🚀 go-pugleaf

  A sunny and warm weather greeted two riders as they slowly made their way
out of the village of Trelham. One a tall, blackhaired man on a brute of a 
horse, the other a woman with hair of white-gold riding a sleek mare. As the 
last houses of the village were a good way behind and the sounds of nature 
gradually covered the noise of everyday bustle in the village, it seemed
like a heavy weight was lifted from the shoulders of the man.
  "You don't like habited places, do you?" asked Arliana, turning in her
saddle to face Armas.
  Armas grunted. "After being pursued for over a year, you expect a bolt
between your shoulderblades all the time. More so when passing alleys and
doorways..."
  Arliana was about to ask why had he been pursued, and indeed, if he still
was being pursued, but came to second thoughts as she saw how relaxed
Armas seemed right now. Why bother him with unpleasant memories? There was
plenty of time to ask him later. Instead, she started testing if Armas was
more talkative now when he was relaxed. He was.
  After a few more bends of the road they came to small bridge.  Here they
abandoned the road and rode along the river for some time. Then they entered
the glade in a bend of the river they both had seen from a faraway hill.
  They tethered their horses and walked leisurely to the center of the 
opening. It was pleasantly warm here. The area was sheltered from wind by
thick growth of willows and birch trees.
  Armas walked around a bit, flexing and stretching his muscles, while Arlian
sat down crosslegged in the middle of the opening, placing her sword across
her thighs, meditating. After a minute, she fluidly rose up without using her
hands. "Ready when you are", she said, assuming en garde position.
  Armas placed himself in front of her, five steps away, and nodded.
  "Let us start then", he said quietly.
  Arliana lowered her sword. 
  "Are you not going to draw your sword? Do you think I am not a match for
you?"
  "This is my custom. I do not yet know your ability, but do not think that
I underestimate you."
  Arliana shrugged.
  "Suit yourself." Having said that, she attacked.
  Armas blocked the first barrage of strikes easily, holding his ground.
The steel-enforced bracers he wore protected his forearms as he deflected
every strike Arliana made. After what seemed to be a standard series of
attack moves, she leaped back, weaving an eloquent pattern in the air with
her sword. Armas took a step backwards, preparing for the next attack. Still,
when it came, it was so swift and brutal that he was driven backwards wanted
he that or not. Armas had to use almost every trick he had in order to keep
contact and not just roll backwards and unengage. Again, after a moment, she
stopped her attack and leaped backwards, again her sword drawing a pattern in
the air, this time glowing violet light.
  As Arliana assumed an offensive posture again, Armas bowed to her and drew
his sword.
  "I see that we are evenly matched, Arliana", he said, smiling ferociously.
  Arliana smiled back, her blood coursing with the thrill of battle, and 
attacked again. This time Armas stood his ground, even though her attack was
even more aggressive than the previous one. 
  As he parried and countered Armas could nothing but wonder the blows she
delivered. Her sword was not so heavy, and her arms were not that strong, yet
every blow he parried he could feel all the way to his shoulder. And when he
delivered an overhead blow and Arliana parried it, her sword did not give way
as much as it should have. Instead, it seemed to deflect his blows to the
side. All this was enough to make Armas fight more carefully than he normally
did, but included to the strangeness he felt when fighting her was the fact
that she was a left-hander, and of course that she was a woman. All this 
inevitably led to Armas using most of his time in parrying and studying the
limitations of her and her sword.
  As it was, she had very few of those, and her sword even less. What she
lost in strength, she regained with speed. What she lost in reach, she 
regained with agility and dazzling technique. And her sword. Armas still
didn't quite understand it. Arliana had told him the blade was magicked, but
still the shock of every one of her blows always took Armas by surprise.
  However, as time went by, Armas could see certain limitations in her style.
Maybe she relied too much on the power of her sword, or was used to the edge
her lefthandedness gave her. Whatever the reason, she seemed to be using
only a few different forms and a limited number of variations. These she
mastered well, but in a prolonged exchange like this, she became predictable.
  Armas grinned as he studied her style. Like that predictability did him any
good... She was simply too fast with her sword. He knew that he could parry
her for an eternity but was not too sure if he could beat her were this a 
real fight. Armas had already noticed that disarming her was probably 
impossible. Her sword just didn't drop from her hand. 
  When it came to Armas's own style, he depended on orthodox sword style. He
could have used his other hand too, using his sword one-handedly, but did not
want to risk injury by blocking with one hand only against that sword. Armas
figured that in to-the-death fight he probably could have beaten her, by 
tiring her with heavy blows. After all, her sword did not deflect all the 
power of his blows. To test this, he assumed a more aggressive form, one 
called 'the avalanche'. Using his much greater reach he forced Arliana on
the defense for the first time in their match, and started dealing heavy
blows at her. It took her some time to figure out the new style he had moved
into, so she couldn't counterattack yet, but also she could study her 
opponent's style, it seemed. 
  Suddenly, they both heard a scream from farther up the river. This had a 
different effect on both of them. Arliana faltered as she recognized the
scream as a plead for help from a girl, but Armas didn't let it disturb him.
Instead, he struck another heavy blow -but this time, Arliana was already
thinking about what was wrong with the girl and didn't quite get her sword in
the proper position for parrying. As a result, Armas's blade continued its
arc downwards missing her head with a few inches and smashing her own blade
on her shoulder. Luckily only the flat of her sword hit her, and she was not
injured.
  "Gods below, woman! Pay attention! You could have been killed!" 
  "Shut up, Armas. Somebody's in trouble!" Arliana ignored her burning
shoulder and was already running for her horse.
  "So?" shouted Armas to her.
  She stopped, amazed. "So we have to help her! On your horse, you idiot!!"
  Armas blinked for a couple of times, then realized that in this part of
the world one seemingly had to take care of everyone, not just one's clan
members. After this realization he acted quickly and reached his horse by
the time she had untethered and mounted hers.
  "Follow me, Armas! I heard some men shouting too!"
  As he goaded his horse to reach her, he could nothing but wonder how
good a hearing she had.
  After a moment they came atop a small hill from behind which the
screams had come. They saw five armed men on horseback, two of which were
holding a struggling girl in their grasp. The moment Armas and Arliana saw
the men, they also were seen. With great whoops the men turned their horses
and fled.
  "After them! We have to save that girl, Armas!", shouted Arliana, but
Armas had already kicked his horse and was speeding down the slope.





Author:

'Listen! I have something to say! |   JJ Karhu     k113651@cc.tut.fi
 It's better to burn out,         |       'The Immoral Immortal' \o
               than to fade away! |     -=========================|xxxxxxo
                                                                 /o
*with a few tiny details supplied by Donna Koczaja  (: