Chapter 17: Swords-girl of an eastern land.
Merely a trio of days had passed since the squire had left for the modern eastern lands, and he was already met with a difficult choice.
Take the sword? Or leave it to it's peace in the tree trunk?
It was like a curved sword that he had seen before, but everything else about it was different. The blades of curved swords are not as thin as this one stuck in the trunk, and usually hilts aren't as decorated as this one. It was white and black, but had black markings that could have been text, yet was either a completely different language, or was written in dire conditions.
There was a sound in a nearby forest during his pilgrimage. Fearing an animal's life in danger, he departed for an investigation. It was family tradition that animals would be treated as if they were legends, elderly relatives often preached the possibilities that could be achieved by this belief.
The squire's sister dearest was a prime example, she had once expressed a love for foxes. It made sense, the girl was a sly one. Though, she might just had a talent for theivery. A prominent one. When he arrived, the sword was stuck in a tree overlooking a further expanse of greenery.
As the knight in training thought about his time as a simple child, the sound of quick footsteps was non-existent for him
"Stop! Don't go any closer!" The voice was feminine, young sounding.
The suddenness had frightened the squire, and he shook with surprise, before turning around.
A girl with similar features was pointing her outstretched index finger at him. The girl's hair was a dark black, same as her eyes. Two bundles of hair stretched to her shoulders, curving towards them. The rest of her is what you imagine it to be.
The girl certainly looked irritated, then slowly stomped to the embedded sword.
When she put her two hands on the hilt, her face squished together. A light grunt, and the rest of the blade emerged from the pierced trunk.
Now he remembered, that style of craftsmanship was origin to the eastern lands, the kind that had existed within Lordran far before the discovery of angels and devils.
The stranger rest her head on the violated bark of the tree, sighing in exhaustion.
This form of Tristan, being the one before his extensive hours of thought about his place in society, had attempted to cheer the girl. But it seemed that she was quicker in conversation.
"Sorry about that, I just wanted to get this back." She hid the length of the steel within a black sheathe. "What's your name?" She politely asked him.
As one who had been so attracted to attention, a response was quick to form.
"My name is Tristan, what is yours?" His voice was bright, young and untainted by the realization of existence. The girl sat on a nearby rock shaded with leaves and rest her hands on the back of her head. Tristan lowered to the grass to rest, not that he needed it
"Oh, me? Name's Asane, nice to meet." Asane twinkled a friendly smile his way, and answered a question that formed in his head.
"I was fighting someone...and...well...my sword got hit and was launched all the way here...hehehe." To further her point, or maybe to rest her irritation, the word 'all' was extended, and accompanied with a stretch of her arms. Asane followed with another line.
"I'm guessing you're from Lordran?" She as still shining at him.
"Yes, I've lived my whole life there, how did you know?" Tristan finished questioningly. Her answer was already prepared "Well, your sword is completely straight, and you have a shield. Shields aren't used much where I come from."
"The eastern lands...right?" She closed her eyes and smirked pleasantly, like a noble being worshiped by a peasant.
"Of course! No other land has swords like ours. If you couldn't tell from my name, we have very different names, you know." Asane folded her arms in smugness at this.
"So...what are you doing out here? In these forests? You obviously don't look like a hunter, unless that's what your kind of hunters look like!" Her complacent eyes opened and upturned humorously while her hands appeared at her sides, the cause for being her own contagious laughter.
After a sigh meant to clear the mirth that threatened to escape into his sentence, he spoke up. "No, I'm not a hunter. The Lord of Sunlight has sent me on a journey to the new east!"
She seemed uninterested at the mention of the place, and spouted her own reasons. "Well, I'm just traveling the land, in search of strong opponents, and that last person didn't fight fair, he was invisible you know! I killed him in the end though. Past that spell, he was actually really weak, I snapped his neck without any kind of resistance." Asane ended with boredom, followed by her hands lifting to solidify the spook's weakness.
A tiny sigh of disbelief and confirmation escaped the squire. Outside the walls of kingdoms, to be strong is equal to surviving. Tristan continued his tale, leaning in.
