A/N: I, being the "smart" person I am, have started yet another writing project (that would total up to four, not including random one-shots I get). Don't expect to see it any time soon (So far it's just one extremely long one-shot titled "I am HOPE"), but this means that I won't be writing a chapter a week any more. It's impossible at this point, so expect one every two weeks or so. (Hopefully it won't be that long between).
Wir für unsere Überzeugungen zu kämpfen, e onorare la pace
We fight for our beliefs, and honour the peace
Chapter 6: A Contest of Blades and Skill
"My name is Arthur you bloody git!" The wild-haired mage quickly blocked the knight's straight forward attack with the flat of his blade.
Alfred moved back and swung low at Arthur's legs. In return the mage raised a booted leg to kick at Alfred's stomach in a quick attack and defence, causing Alfred to stumble back and miss the aimed target. His weak legs were starting to fail him already.
"Better be careful, or my sword might miss and cut that silly price of hair of yours that refuses to stay down!" Arthur ran the short distance toward Alfred and swung, but the longer sword knocked away the blade from its intended target; Alfred's sword arm.
"Oh yeah, Caterpillar? How 'bout I give those massive eyebrows of yours a shave?" At this, the crowd cheered once again. There was neighing, and an owl's call, and even the howl of a wolf among the spectators' yelling.
Without even taking a breath's break in stride, Arthur suddenly launched in a fluid motion. He darted in and aimed at his opponent's chest. Alfred ducked, but the previously mentioned piece of hair was not spared. With a practiced flick of the wrist, the tuft flew up into the air where Arthur caught it with his free hand and smirked.
"What did I say? Oh, and its Arthur. You best not forget the name of the man who beat your sorry arse." The forest crowd yelled once again, cheering on their Dragon's Boy and the cocky knight.
Lukas leaned over to Mathias and placed a bet to add to the one that Emil had already made. "Cooking duty for the next two weeks says that the Dragon's Boy will be the victor, not to mention that string of various gems you keep in your shoe for good luck." Mathias hesitated, but nodded in agreement, "Then I get the silver wire wrist band with the vine design that you're so attached to."
The knight made an attack at Arthur's side—which was hastily blocked—and then he made a quick swing towards the other's shoulder directly after. He used the long blade of his broadsword to his advantage; reaching in, but staying out of the short sword's range. Arthur dropped and did a leaping-like somersaulted around behind Alfred to hit the back of his knees with the flat of the short sword's double-edged blade, driving him to the ground.
Alfred didn't fall entirely however, he used the momentum to roll forward and gain some distance from Arthur.
"What?" Did a new fleck of hair grow in place of the old one already? The knight didn't even seem to be breathing hard yet at all, though his legs were obviously feeling abused from the sudden rush of action.
"No way, I bet an entire keg of the finest ale we got that the knight will knock the Dragon's Boy on his back!" Spoke the tallest elf from the side-lines.
"I wouldn't be too sure." retorted Lukas. "He's more than a bit weak at this point."
Emil sighed. "The bets just keep piling up, don't they?"
Now it was Alfred's turn to smirk as he charged at the mage, who was caught off guard. He stumbled, and the overconfident knight wasted no time in knocking the blade out of his hand.
It twisted mid-air, the metal gleaming in a ray of sun that peeked through the canopy, and stuck in the ground barely out of reach. Arthur dashed backwards, keeping an eye on Alfred, and retrieved his sword, just in time to block an attack at his hip. It was a sloppy par though, and to counter it the mage dropped down in a crouch once more, and kicked out a leg to trip up his opponent. The knight fumbled backwards to avoid being knocked down. Arthur delivered a blow to his opponent's shoulder—making sure that the sword connected with the flat of the blade instead of the edge. Both swords were dulled, but their wielders weren't aiming to kill.
Alfred was only able to avoid the hit to his shoulder, but the sword slammed into the side of his arm, causing him to lose his grasp on the broadsword. It dropped and before the knight could pick it up again, Arthur turned and gave a roundhouse kick to his opponent's chest. Alfred fell on his back with a loud thump and stayed down.
Mathias handed Lukas a long string of glinting bright gems without even looking his direction; his eyes were trained on the fighters ahead of them.
The clang of metal resounded in the air as Alfred had seized his weapon and crossed swords with the mage standing over him. The crowd went crazy, calling out things like " Come on, you got him!" or even "Finish it!"
Alfred popped up and the two faced off with a series of attacks no one quite saw completely, save the blur of metal and the clashing sounds of two swords meeting each other in a par. They swung and blocked and ducked so quickly one might think the two were really after each other's blood.
