by Spoor, Garry
“You should be eating your own fruit.” She told him. “Vesper’s doesn’t need any more food, he’s getting fat enough.”
-Fat.-
“Yes, you can hardly fit through that hole behind the dresser these days.”
“I just can’t get used to that.” Carter remarked as he took his seat at the head of the table.
“How are you doing Kile?” Murphy asked as he took a seat beside Alex.
“I’ve been better thank you.”
“I bet you can’t wait to get back to training.” Carter laughed. “Should be interesting to see how Master Boraro handles that.”
“You’ll have to tell me all about it.” She replied.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m not going back to Master Boraro. They set me up with someone else.”
“Probably for the best.” Daniel replied. “Otherwise it would be a matter of who tries to kill whom first.”
“No contest, Kile all the way.” Alex said in a voice that was a bit loud, louder than she would have liked.
“Will you keep it down?” Daniel said in a harsh whispered. “I’m sure Kile doesn’t want everyone to hear you.”
“Besides, I think it was more luck than anything else.” She added.
“Luck, come on girl you kicked his ass.” Alex shouted.
Daniel gave Alex a stern look. “Do we have to medicate you again?”
“Luck or not, you showed some real skill.” Carter commented. “You’re still joining us during practice, aren’t you?”
“Carter’s been dying to spar with you again.” The smaller cadet grinned.
“I have not. I’m… just interested in … her new style that's all.”
“Is that all you're interested in?” Alex asked. A question that was answered by a day old muffin as it bounced off his head.
“As fun as this is, I have to get to the stables.” Kile said as she grabbed her tray. Vesper ran up her arm and took his place on her shoulder, still carrying the last of the apple as Kile stepped away from the table. “I’ll meet you guys back here during the supper shift, good Luck with Master Boraro.”
The stables were as cool during the day as they were doing the night, but she was just glad to be out of sight for a while. The stares from the other cadets, the hushed whispers behind her back as she passed, it was just like the first days at the academy, only the reasons had changed. Back then it was all about her sex, the girl that wanted to be a hunter, now it was all about the fight, the girl that kicked the weapon master’s ass.
As she stood in the vacant section of the stables, she had the feeling she was being watched. Whether it was Vesper’s nose that detected the presence of someone in there with her, or just the hair that was standing up on the back of her neck, she was starting to take notice. The movement came from behind her, rushing from the shadows, he swung at her head but she was already dropping to the ground and rolled into a defensive stance. Vesper had been smart enough to leap off her before she hit the ground and took refuge under an old stool.
“Not bad.” Luke said as he leaned up against the center post, one of the practice blades in his hand. “You catch on pretty quick.”
“You could have killed me.” She said as she sat, or fell down on the stable floor.
“But I didn’t.” Luke replied with a shrug. “You were able to detect my movements and avoid my attack.”
“And what if I hadn’t?”
“What difference does it make, you did, and that’s all the matters.”
She would have liked to launch her own attack at him, and if she thought she could get up quick enough without falling over due to her spinning head, she would have tried. Bealer had warned her not to make too many sudden moves while recovering from a head injury.
“So, you’re my official instructor now?” She asked.
“It would appear that way.” Luke replied. “I have been requested to teach you how to fight with the Lann.”
“Well, can we go easy with it today?” She asked as she slowly got to her feet. “I don’t think my body is quite up to it.”
“Yes, you did take quite a beating at the hands of Master Boraro, didn’t you?”
“Hey, it wasn’t my idea.” She replied defensively.
“Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you. It might not have been your idea but you hardly tried to diffuse the situation. You could have yielded after the first time he knocked you down, there was no reason for you to get back up. Your pride may have been damaged but he would have walked away. You instigated the situation until you had no other option open to you but to fight.”
“I guess he just caught me on a bad day.”
“Clearly.” Luke said shaking his head. “But don’t take this victory too seriously. Master Boraro will not be that easily defeated a second time. You surprised him and he underestimated you, but he is a skilled warrior, and he will not make the same mistakes twice. He has seen how you fought, and he knows the style, and he knows how to counter it.”
“So the… touchy style isn’t better than… whatever it was he was teaching.”
“Tachiena.”
“That’s what I said.”
Luke sighed, shook his head and walked over to the benches along the wall. For some reason that was a common reaction she received from a lot of the instructors.
“No style is better or worse than another. The Tachiena style differs from the Casacure style that Master Boraro teaches. A master of one would not necessarily be better than a master of another. There are many other factors to be taken into consideration.”
“Such as?”
“The Casacure is a strong style, designed to take down your opponent as quickly and efficiently as possible, it requires great strength but cannot be kept up for very long. The Tachiena is designed to weaken your opponent over a period of time and relies on speed and agility. The Casacure needs to end the battle fast, because he knows that he cannot maintain his skill if the fight lingers. The longer the fight goes on, the more vulnerable he becomes. The Tachiena needs to prolong the fight because he knows that he cannot defeat his opponent when he is strong, it is the onset of the fight that is the most dangerous for the Tachiena since he will have difficulty defending himself from the strong attacks of the Casacure.”
