Arial had begun focusing more of her time on meditation once we found our own paths to the ether, so my father began training me much harder. We would no longer practice in one location. We would run through the forest in a makeshift war game. One day my father would be the attacker, the next I would. The attacker would leave the village and make their way through the forest before first light. When the sun broke the horizon, the defender was allowed to enter the forest. We could chose any path we wanted to the river. If you got to the river without being attacked, you would chose another path back to the village. The defender was to attempt to get to the river and back unseen and unheard. In three weeks of doing this daily, I had yet to make it both ways without being attacked, My father had only been attacked twice. Both times I lost the fight. I should mention that I had never won any of the fights were I was defending either.
My father's skill was beyond anything I could dream of, even when I entered the aether to fight him. I would see the golden glow that surrounds him, flare and he would move even faster. He didn't need to enter the ether, he was the ether.
"How is it, that you don't enter the aether, but you still harness it's power?"
"It's years of practice. I honed my skill when I was your age, and I kept honing, even when I stopped fighting. I never stopped practicing. That is what the hidden room in the forge is for."
"You practice in there? Why do you make me practice here, in the woods?"
"I didn't always have the luxury of a solid floor with a roof to protect me from the elements. I also had to practice on uneven ground, and in climates that were far more intense than what you find on this mountain. My teachers were more forceful as well. If we had the slightest misstep, we would be punished by being whipped until we bled."
"Who were your teachers?"
"That isn't important, what is important is that you become even better than me. I want to make sure that you are safer in any instance than I ever was. One day, that will be the only way I can protect you."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm getting older Pitre. I won't always be around. I also fear that with more Raiders making their way into the Realm, that I won't be able to stay away from battle again. I don't want to fight and kill again, but if it becomes like it once was, I will have no choice but to do so."
"How was it that we went to war with the Mudwood?"
"The Raiders of the Mudwood, only believed in conquering. They had an incessant greed for anything that wasn't theirs. The world is much bigger than what you know as the Realm, and you haven't even seen much of that. The Raiders had to be stopped if this tiny chunk of the world was to remain in peace."
"How big is the world?"
"Hmmm, how can I put it. If you think of the forge as the Realm, then everything else all the way to the Kingdom, would be the world."
"Even the village? The world is that big?"
"I believe that it is even bigger. I only saw a small piece of it when we fought in the Blind War."
"I want to see the rest of the world papa."
"That, I doubt will never be. The Raiders control most of the world that is out there. I'm sure there are other pockets such as the Realm, but it isn't safe for anyone not from the Mudwood. Maybe something will change, maybe a leader from the Mudwood will see the error in their ways, and want peace throughout the land. Then, maybe you can see the world."
"Can you show me the border of the Realm some day?"
"Someday? Maybe, but it won't be anytime soon. If the Raiders are trying to find weak spots in the border, that means they are looking at a way to invade again. The fools never learn from their past."
"When I become a Knight, will protect you and we will go to the border together." Even as I said that, I thought about how skilled and powerful my father was. I would never be the protector, no matter how old he became.
"I look forward to that day......"
My father stopped in mid sentence, and began looking around.
"Wha...."
My father raised his hand for me to quiet myself. I started looking around as well. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the river running over it's rocky bed in the distance. Then I heard a limb crack on the ground. I was guessing that it was another wolf so I began drawing my sword. My father stayed my hand, and then began pulling my sword out very slowly so it would not make a sound. I hadn't realized it but my father had already drawn his sword.
"Enter the aether boy." My father whispered in my ear. "This is something much different than what would normally wander these woods."
My father stepped in front of me, as the first man entered the small clearing where we were talking. The man put his fingers to his lips and a loud whistle came out. I could hear a thunder of footsteps and cracking branches as five more men entered the clearing. Their clothes looked similar to the rogue that my father killed on the road to the Kingdom. They were Raiders. This was a much smaller group that what Sir Wallace said was coming over the border.
"Where are the rest of your men?"
"What would make you think that there are more men?"
"I know Raiders, and if there are two of them, there are twenty of them."
