Lady Thief [on hold]

~ Chapter Three ~

When Key stepped in the sword house, she was greeted by an empty entry hall and the delicate jingling of an elegant wind chime that hung just above the door. Key peered around the suspiciously empty room. It is the middle of the day. Shouldn’t this place be crawling with swordsman? she thought to herself. After a moment of waiting to see if anyone would come to greet her, Key ventured further into the building. The next room that she emerged into was obviously a room meant for sparring, but it was devoid of battling swordsman. The other only being in the room was an old man sitting in the middle of the room, his feet were splayed out at he reached down to touch his toes in some sort of stretching exercise. Key watched for a moment with fascination as the man, who was so old that he should’ve been as stiff as an aged piece of shoe leather, bended in ways that Key herself wasn’t even sure she could manage.

The old man paused just as he was touching his foot to his nose and studied Key for a moment. At that, his eyes closed again and he completed the stretch. Only then did he go back to a normal sitting position and open his eyes again. “A girl in a swordsman house without any visible signs of having a sword with her. Either you're lost or hopelessly confused, by my reckoning.” he said. “Please, correct me if I’m wrong.”

“I regret to prove you wrong, but I am neither.” Key informed him. “I am a new sword master here, I’ve been sent from Greeneland.”

“And now, it is my turn to prove you wrong.” the old man said. “You see, I am the only sword master here. I believe I have a right to claim that title now that I’ve been here for some fifty years, at least. Therefore, you are not a new sword master. If anything, you are a new swordswoman, which is a good thing, I suppose. We have only one other swordswoman here, at the moment, the rest are all swordsmen, including myself.  There are about thirty of us, which is enough for us to fulfill our duties to the king.  If you're really a swordswoman, you'd surely know what those are, would you not?”

"The duties of the elite swordsmen is to carry out the will of the king, in missions that normal combatants aren't prepared for." Key replied.  "but you speak as if you don't believe that I am a swordswoman.  You doubt me."

The old man nodded.  "Yes.  Yes, I do." he said

Key tilted her head. “And why would that be?” she asked

“Because you don’t have a sword.” he said. “It’s a proven fact that the fair majority of swordsmen and swordswomen carry swords, and you walk in here empty handed.”

“Oh, about that.” Key said. “The prince is sending my sword to be repaired. It was destroyed today in a rather unsavory run in with some demons.” she explained.

“Demons?" the old man’s eyes widened. “Now what ever would you be doing fighting those unearthly abominations?”

“You speak of them as if you’ve fought them before.”

“Of course I have.” he said. “I have lived many years, at least three times as many as you have, which means I have probably seen three times the things that you have, demons being one of those things, but you avoid my question. How did you end up fighting demons?”

“My companion and I had to go into the Twisted Forest to find his majesty. That was where I ran into the demons.” Key explained.

The man’s bushy eyebrows scrunched together. His head dipped and he looked down at his toes, as if deep in thought. “You followed his majesty into the forest? Why?” he asked.

Key paused, careful about how she chose her next words. “I didn’t follow him into the forest. I knew I had to find the king, because I had been sent to work in his service. I knew that he was to be in the Twisted Forest today, instead of at his palace, so I took what actions I had to to find him. I found where his footprints lead into the forest, and I followed them until I found him. It was simple enough.”