These Old Bones

7-1

7

After two days, Tiera felt well enough to ride and Viriili's uncontrolled healing had started to have its effect upon Brorzjav again. A further two days of travel saw them passing the other side of the abandoned city's lands and they left praying to the Patrons that they never see another Nightcrawler again.

By mid-day on the fifth day, they found the first major river since entering the Hraalfeld and Brorzjav decided to camp early and fish for their meal that night. A welcome change from their dried rations and skinny rabbits. It also allowed Brorzjav to take Viriili through some sword training, using a pair of sturdy branches found along the way.

"Again!" He shouted as Viriili found herself face down on the ground once more.

Viriili thumped the ground with her hand, pushing herself upright, her face a picture of fury. She turned on Brorzjav and raced towards him, swinging her branch without any control. Brorzjav watched the clumsy attack, tapped her branch aside and leaned to his left, leaving his foot to catch one of hers as she passed. She stumbled, crashing in a heap on the floor once again.

"Again!" He swung his branch in a circle, rolling a wrist that didn't, for once, feel swollen.

"This is stupid!" Viriili picked grass from her mouth and spat to the side. She pushed herself upright again and threw the branch aside. "I'm not learning anything! Except how to fall over. We've been doing this for days."

"You're angry. Good." He walked over, picked up her branch and thrust it against the girl's chest. "What good does being angry do you?"

"It makes me want to smash your head in." She wrenched the branch from his hands, brushing her burnt red hair from her eyes, more and more strands coming loose from her plait, slick with sweat against her forehead.

"What else? How does being angry make you feel?" He tapped her branch with his own, forcing it to bounce against her head. Her ice blue eyes flashed as if she could murder him where he stood. "How does anger help you?"

"It stops me feeling tired, makes me forget we've been doing this for hours. And the branch doesn't feel as heavy." She made an unexpected wild swipe with her branch towards his face and missed by at least a foot and a half.

"That's right. It does. I reckon you feel strong and powerful. Right?" This time he thrust his branch towards her stomach, poking her with the pointed end a little harder than he needed to. "It also makes your head feel mushy, doesn't it? Blood rushing in your ears, eyes feeling like you could cry, can't think straight?"

She nodded, setting her face into a grim frown, biting her bottom lip as she made several swings in combination, aiming for his leg, then twisting the branch to aim for his head again. Then following up with an overhead strike. Each swing obvious, easy to avoid, leaving her off balance each time. He kicked her backside as the branch passed through empty air where he no longer stood and she fell to the ground again. Tiera, gutting and scaling a fish, laughed and Viriili shot her a vicious, nasty look.

"It's not funny!" Viriili punched the ground several times.

"It's a little bit funny." Tiera looked up to the sky, considering that and laughed again. "No. No. It's a lot funny."

Viriili jumped up to her feet again, clutching at her hair, digging her nails into the skin of her scalp and screamed, her eyes closed tight. After a second, the scream petered out and she stamped her booted feet on the ground. This only caused Tiera to laugh again and Brorzjav couldn't help but stifle a chuckle with his hand. Viriili paced up and down muttering to herself, throwing her hands around as if explaining something. Brorzjav nodded towards Tiera and she tossed Notch towards him. Catching it by the hilt, he roared and then swung Notch towards Viriili's head. A slow swing, but still deadly.