Chapter 13 – Andrew Wilds
::The Fourth Bloodlines Chapter::
Garlyle stood up again, feeling odd. "I would ask you to step outside, so I could test how strong you already are, but that would be revealing our locations to enemy..."
"Of course" Andrew smiled. "I understand... but I can't fight!"
"We'll have to see about that" Garlyle grinned. Then, without warning, he shot a fist towards Andrew's face.
The boy blinked, just standing there, seemingly not reacting fast enough. Garlyle's fist reached his skull...
And stopped, not even touching him.
"You didn't move to block?" Garlyle asked.
"I knew you wouldn't hit me" Andrew smirked. "I could... sense it..."
"Well, then..." Garlyle returned to his original stance. "I won't stop this time, okay? Do your worst!"
And with that, even faster than before, Garlyle punched towards Andrew's face.
Andrew just smiled, as Garlyle stopped again.
"What...? How did you know?"
"Are you here simply to joke?" Andrew smiled. "What is your name, anyway?"
"Garlyle W..." Garlyle almost gave his last name, but froze his mouth shut. "Just Garlyle."
"Well, 'Just Garlyle'," Andrew laughed, "If you really are here to train me, show me."
Garlyle nodded. He was afraid of hurting the child, but obviously this boy was better off then he had originally thought... What were all those books that he had been reading, anyway? Had they been combat books, teaching him these kinds of things?
Garlyle returned to his fighting stance, and then, to try and throw off Andrew, he punched with his other hand. This time, he wasn't going to stop.
Andrew, in return, punched straight upwards with his matching arm, knocking Garlyle's arm up and backwards a bit, before bringing his other around to press on Garlyle's chest, lightly.
"What...?" Garlyle blinked. He hadn't expected that. In fact, it looked as if he could learn a couple things...
Wait, that couldn't be right! This boy couldn't have done that! Garlyle simply hadn't tried enough.
And then, without warning to anyone in the room, Garlyle began to strike rapidly, first alternating his fists, then he began to attack with them in no set pattern.
Quickly recognising the pattern, Andrew simply dodged left and right, shifting back and forth smoothly, but when Garlyle switched out of it, the attack surprised the boy and punched him straight on the nose, almost breaking it.
"Oh, I think I overdid it..." Garlyle gaped, stepping backwards. "Sorry!"
"No, I would have expected you to knock me unconscious..." Andrew grinned. "I should have expected it. But I can sense... you've got a lot you can teach me, and somehow I think I already understand the basis of your attacks, in theory..."
Garlyle got a chance to glimpse the book he had been reading, as Andrew turned and put it away. Printed along the side, he could see the title 'The Art of Unarmed Combat'. Standard issue, but it was still studied in his day by martial artists, written in the early years of Avelian History by a master brawler named Johka. Other similar titles about fighting and tactics were lined up there.
"Please, father..." Andrew returned to face his father. "The sun is going down. Will you allow these two to stay here?"
Lee nodded, understanding totally. "If you two are truly sent here as you claim to be," Kozo seemed as if he might protest but didn't, "then I welcome you here..."
Garlyle and Kozo both smiled.
"Thank you very much, Lee-san" Falcon answered from Kozo's belt, startling Lee and Andrew.
"How interesting... a miniature person trapped in a box!" Andrew knelt down beside Kozo, inspecting the screen on it. "He also appears to be sideways!"
"It's not my fault!" Falcon responded. "But I suppose it is beyond your intellect to comprehend my origins."
"Mechanical, right?" Andrew grinned.
"How did you know?"
"Don't think we don't have simple machines in this world, silly! I mean, we have the Printing Press..." he smiled. "You're travellers, after all, probably you came from an undiscovered part of the continent where such things exist..."
"Umm... yeah!" Kozo and Falcon both responded in sync.
"I wish we had a guest bedroom, but we only have the two bedrooms..."
"I can work with just a blanket," Kozo offered, not wanting to make too much of a fuss. He realised that he might end up staying there for a while, despite his wishes to get back home to Acentine...
