Leave!

Nat had rapidly become one of the most elite swordsmen in camp. He had taken to wearing a two-handed broadsword. He had been practicing all out no rules combat with the Lieutenant lately and anything was allowed. Knives, kicks, even grabbing weapons from the small circle of on lookers to use. All the weapons were practice weapons and wouldn’t kill but definitely bruised. Nat was having quite a time holding his own against the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was making a furious all out attack at him with a spear, wielding it like a quarterstaff bringing one end forward in a stab or swing and then reversing it and slamming the other end at Nat. Nat parried several blows, rolled under another blow and struck out with his own offensive. The Lieutenant pulled back and hurled the spear at Nat who spun sideways and pushed the spear aside. Suddenly realizing the Lieutenants ploy Nat tried to twist back the other way as a knife came streaking towards him. It bounced off his right shoulder and the Lieutenant shouted “Touche!” Nat gripped his sword in his left arm and made a swift attack at the lieutenant who drew his sword and returned the attack. After taking several other hits about his person Nat caught the Lieutenant’s sword in his side and stabbed him in the stomach simultaneously. The Lieutenant laughed (after getting his breath back) and said, “My goodness you are almost too good for me, Nat!” I made you pay dearly for that though…plus in battle a hit to the side like that would probably finish you in the end…so you have to work on your swordsmanship there.”
“Well I was slightly hampered without my left arm and then you gave me that nice hit across the thigh and so I decided to take a hit to deal a hit you know…sometimes it is the only way to get your opponent.”
“You did fine, Nat,” the Lieutenant nodded. “Hey I have this for you” the Lieutenant handed Nat a slip of paper with several names inscribed on it. Nat haltingly read it aloud:

“This certifies that the soldiers Woodsbury village are hereby granted 2 months of leave having completed their basic training and regular training exercises. The bearers of this are to be at their posts no later than the 1st day of the 5th month of this year of 1845 of the Second Age.”

“I can go home! I can really go home and see my mother?” Nat exclaimed. “Yes I have been longing to go see her for ages! Wait till I show Dyl!” The Lieutenant chuckled as Nat ran off to find his friend.

Nat sprinted through camp bumping into other soldiers and ran smack into Varrelle, who was naturally indignant. Her annoyance and anger faded though when she saw how happy Nat was and heard his news. Well it appeared to fade to Nat. He rushed off leaving Varrelle in queer mood, had she been…happy or sad? He put it out of his mind though in his excitement. Nat sped over to Dyl’s tent and checked it swiftly finding him gone hunted through the whole camp finally spotting Dyl.
“Dyl! Dyl,” Nat hollered excitedly. Soldiers gave him strange glances and stepped out of the way but Nat didn’t care. “Hey Dyl look at this!” Nat waved the paper in the air and thrust it in Dyl’s face as Dyl calmly came up. Dyl often seemed to be calm whenever Nat was really excited about something. Though Nat knew he was also excited, Dyl often felt he needed to counter Nat’s enthusiasm.
“Guess what,” Dyl said calmly.
“What?”
“I have one too,” Dyl produced an identical slip and winked at Nat.
“You knew! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Nat exclaimed.
“Well I wanted to keep it a surprise and all.”

Nat and Dyl quickly went and packed their things after finding that pretty much all the men in the company from the surrounding area were also on leave for two months. That evening when Nat and Dyl were helping Varrelle with a few of her jobs Nat excitedly related his day and who all was leaving for home for the next two months and what was probably going on at the farm. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
“Varrelle, where are you going on leave?”
Varrelle appeared caught off guard by the question but calmly replied, “I am going to go back north to my hometown.”
Nat pondered this…she had never really talked about her hometown. “Where is that?”
“Well it used to be near the border…the Siltinians sacked it though so I was going to go look for any survivors or at least do something…”
Dyl glanced at Nat, “well if your town doesn’t exist anymore there is no sense going there…” he trailed off and Nat picked up on his silence. “You could come with us…meet my mother and Dyl’s family. I am sure you would be quite welcome.”
At first Varrelle said she wouldn’t come but later that evening she asked how far our village was.
“About a two week journey if we push hard,” Dyl said.
Pondering this Varrelle finally said she would ponder it and reply in the morning. After saying this she shooed them out of the tent and as they left that peculiar old woman came walking in and cackled a hello to Nat and Dyl. Nat replied cheerfully and Dyl suspiciously. Nat and Dyl then went and crashed into their bedrolls and slept hard until morning.

