Chaper Two- Under the Knife

The thick speech was what pulled me from my sleep, not the rustling below me. I'd perched myself up in a tree, saying it was my turn to keep watch, and height means distance in most cases. But sleep means no watch, and the thick voices- very much out of place for such a setting- ripped my from my tired stupor. The first of the two moons had risen, the crest of the second peeking over the horizon. The stars were boundless- I thought I could even see a few constellations from home, and wondered if-

"Not the time, Damian." Speaking hoarsely to myself, tired after the events of the past few days, I slowly made my way back down the tree. It wasn't anything we'd see on earth, with bright purple and blue leaves and orange bark, even if the growth of it resembled a terrestrial pine tree. Lucky for me- I'd spent a lot of time in them back home, so I knew how it would be like getting up and down. There was less sap and bark, so it was easier to be sneaky- which was good considering the circumstances.

As soon as I hit the ground, the voices stopped, muffling themselves. I was honestly surprised that the three still in the cave hadn't awoken. Heavy sleepers. Or I was really light of a sleeper. 

Anyways.

A single one of the… I'll call it a creature because I'm not sure what it really was at this point. A single creature slipped out of the cave, what looked like a really spiky stick in hand. Slowly, ever so slowly, it approached where I was. By this point, I'd gone prone, laying down on the ground. 

One, one-thousand, two, one-thousand, three, one-thousand… Go.

Carefully, I rose from the ground, slipping my knife out of the sheath. The noise it made always had made my blood start pounding. By now, I was spotted, and the thing made a strange whistling noise before facing me. This was the first clear look I got of it. In the moonlight, I couldn't make out specific details, but I could see some if it. It was as tall as me, except leaner, as if it'd gone weeks without eating. It was largely hairless save for it's arms, which were long and lanky. At the end of these were thin, bony hands, upon which were three fingers. The torso was long as well, about two-thirds of the body length. It stood upon short, squat legs. 

On these short legs it ran at me, and two more of it's kind came out of the cave. The stick it was carrying made a whistling tune through the air, and if I were slower, I would've found out much sooner that the stick was razor-edged. But I moved fast, and lashed out with the long knife, severing the blade. I felt eyes on me, and had time for a quick glance around. The lady from the day before was back, but wasn't helping. Maybe she was testing me. Either way. I was in a fight. I lashed out with the knife again.

The thing suddenly found itself unable to count past three on it's fingers.

Then unable to count past two on their hands.

Then unable to count.

The blood splattered my chest and body in general, foul-smelling as if it had rotted for months. The dismembered head of the vile creature rolled several feet, and with a yelp, the last two creatures ran off. Wiping blood off the knife on a few reeds, I checked the steel quickly, then sheathed it as the 'Acer' person walked up. 

"Fearless in battle, yet gentle outside of it. You are different than our kind in many ways." I only nodded in reply, watching as the rest of the group ran out- Mike tripping on the severed head and slamming into the ground, face-first. Paige, of course laughed, then spoke to me. "Didn't know you had this in you." 

She shut up as Brianna, who was helping Mike up, shot her a killing glare.

"It is time for you to create your weapons, young warriors." Acer somehow reminded me of my mother- in the way she spoke to me. She was straightforward, fluid, and calm; even as she witnessed me take something's head off. But she didn't dwell on it, just motioned for us to walk with her. 

It seemed an anticlimactic ending to the previous fight, what with Mike rubbing his eyes to wake himself every five seconds and the notable amount of miles we'd have to walk just to arrive at our final destination. My adrenaline was still flowing, and I wanted to run ahead and just get started. Unfortunately, the rest of the group was still lagging from sleep, so I had to wait for the lot of them. 

The walk was uninteresting unto itself. Nothing was out tonight; perhaps that's why we were walking now. I kept my head on a swivel, just to be safe. Knife drawn, I was the watchdog, making sure nothing else snuck up on us- human or otherwise. If there was anything out there, it wasn't coming for us, as the miles went by and nothing sprang from the bushes to try and rip our face off. 

Our arrival was met by two of those guards who rode panther things, spears at the ready as they rode beside us in silence, the only noise through the night the occasional chattering in houses in which residents were still up and idly conversing and our footsteps against the cold cobblestone. There was nothing strange about this, in my eyes- I'd already grown to accept the fact we were trapped on an alien planet. Somehow.

"Swordsman, with me." 

The sudden speech pulled me out of my thoughts, and the lady was already walking off. I had to jog to catch up- she was fast on her own. But I did, and matched her pace. I could only wonder what the others would be doing, but I had the feeling they were being armed- the same as me, for ahead of us there was a large man with several bars of metal and a large anvil. 

I won't bore you with the details of making the blade. It was really only a really sweaty man banging on a few lumps of metal. 

I will, however, describe the finished blade. It was beautiful- three feet long, a bright silvery blue. It seemed almost alive as I weighed it in hand. The design was fluid, the blade an inch and a half across, tapering to a lethal point two inches from the tip. It was about inch thick itself. It was beautiful, and lighter than it looked.

"Is this Caedis?"

I received a nod in reply, and had an apple-like thing tossed to me. By sheer instinct, I swung, and the apple few into two separate pieces. The juice dripped everywhere, and I couldn't help but laugh. A sheathe was tossed to me, and I caught it easily in a single hand, sheathing the blade. A length of leather was tossed to me, and I caught it and put it in my bag. 

By this time, it was well into the night- the lights of the city had gone out, and the only light was that of the moons and the aurora dancing in the sky like water. I didn't have money, but I when I went to ask how much it costed, he just waved me off. Acer had walked off, so I was on my own. I walked off on my own, nodding to the smith in thanks. 

I was fortunate to have little difficulty retracing my steps, and as I did, I searched for the rest of the group. I found Mike sitting on the edge of a fountain, and sat next to him, withdrawing the leather from within my bag. The grip was still straight metal, so I set about busying myself with wrapping the leather around the hilt. "Time to play the waiting game, eh?" Mike spoke softly as I worked.

"Yup."  

Soon thereafter, Paige walked out of the darkness, a rather large staff in hand and clad in maroon robes. They weren't those things that scraped along the ground, but they were like a hoodie and skirt sort of thing. It actually managed to bring out a feminine grace I'd yet to have seen in her. By this time, I'd finished wrapping the blade, and was whipping it in front of me, so I didn't see her arrival. Behind her was Brianna, who was covered in dark green leather, scaly in a way. It was as if it were taken off the back of an alligator, and hugged her lithe form gently. Over her shoulder, I could see a large amount of arrows with black feathers.

Now we were all armed, and we were ready to fight. Mike was indifferent to us, just stood up to walk with us as we left, moving slowly with the lot of us as we went back to out humble cave. There was no sight of Acer, which was a good thing, I suppose. Nobody to bother us on our walk back. 

Nobody to bring us to war yet. 

Reviews

[Joshua Hunter]

This story... I am speechless. I am beyond intrigued and loving the story and the way it is written! One of my favorite passages, "I kept my head on a swivel, just to be safe." Makes him feel more military like which is perfect and when Mike trips over the head made me laugh. What a great story with only a few grammar/spelling issues, that did not take way from the feel of it. Very very well done. Cannot wait for the next chapter!