PoP: Her Knight In Shining Armor

Now armed and armored, she rushed out for the nearest door into the now empty yard. It was raining again. She raced to the closest ladder, up, over and out of the campus, joining the rest of her peers in their blatant violation of the rules.

They were easy to track for all the footprints left behind. The mud and wet sheen made it obvious to her sharp eyes, even in the darkness of the cloud-shrouded, new moon. There were so many of them that the scent could be followed despite the weather.

The single file lines of the Paladin Acolytes and Priestess Initiates had merged into one group outside the wall and headed down a well-cleared trail into the thick woods. Bobbi rushed after, careful of the hazards of the forest at night until she heard a commotion ahead. Slowing down as she approached, she quieted the rattling of her armor in her advance. What could they be up to?

There was torchlight in the darkness and the path opened up to a clearing, where she stopped at its edge.

At least forty of her peers had come together, most if not all of the final class of trainees which included ages sixteen and up, males and females. The men were in their training fatigues and the women in dark robes. There were six torches among them and beyond them all was a single, fallen tree trunk that had been erected, with underbrush, kindling and larger, broken branches being gathered at the base by several of them. The Ivory Vixen was tied to it by an excessive amount of rope and two of her fellow initiates were securing it behind her.

"For the Paladin Acolytes who do not know me, my name is Orealia. You all know why we're here," a black-furred feline Priestess Initiate emerged from the crowd. "Our educators are bound by laws and rules but their mercy has invited corruption to infest our Order."

"We've seen it ourselves," one of the male torchbearers stepped up beside her. It was Renley. Of course it was him, to rally their fellows into misbehavior. "We've tolerated liars and abominations in our midst and been told that is not our place to judge. But this one... the sins of this one, who is set to be ordained within weeks, cannot be allowed to stain our Holy ranks."

The feline took over again. "No one knew how Velaria Firantus came to us, two years ago but we all knew she didn't want to be here. She did not appreciate this gift, even if it might redeem her rotten soul."

The Ivory Vixen, Velaria Firantus.

It was as beautiful a name as she was.

"Scraping by in her course work, only passing because she happened to have a natural aptitude for spellcasting that endeared her to our teachers. But it seems they were blind to who she really is. Tell them what you found in the hall of records, Madeline."

A bookish possum in wire-framed glasses hesitated to emerge from the crowd, her posture hunched and nervous as she cleared her throat. "Velaria Firantus was sent here to the Sisterhood of Ferridor's Righteous Right Hand to avoid a life sentence for crimes against all nature and virtue. She had sexual relations with..."

"WE HAVE COMPANY!" a young woman interrupted with a shout.

Chapter 4

"IT'S BOBBI!" a boy yelled and pointed at her. So much for sneaking.

The crowd turned almost in unison to see her. She stepped out from the treeline her sword hefted over her shoulder.

"Come, join us Bobbi," Renley called across the clearing, using her real name for what might have been the first time ever. "We didn't think you had it in you, to administer justice unless the books told you to. But maybe we all misjudged you. Join us and prove you are one of us."

Renley's words barely registered as the Ivory Vixen, Velaria looked right at her, pleading with her eyes. She barely minded his words but what she heard was deception.

"You think you know better than the Order, the Keepers of the Laws of our Father, of who deserves what punishment?" Bobbi shouted back and started towards them. "So many of you are here only at the graces of your family's wealth and privilege yet you question who the Fathers choose to admit? Who they choose to offer redemption to?"

"You don't even know what she did, freak," Orealia hissed.

"If you know, they know. And they admitted her." She stopped, realizing she might need the advantage of space. Would they really attack her? "And I know we don't do this. For all of the blood that our Order has spilled, we haven't burned people alive for a hundred years. It's forbidden and it's barbaric. Whatever she did, her justice is not yours to administer."

The crowd shuffled. There were so many of them. They seemed to be confused why she wasn't backing down. If only they'd gotten to know her, it wouldn't be a surprise.

"Of course one freak would stand up for another," Renley growled. "Fine. Run home and tell on us."

