Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1)

by Aaron Hicks

  In a totally formless ball of cloth Uktesh still thought that she was the most beautiful girl in the world. He suddenly thought back to the town that was massacred and thought of the children who ran to fight. He couldn’t understand his own inability to move to help.

  He knew that if this perfect woman was in danger he would fight, he wouldn’t hesitate, and that brought him comfort. For her I will become a hero. I will no longer be a coward. He realized that his face probably had a silly grin on it and that Laurilli had a smile to out shine the sun that she was currently shining back at him.

  “What are you smiling about?” he asked.

  “You first.”

  “I was just thinking about a family I saw on my way here and was thinking that if anyone tried to hurt you I would fight them to the best of my ability. Your turn.”

  “I was just thinking that you look silly grinning like a fool.”

  Uktesh pursed his lips and thought about saying something in return, but decided that she was probably right. He hadn’t had much practice, and decided to say as much, “You’re probably right. I haven’t had much practice. Where I grew up, I was kind of an outcast because people thought that I wasn’t living up to my potential. So every time I failed to do something right, they made sure that I was ridiculed for it. I didn’t fail often, but when I did I never heard the end of it. ‘Remember when Uktesh tripped over the sand last week?’ ‘What about last month when he thought that he was being attacked by the wind and started to swing his sword around like a fool.’ ‘Or four years ago when he was training to run and couldn’t even figure out how to do that!’ It was hard to be happy there, but my dad was always kind and understanding, so he made up for the rest of the village being mean to me.”

  “That so sad. I understand how you feel though. Since my dad went off to the war, we found that more and more people stopped coming by to see us, and less and less of my friends are willing to spend time with me. Now it’s just mom and me and the boys in the village keep picking on me whenever they find me alone, so mom doesn’t let me go out on my own very often. I joke about it, but,” she swallowed hard, and she fought back tears, “if you hadn’t shown up they might have,” tears welled in her beautiful eyes, “they might have,” he voice tightened and, before she could complete the horrible thought, Uktesh had her in his arms stroking her hair as she cried into his chest.

  Those bastards! I’ll kill them if they try to hurt her again. Dekan and Baloce you are in need of a beating. Making Laurilli cry is bad enough, but you made her think you would rape her. Uktesh found that he was holding her and continued to rub her back and stroke her hair while she cried silent sobs into his chest.

  “You wouldn’t ever hurt me would you?”

  “No Laurilli. Never.”

  “Promise me you won’t leave either.”

  “I promise.” He’d known from the moment he met her that he was besotted and that she was the only one for him. He started to think about where he might be able to make a permanent camp, but on the walk to the house he hadn’t found any promising spots. He knew his own thoughts about her, but her thoughts were a mystery to him, so he asked, “So does this mean we’re betrothed?”

  She laughed and hugged him tighter, “I think it just means that you’re my best friend.”

  Best friend? He thought about it for a second, I can handle that. “If I’m the best friend of the prettiest girl in the world, does that make me handsome?”

  She laughed again, which seemed to lighten the very air about him, and Uktesh wanted to make her laugh again and again. “So you think I’m pretty?”

  “I think you’re the most beautiful girl in the world.”

  “I’m fourteen almost fifteen! I’m a woman now.”

  “Then I think that you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”

  She pushed away from him slightly and said, “You shouldn’t say that except to your wife.”

  “Then you should become my betrothed, so that I can shout it from the hills.”

  “There aren’t any hills around here just the one mountain,” she said with a grin.

  Dang, she deflected my question again! “Then I will climb up to the top of this house, stand on the roof, and shout it from there. Every man who hears my voice will weep for they will no longer be able to marry you themselves!”

  She smiled and said, “You wouldn’t.”

  “Well, since we’re not betrothed, just best friends, you’ll never know.”

  Uktesh sat next to her this time, and they laid back, her head on his shoulder and he had his arm around her shoulder. “So,” she asked timidly, “you think I’m beautiful?”