On the other hand, this new strange dimension was something brand new to Kozo, a world unlike anything he had ever seen, a medieval fantasy world like something out of a video game. And this place really existed! He wasn't just dreaming!
With that, he contented himself with the knowledge that here, he'd discover things that he'd never possibly learn back in his home world... Though he'd miss Acentine, perhaps he'd get by... And besides, this 'Lee' fellow was handsome, he'd have to get to know him better...
No, he knew that it was better to remain faithful to the one that he really did love, even if there wasn't much chance they'd ever get to see him again... he owed Acentine that much, after all...
Garlyle looked around, shrugging. "I... I can sleep on a floor, I... I used to sleep in the streets..."
"Oh, you poor child, having had to do that!" Lee growled. "Take my bed, I'll sleep in the living room, I'll survive..."
Garlyle shook his head. "No, I insist. You stay as you are..."
"Well, if you do insist..." Lee replied. "Make yourselves at home, here..." he looked out a window. "The moon will be rising shortly..."
Garlyle's mind flashed with an idea. "Umm... Andrew..."
"Yeah?" he perked up, his seasonal eyes shining.
"I... I want to see something, come with me..."
He led the boy outside, and looking around quickly, he discovered he could climb up onto the wooden roof of the house via a pile of stacked boxes on an adjacent house, then making a small jump. Andrew followed him, and they laid themselves out upon the rooftop.
"Why'd you call me out here?" Andrew asked.
Garlyle smiled. "I want you to look at the moon, tonight... Tell me what you see."
"A great big bluish white thing with a bunch of craters, like every night" Andrew replied.
"It's not even up yet..." Garlyle smiled.
"Well, it's going to happen."
"Just humour me, on this, okay?" Garlyle asked.
"A... Alright, Garlyle, if you say so."
A few minutes later, the sun dropped out of sight behind them.
And then the moon began to rise. Garlyle was always nervous whenever he saw it, because it reminded him of the night that Ceres had attacked... As he fell asleep that night, he had seen it for a few moments, hanging high above the sky. It was the normal, for him...
But for Andrew, now, tonight would be the night that determined if Garlyle was right in his hunch... History had forgotten the name of Andrew's tutor...
Andrew seemed to freeze.
"What do you see?" Garlyle asked, a few minutes later. "I see the moon, don't you?"
"Umm... yeah... it... looks normal..." Andrew responded, standing up to get down. "Why'd you think it'd... look any different?"
Garlyle sensed the hesitance in his voice. "Andrew, you're lying, aren't you?" suddenly, he felt very adult and mature, since he knew this child's great future was in his hands...
"Err..." Andrew sat back down again, and looked at it again, shaking his head as if he didn't believe it. "No... I'm not... I'm sorry, Garlyle, I was lying..."
"You see the Red Moon, don't you?"
"...Yes..." Andrew was almost shaking, as if afraid. "That means... Garlyle, you came today... am I really destined to be a hero?"
"More than that..." Garlyle smiled. "Some day, Andrew... Some day what you do now will be engraved forever in the history of Avel, along with Sir Lionblade..."
"Really...?" Andrew smiled. "Then I guess I'll have to train hard with you two, right?"
"Yeah" Garlyle nodded. Outside of the mature demeanour he had shown the two of them upon their first meeting, Andrew really was just a kid. He seemed nervous to accept his fate, but...
"But, this seems so sudden..."
"Everything happens suddenly. The turning points of are lives are constant, and we have to change with them to reach the next one..." Garlyle spoke aloud, philosophically.
"You're right..." Andrew stood up. "Thank you, sensei."
"S... Sensei?" Garlyle blabbered. "Oh, sure, now I feel really old! Thanks a lot!"
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you!" Andrew replied.
"Just call me Garlyle, okay, kid? My other apprentice just called me it," he said, becoming sentimental at the thought of Taka... It had only been a few waking days since he had seen Taka killed... but...
"Other apprentice?"
"It doesn't matter. Go to bed" Garlyle spoke, and then he realised that he was really beginning to sound like an adult. He didn't really want that, he thought, as Andrew shuffled off. He remained lying on the roof for a while.
