Lavenda started back. Do what? Fight him? Could she do that? Yet without thinking, her spears were out of the case on her back and into her hands within an eye blink. She twirled them around, her nimble fingers deftly twisting to handle the turning wood. This was her guard position, an unconventional one, but extremely effective. Few managed to easily navigate the spinning circles of razor-sharp metal. She assumed a battle stance, her feet splayed. A fierce smile came to her face, and her eyes caught what little light there was, throwing it back out to the world.
She was ready.
She made the first move, leaping suddenly forward with a sweeping down stroke, the other spear cutting far below, angling around behind his knees. This was the reason the Aiel were so feared. Did he think she would be easy prey? Few managed to live past her first move. Did he think she would just submit? Emotions raged through her face as she attacked, blades moving faster than lighting.
Let him beat that!
And yet, she was a hair away from pulling her blows. She didn't want to kill him... and secretly, she wanted him to find a way to dodge or block both. But how? Front and back. That was her attack that always worked. It had never failed her... and yet she hoped it would.
Time moved like cool honey.
xxxx
Mentiri smiled as Lavenda attacked.
As her spears flew towards him, he slid 'Song' quickly down his back and pushed it into the earth deeply. The force plummeted him upwards, and he heard he spears clash onto 'Song.'
She is so graceful, that move would have crippled anyone who could not feel it coming!
While still in the air he yanked his blade from the road. Stone pebbles and dirt fragments soared out with it, and he swung his sword down at her, shredding the air into nothing as he went.
xxxx
Lavenda paused for a split second, astonished and relieved. Thank the Creator he got away! But she was fighting him... This was too confusing. His un-naturally blue blade was striking down at her, and she quickly crossed her spears, bracing for the impact.
It was larger than she expected. Her arms screamed with the sudden intense pressure; but then she pushed back, sending them both flying in opposite directions. She landed gracefully in a cat's sprawl, her limps splayed. She raised a spear menacingly, then streaked forward once more. She danced the spears, cutting small slits in Mentiri's loose clothing, but never his skin.
Is he blocking me? Or am I just subconsciously not hitting him?... She pressed on, slowly driving him backwards while twisting to avoid the glowing blade. He was good.
She reached forward with a spear, nicking his neck slightly. She bit her lip now, for once not finding the joy of the fight.
She backflipped, coming up paces away, again in her spiraling defense position. She beckoned slightly.
xxxx
Mentiri dodged and blocked her attacks. She was relentless, storming in a spiral of blades and cold precision. She grew quicker with each attack, allowing her to become more agile.
She would be a true match if we were fighting to kill each other. I wonder how she will handle this...
Mentiri swung 'Song' around him and aimed at her head. He swept up on her quickly and agily. Lavenda leaped into the air to avoid it. She grabbed the tip of 'Song' delicately and flipped herself up; she now stood on the giant blue sword with Mentiri still clutching it in the air. There was a moment when the rain ceased to fall, noises ceased to exist, and it was just them. Mentiri's arms did not buckle any under her weight; he had trained with far more. His arms straight out, he smiled.
She is as wondrous as I heard.
He pushed the blade down hard, deepening its roots to the ground. She leapt up to avoid it, and Mentiri slashed the sword upward from the penetrated ground, the wound spewing brown and green fragments into the air. Dust shot into the air, and the sword was nearly to Lavenda's throat.
xxxx
Lavenda cartwheeled over Mentiri's head, narrowly missing the razor's edge of the blade. The grin was back. A true fight. She had always loved a good fight; it made you think up new strategies, your life hanging in the balance, a hair able to tip it either way. As he came at her again, she jumped upwards again, twisting in the air, a tornado of flashing metal.
Lavenda jumped into a crouch, jumping on the hilt of the blade. For an instant, she stared into his face, a hand span away. With his muscular heave upwards she was thrown away again, still spinning. But as she deftly countered his strokes, and he hers, she thought.
What had been in his face? He didn't look angry, or intent on killing her, rather as if this were... a test? Could it be a test? She wondered this as she stepped away from him, arm behind arm, narrowly missing the steel burying itself in her flesh. And yet that's what battle was. How to hit the other if you never came close? It was impossible; it was the reason many she had fought had died so quickly.
She couldn't help but marvel at Mentiri as he strained to strike her. He was as good as her- maybe even better- but lacking sight.
If he's this good now, I wonder what he was like before in a battle, she wondered in awe. But her reverie was quickly stopped by the counter strokes he was dealing out. Maybe he had strength, but...