All of a sudden, Alfred and Arthur were both up and each had swords at the other's neck. The greenest, most radiant emerald eyes gazed—or more as glared daggers—into deep cerulean orbs. They stared each other down for a silent moment before a drop of blood ran down the knight's cheek, revealing a barely noticeable thin scratch of blood on his cheek. Soon a small tear-like red trail ran down the side of the knight's face. Arthur's sword must have sliced it during their exchange of viper fast assaults.
The pair soon started to slowly circle clockwise, neither willing to make the first move, or lower his guard. For now the match was at a stalemate.
Arthur knew it was only a matter of time before his opponent would get reckless and attack him. He could be patient and wait until then. True to the mage's prediction, it was not two minutes later when Alfred raised his sword and swung it around in a fast sweep to clash with Arthur's own weapon in a block.
Neither of them were willing to make the next move once again, and the fight turned into a contest of power; blade against blade. The first one to waver or lower would give the other the upper hand. Soon sky-blue meet forest-emerald and eyes were locked in a glaring contest. The crowd quieted and voices hushed.
It was green eyes that lowered first; glancing downward and then up through lashes until his glare might just burn a hole in the other's head. Azure orbs hardened and with a last shove of power, the short sword was brought down by the bigger blade.
Arthur didn't give Alfred a chance to recover after mustering his strength. No sooner had his blade slide down, the mage lashed out with rapid speed that the knight found comparable to one of the southern snakes with wide hooded necks that a traveller had once told him about.
Alfred tried to back up out of range of the quick darting cuts, but Arthur closed the gap with his own strides. Not all of the attacks were blocked in time, and when his challenger finally danced back out of range, Alfred had more than just the one scratch on his cheek. The Caterpillar was starting to breathe just slightly through his mouth, which meant he'd probably not attack again, plus he seemed to fight with a style that preferred to wait for Alfred to make the first move. This gave the knight time to do a wound inventory.
A slice into his upper arm—nothing too concerning, and some minor slices through his shirt and it felt like there was a small scrap on his shoulder from a close blow. Nothing bad, but Arthur was still unharmed.
Well, time for Alfred to change that.
Remembering everything that his knight master had told him, Alfred slowed his breathing and hardened his eyes. He had to make sure not to give himself away. A deep breath, pause, and…
…Alfred moved in, faking to Arthur's right shoulder and making a slash across his waist. Blade met skin and Arthur was backed up almost to the edge of the clearing. The entire forest seemed to be holding its breath and everything methodically slowed but sped up at the same time.
The knight was a blur of movements as he executed first a quick par and then two mirrored swipes to Arthur's knees. His vision seemed to slow and everything was responded to with just the flicker of a thought and imbedded memories of training.
Alfred wasn't the only one who was dealing blows however. Arthur was just as fast, if not the slightest bit quicker. Where his opponent was all strength and wide, powerful blows; the mage was fluid and every par, attack, or block seemed like a type of ballet. The two were ducking and weaving in evasions that made the duel appear more as a well-practiced dance.
One of them was starting to slow though. Alfred couldn't keep up without breaks and using tired, sore muscles that had been relaxed for far too long. Everything was getting heavy; his sword, the worn shoes on his feet, and even his limbs seemed to weigh too much. Constant powerful moves slowly turned to the every now and then gab. Sudden drops and high jumps changed into barely backing up out of range.
Arthur smiled. He had him. It wasn't long now before that broadsword was out of Alfred's hands. The wary blond didn't seem to know when to quit though, and despite the now ragged breaths, he was still fighting hard.
Neither of them had spoken in a long time, but that was hardly any matter as Arthur caught the other blade in a cross. Using the flick of his wrist, the mage quickly twirled his short sword so that it seemed to grab hold of the other and fling it out of Alfred's grip.
Everything paused.
Alfred just stared as the spectators looked on with wide eyes.
The mage sneered and thicken his accent to a Lethion poor man's slur, "I win, poppet."
Arthur lowered his swords as a surprised Alfred came to terms with his loss, and what that would mean for him; stripped of his title as "knight" and gaining the unwanted label of "forest dweller" instead. The gathering of creatures and people exploded into applause. There were happy shouts of "Dragon's Boy! Dragon's Boy! Arthur won! Dragon's Boy!" and shocked stutters of, "What? …What happened?!"
Needless to say, Mathias would be out of valuables and serving the rest of the elves for the next two weeks.
