Chapter 52 --52
"We don’t have time. If someone attacks on the water, we need to be functional. Right now we’re..." He trailed off, clearly frustrated.
"Learning," Elara supplied. "You’re learning. That’s allowed."
"Beast knights don’t stumble. We don’t make mistakes. We certainly don’t trip over buckets in front of merchant sailors."
"Well, you just did. All of you. And you’re still here, still protecting me, still functional." She leaned against the rail next to him. "The palace was your territory. You knew every corridor, every shadow, every angle. Out here is different. That doesn’t make you less capable. Just less experienced."
He was quiet for a moment. "The others are embarrassed."
"The others are adapting. There’s a difference."
That evening, Elara watched the beast knights organize themselves. Captain Lyra gathered them in their cargo hold and apparently delivered some kind of speech—Elara couldn’t hear the words, but the tone was clear: get over yourselves and learn faster.
By the third day, they were improving. Still awkward, but less catastrophically so. They learned to move with the barge’s rocking instead of fighting it. Learned where the ropes were. Learned that wet decks were slippery and required different footing than marble floors.
The hawk knight stopped falling over buckets. Mostly.
Captain Lyra stopped glaring at the ropes and started stepping over them with deliberate care.
The fox knight began asking the sailors questions about river navigation, clearly determined to understand his new environment.
It wasn’t graceful. They still moved like people uncomfortable in unfamiliar territory. But they were learning.