Disclaimer: Don't own anything. …Or do I…? Nope, I don't. Not Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, and not the lyrics to the song "Stand Beside Me" by Brother that I have at the beginning of this chapter.

NybCR: Oooh, lookie! A third chapter! And here you get more background on Pratty and Kenon's friendship. Also, some random dude called Sigurd. Slightly shorter than the other two chapters, but they were pretty long anyhow.

Oh! One more thing. I have a picture of the flier spoken of in this chapter. You can view it on the webpage I have a link to in my biography.

And, just in case anyone's confused... the title of this story has changed! It used to be called "Trip", but I changed it on the grounds that that title didn't have anything to do with the story. At all. Seriously. But enough of that; on with the story!

Chapter Three
Stand

"Stand still while you can."

-

"Hey, Kenon!"

Pratty and the head-banded wonder turned around to find a boy about their age running up to them. His hair was dark brown and curly, his eyes bright with excitement.

"Oh, Sigurd," Headband Boy said. "What's up?"

Sigurd stopped in front of them. "They just posted the line-up for the first round of tournament matches tomorrow. Come on!"

Zantek beeped excitedly. All right! Now we can get a head-start on our training!

Rasho rolled his eyes. "Could you be a little less lame, for a change?"

"Already?" Pratty said, surprised. They had just finished dinner (some rice and fish at this place called Bienvenue near the Northern Harbor) and were about to head to their respective guilds when Sigurd had run up to them. "I thought for sure they wouldn't have those up until tomorrow."

"Well, apparently, some of the matches are starting pretty early," Sigurd said, "so the Craftlords figured we oughta be given a fair amount of notice. Anyway, come on! Let's go already!"

After a little more insisting, the four of them followed Sigurd to the Central Tower, where there was a dispersing crowd of Craftknight apprentices looking at a scroll pinned to the wall in the front room. Pratty and Headband Boy hurried to look at it. Rasho and Zantek followed at a slower pace. As far as Rasho was concerned, it didn't really matter who Pratty was matched up against: in any case, it would be some little Craftknight apprentice twerp, and she should have no problem with him as her partner.

"Looks like I'm matched against an out-of-towner," Headband Boy commented as he examined the scroll. "Doesn't say where he's from, though. Just that he's not in either of the guilds."

"Hey, Kenon, check out who I'm matched against," Pratty said, nudging her friend with an elbow.

He scanned the paper until he found her name. Then he smirked. "Oh, man, that is too perfect."

Interest piqued, Rasho leaned over Pratty's shoulder to get a better look at the scroll. After a bit of searching, he found Pratty's name under the four o'clock time mark and the name Chaves—the one she was to compete against.

"Chaves... that's the guy who bullied you, right?" Rasho said.

Pratty turned to him and grinned. "That's right. So, we've got no choice but to beat him tomorrow."

Rasho poked her forehead. "We'd do that no matter who your next opponent was, kid."

Pratty waved his hand away. "You know what I mean, Rasho."

"Don't worry," Rasho said. "Of course, you're going to need some training if you want to win, but you should do fine since I'm your partner for the time being."

"Hm, 'the time being'…."

Headband Boy chuckled. "Sounds like your Guardian Beast doesn't like you, Pratty."

"Gee, Kenon, your confidence overwhelms me…."

"Oh, don't feel bad, Pratty," he went on, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, a half-smirk on his face. "I'm still your friend."

Pratty rolled her eyes. "Why are you so insufferable?"

"Heh, I dunno. But it sure is fun."

"You know, you're supposed to be this big, scary guy who could make someone burst into flames with a single glance. Now, do you really want to lose your scary-guy reputation and suddenly be known as Mr. Goofypants?"

"Well…" Kenon paused, as though seriously considering Pratty's comment. Then he gave her a mysterious half-smile. "It is true that if I didn't have that 'scary-guy' reputation, I never would've become friends with you."

Pratty smiled, and then looked at Kenon side-long from beneath her eyelashes. "That's true enough."

- - -

Soon afterwards, the four of them went separate ways. Glancing at the horizon, Rasho saw that the sun had almost set, but he was still wide awake. He looked at Pratty—she seemed to still have some energy, too.

"You wanna go for a walk before heading back to the workshop?" Rasho asked.

"Sure," Pratty said. "Where to?"

"You tell me. I just got here, remember?"

"All right." She thought for a moment. "How about the harbor?"

Rasho grinned. "That sounds like a fine idea. Lead the way!"

"Great!"

Before long, the two had arrived at a port that stretched a fair ways into the ocean. There were many boats docked there—some small, some big. Pratty led Rasho to the end of a walkway running the length of one of the larger ships. Rasho breathed in the night air and eyed the ship closest to them. A glance out of the corner of his eye at his companion's wide-eyed stare told him that Pratty was thinking the same thing that he was.

"That's a beautiful ship there," Rasho said. "Come on! Let's check it out."

"No, Rasho!" Pratty protested. "That'd be rude! You don't just board somebody else's ship without asking."

"Perhaps we can ask after we get off the ship," Rasho replied, grinning.

"Rasho—"

"Oh, don't be meek. You want to board that ship as much as I do. Why fight the urge? Come with me!"

