No Matter What

Chapter 10

I brace myself for the impact.

Kyren's arm has stopped bleeding. He won't be converted tonight.

We are facing eachother. "You're afraid of more than one thing." He informs me.

I frown in confusion. "There can only be one fear for each person..." I reply.

"But it showed that you're afraid of betraying someone and losing the people you love."

"Yeah," I say, remembering "And you're afraid of betrayal."

He pulls me into  a hug and whispers into my ear "Probably why we're perfect for eachother. I"m afraid you'll betray me..."

"And I'm afraid to betray you." I finish his sentence, pulling back. He stands beside me and puts his arm over my shoulders.  "Ready for the rest of initiation?"

He nods, slowly, and drops his arm, grabbing my hand instead. "I'm ready." He seems to brace himself for what he expects to be spinning. Instead though, there is a clanging noise. We both look down. Laying at Kyren's feet is a longsword. He crouches to examine it.

Picking it up, he straightens and holds it out to show me. The handle is wrapped in black leather. Knowing Kyren, after initiation, he'll pick one with a green wrapped handle. It's his favorite color.

I'm not sure what kind of blade I was expecting him to be given. A blade speaks a lot about your fighting technique.

Me being pegged with a dagger means that I would like to keep my weapon concealed, and would rather fight up close than far away.

My guess is that Krissa has a shortsword; longer than my dagger, but small enough to still be concealed.

A longsword means that he won't be hiding it, but he won't broadcast it either. He probably won't fight in close range.

Uriah has a katana, he generally fights further away, but he can fight against someone with a dagger or shortsword, I should know, we've been training together for a year.

I hear a snapping sound, that makes me whirl around and draw my two favorite daggers from their hiding places at my side.

I let my hands drop to my sides, still clutching the dageers, until I can register what it is.

It's some sort of creature that I've never actually seen before; it has two heads, it's about as tall as an average sized house, and has enormous wings, one on either side of it's back. It has blue skin covering it's entire body.

It hisses, steam rises into the air from it's nostrils as boiling hot water hits the ground beside us.

Kyren holds his sword in front of him, looking terrified. The sword seems as useful to him right now as a wilted flower would be.

I drop my daggers and hop over to him. "Hold it like this!" I tell him, adjusting his grip, "And you need to stand like I was before!" He watches me scoop up my daggers and copies my stance, before returning his focus to the beast that has waited so patiently to attack.

It opens one of it's mouths and I jump into the air, launching myself at it, the boiling water hitting the spot I was standing in just seconds before. "Move!" I cry out to Kyren, as my feet hit the ground.