Iona grunted as she was thrown to the ground, air exploding out of her lungs.

"Point!" The arbitrator yelled. "Match! Winner – Hrund!"

Hrund grinned down at Iona, offering a hand. Iona took it, letting herself get pulled up by Hrund.

"Good bout." Iona said, keeping the bitter feelings of loss out of her voice.

"Good bout. Hey, maybe if your Dark class wasn’t restricted, it’d be a better fight." Hrund said.

Iona let the bitter feelings of loss wash over and through her, letting her normally cheerful disposition show.

"Yeah! Hey, you did great. Regardless of how restricted I am, you would’ve beaten me. You got this! You can win the Yuletide Games!" Iona said, patting the shoulders of the shorter girl.

Hrund’s face lit up.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah! You’re strong, and you’re fast. Hit ‘em before they know what’s coming. Who knows, maybe you’ll impress the Valkyries so much that they’ll call it your feat of bravery!"

Hrund pumped her fist.

"Yeah! Although, it’s usually a feat of bravery in battle to get promoted from squire."

Iona shrugged. She knew that was the case, but she was trying to encourage Hrund. It was what friends did. Iona would feel a heck of a lot better losing in round one if her opponent managed to take down the entire tournament.

There was a world of difference between “I lost round one.” and “I lost round one to the person who won the entire event.”

Wishing Hrund luck once again, gathering her practice weapons – a wooden shield and a practice axe – Iona carefully and neatly put everything away, then headed down to the stables.

The Yuletide Games were a good event for the Valkyries. Most of them wintered at Castle Valkyrie, staying out of the howling blizzards while winter passed through Rolland and the surrounding countries. It was a good time to meet and greet, to get in touch with the rest of their Order, to train and cross-train squires.

So many high-energy [Knights] in one place needed to burn off energy, and Yuletide was the perfect time for a tournament. The [Knights] didn’t have one of their own. They were passionate women, and fatal accidents happened one time too often.

Being a squire sucked in a bunch of ways. She had to run around, do all the chores of her knight, then do chores of other Valkyries, depending on if they had a squire or not, and if their squire was around or not. "Cleaning the stables" was high up on the list of shitty tasks, but work was work.

Iona was no stranger to hard work, nor did she have any fear of it.

Plus, winter bonus - the shit smelled considerably less bad than in the summer! Small victories. It’d be better if the stalls were entirely mundane, then it’d freeze solid and Iona wouldn’t have to smell it at all, but alas. Enchantments helped keep the stalls warm, and stopped the dinosaurs from having a bad time in the cold.

One day Iona would be a Valkyrie, then she’d be the one with a squire to do her tasks.

Sure, she’d probably have even more on her plate, but the tasks would be more fun. In theory.

Iona shook off the negative thoughts, and focused on the positive. Training. Resources. A big honking castle to live in. Friends, companions. A mission.

"Heya Iona!" Alruna called to Iona as she trudged through the stables. "How’d it go?"

Iona wanted to shoot Alruna a glare that said "I’m here mucking out the stables how did you think it went", but instead sighed, and bent the knee to Alruna, clasping her hands awkwardly in a salute.

Saluting with a pitchfork was strange. Iona had a brief flash of regret that she didn’t drop the pitchfork beforehand. Whatever.

Alruna gestured for Iona to get up, which Iona promptly did. She gave a glance to her knees. The day, somehow, had managed to get even shittier.

"Hrund beat me in the first round. She was too fast and strong."

Alruna shrugged.

"Happens. Don’t let it get to you. The tournaments aren’t that important anyways."

"Yeah, but I wanted to get permission to class-up!" Iona said, no small amount of frustration in her voice.

"You’ll get it eventually. Patience. It’s not like classing-up is a guaranteed reward for winning. Heck, getting permission from winning a tournament has only happened, what, three times in the last ten years? Plus you’re here, and not, oh, mucking out the stables in some village." Alruna said, having Iona wince at how accurate the comment was. Without Alruna’s generosity, without her agreeing to take Iona with her, Iona would be a farmer’s wife in all likelihood right now. The unspoken message, "be grateful for what you have", was all too clear.

And Iona was grateful.

Still. Right here, right now, there wasn’t a lot of difference between "Mucking out the Valkyrie stable" and "mucking out a normal stable". The animals were a bit larger, much deadlier, and the remains were an order of magnitude grosser.

"Your build – heck, my build – isn’t suited to fancy tournament fights and flashy displays. You knew that when you decided to follow in my footsteps. Is it any surprise that someone with a build dedicated to single combat beats you?"

