A/N – First and foremost, I apologize HUGELY for the amount of time it took me to get this up. Know that I am a terrible procrastinator. No chapter of this fic will be up immediately, but I'm going to try VERY hard to not make you wait half as long as you did for this one. Also, review responses are at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter Two – Feast
The night air was still and calm. Looking over the campsite, scanning it, Karel noticed only about three people still awake. This much was a good thing. The sword demon greatly preferred solitude to company.
He unsheathed the Wo Dao, his precious blade. Carefully he inspected it, making sure it hadn't been damaged in his last training session with that pup from Sacae, Guy. No apparent damage – that was good. His sword would live to taste more battles for years to come.
"Karel!" A sudden shout shattered the calm night silence, and Karel whipped around, sword in hand, to see who this mysterious attacker was.
On the other end of his blade stood a tall young man with sandy brown hair and auburn eyes, sporting mostly plain, casual clothes except for his odd red cape. Karel knew him by his name, by his face, but as with many of the members of their makeshift army, not as a person. Matthew the thief.
At the moment, Karel had said thief at sword-point. Matthew casually raised one hand, meeting the sword demon's eyes. "Put the sword down, Karel, we're allies here."
Not taking his gaze off the young thief, Karel returned his beloved partner, the Wo Dao, to its scabbard. He didn't speak at first, but after a pause he said, "I do not know why you approached me, but I have no time for child's play." With those words he turned his back. Matthew's company was far from desirable, and he didn't seem to have a reason for coming to him in the first place. Fool.
"Wait!" Matthew called back, just as suddenly as he had before. Karel stopped in his tracks, keeping his back to the thief. It wasn't in Karel's character to be truly annoyed, but if Matthew kept beating around the bush like this he would certainly come close.
Matthew walked as informally as ever in front of Karel, but the sword demon noticed something other than the usual cheer in the young man's eyes. Karel didn't speak, just looked down at Matthew and observed. He could tell by the thief's face that he meant business. Matthew's common happy and carefree demeanor was washed away when he looked at him, but why? He'd done nothing wrong to the thief. They had never even spoken with each other.
"Karel, what have you been doing with Guy?" Matthew asked. So, this had something to do with the boy. True, he had seen the thief together with Guy rather frequently. However, the sword demon had no idea what Matthew was implying. His only interactions with the young Sacaen had been the training matches that he'd wanted so desperately.
"All I have been doing is training him in sword arts." He answered monotonously, but the thief still had more to say.
"He's turning into you!" Matthew yelled, "Every day, he cares less about everything else and more about swordsmanship, about his training, about battle!"
Karel raised his eyebrows in a gesture of mild amusement. After all, Guy had been the one who'd wanted the training. He'd begged and whined like a helpless puppy searching for its master. And this one, Matthew – he was just sniffing around where he shouldn't be, and then jumping to conclusions. Not worth his time.
"But despite that, Guy is still the same headstrong, stubborn whelp he always was." Karel hissed, and then in a less menacing tone he added, "I would never turn anyone into another of myself."
Without even waiting for the thief's reply, he walked around him and into the camp, moving as silently as a ghost in the night. He slipped into a tent for the night, perfectly content with leaving Matthew outside, alone and no doubt confused.
The morning's first rays of light filtered through the thin walls of the tents, inviting most of the group to wake up, but Karel was already awake. The sword demon did not sleep.
He cast his eyes, showing no emotion, over the other people he had shared this night's tent with. The scholar, Canas. Raven, the red-haired mercenary. And finally the effeminate monk, Lucius.
Karel saw no point in staying behind in the tent. A quiet murmur was rising softly outside, the sounds of the group waking and greeting the new day. Pushing the tent's door flap aside, Karel was about to join the others when a quiet voice sounded from behind him. Why was it that he, who never sought conversation, seemed to be such a popular person to talk to?
"Karel?" The serene voice repeated tentatively. Karel nearly growled. He'd had enough talking last night alone to last him a solid two weeks. "…What is it, Lucius?" He asked, wanting to get this over with. He was craving blood and battle. If he was lucky, their party would reach its destination today and he'd get a fight as opposed to constant idle chitchat.
"I heard your conversation with Matthew last night." Lucius said calmly.
"I do not need the whole army on my back," Karel hissed bitterly, "because one person suspects something of me."
Before the monk had any time to answer, Karel was stalking away, moving like a phantom towards Merlinus' tent to get a small breakfast. In the background, he could hear Raven's characteristically angry voice saying something to Lucius, and assumed that the monk might be occupied for a time.
