With Lenard also getting sadistic urges, I pulled him aside at a separate time to give him the same talk. He asked me if it was better to be hurt than to hurt. I looked at him and said "I am raising you to be a warrior. You will be a knight that might have to kill or capture others. In this life, you will have to both hurt others and be hurt. It is part of your role. That does not mean that you should seek it out. Think about the situation and determine what is needed for you to do what is right and come home." He looked confused, but all I could do was ruffle his hair. "Don't worry about it. This is advice for when you are older. I'll remind you about it when you get there. Just try your best to keep this in mind." I told him. He nodded his head. Lennox had to be convinced that letting himself get walked on and hurt was bad. "Do I love you, Lennox?" I asked him. "I think so, Father." he replied. I nodded my head at that. "I do. Seeing people hurt you makes me feel sad. I don't want you to be treated bad. It hurts. Please try to have pride in yourself and stand up to people bullying or hurting you, Lennox."
It was not my place to interfere too much in the raising of Cody and Brody. Maybe Raolin wanted a sadistic streak in Cody. It would make for a deadlier knight. He did not care much about Brody anyway. Something else that was a challenge was the matter of religion. Grissell and all the humans had a reformed, communitarian, polytheistic religion. I was part of a unreformed, centaur, pagan tribal warrior religion that had heavy focus on ancestor worship. I did not know if it was the TRUE religion, but I knew that I had been magically boosted by the work of the tribe shaman. Enetes was really good. I was much more agile and faster that I had any right to be at my age. It was enough proof for me to know I was fine following it. The hybrids were all the sons of 2 of the dryads in the forest. The elves and the beastkin in the freefolk village had a druidic religion where they worshiped nature and the dryads were thought leaders and religious guides. When they all became squires, I asked if they wanted to see the arch to commune with the Great Spirits and get their shaman blessings from Enetes.
Personally, I believe that humans cannot choose what they believe. We have brains that house rational minds. If the evidence and arguments do not convince you when you encounter them, you simply will not be able to believe in that thing. The best you could do was suspend your disbelief and assent to what you are being told. That is why I was going to make sure they knew what they were getting into. There was a small chapel. The chaplain that came with the Swifthunts was the only priest around for quite some time. It was a tough task until we got fully settled in. He took residence in the manor. He also held Mass at the public chapel. When we did get word back that we were okay, they sent more priests to us. The mercenaries were not the most devout group of people. They only rarely attended. That was why we had not pushed to make a real church. Raolin did not bring his sons to church either. Townsfolk believed the dryads were demons. This made the hybrids the children of demons. Raolin wanted distance from that. Lenard and Lennox were willing to join in my personal faith.
