Note: to start things off, this of course is a pilot chapter and whether I continue doing this or not depends on the viewers.
Silas X Rinkah
C+
Gods, it's hot in this uniform, Silas thought to himself. He understood how Hoshidan's were use to the bright and warm climates compared to Nohr's dark and moody weather, but gods, he was sweating like a kitsune! He was tempted to remove his helmet and face mask to wipe off the sweat, but decided against it with the risk of blowing his cover. How do Hoshidans even stand the itch from this wool?
Thankfully, Silas didn't have to wait too long for him to answer his own question. Suddenly, a powerful force slammed into him from behind; forcing out a surprised "oomf!" as he was thrown to the ground on his chest. He quickly tried to regain his bearings and turn over, but two incredibly strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and flipped him onto his back. Silas was blinded by the sunlight as his hand felt along his side for his weapon, but the assailant saw this and placed a knee on his triceps; pinning his arm to the ground while the other pressed down uncomfortably into his chest. Now immobile and defenseless, the young Nohrian knight waited helplessly as the attacker ripped off his helmet and face mask. By now, Silas didn't need to wait for his vision to clear up to see who it was holding him to the ground and burst out into laughter.
"Aha!" Rinkah exclaimed in triumph. "You didn't think you could actually hide from me again this time, did you?"
Silas raised up his free arm in surrender, but held a toothy grin. "Ok, ok, you got me. And I have to say, I'm impressed."
The young flame Oni warrior smirked. "You've got that right! Who's the best predator? I am!"
"Yup. No doubt about that." Silas' smile wavered as he let out an uncomfortable grunt. "So, uh, about my chest, I kinda need to breathe. And this uniform isn't making it any easier either." Rinkah stood and watched as the Nohrian knight pushed himself up and wiped the sweat from his face. "Phew, glad that's finally over with. So, how'd you finally catch me this time?"
She shrugged. "I talked to the troops to tell me where you'd run off to. Then they all helped me..." her smirk fades completely and was quickly replaced with a defeated look of realization. "...look for you... oh no..." the she gritted her teeth in anguish and shook her head as she placed it in the palm of her hand. "Don't tell me you were trying to get me to talk to people this entire time."
Silas held out both fists as though he was preparing to be handcuffed. "Guilty as charged! And I figured it would work since you'd do anything to win."
Rinkah gripped her club at both ends as though she were about to snap it in half. "I don't believe this...!"
"Hey, come on now," Silas urged. "It wasn't that bad, was it? I mean, you did have fun though, right?"
Her face radiated with heat as her grip grew tighter and her knuckles began to whiten. "Hrrrrrrrrgh..." Silas' face paled and was about to beeline sprint in the opposite direction until Rinkah let out a deep and heavy sigh. "You're right."
"R-really?" the young knight exhaled in relief.
She nodded. "I did have fun. I... I even got to talking to a bunch of people while I was out looking for you. Even the ones I hated turned out turned out to be alright once I got to know them."
Silas grinned from ear to ear. "That's great! See, I knew you were an easy-going person once I got you to break out of your shell."
Rinkah scolded at him. "Yeah, you got me there. But now, it's my turn."
"Is that so?" Silas chuckled. "Well ok then. But I'll have you know, this type of Predator and Prey was child's play compared to Nohr's knight training regiment-."
"Oh, we're not going to play Predator and Prey." she cut him off.
"Come again?"
"An eye for an eye. I've played your game, and now you have to play mine."
"And what is that exactly?" Silas asked confidently.
"It's something my tribe likes to call, 'Dancing in the Fire.'"
Nodding in admiration, Silas asked, "So what are the rules? Do you just tread on, like, some burning coal or something to see who can stand it the longest?"
"Don't be stupid, of course not. We may contribute to the god of fire, but we're still only human. No, back home in an event when two tribesman want to settle a heated dispute with one another, they will each pick two weapons of their choosing and settle it in the ring."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Silas took a step back. "You're not saying that you're actually upset enough to fight me to the death for a stunt like that, are you?"
"Oh, it's not a fight to the death." Rinkah smiled flatly. "We just merely make blows deep enough to draw blood, but not to an extent where it's life-threatening. At least, sometimes."
"You cannot be serious."