"I told you to train alone for a few days and seek me out afterward, Guy." Karel said, "You aren't strong enough to defeat me now, and I would be ashamed to go easy on you."
The sword demon stopped to think about what he had just said. Despite the ever-emotionless tone of his voice, there was something hidden behind the words. Concern, perhaps, for Guy? Somewhere in the back of his mind, did he actually care for this stupid whelp?
"It's a few hours away from sunset, master, and I've been training since I got up!" Guy protested.
"As your master, it should be up to me to decide when we hold these training matches."
"Master, please!" The Sacaen teen begged, adding the promise, "I'll be better than I was last time!"
'Still the same'. Karel's own words from the night before echoed in his mind. Guy hadn't learned a thing, and he still didn't stand a chance against the legendary sword demon.
However, even when he tried for whatever reason, he could not suppress his instincts. No matter what, if his sword wanted a feast, he would give the sword a feast. He lived by the sword.
"Draw." He hissed ominously after a long silence, unsheathing the Wo Dao and pointing it at his student.
The sword was hungry, and thus, so was the swordsman.
Fifteen minutes had passed, and Karel found himself still fighting Guy. The metallic ringing sound of sword kissing sword filled the air, accompanied by the occasional spray of blood.
Only during a duel did this side of Karel truly surface. His eyes lit up with a raging, thirsty bloodlust and his body moved twice as fast as it normally would. He lost all traces of thought, all sense. During a fight, he really was mindless. It was like the scent of blood set off something in his mind that forced him to fight, forced him to feed the blade that was so precious to him. The normal Karel, perhaps, only more violent.
Moving extra quick, he lashed out with the Wo Dao and dodging his apprentice's sword thrust, struck him below the waist, making a cut just deep enough to draw blood. Amazingly, Guy was still standing, despite having several wounds.
In a brief pause in the action, Karel lept back and lifted the Wo Dao's blade to his lips, licking off the fresh red blood with a sadistic look on his face.
It was then that the unexpected happened. Never before, in any of the frequent matches between the two, had Karel been hit, yet suddenly, he felt Guy's sword cut into his flesh not once, not twice, but three times before he could strike back.
Conveniently hidden by foliage, Matthew watched curiously as the braided teen faced off against the legendary swordsman in what he could barely believe was just a friendly practice fight.
Most of the day had been pretty boring, the party had only marched on, encountering nothing of interest whatsoever, and now they'd set up camp for the night.
Matthew had spent most of the day just snooping around. He hadn't learned anything worth talking about – just some decidedly unwanted information about a certain thief (not him – hell no!) and a certain wyvern rider. No, nothing worth talking about at all.
This, however, could prove interesting. He'd been watching the fight only for the last five minutes, but somehow he knew something was wrong.
It might've been the look on Guy's face – hardened beyond the norm as he focused all his energy on the match that made Matthew think this, but when he suddenly managed to strike Karel, he knew. Something then had changed in Guy, with that first swing.
He swung the sword twice more, each time losing a part of himself.
With every swing he grew further from the Guy that Matthew had grown to know and love.
With each slash, he surrendered another part of himself to the sword.
And Matthew knew he had to do something. He'd do whatever he needed to get Guy back. He had already lost someone very close to him in the past.
He refused to let such a thing happen again.
-End Chapter-
A/N – Not exactly what I was going for, but I think it turned out pretty good. Again, I'm sorry it took me so long. I'm a bad, bad person – but I won't let it go un-updated this long ever again. Please review! Here are the responses to those who reviewed me before:
RianneHime – I'll tell you right off that bat that this will end up more MxG in the end, but there will be strong hints of both pairings.
Bishop Sarasi – Yeah, my chapters tend to be short. I'm trying to work on that, mind. And, argh, I KNEW I'd heard that Legault line somewhere before! But in actual canon of all places…I am a bad, bad person. Nice to know I'm not the only one who saw Karel/Guy potential, though. Thanks!
Amythest Bubble – Thanks, glad you liked it. Finally, here's the chapter you wanted.
MagicianFairy – Like I said, the LxH and RxL will be there, but not in huge roles. And I like MxG myself, but saw so much potential for KxG, and didn't think it had ever be written, so I figured I'd try something new. I'll probably be writing more Karel/Guy in the future, at that.
HellFenix – Thanks for the support. I'm glad you liked it.
Flamefirefox – Again, glad you liked it. And again, I'll work on chapter length. Very nice to hear that you think everyone is in character, though!