  He laughed and hugged her to him, “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “only if you don’t mind marrying an older man.”

  “How old are you?”

  “I’m fifteen, a full year older than you,” he said, slightly proud of his age, but also uncertain as to why.

  “That doesn’t matter then. Tell me about where you grew up.”

  He sighed deeply and decided to tell her the whole truth, he started, “I was born in Beletaria. I’m very good at fighting other people, and that’s why they made fun of me anytime I failed. I figure you should know, I ran away after my village was attacked. I’m not sure by whom. But after my father was killed, I just ran. After that I had a vision about the attack, and of a man named Thulmann,” he felt Laurilli stiffen against him.

  She turned in his arms and elbowed him in the process, “You met my dad! Was he alright? Did he have any bandages? Was he happy?”

  “Thulmann’s your father?” Laurilli nodded and urged him to continue. “Um, he was fine. I didn’t see any wounds. I don’t think he was really happy, but he’d just been a part of a…” massacre, but I can’t say that, “…a battle. I don’t think that he enjoys killing people. So that’s good.”

  “How long ago did you see him?”

  “It was maybe a month ago.”

  “Why didn’t he stop by here? How far away were you?”

  “I don’t know. It took about a month to walk from there to here.”

  “But he was safe?”

  “Yeah, he was with nine other warriors who seemed very strong.” Curiosity about the man that had spared his life made him ask, “Tell me about him.”

  “He was so strong, and kind. Everyone in town loves him. They were so angry with my mom when he married her. She came from Granger with her uncle and my dad fell instantly head over heels for her. He was sixteen and she was fifteen. They were betrothed months later and married a year and a day after that. Ten months later they had me, but I was a difficult birth, and my mom can’t have any more children.”

  “I was a difficult birth too, my mom died giving me life.” Uktesh felt the tears he’d been able to hold in for a life time well in his eyes, “I’ve wondered so often if everyone would’ve been better off if I’d been the one to die.”

  “No! You can’t think that!” She leveraged herself up so that she could look into his eyes. “I wouldn’t be better off! My mom might be comforting me right now if not for you.”

  “I’m a coward though.” Her eyes widened in shock. “The reason I’m no longer good at fighting is because, I’m afraid to attack. I don’t even understand the reasons behind it. I don’t think it’s fear of being hurt. Whenever we would practice forms I was the best, but when it came to actually using the forms in a battle, I froze. Ultimately, father died because of it. And now you know my secret. I’m one of the evil people that your people want to wipe out.”

  “No, that’s not true!” She said, her blue eyes shone in the moonlight with unshed tears, “You’re a good person. I can tell. We don’t want to wipe out your people. We just want to live in peace. But once the border raids became border wars, the council decided to form an alliance and demand the Beletarians stop warring with us. But the peace delegation was murdered, and only one man was allowed to journey back to tell us why.

  “After that we had to fig
ht. It was that or slowly be destroyed, or at least that’s what my dad said, says,” she corrected herself, “that’s what my dad says.”

  “You and I are probably going to be the last to know the truth about why this war started. We, my village, and the others around us enjoyed the peace our ancestors fought and died to secure.”

  “Would you teach me to fight? I’ve always wanted to and my dad used to teach me, until mom stopped him. After that he just kept saying that young ladies shouldn’t be thinking of harming others, just about living happily. I want to be happy, I want to be able to defend myself if Baloce or Dekan or anyone else decide that I’m enough of an outsider that no one will notice or care if I’m soiled.”

  She said it! She actually believes that those two would’ve raped her! She curled in a ball away from his side and he could hear her as she began to cry again. Without a thought he hugged her from behind and just held her. I can’t believe how strong she is! She was joking about this with her mom, probably because she knew if she didn’t Heathyr would worry about it for real, but by joking it made it less real. I was there and I believed her.

  Slowly her tears subsided and she asked again, “Will you teach me?”

