midnightread
Chapter 4
“My name is Mahir. I help the Witch train the Spirit Warrior. I have done so since the first Warrior came of age.”
I just stared. All I could see was a small wolf that was glowing blue. “Earth to Aspen,” Mahir said.
“How do you know my name? Who are you?” I asked, squatting down in front of it.
“Like I said before, I am Mahir, the Spirit Wolf. I know your name because I know the name of every Spirit Warrior that has been and all the Spirit Warriors that are to come,” Mahir smiled, “Aren’t you going to learn Quarte then?”
I blinked, “Yes. I suppose I should.” As I bent to pick up my sword I heard Mahir say, “I’ve been watching you for a while now. You are a good fighter. You have the right balance to do all the tricky moves. From what I have seen, I think you could match if not beat, the past Spirit Warriors.”
“Thank you, Mahir.”
I read through the parchment again, “Right then. I’ve got to parry four and it covers my upper left torso.”
“Well then,” Mahir said, “Try it out.”
I tried it but failed, “I can’t do this. I need someone to be attacking me so I can block.”
Mahir laughed, “I’ll see what I can do.”
“What do you mean,” I asked looking down at him. There was a sudden flash of blue light and a sword materialised out of thin air. “What was that? Were did that come from?”
“Like I said before, I am here to help train the Spirit Warrior, to train you, and I can do whatever is needed to do that,” Mahir said, making the floating sword twirl around. “So then, let’s get started.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, the sword began to spin towards me. I dodged and began to practice the Quarte.
“Well, you’re very good,” Mahir said after a while, “But can you block this?” the glowing sword began faster than ever.
I stepped back and the sword span towards me. I blocked the sword three times then it hit me in the forearm. I dropped my sword and the blue one stopped spinning. “Good, Aspen. But you need to see the sword.”
“What do you mean? I can see the sword, how can I not,” I said, bending to pick up the sword again.
“I know, but that is not what I mean. When I say you need to see the sword, I mean that you have to watch and wait, study the pattern, find the weak point. Now, try again,” Mahir said, as the sword began spinning again.
This time, instead of blocking straight away I did a Mahir said, and watched the sword, looking for the weak spot.
“Mahir. Can you add a person in behind the sword so I have something to aim for?” I asked.
“Sure,” Mahir said. There was another flash of blue light and a glowing figure appeared and grabbed the hilt of the sword. “There you go, Aspen. Now fight!”
I began to watch the movement of the sword again, watching for the weak point. Then I saw it. When the sword was spinning towards the left it left the right of the blue beings body unprotected for a split second. I stood and practiced the Quarte while waiting for the right moment to strike. When I saw it I lunged forward and hit the blue being, which burst into bright blue sparks.
“Very impressive,” a voice said from behind me. I spun around and saw Willow in the door way, “I’ve brought food. You must be hungry,” she said, passing me a bowl of stew, “I see you’ve meet Mahir,” she said, as she sat down, nodding towards the glowing blue wolf.
“Yeah. He’s been helping me train,” I said, flashing a smile in his direction, “How do you know him?”
“Whenever a new Witch is chosen and trained, the Witch before them brings them here and explains about the Spirit Warrior and they meet Mahir,” she smiled as she remembered, “When I first saw him, I tried to kill him.”
Mahir then spoke, “I hurt for weeks after that.”
They both laughed, “I did apologise, after Ebony had stopped me chasing you.” They laughed again.
“Who’s Ebony?” I asked, smiling at the both of them.
“Ebony was the Witch before me, the person who trained me,” Willow said, “Now, down to business. How many moves have you learnt?”
“Four,” I said, sitting down on the floor beside the bowl of stew.
“Good. Learn one more and you can use the Spirit Sword,” Willow said.
“Why do you make her learn these things? She doesn’t need to,” Mahir put in.
I started. “I didn’t need to learn these things,” I said, staring at Willow.
She looked at me guiltily, “No, not really. But I thought it would be good for you to learn more moves.”
I just stared at her and thought about what she had said, “Okay, I really don’t care. I learnt some cool moves.”
Willow smiled, “Good. now I don’t think you need to learn the fifth move. I’d say you’ve done enough for today so eat you’re stew ad then you can sleep.”
“What about the sword. I thought you said I could use that,” I said, picking up the stew and beginning to eat.
“Tomorrow. Now you need to rest,” Willow said.
“Do I have to go back to the village?” I asked, after I had emptied the bowl of stew in front of me.
“You can if you want, or you can stay here,” Willow replied.
“I can stay here?” I said, “I like the sound of that.” At least this way I won’t have to go back through the village, I thought.
“Good. Mahir will look after you and show you were you’re sleeping. I have to go back to the village. I’ll be back in the morning with your breakfast. Night.”
When she finished talking, she turned and left.
“Well then,” Mahir said, “Let’s show you where you’re sleeping.”
He turned and left the room that I had been in since this morning. I followed and after walking through the warn of passages Mahir stopped.
“This is where you will be sleeping,” he said as he pushed the door open with his paw.
“Thank you, Mahir,” I said walking in and having a look around. I could see that this room hadn’t been used in years.
“I hope you like it. This has been the Spirit Warriors sleeping quarters since this den was made. I’ll go now, if you need anything in the night just shout.” When Mahir had finished speaking he left and I went to sit on the bed that was in the corner.
As I looked around again I saw a small book. I wonder what that is, I thought going over and picking it up. I turned the front page and read the words, Gia’s Story. I went to sit on the bed again and began to read.
Re-read your story, that way there's ntohing to nit-pick
