Relonor's Journal

by River Gheuens

  I opened my eye at the sound of steel on steel, as he drew his blades, while my hand found the rapier with my right hand, before my left hand found the main gauche. I resisted the urge to draw steel. He was still eight steps from me. If he would launch an attack, I would have a life time to draw my weapons.

  My relaxation was over, as the music of the nature was muted when the steel slid over the steel, which drew a hard counterpoint to the music of nature. I readied to move at a heart beats notice. His fourth step would make my blades fly from their sheaths, on my hips.

  “Draw your blades to fight, Relonor. I do not wish to strike you unarmed,” papa bade unto me.

  I looked into his right eye, as my sight was as steady as my voice, while I said, “It is your choice to attack. I am not unarmed, nor unaware of your intention to spar. If you wish to spar, make your move.”

  He looked at me, as he twirled the blade in his right hand to check the balance. “My choice? You have learned nothing from which I taught to you. From what I have seen, and what I see now, this form is sloppy! Your feet are tangled up. If I move to you, you will trip over your own feet.”

  In a calm, unshaken voice I replied, “Yes, papa, your choice. Everything in life is a choice. After the choice, there is a series of reactions, which will happen, that will lead to your defeat. If you wish to lose, attack.” I knew he would take my words as an insult. There was no insult to my words, just my point of view, which I knew to be fact, while the music played in my head.

  He snarled, as his left foot came off the ground, with his swords out to his sides. My hands drew the weapons instantly, with him taking his fourth step. My right arm drew the rapier, before bringing it to a high cross guard position, as my main gauche, in my left, went to a low downward guard position. My feet stayed in place, though I put more of a bend to my knees, as I drew myself closer to the ground.

  He advanced quickly, as he took the four steps in two. The quick steps were in an attempt to tie up my feet. My feet budged not a hair’s width. He led with his right sword in a downward strike, which was aimed at to knock the rapier out of the way, for a quick kill. I shifted the weight to my back right foot, as I moved my left foot to my left, as the sound of the stream bubbling came into the fore ground of the music in my head. The stream wanting to take the stage. I slid the rapier behind his blade, as my rapier rolled up to move his blade past me, which landed my blade on his forearm.

  “First blood, papa,” I said calmly.

  He stared at me and the pose. I had perfectly moved, at the last second, as I had parried the force of the batting attack, while redirecting the force away from my body, as I had put my sword in place to counter strike, with no effort expended.

  He took a few step back with a weary look crossing his face. “First blood is not a victory.” The formal response for the sparring match to continue with first blood hits, util one party called off the match.

  His blades started into a spin in front of him, right over left, as they gained speed. My feet stood motionless from the counter strike I had landed, as I swayed slowly to the breeze as the trees entered into the music, as their leaves rustled in the breeze. He moved in with his right sword over left, as I stepped forward at the cross of his arms.

  The weakest part of this attack is when the arms are crossed, I thought absently, as my left main gauche moved his right blade out further, which caused him to cross his arms even more, as my rapier’s basket punched into his left sword, as the tip of the rapier, which was angled back, rested on his throat.

  He looked astonished at the boldness of the counter. “Death, papa.” I said calmly. “Would you like another chance? Chance would allow it.”

  He backed off two steps while watching me. I moved not a muscle from where I had stopped, in mid attack. I waited, as I had all the time in the world to do this, with the music of nature singing it will endure everything.

  He circled to my left, as I let him get four paces in while not moving. I knew what he was thinking, while knowing the next attack would come from that angle, blade high and blade low. He would assume I would only be able to counter one blade, and he would win the exchange.

  He moved forward as one sword stabbed at my face, while the other stabbed at my midsection. The tension in my legs was released with the joining of a hawks screeching to the music, which brought my left leg behind my right as my right arm turned the rapier to point at the ground, while bringing the basket of my rapier high enough to counter the high strike. My motion continued me in a circle, as it brought my back to his left side, while my main gauche patted his butt as I moved past. This move had spun me to my right knee, while the rapier’s tip rested on the ground. My main gauche was off to my side with my body facing his back.

  Papa turned around before staring at me in astonishment. “How? You could not have been ready for that.”

  “Well, my legs were under tension. Think of them as a spring ready to release the energy, which they had compressed. When you attacked, all I had to do was release my left foot off the ground, which caused my body to rotate with the torque of the tension being released. With a high low attack, you would figure I could pick off one attack with my main gauche, while not being able to bring the rapier to bear, from the position I was in. With the stance, I was able to bring my rapier to parry both blades. But the laws of physics say an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. Instead of fighting the torque, I used the torque to continue to move around, which landed the hit.”

  I could hear Vadoma letting out a chuckle. “Give it up, Richard. I tried for thirty moments to land a hit on her. It seems she was holding back against me.” Vadoma raised her left eyebrow at me.

  Papa looked to her before returning his gaze to me. I relaxed as I untangled myself from the spring I had made myself into, as I had let the motion bring a small bit of tension back to my stance. My weapons returned to their sheaths, as I relaxed my burning legs.

  I let myself just plop down on the grass. “If you wish to spar more, papa, I must rest first, may chance allow. My muscles are not in the condition they were in a month ago.”

