Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's being able to do what's necessary, even if you're terrified. -- Anon Guest
Ageratum had heard of the Hellkin in the dojo. Everyone had seen him from a distance and few dared to get close. Now he was closer than she had ever seen him. He was wearing Adept Black and kneeling where any other class teacher might kneel. Waiting for the class to assemble, in peaceful meditation. Hide as blue as a clear spring sky. Hair and horns dark like an evening stormcloud. The tail was just visible, curled around his knees, spaded tail tapping gently against the sole of one simple sandal.
He wasn't doing anything more threatening than breathing.
She clung to the edge of the doorway lest one of her fellow Novices push her inside. She was lucky that they were busy arguing about who would go in first. Otherwise, they might remember that Ageratum was the name of a weed that was nicknamed pee-the-bed.
"I'm not going in, you go in."
"I'm not going in there, it'll eat us."
"If we don't go to class, the Master's gonna put us in stocks. Or expel us."
"Well I'm not going back to begging in the streets." Stefan stepped in, bold and brash. He deliberately parked himself on a mat close to the Hellkin and made faces at him. Then he made faces at the rest of them clustering by the doors.
One by one, they filed in. Leaving one mat right in front of the Hellkin.
Her knees shook, and she had to clamp her teeth together to stop them chattering as she was the last to take her place. And the Hellkin continued to kneel and breathe. Doing nothing else.
Stefan poked her. "Dare you to touch a horn."
Three behind her whispered, "Do it, Piss-bed."
"My name is Ageratum," she whispered back. "You want it done so bad, you do it."
The whole classroom turned into a cacophony of taunting. Then laughter as she shook like a leaf as she stood, and reached to touch the Hellkin's horn.
He opened his eyes. Making the rest of the class scream and move to defend themselves. He waited until the screaming stopped. "Congratulations. You are the bravest."
The rest challenged him, Stefan called him a liar.
"Bravery," said the Hellkin, "is doing what must be done even when you're terrified. Any fool can walk into danger when they're not afraid. It takes bravery to face danger and act regardless."
On that day, she renamed herself Bravery, and that lesson followed her the rest of her life. She had many more opportunities to be terrified, but she knew she could face her fears. Acting to help others, to save as many lives as possible. Including her own.
Her deeds might make the Master of the Dojo proud, but she always hoped she made that Hellkin proud of her.
[Photo by Nakaharu Line on Unsplash]
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