"Like I said, an eye for an eye. You have thirty minutes to meet me on the training ground outside the castle. If you don't show up, no hard feelings. It will just be another story to share with my Chieftain when I return home."
The Norhian Knight remained rooted to the ground in shock as the Oni warrior slung her club and began making her way towards the gates. And it wasn't until several moments later when he'd snapped out of his trance and called out after her, "wait a minute, that's not an eye for an eye, that's more like an eye for a limb."
I-I-I-I-I
"Well, well, I'm surprised you showed up." Rinkah smugged.
"And I'm surprised you're actually still serious about this." Silas sighed as he stretched out. Thank the gods he'd barely had enough time to change into his own personal armor. "So is this what your tribe does during their free time?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Come on, you know," the knight said as he practice-swung his spear. "like whenever you're not training, keeping a bonfire ablaze, or killing people, what do you do for fun?"
"This is what I do for fun." she answered, using her club as training weight for stretching her arms. "the Flame Tribe is an independent society. We do not give large kingdoms any sort of currency for their protection; nor do we even need it. Because of this, every tribesman is born to be trained as a warrior. We look out for our own, and even though our laws forbids us from interacting with outsiders, we do have a desire for peace, which is why we are closely tied with Hoshido. And with the threat of Nohr being at our doorstep any day, we are like a scorpion surrounded by a swarm of ants. We are powerful as one, but eventually the endless numbers will tear us apart. There is not a single day that can be spared for any of your 'free time'. There's only train, fight and live or die."
That's when it clicked in Silas' head. "I... I never knew that."
Rinkah scoffed. "Of course you didn't," she responded harshly, then paused for a second as though she was having second thoughts and quickly added, "it's not your fault. I know you didn't mean to sound all high above me. A lot of things within my tribe remains a mystery to outsiders because of our laws and practices." She shook her head. "But enough wasting breaths. Raise your weapon."
Silas let out a hopeless sigh and brought his spear into a defensive stance. "Whenever you're ready." Without another word, Rinkah nodded as she twirled her club from one hand to the other, hunched forward into an attacking position, and charged forward.
Rinkah let out a bellowed war cry as she swung her club down in an arc, only for it to be easily parried by Silas' spear with a quick flick of his wrist, giving him the upper-hand for a counterattack. But before he could even bring his spear up to do so, Rinkah'd used her momentum from the swing to bring up her leg into a roundhouse kick; forcing the knight to ditch his counterattack plan and ducked beneath the Oni warrior's powerful leg. She swung again, and this time Silas met with it head-on, using both hands to stop the blow in its tracks, and was surprised by the shock wave that rippled through both limbs as the weapons collided. She's stronger than I thought. Much stronger in fact.
He needed to change tactics. Staying on the defense won't likely tire her out. Much less even tire him out first, and he wasn't sure if his own strength was on par with hers. He needed to find a flaw in her attack strategy. And fast.
Over the next several minutes, with each strike, dodge, parry and blow, both combatants already felt themselves beginning to tire. If either had been battling lesser soldiers, they could've had enough energy to go on through the night and day. But because the two were trying their best not to land a fatal hit and both were at equal strength, it certainly made the fight a whole lot tougher. Silas was now having a harder time staying mobile now that his left leg received a well-placed hit in the quad. But he could see Rinkah beginning to wince as the fight dragged on; now with her dominant arm bruised from the smacking it received from the blunt end of his spear; now making it his primary target.
It wasn't until after a few more moments when the tribeswoman became fed up, suddenly crying out, "Ugh, that's it!" At first, Silas thought she'd meant it as a way of surrendering, but immediately thought better of it knowing that Rinkah was willing to drop dead before she-.
Then an idea pooped into his head. An insane one in fact, that if he screwed it up, it would put him in heap amount of trouble. But he had put too much focus into his scheme that he didn't even notice Rinkah jumping into the air and drop-kicked him square in the chest. If it weren't for his armor, his chest would have probably caved in from the force that sent him flying back a solid ten feet away.
Short of breath and still clutching his spear which he'd used for support, he climbed back onto his feet as fast as his legs would allow. He feebly got back into a defensive stance, on guard for Rinkah's next onslaught. But instead, he was surprised to see her actually moving away from him as she withdrew an item from her carrier sack strapped to her back. Upon seeing the item, the Nohrian night recognized what it was immediately as he raised his spear again.
