shillelagh
or shil·la·la, shil·la·lah, shil·le·lah
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Leo ran. His lungs burned and his legs ached. His eyes darted around the forest, trying to find anything He could use. There were rocks and sticks aplenty, but not what he needed. As if to remind him of his pressing need, he heard the beast running behind him. He also saw the one who told him to deal with it.
“Oh dear. It’s getting closer.” She said.
Leo almost tripped. The woman was quite the looker, if one could get over the fact that she was clearly not human. Her eyes were slightly too big, her fingers just a tad too long. And that was before getting to her wings. Wings she used to hover nearby.
“You’d better find a weapon quickly.” She continued.
“Yeah, well, maybe if you point me in the direction of the nearest twelve gauge, I can deal with that.” Leo said. He was amazed he had the breath to say anything. The fae woman laughed.
“Oh, silly boy. You don’t need anything as crude as tat human weapon. Everything you need is right here. You just need to look.”
He was certainly looking, considering his life depended on it. It was this focus that was his undoing. His foot snagged on an exposed root and he fell. Hard. The beast chasing him let out a triumphant roar and pounced. Leo barely managed to roll out of the way. He did not have enough time to get back up though. The monster was far more agile than its hulking size would suggest. It rounded on him and went to jump.
It was then that he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A stick. At a glance, it was no different than any other stick he had run passed. The only real stand out feature was that it was thick and straight. Without even thinking, he grabbed it. The fae woman’s smile grew wide.
The beast pounced. Leo swung. His stick hit the beast’s jaw hard. Not hard enough to do any real damage, but it at least got the three inch long teeth away from his flesh. It also had the added benefit of stunning the monster for a brief second. Long enough for the stick to come down on its head. Leo kept it up, smashing his new improvised weapon down on his pursuer until it stopped moving.
“Excellent!” The woman said. “How wonderful! And such a fine weapon you’ve chosen too.”
“What weapon? It’s a stick.” Leo said through heavy breaths.
“Oh is it now? Look again.”
Leo could not muster up the energy to argue, so he did. His brow wrinkled in confusion. The stick was no longer just a stick. It looked more like a baseball bat than anything. His hand gripped a leather handle that he knew had not been there before, and the entire thing had grown longer, straighter and heavier. He could even see faint patterns in the wood, although it was too faint to really see.
“What the…”
“Shillelagh. That is what this kind of weapon is called. A fine weapon.”
“It’s a bat. A damned baseball bat.”
“Oh no, nothing so simple. This is one of the oldest weapons your people designed, and the fact that it’s descendants are still being used today is a testament to its effectiveness. You must practice with it. Train to use it properly. Because if you think simply swinging it around without care will see to victory, you will live a short life. In the right hand, this shillelagh can crush all opposition, regardless of what defense they might have. It is up to you to make your hand the right one.”
“I…don’t understand. I don’t get any of this.”
“Of course not. You only just arrived. You will learn, whether you want to or not. A bit of advise though. Right now, you wield a fine weapon, but a normal one. Train with it. Understand it. Live with and form a connection to it. It will grow and become more powerful as you do. Some day, if you are fortunate, it may even gain a Name.”
Leo could almost hear the weight of that last word. He looked at his new weapon, wondering what she meant.
“So, what do I do?”
She pointed in a seemingly random direction. “Head in that direction. You will find everything you need to survive and grow. Good luck young one, I’m counting on you.”
“To do what?” He asked. But his question went unanswered. The woman was gone, leaving him alone in the odd forest. He groaned. “Well, I guess a bad lead better than none at all.”
He turned to face the direction the woman had pointed and started walking. He figured he would keep going like that. At least, until he figured out what was going on.
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Always be careful around the fae. You never know what they're thinking.
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