The Voyager and the Rogue

Chapter 29

Eyarr and I both woke shortly after the sun rose. It warmed up a bit compared to yesterday, the chill wasn't as sharp and painful to breathe in.

Eyarr grabbed his daggers and a short sword. I grabbed my daggers as well, and my clubs. We intended to start with the daggers first, and then move up from there. I picked my daggers up, holding them so the guard was above my thumb and the pommel below. I put the other dagger in the same position. When Eyarr came over, he was decidedly shirtless. And I noticed something on his chest that wasn't there previously.

A tattoo. On his left pectoral. It was a variety of lines crisscrossed over each other. I raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but stare. He noticed my expression, glancing at his chest briefly. He shrugged and got into a defensive stance with his daggers.

"A story for another time."

"You didn't have that tattoo when we left New Berk."

"I know. I'll tell you about it at the right time." He cut off the conversation there. Moving on, I noted the way he held his daggers was different from mine. And visually different, too. Mine was a simple straight design. His were curved at the tips and were jagged on the edge of the blade. It was intended to inflict more damage and was to be used carefully. The pommel rested above his thumb, so the blade pointed downwards. I mimicked his stance, shifting my feet according to the balance of my weight. My fingers flexed around the hilt of the daggers.

He then rushed forward, aiming his daggers toward my abdomen. Instinctively, I sucked in my stomach, bending backward slightly, swiftly avoiding his first attack. I listened to him move around me, I heard him come up behind me to my back right. I swirled around, holding my elbow to his chest and my dagger now facing down.

We swiftly dodged each other's attacks for hours. Taking breaks here and there, giving advice and tips.

Despite how exhausting it was, it was a lot of fun. This was way better than our first spar, and it was nice having someone of equal skill and like-mindedness. He thought the same way as I.

"You're way too fast for me!" He laughed after I pinned him down, my foot on his chest, holding one of my clubs at him. I laughed, too, lifting my foot off and holding my hand out to pull him up. He smirked at me, and I realized I gave him an advantage. He kicked his leg out, catching me as I fell forward, flipping me over, and soon I was the one on the ground. He leaned his head forward, close to mine, I could almost feel the breath escape his nose.

"You happy?" I said, making a face at him.

"Quite." He replied. He pulled me up and let me gain my breath back.

"You know, it's nice having an equal sparring partner," I said, twirling one of my clubs around.

"I agree. I would guess it's been a while for both of us." I nodded my head, putting my club down and stretching.

"To be fair, we're not fighting to be cocky." He commented, and I laughed, thinking about the first one.

When we picked it back up a few days later, it was a similar routine as we got used to each other's techniques and types of attacks.

We continued doing this whenever the weather was really bad or too cold to go out, and I soon could feel my body regaining its strength and focus with all the sparring. I started feeling more like myself. And Eyarr proved to be a different sort of challenge, as I was used to sparring with my sister or father.

One night, after a long evening of sparring, we sat in front of the fire, eating the smoked fish I had prepared prior. I knew how to smoke fish based on my observations on New Berk, but it was the first time I'd attempted it by myself. And much to my surprise, it turned out well!