"But here's the exciting part," He folded his arms. "I'm going to meet with an angel, to represent Lordran!" Asane's eyes opened as if she had just been sliced in half, and her hands fell limp to her sides, flopping like the bodies of the dead.
It was this day, that Tristan met his killer for the first time.
The squire and the eastern student had decided to share a bonfire together, as well as the stars within that shone in the endless black night. The early morning had arrived early for him.
They had slept in the same place they had met, the striving knight leant against a tree trunk, while the new friend lay herself to rest after he fell asleep.
But at some point in the nighttime, the squire had strayed from the bark of the tree, becoming a flat body on the outlook.
Tristan shifted from his position, discovering a weight on him. Thinking it was a peaceful animal, the squire ordered a single hand to slowly push it off.
"Sho- your-wake then?" The sound of crunches interrupted each word. Inching his eyes open, the boy found that the weight was in fact Asane sitting as if he was nothing but a stool to rest on. She looked at him, boredom across her face, still munching.
"Are those mine?" Early morning voice forced it's effect on his tone. The young girl ceased her movements, searching for a way out of the situation.
"Erm...heheh...no?" Asane weakly answered. The boy remained as her stool for the time being, wiping the sleep from his eyes. After a long, comfortable silence, with the eastern girl sitting on his heaving front, she started a string.
"Last night's practice match was pretty fun wasn't it? I got so many hits on you, hehe~." Asane was reffering to a mix of culture in the form of a short brawl. The reason Tristan decided to remain as her seat for now, was that he had over-exerted himself into trying to chase the opponent, leaving him helpless when he weakly swung. It was with a friendly grin that the girl jabbed parts of her body into his torso after moving only an inch to dodge.
"That was not fun."
"You're just mad because you lost! That's what all losers say. And you lost to me." Asane emphasized her superiority with a forceful poke into his cheeks, forcing the flesh upwards.
A short sigh from her, and the ash in the bonfire moved with it.
"You know, I have to leave soon...I can't go with you, since there's a specific place I have to go to." Asane looked straight at his face, upturning her eyes in joy.
Ahh, the pain of departing sliced deep.
The two traveled along a dirt path, with the occasional play of jokes and laughter, sharing their ultimate goals with each other. A dream of dragonslaying was traded for a dream of union between lands.
Until...
"Well Tristan!" Asane was turned towards the squire, her back faced a road that seperated from his path a short distance from him, yet felt like the world was between them both.
"I hope to see you once you're a legendary dragon-slaying king!" She felt the need to shout at him, and cupped her hand to her cheeks.
"And when you're the ruler of the lands of the east...come see me! I will hereby be named!" The squire couldnt think of an epithet to suit him, so he just settled on a soft sigh. The girl laughed at his makeshift action, and held her hand on the hilt of her eastern sword, confusing the squire.
The tears threatened to fall, they were together such a short time, if only there they could travel together.
Her eastern sword pointed to the sky above Tristan, a gesture he was familiar with, and answered with his own elementary blade. Together, they cheered their goodbyes.
"Until we meet again, Tristan!" She lifted her sword as far as he could with the upper body.
"Farewell, Asane!" The squire straightened, gaining a smattering of height.
When they turned away, they both had their hearts tugged at.
It was a different story with the eastern girl, however.
"Tristan...he'll make a fine friend...heehm." Her childish chuckle betrayed her dark thoughts.
With the thought of a new 'friend', She clutched her sword tighter.
It was a legendary sword that was used in an eastern war long, long ago. Used by her ancestor, the cursed sword brought many under her power. But only those who were worthy.
Men and beasts of fabled strength were slayed with this very sword, and brought under the wielder's dominance, keeping only their primary instincts, and losing all other thought apart from orders.
The war was between a black-hearted man of filth who hid behind the city he had politically tortured, and the just cause of righteousness, the rebellion that crumbled his depraved power over others.
Even if the ages passed, the cursed sword retained it's power. And even held within some memories of those who were within the ancestor's reign.
Hey, how is it?
Bit of a change from current events isn't it?
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BYEBYE.