Hey everybody! Thanks for all the reviews. Keep em coming, their quite helpful! On with the story…
The sky began to spill onto the earth below. The raindrops fell heavy on the heads of the father and son. "Nalleo! Can you still see 'em?" Dario called out in the dark. "Father, go back to the treasure chamber and guard there! You can't keep up and that's probably what this thief wants." Nalleo responded.
Dario looked at him questioningly "All right but you better keep safe and-" "GO!" Nalleo shouted at his father. Dario sauntered away from Nalleo as Nalleo turned around on heel and dashed after the intruder. "STOP! FACE ME!" Nalleo called out. He burst through the threshold and spotted the intruder.
"I see you've decided to stop running. At least you have some shred of courage." Nalleo said to the man. The man slowly drew his sword. His face obscured by a bandana, his body language was begging Nalleo to attack. Nalleo gladly accepted.
Lets see just how much my friend here has grown. What kind of man he's become. The man stood there with a hand on his hip and his other hand on his trident. His rugged v-neck sleeveless shirt clung to his body, damp and darkened with rain, the faded green becoming more like its original color. He waited and Nalleo delivered.
Nalleo started with an intended deathblow leaping high into the air, blade raised heavenward, fire in his eyes. The man assumed a defensive posture and stood with his trident in both hands across his chest. Nalleo's blade came down hard but the man redirected the attack to the left and turned to his right, hitting Nalleo in the back with the butt of his trident.
Nalleoanticipated the hit coming and rolled forward and barely felt it. The man noted the move and assumed an offensive stance, his trident facing Nalleo. He began a charge at Nalleo and pulled the trident deep into himself. As he neared Nalleo settled into a bent-kneed stance. As the trident came rushing toward him he lifted his foot high into his body and stepped hard on the flat trident head. It shot downward bringing the man with it as Nalleo began a rotation. His other foot followed the first and was thrown over. Nalleo's single blade sword came around the spin and slashed downward.
The blade nipped into the mans back but was met with a light chain mail. The man ran through and turned around a safe distance away. Nalleo was right after him with his blade high over head.
This had better be the end. Nalleo thought. His blade was screaming through the air. He is better than I thought. Nalleo's blade was met and caught in the prongs of the trident. They were deadlocked, neither the stronger to over power the other. Evenly matched they pushed at each other. "Nalleo, so good to see you." The man said.
"Who are you and how do you know my name" Nalleo vociferated. "Nalleo, you don't recognize your old friend? Maybe this will help you a bit." The man called back. He reached up and removed the bandana from his face. He tossed it to the ground idly and looked back into the eyes of Nalleo. "Is that… Is that you? Rakhgi?"
Nalleo couldn't believe that it was his old partner in crime Rakhgi. "It's been so long my friend. What have you been doing this whole time?" Nalleo asked him. He began to walk closer to his comrade and gave him a big hug. Rakhgi returned the action in suit. "Well, I stayed with my mother and became a fisherman, over in Obel. I'm sorry I didn't keep in touch but I had so much to do to support the two of us." He said with a grin. Rakhgi still had the familiar white hair with the bushy ponytail and the same old tattoo on his forehead. His face now had shadowy stubble on it around his jaw.
"What have you done with yourself all these years?" Rakhgi asked him in his warm baritone voice. "Well as a matter of fact, I'm going to become a pirate, independent from father. I'm leaving in the morning. I don't have a first mate if you're not doing anything. Wait, how is your mother?" Nalleo asked him. Rakhgi's eyes dropped slowly. "She passed away last month. She a stomach virus and didn't pull through." Rakhgi's eyes let loose a sole tear as his head hung. "I'm so sorry. Why not go sailing so that you can take you mind off it. We can catch up on old times. Remember that dream we had on the boat? That we would be great pirate captains some day. Together, we would be the greatest sailors on the high seas. Now we can follow through! This is what we have always wanted." Nalleo said with growing excitement.
Rakhgi looked up, eyes dry and red. "Of course, why would I say no?"
They walked off together and as they reached Nalleo's room Nalleo said "well you can sleep in the extra room. Father and I were granted this four room suite and its very- I FORGOT ABOUT DAD!"
Thats it for now. R&R. If you suggestthemes in your reviews I can try to work them in, because I don't have any set direction for it in the near future. Peace. -Author(thats me!)
