Chapter 3

Evanlyn felt sad as she walked away from Will, she could still see his rueful expression in her mind when she told him she didn't want to watch. Personally she was still confused about everything and she felt that staying away from Will at the moment was the right thing for her. Her thought process got disfigured when he was around and this was a good a time as any to catch up with Horace anyway she thought to herself. They had pretty much been seeing each other everyday since Will had decided to punish himself into practising day and night literally. About 100 metres away she could see a huge bulky figure unsheathing a heavy broad headed sword with the utmost ease, that definitely had to be Horace, and his opponent an equally massive tattooed Skandian slicing his axe through the air menacingly, was making offensive gestures at him to get his blood boiling. But good as that technique may be (especially since Skandians were one of hot tempers) Horace was not angered or fooled by his opponent's attempts. Instead Horace opted to smile, a smile that showed he was not fooled and a smile with complete confidence at his craft ability without it bordering on to cockiness. Horace saw Ulfak frown with confusion and could tell that this was his opponents one moment of vulnerability and attacked in a serious of deadly fast coordinated movements that had the unfortunate Ulfak swinging his axe desperately, attempting to block his opponent but failing miserably. Every time he managed to block one stroke another appeared out of no where. He was forced to the point where he had to yield, shaming himself in front of his fellow crew mates who were jeering in disappointment at him now. He shook hands roughly with the young lad that had come to beat him and looked into his eyes expecting to see a boastful expression that he had become used to when other Skandians had beat him in a clash before, but this young man had no intention of showing off it was as if that thought never even occurred to him instead Horace had sympathy for Ulfak who now had to go back and get teased by his comrades. This match had lasted several minutes longer than normal sword fights and Horace could tell that he only won because of his opponents confusion so it never did good to boast he thought to himself. As he was pouring water from his leather bag over his head to cool himself off he saw Evanlyn was already sat down on a patch of grass watching him with slight awe. He blushed a little, ever since he had been an apprentice he had been used to some female company but he didn't spend enough time with them to feel completely at ease so he shambled his way along the field in which he had been practising until he found himself in front of her. He sat down beside her a little awkwardly.

"That was really good I would never have thought you were an apprentice believe me" Evanlyn said with astonishment.

"Thanks I try to practise whenever I can you know, what with Will making me feel like a fop."

"Yeah he's practically killing himself with all that training"

"But you know he really has improved, I saw Halt watching him the other day and he even nodded with approval now when Halt does that it means a good thing believe me." Horace had added from personal experience with Halt in Gallica. He smiled a little at those times.

"What?" Evanlyn asked. She was a naturally curious girl, maybe not so much as Will but still enough to not want to stay out of the loop.

"Nothing I was just thinking about when Halt and I joined together in search of you and Will"

"Yeah I sure am glad about that, especially when you saved me from that creep of a man that was about to kill me" she added.

"Yeah but that was only once I mean Will has saved your life a lot more than I have."

"That's true." Evanlyn murmured. She had never thought of it that way since Will had just been addicted to drugs but on Skorghijl he saved her life plenty of times even if it wasn't the typical hero way Horace had done, and with that she also realised she had never thanked him the way she had when Horace saved her.

"Hey do you wanna walk I mean I'm bloody freezing" Horace asked, it was still the early days of Spring and now and then sudden gusts of bitter wind would make its way to the country and it didn't help that Horace was drenched in icy water that he had poured over himself.

"Yeah you probably should have thought about that before you emptied your water bag over your head like a numpty." Evanlyn replied jokingly.

"Ha true that, true that" Horace replied matter of factly. They both laughed in unison and made their way slowly enjoying each others company to where they both knew Will to be practising.