"Garlyle, it appears you've found your purpose in life..."
"I still can't believe, that I'm the one who teaches Andrew..."
"Why not? You've grown a lot, Garlyle, over the two years that I've known you. You're not just this annoying innocent, happy, bouncy, revoltingly cute kid anymore."
"I haven't had the time to be."
"You're growing up fast..."
"It's not really what I want, though. I... I'm losing my childhood, years that I should be spending enjoying freedom, but instead..."
"I know how you feel?"
"How?"
"... err... Have you forgotten that I can read your mind and emotions? Garlyle..."
Garlyle sensed that it wasn't the answer he would have given right away, but he didn't question it. Instead, he simply headed inside of the house again, to see Kozo already halfway asleep, curled up in a blanket.
"Sorry to drag you into all of this" Garlyle responded grimly, as he yawned. "I really am..."
"Don't worry about it," Kozo responded. Obviously he wasn't as asleep as he looked, because he still sounded totally awake. "Besides, in the end, this will probably end up helping me figure out myself..."
"Yeah? You don't know about yourself?"
"I told you. I can't remember my past before I turned eleven. It's a curse, not having those youthful memories, at least you have some... you still have you younger years."
"Not anymore, I don't" Garlyle responded. "I... I'm losing them too fast..."
"What did happen to you, anyway? There's a lot I don't understand... Who is Ceres?"
Garlyle froze. "Then, you heard?"
"Of course I did..." Kozo responded. "After having travelled with you for so long, how could I not have noticed?"
Garlyle shook. "Alright, I'll tell you, about my past..."
"I grew up in this world... four hundred and fifty years from this particular time... My parents were both among the richest nobles in the city, and that's saying something. My mother was the best dancer in the entire city, able to cast magic through it, and she was an excellent magical researcher as well. My father was a stern man, a warrior, though he too did more than just dabble in the arts of symboling to create magic. It was like a match made in heaven, I hear, the classic story of romance."
"I had a younger brother, Mek Ai, too. But... well, I'll get to that in a moment... Um... When I was seven, my mother and father's magical experiments unsealed the Demon Dragon Ceres from his ancient, almost- millennium-old seal. He attacked, and a lot of the Noble's district was evacuated, as many tried to fight it... He just about killed me and my brother..."
"And then, my mother and father came, and they cast a spell that cost them their lives, but it resealed Ceres... for a moment... then something happened, and I came into contact with it, and it possessed me..." Garlyle shook from the painful memories. "But we had no home, and nobody would take care of us, because they all thought we had been the ones who released the demon, so we left for the streets..."
"We were lucky, a man named Jael took pity on us and took us in, but I didn't want to be helped. I wanted to restore my family's honour without help, though I realised later it was foolery. My brother remained often in his care, because I trusted him."
"Then I found Ceres' Fang, one day, being stolen away by a group of thieves... I tried to steal it, but got caught, and they threw me off of Faeyr's Wall... I used to have nightmares about it... I nearly drowned, but then somebody saved me..."
"A boy named Taka, a day older than me, but I ignored him for his good deeds, and instead went to fight the thieves for the prize. I killed them, but other innocents were slaughtered in the battle, there was hundreds upon hundreds of gold pieces in damage..."
"And when I was going to be caught and punished, I was saved again by Taka... who I took on as an apprentice to learn my magic, because he wanted to understand it too... we became good friends, no, better than that. The best."
"But... but then... right before all of this dimension-hopping started, he and my brother and Jael were all slaughtered..." Garlyle shook. "I... I don't really know if I want to return to my real time, because nothing good is left for me there, except Kiana..." he added in, silently.
"Yet you have the memories" Kozo responded. "Consider yourself lucky" and then he spoke no more, sleeping, even snoring lightly.
Garlyle yawned, and tucked himself in tighter, considering those words. It was true, after all... perhaps he was lucky and just didn't realise it...
As he fell asleep, he thought to himself. "We come from different worlds, have different tastes, likes, and dislikes, different fighting styles, different social lives..."
