Miya Mayflower...Stay beautiful

Chapter 9...

Chapter 9...

I had only been alone in the apple grove for ten minutes or so before I started to think about Gayne. That was when I had decided that the grove wasn’t interesting enough at the moment.

When I had first got to the training courts, I was surprised to find them completely deserted, then I realised that it must be about eight o’clock by now, everyone would be praying or keeping silent somewhere in their houses by now, they’d all be out later. The sun had almost completely sunk below the horizon and it was starting to get dark. I fetched some torches from the little wooden shed and lit them with a small piece of flint that was in a box next to them. After putting them in brackets around the fence of the main court, I went back to the shed and picked a sword. It sometimes takes a while to find the good ones, as it’s the village stock, anyone who can afford good swords bring their own to train with and everyone else fights it out as to who gets the best of these. Although this is one of the loneliest times of day, it does mean that I get the best swords.

I sat down in the soft sand of the main arena and folded my legs, laying the sword across my knees. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on defence. Images swum to the front of my mind of men blocking attacks and the different stances that I would need to know for each. I find that looking at these images and watching clips of people actually doing what I was about to do helps me to learn it easily. Although I am not entirely sure if I’m the only person who uses it or what it would be called, but to me it’s a training trance, because that’s what I use it for. After a few minutes, I decided that I had enough information and the images started to fade. Then, I caught sight of Gayne in one of them. It stopped fading and I found that I was watching him and not even noting what he was doing, just watching. He stopped for a minute to remove his sweat-drenched shirt and I smiled despite myself. As the training sequence continued, I realized that I hadn’t actually seen this before. Normally, I can only replay images and clips that I have witnessed myself, so how was I seeing this now? The image of Gayne stopped again, turned around and smiled, his hair was hanging down into his eyes and he shook it out the way. My gaze was drawn to his muscular torso. He stooped and picked up his shirt. As he drew it over his head, I felt a snag of disappointment.

That was when I heard it-a snigger. I wasn’t sure at first, but sure enough, it was followed by speech. ‘you would have thought she had seen me shirtless before. I barely ever train with a shirt on...’ there’s only one person that could be, but how was I hearing his thoughts? I lost concentration and when I had gained it again, the replay had disappeared and I could no longer hear him.

Gayne’s Point of view...

After she had left the house, I had decided that I should go with her, she might need company. Somebody to talk to. I started to walk towards the apple grove, knowing that is where she would go first, but Hane was in front of me.

‘Don’t you think you ought to be getting home?’ he asked.

‘Why?’ I asked, defensively. ‘...and where are you going?’

‘well, put it this way. It’s five to eight.’ He replied.

‘oh...urmm, fine, I’ll be home in a few minutes. I’ve got to do something first.’

‘hmm...well, I don’t think you’ll find her in there...’

‘what do you mean?’

‘you know...the thing you’ve got to...do, she’s not at the grove. Try the training courts.’ He replied with a smirk.

‘ how do I know you’re not telling me that to be a bastard?’

He considered. ‘well I guess you just have to trust me, won’t you.’ I didn’t feel so convinced and it must have shown on my face, because he said: ‘Why would I trick you? I know you like her...a lot,’ he glanced up at me in a way that made me feel like the foolish baby Brother I suppose I am. ‘I know that I’ve been an arse about your “romances” before, but Gayne, let’s face it...you went for Amelia...okay you may have been drunk or something, but Amelia? Hey at least this time it’s Miya...’ He smiled. ‘I don’t deny I’m jealous, I’m sure over half the men in the village would be, if only they knew.’