Gathering by P.M. Gilbert

Author:P.M. Gilbert [Gilbert, P.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vida Moda Ltd

17

Stores

Finn, Cerys, George and Arlene followed Oisín, Rhiannon, Arthur and Donella out of the tent. They gathered outside and Oisín said,

“Time to get you equipped. You’ll attend the Feast tonight and take part in the induction ceremony and tomorrow you’ll have your first lessons. Off we go, follow me to the Stores.”

As they moved off down yet another path between various training activities, Rhiannon turned to the little group and added with a smile,

“Tonight we have the Glorious Feast. It is enjoyable and you’ll each receive your determination prior to formal induction into the Tuatha.”

“I hope that’s not painful,” said George with a rueful look at the others.

Arthur laughed, “Wait and see.”

Arlene asked, “What happens in the determination and induction?”

Donella filled them in as they walked along towards the Stores, “The determination is the ritual which reveals your skills or gifts. It facilitates your induction into the part of the Tuatha that can make best use of your gifts.”

Finn thought to himself that determining one’s gifts sounded like a pretty big deal, and he noticed Donella hadn’t actually said how the ritual worked.

As they made their way to the Stores, they passed a firing range where people were training with different weapons. Finn saw people with bows and arrows, crossbows, slingshots, throwing knives and other weapons he didn’t recognise.

George grabbed Finn’s arm. “Look over there!”

The firing range spread across the vast width of the great hall. On the far side, Finn could see people with rifles, machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and what looked like handheld rockets.

They were firing the weapons at targets at the end of the range. He saw people with the machine guns shaking as they fired off bursts with them. He could just see the spent cartridges being ejected from the weapons, but he couldn’t hear anything. The group had paused briefly while they watched the activity on the range.

Cerys asked, “Why can’t we hear them?”

Arthur answered her, “The ranges have invisible force fields around the sides and tops. No sound escapes and it stops the bullets coming out or ricocheting back into the range. If you look closely, you might just see minor flashes appearing and disappearing as the force field absorbs the bullets.”

“Oh yes!” said Arlene excitedly. “I see them!”

George interjected, “Who made the force field?”

“Merlin did. He is a clever sorcerer,” said Arthur.

Finn asked, “Why so many different weapons?”

Oisín replied, “We fight the Fomórie across different lands and times. Not all weapons can cross time barriers, so all our warriors train with a large variety of weapons.”

Finn with a querulous look, said, “We can travel across time? But that is not possible.”

Rhiannon turned to Finn with a smile on her face and said, “Oh, but it is Finn. All of us are from different times. It is both an advantage and a disadvantage. We can often prevent the Fomórie wrecking complete havoc, but it also means we have to fight battles on many fronts at once.”

Finn’s mind was reeling at this revelation. It made him think he knew little about anything at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.