One of the sprites—Alfred thought he'd heard Arthur call the guy Raivis or something—came over and started to help up the stunned knight. Short Eduard soon joined him and asked if Alfred felt ok.
"Yea, they're just some scratches. Nothing too big…" He'd still lost though; lost to some weird guy who lived in a forest, a magical forest. He'd lost a sword fight against some mage dude!
Said "mage dude" was being congratulated, and he simply nodded to the praise, trying to get his friends to stop complimenting him. He glanced over at Alfred and smirked. The knight really did look defeated. The git finally got put in his place. What to do with him now though? It wasn't like Arthur could just let Alfred out of his cave now. A prisoner could hardly be trusted to stay in the prison if the door wasn't locked. In this case, if the exit wasn't criss-crossed with wards that would prevent Alfred from leaving without Arthur's allowance. Speaking of the prisoner's cave, Alfred would probably demand that he was not forced to stay in the dark cell. Where would they put him? It wasn't like there were just rooms open. The only guests that ever came around were the elves.
Arthur was brought out of his thoughts when Alfred walked over to speak with him. The knight was oddly sad looking, but when he started talking he went back to the way-too-happy smile of before, if not a little less enthusiastic. "Dude, that wasn't far! My legs are all weak and stuff! One of these day's we'll fight again, and I'll bet you. Then I can finally leave and go back home."
The mage felt a little bad about keeping Alfred against his will, but he couldn't just let the twat go. He already knew way too much for that. "Yes well, you didn't back down, so you accepted that you were weak and fought anyway. It's not my fault you can't take a hit to your knightly pride."
"Would you have backed out?"
"I never said I wouldn't!"
"Protecting your little…mage…ly pride!"
"Magely isn't a word you git!"
"Caterpillar!"
"Prat!"
A new voice started talking before Alfred could even think of what to say. "Will you both just shut up?" it was almost as loud as the annoying knight, and mad. It sounded pretty mad.
Arthur shut his mouth and Alfred looked around for who had spoken.
"Down here show-off!" Two blue eyes finally found the source of the yelling. A cat. A cat wearing …some weird mask?
"Dude….I think that cat just talked to us."
"Yea, I did! Problem with that?!" The cat had short, shaggy dark brown fur and it was indeed wearing a white mask that covered its eyes. There was another cat next to him, but it was somehow sleeping through the other's loud voice.
Alfred turned to the messy haired mage standing next to him. Stupid "Dragon's Boy" wasn't fazed in the least when he bent down closer to the cat's level and sighed.
"Sadiq," Arthur addressed the animal, "I thank you for stopping us from fighting, but try to be a tad kinder to him."
Wait…was Arthur sticking up for Alfred?
"His small brain takes a while to process things."
Nope.
Alfred, of course, spoke up to his defence. He wasn't about to just be insulted by this stupid Caterpillar! "Hey! Dude, how would you be if you grew up in a city of people who all hate anything remotely 'witch' or 'magical' and then dumped into a forest crack full of them?!"
Arthur wanted to yell back, but he barely restrained himself and kept a level head. "I have a bloody name, and it isn't 'Dude' or 'Caterpillar', its Arthur."
"But Arthur is such a boring name." Alfred was already moving on to a new topic of conversation before the other could prolong the argument, "So do all of the animals here talk? How does that work?"
Sadiq answered first, "How dumb can you be! Everything can talk you idiot, you just don't understand them! That includes cats!"
The other, much shaggier and laid back cat, had finally woken. It yawned and looked up at the knight with tired eyes, "Hello…."
Alfred was too busy defending himself to notice, and it wasn't long before the sleepy cat got bored and closed its eyes again for another long nap.
Meanwhile, a mage, a knight, and a very angry cat were having what appeared to be a shouting war. No one was really winning, but all three wanted to get their point across to the other two who were refusing to listen. This created quite the cycle of yelling and arguing that probably wouldn't end soon unless if a fourth party stepped in.
After some time, a fourth person did, in fact, step in and break them up. Well, a fourth creature. And they didn't "step in" so much as "swoop in". A great horned owl flew down between Alfred and Arthur's heads and landed in front of Sadiq.
"I am tired of hearing you three barking. I'm trying to rehearse with robins, and I don't need the background chatter!" The voice was a superior aristocratic one. Alfred then presumed that the larger portion of these stupid forest dwellers needed to learn how to relax and have fun every once and a while. They were all so high strung, no wonder Arthur was snooty.