Iona frowned over piles of muck that she was cleaning out of Trikey the Triceratops’s stall. Alruna had the worst naming sense.

Well. Not the worst. Second worst. Sigrun’s was terrible, and she was in charge of titles.

Iona really, really hoped that Sigrun was in a good frame of mind, had inspiration, or better yet, someone with a good naming sense whispered a title into her ear. Sigrun was self-aware enough, and humble enough, to take good advice when she got it.

"No…" She said reluctantly.

"Cheer up!" Alruna said, grabbing a package off a shelf. "I got you a Yuletide present. Our best [Enchanter] worked on it!"

Iona stepped up the pace. She’d love nothing more than to just throw the pitchfork to the side, and tear into Alruna’s present, but she did things properly. Correctly. Slowly and carefully, making sure all the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted. Which sucked when there was a Yuletide present waiting.

Iona wasn’t expected to get Alruna anything. As her squire, what could she possibly acquire? No, it was on the Valkyrie to get their squires something nice and practical, and some made a game out of it, trying to one-up each other.

Alruna kept playing with Trikey as Iona worked around them. Occasionally Trikey would rub her tail up against Iona, but apart from that, the two of them were in a world of their own. Companions. Partnered for life. Taking a simple joy in each other’s presence.

Squires weren’t allowed companions. Instead, they were expected to learn how to treat and handle a massive variety of animals, from small, knee-high shadow cats, to the powerful Griffin fliers, all the way up to the largest beasts. Sigrun, the grandmaster of Order Valkyrie, commanded a massive Spinosaurus, which towered over most of the other creatures.

Serratrix had a separate pen. Not only did rank hath its privilege, but size, power, and pure logistics did as well.

Sorok, and a few other "supermassive" creatures also got their own place. Squires generally didn’t tend to them. Too easy to get squashed.

It made Iona wonder – given the chance, would she take a supermassive creature? They were superexpensive to go along with supermassive. She had a long shortlist of creatures she’d like, with a triceratops topping it. Alruna’s influence.

The Valkyrie’s philosophy was to expose the squires to a wide variety of creatures, and see which one clicked and meshed with their way of thinking. Years of working with the animals, becoming accustomed to them and their needs also helped dramatically with bonding down the road. Florence’s Friends were always happy to provide potential mounts and steeds - for a hefty price.

A few Valkyries were unable or unwilling to bond to a companion to use as a mount, and while they were still Valkyries, they were lower down in the invisible pecking order among them.

Still heads and shoulders above the squires.

Who in turn were slightly above a number of the support staff, but that relationship was tricky, to say the least. On paper, a squire outranked a [Scribe]. In practice? It came down to years in service, and pure usefulness.

Sigrun’s [Assistants], for example, outranked nearly everyone in practice.

Trikey’s stall cleaned, Iona decided to forgo her usual generosity. It was her birthday after all. Instead of cleaning a bunch of other stables, she instead carefully unwrapped the present Alruna had gotten for her.

She weighed the flat, heavy package, about as long as her arm. Heavy. She had an idea what was waiting for her inside.

She slowly, carefully unwrapped the package, carefully preserving the paper wrapping. A gleaming axe, curved with a wicked edge, revealed itself. A leather grip, a slight bend. A short axe designed for war, for killing.

"Enchanted for durability and sticking to you, mainly." Alruna said, letting Iona admire the weapon for some time. "With your skills, you don’t need sharpness. Also. I’ve been planning out next year’s round. Was thinking of you as well. Rolland, Xerius, Silver, Lithos, Tuvan, The Great Tang, then back to Rolland. Should be able to swing by your village while we’re at it. You’re skilled. You’re brave. We can probably find you some scrap that’ll count as a feat of bravery. Anyways. You’ve got years before you’re 22 and need to find something else to do. I know you’ll make it."

Overwhelmed with emotions, Iona wanted to hug Alruna. Holding a deadly weapon was not proper hugging procedure though, and it’d have to wait.

Trikey nuzzled Iona, almost bowling her over.

Alruna smiled, seeing the look on Iona’s face.

"Again. Happy Yuletide. Why don’t we do some training together, while everyone else is busy watching the tournament?"

Iona wanted to pump her fist. Years of discipline drilled into her stayed her hand – but not a grin on her face.

Woo! Personalized training time with Alruna! Didn’t matter that it was Alruna’s responsibility to train Iona, she still looked forward to it.