"Ah—"

Before she could say another word, he took her hand and pulled her with him towards the ship.

The ship was even finer on board than it had looked on the harbor. The polished wooden floorboards gleamed softly in the moonlight, and the smooth handrails rimming the ship gripped comfortably beneath his hands. A cool breeze blew over them, carrying the invigorating smell of the ocean to them. Despite her initial protests, Pratty hurried to the rail to look at the ocean beneath the clear night sky, eyes bright.

"Ah… it's a fine night tonight," Rasho said as he looked over the bow of the ship. "I'd almost forgotten what the ocean smells like at night." There was a pause. Rasho looked at Pratty side-long. "Hey, kid."

"Hmm?"

"What's up with you and Headband Boy?"

"Call him by his name, Rasho."

Rasho frowned at that. "I'm not going to be lectured to by a child."

Pratty didn't respond; she simply continued gazing at the gently lapping waves. Rasho rolled his eyes. Dammit, she was as stubborn as Shintetsu. "Fine," he said at last. "What's up with you and Kenon?"

She tried to hide her smile, but was betrayed by her raised cheeks, illuminated by moonlight. "He's my friend," she said simply.

"Obviously," he said, his voice almost a growl. "I meant besides that."

"Well, what do you want to know?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Pfeh, I don't know," he said, setting his hands on the back of his head. "When did you meet?"

"Hmm… well, we met when I was eight years old… so, about six years ago. It was before either of us started as Craftknight apprentices, and we were still little kids running around without anything to do."

"You mean you aren't now?"

Pratty smiled sheepishly. "Well… I suppose we still are, but back then, the only other thing we had to do was our schoolwork."

"Of course."

"Anyway, me and Dad were on a trip to Vance, and he'd left me by the beach while he was in the weapons shop. I was bored, so I started throwing rocks in the ocean. That's when Kenon came over. He was visiting Vance, too."

"What a coincidence."

"Not really." She looked down at her clasped hands on the handrail of the ship. "There were a lot of weapon merchants in Vance at that time, so a lot of Craftknights in Wystern were going over there to sell their weapons. My Dad and Kenon's dad were just two of them."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, it was the first time I'd seen Kenon up close, but I'd heard about him from the other kids—that he was scary, he beat people up all the time, he could make you explode just by looking at you funny… that kind of thing."

Rasho snorted. "And you believed this?"

"I was a kid. Of course I believed it. Anyway, when he came over to where I was on the beach, I asked him if he could really make people explode just by looking at them."

"Are you serious?"

"I was eight! Anyway, he said no, and called me dumb 'cause nobody can do that sort of thing."

"Sounds like he had more sense than you did."

Pratty ignored him. "So then I asked him if he was scary. He called me dumb again, 'cause I should be able to tell just by looking at him. Then I asked him if he beat people up a lot, and he said, 'What if I do?' "

"Why do I get the feeling you said something dumb in return?"

Pratty chuckled. "I said that if he did, then did he do it because they asked him a lot of dumb questions about being scary?"

Rasho laughed aloud. "Then what did he say?"

"He laughed, and then he picked up a round, flat rock and skipped it across the ocean. I asked him to teach me how to do that, too, and he did. We've been friends ever since."

There was another pause.

"Rasho?"

The demon looked down at his young companion. "Yeah?"

"You were my father's Guardian Beast before, right?" Pratty said.

Rasho didn't answer for a moment. "Yeah, that's right," Rasho answered. "What of it?"

"What was he like?"

"Heh." Rasho looked back over the ocean. "Shouldn't you know? It wasn't that long ago that he died. Just three years. You were—what—eleven?"

Pratty frowned. "Well, of course I knew him as a father. But… everyone always talks about my dad and what a great Craftlord he was and how he was a hero… and it makes me think that I didn't really know him at all."

Rasho watched her out of the corner of his eye. "Do you mean what was he like as a person, or as a Craftknight?"

Pratty looked up, surprised, but slowly let a smile tease her lips. "Both, I guess."

Rasho smiled gently, turning back towards the ocean. "Don't you worry. When the time's right, I'll tell you all about what Shintetsu and I did, and how good we were at it."

"Are you really going to tell me the whole story?"

"I won't tell you everything until you've become a woman," he replied, looking at her from the corner of his eye, "but I'll tell you bits and pieces of the story as your skills improve."

She gazed at him silently for a moment, and then smiled. "Thank you, Rasho."

That threw him. "Huh? What for?"

"If you're going to tell me the story, then that means you're going to be my partner," she explained. "So, I thank you!"

Rasho shook his head in amazement. "Our conversations leave me both confused and intrigued." He chuckled under his breath. "Both you and your father are rather… easygoing people."

She looked a little confused at his comment, but she shrugged it off, as though deciding it wasn't anything worth worrying over. She was very different from Shintetsu, in her sharp mind and her determined protectiveness (as demonstrated to Rasho when he had insulted Headband Boy earlier that day), but at the same time… she was so clearly his daughter.

Rasho returned his gaze to the ocean, a grin spreading across his face. Yeah… being Pratty's partner was definitely going to be interesting.

NybCR: As always, thanks for reading. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of this story so far!