Chapter Five:
Surprise!!
A few hours after the terrible dinner, Guy was back in his tent (after chasing Matthew for the past few hours around the whole camp.) As soon as he got back to his tent he went straight to his cot and fell into a dead sleep.
But also a troubled sleep.
He was having the nightmare again. He had had it countless times before and they were always worse.
In his mind Guy was back at his home in Sacae. At first he couldn't believe it but when he felt the wind on his face and the smell of fresh grass, he was completely immersed in his dream.
The sun was high up in the sky and there were little to no clouds in the sky. The azure horizon had him enchanted in and instant. The grass rippled like an ocean at the most slightest breeze.
In the distance, he could see his family's ger. He raced over there, hardly able to tell them of his adventures while he was gone. He couldn't wait to tell his father how much he had improved in his sword skills.
As close as the ger seemed, Guy could never get close to it. He kept running and running and it still looked like he was in the same place. The sky went from sapphire to the red at dusk. The grass around him withered and died, all brown and crispy.
Finally, Guy was at the entrance of the ger. He was hit by a sudden sense of foreboding. Where had all the noise gone? Usually he could hear his sister talking or his mother making food or anything. Instead it was dead quiet. Not even the wind blew.
A crow cawed in the distance, startling him. Then he noticed the color of the tent flap. Was it really that crimson or was it the setting sun's light?
With a shaky hand and a pounding heart, Guy slowly grabbed the ger flap. His breathing was shaky, he gripped the flap. Then with a violent motion he pulled down.
His eyes widened, his breath now coming out in quick gasps. Then he slowly opened his mouth and…
Guy woke up gasping. Then he realized that he was in his tent. He changed his gasps into a sigh and sat up, wearily rubbing his eyes. He put a now firm hand over his eyes.
"Why must you haunt me so?" he asked himself softly. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
There was a rustle behind him.
Guy whipped around, throwing a punch a punch blindly…
And his face met with a flash of bronze.
He fell, asleep before he even hit the ground. This time he slept dreamlessly.
Guy woke up with a splitting headache and a sore nose.
"Ow," he muttered as he gingerly sat up. He tenderly touched his nose. As expected, a sharp pain coursed through his head as soon as he touched it.
Yep, most definitely broken.
His mind was hazy from last night. Guy tried hard to remember why his nose hurt so much. The splitting headache didn't help. He had dinner and went back to his tent. He woke up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare and then… and then…
Guy sat bolt upright. He had been attacked! Somebody had tried to kill him! He needed to tell the lords at once.
Guy got out of bed, not caring that he was only wearing his night clothes. As soon as he got up his headache worsened and he had to take a few deep breaths to make the world stop spinning. Then, he quickly opened his tent flap.
The sun seemed unusually bright today. Guy had to squint like a mole to look through the blinding glare.
"Hey Guy, why are you out in your night clothes?"
Guy turned around to see Matthew walking nonchalantly towards him with a piece of toast in his mouth.
"Matthew, listen to me," Guy said quickly, grabbing his collar. As soon as he grabbed him though, his headache intensified. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he was ready he continued.
"Somebody tried to kill me in the middle of the night, Matthew!" he said, but he said it so fast it sounded like he was babbling.
Matthew lifted an eyebrow, he looked amused. "Really now?" he said indifferently.
"Matthew I'm serious! Somebody attacked me in my sleep, and I have a headache and broken nose to testify for me!" Guy said, angry that Matthew wasn't taking him seriously.
"You weren't exactly asleep were you? You had a pretty scary nightmare from what I heard."
"Matthew, forget about my nightmare!" Guy replied heatedly. "We have to warn Lord Eliwood, and Lady Lyndis, and— he stopped realizing something Matthew had just said.
"Wait a minute, how did you know I had a nightmare?" he asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at Matthew.
Matthew grinned albeit sheepishly. "I'm sorry about your nose Guy; I didn't mean to break it."
Guy lunged for Matthew, tackling him to the ground. The toast flew out of his hand and landed on the ground. He furiously grabbed Matthew's neck and gripped on tight.
"Matthew, what the hell were you thinking?! Attacking me in the middle of the night?!" he asked furiously.
Matthew answered, "Aghh…Ugah…Oaahh."
Guy loosened his grip slightly, but not enough for Matthew to like it.
"Guy you need to lighten up," he said when he had gotten sufficient enough air into his windpipe.
"Lighten up?!" Guy repeated angrily and bewilderedly. "You just tried to kill me and you tell me to lighten up?!"
"Guy, a frying pan never killed anyone before."
Now this time Guy was confused. "You hit me with a frying pan?" he asked dumbly.
"Yup, I borrowed one form Lowen. I just wanted to win the oath paper but you just happened to wake up at that time."