Runes in the shape of a pentagon glowed on the ground around Rinkah as she opened up the scroll. Red smoke of energy began to form and combine in front of her; growing bigger and bigger until it took the shape and size of an ox. Once the summoning of the spirit had been complete, she let it loose.
Silas had extremely little time to react, but it was enough. Rather than jumping out of the way, he lunged forward at the spirit with his good leg, planting the blunt end of the spear to the ground and vaulted into the air. He was barely able to bring his weapon up with him as the ox's spirit passed underneath him and dissipated into nothing. Somehow, Silas had managed to land back on the ground with his good leg and quickly tried to get back into the ready position, but Rinkah, letting out another battle cry, was already charging forward with her club raised and swung.
This was exactly what Silas had been waiting for. He waited until the very last possible second before he raised his spear for another full head-on collision. But this time, instead of the stopping the club like last time, it broke completely through; leaving the knight with one-half of a spear in each hand. Breathing heavily, Rinkah smiled tiredly as she began to think that victory was near. But what Silas did next left her dumbfounded and caught completely off guard.
"Aha!" He exclaimed, gripping both ends of the spear in a comfortable position and took the battle to her. Now at a disadvantage of having to battle against two separate weapons, the tribeswoman tried desperately to keep up with her heavy club as Silas made quick, fast strikes. "Hey... Rinkah...," he called with whatever breath he could muster, "you know... another game that... my friends... and I played... to become knights?"
Rinkah snarled, "I'm sure I'd love to hear about it."
This is it. "It's called..." he began as he smacked the sore spot on his opponent's arm, forcing her to back off just long enough for him to finish. "drop dead!" With that last word, Silas wound back his arm holding the spear-head, and tossed it high into the air. Rinkah completely took her attention of Silas as she watched the spear-head go straight up; giving him enough time to toss aside the blunt end and draw his sword.
Now completely disoriented, the Oni warrior could do nothing but back away and try her best to block each of his strikes. By the time the spear finally began to descend, Rinkah had lost her footing and began to fall back. Adrenaline like nothing the Nohrian knight had ever experienced before shot into his veins as he made a desperate lunge forward; tackling Rinkah and briefly picking her up before tumbling to the ground just as the spear head plunged into the spot on the ground where she would've fallen.
Both were gasping with shock and pouring with sweat as Silas turned his head to see where the spear had landed. However, Rinkah, who was still pinned underneath him when he'd tackled her, let out an outraged bellow as she kicked his legs out from beneath him, giving her the leverage she needed to throw him off onto his back, pinning him down for the second time that day, withdrew a dagger from her thigh strap and placed it at his throat. "You rotten Norhian filth!" She growled. "You almost had me killed!"
"Hey, hey, now hold on one second," Silas countered, "that's a little unfair accusation for someone who was about to have me run over by an ox and almost bash my head in!"
"Tha- that's..." she tried desperately to get out.
"Rinkah..." the young man spoke calmly and smoothly. "It's alright," he assured her, "I would never let anything happen to you."
Still breathing heavily in exhaustion, the two locked eyes for a brief moment before Rinkah slowly removed the dagger from his throat. "That was..." she muttered, "that was fun."
Silas gave her a weak smile and sat up. "Yeah, it sure was. I learned a hell of a lot from that match."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Such as?"
"Such as making sure not to get on your bad side. Although..." He lumbered onto his feet and held out his hand. "Having the honor to train with you is what made me truly feel alive."
From the ground, the tribeswoman simply gazed as his hand, but in all rare events, she swallowed her pride, reached out and took it. When he pulled her up, Rinkah exhaled sharply in pain as she placed a hand over her right triceps, and lifting it back up to see it covered in blood. "Ugh, damn it all."
"Heh, must've happened when we went tumbling." Silas inferred, "Looks like we'll have to get it looked at. We'll go see Sakura and-."
"No," she interrupted, stopped, and spoke awkwardly. "I mean, it's not that serious. Besides, I have bandages in my bag. So there no need..."
He nodded in understanding, "you don't have to explain. I know you're not in the best mood to be hanging around people right now, and I'm not going to pester you over it anymore today." Silas was about to turn and head back towards the castle until Rinkah grabbed his forearm with her good hand.