  “I’ll teach you all that you can learn. We’ll start with unarmed combat and move on from there. We’ll see how quickly you learn that, and then we’ll see if you can progress to weapons. Do you have any clothes to wear that are not dresses?”

  “Of course I do, but I just like dresses.”

  “Good. Then we can start practicing in the morning.” Uktesh yawned and looked at the sky as it slowly became lighter and said, “I can’t believe that we’ve talked the whole night!”

  Laurilli at up quickly and moved towards the ladder that led down into the kitchen and said, “Oh no! I have to get back to my room before mom realizes I’ve been up here all night!”

  Uktesh yawned again and lay lengthwise on the bed. He and could smell flowers where Laurilli had been next to him. He smiled and tried to think about their conversation, tried to remember the finer points, but all too soon he fell asleep.

  Rabbits Make Terrible Pets

  Uktesh woke up to the sounds of cooking and the smell of baking bread. He wanted to go back to bed and sleep some more, but he knew that wouldn’t be fair to Laurilli who had probably been awake for hours. Outside his window two green turtledoves sang to each other too loudly. Uktesh lazily threw a pebble a one and hit it on its shell.

  They flew off and chattered angrily at him. He stumbled to the ladder and sleepily climbed down. Because he did not pay enough attention his foot missed the last step, and he thudded to the ground. Shocked and no longer sleepy he leaned against the ladder and caught his breath. “Good morning. You seem like you were up late? Couldn’t sleep in a bed? I’ve heard that happens when you’ve been camping for a long time.”

  Uktesh turned to tell her that he stayed up because he had struggled to sleep in a new place. But when he looked into her eyes he felt like he’d been electrocuted. Her glare was so strong. He swallowed and looked around for Laurilli, but couldn’t see her. She must still be asleep!

  How stupid could we have been! Of course Heathyr would realize that we were both tired. “Heathyr, I apologize if I’ve given a bad impression of myself, or seemed to not conduct myself as I would wish a guest in my home would. As you can guess, Laurilli did sneak into the loft last night. However, all we did was talk.”

  Uktesh tried to portray complete honesty, and was rewarded when Heathyr relented and said, “See that your ‘talks’ don’t become more.”

  “I’ll be leaving today after I teach Laurilli some basic defense.”

  Heathyr nodded to herself, “Where will you go?”

  Uktesh hadn’t thought about it, as he had just planned on living in the woods by Manori.

  “I like it here and I was thinking of checking if there was any work available here. Maybe I could sign on as an apprentice for one of the blacksmiths or work at the lumber mill. It’ll be dangerous work, but less dangerous, I think, than living near any of the borders for a while.” As he spoke he realized that it was a good idea. The islands south of Jubay were uninhabited by humans, just some strange monsters. If he could make an island safe for people, the reputation of strange monsters would discourage anyone from trying to bother him, but that would have to be after Laurilli became tired of him.

  “That’s a terrible idea. You’ll be killed. You will stay here under our roof, until you’re older, and more able to take care of yourself.”

  He tried to not show how happy he was with that idea, “I wouldn’t want to impose. You’ve already been so kind.”

  “Oh it won’t be an imposition. You’ll earn your keep, and there are chores enough around here to keep the two of you busy for months.

  “Me and who?”

  “Why Laurilli of course, since you enjoy each other’s company so much you’ll get to spend every waking moment with her from now on.”

  Uktesh liked the words that she said, but the way she said them made him feel as if he was being handed a death sentence.

  “Now your first chore is to wake up my daughter.” He turned to enter Laurilli’s room and Heathyr’s said, “Anyway you want, just be on your toes!” She laughed to herself as she continued to get breakfast ready.

  Uktesh opened the door and saw her asleep on her bed golden hair spread out in almost every direction. As he walked forward he imagined several ways to wake her up, but as he got closer to her he started to imagine more and more that he would wake her with a kiss like a fairytale.

