Original Link (now dead) - http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/ASHEderethtale5.asp
A Derethian Tale
Chapter 5
The hunt did not go well at first. Guhns waited at the appointed meeting place, arms crossed, nervously tapping one foot. Four Sho warriors showed up, dressed in full yaori, carrying tachis and tower shields and were soon joined by a Sho life-mage. Guhns watched as the five joined in a magical fellowship, and was dismayed to find he was purposefully excluded. A stray bit of conversation discomforted him further when he heard that his Aluvian race was definitely the cause for his exclusion.
Chania showed up a few minutes later, dressed in studded leather armor from head to foot, as was another archer with her. She had a few terse words with one of the warriors, and Guhns was finally admitted into the fellowship.
Things turned from bad to worse after their first battle with some hunter shreth. "Are all Aluvians so? I honored you by placing you in the middle of the shield wall and you left a hole!" Chania was livid. "Jinin Po nearly went to the lifestone!"
"Pardon my stupidity, m'lady" Guhns quickly replied, "but I am not used to your way of fighting. I sought to protect you with my blade as best I could." Guhns distinctly remembered the other warriors using their tachis no better than he.
"I am not interested in your sword, but your shield," Chania explained.
Things went much better, after Guhns knew what was expected of him. He and the four other warriors would anchor themselves to a tree or boulder, or better, between two boulders, and ready themselves into a fighting stance. Arrow after arrow would fly over their heads, enraging the monsters that were hit. The monsters would mindlessly charge the archers but find themselves thwarted by the unmoving shields. The warriors did nothing but stand, never striking the monsters or drawing attention to themselves, as the shreth pounded their hooves futilely in front of the shields, and were dropped by arrows one after another. He used his tachi only a few times more, as the shield wall would sometimes be flanked. Guhns was surrounded by a swirl of color that afternoon, as were a couple of the other warriors.
Never had he seen such discipline even among the knights back on Ispar! Guhns looked at Chania, and knew what he had to do. Structure and purpose had been missing from his life ever since he had arrived in Dereth, and nearly all of his own countrymen had been driven insane by the portals. Here was the antithesis of that insanity: structure, order and discipline, something every knight from Aluvia not only craved but was supposed to represent.
Guhns knew this was what he wanted, but would Chania accept the allegiance of an Aluvian?
____________