Tria entered the garden, her eyes wide and drinking in all the colors. She walked over to the spring. She knelt and touched the water. It was colder than she had expected, but not unpleasant. She saw something floating on top of the water. She reached out and picked it up, it was a leaf. She turned it in her hand to look at both sides, she studied the veins on the underside of the leaf for several minutes before setting it back on the water. The leaf floated. Tria touched the leaf with a finger and the leaf spun slowly. She spotted something else floating, a stick. She picked up the stick and looked over it before setting it back in the water to float again.

Tria looked around her and saw sticks and leave on the ground. She picked them up and one by one set them in the water to float.

Tria jumped up when she heard someone coming. It was four mean, all looked to be knights. Tria stepped behind a tree and watched them as they measured twenty paces squared, dropping handkerchiefs at each corner.
One knight limbered up, stretching his muscles and rolling his neck. "The boy may not even show up, peasants can be such cowards, especially that crybaby. He's leaving with Wulfsen tomorrow, I'd like him to come back to his sister disheveled."
The other knights chuckled. "I've seen his sister, she is hot." One said.

Dyfir relaxed slightly when she saw that the fight had not begun yet, but the man Lek had challenged was clearly ready.

In reply to Difyr Bateman (msg # 268):

Millie hung back, hoping to not excaberate the situation.

Tria recognized the seamstress and crept over to her. She noticed the signs of anxiety. "Millie, what is going on?"

"Mr. Arrogance over there molested me on the dance floor and then bad mouthed Pinja to Lek. Lek got mad and challenged him to a duel over it."

"Oh." Tria was mystified but did her best not to show it. This was not at all how things went where she lived. She knew things were very different here but she had always heard that Millie's brother was not a fighter. "Is it a fight to the death?"

Millie shuddered. "I hope not."

Tria looked at the knight, he looked really strong and confident with the rapier that he was taking a few practice swings with. Lek could not beat him.

Lek arrived, wearing his armor. It was serviceable but clearly had not been made for him like Edgar's was. With no seconds Lek looked even less impressive before the knight.

"I was beginning to think you would take the coward's way out and go crying to Lord Thornblade." Edgar taunted and looked at Millie, being really obvious about undressing her with his eyes. "I'll enjoy your sister's favors after I beat you."

Lek gripped the hilt of his rapier. "Let's get this started."

Lek attacked first and the knight blocked the first strike, slashed at the boy, then Lek managed to poked the knight in the arm as Edgar taunted him. First blood, the knight frowned, beginning to look serious about this for a change. Edgar slashed at Lek, cutting a thin slash through his leather armor. Lek cut the knight's hand, hoping it would get him to drop his weapon so Lek could end this duel quickly and report to Wulfsen.

Edgar swore and ran his rapier along Lek's arm, slicing it open. That really hurt but Lek was not backing down. He parried and attacked, trying to get past the more experienced knight's defenses and cut that smirk off his face. Edgar managed to slash Lek's arm again. Lek knew he was going to have scars from this, and the wine had worn off so he was really feeling the pain but he still would not yield. Lek managed to get a few good cuts in but it was obvious to anyone watching who would win.

Lek was bleeding and losing form, he was having a harder time blocking and dodging Edgar's blows. Finally the knight just threw all his weight behind his rapier against Lek's and knocked him to the ground. He stepped on Lek's stomach and looked ready to finish him, but he suddenly turned his head to look at Millie and made an obscene gesture with his sword. With the knight distracted by being crude and lecherous, Lek rolled from under his foot, disarmed him and pressed the point of his rapier to the knight's throat, his hand shaking with exhaustion but with the slightest bit more pressure he would sever the knight's artery.

"Yield!" Lek panted.

For a minute the knight looked so shocked like he was about to say something stupid. "I- I yield." Edgar said, speaking very carefully.

"Do you take back what you said about Pinja?" Lek asked.

"I take it back."

"Apologize to my sister." Lek demanded, still panting.

"I'm sorry." Edgar said.