The rain was getting heavier and Bobbi scanned over them in the darkness. Necks and chests were missing the shine of their Holy Symbols. Maybe because they would jingle and glisten in their attempts to be stealthy or maybe because they all knew this was an act of blasphemy. Either way, without their holy symbols as a focus, their spellcasting would be limited, if possible at all. None of them had brought obvious weapons. They weren't expecting resistance or a fight. They were expecting a murder.

She recognized the faces from her school and considered who among them would be the biggest threat. If this escalated, it would be for her life. There was Henry, a timber wolf who was a skilled swordsman, but had no sword and more importantly, didn't have the clenched jaw and steely eyes of man with conviction. Not like Renley did.

Claude was a towering alligator with fearsome jaws and it was never easy to read his expression but his yellow eyes shifted with uncertainty. Sylas, the lion was deeper in the crowd and similarly listless. Few among them were as bloodthirsty as Renley and Orealia were and that would help if it did come to violence.

"Run home while you burn our classmate to death. You go home, Renley. All of you, go home."

The gathered mass of students rippled with apprehension and even the skunk and the feline priestess weren't immune. The movement revealed rabbit ears, held down, hiding behind the towering lion.

"Dax, I checked your dorm. I see you there. I'm very disappointed you thought this was a good idea." Dax shamefully emerged, head hung low, averting his eyes.

"What are you going to do, Bobbi? Fight us all?" Renley said.

"What are YOU going to do, Renley? Kill two of your classmates and hope the Inquisitors, supreme investigators of crimes and transgressions, don't figure it out?" The crowd shuffled more.

"You think the Inquisitors will care?" Orealia laughed, bellowing with put-on drama. "About you two? We are Holy Orders, bound to vows of chastity. To stand as representatives of Ferridor to the sinful and weak masses of this corrupted land.

"It's clear to all of us and to every one of them just looking at you, that neither of you have any place in that. Freakish foxes from a faraway place, your bodies made for lust and temptation. No one would believe you are Paladins and Priestesses of anything but the whore Goddess, Adona. Or just plain whores. Maybe your ash-colored fur means you were born of demonesses! Bastard spawn of incubi or succubi."

She had the attention of the crowd and Renley stepped up to join her.

"You remember how the Inquisitors didn't know what to do with you, when you developed into the abomination you are now, Robert. You went from another weird kid in the class to the embodiment of male temptation. We are separated by boys and girls because we must be chaste. We're supposed to ignore your feminine curves and obscene breasts jiggling every time you train, because of nature's sick joke and our Master's guilty consciences? Challenging the teenage instincts we are here to transcend, then twisting it again with that grotesque reminder between your legs that you make us all lust for a BOY. We can all see how that confusion has rubbed off on your so-called friend, Dax."

Steps from Renley, Dax's eyes widened and he hung his head lower still. If the others had known, they never mentioned it before. He went to the shorter hare and placed a hand on his shoulder. His voice was quiet now but the forest was quieter.

"It's okay, Dax. We all know that you like boys." The gasps of the crowd suggested they didn't in fact, all know. "We know you're twisted this way because of her. You can still be redeemed." He turned back to Bobbi and stepped forward.

"But not you, Robert Ferrison. You're a Trojan Horse of temptation, so blatantly built for sin that one might believe you were sent here to destroy The Order from within. You tempt every one of us with foul thoughts just by existing, Bobbi, and you tempt every one of the Inquisitors too. They'll be so relieved to be rid of you. And I think you know it as well as I do."

This was what she had trained for. Not sword fighting. Not the magic but the fortitude it took, to not give them a hair's twitch of a reaction, even as the truth of their cruelty shredded her stomach like a barrage of arrows and the padding under her armor grew damp with cold, nervous sweat.

Past her classmates, her eyes lifted to see Velaria's eyes locked on hers, somehow also at ease despite being tied up and helpless. The corner of her mouth was curled into a wry grin and it flooded her with confidence and faith. Velaria wasn't afraid for her life. She had a champion.

Bobbi raised her nose an inch and her gaze back down to Orealia and Renley. Her clenched jaw and lips betrayed a formative growl and she had to force her jaw to unlock so she could speak.