"Sorry mate it's just us, and you really shouldn't worry, you won't be alive much longer to worry about other men anyway."
With that, the man that was speaking signaled the other men to surround us. They slowly encircled us, I could see my father looking from side to side, sizing up each man. His aura flared, like it would just before he would pounce to strike me, but this time, it was different, it was even bigger. With in the time it would take one to blink an eye, my father threw his sword at the arrogant man that had spoken to him. It went directly at his through and buried itself to the hilt there. He had a look of shock as he reached up and grabbed the handle on the sword to pull it out just before he fell over dead. The other men also had shocked looks on their faces, and began looking from one to another wondering what to do. That was just long enough for my father to grab me by the hand and throw me in the open space where the verbose man once stood. As he let go of my hand he grabbed the sword from my hand.
"Retrieve my blade boy."
I landed just beyond the fallen man's body. I sunk down to roll him on his side so that I could pull my father's sword from his neck. His eyes still showed the horror of what had happened, but his face was blank and pale. I had to pry his hands from the handle, they had locked in a death grip. I was only slightly aware of what was going on around me. I finally freed the sword from it's temporary home, and the warm blood dripped over the hilt onto my hands. I looked up to see that two more men were on the ground, unmoving, and the final three were standing defensively in front of my father, who stood in front of where I was. I ran over to join him, and the scrum began. My father's aura flared again, and he bolted toward the two men on the left side. The remaining man, seeing his opportunity to strike, ran for me.
He came at me with a overhand strike. It was heavy and laborious. I saw the strike before he even took it. I moved to the side, and slapped his sword further down. His momentum caused him to fall forward and stab the sword into the ground. I spun around and as he was attempting to right himself, I slashed across his right arm. He screamed in pain, and forgetting the sword tried to swing his fist at me. I raised my sword to meet his punch. His hand flew past my head as his wrist connected with my blade. I lunged my shoulder into him knocking him off balance sending him to the forest floor. I turned to see where my father was, and he already had one man on the ground, and the other nervously dancing in front of him. I had the distinct feeling that I needed to duck. I did, and it was just in time. The man I had knocked to the ground was on his feet and had freed his sword. The strike went directly over my head. It was a strike that was ever more poor than the earlier one. The lost of his hand was definitely hampering him. I stepped toward him with my closest foods till crouched down, I spun my sword to aim the point directly behind me, and I stood up quickly, plunging the sword into the man's stomach. He let out a guttural cough and slumped over on top of me. I shifted my weight and he fall to the ground.
I ran to my father's side. The man that was on the ground was already dead, and the dancing man remained.
"Where are your other men? My father spoke with and angry grind to his voice.
"They, they, they are scouting, the, the, the forest. Wa wa wa we were told d d, by advanced sc sc sco scouts, that th th the there was a vil vil vill village in the area."
"How many more are there?
"Min mi minus the six of u u us, there are tw twe twen twe twenty four m m m m more."
"Are they in scout groups like yours?"
"Yes, b b b bu bu but, w w w w we are sup sup supposed to all c c co co c c c com come together, w w w wh wh when we we we hear a wh wh whi whis whistle."
"So they will all be coming here?"
The man simply nodded his head instead of trying to speak again.
"Will they all be coming from the same direction as you?"
The man shook his head and pointed in two different directions, both of which were away from the village, so they wouldn't have found it yet.
"It's your lucky day lad. If you put your sword down, and run in that direction, I will let you live."
My father pointed in the direction of the river. The man seeing his chance to live, dropped his sword and ran following and invisible line that would lead him to the river and then salvation. My father turned to me and handed me my sword and took his own in return.
"That blade is far better than I imagined it would be. I knew I had crafted a fine blade, but the balance and feel is truly remarkable in a fight."
"Your sword did it's job well too."
"I knew it would. That sword saw me through the Blind War. I can't here the other men coming yet, so that means we have time. I want you to run to the village and warn everyone, and then I want you to run directly to the forge and the hidden room. You are to stay there, until I come for you. Do you understand?"
"I want to stay and help you. If things go they way they should, there will be no need for you to help. Now do as I say."