Suddenly, she dropped to the ground, flat on her back. Reaching up with her leather-clad legs, she grabbed the hilt of his sword, just above his hands, and drove it into his stomach, then out and away from his, twisting as she did so. Her spears also came up, ready if this worked- or to defend herself if it failed.
xxxx
Mentiri let 'Song' fly from his hands as Lavenda jerked it away. She stabbed inward with her spears and Mentiri instinctively batted them away with his black gauntlets. Her spears flew out of her hands. Mentiri fell to his knees; pinning Lavenda to the ground. He held her arms down with his hands and soaked in the image her quick sounds had planted in him. He could feel her air moving around him when she fought, felt her weight when she crouched upon 'Song.'
She is beautiful...
Mentiri slowly lowered his face to hers. He could hear her breathing heavily, the range of her steam molded a most lovely sight to Mentiri. Her face...with her piercing fierce eyes.
"You are a marvelous fighter." Mentiri smiled as the words slicked off his lips.
xxxx
Lavenda lay on her back, frustrated. He had pinned her! Pinned her! In spite of herself, she smiled at the compliment. From her compromising position, an answer rolled off her tongue, unbidden.
"You are one of the best I have ever fought," she breathed, her air heavier from the way she was lying. "It was an honor." She shifted, trying to get the weapons on her back to stop poking her. The musty smell of wet earth mixed with the incessant rain.
I think it was a test, she thought to herself. If it was, she wasn't completely sure if she passed with flying colours, or failed miserably. Hopefully not failing. She tilted her head back, seeing her spears had landed under an awning, safely out of the downpour. Mentiri's awesome sword lay beside them, but slightly in the moisture.
She looked back into his face, lifting her head until they were centimeters apart. Her neck screamed from the unaccustomed effort, but she ignored it.
"If you don't get off of me," she said, keeping her face straight, "your sword is going to rust."
A grin cracked the facade. "Plus, I shall be forced to bite your nose off," she stated, playfully nipping at the said body part, her body still stuck.
xxxx
Mentiri laughed as he released her. He sat on the wet ground and leaned over to pick up 'Song'; it took him a few tries to find his beloved sword.
"This sword, can never rust. It will never break. It's the most beautiful weapon I could have ever been given. It has become a part of me over the years, I will wield no other blade. It has saved me many times." he laid the blade across his lap, touching it slightly. "The honor is mine, to dance with you. I have been searching for you for months, it is the luck of a Ta'veran that I found you, Lavenda." He 'gazed' over at her, feeling the rain beat at his face. He raised a hand to touch his nose; it was tingling a bit.
xxxx
Lavenda, released, sat up and scurried over to get her own weapons, putting them back in their water-proof casings. Crawling back, she sat cross-legged opposite him, quite comfortable, and grinning at him rubbing his nose.
Her head to one side, she considered his blade, then stated a question that came quickly to mind, surfacing above the others.
"Ta'veran?" she asked curiously. "You are a ta'veren?" she laughed at the thought, but it was possible, she supposed. And there was the other thing he had just said. Searching for many months? For her? Why? She said that last aloud, adding to the question before it. She had other questions, like who had given him his sword, but they could wait.
While she waited for him to consider the question, she felt a suddenly cool breeze, cooler than it should have been. She looked down at herself, and laughed aloud, raucously and long. There were hundreds of tiny slits in her loose clothes, the skin beneath unmarred. He was a master indeed. Or was it her that had avoided it?
Yet another question was added to the pile.
xxxx
"I have no concrete proof that I am ta'veran...you on the other hand..." Mentiri smiled again. "I've been searching for you because of some...events happening in the Three-fold land. You and I...we have many things to talk of." He stuck 'Song' into the ground and lifted himself up, using the sword to balance himself. He extended a hand to her before continuing.
xxxx
Lavenda stared blankly at him a moment before taking his calloused and leaping nimbly to her feet. Ta'veren? Her?
She stood beside him, waiting on edge for him to continue, her mind half standing still in shock and half racing with unknown speed. The Three-fold land. Events? Talk? Now I'm even speaking gibberish in my head, she told herself.
xxxx
"I know you are eager to talk." The rain poured even harder. "But, you need rest. If you wish to hear the rest of my story, meet me in the Lester's Jesting on the morrow before first light. Be prepared to make a long journey, Lavenda, should you choose to come with me." Mentiri turned and walked away, with 'Song' slung over his back, praying she made the right choice.
It's nearly too late...