crisp pastry.”

“So now I’m flakey on the outside and gooey on the inside?”

“Not all crispy pastries are flakey,” Kiao contended. “My point is, you have that hard shell. It’s there, it’s forming. Sometimes I wonder if you need to remember how young you are or how that heart of your works. It’s big because you care.”

“I care too much.”

“Care as much as you want. Love as much as you want. You’re doing better than me. I’m too objective. I expect others to do the same. I knew Briar is alway like that, and I made her blow up on you.”

He chuckled. “Lady Meadowlark. You’re objectiveness is highly appreciated. Of all the people here, I worry about you the least.”

“That’s just because if worse comes to worse, I can mind-control my way out of here,” she said as a joke.

“That’s exactly why I need them to go. They don’t need to see what you can do,” he told her seriously. “The less people who know, the better.”

Kiao had done so in a situation years ago and she scared his father. It wasn’t something she liked doing. She preferred persuasion without the use of her voice.

The huntresses come running up to him. Each other dusting off their battle skirts and getting their whip canes in place on the side of their him. Briar, out of them all, wielded two heavy canes as that was her personal preference. She handed Soletus his staff.

The young monk then pointed to the field across the road and they followed him. There he found a dusty spot with little grass growing there and scratched out a large triangle in the soil while he explained what he was doing.

“This is a common training exercise for the less experienced wardens. Generally junior wardens. It is done in a shape depending on the size of your band, however the rules are the same. You Briar, will arrange the huntresses as you see fit in the corners or this triangle. You will stay outside and give them orders.”

“Order to what,” she asked.

“Orders take action against me,” he said. “I’m the drass beast.”

“That’s sounds simple enough,” said Laurel.

Soletus tossed his staff to Kiao.

“There are some rules. Briar, your huntresses can only perform a single step and an action. You choose the direction they step and their action. There are two actions: attack or defend. Within those actions, you can only do three things. To attack, you can order the huntresses to thrust, strike, or kick. When ordering them to defend, you can tell them to either block, pivot, or jump out of the way.”

Briar frowned. “So you mean I’m moving all of you like pieces of a game?”

“The huntresses, yes. You can’t control me. I will be taking my own single actions and a step. However, I choose what want to do. I’m a drass beast, unpredictable.”

“Fine,” said Briar confidently.

Kiao couldn’t say she ever heard of such a training activity before, however, it was likely from the mind of his father. He could be very creative. And if Soleus wanted to prove a point, it wasn’t about winning.

Briar placed Helene, Eione, and Laurel on their points around Soletus.

“Girls, remember, you can only move when Briar tells you. If she is about to move you out of bounds, you tell her. If there is something you feel you can’t do, you tell her. If there is anything she needs to know, you tell her,” he told them.

They all nodded.

“Briar, this is the time you ask me what the drass beast is. You are observing the enemy.”

The young woman heaved her shoulders. “How should I know? I’ll figure it out as it happens.”

Kiao didn’t know if that was the right course of action for her to take. Briar wasn’t a terrible leader. The huntresses adored her because she had energy and didn’t act like an elven noble. She wasn’t a cushion sitting ivory skinned, elegant beauty who was known for both wisdom and grace with a social mind equivalent to a military traction. No, she was sun toasted, not all averse to doing work. She had the grace of a fighter to make up for her lack of grace for words and thought. She wasn’t the most thoughtful individual. Kiao started to understand why her father, the Patriarch of their order, continuously push her to look for something else to commit too. Commitment and drive meant very little if she strove wasn’t to the Brotherhood’s tastes. And she so far had taken that as the huntresses needed more than fighting prowls.

Kiao wasn’t going to pretend the only reason they kept her wasn’t just because of her healing ability. It helped greatly, but the late Brother Oli spent all the time he could teaching her the art of being a healer. Healing wasn’t just mending wounds. It was knowledge of the body. It was knowledge of cures. It was the knowledge of aliments. One had to know what herb was useful and what herb wasn’t. You had to learn how to deal with wardens who were stubborn at best and grown babies at worse. She had to learn how to organize and how to observe. He did that, so they wouldn’t throw her out. She was too valuable to kick out when they had the chance to do it.

The huntresses weren’t valuable. They didn’t know what it truly meant to be a monk. Perhaps that was what Soletus was trying to teach her.

