Chapter 5
'David 'ere is going to help you get to know 'ow to use yer new swords. Only, they're meant to be used together, but were going to start of learning one, 'k?'
'Ah ya sure.'
With a nod Huston left and walked back to the tent and his next customers. I looked at David and smiled nervously, 'Hi,'
He looked me up and down with a not so friendly, teasing look on his face, 'Why are you even trying to learn to fight? Girls are no good at this stuff!'
My back stiffened, 'Have you ever lived outside this camp, in the streets, on your own, fighting for survival?'
'No.'
'yes well its survival of the fittest out there, and I've been there six years. So I guess I'm not that bad at it.'
He looked at me a little taken aback but recovered quickly. 'Well did you ever use a sword outside the camp or were you ever in a battle?'
'No.'
'I thought not. Well come on lets see what you can do.'
With a flurry he pulled he's sword out of its scabbard and crouched into a ready position. I looked doubtfully at my own sword and pulled it free from its green scabbard. To my surprise it glimmered brightly in the cloudy morning radiating like a happy child. Up near the hilt a word from an unknown language was carved in to it. It distracted David momentarily giving me a chance to try to sink into a ready stance. I was still unprepared for his first attack. He swung at me aiming for my arm with the blunt, flat part of the sword, I blocked it clumsily and my sword flew out of my hands. I turned to go get it but his sword came flying at me again, I ducked it and punched the hand he was holding his sword with, with a thud it landed on the floor, we stood the for a second. David said with a smirk, 'well if you want to use fists..' and dived at me. We struggles on the ground, he would punch my stomach id punch his head, he would pull my hair I would head-but him. We continued like this until he was sitting on me, with my arms pinned on the ground over my head. He smirked at me again and I flipped him over and reversed the position. His smirk vanished. He tried to do the same again but I just pushed him down.
'I think I won that one.'
He grunted and said, 'Like it would help you when you already have a sword stuck in you.'
I sighed and rolled off him, 'What exactly do you have against me?'
'The prophecy said a child, we had hope, but now we have you, a girl.'
I laughed at him, 'Oh sorry. What would you like me to do about, it jump of a cliff? I don't want this any more than you do but this is what we have and were just going to have to work with it. Now you can be mean and insult me and my intelligence, or you can show me how to get stronger and how to fight. Its up to you.'
I closed my eyes and waited for his response. He got up and dusted him self off, I opened my eyes and peered up at him. He sighed and held out his hand, 'Im sorry, your right.' I grabbed it and he pulled me up straight. 'Shall we start again?' he asked. I smiled at him, 'Yes please. Can we go through it a little slower?'
'Haha ya sure.'
We spent the next three hours going through moves and practising them. By the end of it all we were both exhausted. When we finished we trudged up towards the tunnel. I got a few more funny looks and two more bows but that was the extent of it.
'So you are a master at swords, how long have you been using one?' For a while I didn't think he would answer.
'I was fifteen when the Grealgan came and attacked the village I lived in, it was just small and inconvenient, so they wiped it out, I watched both my parents get killed. When I tried to fight back, to avenge them, I got this.' he pulled down the neck of his tunic revealing a long scar running from just above his collarbone and down past the top of his tunic. 'It goes all the way down to my bellybutton. I was one of three to survive out of the whole village. We escaped to a nearby town and there healer healed me. After I was healed I learned how to properly use a sword and soon moved here in search of the rebels.' I stared at him. Wow he really has a right to get angry at me, he wants them gone as much as I do.
