A Short Fiction

just a brief exercise

“Where are you running off to now?”

“I have to go to her.”

The old man bent over in his near thread-bare robes looked at him as he did anything else in the room.  It all had momentous consequence, but was still just there in the room.  Even sitting he still hunched over, propped up by a walking stick. “Well, you want to go to her.  There is still so much more for you to do.  Why must you go?”

The young man seated before his teacher straightened his back, looked dead at the old man’s head.  “This woman is the only one to reside in my heart.  Now that I know where she is I must go to her no matter what obstacles lie in the way.”

Sensing the pride and arrogance in the youth, the old man simply sat silent.  Just when the youth thought the old master fell asleep again, the aged head facing him with thin very short gray fuzz for hair at the sides and sunken cheeks beneath prominent cheekbones for a face raised from its downward stoop to bring clear, bright blue eyes to stare into his. Just as the youth felt the urge to move, just shift position under the master’s gaze, the old man spoke, “If you will not learn here then I will teach you where you go.”

This was not the answer the youth wanted.  The young fighter simply wanted to go off on his own to confront the challenges and face this woman.  After years of teaching him, raising him from a boy, the only answer the youth could give was, “I would very much enjoy having your company, master.”

The master would not ride.  Walking with his stick was the only way he would travel.  The boy was already ready to go before going to see his master.  Now he had to waste time unpacking the bags saddled on his horse.  Even with a pack he would not be able to carry as much on foot.  The master could not be expected to carry much, if anything.  The old man simply watched as each item was evaluated as to its necessity, most of it would be left behind.

Before the door in the gate each man stood there looking at each other.  The boy adjusted the shoulder straps of his pack, waiting for the master to make the first move.  The old man stood there, holding his walking stick.  Eventually he slowly turned to look out the open door.

“Are you ready to go, master?” the youth said with a hint of impatience.

“I’ve been ready since you first said we are going.  I’m just waiting for you.”

“So then why are we standing here?”

“You haven’t left yet.”

“You will not lead?”

“It’s your quest, besides you’re the one who knows where we are going.”

With that the boy stepped out the door, only turning back to help the old man out the threshold.

Each step was a torture.  The youth would march, setting an aggressive pace only to notice the old man plodded along.  At times the youth had to go back to find the master admiring a flower at the side of the dirt road, or gazing out over the side of a bridge as the sun came down on a river.  Constantly adjusting his pack, and gripping the weapon at his side, the young man never noticed anything that captured the master’s attention.  

After a month on the road, the young man’s feet ached from traipsing back and forth to the master.  His shoulders were bruised from the pack, and hand cramped from clasping his weapon.  The old man looks as if he just rose from his honored position back at the school.  But they both stood at the base of the castle looking up at the fortifications.  

“She is in there.  I must go see her.”

“That is why we came all this way.  So go see her.”

“We will have to fight our way in.”

“What ‘We’?  I don’t want to see her.”

“But then why did you come?”

“You had more to learn and refused to stay and be taught.”

“I have to go see her.”

“Then go see her if that is what you want.”

“But how?”

“Just go.  If you needed some other way you should have thought of it before we left.”

After dispatching every guard he came across to enter the stronghold he paused to get his bearings.  Breathing heavy, he crouched near a wall in the broad hallway.  He jumped almost with a high pitched scream as the old man tapped him on the back with the walking stick.  The youth quickly stood and faced the master.

“How did you find me?”

“I just followed the bodies.”

“I don’t know where she is.  Master, how can I find her.”

“Calm yourself.  Open your heart and the way will become clear.”

Most of the other guards required clubbing before saying where the woman was located in the castle.  And then they required clubbing to shut them up.  She wasn’t in the dungeons, but locked in a modest quest room.  The youth rushed to the room.

“And who are you?”  She sat there in candlelight, gentle silken robes hinting at the subtle curves of her body.

“I had to come find you.”  The youth almost whispered breathlessly, having run and fought his way to the room.

“Still doesn’t tell me who you are?”

“We met only once.  That once was enough, since then you have filled my heart.  Everywhere I look I see your face.  You are an angel stirring my desires, and a demon constantly haunting me.  I am a warrior student and needed to see you once more.”

She looked bored.  Leaning back her head and rolling her eyes as if this sort of thing happened every hour.  “Come on, declare your undying love.  Hurry up, I have to use the toilet.”

“No.  I needed to see you.  I thought I needed to kill you to get you out of my heart.  But I was wrong.  Just seeing you again was enough.  You are not my goddess.  You are a woman.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.  Meeting you, my heart is empty now.  I can go on.”

“That’s great.”  As she stood the silk robe dropped showing her pale shoulder to him as she turned to leave the room.  The sight did nothing to the youth.

Walking through the castle the youth came upon the master slowly walking towards the woman’s room.  He just stopped and knelt before the old man.

The old man asked, “So how was she?”

“She was real.”

“Disappointed?”

“No.  But I’m free.”

“We all have to cut our teeth at some time.”

The two started to walk back to their school home as the alarms began to sound.