Chapter 18: A Friendly Sparring

Fascinating. Fearsome. Formidable. Fiery. And foxy.

That’s what you look for in a female Demona.

But I don’t think I am inclined to believe Brother Leaping Fox in that.

He gives good advice, but certainly not in matters regarding the “fairer” opposite sex.

A weapon makes a far better wife, I would say.

-Wolf Under Stars

As was only proper, we introduced ourselves first to the Sun Cherishers, and they in return introduced themselves.

“Likewise, a pleasure to meet you, Hunters from the Piercing Moon tribe,” she said, stepping forward a step. “I am Hunter Solana.” Beige colored eyes with a darker shade of brown hair. The second tallest in their group. Perhaps just short of seven feet. She had a calm look to her and her eyes looked calculative, as if already making speculations and judgments.

“Hunter Elera,” she said curtly. The tallest in their group and with the most formidable figure--formidable in every aspect if you perceive what I mean. Short violet-tinged black hair with long bangs that cut just above her eyebrows. Similarly colored eyes. She was the hotheaded one who had called us weak before.

“Hunter Flara,” another female introduced herself, a grin on her face. Long red hair with darkish grey eyes. She was the one whom Leaping Fox had called fiery and foxy, and the one who had made an offhand comment about Hunter Elera.

“Hunter Mina.” Her voice was low, almost a whisper. The last to introduce herself and the shortest out of their group. Greyish looking eyes and somber black hair. She looked to be a silent one. Her eyes were the most striking. They made me feel uneasy, as if they could stare right through me.

“Sister Mina,” said Solana, the one who had introduced herself first. “If you could direct their lead Hunter to ours.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding her head a little. She started walking then and Hunter followed along, leaving the four of us alone. They slowly made their way toward the entrance between the two watchtowers.

“Make sure to behave yourselves,” Hunter called out. A short twitch of a smile and a look to Leaping Fox. “Especially you.”

“Now that is just mean. I am always on my best behavior,” Leaping Fox said with a hurt look. It was almost believable.

Almost.

The three females from the Sun Cherishers tribe carried on as if they had not heard Leaping Fox. “If the four of you would follow us, we will lead you to your living arrangements,” Solana said. I was beginning to think she was the leader of their group. “I believe it will take the Hunters from the Night Sky Tribe about two weeks more until they arrive. The Southern Flatlands are quite far from here, after all.”

“We are grateful for your hospitality, Hunters of the Sun Cherishers,” I said politely.

So we followed the three, their backs turned toward us. And as we entered through the walled entrance situated between the two watchtowers, the first sights of the village loomed ahead.

As they led us through these sights, we were given a small tour by Solana and Flara, while Elera turned around to glare at us each given opportunity. Her eyes measured us, probing for any weaknesses. Certainly a battle-maniac, I thought to myself. Brother Big Bear would have certainly found a kin within her.

The small tour gave me a measure of familiarity with the village. If familiarity meant knowing one tree out of a whole forest. The tower-like buildings, I learned, were called Roost Towers. They were home to the Vulcans and were used for breeding and training. There were many of these tall buildings spread throughout the corners of the village.

And around these Roost Towers were intricate channels that lapped around like small snakes. Water for the animals, no doubt. Or perhaps that was just their idea of aesthetics. The homes the Sun Cherishers resided in seemed to be made of clay and stone with a wooden structure. They were flat buildings, most of them only about two floors tall. And each of the buildings were close situated to one another.

Had there been no guides, we would have certainly been engulfed by the sprawling mass of confusion that was the village with just a single misstep. The interconnected buildings and sections, along with the water channels made for a veritable maze. Their village also did not seem to have any truly divided sections, which was not that particularly strange given that they were all Demona.

All the while this was happening, Brother Leaping Fox was in a silence. He was quietly watching the sights. Too quiet. I should have known.

“These certainly are some sights, are they not Brothers,” he whispered as we followed along. His eyes strayed toward the backs of the three female Demona Hunters. “Certainly some admirable sights.”

“Admirably dangerous, you mean,” I whispered back calmly. I moved onward as if I had not seen or heard anything. “There seems to be a fair majority of females that make up the Hunters,” I commented.

I had seen a few Hunters pass by here and there while we were following our three guides. Most of the passing Hunters seemed to be females. Strange that there would be such a disparity. Males were the norm for the Hunters. Their bodies were usually stronger and would survive the backlash of the potency of the starblood.

“Naturally,” Elera said, an air of declaration around her. “Females are much stronger than the males, especially in our tribe.”