“So the power shifts as the battle goes on.”
“Precisely.”
“But that’s not exactly what happened during my fight.” She remarked, although she couldn’t remember much of what happened during her fight.
“A battle can be won or lost on a single mistake; all it requires is for the opponent to see the mistake and to take advantage of it. You switched tactics in the middle of your battle with Master Boraro. You started to fight him using the Casacure style. That was what he taught you, that was what he had expected you to use, and that is what he defended himself against. It was only after you switched tactics that you gained the upper hand, if but briefly. He was unaware that you knew that style, and were more skilled in it than the Casacure. Had he known, he may have been ready for it, and the outcome may have been very different.”
Very different was an understatement. She had the feeling that, had she not gained the advantage for that brief period of time, she would not be around to talk about it.
“Now, with that settled, I assume you are well enough to at least go over the basics again.” Luke said as he held out the Lann.
“Yes sir.” She said as she took the blades from him.
“You weren’t at supper.” She heard Carter say before she even rounded the corner of the stables. She gripped the practice Lann tightly in her hand. Was he that eager to see her fight again? She wasn’t sure if she was that eager to fight.
“Sorry, training took a little longer than I thought, and then I had to catch up with a week’s worth of work that I missed in the stables.”
“Well, come on. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Oh, come on, give a sec.” She replied as she set the bundled Lann
down and sat on the crate beside the wall that had become all too familiar. If there was any one place at the academy that she could call home, it was definitely the stables. “Why don’t you give Alex more time? I’ve seen him fight and he could use a little more training.”
“Oh what’s this?” Carter Laughed. “Chickening out, you fear the great Hausman” He gestured with a flourish of his sword.
“Yeah, that must be it. I also run from falling leaves when the wind blows.” She shot back, although she wasn’t sure if that was a substantial enough come back, but it was all she could think of on such short notice. She was sure she would think of five or six more scathing remarks latter on.
“Trash talk, this is something new.” Daniel replied as he watched Alex grab the second practice sword and faced off against Carter.
“Just allowing myself some time.” She remarked as she set Vesper down on the crates beside her. The Yarrow made a bee line toward Murphy who was sitting in the grass pouring over a few old books while eating grapes. He picked off a few and handed them to the yarrow without breaking his concentration.
“You know, a week confined to a bed with cracked ribs and a head injury, and it’s hard to get back into the swing of things.” She remarked.
“Are you in pain?” Daniel asked. “I can probably help you with that.”
“No, leave me my pain. It will remind me of how foolish I was.”
She had been foolish, even Luke said so. She should have just swallowed her pride and let Boraro think he had won and had put her in her place, but it wasn’t that easy. She was not useless. She knew that, at least she thought she knew that. Unfortunately the one person she wanted to prove that to was no longer around to see it.
Murphy groaned as he turned the pages in the book. Vesper took the opportunity to steal a few more grapes while he wasn’t looking.
“What’s Voreing got you studying now?” She asked.
“We’ve been revisiting some of the old hunter.” Daniel replied, rolling his eyes. “We’ve actually just finished covering one of your favorites.”
“My favorite?”
“Yeah, you know. Quaineess Nyn.”
“Quaineess Nyn? Why him all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he was one of the greats. His only claim to fame was killing one dragon.”
“Gator the Ash Creator, or as some experts believe, Gartor the Ash Creator.” Murphy replied without looking up from the pages of his book.
“There you go.” Daniel said. “Been studying him for the last two weeks.”
“There are better hunters to study than him, what brought this up all of a sudden?”
“Eric.” Daniel said and instantly Kile got a bad feeling about it. Any connection between Eric and Quaineess wouldn’t be good.
“He wanted to know about Quaineess Nyn?” She asked.
“Actually, no.” Daniel replied and then held his hand up before she could even comment. “I know what your thinking. You still want to link him and the disappearance of the artifacts from the gallery. But it’s just not there. Eric had no interest in Quaineess Nyn when Voreing was talking about him. I know. I watched his reactions, he couldn’t care less.”
That makes sense, she thought, he already stole all the artifacts from the display.
“It wasn’t so much Quaineess Nyn he was asking about.” Daniel answered her unasked question. “It was more Hunters and dragons in general. He wanted to know how many hunters actually had contact with dragons.”
So it wasn’t Quaineess Nyn. It was Gator that Eric was interested in? That would explain why he took the dragon scales, if they were actually dragon scales, but it doesn’t explain why he came back and took the long knife and the ring.
“So, who are you studying now?” She asked.
“Oh, some hunter called Sudire or something.”
“Sondire Berk.” She said, recalling the name she had read about in the history of hunters.
“You’ve heard of him?” Daniel asked, even Murphy looked up when she mentioned the name.
“Well sure.” She replied, as if it was common knowledge. “He was known for defeating a water serpent along the eastern coast. The problem was he went after a fire drake somewhere in the western flat lands, and never survived.”