"But yet, we're not that different..."
::The Fourth Bloodlines Chapter::
Garlyle stood up again, feeling odd. "I would ask you to step outside, so I could test how strong you already are, but that would be revealing our locations to enemy..."
"Of course" Andrew smiled. "I understand... but I can't fight!"
"We'll have to see about that" Garlyle grinned. Then, without warning, he shot a fist towards Andrew's face.
The boy blinked, just standing there, seemingly not reacting fast enough. Garlyle's fist reached his skull...
And stopped, not even touching him.
"You didn't move to block?" Garlyle asked.
"I knew you wouldn't hit me" Andrew smirked. "I could... sense it..."
"Well, then..." Garlyle returned to his original stance. "I won't stop this time, okay? Do your worst!"
And with that, even faster than before, Garlyle punched towards Andrew's face.
Andrew just smiled, as Garlyle stopped again.
"What...? How did you know?"
"Are you here simply to joke?" Andrew smiled. "What is your name, anyway?"
"Garlyle W..." Garlyle almost gave his last name, but froze his mouth shut. "Just Garlyle."
"Well, 'Just Garlyle'," Andrew laughed, "If you really are here to train me, show me."
Garlyle nodded. He was afraid of hurting the child, but obviously this boy was better off then he had originally thought... What were all those books that he had been reading, anyway? Had they been combat books, teaching him these kinds of things?
Garlyle returned to his fighting stance, and then, to try and throw off Andrew, he punched with his other hand. This time, he wasn't going to stop.
Andrew, in return, punched straight upwards with his matching arm, knocking Garlyle's arm up and backwards a bit, before bringing his other around to press on Garlyle's chest, lightly.
"What...?" Garlyle blinked. He hadn't expected that. In fact, it looked as if he could learn a couple things...
Wait, that couldn't be right! This boy couldn't have done that! Garlyle simply hadn't tried enough.
And then, without warning to anyone in the room, Garlyle began to strike rapidly, first alternating his fists, then he began to attack with them in no set pattern.
Quickly recognising the pattern, Andrew simply dodged left and right, shifting back and forth smoothly, but when Garlyle switched out of it, the attack surprised the boy and punched him straight on the nose, almost breaking it.
"Oh, I think I overdid it..." Garlyle gaped, stepping backwards. "Sorry!"
"No, I would have expected you to knock me unconscious..." Andrew grinned. "I should have expected it. But I can sense... you've got a lot you can teach me, and somehow I think I already understand the basis of your attacks, in theory..."
Garlyle got a chance to glimpse the book he had been reading, as Andrew turned and put it away. Printed along the side, he could see the title 'The Art of Unarmed Combat'. Standard issue, but it was still studied in his day by martial artists, written in the early years of Avelian History by a master brawler named Johka. Other similar titles about fighting and tactics were lined up there.
"Please, father..." Andrew returned to face his father. "The sun is going down. Will you allow these two to stay here?"
Lee nodded, understanding totally. "If you two are truly sent here as you claim to be," Kozo seemed as if he might protest but didn't, "then I welcome you here..."
Garlyle and Kozo both smiled.
"Thank you very much, Lee-san" Falcon answered from Kozo's belt, startling Lee and Andrew.
"How interesting... a miniature person trapped in a box!" Andrew knelt down beside Kozo, inspecting the screen on it. "He also appears to be sideways!"
"It's not my fault!" Falcon responded. "But I suppose it is beyond your intellect to comprehend my origins."
"Mechanical, right?" Andrew grinned.
"How did you know?"
"Don't think we don't have simple machines in this world, silly! I mean, we have the Printing Press..." he smiled. "You're travellers, after all, probably you came from an undiscovered part of the continent where such things exist..."
"Umm... yeah!" Kozo and Falcon both responded in sync.
"I wish we had a guest bedroom, but we only have the two bedrooms..."
"I can work with just a blanket," Kozo offered, not wanting to make too much of a fuss. He realised that he might end up staying there for a while, despite his wishes to get back home to Acentine...