"You wish to kill Velaria for crimes she's been forgiven for and you wish to kill me for my appearance." She lowered her sword from her shoulder and brought it to bear. She raised her voice as she continued, to address them all. "Disregard whatever you think of me or of her, like we are taught to do about the people that we help.. If you have ever thought about justice and the truth behind our teachings, take no step forward and you will be spared. Come at me or move to her and you will die with disgrace, for the judgment of Ferridor is mine to deliver."

Maybe Dax would reconsider. Some of the others, perhaps. But Renley had said what so many of them had obviously thought. Bobbi was aware of the attention her body received from their classmates, as they all learnt to be chaste together. That was the danger in Renleys' words: she knew they were true and she saw the fire in their collective eyes.

"Get her!" Renley commanded and the crowd lurched into action, all traces of the individual vanishing into a charging horde, crossing the clearing towards her in the pouring rain. They rushed her, unarmed and without the brunt of their magic.

What he should have said was 'kill her, with everything you can throw at her." Their spells individually, would be their feeblest versions but if coordinated and concentrated against her, she might already be dead. Even without the aid of their Holy Symbols, they'd be better off surrounding her and throwing rocks than charging their armed and armored classmate.

Still, she would slice a few with her sword before they would dogpile her and tear her apart, if they were devout enough to not defile her first. She needed to do more than fight them. Fingers clenched her Holy Symbol and she cast the most potent spell she knew: an air bomb meant for destroying waves of the undead at once, with the epicenter as a small, hot and blinding sun.

"UKRADI MOJE SUNCE!" the Paladin bellowed the incantation toward the black sky, in a violent prayer to a wrathful God.

The night was in an instant, day, with an orb of brilliant, blinding fire over Bobbi's head. Right before she closed her eyes, she noticed how the light bounced against the bottoms of the darkest, thickest clouds she'd ever seen.

It lasted for some seconds, burning bright through her eyelids until it disappeared with a wave of cold. Raindrops resumed, now steaming as they landed on the warm steel of her dry armor.

The crowd was scattered, halfway to her. Some had stopped to cover their eyes while others had slipped in the mud or tripped on the forest floor. The first two to recover were furious as they pounced to their feet, a wolverine and a dog, blinded more by rage than light and she had no choice but to defend herself.

The wolverine lunged and she sidestepped, letting her Holy Symbol fall back to hang from her neck and seizing a second-hand grip on her long-pommeled blade. She didn't swing so much as let him jump into it and it was already halfway through his belly when she twisted it away to crouch and brace it, tip first for the charging dog's heart.

He ran himself through but his weight knocked her onto her back, giving her a brief glimpse of the black sky, now churning like a boiling cauldron. In a moment, the view was blocked with her lifeless classmate fallen on her, his expression mercifully frozen in the rage. At least it was quick. His name was Nemi.

Nemi's body above her pushed the pommel of her weapon into the mud. She hurried to shove him off her, bracing herself into a squat to lift him off the blade when she saw the churning clouds were now crackling with energy.

Beyond the chaos of the clearing and the mob regaining their sight, trying to find their target underneath one of their own, she spotted Velaria. Her robes were snapping in the angry wind and her arms had somehow come free of their bonds. She held them high in the air.

It was clear now from the black, crackling clouds, she was about to summon Lightning in the middle of a rainstorm and Bobbi and her sword were the biggest, single metal object in the open field!

"Get on the ground and hold the sword! Gauntlets off!" the Ivory Vixen shouted out to her. It was the first time she'd heard her speak and her voice was like a song, almost distracting her from the fight.

Bobbi nodded and obeyed, letting herself fall back into the mud as others began to spot her and converge. She rolled over, flinging off one gauntlet, then the other. Leather gloves around the blade, she was sandwiched between Nemi's body and the earth, all the while feeling the static in the air making her thick fur try to rise in defiance of the wet dirt that covered it. They were coming for her but they slowed, starting to notice the charge all around them.

The second blinding light of the melee preceded the apocalyptic crunch of energy and somewhere after both of them came the agony of electrocution. It cracked and circled, first through her sword, then jumping to the ground and her armor, spreading through the tiny rivers of connected puddles in the thickness of the rain.

She didn't understand electricity or what Velaria had done, but she trusted the orders were in the best interest of her survival. In the moments after, the pain was a welcome sensation. It meant she was alive.

