I woke up to the old fashioned crackling of a fireplace. It was probably still about 2 in the morning. The sun was still asleep beneath the mountains. I tried to get back to sleep when I heard:
“-I’m not sure…I’m not sure he has it in him.”
“No…no he’s the strongest cabell i’ve seen in years!”
“Strong? Why- he… he’s a toothpick! He could probably lift 2 twinkies. Max!”
I heard light chuckling.
“You know what i mean lena.” a voice i assumed was Ryan said tenderly.
“I swear if they kiss ima throw a Twinkie at em” i thought knowing my fair share of rom-coms
“I know…i’m just worried about him. What happens when the others find out about what he can do? What if he gets himself killed?”
“lena we arent his parents. Just his friends. But i won’t let it happen. Cage won’t let it. He fared just fine against the giant after all.” Ryan assured.
A sudden crack of the floorboards sent my mind reeling. I raced back to my bed, my heart pounding like thunder.
Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice. Or if they did, they didn’t say anything about it.
I woke up again at roughly 9 AM and walked into the kitchen to find Ryan and lena having breakfast.
“How can you even say that! Doughnuts are the epitome of pastry evolution!” Ryan exclaimed boldly, as if he was a history professor engulfed in a huge debate.
“Yeah yeah, i’d love to see you try and stop me from eating a biscuit-” Lena retorted with a mildly playfull sneer.
A stranger sat in the corner, silently eating a pancake. Her movements where calculated, precise. Perhaps even deadly if the situation wasnt breakfast.
“Who’s that?” I asked
“Oh that’s my sister Ilene.” lena answered.
“Ilane?”
“Ilene. I-LEE-NUH.” Ilene said emphasizing each syllable as if i were a child.
It seemed an odd name to me but i accepted it nonetheless. She brushed her blonde hair behind her denim jacket leaving every guy there thinking to himself “wow…she is so full of herself.”
“I’m here to teach you how to fight.” She said with a hand resting on the hilt of her sword, a sword I hadn’t noticed before.
You know, as much as I liked her I already hated her and wanted no part of it.
“I can fight just fine thank you.”
“Cage, Ilene is a Grey sparrow.” Ryan said with admiration.
“Duh fudge you just said?”
“she bares the Grey Sparrows mark, the symbol of a master swordsman.”
Ilene on que pulled down her sleeve to reveal a sparrow feather tattooed on her right arm.
“Or swordswoman, erm, swords-girl- SWORDS-LADY” Ryan said stammering as he gawked at the tattoo as if it were a Ferrari.
lena scowled at noone in particular.
“Swords-lady” I wheezed trying not to start dying of laughter. Ryan was floundering to talk normally to this girl and it both worried and entertained me. Mostly the latter.
Ryan glared at me.
“Yes. And a master one.” she interrupted with complete tolerance and even welcoming of Ryans “sword-*insert gender*” names.
lena, having a change of heart mumbled. “I mean…she’s not THAT good…”
Fast as a hawk Ilene drew her sword and suddenly had a lenas biscuit balanced at the end of her blade. Before I had time to respond, her sword became a blur of strikes and the biscuit dropped in front of me; carved to look just like a sparrow.
She resheathed her sword with a grin and Ryan’s mouth hung open.
“learned that trick when i was 12,” Ilene beamed.
“How old are you again?” I asked?
“16” she said and Ryan gasped with admiration.
“Holy hell, your amazing!”
lena suddenly scowled and gave up on her biscuit. Everybody else was too busy to take notice of lena silently storming out.
Could lena be…jealous?
I decided to butt in.
“Yeah, Ryan here is 18! Thats a full 2 years older than you are Ilene! lena is 18 also! What a coincidence.”
I know it wasn’t very casual… but i wanted to help. Wich i think i had because Ryan suddenly had a look on his face as if he’d been woken up by someone dumping a bucket of water on his head.
He sighed “yes…i suppose…” he looked down and cleared his throat, perhaps realizing what this whole thing porbably looked like to his quote “not my girlfriend” lena.
“I suppose you and cage ought to begin training as soon as possible. Besides, I should probably go check on…” he trailed off.
“Check on what?” Ilene asked.
“TURKEY! I left my oven in the turkey- i mean a turkey in the oven!” Ryan said leaving in the same direction as lena had.
“…very well…” Ilene mumbled. Her hand casually moved to rest on her sword again. Always ready, always calm.
“Where shall we begin?”
The question genuinely scared me. She was quick at everything she did, waiting calm and peacefully before breaking it in sudden bursts of action. Her speach was no exception. Nor would her training be…
We practiced in lena’s backyard. Her yard was very stark and dry, sort of the physical incarnation of a a drunk hillbilly. I hadn’t noticed at first but Ilene seemed… I don’t know… like she came from medieval times. Like how she uses the words “thou” and “thee” instead of “you” or how she said “bloody” instead of…well, every other word we have for that now.
“Thou art very bad at this!” she laughed as I barely blocked another strike of her sword.
“You know, most people just use the word ‘you’,” I said casually. Our swords clanged one last time before she disarmed me entirely, my sword flung 10 feet away from my grasp.
“Well, I’m not like most people.” she said her sword pointed to my chest.
“That IS true…” I looked up from the blade and tried to meet her eyes. “how did I do?”
She sat on a nearby tree stump. Which i was glad, I was exhausted from the training and I welcomed the break wholeheartedly. It also helps not to have a sword pointed as your vital organs.
“You make it hard to go easy.” She said sharpening her already razor sharp sword.
“can’t carve a biscuit yet can i?”
“You will get there.”
“i hope. I bet it’s every swordsmans dream to murder a pastery like that.”
She cracked a tiny smile.
“What did Ryan teach you?”
“that doughnuts are the epitome of pastry evolution.” I said with a wry yet friendly smile.
“About swords.” she said with a patience of steel against my sarcastic comments.
“he said it’s all about the mind.”
“Cage, I want you to take all that millions of years of technique and knowledge of fencing…”
“Yeah?”
“And just throw that away.”
“What?”
She sighed.
” it be not about thine mind. It’s about thy heart. Your mind comes into play later but…”
“Seriously, are you omish or something?” She ignored me.
“just bloody-…don’t forget why you fight. Ok cage? The first thing i was taught in the Grey Sparrows was to put my heart into my blade. Once you are dedicated, practice becomes easy. It becomes a desire in your soul to achieve greater things.”
I nodded solemnly, and remained silent until my mind was resolved.
“I want to learn.” I said meeting her gaze.
She smiled genuinely as she gazed into my eyes. The way that Lena did, like she could see something that I could not. I wasnt sure what it was these people saw in me. What my dad saw in me for that matter…
“Thou art loquacious in your ways, but your determination is admirable. You’ll make a formidable swordsman indeed.”
I had no idea what the heckity heck she had just said But ok.
“I don’t speak spanish Ilene. El No el spanisho“
She smirked and resheathed her sword as smoothly as the wind.
“I suppose you will just have to to teach me thine way of speech. Just as i will have to teach you to wield your weapon.”
“Sounds like a deal.”
And so our training was over for the day.
Chris HemsWORTH IT!!! 