Guy was still confused. "What oath paper?" he asked.
Matthew rolled his eyes. "Duel, stakes, oath paper," he said simply.
Then Guy remembered. "Oh yeah, the oath paper," he said. "Wait a minute, you attacked me with a frying pan in the middle of the night because of the oath paper?" he asked perplexedly.
"Yep, and I won. Tell you the truth Guy, you weren't much of an opponent," Matthew responded gleefully.
"What the—Matthew you attacked me in my sleep just to get something as trivial as that?" Guy asked furiously.
"Hey we 'greed on it. If I beat you in a duel, then you would owe me the favors. You didn't put up much of a resistance. Then again, snoring opponents never give much resistance," Matthew remarked.
"But you can't just—it's not— Guy couldn't speak, so great his anger was.
"Hey, it's not my fault you let me choose the time of our duel. You were way too overconfident, matey!"
Guy found his hand's creeping towards Matthew's throat again.
Matthew must've saw them too because he said, "Whoa now Guy, I thought you said that the people of Sacae never lied. How do you expect to be a great warrior if you can't even handle one simple surprise attack?"
Guy's anger reached the tipping point. He was about to choke him again when suddenly the anger left him. His shoulders slumped dejectedly. Matthew was right; he had let him choose the time of their fight. He had been too overconfident, thinking the thief would never make up the nerve to challenge him.
"Hell Matthew, what have you got yourself in this time?" said a rather irritated voice from above.
Guy and Matthew both looked up to see Matthew's lord, Hector standing in front of them. He wore a rather large amount of armor on his bulky body and he had a broad axe strapped to his back. His eyes were narrowed in annoyance at Matthew.
"Hey, Guy, I know Matthew's a pain in the rear end, but I'm short of vassals right now and I appreciate it if you didn't strangle him," Hector said.
Guy reluctantly got off Matthew and helped him up.
"Well, now that that's over, you owe me three favors," Matthew said happily. Guy glowered darkly at him.
"Alright you two break it up," Hector said exasperatedly. "Matthew go meet me in Eliwood's tent, we need to talk to you about something. Guy, for Elmine's sake put on some clothes."
Guy went red with embarrassment when he realized that he was still in his night clothes. He scowled darkly at Matthew one more time. "I'll get you," he muttered sinisterly.
Matthew was unfazed. Instead he replied, "Don't you have an appointment with that Karel guy today?" he asked.
Guy jumped. He had completely forgotten! He quickly ran back into the tent and threw on some clothes. When he stepped out, Matthew and Hector were gone
A sudden thought hit him. He hadn't had breakfast yet. The last time he had skipped a meal he nearly starved to death. He pushed the thought out of his mind; there were more important things at hand.
He ran to the small forest behind his tent, the place where Karel had agreed to train him. As he ran, a tree branch whipped his cheek, stinging like hell. But he continued on, determined to start the training.
Finally, he ran into the clearing, gasping and sweating. Skipping breakfast had not been a good idea.
"You're late, pup," said a familiar voice in front of him.
Guy kept his eyes on the ground, in reverence to him. "I'm sorry master, I was held up by my tent mate," he said.
"Already making excuses, I see," said a feminine voice from above.
Guy looked up in confusion. Who had said that?
Soon his question was answered. From a nearby tree a person dropped.
"Guy, I'd like you to meet my sister, Karla. Karla this is my pupil, Guy," Karel said indifferently.
"I'm honored," Guy said bowing in her direction.
He could see the resemblance in the two. They both had the same long raven black hair, and the both had the same piercing gray eyes. But Karla's face seemed slightly softer than her brother's harsh face. She wore a dress commonly worn by the people of the Djute clan, a gray shirt with an equally gray dress, with modest vents at the side. She had a curved sword strapped to her waist.
"Brother this is a waste of time," said Karla to her brother. "It's obvious that this little boy is hardly better than average. Look at him, he's already panting from running.
Guy bristled at the insult. Who did she think she was talking to, a child? Instead, though he bit his tongue and asked his master, "Sir, what are we going to do today?"
"I must first gauge your experience so far, so I have asked," here Karla glared at her brother. He ignored her and continued, " so I have asked, my darling sister here to test you of your current abilities. You two will duel."
"Why can't you just test me yourself?" Guy asked confusedly.
"Because he doesn't need to," Karla said snottily. "You're obviously out of his league. If you fought him he'd most likely end up killing you. I won't kill you but I probably will leave you for the worst."
Guy was starting to seriously dislike Karla now.
Karel looked bored. "Guy if you please, stand over there," he said, pointing to a tree a little to the left of him.
Guy complied, drawing out his sword as he did so. He turned around and faced Karla, getting in a battle stance.
