Copperfoot looked me over for a few seconds, remaining silent as I heaved to catch my breath. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed by my performance or simply surprised. Either way, I seemed to have caught him off guard. I was hoping this would buy me a nice little break, but my hopes were dashed as he trotted over to the edge of the clearing and spoke.
“Your next task is to demonstrate your agility.” Copperfoot bent over and reached behind the tree, picking up an armful of rocks, each about the size of his palm. Cradling the rocks in his left, he grabbed one in his right and paused for a moment.
“If you can’t dodge the rock, deflect it. If any strike your torso or head, you will immediately fail this test.”
Copperfoot cocked his arm back and threw the first rock towards my face.
I barely had time to even understand what the test was, but my reflexes were developed enough that I dipped my head over to the left. I felt the rock zip by, barely missing my right ear.
Focusing on Copperfoot’s throwing arm, I lowered my stance, ignoring the soreness in my muscles and trying to synchronize myself with the moment. I still have yet to meet a centaur that is quick on his feet when it comes to lateral movement, but even during the test I understood why this was important. In the heat of battle, you could be completely exhausted from a long fight but you still had to be able to avoid enemy attacks that might prove lethal.
As the next rock came flying, I ducked my head down to avoid it, the rock missing me by a few centimeters. Copperfoot threw a third and fourth rock, one almost immediately after the other. I zigged to the right to avoid the first, but the second was unavoidable. With a swift swing of my arm, I intercepted the projectile and knocked it harmlessly aside.
Copperfoot continued to pick up speed with each throw and for each rock that I could not dodge I proved that I was able to block. In the heat of the moment, I even started to forget how sore my muscles were from the previous two tests.
When Copperfoot ran out of rocks in his arm, I had to fight the urge to stop moving. I knew the test would not be over so quickly. He knelt back over and grabbed another armful, this time taking two at once in his throwing hand and releasing.
Lowering my center of gravity even more, I ducked underneath both of these first two, but as I came up another two were headed my way. With a snap decision I tilted my weight to the left slightly. Both of the rocks soared by either side of my head.
I continued in this fashion for two more armfuls before the test way finished and Copperfoot declared “Stop.”
As I stopped moving, the fatigue in my legs returned, and I stood there panting, wondering what the next test would entail.
__________________________________
Hailed as the J.R.R. Tolkien of the 21st century, Joseph Macolino is the author of the Evorath series, providing good fantasy books to those looking for heart-pounding action in a magical world.
