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A Small Part Of Paradise

We were back outside in the bright sunshine, I could hear only the birds chirping, although I knew the bustling town square lay only feet away. High walls surrounded us, giving the feel of a secret impenetrable paradise. I gazed around me taking in the riot of colours, I could see flowers unlike ones I have ever seen before, a riot of every imaginable colour and shade, seemingly placed in no sort of pattern. In the corner there was a small circle of logs positioned as seats, the colour bleached by the sun. a small shed stood in the far corner, several blossom trees hung over the far corner creating a walkway to the end, where we walked to now, it was a large grass area bordered by flowers.
Kaiden turned to me and explained that I was to be a secret weapon of sorts, and they wanted no one to see my fighting skills or powers until the battle, with only a few exceptions as deemed necessary. Cahira stepped forward holding a sword, I had never seen a sword in any sort of sense until this day, but even I knew that this one was special. The handle was wrought silver and studded with glowing rubies and sparkling sapphires, right at the hilt there was a large stone that appeared to change colour in the light flickering between a hypnotic purple and glaring greenish yellow, the blade was also silver but shimmered with something else, a light purple blue edging the blade. A whitish glow seemed to flow from the sword, I stared in awe.
"The blade is made of the most dangerous thing to evil, it is made of pure silver, it is tinged with the magic of good emotions things that evil cannot feel or understand. It carries the power of a thousand true loves, the power of the affection and adoration between a child and parent, and the most potent of all the power the sword contains, the power of self sacrifice" Cahira murmured almost reverently, eyes alight with a strange emotion.
She held the sword out to me, I stared at her before grasping the handle, the sword felt weightless and warm, as though it belonged there, but still odd to hold a weapon in my hand meant for death in my hand.

“This is the sword you will be fighting in the battle with, it was designed with you in mind. All of us have our own weapons other peoples’ don’t work as well as the one designed truly for you.

I turned to see Kaiden pulling several flour packed dummys from a small shed in the corner, and positioning them in the centre of the garden.
"We thought you could start with attacking these, try to cause as much damage as you can, use long arcing strikes and short jabs" he told me, observing me with serious eyes, he placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, before striding to the other side.
I paced around the dummy feeling slightly stupid, and aware of the eyes of the others on me. I took a deep breath, launching myself heavily towards the dummy; I stabbed at it wildly with the sword, before flying past and landing on my bum. Great. Way to feel like a jackass in front of people I have just met. Finian's deep, booming, echoing laughs made me scowl upwards, silently cursing.

Kaiden stepped forward and pulled me to my feet, his hands lingering on my waist for a second. He pulled his own sword and told me to watch him. He stepped forward looking impossibly graceful, but lethal at the same time. He flew towards the dummy neatly slicing it in half he spun back again jabbing at the remains before using a long thrust to penetrate where the heart should have been. As the dummy shuddered still, he turned and stared at me, with strong emotion in his eyes, I almost went weak at the knees.

 Just show me up some more! I couldn't help but think. I have never been athletic, or in a fight in my life and now, suddenly I was supposed to be wielding a sword like some sort of ancient warrior and slay mythical beasts? Yeah right! This was not going to be easy or painless.

Kaiden replaced the dummy and stepped back, looking pointedly at me. I sighed and prepared myself to hit the deck again, or possibly end up impaling myself, I wasn't sure which one I would prefer. I mean they couldn't laugh if I impaled myself but on the other hand it would hurt, a lot. I picked up the sword and attempted the swinging move I had just witnessed. This time I hit the dummy, but didn't do any damage, the sword just bounced off. After a couple of false starts and dismal attempts, I managed to embarrass myself even more, I managed to trip over my feet and launch the sword forwards and out of my grasp, landing dangerously near to Kaiden's feet, impaling the ground. I rolled on to my back slowly, covering my face with my hands to hide my blushing embarrassment. For most people humiliation this deep would be a rare thing, for me it was all too common, what with my clumsiness and habit for putting my foot in it. Again I heard the deep, booming laughs echo around me, I resisted the urge to jump up and hit Finian in his stupid laughing face. He seemed to find humour in everything I did or asked treating me like some stand up comedian, but this time he seemed hardly able to stand from laughing to hard. I had feeling I wouldn't be living this one down for a while. Kaiden however seemed supremely unconcerned that I had nearly amputated both of his feet and came forward to help me up, gripping my arm and hip, he swung me to my feet and left his hands there.

