Home Again

Chapter Six

   It wasn't hard for Cat to find her old sword master. Darragh had been almost the only thing that hadn't changed in the castle. If he wasn't up manning the castle gates, he was down on the training grounds attempting to teach men how to wield swords and bows. For a time, Cat remembered, in her early trainings, he had spoke gently to her. Correcting her mistakes in an almost fatherly manner. To anyone else he was instructed to train, the Master of Arms spoke as if he were a sailor from a ship that had been too long at sea.
   "If that's how ya handle yer cock, ah pity the poor lass tha' beds with ya!" He screamed out, as a new recruit lost his grip on the blunted training sword.
   Cat tilted her head, a smirk playing at her lips as she watched.
   "Learn yer feet or ah'll use mine ta gape yer arse!"
   "Ya kiss yer Máthair with that mouth?" Cat called out to him, the smirk still playing at her lips. Botan crossed his arms as he stood beside her.
   Darragh turned and looked at her then looked back out at the greens. "Ya shouldn't hear such filth, princess."
   "Oh, aye, like ah've never heard ya scream like that before? Didn't realize ah was a wee babe once more."
   Darragh smiled though she couldn't see it, and shook his head. "Half them never lifted iron in their lives. The other half don't have half yer skill."
   "No one period has half my skill."
   He tilted his head to the side with a nod. "Tha' may be true, princess." He turned back to look at her. "But do ya still have yer skill?"
   Cat's smile widened. "Ya askin' me ta show them a thing or two?"
   He shrugged and turned his back to her once again. "May be I am," he looked back at her and winked.
   Cat straightened her shoulders. "Ah'll go change then. Can't be dirtyin' m'pretty dress now can we."
   Darragh chuckled deeply to himself as he turned back around. "Ya whore son ah said pick it up!"

   "Seven bless us, they still fit." A severing woman breathed out as Cat walked on to the grounds. Botan glanced over then looked back and his mouth dropped slightly.
   The old woolen trousers hugged tightly to the curves of Cat's hips. The leather boots they tucked into clung to her calves as if they were her own skin. The loose white blouse hung of her shoulders, and the simple leather corset made her chest more pronounced than Botan had seen them. Her hair was woven into a tight braid that ran down the center of her back, a few whisping curls danced on the breeze around her forehead.
   Darragh shook his head as he walked up to her as she tightened the boiled leather gauntlets on her forearms at her wrist. "I'm not going to lie to you, Cat Beag. It's hard to see you like this again."
   "The last time I wore these, they had to carry me off the field." She said in a voice that dripped venom. A voice he was all too familiar with. It was the voice of the Cat he knew. "Will you be the one they carry off this time?" She asked, fixing him with her cool emerald eyes.
   He felt the old familiar sting of that stare, but found himself chuckling all the same. "Time will tell, princess. Ah still got some spunk in these eld bones yet." He turned a training sword over his his hand and handed it to her hilt first.
   Cat looked at if for a moment, then finally reached out and took it. For two years she had used a bokuto and katana for so long, the weight of the broad sword was foreign to her and the tip immediately hit the dirt. A few snorts of laughter raised up around her. "Shut yer bastard yaps!" Darragh called out, and silence fell over the grounds once again. He looked back at Cat, concern in his eyes. "Don't tell me ya lost it, Cat Beag."
   Cat glared at the blade as she reached out her second hand and grasped the hilt firmly. Muscle memory came back to her and she lifted the blade. She felt the pain in her biceps as she lifted and for a moment she felt like the little child who first began her lessons. Another life time ago. "I haven't been training with a broad sword where we were. They have thinner, lighter swords."
   "What could ya possible kill with something like that?"
   "Oh you would be surprised." She replied as she looked into his eyes.
   Without hesitation, Darragh lifted his blade and moved for her. Muscle memory took over, and Cat parried with near effortless movement. The swords clanged against each other and Cat moved as if in her own dance in a spin and swapped at his back. Darragh side stepped at the very last moment and her swing nearly missed by a hair. Forward, back, left, right. Parry, spin, clang. Over and over. Their movements as fluid as river dancer. Botan couldn't hide his surprise. He had seen her move like this before with a katana. He knew her moves almost as well as she did. But seeing her like this now. There was something different about it. Maybe not exactly her movements, but something different in her all together.
   Cat spun and held the broad sword up to her cheek as she would have with a katana. The weight was no longer a concern, though her arms screamed in protest. She could tell that Darragh was getting slower, to show for his age. Cat knew he wouldn't be able to last much longer. But she also knew he wasn't just going to yield like that. He would go as long as she wanted to, no matter how slow he would get. Slowly she spread her feet in the stance Botan had taught her. Darragh looked at her confused for a moment, but paid no attention to it. He took the initiative and charged. At the last second, Cat moved and knocked the hilt of his sword, much like Botan had with her that first time, making the sword fly. Using his own momentum against him, Cat pivoted and knocked Darragh on his back side with his sword pointed at his throat.
   "Yield," Darragh said airlessly, beaming up at her. "I yield."
   Cat smiled and turned the sword around and offered her hand down to him. There was cheering erupting behind her as she pulled Darragh to his feet.
   "So, do I still have my skill?" She asked.
   The old man laughed heartedly and patted her on the shoulder. "And some new ones, I see. I would say so, princess, I would say so."
   Cat smiled up at him then looked over to Botan. But seeing the look on his face, her smile failed. She turned to look behind her at what he was looking at, and there he was. Looking at her as if he had seen a ghost. Paler than she had ever seen him. Sebastian was standing at the balcony. And even as she smiled at him, he didn't smile back.