I reluctantly ran off, but when I thought I was far enough from my father's sight, I hid behind a tree. I heard the men approach. They came as the one Raider had said they would. Fourteen from the right, and ten more from the left. I could barely see my father through the gaps of the trees. He just stood there, in that small clearing. the men stopped in a semi circle around him. I couldn't make out what was being said, but one man was clearly talking to my father. I could no longer see him with all the men standing around him, but I could tell that he wasn't leading them off as he said he would. I watched as all the men converged on him at once. I began running towards him.
"RUN BOY!"
Those were my father's last words. He fought as I ran towards him, disobeying his order. He beheaded three men in one swipe of his sword, but it came at a cost. Two men on either side of him thrust their swords into his sides. His aura flared even brighter than before, and with a single move that whipped the sword in a figure eight motion around his body, he took their arms. The swords remained in his sides. He reached with his left hand to his right side, and pulled one of the swords out. He began wielding both of them, in figure eight patterns. This was part of the thirteenth moment. He knocked swords from multiple men away from striking him. He spun as he flung the swords around him. He came up with one of the swords and slashed one man's throat. Then he brought the other sword up from below his waste and stuck another man from his belt to his opposing shoulder, both men fell to the ground. Three men lunged at my father from behind and stabbed their swords through his gut. My father bucked forward with his head flung back.
"RUN BOY!"
With his remains strength she spun on the three men and took their heads as he did the first two. The remaining men pounced on my father. I watched him go the the ground fighting the entire time. I turned and ran towards the village. Seven men were down, that left fourteen. If I warned the village in time, we could fight them off and kill the rest of them. I ran as fast as I could. When I broke the tree line I couldn't understand what I was seeing. The village was on fire. People were running in chaos, and men were striking down defenseless people. The village was lost. There were other men that the cowardly Raider didn't tell us about. I had no other choice but to run to the forge. I stayed to the trees for as long as I could. When I finally broke the cover that I had, I made a ad dash for the forge. I heard a yell, "Over there!" but I didn't stop, I ran all the way to the forge and then into the hidden room.
I heard footsteps enter the forge, and then crashes as tables and scraps of metal were overturned and strewn about.
"I saw him come in here."
"Are you sure you saw anything at all? I didn't see a think."
"He's in here."
There were more sounds of destruction, but I remained in the hidden room. I heard the footsteps approach closer to the door way. They stopped and I could hear scuffling outside. They moved past and deeper into the cave system where the forge was. After a few minutes I heard the footsteps return.
"You are out of your mind if you think I'm going further into that bloody cave. If it was one boy, then he will die on his own. Now come on, we have a village to pillage."
I heard the footsteps walk away. I waited in the hidden room for what must have been hours. I finally decided to risk taking a look. I exited the hidden room and saw the work area of the forge was destroyed. Every table was turned over, the anvil was on the floor and horseshoes and hoes blades were flung about carelessly. I poked my head from the mouth of the cave, and saw that the village was no longer there. It was there, but no like I had known it. Every hut and cabin were smoldering dark masses. Not a single person was present. I cautiously walked to the village and saw bodies of people that I once knew. It was then that I began to worry. I ran to where Arial's cabin was. Only the frame of the door still stood. Her father's body was underneath it. I looked under the wreckage for an hour for Arial, but I found nothing. Everyone was dead or gone. I was alone.
I ran back into the forest, back to the place where I last saw my father. He was there, but it was only the vessel of his body that was left behind. He had stab wounds in every part of his body. His eyes were open and lifeless I reached down and with tears in my eyes. I closed them. I picked my father up and carried him back to the forge. His blood ran down my front and back and grew sticky as it met with the air. I grew tired as I took the final steps into the forge. I summoned what was left of my strength to take his body into the hidden room. I placed it on the table that stood at the far wall. Then I began using an old pick to break through the hard rock of the floor. I would lay my father to rest in this spot, where no one would ever get to him.
Once the body was buried and I was drained of tears, it was time to train. I would become better than my father as he wanted, and I would destroy the Raiders of the Mudwood, once and for all.
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