Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

VII

The orange, western sun cast its light through the mouldering canopy and onto a small clearing where Scinthia and Tori were setting up camp. As Scinthia finished building the fire pit, Tori spoke from the edge of the tree line.

"I'm gonna go find us dinner. I'll be back in a bit, all right?" He asked.

"Sure, I'll hang here then Mr. Breadwinner." Scinthia said sarcastically, a smirk on her face.

Tori raised an unentertained brow at her comment before turning and silently walking off.

Scinthia sat up against Roth for a few moments before looking down at her sword. She inspected the blade, cross guard, and ember jeweled, wire-wrapped hilt for any damage or wear and was pleased to see hardly any. She thought back to a few days ago when Chess told them they had fifteen days before the winter solstice; The day they now planned to confront the witch. Her grip around the scabbard tightened before she stood, strapped it to her belt, and walked off from the camp.

She walked for a short while before coming up to a small cluster of trees and hanging her cloak on another nearby tree. She positioned herself in the center of the five tree cluster and drew her sword. With her right foot ahead of her left and both hands readily holding her sword firmly in front of her, Scinthia took a deep breath in through her nose and let the air out through her mouth. She inhaled through her nose again, however, instead of exhaling slowly, she pushed off with her left foot, brought her sword diagonally up one tree and down the one next to it with a loud yell.

After completing her strike and returning her sword to its original position, she looked up to see two deep gashes almost mirroring each other on the two trees in front of her with a satisfied smirk. With another quick shout, she pushed off of her left foot, slicing down the tree directly in front of her. Continuing her swing downward, she pivoted and brought the sword back up to strike the two trees directly behind her similar to how she cut the first two. Scinthia continued repeating similar movements over and over, adding a new motion each time. Each movement was powerful and seamlessly tied into the previous one. Eventually, her repetition evolved into a continuous flurry of slashes and strikes.

Scinthia was pleasantly surprised with how familiar it all felt. She thought back to a time long before she set out on her own. A time when she was younger and still training under her father.

"It needs to be faster!" Her father said in a commanding manner, pacing around the patch of dirt she was practicing on.

"This is as fast as I can go while being able to bring it into the next swing." She said, sounding somewhat winded.

"If this truly is what you want Scinthia, your body needs to be able to do this almost instinctually." He said, stopping behind her while she continued swinging her sword. "All great knights condition themselves this way. And if you wish to become one of them, you will too. Now stop for a moment."

Scinthia did so and awaited his next instructions. He stayed quiet for a moment.

"Take your stance." He said calmly.

She put her right foot forward and held her sword in front of her.

"Now take a deep breath through your nose and let it out through your mouth."

She took her deep breath and exhaled.

"Now, what I want you to do is to take another deep breath in through your nose, but just before you exhale, perform your strike while giving it a quick shout. Got it?"

Scinthia nodded and took in another deep breath as she tightened her grip. With a quick yell, she brought her blade upward and swiftly back down across the wooden post. She noticed that she was able to attack much quicker than usual simply from taking a deep breath beforehand.