“Interesting,” I simply said.

“Indeed, an interesting notion I would love to disapprove,” Leaping Fox said, adding fire to my word. Unneeded fire.

Elera narrowed her eyes at that. She seemed to do that a lot, I observed to myself.

Flara, the redhead Demona, let out a small laugh. “I like him. He has balls. Your name is Leaping Fox, was it not?”

My Brother nodded at that.

“Good, good. I will enjoy ripping them off in the competition to come,” she said cheerfully.

Solana sent a quick glance toward the two females, so quick most wouldn’t have notice it. Elera only let out a small snuffle in return, turning around to the front again. And Flara only let out another small laughter. Suddenly, I had a suspicion that this competition and hunt would go quite well. Very well indeed.

So we continued onward, following the three of them.

“Well, Brothers, I guess first impressions aren’t reliable,” Leaping Fox said. There was a modest hint of nervousness in his voice. I wouldn’t have liked being in his boots either.

After a few more minutes of walking through the maze, making seemingly random turns of left to right and right to left, we arrived at a sparse section near a corner of the village. Compared to the other sights in the village, this was by far the most desolate. There were only four buildings and an enormous earthen courtyard in the middle.

“You will be living over there, Brother Hunters,” Solana said. She pointed at a stone and clay building that looked to be two floors tall, each floor possibly able to hold four floors. It was a reasonable guess since there were four windows on each floor. “We Sisters will be living in the opposite building, and the Night Sky tribe will stay at the middle building.”

“Thank you for the tour, Sisters,” I said.

“No need for thanks, and do not feel the need to be reserved. You are welcome to ask any questions.”

Hidden Shade glanced up at the sky, then back down. “How will we get our food?”

Sister Flara smiled. It did not reach her eyes. “Naturally, you will come along with us on our hunts. A friendly pre-competition get-to-know.”

========

The rooms we were given were sparse. A table, a chair, and a bed. Unadorned and barely furnished. Just the way we liked and lived. Brother Ronat, Leaping Fox, and Hidden Shade came into my room as I put down the pouches that hung around my waist onto the table.

“Say,” Leaping Fox began, “what say you to a spar in the courtyard?” He was smiling, a smile which I found distrustful. He had most likely thought of something. An idea that would not bode well. “I could use some exercise.”

I looked toward my Hidden Shade and Brother Ronat. They nodded silently. Three against one? I wondered what Brother Leaping Fox had bribed them with to make them agree to his idea. I grabbed at my blade-spear in the corner. “Very well.”

Down at the courtyard, Brother Ronat and Hidden Shade watched us from the sides. Brother Leaping Fox and I stood at a standstill, a blade-spear in each of our hands. We circled around each other. Six steps away. Easily within range. Our blade-spears themselves could reach up to eight feet easily, and that was discounting the length of our arms.

A step shifted and a small movement made with my hands. They came as easily as breathing. Higher Assailing Stance. My blade-spear positioned just above neutrality, the edge pointed toward my opponent’s face. I would start off aggressive.

Brother Leaping Fox, my opponent, went into Lower Guarded Stance. His left foot stepped backward, and the edge of his weapon pointed toward the ground. In the Lower Guarded Stance, the handle end of the blade-spear was just below his neck, and the body of the blade-spear covered his upper body.

From the corner of my eyes, I spotted four incoming figures. They were the female Hunters form the Sun Cherishers tribe and they stood a small distance away from us, still within hearing distance. I smiled as I realized what Brother Leaping Fox wanted to do. The purpose of the spar was to catch their eyes, and perhaps even goad them into sparring with us.

Pondering for a second or two, I spoke out an underlying message while forming a small smile. “Initiation.” A small pause before I continued. “I suppose falls to me?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Do your best to beat me. I will follow guard.”

I shook my head, switching into Lower Guarded Stance. “You initiate, since you wanted the spar.”

Leaping Fox frowned. “Don’t be a spoiled fox.” He waited for me to switch back into Assailing Stance. I didn’t. His frown deepened and he sighed, switching into Higher Assailing Stance. “Very well, initiation will fall to me.”

The message that had passed between us, put simply, would be that I would lose purposefully to him in the spar. He would then try to goad the female Hunters into sparring with him. I shook my head at Brother Leaping Fox. His idea was to take advantage of the competitive streak they had shown.

A deep breath. Very well, whatever happens has nothing to do with me, I thought to myself. Still, if the goading was successful, we would also be able to take some measure of their capabilities.