“Not just any fire drake, but The Drake of the Western Flats, at least that's what Master Voreing says.” Murphy added.
The Drake of the Western Flats is one of the three remaining open scripts within the hunter’s guild. The three scripts that are revered by all hunters, yet never attempted. Was that what Eric had in mind, instant fame? Was he crazy enough to try his hand at one of the scripts, and not just any script, but The Drake of the Western Flats? It would explain his interest in Quaineess Nyn, since he was the only other Hunter besides Sondire that ever slew a dragon, but what makes Eric think he’s good enough? Could one of those artifacts he stole, be the secret to Quaineess Nyn’s success? It seemed a little far fetched but Eric was never one for deep thinking. The way Murphy had described him growing up. Eric sought only instant gratification at the expense of others. That was probably why he wanted Murphy to team up with him, to use Murphy and his skill with stone to protect him against the fires of the Drake, if that was even possible. It was more likely that he would use Murphy as a decoy or bait, and while the dragon was eating his friend, he would attack the dragon from behind or high tail it out of there. Kile wondered if Murphy knew what Eric had in mind from the start, and how lucky he was to break ties with the twisted kid before it went too far.
“Hey, Kile, you ready?” Carter called out, pulling her from her thoughts. She turned to see the young cadet, sword in hand, dripping with sweat and out of breath and knew that enough time had passed. This was going to be easier than she thought.
“I’ll be right there.” She called back and then turned to Daniel. “If you really want to tick off Voreing, why don’t you ask him to tell you about some of the other hunters? Like Alisa Isa or maybe Catherine Y’lew, I’m sure he would love to talk about them.” She grinned. She was going to throw in Risa Ta’re to complete the trio of female hunters in the small gallery, but couldn’t bear to part with the name. It would pain her to have Master Voreing think of Risa Ta’re for even a second, she was way outside that old man’s class.
She got up, stretched and grabbed the bundled Lann that rested on the crates beside her and walked past a panting Alex.
“Did you put up a good fight?” She asked him.
“Oh… yeah… I almost… had him.” The smaller cadet replied, gasping for breath.
She picked up the sword that was stuck in the ground and set it aside.
“Aren’t we confident, you plan on fighting me bare handed?” Carter asked with an impish grin.
“Not quite, I brought my own.” She said as she untied the bundled, grabbed the hilts of the two blades and let the cloth fall. She enjoyed the look on Carter’s face as he studied the new weapons. He wasn’t as confident as he had been just a few second ago. Was that a flicker of doubt she saw in his eyes as she took her place opposite him.
The longer the fight continued, the better it was for her, and he had already been fighting for the last twenty some odd minutes. Her weapons were lighter, she was more rested, and he had never seen the Tachiena style up close before, but if there was one thing she had learned, never underestimate your opponent. It only takes one mistake to lose a match, and Carter was no novice at exploiting an opponent’s mistakes.
“You really want to fight with… those?” He asked her, extending his arm and holding out his weapon as if to show her the length of his reach. He was actually measuring his circle of defense.
“What’s wrong with them?” She asked. They were considerable shorter than his weapon, almost half the length which means she would have to get up close to do any real damage, and he knew it.
Daniel and Murphy abandoned their studies to view the battle, Alex took a better position off to one side where he could watch and catch his breath. They ha
d waited a week for this even if she hadn’t.
“If you’re ready.” Carter remarked as he saluted with his sword.
“Ready.” She replied, returning the salute.
Carter instantly opened with his two handed over the head attack, but switched it up at the last minute and came in on Kile’s left side, her weaker side, or the side he thought was weaker side. He had forgotten all those times she had fought left handed. She diverted his weapon with her left blade, rolled into his attack and came out behind him. This time it was she who withheld her strike, otherwise the match would have ended there as she stopped her right blade from landing a killing blow.
Carter realized his mistake as he quickly recovered. A mistake which he wasn’t likely to make again. This time he came at her with short fast attacks, moving from side to side as if looking for a weak point, but the larger weapon was too slow and she was easily able to set each thrust aside. She made no attempt at countering; she was just enjoying the matchup. It had been a long time since she could stand one on one with Carter, not since they abandoned the wooden practice sword.
She could read every one of his moves, she had always been able to read his moves, she was just never able to get the ungainly sword there fast enough to prevent his attacks, but the Lann made it too easy. She was able to divert his attacks on both sides without ever having to cross over herself, or leave a spot vulnerable, and she could do it without breaking a sweat.
Carter was already slowing down, but she couldn’t really blame him. She didn’t know how long he had been sparring before she arrived, and the twenty minutes with Alex probably felt like twenty hours as the hyperactive chipmunk danced all over the ring without any practical sense.
She threw a few fast weak attacks; just to keep him on his toes as they maneuvered each other around the circle. One thing that she had noticed, when sparing with the Casacure style, it was easier if you stay in one place, to create your defensive circle and strike out from there, so it was to her advantage to keep him moving.
He came in low; she drove his sword down and away with both Lann and spun up the weapon, landing a blow to the back of his leg before following her movement through to the other side.