  As he blushed in the dark of her room, he tapped her toe lightly. But when she didn’t wake up, he grabbed her big toe and shook it slightly. His instincts saved him from injury, or embarrassment, as he flowed into Sun Awakens the Sky, and dodged a kick because he leaned back till his back was parallel to the ground. Had the kick landed it would’ve hurt. Heathyr did say ‘Be on your toes.’ It’s my fault that I didn’t understand her meaning.

  “Uktesh? What are you doing in my room?” Her foot flashed downward towards him again, and he moved, still in balanced style, to an offensive unarmed form Frog Swims in the Water, to parry her foot away. He could only use one hand instead of two, as his other hand was needed to steady him from the Sun Awakens the Sky.

  “Your mother asked me to wake your lazy bones. I was only doing as she asked.” He stood up and said the thing he thought would be the most annoying, “You sure are cute when you scowl,” he dodged a thrown pillow and exited the room with a laugh. He saw Heathyr turn around quickly to hide a smile as he entered the kitchen and started to help prepare the table. When Laurilli exited her room and ran her fingers through her tangled hair, Uktesh wished that he was the one with his fingers in her hair.

  She yawned silently as she walked toward Heathyr. Uktesh tried not to stare as her night shirt rose up and her stomach was revealed. His heart started racing, What in the nine hells is wrong with me! He could feel his face heating as he continued to put dishes on the table.

  When he finished setting the table he saw that the pile of firewood by the oven was low. So he put on his boots, went outside, and grabbed an armful of the logs he’d cut the day before. He paused as he was about to enter the house. He felt something odd in the air, and turned to the left to see the bushes move. He stared for nearly two minutes, but soon boredom, and the weight of the logs pulled him into the house.

  He stacked the logs neatly on the rest of the pile and went to the ladder that led into the loft to get his weapons. When his right foot touched the ladder, the same odd vibe in the air caught him, but this time he spun around fast enough to see a blur as it moved towards the house.

  He leapt up the ladder and hardly felt the steps until he was in the loft. He had just grabbed his weapons when the back door crashed open, and he could hear Laurilli scream in fear, as he jumped through the hole for the ladder. He landed in Butterfly Kisses the Leaf to find that one of the most dangerous Afflicted creatures,
a saber rabbit, had entered the house.

  It was clearly half starved as its’ ribs were visible through its fur, saliva dripped down its two elongated fangs. All eight feet of it coiled back on its two enormous hind legs, as it prepared to spring at the two unarmed women. Uktesh did not have time to string his bow, so he threw it at the beast. It turned and roared at him.

  Uktesh smiled, because now it was distracted. He fought the saber rabbit just like the hunters back home would’ve fought, only his problem was there was no other hunter to kill the distracted beast, and no spear to keep the injured beast at arm’s length.

  It pivoted and with barely a moments warning launched itself at him. Uktesh dropped and rolled to his right, away from Heathyr and Laurilli. Uktesh could feel the wind from the rabbit’s front claws as it swung at him. The beast crashed into the ladder and snapped it as Uktesh rolled to his feet, turned and threw one of his two knives at it.

  The blade lodged itself in the saber rabbit’s left hind leg. Uktesh quickly threw his skinning knife, but the beast spun, faster than Uktesh would’ve believed any injured animal could, and the knife bounced off its hide and spun towards the women, who, Uktesh noticed, had armed themselves with knives.

  The rabbit gathered itself again as Uktesh slid his sword out of his sheath and wished that he wasn’t such a coward. A true man would’ve died to kill the beast instead he had chosen to roll under it. He glanced at the door and thought about if it was possible to lead it outside, but he didn’t know if he would be able to be better bait than the two women.

  Heathyr threw a frying pan full of cooking food at the saber rabbit. It splashed onto the rabbits head and the beast roared in pain and pivoted towards the women. The smell of burnt fur filled the room, but Heathyr had done what was needed. She distracted it which opened its flank to the hunter.