Varrelle looked out of the flap of her tent when she heard someone coming. The soft padding of feet didn't sound like a soldier, so she relaxed a bit. She wondered if it might not be the old woman. Yes.....that must be it. The padding was coming closer. Suddenly, a shriveled face peeked into the tent and cackled, "Here I am deary. Ready to have a nice chat?”
Varrelle had to smile. One thing had to be admitted; the old woman had a peculiar style that made her appealing.
"Now is this how you treat your guests?" the old woman asked.
"I'm sorry Grandmother." Varrelle said respectfully.
"Deary, I'm not that old. You can call me Sheera." the old woman said, in a falsely offended voice.
"Alright Sheera, what do you know about me, and why am I important to you?”
“Well aren’t you Miss Hospitality. If you must know, I’m going to play a very big role in your life. You have a talent. Stronger than mine even, and I didn’t think anyone would have that. You are an oddity, and even though you are stronger than I am, I can teach you some very important things that you are going to want to know. Do you want me to explain?”
“Ummmmmm…………. OK.” Varrelle managed to say, surprise overwhelming her. “Well first off, let me give you an example of how I can help you. Remember healing that boy? Well you fainted after that. Why? Because you used up your store of power. Even though you are powerful, you need to learn control, and build your powers. If you had been properly trained, you wouldn’t have been allowed to do something that big until you had built up your powers. You would do small things. Like make a feather float in the air. Even if those kinds of things don’t fall under your powers, anyone can do that. Beyond that, you would start healing small things. Obviously healing is one of your gifts. SO, you would maybe have a mouse with a scratch on it, and you would heal the scratch. You would move on to bigger things. Large birds, cats, dogs, until eventually, you would be able to heal a human with worse wounds than that boy you took care of without blinking, much less\n fainting.” “But G- Sheera, I DON”T have powers. I’m serious. Please don’t make accusations that aren’t true!” Varrelle said reluctantly, wishing she had the powers that Sheera said she did. “Fine then, deny it, but you know deep down that it’s true. At least let me come every night, and I can teach you about herbs. OK? That’s the least you can do deary.” Sheera said slyly. “Alright\n Sheera. Just at night though.” Varrelle said. ",1]
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“Ummmmmm…………. OK.” Varrelle managed to say, surprise overwhelming her.
“Well first off, let me give you an example of how I can help you. Remember healing that boy? Well you fainted after that. Why? Because you used up your store of power. Even though you are powerful, you need to learn control, and build your powers. If you had been properly trained, you wouldn’t have been allowed to do something that big until you had built up your powers. You would do small things. Like make a feather float in the air. Even if those kinds of things don’t fall under your powers, anyone can do that. Beyond that, you would start healing small things. Obviously healing is one of your gifts. SO, you would maybe have a mouse with a scratch on it, and you would heal the scratch. You would move on to bigger things. Large birds, cats, dogs, until eventually, you would be able to heal a human with worse wounds than that boy you took care of without blinking, much less fainting.”
“But G- Sheera, I DON”T have powers. I’m serious. Please don’t make accusations that aren’t true!” Varrelle said reluctantly, wishing she had the powers that Sheera said she did.
“Fine then, deny it, but you know deep down that it’s true. At least let me come every night, and I can teach you about herbs. OK? That’s the least you can do deary.” Sheera said slyly.
“Alright Sheera. Just at night though.” Varrelle said.
“That will work for me.” Sheera said. After a few cups of tea, Sheera left, leaving a very confused Varrelle behind her. When Nat and Dyl came 10 minutes after Sheera had left asking questions, Varrelle politely told them that she couldn’t talk that night, but that in the morning she would explain. When Nat and Dyl complained, she shoved them\n out into the crisp night air, and prepared to go to bed. As she lay there on her mat, she wondered what was going to happed the next night.