Two weeks had passed and Brina's squad had found their rhythm again. It did not come immediately. They drilled with each other day after day, learning formations, learning positions, learning without words where one ended and another began. By the time the summons arrived, they moved like a single thing rather than completely disorganized and separate people.
It was Knight Captain Adam who called for her, and Brina stood before his desk doing her best to keep her expression composed. Sir Feldwyn wore her finest posture and smile in that office. She had practiced it. What she could not quite manage to conceal was the brightness behind her eyes, the barely restrained energy of someone who had been waiting a long time for exactly this moment. Adam looked at her the way a commander looks at a subordinate who seems slightly too eager for their own good, which was to say with the patience of a man who had seen it many times before.
He cleared his throat. "Aheemm. Sir Feldwyn, here are your first orders as a knight. Read it carefully and prepare. Saddle forth when you are adequately ready."
Brina received the rolled parchment as though it were something fragile. She unrolled it slowly, read through the contents twice, and felt the excitement in her chest become something steadier and more serious. She was to travel east and investigate reports of a creature disturbing the trade roads between Helwind and the village of Bareborough Peaks. The reported sighting named the creature as a Bearowl, a land beast carrying the traits of an owl, capable of gliding silently down through the tree canopies to strike whatever moved beneath them.
"Track down the man who reported this sighting at Bareborough Peaks," Adam continued, leaning forward slightly. "His name is Grok, a farmer from that area. Learn what he saw firsthand. I want you to determine whether the sighting is credible. And I want to be very clear on this point, sir Feldwyn. If it is a true Bearowl, you do not engage. One squad will not be enough. You request additional support, and you wait."
"I understand, sir. I will prepare my squad and sally forth as soon as we are ready."
"Good luck, sir Feldwyn."
She saluted, turned on her heel, and left.
Her first stop was the Bestiary Hall. It was a quieter corner of the Knight Order's grounds, a place where most of the younger knights only thought to visit after something had already gone wrong. Brina intended to visit before anything went wrong at all.
Sir Robert was the Bestiary Master. He had retired from active service years ago and taken up his current post because no one in the order knew more about the creatures of the kingdom than he did. He was a compact, white-haired man with a manner of speaking that was direct without being unkind, and he looked mildly surprised when Brina walked in.
"Ho, a visit from our female knight. What could this old one offer you today, youngling?"
"Sir, I want to know everything useful about Bearowls. They are tied to my mission and I would rather know too much going in than not enough."
Robert studied her for a moment, then nodded with something close to approval. "Ho, ho. An interesting first posting. Right then. Bearowls are massive creatures. Juveniles run between three and five meters tall. Adults reach seven to nine. They climb, and they glide down from their canopy dens without a sound, which is the part that kills you if you are not expecting it. They are nocturnal hunters. Their fur and feathers blend to match whatever forest they have settled into. Come winter, they hibernate in those same dens above."
He moved to the shelves behind him, pulling down a worn illustrated tome and flipping through it with the ease of someone who had read it many times. "On the ground they move on all fours and they are fast. Their forward limbs double as feathered gliders with claws set into them. Their hind legs carry talons. Their beaks have serrated teeth running along the inside edge. All of it is designed to kill efficiently and quietly. They are not to be underestimated."
Robert paused, tapping the illustration thoughtfully. "Now, from what you have described, this one likely did not choose to leave its territory. A younger one probably pushed it out. Juveniles are aggressive because they are always hungry and they do not yet know to avoid us. An adult that has encountered humans before will generally keep its distance. A young one will charge the moment it sees you. Use that. Pepper it with arrows first. Bring oil pots and fire-tipped bolts, burn those feathers so it cannot glide. Force the fight to the ground and keep it there. Use long polearms to hold it at distance. That is how the order managed the four it has put down in all its history, and it cost men every time."
Brina listened and committed as much of it to memory as she could. "Thank you, sir Robert. This will be useful, whether things go to plan or not."
The old man looked at her with something warmer than he had when she walked in. "Smart of you to come to me before heading out. Most of the young ones only find their way here after a loss. Keep that head on your shoulders, sir Feldwyn, and remember what the captain told you. Call for support. Do not try to be the story."
"Yes sir. I will keep that in mind."
Preparation filled the rest of the day. Brina brought everything Robert had described and more, fire-tipped crossbow bolts that needed no magical input from the user to activate, hand-thrown oil pots, polearms, and enough additional shot to make the thing regret leaving its tree. They loaded the equipment into a wagon, the heaviest pieces settled and secured against the road. Her squadmates mounted up. Brina was the last to ride out.
The gates of Helwind opened ahead of them and the road stretched east into country none of them had seen before, further than any of them had ridden in their lives. The air smelled different beyond the walls. Wider, somehow. Full of something that had no name yet.
An adventure was waiting. One mired with real danger, the kind no drill could fully prepare a person for. Brina rode toward it with her eyes open and her hands steady, and did not look back.