*** Chapter Twelve Day 6 Solfrid - Santos ***

“Now we will see what you are made of,” she grinned, handing the young man infront of her a wooden practice sword. He took it and by the way he held it, it was clear that he was no swordsman. The practice swords were bastard swords in size.

“Now come,” she motioned.

He took the sword and swung it around before taking a low guard.

Solfrid smiled wider. She stepped forward confidently then charged with a powerful downward angled slash. Instead of fumbling as she expected, he strode backwards without losing his balance or breaking his guard. He initiated a charge in return, but she had her sword coming around quickly for a counter.

He pulled back before the swords could clash. Her counter swing met with nothing.

“Stand and fight,” she growled. “Stop retreating like a scared child.”

The influence of Freet covered most of the encampment which currently included their sparring circle, but the young warrior rarely spoke. Instead he taunted her by motioning for her to come to him.

“As you wish,” her eyes darkened. She would not allow him to humiliate her a second time. With a little more force and vigor than was necessary she began launching a flurry of swings and thrusts at him.

He continued to retreat.

He would parry some blows, but otherwise his overall tactic continued as retreating.

“Take this seriously!” She growled as yet another slash was completely avoided. She was growing reckless as her desire to simply hurt him instead of landing points against him was starting to grow overwhelming.

Santos, on the other hand, was being completely dominated. His heart was racing as he dodged, weaved, and jumped away from the wooden sword that constantly flashed at him. An engagement would mean his total loss, he could feel it. His only chance was to put all his chips into a single blow.

Right now though he could only focus on avoiding the blows, she moved with far too much experience for him to block and parry effectively. However, she was growing careless.

There were small windows, far too small for him to take advantage of, but they were growing, as she swung her sword wildly trying to get Santos off balance so that she could land a blow her guard was becoming poorer.

His first real opportunity came when she was baited into a rhythm of dodge, dodge, feint. It was the moment that she charged when he would have done a feint that she left herself open. With almost dance like footwork she came around ready to deliver a broadside strike to his shoulder. The thing is, Santos did not put any power into the feint, because that is what it was, she had grown too focused on his sword that she left herself open to another kind of attack.

Santos had no knowledge of sword fighting, but he did have some skill in martial arts, he attended some classes of Tae Kwon Do for a few years when he was much younger. He’d acquired a interest in martial arts and studied several forms of it as a hobby and the thing about learning a skill is that it isn’t easily forgotten, it just gets rusty.

With her side fully though temporarily open to him, he took his shot. He turned his body bringing forth his back leg, he had kept his center of gravity intact for this very moment. She had not time to react as the heel of my foot dug into her side under her ribcage.

“Gyah!” she was thrown back, her balance lost as she fell to the ground clutching her side.

Santos turned to look at the grizzled warrior that supervised the both of them and received a nod of approval from him.

“Excellent young warrior,” he approached Santos, clasping his shoulder as Solfrid struggled to recover, still clutching her side in pain. “You did well, you knew your opponent was far more skilled and you kept your patience. Solfrid, you would do well to learn this virtue for today without it you have lost to someone who is not your equal, yet.”

“All...all he did was run!” she huffed, her eyes burning holes into the young man who defeated her.

“And yet it is you who was on the ground,” her master pointed out. “Go about your duties, I will continue to train the boy, maybe in time you two will properly clash swords.”

*** Day 13 Santos ***

“Stoke the fire boy,” Gerard grunted, as he brought down the hammer in his hand against the hot iron he was working on.

“On it,” Santos said, as he worked the leather bound pump that breathed oxygen into the furnace that heated several pieces the blacksmith was working on.

Santos did not take much of an interest in sword fighting, but to stay on the old warrior’s good side he gave some effort to master the skill, but once he discovered that the encampment had a blacksmith he had begged the old smith to teach him the art. At first both the smith and the old warrior were flabbergasted, they could not understand his interest in metal working. While it was a very important craft, it was considered a very lowly position for those who apprenticed in it.

It was a lot of hard work gathering fuel for the forge, the smith had no smelter as they had no raw ore, but that didn’t matter, he was learning the basics. Every so often the old smith would allow Santos to help with crafting and even gave him some metal to play with, it wasn’t much, but it was enough to learn to smith.

Day after day, this is how he spent his time, he wanted to return to his family, but he did not know in what direction to go. He had asked them if they knew where there was a lake in the mountains or a bamboo forest, they knew neither the location of the lake nor what bamboo was.

With the creatures still roaming out there, it would be a death sentence to go out and explore without knowing where he was going. He did not even have rations or proper supplies, who knew how far away he even was.

Santos had even asked Freet, the big multilingual bird, if he could fly around and locate the lake, but was immediately turned down. Apparently he was not the master of this territory and if another of his kind saw him flying around he could be attacked. He had left his territory in the north with these warriors as there was too little territory to nest in, he had come here in the hopes of finding new territory to himself much like the warriors. Unfortunately, they had not yet come across another of his kind, etiquette dictated that a visiting bird must fly up to meet the territory’s owner; anything else could be considered an invasion.

Having no other option, but to remain where he was, he made the best of it.

*** Day 21 The tribes to the South ***

“What do you mean you have discovered people from the north?” Elder Waguan asked.

“After my daughter discovered a cloth in the trees near our camp I started exploring around the area,” Quetzchitl replied. He presented a red cloth from the satchel at his waist, the make of it was clearly foreign to them. “There was nothing close by, but a few days ago I discovered a lake to the north. There I discovered other cloths of different colors at different and very separate points. I do not understand their purpose, but whoever placed them there removed them a day later.”

“Then you did not find them?” the elder asked.

“I did,” Quetzchitl replied. He is the great warrior of their tribe and an excellent hunter. “A stream that feeds into the lake from the north had signs of people passing so I followed it north and discovered a settlement. There are a number of people there, strange people who have harvested many trees and built with them strange huts, but one place in particular stands further out than anything else they have built. It is a great hall made of stone and built higher than any great hall I have ever seen.

“What do you suggest Quetzchitl?” elder Gitau asked.

“We must speak with them,” he replied. There was a lot of murmuring from those present in the meeting, though only the elders and warriors were allowed to speak. “The istlakah push us further and further north, it would destroy us if we make enemies of these people of the north as well. Already they build walls, if anything we could make them allies.”

“Who should we send?” Waguan asked.

“Allow me and my daughter to go,” Quetzchitl volunteered. “If talks do not go well we can escape better than anyone else.”

There was more murmuring as the two elders talked among themselves.

“So be it,” Waguan said, after a moment. “We will prepare gifts.”