Screams, yelps, whimpers and pathetic gargles surrounded her as she clenched her blade and peeked out, while it felt like her eyeballs were trying to push out of her skull. Arcs of lightning jumped from body to body through the air, troughs and pools of water, until every one of them collapsed. No one but Velaria remained on their feet and she started to undo the ropes around her.

Finally, it was quiet and still but for some lingering groans of agony. The smell of ozone and burnt fur overwhelmed the freshness of the heavy rain. She had been electrocuted like the rest of them but the sword drove in the ground had somehow helped her bypass the worst of it. Fur and hair stool on end everywhere it wasn't pushed down by armor or caked mud. Her muscles responded when she went to stand.

Quick but wobbly to her feet, a glance around took in the entirety of the gathered crowd, still on the ground. In the now quiet, rainy clearing between them, bodies smoked, some still and others rolling in pain.

Chapter 5

Bobbi grabbed her sword and tugged it from Nemi's body, pushing him over to get his weight off. She fetched her gauntlets then, tucking them under her arm before she started toward the other vixen.

Sylas, the lion was the first one she recognized, still writhing in pain on the ground and she slid to her knees at his side, barely noticing Velaria shaking her head.

"I forgive you, Sylas. Don't pursue us," she said and pushed her hand into his shirt to touch his bare chest. He closed his eyes and lowered his head in a shameful nod. Fingers grew warm and glowed from beneath his clothes as Bobbi muttered an incantation of Minor Healing. "Help the others. Do. Not. Pursue us."

"Are you going to save them all so they can try to kill us again?! We don't have time for this!" Velaria shouted back, working to free herself from the ropes that bound her body and legs to the tree.

Bobbi sprang up and gathered speed, heavy boots splashing in the mud. Velaria was wrong yet right. If she could heal a few of them, who could heal the rest, everyone who could live, would and hopefully be smart enough to not further engage.

Where the head of the crowd had been, she spotted Dax, writhing and smoking, with his hand around the ankle of the first of them to stagger to his feet: it was Renley.

"Let go of me, traitor!" the skunk growled, oblivious to Bobbi's approach behind him. He fished in the mud for a heavy rock then lifted it with two hands over his head.

"Renley!" she barked, now charging, her blade coiled to strike and he turned his attention to her. He drew the rock back over his shoulder, ready to heft it but the throw would be weak. Her course didn't change until he released it in a slow, predictable parabola, then she juked out of its path, running at him with the pointed end first.

What would killing Renley mean?

Renley and Orealia were the ringleaders. This was their fault. And if they could revive the others, they might persuade them to pursue and get more of their classmates hurt or killed. Without them, the rest might give up and whatever punishment the Abbey decided on for them, at least they would live. Blood was already on Renley's hands. The wolverine and Nemi were riled up to their death because of him. If any of them were dead from the lighting, it was because of the orchestration of Renley and Orealia.

The case for sparing him didn't come easily. They were defeated and yet he hadn't learned a thing. Dax, it appeared, had stopped him from charging and Renley was going to kill him for that. Then he was so blinded by his hatred of her, he chose a futile attack over the shame of surrender.

Her body slammed into his and his face came up to meet hers, wide-eyed as she ran him through with the entirety of her sword, lifting him off the ground. She skidded to a stop and he kept going, flying clear of her weapon and presenting the massive wound that split his chest. It was the first time she'd seen fear in his eyes, wide open and locked on her.

"We have to go!" Velaria pleaded, stepping out of the loosened ropes, a feral raccoon jumping down from the post behind her and running off, towards the clearing. Did someone else help her to get free? The Ivory Vixen watched as well, looking every bit as confused. The feral animal scurried into the battlefield and straight to the possum girl, Madeline, who had been called on by Oreila to read the vixen's crimes. She was barely moving, her body steaming in the rain and the raccoon licked at her face. Velaria hesitated before she ran to her.

Bobbi looked around again. A few others were starting to get up but none with the eagerness to fight. A badger named Stephen locked eyes with her, then lied back down.

Safe for the moment, she set down her sword and knelt at Dax's side, healing him while Velaria healed Madeline.