Leaping Fox smoothed his parted hair once with a hand. His breaths became still, quieted by years of training. His wide-set eyes narrowed in concentration, the dark colors flashing a light. An action that always told me that he was ready.

They say the eyes are a window of opportunities. Others say that the body is the window of opportunities. But that is simply wrong. The eyes, just like the body, can easily lie. A feint. A trick. A ruse. A bait.

No, the eyes and the body are not windows of opportunities. As Hunter had taught us, they are traps made to deceive. Instead of looking for windows of opportunities, you have to grab at them and make your own in the process.

Of course, that is only for opponents with experience and intelligence. For the simpler beasts, it is simply not needed. For them, you pay attention to their bodies and to look for any intentions in their eyes. But I was not fighting simple beasts. I was fighting Brother Leaping Fox.

He started without a warning.

A blinding flash, a blurring of his hands and arms. The blade-spear fell into a Falling Sweep. Instantly, from the high initial position his blade-spear was previously in, he lowered it into a sweep toward my feet.

I shifted backward once, a quick two step of my feet, narrowly dodging the blade-spear. My eyes were trained forward, looking at his every movements and his surroundings. But that was just half of it. I also looked for any openings and where I wanted to go.

His next attack flowed violently, without even a pause. From the Falling Sweep, he switched into consecutive moves of Dancing Leaves. They were a series of skewed, slanted, and cross slashes that varied like a leaf dancing in the wind.

I parried madly with Half Circles, trying to keep up with the Dancing Leaves. I let my blade-spear guide me, my reflexes born from years of training doing most of the work. Jarring cries of Xeonite blade on Xeonite blade rang out in the courtyard. The blood ran in me, coursing through my veins. My blade-spears and body became blurs, matching to the rhythm of my opponent.

Faster. The tempo of our blade-spears increased. Instead of running now, the blood thundered in my veins, pounding to the beats of my heart. My vision narrowed, focused onto my opponent and the immediate surroundings. A thrust came flying toward my abdomen, the dull of black Xeonite metal intruding in my vision, just shy of my center.

It was a feigned opening. I didn’t take the badly timed thrust. I dodged to my left, entering into Phases of the Moon. I pirouetted around, starting into Full Moon, making a wide circular slash that two-folded onto itself. Giving no respite, I shifted into Waning Crescent. Into First Quarter, Waxing Crescent, and all the way into New Moon.

Faster. The tempo of our blade-spears increased once more. Like a heavy rainstorm in a thunderous night. Flashes of lightning. Advances and retreats, none of us willing to give each other any respite.

Faster. My heart pounded. My breaths came faster. My hands blistered, as if I was holding onto fire itself. I could feel the droplets of sweat forming on my body.

Even faster. We were formless now, each only carrying out cuts, parries, and slashes. Like beasts clawing wildly at each other. For a while this continued. A minute which seemed to extend into an eternity. We fought in this eternal moment, each of us formlessly dancing.

Desperation. A weakness. I stepped right in, taking advantage of the opportunity. Blocked, just barely. I moved on, searching for another weakness, looking for another opportunity. The tempo called to me, and I to it. My blood sang to his own.

Another desperate block, barely in time. I took advantage of it. In the heat of the battle, my original purpose was extinguished. There was only the cries of blade on blade. I existed only in the rhythm. Only in the flow of each movements.

I drew forward, taking more and more advances as my opponent retreated. Desperate blocks one after another. I didn’t relent, pressing on. Every little inch gained was a victory. Every breath that came shorter and shorter for my opponent.

Then a final moment of desperation. He had blocked too late in that swing. I proceeded to whip around, grabbing at the opportunity.

A speck of reasoning returned, reminding me of my original purpose. I slowed the fall of my blade-spear a little, purposely making it fall off the mark. A timely block. The desperation was overturned. I retreated.

It was my opponent’s turn to press onward. Our tempo remained steady, still lingering in that pace, in that eternal thundering rainstorm. More advances. More retreats. I made a slight falter in my retreat. A purposeful disadvantage.

It was taken advantaged of immediately. A slash came curving downward. I blocked. Just barely in time. Another slash, and another parry. Still barely in time. A few more strokes. The last one was late. Another strike. And my return even more late. Then the last strike.

“Enough,” I shouted, my blade-spear flying off from my hands in that last strike. I gave Brother Leaping Fox a slight look, a quick turn of my eyes. He let out a small grin to show that he had noticed it.

Brother Leaping Fox went toward my blade-spear, picking it up in one fell swoop. He handed it to me before putting an arm around my shoulder. “Good spar, Brother Wolf Under Stars,” he said, his voice just loud enough to carry over to the four female Hunters. “That was good Brother,” he whispered under his breath. “I didn’t think you would try that hard. The last end was especially well feigned.”