The mage sighed and held up a hand in apology, rubbing his temple with the other, "So sorry Roderich. We'll try to keep it down for you." The owl that Alfred now knew to be called Roderich—even his name made him sound like some noble guy from the capital—glared at the two cats before taking off again.
Sadiq must have decided he'd had enough, because he boxed his friend's ears and yelled at him to 'get up now or be left behind'. The two felines left and it was just Arthur and Alfred. The latter waited for his green-eyed companion to collect his belongings before asking, "So, now that I'm one of your strange 'forest buddies', do I get my own room…cave…place?"
Arthur rolled his eyes before sighing yet again, "Yes, you do. I can't be bothered to set up the wards for the prisoner's cave after I spent the time of breaking them down."
Alfred decided that the somewhat nice answer gave him leeway to keep asking questions. The annoyed mage tried his best not to get to angry, and replied to all of them with few insults or eye rolls.
"So do I get my stuff back?"
"No."
"What about Tony? Where is he?"
"I'm sure he's a fast horse, but probably in Kat and Nat's stomachs at this point."
"Not cool! Why do you have to be so mean all the time!?"
"Because, if I wasn't where would I be? I'm hardly being mean to you in the first place; you're just being incredibly stupid and rude."
"What do you guys do for fun around here? I'm gonna die from boredom!"
"'Going to' not 'gonna' you git, and I highly doubt that even you are capable of such a feat."
There was a pause in the conversation as both of them looked around. The blue-eyed man looking for something that would fill his short attention span and green eyes that matched the trees' were searching for anything that would be considered abnormal as he let his thoughts wonder farther than the branches.
"Hey, Caterpillar dude?"
Arthur bit back a stinging retort. "What now?" it was almost a growl, but Alfred was forever incapable of reading the mood and kept talking.
"Could you…maybe show me some of those moves you used sometime?"
Was….it couldn't be…Alfred was asking Arthur to basically give him sword lessons. Right after he had just outdone the knight in a duel no less. This was something that deserved to be recorded. Arthur's thoughts were sarcastic and therefore his reply was the same.
"Sure, why not?" The forest born said.
Suddenly there was an arm around his shoulder, shaking him so roughly he feared for his quiver and the bag that were starting to slip down his arm. "Get off of me!" He shoved the now laughing knight and brought his head down between his shoulders. Arthur was scowling at Alfred with eyes that could be mistaken as pointy green daggers.
"Oh, come on Caterpillar! It's not like I hugged you or something!" He was still laughing.
Arthur continued to glare as he said, "Yes. At least you didn't because you would have been dead by now if you had."
They continued to exchange gabs and shoves as they walked back to the caves.
Feliks as a unicorn looked up at a red-tailed hawk sitting on the branch above him. He smiled and looked back at the two humans walking loudly down the path from a clearing.
"Hey, like, Elizabeta?"
"What is it, Feliks?" The hawk replied, not taking her sharp, bird-of-prey eyes from the pair.
"They're totally going to be like, realllly good friends one of these days." The unicorn tossed his mane and pranced in place.
"Oh there is no doubt about that," if hawks could smile, this one would have, "If we're lucky, they'll most definitely be very good friends."
A/N: More character introductions! (They. Just. Keep. Coming.) Four I believe… Please tell me if I missed someone in that count.
Names:
Sadiq: Turkey
Unnamed sleepy cat: Greece
And then you should know who Roderich and Elizabeta are.
Notes:
Celarance: A city in the south that Feliciano and Lovino stayed at when they left Annabeth for schooling. The southern edge of the city has expanded over the northern tip of Lake Veciene. Most of the buildings are tall and have been painted in bright colours. Many painters roam the streets and enjoy the festival like atmosphere. Citizens of Celarance are generally laid back and do not stress over many things. The city is known for its pasta and romantic appearance.
Naluginni: This small city, or some would say, large town, sits on the southern shores of Lake Veciene. Unlike the northern metropolis that rests on the beaches, Naluginni is recognized for being a generally cold and rude town. While the people of Celarance tend to be well off and fairly educated, the citizens of this southern town are usually poorer. It is well known that many of the organized crimes that occur in Celarance are committed by people that live among this city's streets.
Cladeian: A south-eastern town that is the first town meet when travelling from Annabeth past/through the Mysticum Silva. It is mostly made of farmers and the few townsfolk that would be needed to supply it with necessary things like saddles, carts, clothes, etc.
Lake Veciene:A lake to the south of Celarance. Part of the city has been built over its shallow waters and instead of horses and carriages, boats float between the colourful buildings. Along its southernmost shores lies Naluginni.