On the other hand, this new strange dimension was something brand new to Kozo, a world unlike anything he had ever seen, a medieval fantasy world like something out of a video game. And this place really existed! He wasn't just dreaming!
With that, he contented himself with the knowledge that here, he'd discover things that he'd never possibly learn back in his home world... Though he'd miss Acentine, perhaps he'd get by... And besides, this 'Lee' fellow was handsome, he'd have to get to know him better...
No, he knew that it was better to remain faithful to the one that he really did love, even if there wasn't much chance they'd ever get to see him again... he owed Acentine that much, after all...
Garlyle looked around, shrugging. "I... I can sleep on a floor, I... I used to sleep in the streets..."
"Oh, you poor child, having had to do that!" Lee growled. "Take my bed, I'll sleep in the living room, I'll survive..."
Garlyle shook his head. "No, I insist. You stay as you are..."
"Well, if you do insist..." Lee replied. "Make yourselves at home, here..." he looked out a window. "The moon will be rising shortly..."
Garlyle's mind flashed with an idea. "Umm... Andrew..."
"Yeah?" he perked up, his seasonal eyes shining.
"I... I want to see something, come with me..."
He led the boy outside, and looking around quickly, he discovered he could climb up onto the wooden roof of the house via a pile of stacked boxes on an adjacent house, then making a small jump. Andrew followed him, and they laid themselves out upon the rooftop.
"Why'd you call me out here?" Andrew asked.
Garlyle smiled. "I want you to look at the moon, tonight... Tell me what you see."
"A great big bluish white thing with a bunch of craters, like every night" Andrew replied.
"It's not even up yet..." Garlyle smiled.
"Well, it's going to happen."
"Just humour me, on this, okay?" Garlyle asked.
"A... Alright, Garlyle, if you say so."
A few minutes later, the sun dropped out of sight behind them.
And then the moon began to rise. Garlyle was always nervous whenever he saw it, because it reminded him of the night that Ceres had attacked... As he fell asleep that night, he had seen it for a few moments, hanging high above the sky. It was the normal, for him...
But for Andrew, now, tonight would be the night that determined if Garlyle was right in his hunch... History had forgotten the name of Andrew's tutor...
Andrew seemed to freeze.
"What do you see?" Garlyle asked, a few minutes later. "I see the moon, don't you?"
"Umm... yeah... it... looks normal..." Andrew responded, standing up to get down. "Why'd you think it'd... look any different?"
Garlyle sensed the hesitance in his voice. "Andrew, you're lying, aren't you?" suddenly, he felt very adult and mature, since he knew this child's great future was in his hands...
"Err..." Andrew sat back down again, and looked at it again, shaking his head as if he didn't believe it. "No... I'm not... I'm sorry, Garlyle, I was lying..."
"You see the Red Moon, don't you?"
"...Yes..." Andrew was almost shaking, as if afraid. "That means... Garlyle, you came today... am I really destined to be a hero?"
"More than that..." Garlyle smiled. "Some day, Andrew... Some day what you do now will be engraved forever in the history of Avel, along with Sir Lionblade..."
"Really...?" Andrew smiled. "Then I guess I'll have to train hard with you two, right?"
"Yeah" Garlyle nodded. Outside of the mature demeanour he had shown the two of them upon their first meeting, Andrew really was just a kid. He seemed nervous to accept his fate, but...
"But, this seems so sudden..."
"Everything happens suddenly. The turning points of are lives are constant, and we have to change with them to reach the next one..." Garlyle spoke aloud, philosophically.
"You're right..." Andrew stood up. "Thank you, sensei."
"S... Sensei?" Garlyle blabbered. "Oh, sure, now I feel really old! Thanks a lot!"
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you!" Andrew replied.
"Just call me Garlyle, okay, kid? My other apprentice just called me it," he said, becoming sentimental at the thought of Taka... It had only been a few waking days since he had seen Taka killed... but...
"Other apprentice?"
"It doesn't matter. Go to bed" Garlyle spoke, and then he realised that he was really beginning to sound like an adult. He didn't really want that, he thought, as Andrew shuffled off. He remained lying on the roof for a while.