  Papa continued to stare at me, with his swords still out, while held in a downward guard. Vadoma walked over to me, before she plopped down on the ground next to me, before looking at me in concern. “Are you okay? Did you over do yourself?”

  I laughed. My voice was full of mirth as I responded, “I will feel this on the morrow.”

  “And you deserve it, for all those looks you took of my butt,” Vadoma replied as a smile painted her face.

  Entry 6

  4 Months Before

  Groenplaats

  I awoke to soft knocking on my door, as my face was buried in my pillow. I let my hand snake to the dagger I had on the side of the bed, as I mumbled into my pillow, “It is open.” I really hoped I had not locked the door, or I would have to get up. I really did not want to get out of my warm bed.

  The door creaked open, which let the wind loose in the confined space. She showed me a sight which took my breath away, as the person I have gotten to know these past few months walked through the door. Vadoma walked through the door, as the wind showed me her beautiful face in bright whites and grays. My bottom lip retreated to rest between my teeth, while my face was still firmly in my pillow. Her hair played in the wind, as the wind sought her way out of my room, as she sought freedom.

  I had thought I had forgotten Vadoma’s face, for the two weeks she had to go visit the other villages, for the routine healer travelers. It just happened her name came up this time round.

  She was fighting the door closed, so the wind would not close the door too hard and wake everyone in the building up with a slammed door.

  My mind worked to wake up to this wench, who is my best friend. She had her sword belt in her hand, which she dropped on the floor half way to the bed, before flopping down on the bed, with me just being in the way.

  “Wench, I am trying to sleep here! Why
do you not go to your own bed and annoy your pillow, rather than bother me, being all innocent here I may add, just drooling away on my pillow, without you, I may just add,” sleepiness dripped from the humor my voice held.

  “I would not mind my own bed, which is so less crowded than this bed, as there is not a beast which hogs the bed, in my bed, and to have a pillow that does not have your drool on it. But,” she drew out the word for effect, “I wanted to see you and check to see how you are doing.”

  “I here. I sleep. I drooling.” I said sleepily.

  “I see,” she said as she rolled off of the top of me, to behind my back, as her right arm casually draped over my hip, while her hot breath was on my neck.

  My breath stopped. Her breath on my neck sent bumps down my skin, as my bottom lip drew back to between my teeth again, before my teeth bit down on my lip in want. I tilted my neck to give her more room to get closer.

  In my loins, a fire erupted, which caused me to rub my legs together slightly, in a desperate attempt to put out the fire. “Can I just cuddle here? You know, friendly cuddles,” Vadoma asked shyly.

  The fire in my loins died. Friends. She keeps bringing it up, as this is what we are. There are times she does things like this, which are so purposeful in their execution, to get this reaction out of me. She was the worst tease I knew, but as she said, she just wanted to be friends. She was the one person whom constantly wanted to be around me. I did not want to go back to a life of being alone.

  “Yes, wench. Stay on your side of the bed and no drooling on my drool. It may end the universe in an explosion of drool,” I said the first thing which had came to my mind.

  “First, eww. An explosion of drool? Why could it not be an explosion butterflies? At least, some what cute? And second, my bed too.” She pulled me closer to her.

  “Whatever, wench. Your mouth is moving when it should be snoring. Work on that, please.”

  “I will have a quip on this, after my snoring is completed, so do not think this argument is over, lady,” she mouthed into my neck. Her hot breath played over my skin. Then, like nothing happened, she was asleep, as snoring came from her mouth.

  Sleep was now out of the question for me, as her hot breath in flowed over and around my neck, while the hot exhale of breath, with that snore, hammered into the side of my neck, which sent the warmth from my neck down my body to my loins, which burned with need and want. The wind showed me her lips in crisp detail.

  The rest of this night would be a long one, as I knew sleep was now out of the question. I laid there, as still as I could be, while I endured the sweet torture she inflicted on my neck with her breath.

  ** *** **

  Vadoma’s snoring tapered off to lighter breathing on my neck. I have lain here, as she slept, while she teased me with her breath, the entire time. I had lain here, with thoughts of how I wanted her lips on my lips. The lips I have studied so well, during this time, as the wind showed them to me in crystal clarity.

  Several times over the last few months, when she would place her hand below my damaged eye, I had thought she wanted to put her lips on me. The few times she has put her lips on me, though her lips where not they needed to be. Instead, she has lightly kissed my cheek, over where the heat of her hand had penetrated my flesh. This made the area burn with the touch of her nose and the barely there whisper of her lips on my flesh. Then, they were gone, which left an lingering feeling of her lips on my flesh, as my cheek screamed for more. How after the heat subsided, the tickle of where her nose had been, just heart beats before, lingered on my cheek.

  Her arm tightened around my waist, as it had wrapped around it at some point of the night, which drew my body tighter against her clothed form, as the quilt separated the heat of her body from mine.

  I let out a sigh of reluctance as I rolled to my other side, which brought me nose to nose with her. Her eyes were barely visible in the morning light, which poured through the window of my room.

  “Morrow, sleepy head,” Vadoma responded to my rolling over to look at her.

