Emerald Snowflakes

5 - An Impaled Tree

Tou frowned, not liking how slobby the swing of his sword was. He was distracted, and it was affectiong his swordsplay. No matter how much he tried to keep his mind fixed on the tree that currently acting as his opponent, his mind kept taking him elsewhere.

It had been a week since he started having flashbacks again, he had hoped it would pass. But it had only getting worse, he could barely close his eyes without seeing the dead bodies of his closest comrades or the accusing glare of Jehan. It all started after he first fought that woman, Edma had said her name was Amberlin.

His frown deepened, he didn't like the sound of her name. His people always choose names that bore a strong meaning, and that was of samuarian origins, as it was seen as weak to bear the names of other nations. So he found it suspicious that she bore a name of mearupian origins, and Amberlin of all names.

Taking a deep breath, he brought his focus back to battered tree in front of him, and raised his sword. He tried to imagine the tree to be a armed opponent, desperatly in need to distract himself from his own thoughts. But with every strike of his sword, his treachurous mind seemed more intent on reminding him just why he felt uneasy about it all.

He had known an Amberlin in his youth. But unlike the injured woman Edma was so intent on keeping in the castle, the Amberlin from his past was no halfling. She was full blooded mearupian. Tall and slender, with lengthy blonde hair as cruel as she was beautiful, the Amberlin from his past was the perfect representation of her people. She ought to have been, since she was secondborn daughter of the mearupian emperor.

He had never liked her, he found all her pomp and glitter to be wasteful and her arrogance misplaced. Unfortunatelly for him, she would not leave him alone since her parents had sent her to Samuar to court him, in hope of some kind of alliance between Samuar and Mearupia.

However when he announced his bond with Jehan, she rallied her people into siding with the regime of Rawas, during the War of Samuar. Ultimately her jealous rage was of no benefit for her, as she met her end at the hands of The Mad King himself, when he realized he no longer had any use for her.

Unlike most poeple from his past, he was pleased to know she had met an end as vile as the life she had lead. Though he deeply regreted not having been the one to end it for her.

He halted the swing of his sword to examine the damage he had dealt the tree trunk. Once he was pleased with the accuracy and depth of the cuts, he decided it was time for a break. He turned away from the battered tree to pick up his waterskin, and took a big gulp of water.

"You fight like a girl"

Tou jumped at the sudden sound of the voice, dropping the waterskin in the process. He remained still, not wanting to believe that he had actually heard the voice.

"Over here!" The voice spoke again, it was familiar, too familiar. Despite his better judgment, Tou turned in the direction of the voice. Which happened to be where the tree stood, or had stood, only to see a child version his past eclaimed, standing in its place. It's not real, he tried telling himself, it could not be real.

"Are you just going to stare all day or are we going to fight?" The child version of Jehan pouted her lips, her brown ponytail waying with the movement of her head.

"You're not real-" Tou said, only to stop in abrupt shock at the sound of his voice, that now sounded much younger, more high pitch. He reached for his sword in a desperate attempt to see his own reflection, only to throw it away from himself in horror. Refusing to believe the childlike mirror image of himself looking back.