"Garlyle, it appears you've found your purpose in life..."
"I still can't believe, that I'm the one who teaches Andrew..."
"Why not? You've grown a lot, Garlyle, over the two years that I've known you. You're not just this annoying innocent, happy, bouncy, revoltingly cute kid anymore."
"I haven't had the time to be."
"You're growing up fast..."
"It's not really what I want, though. I... I'm losing my childhood, years that I should be spending enjoying freedom, but instead..."
"I know how you feel?"
"How?"
"... err... Have you forgotten that I can read your mind and emotions? Garlyle..."
Garlyle sensed that it wasn't the answer he would have given right away, but he didn't question it. Instead, he simply headed inside of the house again, to see Kozo already halfway asleep, curled up in a blanket.
"Sorry to drag you into all of this" Garlyle responded grimly, as he yawned. "I really am..."
"Don't worry about it," Kozo responded. Obviously he wasn't as asleep as he looked, because he still sounded totally awake. "Besides, in the end, this will probably end up helping me figure out myself..."
"Yeah? You don't know about yourself?"
"I told you. I can't remember my past before I turned eleven. It's a curse, not having those youthful memories, at least you have some... you still have you younger years."
"Not anymore, I don't" Garlyle responded. "I... I'm losing them too fast..."
"What did happen to you, anyway? There's a lot I don't understand... Who is Ceres?"
Garlyle froze. "Then, you heard?"
"Of course I did..." Kozo responded. "After having travelled with you for so long, how could I not have noticed?"
Garlyle shook. "Alright, I'll tell you, about my past..."
"I grew up in this world... four hundred and fifty years from this particular time... My parents were both among the richest nobles in the city, and that's saying something. My mother was the best dancer in the entire city, able to cast magic through it, and she was an excellent magical researcher as well. My father was a stern man, a warrior, though he too did more than just dabble in the arts of symboling to create magic. It was like a match made in heaven, I hear, the classic story of romance."
"I had a younger brother, Mek Ai, too. But... well, I'll get to that in a moment... Um... When I was seven, my mother and father's magical experiments unsealed the Demon Dragon Ceres from his ancient, almost- millennium-old seal. He attacked, and a lot of the Noble's district was evacuated, as many tried to fight it... He just about killed me and my brother..."
"And then, my mother and father came, and they cast a spell that cost them their lives, but it resealed Ceres... for a moment... then something happened, and I came into contact with it, and it possessed me..." Garlyle shook from the painful memories. "But we had no home, and nobody would take care of us, because they all thought we had been the ones who released the demon, so we left for the streets..."
"We were lucky, a man named Jael took pity on us and took us in, but I didn't want to be helped. I wanted to restore my family's honour without help, though I realised later it was foolery. My brother remained often in his care, because I trusted him."
"Then I found Ceres' Fang, one day, being stolen away by a group of thieves... I tried to steal it, but got caught, and they threw me off of Faeyr's Wall... I used to have nightmares about it... I nearly drowned, but then somebody saved me..."
"A boy named Taka, a day older than me, but I ignored him for his good deeds, and instead went to fight the thieves for the prize. I killed them, but other innocents were slaughtered in the battle, there was hundreds upon hundreds of gold pieces in damage..."
"And when I was going to be caught and punished, I was saved again by Taka... who I took on as an apprentice to learn my magic, because he wanted to understand it too... we became good friends, no, better than that. The best."
"But... but then... right before all of this dimension-hopping started, he and my brother and Jael were all slaughtered..." Garlyle shook. "I... I don't really know if I want to return to my real time, because nothing good is left for me there, except Kiana..." he added in, silently.
"Yet you have the memories" Kozo responded. "Consider yourself lucky" and then he spoke no more, sleeping, even snoring lightly.
Garlyle yawned, and tucked himself in tighter, considering those words. It was true, after all... perhaps he was lucky and just didn't realise it...
As he fell asleep, he thought to himself. "We come from different worlds, have different tastes, likes, and dislikes, different fighting styles, different social lives..."
"But yet, we're not that different..."