I Will Be the Greatest Knight

Magic beyond Irene's belief lit up in front of her. Colors she had never seen displayed so brilliantly filled up the space all around and her hands clenched at her sides. She was resisting the urge to run back into the tree line. 

With a glance, she knew that Sorrel was fine and hadn't been spooked by the boom. He really was a good horse. 

If he wasn't afraid, then she couldn't be either. 

The rocks weren't moved from the entrance as Gunnar said. They were enveloped in mana and crushed or exploded. It seemed that the mages had been setting it up on the larger boulders without her realizing. 

The dust settled and chaos ensued as the knights once told to stand back rushed forward, hoping that they were fast enough for the knights inside to not have been crushed or suffocated. 

Irene was one of the ones who rushed in and she pulled a bit of her cloak over her mouth when the residual dust still floating inside of the cavern made her cough. She got her self-assurance from her father and her mother cursed it every second of every day. Knowing she was running into a dangerous situation and not caring reminded her of that much.

Visibility was bad in the cave but she continued forward. 

Rather than a large cave as she was expecting, the light stopped at fingers of caverns that went off in all directions. Seeing the light disappear, her right hand went to her sheath and she unpinned the leather strap holding the dagger in. Who knew what was behind each corner?

With her weapon in front of her, her braveness grew. 

The others had taken to different branches of the old mine and she had taken one much less further traveled. 

When darkness took over and the light from the entrance no longer was enough to show her the path ahead, the stone in the handle of her sword lit up and a faint blue glow showed her the path ahead. 

She gasped and held up the dagger higher. The protection spell inside of the stone was multifaceted, it seemed. 

Unable to tell if the path she took was a natural cave or a result of the mining, Irene took another curve to the left and another one to the right. 

Before she could even realize what she was doing, she stepped on something soft and heard someone cry out in pain. 

"What was that for?!" a boy shouted, his voice cracking. 

Irene held her sword lower and realized there was indeed a boy there. 

He was covered in dust and also holding a blade. It seemed that she had stepped on his hand while he was hiding underneath his cloak. 

Concerned, the girl crouched down. 

"Are you hurt!?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I wasn't hurt 'till you stepped on my hand!" he argued. 

Without needing her help, he stood up quickly and glared down at her. She noticed he was slightly taller once she stood up as well.

"I'm a knight's apprentice! Leif Aaberg, the youngest in the Knights of Tenetium," he explained confidently. "What is a little boy like you doing in a place like this?"

A boy, right. That's what they said about her outside of the cave too.

The thought caused her to pull at her hood with the hand that wasn't holding the dagger.

"I'm here to rescue my father," she responded confidently, avoiding her name. "Sir Arthur Litharion. Maybe you've heard of him."

"Your father?" he asked in disbelief and his sky-blue eyes widened. "He is the greatest knight in the order. He was the one who told us to rush back here when we heard an explosion! He must be nearby!"

They both felt competitive towards one another and tried to be faster than the other but with his knowledge of the cave system and the light coming from the magical stone in her sword, they both happened to need to be in the front.

The way back felt much longer than the way into the cave and Irene almost felt like the boy was tricking her. 

She moved a bit faster and blocked his path. 

"Where are you taking me?" she asked. 

Before the boy could respond, the space above them seemed to groan and the ceiling collapsed. 

Leif was fast enough to push Irene to the side. Even though it was rough, she was grateful to not be buried under a ton of rocks as she would have been if he hadn't intervened. 

From where she lay on her back, she looked up at the boy. Her dagger was buried partially underneath the rocks and the light was dimmer than before.

He was more covered in dust than before. She couldn't tell if his hair was dark grey or otherwise. 

"Now do you believe me?" he asked her once the cave settled again. 

"I'm sorry…"

He offered her a gloved hand. 

"We had better find your father," he responded, not particularly caring if the person he deemed to be a boy younger than him believed him or not. 

Irene took his hand and learned her lesson. Don't doubt someone unless they give you a valid reason to. 

The two kids finally started to see light filtering in from around a bend that took them to the right and Irene knew that they really had made it to the end. 

There were already knights gathered around. 

The moment the girl spotted her father, she heard one of the other knights explaining to him 

"Your son is here."

Arthur turned his head. His bright red hair was dulled on both the top of his head and his beard from the dust. His brown eyes sought Arne but landed on Irene. 

A plethora of expressions could be seen as he decided whether or not he was proud or disappointed in his daughter for going all the way by herself. There was no doubt Rochelle would ever let her do it so she must have snuck away.

Rather than treating her tenderly like he normally would, Arthur turned and offered his hand in a knight's show of trust.

"Iro," he called, undoubtedly making her name into something less feminine because of the lie she was allowing to be held over her head. "Come to me."

She heard Leif utter "You're in trouble" before she could move away.

The girl rushed forward and accepted her father's gesture by placing her gloved hand on the crook of his arm and he did the same for her. 

"Once we clean up this mess, you have a lot of explaining to do," he reminded her. "Regardless. thank you for coming to be sure your old man was safe."

However, Arthur felt something moist against his arm, going right through the blue tunic he wore. 

He looked down at Irene's hand and grabbed her by the wrist. Without warning, he pulled her leather glove off of her hand. It was practically shredded anyway. 

Her hand was littered with blisters. A few had broken open and some were bleeding.