"Wait," she stopped him, and took a breath, "I- I want you to stick around. There's... there's some things that I wanted to ask you."
The Knight's eyes lit up. "If that's what you request, then by all means."
I-I-I-I-I
"So this game, Predator and Prey," Rinkah began, "you mentioned it was actually child's play compared to what it was like in training."
"Spot on," Silas confirmed, as he began wrapping the bandage over the wound.
"So what was it actually like?" She inquired.
"Try to keep still," he told her. "Well, to start off, it's a popular game for children of Nohr. You have one person who is the predator while everyone else who is the prey run around while the predator tries to catch them. But, you know, excluding the part where you try to tackle them and try to rip their head off."
For the first time, Silas witnessed Rinkah give a proud and joyful laugh. "I- I'm sorry about that. I was, how would you put it, 'caught in the spur of the moment'?"
He chuckled. "Spot on again. And as it goes for training purposes, it's actually quite long and grueling."
"Sounds like my type of game."
Silas shrugged. "I can see that. Anyhow, instead of having one predator and multiple prey, you have to spend three days in the middle of nowhere with only one ration of food while trying to avoid a search party. And if you happen to get caught, they'll beat the everliving pulp out of you, tie your leg to a horse and drag you all the way back to camp."
She scoffs. "So were you either of the two? Did you ever get caught?"
"Oh yeah, twice. I'd been caught, beaten, dragged, and beaten some more. Everybody had to play both roles in the game. It was meant to teach us to let go of what little luxury you could possibly have and accept the fact you have to do almost whatever it takes to survive. Back then, I thought it was one of the worst times of my life. But now, looking back at it, I kinda miss it."
"What about family? Parents maybe? Do you miss them?"
Shrugging, he replied, "I was an only child. My parents and I were never close. Honestly, it seems unfair that unlike a lot of children who grew up without them, and yet when mine were at my side, we just never really... clicked."
Rinkah nodded. "I could say the same for my father."
Silas raised a brow. "What about him?"
Rinkah shook her head. "It's complicated. Besides, it shouldn't even concern you."
"Ah, no you don't." Silas scolded. "I get you're supposed to be preserved and whatnot, but you're definitely not going to bring something up and just back out of it like nothing was ever said." He sighed. "Look, I can see how curious and full of wonder you are with the outside world. You try so hard to abide by your laws, but yet your curiosity is now starting to overtake your sense of morale. And sometimes you can't help it. But now with the war going on, it would mean an awful lot for me to know exactly what it is that makes you what you turn out to be in life. And it all starts with with breaking out of that eggshell."
Rinkah's expression remained neutral and said nothing for a lengthy moment. And Silas was just about to give up before she let out a deep, heavy sigh and spoke dejectedly, "My father, our very own Chieftain, broke one of the tribe's most sacred rules." Silas had just finished placing the bandage when she took his wrist into her hand. Her gaze locks into his with deadpanned eyes and resumed in a stern voice, "My mother was not of our tribe. My father saved her when she was on the brink of death: cold, hurt, and alone. He brought her back with him, and as she healed and grew strong again, the feeling that my father had felt when he first met her grew and grew until it finally became clear and obvious to everyone that he'd fallen for an outsider."
It all started to make sense now. "Wait, hold on," Silas questioned, "if he'd broken a divine law, and much less have a child, how is he still the Chieftain of your tribe?"
"That's where things start getting complicated." Rinkah sighed, and stood. "Listen, thank you... for everything."
"What, that's it?" Silas followed, "after all of that, you're just going to leave all of it hanging off a cliff just like that?"
"I'm truly sorry, Silas," Rinkah shook her head. "you were the first person other than my mother that I've opened up to. I want to tell you more but... just not today."
"Then when is it going to be...?" He urged, "Rinkah, you know I would do anything within my own limits and beyond to make sure my friends don't have to suffer. You can't keep isolating yourself like this! What would happen when-."
"Silas," She stopped him, placing a firm hand on his chest, "there will be a time. I promise. Everything you've taught me today was not in vain. It pains me to even say it, but I just don't... know you yet to tell you everything."
His heart sank. "Rinkah..."
"Thank you, Silas. Truly. For everything." Without another word, she scurried off, leaving a confused, yet determined Silas behind as the sun began to dip under the horizon.
