Deadly Night Shade

Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen

 “Shadow,” I whispered. He looked so distant and I knew I could do nothing. A pain echoed through my heart as I knew that he loved her, and, from what I could see, he loved her more than he loved me. I took a few steps towards him until I was standing directly in front of him. I put my finger under his chin and lifted his head until his gaze reached mine.

“I am here for you.” I said softly and wrapped my arms around him, “I’ll always be here for you.” Shadow smiled at me, “Claire, I’m over it, sure I was sad talking about it, but I’ve had at least a couple hundred years to get over it.” He laughed, “Typically guys don’t get as emotional as girls do, and even though I am a super darkness man thing, I’m still a dude and after several hundred years, you move on.”

I looked at him, “Couple hundred? God Grandpa, shouldn’t you be playing bingo at the retirement home?” I said sarcastically.

He snorted and said, “Claire, I’m made of darkness, I have no age,” I rolled my eyes and replied with, “Sure pops, you’re just like the mums who are “twenty-one” forever.” I smiled childishly and Shadow stared at me in amusement.

I was happy with the change from the saddening mood from a few minutes ago. I looked down at the sword that Shadow had given me, realising that I had never truly wielded a weapon of this kind. I looked up at Shadow and said, “It’s been a while since I last used one of these, would it be ok if you trained me?”

Shadow smiled. A small swirl of dark fire twisted around his hands and, as it blew away, it left behind two black daggers with silver blades that shimmered slightly in the sun. He held them in a cross in front of his chest and said, “Follow me.”

***

Several hours later, I was able to wield the weapon in an efficient enough way as to not look as an amateur. I won’t say that I was an absolute natural, as it took at least half an hour to swing the sword correctly, but once I had got the hang of it, the sword began to work with me, rather than just being an object in my hand.

Things would randomly come back to me from my dreams and I would let Shadow guide me in technique, but apart from my shocking technical work, I was becoming a skilled swordsman over a matter of weeks.

Day after day I would come to the clearing and train with Shadow for hours on end, all the time, making my fighting more individual than technically correct, which was how I usually did things. Shadow would softly criticise me, saying that I needed to be more accurate when I was a centimetre off the mark and more balanced when my blade wobbled slightly.

“Good,” Shadow said, his voice encouraging. “Lift your elbow about an inch higher on your backhand, like this,” He spun around and flipped his dagger so the blade was facing down and sliced it through a tree trunk. I nodded and attempted to mimic what he did. I twirled and held my blade to the ground, then bringing it through the same tree in a parallel slash.

“Like that?” I asked; secretly proud about how that went. “That was alright,” he said with a slight humoured tint in his voice. I raised an eyebrow, “Only alright,” I said, my hands on my hips, “well, I thought it was good, no… Great!” my eyes lit up and I had an over-exaggerated grin on my face.

Shadow smiled and said, “your technique was rubbish,” I rolled my eyes at him in a dismissive way, “But,” he continued, “you did it with an elegance that can be seen in your entire fighting style, which technique would shatter, so I think you did well.”

I walked towards him until we were close enough that we almost touched. “Is that a compliment?” I asked, looking into his eyes. “Yes,” he replied, “I believe it is.” He leant down to kiss me and I held the tip of my sword to his throat, “First thing you taught me,” I said, a smile on my face, “Never let your guard down.”