“You tried too hard,” I returned his words. “Why does it seem to me that you tried harder in this spar than in all the previous spars combined?”

“Have to do your best when girlies are watching,” he whispered amiably.

“What happened to the original plan,” I whispered back.

“Plans change.” He removed the arm around my shoulders. “Anyway, they wouldn’t have believed a feigned spar.” He twirled his blade-spear gaudily around, then slightly toward the four female Hunters.

They didn’t miss that slight provocative movement.

I went back to the sidelines, standing to the right of Hidden Shade. “Well, this will certainly be interesting.” I paused, watching the four Sun Cherishers Hunters narrow their eyes at that showy display from Leaping Fox. “Anyway, what did Leaping Fox bribe you with for this farce?”

“To help me ride on the Vulcan,” Hidden Shade replied.

“I should have known,” I murmured to myself. “You bloody beast fanatic.”

“Compliments now, Brother Wolf?” Hidden Shade asked innocently. “That’s rare as rain in the middle of the year.”

I sighed at that. “At least the spar turned out to be a good farce. Brother Leaping Fox is the weakest with the blade-spear in our group anyway. His forte lies in ranged weapons. They will underestimate me now. That is, if they did not see through that spar.”

“I doubt it,” said Hidden Shade. “Even I could barely tell whether that spar was a sham. I doubt they could tell it.”

I smiled at that. “You seem more…articulate today, dear Brother Hidden Shade.”

He pointed a finger upward. “Vulcans,” he said simply.

The conversation ended on that note and we turned to focus on the middle of the courtyard. The gaudy display from Leaping Fox had worked and one of the female Hunters had stepped forward.

“Ah,” Leaping Fox said, his voice just loud enough for us to hear. “So it is Sister Flara. Will you show me some pointers, though do go easy on me. I am frightened of you.” His voice and face were genuine as he stated that, though that small grin detracted from the honesty.

I shook my head at that. Leaping Fox was full of contradictions. I wouldn’t have grinned were I in his situation. Sister Flara, after all, was the one who had made a comment about ripping his balls off.

“Likewise, Brother Leaping Fox,” Sister Flara said sweetly, her smile like honeyed blood. “Make sure to give me lots of pointers too. And I will return them three-fold.” Her fingers folded into a grip, making a few cracking noises. “I have a particular weakness for blade-spears.” Her hands moved toward her shoulders and she drew out her weapons from the two protruding sheaths. “And a slight dislike. I favor these two little babies of mine instead.”

I could imagine and hear the nervous gulp from Brother Leaping Fox. Those were definitely not babies. The weapons were daggers curved wickedly. And if straightened out, they would each have been about an arm’s length long. Not surprisingly, just like all true weapons, the blades were made of black Xeonite metal, the hardest metal known to the tribes if disregarding the fallen star metal.

“They are called Half-Moon Daggers,” Sister Flara explained, each of her hands easily holding the white hilt of the twin daggers. She entered into a stance, her feet spread apart firmly. Then her hands, side-by-side, moved below her waist. The two curved daggers made a half-circle, their ends almost reaching toward her shoulders. The image formed gave credence to the name of the wickedly curved daggers—Half-Moon.

I saw a small bead of sweat hover precariously on top of his forehead. It was sweat from our sparring. But at that moment, I imagine it to be sweat from being horrified at Sister Flara’s red honeyed smile.

Indubitably, I would not have liked to be in Leaping Fox’s boots. It was a good thing that I had switched roles with Brother Leaping Fox in that farce of a spar—I had avoided in being the sacrificial Ronat.

Brother Leaping Fox turned back to look at me, his eyes pleading. He mouthed out a statement. The easiest statement to recognize—“Help me.”

I responded by twirling my blade-spear gaudily. “Good luck,” I mouthed back.

Finding no help with me, Brother Leaping Fox looked toward Hidden Shade and Brother Ronat. They only remained silent. It was an expected reaction. What would he have expected anyway?

I smiled as I watched Brother Leaping Fox and Hunter Flara start the dance before the battle. They circled around each other at a set distance, their eyes warily looking over each other, measuring, judging, calculating.

My smile grew even wider as Hunter Flara made a show of licking the blade of one of her Half-Moon Daggers.

Yes, this would certainly be fun. Luckily for me, I was no longer in on the fun.

<><><><><><>

Next Chapter title:-- An Even Friendlier Spar