  I quipped back, “And, what is wrong with your bed, were you had to come cuddle up to a friend, to have a night of sleep?”

  Her hand was now at the small of my back, as her fingers were making slow circles over my chemise through the quilt. “What? Do you not want a friendly cuddle with me? Did you not miss me a little?”

  Her small circling finger movement sent shivers up my spine, which caused my shoulders to retreat a little backwards and downwards in pleasure. “For your information, I have no problem with friendly cuddles. Secondly, I did miss my only friend in the world who knows me. The real question is, did you miss your best friend in this place?” I quipped right back at her, as my left eyebrow raised to the question.

  Her bottom lip retreated to her teeth, as she lightly bit down on her bottom lip. “Da. I missed my best friend, which takes up every moment of my day.” She trailed off while her eyes studied my face for several moments, as I studied the deep turquoise orbs, which were studying me.

  She sighed before releasing her lip from her teeth, while looking into my scarred eye socket. “Guess what, lady,” she whispered to me.

  “The sky is blue.”

  “Da, but I have the next week to myself. No healer duties, unless it is an emergency. I was thinking of going into the mountains to the West, to explore the wilderness. If you have time, I could always use an escort by a pretty warrior, like you,” a smile came to her lips, as she turned the last words into a playfully teasing sound.

  “Well, wench, I have instruction this morning. After that, I have no plans. I did spend time in the fields harvesting the cannabis and potatoes, so I do not think anyone will miss me for a few days. Well, besides mother and papa, but I think they will miss their other child just as much, since she has been gone for a few weeks.”

  “They missed me? Ha-ha. I missed them too! Well I should include your beautiful face in this confession,” she said in a chuckling, teasing tone, as the blood rushed to my cheeks in a blush at the compliment.

  I turned my head down to my chest, as I was trying my best to hide the blush, least she think something else to my blush. I could not loose my only friend; however, she probably did not look at me in the same way.

  “Where did you want to go,” I asked shyly, as I was trying to regain the confidence in my voice.

  She let out a heavy sigh before breaking out into a smile. “I was thinking of going to the West, to where my Mother had taken me once. I wanted to see what you think of what we had found there. Maybe pick your brain on what you think it was…” her voice drifted off as her eyes looked back in time to the memory she held.

  “Wait, did you see your Mother when you were traveling?”

  “Da. She is planning on visiting from Boosplaats at the Samurai Festival in a few weeks. She said, ‘It will be good to blow this village, to roam the land with the Grand Masters.’ She does miss traveling now, with having to ‘watch over the village’ as she says.”

  I looked into her eyes while I asked, “So I finally get to meet the parent?”

  “If she does not kill you first, for being so sarcastic, da.”

  “Wait,” I let my voice get a distant while scared tone to it. “You want to take me into the mountains to kill me. Then, your mother will not kill me for being so hard on her little darling of a daughter, for being the worst friend of the century to her?”

  “Exactly! How did you figure out my brilliant plan of killing you with pretty scenery and, maybe, a rock? I know you always wanted to die by a rock,” she quipped back to me.

  “Um, hello, I said, ‘If I was to be killed by a rock, it had to be a talking rock.’ Ordinary rocks are so last year,” I echoed aloud.

  She chuckled at the last conversation we had, before she left, ‘The best way to die.’ I had chosen a talking rock. Her response, like always, held so many meanings. ‘I want to be killed by a beautiful person, who loves me.’

  Let me tell you, I had thought on
her statement for weeks, as I tried to pull apart the many meanings those simple words conveyed. I came up with a conclusion. This beautiful lady kills me every day with a smile, a glance of her eyes, her quick witty comeback, and the innocent touching! I may need to amend how I want to die.

  In my mind, I grab my heart, then I fell over dead, before shaking a few times to check if it was a good death, while getting comfortable. If you are going to die, you must be comfortable.

  Vadoma’s voice cut through the walk about my mind had went on. “I have not seen a talking rock in a few years. They may have all died from boredom by now. You may be stuck with an ordinary rock, which has lost it’s voice to talk. Maybe a granite one. Kind of smooth. Oh, and really small.”

  I could not help the belly laugh which came from my mouth. She loved trying to be more weird than I was, as she did not care if what she said made sense or not, by either trying at being funny, in some weird way, or by being serious in her extrapolations of a theory I would work on. She may know the medical sciences, but the natural sciences were outside of her reach, for now as she was trying to learn more about them.

  “That is really what you want to do? Seriously?”

  “Da. I do have a wanderlust to my soul. I am Romani after all. I am curious of the things which are out there yet to be discovered again. The tomes tell us of all the wonders which were in the world, and maybe I can find the cave again. I believe the cave holds wonders,” she trailed off, as her eyes clouded over with memory.

  I let her memory play out, as I was thinking of what kind of cave she was talking about. Caves are a dangerous place, as many caves could come down on your head without warning. However, us trying to find an area in the mountains to the West of us would be very difficult. Each valley and rock face looked like the next, at least they did to me.

  Her mind came out of her memory, as she hung a smile on her lips for me. “So, you up for a little adventure and some protecting a lady from danger?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.