"You need to concentrate better; you need to clear your mind to attack. Try to achieve more focus on the dummy, picture it as an enemy, try to blank your mind to anything other than the task" Kaiden told me” I know you can do this". He slowly released his hold on me and shook myself at the disappointment I now felt. Realising that nothing would really get me out of this, I realigned myself once again with the dummy. Emptying my mind was harder to achieve, so many thoughts seemed to be running through. I was worrying about my mother, considering all that I had been told today, and also thinking that Finian was beginning to get on my nerves, and these strange new feelings I felt towards Kaiden. I tried again, I felt a different warmth flood my body this time. I took a deep breath and lunged at the dummy, suddenly everything that was needed felt instinctive, I twirled round behind the dummy slicing and continuing my twisted pirouette of violence, slashing the air violently, each time making contact. I closed my eyes and everything seemed to slow down. I could hear everything around me; the breath of the slow wind whispering through the petals, and the fiercer hiss of my sword whistling through the air. The sword became an extension of my arm and warmth spread through me. I could feel the vibrations through the ground symbolising the movements of everything around me. I could feel a pulsing from the dummy still shuddering from my last attack; I launched a final attack towards it, before letting my sword drop. I slowly opened my eyes, the dummy was destroyed, nothing left but a cloud of flour and shreds of the sacking that had held it fluttering to the floor. I stared in shock, before quickly glancing around taking in the expressions on the others' faces, Kaiden was smiling warmly at me with a look of knowing in his eyes, Finian stood slack jawed in shock, eyes wide.

Kaiden laughed "Finally something that leaves Finian speechless". He was even more gorgeous when he laughed, tossing his head back to show pearly white teeth and beautiful blue eyes sparkling in the sun, his hair appeared golden in the sun. I stared in awe at his beauty. He turned to me and caught me staring, I pulled myself out of it but failed to hide the blush that rose to my skin. He however lifted my chin and stared into my eyes

"I knew you could do it, it’s in your blood, that was just the start of unleashing your powers there will be many more," prophesied Kaiden "The depth of a warrior's powers are unknown as you become more skilled you will unearth different magical skills, this is barely the tip of all that you hold in your power. Our people train for many years to gain the skill that we want you to learn in the next few days." said Kaiden fervently staring into my eyes. I heard someone clearing there throat in the background, and Kaiden moved his hand, allowing me to drop my head. Great I thought, rolling my eyes more expectations, I have never been a good student, I have some problems with listening to voices of authority, or so my teachers had always said, and I'm very stubborn.

I could see that there may be a couple of clashes in the near future. Especially if Finian kept laughing at my attempts. For the rest of the day I practised my sword fighting, apparently the easiest type of fight I will face. I progressed on to fighting the others in turn, but with sticks instead of swords. Each of them had a different fighting technique making it harder to adjust, eventually though I could fend for myself and managed to get the better of each of them a few times, although I had a feeling Kaiden was letting me beat him.

I almost crowed with delight when I beat Finian, Supremely unimpressed he demanded rematch after rematch, leaving me feeling rather battered and exhausted by the time we called an end to the day. Slipping inside for dinner, I hardly joined in with the exuberant conversation, I was too tired and simply late, listening to the others chat.

 

That night I lay in bed contemplating all that had happened, I began to wonder if I was dreaming. Surely I couldn't have seen a dragon? I had gained a lot of bruises today, many of them to my ego. I could feel the dull ache of them every time I moved, this told me that at least that was real. My muscles were screaming, unused to so much physical activity. Physically I was exhausted, but my mind was still racing and whirring. I suddenly remembered a comment Altheda had made about my birthmark, I yanked up my shirt and stared at the unusual mark that blemished my skin. Just below my belly button I have three marks, one that I supposed looked like a sword, one like a small personal sun, and the other looked like some sort of Chinese symbol. I had looked it up many times but never found the same one, maybe now I would know what it was. When I was younger I had always dreamt about the impossible fantasies picturing myself in a variety of worlds, doing all manner of tasks, it seemed that I hadn't been so far off.

