Nava's Story

Chapter 10: The Mercenaries

I walk around the woods searching for the mercenaries. I find two walking around together. I try my best to be quiet and sneak up on them. It's hard because I'm still short and I'm caring a big sword. Eventually they spot me and start laughing. I take advantage of of there laughter to attack them I manage to kill one of them. The other pulls out his sword now angry. I use my training from watching Silvanesti guards and start awkwardly fighting him. I hold myself pretty good against him. I get some minor injuries but I manage to kill him too. I'm excited and my adrenaline starts as I start searching for more mercenaries. I manage to kill three more and injure give before heading back to the cave. They allow me to come back inside, shocked to see I'm smiling and covered in blood. My mom rushes over and asks "How did you take your dad's sword?"
I shrug and tell her "You were too busy caring for him."
"How did you learn how to fight?"
I shrug and tell her "By watching people. I'm a fast learner."
She takes the sword away from me and hands it to someone else. They clean it before putting it back into my dad's scabbard. She asks me "Are you injured?"
I just shrug and sit down. I would chase after more mercenaries but carrying around a big sword is tiring. My mom starts checking me for injuries and bandages the minor injuries I have. After that she grabs my bag from my horse and makes me change. I awkwardly change in front of everyone and wash off the dried blood before falling asleep.

A couple hours later the sun is slowly setting when I wake up. My stomach growls so I look around for some food. My mom tells me "Don't you date think about sneaking out again."
Another Human asks "Why not? She clearly managed to injure and kill more then we have."
I look at the man who spoke. He has short blondish brown hair. He seems pretty young. Older then me but still young for a Human. My mom says "She is just a child. She's lucky she didn't get herself killed."
The man says "I'm sixteen years old. No one cares that I've gone chasing mercenaries out of our town before."
"She's eleven."
"So? She can hold herself in a fight. She seems strong."
He turns towards me and tells me "If you want, I can train with you. You know like fist fighting and with sticks. We don't want to hurt ourselves with real weapons."
Before my mom can protest I smile and tell him "I would love to."
We get up and walk outside. We start practicing with fists then with sticks. He seems very impressed with my fighting. I surprise him when after fighting stick on stick I grab a second stick. He asks me "You like practicing with two sticks?"
I tell him "I like challenging myself."
"I can teach you how to fight with two swords...well sticks. I have fake swords inside the cave. It will work better than sticks. I don't really know how to fight with real swords but I'm good with fake ones. It gives me a advantage over my friends."
I nod in agreement and he heads back to the cave to grab the fake swords. He comes back out a couple minutes later with four swords. I throw my sticks on the ground and catch the fake swords he throws to me. He starts by showing me some basic moves before we start fighting each other. I'm enjoying actually being able to fight with someone. We keep fighting until it's dark. We head inside the cave and get some sleep. We wake up in the morning and continue practicing. After practicing just the two of us all the other kids in the cave come out with fake swords and we sword fight for fun together. They are all various ages and heights. Some girls come fight with us but most of them watch us and cheer us on. The adults that aren't injured also come out and watch us. We take short breaks to eat or drink some water but we keep fighting. I manage to 'kill' the most people. Even when they all team up against me, they can't get me. They are very impressed with my skills. This is the most fun I've ever had with any kids. They aren't afraid to sword fight with me. I wish I could live with my mom and be able to fight with them all the time.

*Picture at the top of the chapter is the Human who's teaching her*