Briar order the huntress to surround Soletus, taking a stance where they were ready to attack. Soletus didn’t move. The only movement he did was get down on his knee and pick up a handful of dirt, and then stood. Even just a priestess, Kiao felt that action was significant, but none of the huntress relayed it. Briar didn’t acknowledge it. When they were within in striking distance of Soletus, he turned. He was facing Laurel and then he instead he face Helene.

Briar smiled. “Okay, Laurel, I want you to strike that long-tailed drass beast in the back.”

Laurel led with her left cane and struck him in the back. Soletus did as promised and reacted unpredictably. He whipped around, swatting in the ear. Laurel cried out and stumbled.

“Ow, that hurt,” she said between her teeth.

Kiao kept her feet planted. She wanted to rush over there to see if she was okay, but being struck in the ear normally will just cause discombobulation that damage.

The smile on Briar’s face left. “Oh, so this is how it is,” she muttered and then ordered. “Eione, step forward. Aim for his knee.”

Kiao winced. She was to the right of Soletus and faced the hand that held the dirt. It went down hill from there. Eione moved to attack, Soletus tossed dirt in her eyes. She dropped her weapons and clawed at her eyes. Then he faced Helene.

“Briar, what do I? Should I help my sister?”

“Laural,” said Briar and saw the woman getting to her feet again, but holding her struck ear.

She had dropped to her knees and was shaking her head. “I’m fine now. I can do something,” she said. “Maybe.”

“Helene, step back, defend,” she said. “Laural, change positions, move left.”

That was the end of Briar’s turn. For Soletus’s turn he took a single step and tackled Helene. It was a rough landing. Soletus was nice enough to guide her down, but she still hit the ground with a rough thud. She let go her weapons on her way down and they were out of her reach.

Soletus then spoke. “So Briar, your girls compromised. One has been stunned, the other has been blinded, and the other is being attacked. Do we continue this or do you want to stop and we go over what you could have done better?”

Briar stared hard at him, clearly annoyed. “You’re a jackass.”

A wry smile appeared on Soletus’s face. “I am a drass beast.”

“So you sat up something I couldn’t win!”

“This isn’t about winning Briar. It’s about learning. It’s about observing, it’s about team work. The more you repeat this exercise, the more you learn. The easier it is to go further. We can continue this or I can free Helene and we talk.”

“Please can I be free,” said Helene. She was on her back still.

“Who cares about you being free. I need water for my eyes,” cried Eione.

“Fine,” relented Briar. “I yield.”

Kiao went to Eione side as well as Helene.

Soletus sat on the ground. Briar stomped over to him and smacked him on the shoulder. “That was unfair!”

“That exercise is based on a typical training exercise to learn team work. Papa modified it to help teach lessons in leadership as well as teamwork. One, it teaches that a band is nothing without a good first warden and a first warden is nothing without their band.”

“If that is the case, then sending us away, stupid.”

“But that is what I need from you. Have I done anything wrong for you not to trust me? My only guilty is stepping on your toes.” He then patted the ground beside him. “Sit.”

“Jerk,” she said, but sat down next to him.

Kiao left them alone and tended to Eione with Laural, staying with them.

“That was a stupid exercise,” said Eione. “Why the dirt?”

“He was making a point,” sighed Kiao. “I really dislike when he makes a point sometimes.”

“I liked him better before he became a second warden,” said Helene. “He was a lot more easy-going.”

Laural stared in the direction of Briar and Soletus. “I’ve only been with you girls for two years, but I knew from the start he pulled his punches with us. He didn’t for this secession. He wanted to be rough.”

“So Briar’s right, he’s been nice because we’re girls,” said. Helene rubbing her elbow.

Laural shock her head. “It’s more to do with what we do. As huntresses, we don’t do this kind of work. And this trip, so far, has been uneventful until now. Now, I suppose he knows we lack the knowledge he has, and he wanted to show Briar that.”

“He could just tell us or make Briar listen,” returned Helene and then she conceded. “Though she’s not been listening very well. At least not about Xylia.”

Eione squinted. “That left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like the fact he let her go alone. And I don’t like that Briar made her feel bad for leaving.”

Kiao then said. “Well, they’re talking now.”

“I don’t envy him at all,” stated Laurel. “I’ve tried to talking to her about what our focus here should be, but she is convinced if we stick around, the order will see what we’ve done and be impressed.”

Kiao got the feeling Soletus wouldn’t be waiting that long if he could help it.