"Louder." Lek lowered his rapier slightly so Edgar could shout without bleeding out. "And say why you're apologizing."

"I'm sorry you were so..." Edgar stopped, he had never apologized for such a thing before. "I am sorry I behaved badly."

Millie couldn't bear to look at Edgar. She knew she had to forgive him, but just now, she couldn't. She just didn't have it in her, and she didn't believe for a moment that he meant it. She just lowered her head. Every experience she had had with a man was awful. She would never trust one again. The only thing keeping her from returning to the keep was to make certain Lek would be all right.

Now his victory felt hollow. Lek wondered if he would feel better if he killed him but he did not want to be a murderer. "I never want you to bother my sister or any woman ever again. I'll kill you next time. Get away from me. Now!"

Edgar did not even pick up his dropped rapier. He and his seconds fled to find the medic.

Lek leaned on his rapier like a walking stick. He was surprised he could win a fight and feel this terrible. He looked to Millie and Difyr, and a girl with blond hair- Lek's heart jumped for a moment, his sweat and blood blurry eyes thinking it was Pinja. But when he blinked to clear his eyes he realized it was someone he did not know. His shoulders slumped and he knelt on the ground.

"Oh, such a stupid way to solve things!" Difyr said angrily as she hurried over to catch the foolish boy. "Help me stop the bleeding, get this armor off him." She called to Millie and the other girl who watched the duel.

Millie hurried over and began working on unfastening the armor, the fasteners unlike anything she had ever worked with. "You idiot. Why didn't you just go to Wulfsen?" she complained.

"I couldn't let him get away with treating you like that." Lek said, wincing with pain. "It wasn't right... I don't know if I did it right after I won. I got him to apologize but he didn't mean it... I hope he doesn't do it again."

Tria knelt at Lek's other side, she did not understand everything that was going on but she knew how to unfasten armor at least. She took the opportunity to study Lek, so this was the boy Fortune told her to get.

In reply to Lek Gerthrim (msg # 281):

"I know he didn't mean it. That's why I didn't acknowledge his apology." She finally managed to get the piece of armor off on her side. "I know I have to forgive him, but I just can't right now."

"You're going to have scars- I suppose that was what you were after?" Difyr scolded. "You're lucky he didn't kill you, or wind up with any ligaments damaged. You can't be a knight if you wind up disabled!" Difyr was so angry she was considering not giving him anything for the pain after she got him patched up.

In reply to Millicent Gerthrim (msg # 283):

"Then don't forgive him." Lek said, feeling ashamed at Difyr's scoldings. He let the healer take off his shirt and was glad he didn't take any wounds to his legs. "He's the one in the wrong, you don't have to do anything for him... Maybe I should have told him to do something for penance when I could."

Lek knew he could not beat Edgar again, not until he was a better fighter. He knew if Edgar had not been so stupid as to drop his guard to make that obscene gesture he would have been beat, possibly even dead. The thought made him feel sick.

"You know perfectly well that Mama always says carrying around a resentment against someone eats you up from the inside. I would be forgiving him for me, not him. I'm just glad he didn't kill or maim you. But next time, just take it up with Wulfsen. You know he would act on it.

"I'm training to be a knight so I can keep these things from happening myself." Lek said. He was beginning to regret drinking so much wine, realizing what seemed a perfectly reasonable way to act in the hall was not so well thought out in the garden while sober. HE tried not to cry out in pain as Difyr treated his wounds without offering him anything for the pain, trying to be the tough guy he wasn't.

"You are training. You're not trained yet, Lek. You're still a squire."

Tria sat back on her heels and studied the now shirtless Lek. He was not bad to look at, at least. Not all hairy, very clean, no defects, no scales, not wings, no horns. Strange to see someone with so few scars though. Remembering that staring like this was probably rude Tria looked away.

"I know." Lek felt the strange girls eyes on him and blushed, feeling very self conscious of his lack of chest hair. He wondered who she was and what she was doing there.