Broken Promises

Chapter 4 - War

I offer a hand to her, to help her get up and off the ground. She takes my hand, he eyes sparkling with wonder.

"Okay, I won't go easy on you now." Lauraa says, now beaming with confidence and you could almost lose hope that you are going to win by how confident she is.

I go back to where we started, same distance, same stance, but a different outcome. Just a small hint of hesitation could cost me, I have remembered she is a trained professional in the arts of fighting. This time she comes at me, to which I swiftly dodge and kick the back of her left knee. Her left knee wolves but she refuses to let it give out, and she swings at me as I swiftly dodge her running to the right.

I notice she kept her ankles, along with her neck open, a fatal flaw I notice most people tend to do. I rush her, aiming to sweep her legs, move slightly away so if she swung at me she wouldn't get me, then spin, and pin her at her neck with my sword.

I rush in and sweep her legs and she stumbles, though she refuses to fall. I knock her sword out of her hand as she was distracted, her sword gets knocked out of her hand and flies into the distance away from us. Though she got her footing straight and pushed me away, I use the momentum and run backwards to her sword and pick it up whilst running backward. I then stop, holding both swords, one in front of me and one behind as I rush towards her. I flip over her and hold my original sword that was in my right hand against her neck.

"Dead." I declare once again as I push the sword against the back of her neck and then pull away after a moment. What seemed to only last minutes, when in reality was half an hour, as we clashed swords a lot.

"How are you so good?" She asks as I hand her sword back to her. In which I shrug in response, "My older sister taught me some tips and moves, otherwise from that purely logic and instinct." I say as I tap my forehead when I was talking about logic and instinct. I hand her the other sword that I had used as she puts them away.

"I think you will become a ninja warrior, we don't have many of those. They can be spies and warriors at the same time. Currently, we only have four other ninja warriors. In return, I promise your safety and a good home." She says, then steps back a bit with her arms stretched outwards, and a smile on her face, her eyes glistening with joy. "Welcome to the Quina gang!" Lauraa says happily and spins around and her eyes landing on me once she had gone a full three-hundred and sixty degrees.

"Why would you need more people?" I ask, wondering why all of a sudden she would add me to her gang.

"Well, we are currently at war with the Shizo gang, and some of the other gangs, along with the government." Lauraa said, folding her hand in front of her and nodding. She smiled as she made it seem like it was normal and nothing was wrong. I almost wanted to believe her.

Someone suddenly bursts through the doorway, they seemed like they just ran here, breathing heavily, and yet not seeming very tired. They were dressed in all black with, what seemed to be knives slung around himself, I couldn't see their face very well. They pulled away their mask, they had shoulder length wavy dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and a defined face, skin similar to Luaraa's, their expression blank, and their eyes showed nothing to me.

They glanced between me and Lauraa. "Lauraa." They said, bowing slightly. Luaraa stops them before they could continue. "Speak in Firarr." Lauraa said, glancing over to me, they glance over to me before nodding and continuing with what they were going to say.

"Soldiers from the Shizo gang, coming from the southeast, and some spies from the Yino gang coming in from the west. The Shizo gang has seemed to have alleyed with the Yino gang." Their voice was smooth, but rough at the same time. Their voice was slightly deep, not too deep to be a male voice, but not what I would be used to for a females voice.

"Thank you for the information. Meet, Llukesa. Llukesa, meet Noraah, she is one of the five ninja warriors." Lauraa says, gesturing to me and the girl, now known as Noraah. Noraah looks me up and down, she seemed to slowly walk up to me. She must have made the assumption that I was a ninja warrior, as Lauraa said five, and not four like she told me earlier. Noraah made her way around me.

"He a good fighter then?" Her accent seems to show, deeming her definitely a Lirana. "Your definition of a good fighter is a very strict one, he beat me in battle twice." Lauraa said, nodding towards me, I leave my face blank not knowing exactly what to do. I see Noraah stop next to me on my right, she was looking at Lauraa, I could see her tense slightly, and before I know it I roll forwards, just dodging a throwing knife. She looks at me with the same blank look on her face, seeming almost bored, and yet her eyes glimmer something, curiosity.

"That's no way to greet someone." I note casually as I get up, I smooth out my sleeping clothes. "Me, and you. One on one, right now." She says casually, then turns going over to where Lauraa had just put the wooden swords away. Noraah grabs both of them and throws one of them my way, which I catch with my right hand, not even having to move to catch it, this girl has a good throw.

I get in my stance, as Lauraa backs up towards the entrance of the training room. Noraah gets ready in her stance and nods towards me signaling her ready. I go with it and nod as well, signaling my own ready. Suddenly with no warning, or at least I wasn't looking for a warning she darts towards me swiftly. I barely roll out of the way as I get up she is on me, we clash swords for a bit before I running backward a bit. She was good with speed, so I go on the defense, seeming as she really likes to go on the offense. She looks me over for a moment and then tenses her right arm. There. I note to myself once I see that she had tensed her arm, as I dodge her once again, the tensing of her right arm is her sign that she was getting ready to charge at me. I continue to dodge for a bit, making sure that it was definitely her tell-tale sign. She charges at me once again, and I slide under her, taking out her legs, and rolling, then jumping up as she gets up. I rush her and point the sword at her neck.

"Dead." I declare, as she looks up with me, the sword just coming up to meet with my chest, though she wasn't fast enough. She eyes me, her eyes glimmering with curiosity, surprise, and slight proudness. Lauraa starts clapping and I sigh, smiling pulling away my sword, and offering a hand to help her up, which she takes.

"I underestimated you." Noraah says, then bows. "You made a good decision to make him a ninja warrior." Noraah notes, standing up, and looking over to Lauraa. Lauraa nods to Noraah, then looks over to me. "I am going to need you to swear a vow." Lauraa says, then nods to Noraah who quickly rushes out of the room, and to who knows where.

Lauraa steps towards me, grabbing my hands, which were cold for some reason. I could feel Lauraa's slightly concerning as I look straight into her eyes. Her hands were warm against mine, though my hands were still cold, something that always haunted me since I was a child.

"Do you, Llukesa Iwaans swear by blood, by bone, by heart, and by soul that you will protect our brothers and sisters, that you will do everything in your power to assist us?" She said, I could see out of the corner of my eye Noraah was standing in the shadows in the corner of the room, near the door. "I swear by blood, by bone, by heart, and by soul, that I will." I respond, as Lauraa turns my hands around so my palms faced up towards the ceiling.

"Do you promise to stay loyal, until death, or until I release you from your duties?" Lauraa asks, as I glance from the corner of my eyes to see Noraah slowly making her way closer to both of us, while she holds something that is hard to make out. "I promise." I respond to her words.

Lauraa looks over to Noraah who is now standing to the side of us, I know notice she has a stone, in one hand, and a knife in the other, the knife had some symbols on it. I found it strange that it did, but I didn't worry about it too much as Lauraa took the knife from Noraah. Lauraa slowly slices my hand as she speaks. "You, Llukesa Iwaans have sworn, and have made a promise to us. If you are to break your oath, and promise, you will be hunted down, and tortured slowly." Luaraa's voice grew serious and dark. She pulls away the knife as blood drips down my left hand. I nod understanding her terms and conditions. She places my left hand on the rock as the blood flows on top of the stone. After a moment she pulls my hand away, no blood to be seen and my wound fully healed, except a small scar on my hand. I look to the rock to see no blood on the rock. I look up between Noraah Lauraa, they both nod.

New promises are being made, let's hope I don't break them, I really don't want to be tortured.