Aya stood somewhere in the surroundings of the Tower. He looked at it, and at the beautiful way the sun rose behind it. The Tower was still dark, but a corona of light seemed to surround it.

This early in the morning most people were in their chambers still, but Aya heard the hammering of the blacksmith and some of the stableknights were running around. He had also seen the head cook pass in a hurry, with some of her kitchen servants behind her, carrying bags of wheat.

While he walked and looked around a bit – he loved to be up this early – his head was filled with thoughts of Lia…his thoughts were often about her lately. He strolled in the stables. The smell of horse and sweaty men filled his nose. The air was heavy, it promised to be a warm day.

Her smile and her eyes… He shook his head. Suddenly…Aya stood still. Right in front of him was a stallion. He was raven black, and stared at Aya with green, intelligent eyes. Such green eyes…rare… It was the most beautiful horse he had ever seen. It snored and stamped with his front hooves, looking at him. “Hi beauty. Softly he reached out and tried to touch the noble animal’s nose. At first it tried to bite him, but it relaxed and let Aya touch his nose. “What a temperament hey…”, he softly whispered. The stallion looked at him and shook his head. Aya grinned at him.

“Stableboy,” he said. Somebody jumped from behind a corner and waited for Aya to continue his question. “Who does this horse belong to?” The boy looked at the stallion and said: “It belongs to the blacksmith. You can find his smithy when you get out the stables to your right.” Aya nodded. “Thanks.” And with another look at the horse, he sauntered away.

Slowly, while thinking about the black –very black- stallion, and of course about Miliane, he walked to the smithy. The sound of a hammer crashing down on the anvil filled the air. Aya knocked and waited for a reply. No reply came, so he opened and walked in. When the blacksmith saw him, he stopped hammering. “Can you wait there for a moment? I’d like to finish this.” And with that he hammered on. Aya waited, and observed the man. His muscles moved with every slam, and his huge chest went up and down with every breath he took. If he’d slam a trolloc like that, he’d surely break the skull…

When the man finished, he put the iron in a basket of water. A great amount of steam was coming from the water, and Aya coughed. The smith walked in his direction and stood still. “Yes?”

Aya coughed again. “I saw your horse in the stables…”

“Ah, ya met Ji’doon didn’t ya? The most useless horse ever, I guess. Can’t ride on it, my brother gave him to me as a present, because I’m the one that makes all his axe’s…for free. But he’s a beauty isn’t he?” Aya nodded. “I was wondering if I could buy him from you?” The big smith started laughing.

“Yer askin me to sell Ji’doon?” he bellowed laughing. “I’d like to, my boy, but me no can do that.” And with that he turned around and walked to the basket. “WAIT!” Aya shouted. The blacksmith turned again.

“What must I do to earn him then?”

“Ah, now yer talking like a man. Me aint no sellin a beauty just like that.”

Aya stood on the field, in the middle of a circle somebody had roughly drawn on the grass. Waiting for an opponent.

Three man came out of the building on the other side of the field. Three big men. Blacksmiths apprentices, each of them wide shouldered, arms as thick as his thighs. Calm down…it’s not the strength that counts. They arrived at the circle, looked at him and started laughing, pushing each other around and screaming “You go first, I’m so afraid.”

Goat kissing Trollocs… Anger welled up inside him. They really wanted him angry? It was never good to do that… “Hey bunch of Myrddraal look-alike babies, do you think I have the whole day?” Suddenly their faces were serious. They turned to him like one man and stepped inside the circle. “What you called us?”

Aya grinned and took offensive stance. “You heard me.” Just think about what Caden Ives showed you. Search for weakness, use them, break your enemy.

The first one came to him like a moving wall. He slammed his fist forward, aimed at Aya’s head. Aya crouched and saw his first opening already. An unprotected armpit. He smashed his fist in the armpit and jumped up with an axe-kick. His heel met the chin of the other man, and while he was landing, another one grabbed his legs. He was being thrown up, fell like he was teached, and with a forward roll he stood up again in offensive. The three ‘bulls’ were watching him. They looked at eachother, nodded and stormed forward. For the next twenty minutes, Aya wasn’t able to attack. All he could do was dodging and blocking. His arms…the bones of his forearms…pain. He got hit three times; once in the stomach, and two times on the chest. By the Light, drin, where are the things you’ve learned? Think about your governors, your grounds, the times!

Aya backed up. Distance. Judgement. “Come on, Trollocbrained idiots.” All three of them closed him in. Or tried to. He backed up, keeping just the right distance. Sometimes he jumped in, delivering a blow wherever he could, leaping out even faster to avoid getting hit. One leaped forward. He did…he…feet first…False!, Aya thought. Immediately Aya raised his foot, planting it between the man’s legs. That’s for almost breaking my rib! The man sank to his knees, and after a well placed side-kick, a truly powered side-kick, a body crashed on the ground.

The two others threw themselves on him in an instant, but they could only hit empty air, because Aya was already somewhere else. He moved swift, automatically.

His arm raised, blocking a strike from the right, and right after that one from above. While his arm was up, one of the others wanted to hit him in an unprotected flank, but he rotated, spun away, and with a roundhouse-kick, kicked the guy in the guts. He grabbed at his belly, and Aya hit him right on the nose. A faint ‘crack’ sounded, and with a bleeding nose the big man fell down. Two down, one to go.

The last one kicked him, but he grabbed the leg with all his force and pulled it up. Then, he fastly stepped back. Distance, place. The man stood up and immediately got a present; Aya’s foot against the back of his head. The big boy stood up again and leaped wildly at Aya, a feral look in his eyes. All he had to do, was step aside, block a hit or a kick somewhere, and wait. He saw numerous holes in the other guy’s defence, but he didn’t strike. He was going to wait. And while the smiths apprentice became exhausted, Aya had all the time to think about how to end this. They seemed to dance. One time, the guy came close enough to hit him on the chest, and Aya fell backward, but did and exact fall, rolled back and stood in defensive. Time to finish this…

He put one feet forward, intentionally doing a false time. The guy took the bait. A great fist, aimed at Aya’s head, was thrusted forward. Aya crouched under the arm, and while crouching, he spinned nearer to the apprentice. In one fluid movement, he planted his elbow in the other’s belly. The guy bended slightly, and Aya quickly stretched his legs, fist aimed upwards. Fist and chin met, the guy was thrown up and fell. The only one who was still standing was Aya.

Loud applause sounded. Light, he hadn’t seen that there was a whole crowd staring at him. He left the circle and stumbled towards the smithy. Why did his legs feel that stupid? His chest hurted…actually his whole body did.

“Master Kor!” The blacksmith showed up. “Yes? Oh it’s you”, he said with a hint of surprise. “You’ll have to go pick your apprentices up, Master Kor. They gave me a hard fight, and some fine hits. Where’s…my horse?”

The smith laughed loudly. “Only thinking about the horse ey? Ji’doon is in box 24. He’s yers.”

Aya smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

Right now he was going to visit Lia. Light…his ribs hurt.