As I lay back waiting for exhaustion to take hold, I contemplated my old life. I realised with a jolt that I had never fit in there, I'd had friends but I didn't think they were the sort I could ever turn to. I realised that no one would miss me. I'd had seventeen years in that life and not one person would remember me, or care that I had simply disappeared. I was unsure how this made me feel, on one hand I felt relieved that I hadn't developed attachments that would now lay in pieces broken beyond repair, on the other I felt terribly alone and uncared for. An image entered my head, it was me alone and old. I still hadn't made an impact, I was simply waiting quietly for death to claim me and end my pointless life. I shook my head clear of the image, I had a second chance here and I was going to use it. I felt the same warmth from earlier, suddenly I had no reason to doubt what I had been told.

This was my world, the one for me to make my difference in, I could do this and I would. I was going to put my all into learning, I was going to save my mother. I was going to make sure I was remembered.

I heard a small knock at my door, I sat up just as Cahira entered.

"Hi" she whispered, "I thought I'd come see how you're doing. I know that all of this must seem crazy, and must have been hard to understand. I was born into this world so I can't identify with what you must feel. but I thought maybe you could talk to me, I know a lot about our world so I can help you with the questions. She sat back on the bed, observing my expression she smiled at me.

My head immediately buzzed with all the questions I had wanted to ask earlier. In my haste I babbled questions at top speed, running each one into the next. "What does being immortal mean? Why did you come and get me? Why does everyone keep talking about extra powers? When will I have to fight? How long have you been a warrior?"

Cahira laughed "Slow down, I can't answer them all at once" I shut up mid flow and blushed, looking down at my lap.

"Firstly you are an immortal warrior, once you reach eighteen, if you are in our world you will not age and your appearance will not change. However warriors who live in the human world age, but very slowly and that stops when they return to their homeland, it makes it easier for us to live in the human world without detection. It is also why your parents look so young, they have been out of this world for eighteen years, so have aged very little.” She paused for breath.

“Secondly we came to get you, because you are our best hope of winning this battle. You will be a great warrior Elvy, you just need to believe in yourself. It's in your blood, it’s your destiny." She paused again, and I used this moment to interrupt again.

"You can't just know that I will be a good warrior, I mean I can barely stand on my own two feet half the time! You guys have told me so much today and all of you are impossibly graceful and beautiful, you all seem to emanate this sort of power I can almost sense it coming of you in the atmosphere. I don't think I can do this, I'm not strong, I'm not my mother!" I burst, all my worries pouring out at once I'd been pondering this all day.

"Shush, shush" calmed Cahira trying to stop my histrionics. "I know this seems hard for you and I can't imagine the turmoil and pain you are feeling right now, you need to believe in yourself. You are a lot stronger than you think. Now shall I answer the rest of the questions?" I nodded mutely.

"So I believe extra powers was the next question right?” she asked, I nodded, but didn't speak, I was eager for details.

“Well Warriors have kinds of magic, we all have over developed senses, our hearing and sight are unrivalled. We have almost instinctive talents; we can sense what is coming in loose terms. We can feel changes in the air. We control all of the worlds loosely, we keep the peace, we stop evil from triumphing and keep people equal. The worlds are mainly independent, but sometimes we must step in to save them from themselves. Some of us also have extra powers, for example; I can speak with animals and call them to my aid, Finian is extremely strong even for a Warrior, he is also able to taste others' moods and sense what to say to them. Kaiden has one of the rarest and strongest powers of all, he is a shifter. He can morph into anything, animals and our enemies, although the form of the enemy causes him pain and exhaustion, because he is light, the morph to dark is a difficult one. He has to morph back frequently, so he can retain his beliefs, and not forget who he is. Some warriors can teleport, and some have the ability to use the energy around us and convert it into different forces. You have a power we haven’t seen before, the force you emanated earlier. We are unsure what other powers you will possess, but they will reveal themselves soon. And your last question, I'm seventy nine, I've been training since I was four." smiled Cahira. I sat there staring wordlessly in disbelief, she didn't look older than eighteen. Cahira slid off my bed, and strolled to the door, she paused there "You should get some sleep, tomorrow will be a long day". I lay back yawning, suddenly feeling exhausted. I fell into dreamless sleep.

 

Before I had been brought here my nights had been full of horror, I had dreamt of things I had thought were impossible then, and had woken many nights soaked in sweat and screaming. I had dreamt of murder of loved ones, although I did not know them, I had dreamt of all the faces I had met today. I had been unable to control myself from screaming, though no one had come, my Mother was gone, and my Father gone in a different way.