"Will see who is the better one, soon," Guy thought vindictively. He couldn't wait to wipe the confident expression on her face.
She drew out her sword but she held it laxly in her left hand. She hadn't even lifted it. Guy's anger intensified and he gripped his sword tighter.
They stared at each other for a long time, his emerald eyes glaring at her gray ones. The clearing had gone silent, nobody moved. Even the animals seemed to sense the tenseness of the situation. Karel stood to the side, his face impassive. A small breeze whipped up everyone's hair.
Suddenly, a bird burst loudly out of the trees, cawing loudly as it went. Guy jumped, startled, his concentration broken. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Karla tense up and come at his as a blur.
"IDIOT," he thought as he quickly blocked her lunge. He caught a look of surprise on her face before she backed away. Then as another blur she attacked him from the side. Guy barely sidestepped her stab. He leapt back from her slash, but the tip of her sword grazed him, tearing off some cloth.
'I can't keep dodging, I need to go on the offensive,' he thought desperately. He parried her next slash and tried to stab her. His thrust was too overzealous. He may have well been trying to stab air because one moment she was there, the next she was gone. He nearly tripped but righted himself at the last moment.
Suddenly, he heard a swooshing sound behind him. He whipped around, his jade hair getting into his face. He scarcely had enough time to block her strike. Again he saw a surprised look on her face. She leapt back, this time with a wary look on her face.
'Damn it,' he thought, angrily. 'I can't go on the offensive or the defensive, so what the hell am I going to do?' he thought urgently. The answer came to him like a bolt of lightning. 'I need her to make a mistake,' he thought.
He began to act tired and desperate, his breaths coming out in short gasps. She sensed her opportunity and attacked him viciously. Guy stalled until the very last moment to block her. Still, her stroke came very close to cleaving off his head.
He continued to play the charade as she grew more and more confident. Her strokes became sloppier as she sensed victory was not far off. He stalled until the very last moment to block her attacks but that was still dangerous. One stab grazed his arm and stung continuously.
Then he pretended to collapse to one knee, lowering his head and breathing heavily. He saw her walk over to him slowly and confidently. Then when she reached him she raised her sword over her head, leaving her whole body open to an attack. Guy took the opening and quickly leapt up and stabbed at her stomach, sensing his victory.
His sword met with her sword.
'SHIT,' he thought angrily. He had blown his chance of winning. He tried to cover up his mistake and attacked her again, but before he knew it she had grabbed him from behind and positioned her sword around his neck.
'I win,' she said coolly. Guy gripped his sword tighter in anger. He inwardly cursed himself for being such an idiot and cursed her.
Then, she did something surprising. She let go of him. He spun around expecting another insult, but instead she sheathed her sword and bowed.
"It seems I was mistaken by you," she said. "You are certainly a good fighter. I can see why my brother is interested in you." She straightened up and looked him in the eye. "You have earned this warrior's respect."
Guy was left bewildered. Even though he had lost, he felt like he had at least won this battle. He quickly bowed back at her. "This was a good fight even though I lost," he said respectfully. "I am honored to have fought you."
She simply nodded at him. Then she turned around addressing her brother. "If that's all brother, I must be gone. I have another appointment with another warrior who would just love to best me," she said unperturbedly.
Karel nodded. "Go," he said simply. Karla turned around and once more bowed at Guy. Then she left the clearing. Guy watched her go. She was certainly filled with surprises.
"Well, I must say, I had doubts about you first," Guy turned around to face his master. "But I admit you handled yourself well enough against her," Karel said. "I think you will be a most worthy opponent once I'm done training you."
Guy bowed, humbled. This was the first compliment his master had paid him.
"We will start with your real lessons tomorrow," Karel continued. "In the mean time you'd better rest up because my training is what you could call…" he paused searching for the word. "Unmerciful," he finished.
Guy was disappointed. He was hoping he could start his training right away. Instead he swallowed his disappointment and turned to leave.
"Oh yes, I forgot," Karel said. Guy turned around again. "Before tomorrow's lesson I want you to cut your hair."
"What?!" Guy yelled appalled. Cut his hair? It was one of his best prides. "B-But sir," he stammered. "W-Why do I need to cut it?"
"Because, your hair will only get in the way while you are fighting an enemy. You don't need another hindrance on the battlefield," he said apathetically.
"B-but sir," Guy said trying to find an excuse. "Your hair is just as long as mine. In fact it's longer. Why do you not need to cut yours?"
"I believe we were talking about your hair not mine," Karel responded coolly. He turned around walking out of the clearing. "Do not forget, I want that hair cut by tomorrow," he called out to him, unsympathetically, leaving a perplexed Guy all alone in the clearing.