(A bellowing voice calls on the guy standing right at the edge of the clearing.)
"C'mon Shadow!"
He looks over his shoulder and smiles at the giant that is calling him out. He gives him a wave and the giant smiles at him with a grin that stretches from one corner of his lips to the other. The young Dirkan follows this with a boisterous laugh that echoes around the empty forest.
He is in a shirt instead of a native vest, a pair of colorful shirts and several armbands wrapping itself around those big arms and his trademark vambrace in its sparkling glory as it has jewels and gold riddling its surface.
Shadow responds with an awkward smile and shakes his head.
"Why?" Dirkan asks, teasing a smile, "Can't you go an'where without her?"
Again, Shadow only gives him a smile in response, although, a child's disappointment fills his face.
"You know that he can't," strongly warns a young Shinyo who is crouching beside Shadow, but unlike the other two, he is in his black tunic that makes him almost look like a clergyman especially with a crucifix hanging by his neck. Shadow ruffs his hair, as a friendly gesture to show his gratitude and this delights Shinyo.
"C'mon," Dirkan now begging, "Aren't you curious about what you can do and what you can be when she is not around?"
The shade in Shadow's face change as his fickle mind tickles his curios side lighting up his eyes with wonder.
Shinyo panics when he sees the enthusiasm that is building in Shadow. He looks back and forth between him and Dirkan which has a smile grows steadily on his face.
"Stop it Shadow!" warns Shinyo, putting a strong front as much as he can, "You know that you can't!" and with a brave face, pulls down his crucifix. Concentrating hard, the crucifix slowly grows into half a sword. He tries harder, but it does not lengthen further.
"Useless!" voicing out his frustration, smashing it to the ground with the aim to break it while tears well up at the corner of his eyes, but Shadow picks it up, holds the handle. By closing his eyes to concentrate, he easily grows it into a blade that is size-appropriate for Shinyo. He smiles and takes it from Shadow's hands. The excitement of using a full blade for the first time overwhelms him that it pushes his warnings to the back of his mind. Then rushes off, swinging his blade in practice.
"So?" Dirkan interjects, an inviting smile on his face, "What do you say?"
Shadow is left in thought, but it does not take long before he nods, and they runoff. Shinyo still content with a sword in his hands.
~~~~
A few hours later, they return. The delight in their faces shows in spite of their breathlessness.
"It weren't too bad, wasn't it?" Dirkan asks, looking to Shadow for reassurance.
His head still down, Shadow gives the best nod that he can, carving a smile on his lips giving Dirkan permission to let go of a boisterous laugh that rings across the empty clearing.
A sudden ominous breeze fills the air and the crease on Shadow's forehead shows that he feels it. The hair on his back stands on its end, urging him to look up. He looks around for the danger, but only sees Shinyo standing as white as paper with a sword in his hand.
He approaches him, a proud smile on his face for the sword that he has in his hand is bigger than what he left him earlier. However, the blood on the blade turns his pride into dread.
"What happened? Dirkan asks, looking around for any trouble his arms and his beads on guard.
Shinyo tears up and, out of fear convulsing. His lips trembling. To ease him, Shadow holds him as snugly as he can. It only has a slight effect, but concern grows the longer he wraps him in his arms. He runs off. Dirkan only looks.
-------
His forehead beads from sweat as he wakes up in a fright. He brings himself closer to his body as he remembers the shadow looking down on a dead body with glazing look on his eyes is bringing back the trauma of his day. It crawls on his skin, making goosebumps and creating anxiety despite the bath and the new clothes that don his body.
Moreover, the bruises and the scars are a constant reminder in the night bad enough that he gets flashbacks that cause his body to seize.
The child in him scares easily.
(What now?)
Desperate to drown out the cries in his head, he jumps out of bed and decides to take a walk.
The hallways are dark and eerily quiet that walls feel like they echo whispers from people from a millennia past. His soft steps echo the empty hall of the dark pitch labyrinth that he navigates, and it feels like hours before the silver moon makes a dent. A strong power of attraction is drawing him to it. Then, a magnificent view, unknown to the world above the ground, greets him over the balcony.
A lush, green collection of trees and vines take up most of the space with flora dotting it. The sound that the slow streams of water create fills him with a calmness that eclipses the uneasiness that he dreads and at the edge of the balcony is Birch, perching over, and peacefully look at the same beauty that Lincoln is laying his eyes upon.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" the broadsword by his side and his back against Lincoln.
Lincoln cannot answer.
"Oh, sorry," he apologizes, looking over his shoulder, a smile on his face that calms Lincoln's nerves, "Did not mean to scare ya. I just knew that you were coming."
"Was I interrupting anything?" Lincoln inquires, which he never does as the child normally takes the over awkward situations in which he responds as any child will. Around him, he feels the need to be more adult-like.
"Not at all. Come. Sit with me," he invites Lincoln, patting the space beside him, again, with an inviting smile on his face.
By his side, this gives him the chance to take a closer look under the assistance of the moonlight and he cannot deny how almost identical they look alike, but with a cleaner shave and haircut, but the pleasantries of his personality along with the years of worry from battles have dig into the skin at the corner of his eyes.
But he continues to reassure Lincoln. Telling him not to worry about his brother.
"He's alright," he continues, "He's strong, otherwise he does not deserve to be called my brother."
The revelation that Birch makes does not come as a surprise, but this does not stop Lincoln from dropping his jaw into a half-open oblong.
"Well," Birch stands to full height, sheathing his sword, "That good enough for today."
He takes in the view one more time, breathing in the air that fills the atmosphere.
"And you," catching my attention, looking up, "You better be on your way back to your room m'boy. Tomorrow is a big day."
(Speaks exactly like him as well.)
As Birch says that, the dark slumber envelopes closing his eyes until a veil covers his eyesight. Birch blurs out turning into a silhouette until the darkness swallows him whole again. By the time he opens his eyes, the sun is already breaking the dust that floats in his empty room.
---
"Shit!" he curses as he quickens his pace to reach "Center Court". He follows Shinyo's directions, or face the consequences, he warns him, and with eyes as white as snow, he cannot do anything but listen.
Out of breath and sweat drenching all over him, he runs towards the harsh morning sun that is breaking his dark horizon. As he steps into it, an empty arena greets him. The rows of pews form yet another colosseum, but absent of the crowd's cheering and the sparks of clashing steel that normally fills the place welcomes him.
The scorching sun breathes its hot breath in the air. The sand beneath the soles of his sandals is giving off the same intense heat that his feet start to sweat especially after seeing that Stephan is sitting nonchalantly in the middle chair on the platform at the opposite side of the Center Court.
(It's him again.)
The way he carries himself annoys Lincoln, but nevertheless, he moves forward. Slowly, until he notices that he is not on the chair anymore. He comes to a halt. The sand lifts itself from the earth as a gust of wind rushes towards him.
Instinctively, he raises his guard, and on the wind's impact, a throbbing pain shoots itself on his forearms.
"Nice reflexes," a mocking smile on his face as he sees the grimace on Lincoln's,
"Was it Dirkan? Or Shinyo perhaps?"
"Dir--" but he disappears before he can finish his reply, leaving a trail of sand leaving its place on the ground in his wake before he reappears in the chair on the platform.
"What the hell are you doing?" an irate Lincoln asks, his chest heaving.
"Just testing you," and he disappears again, then casts a shadow over Lincoln as he gets ready to swing a sharp ax kick which barely misses him, but still causes a cut down the side of his face.
Shinyo comes after Lincoln, one move after another. Stephan's bloodlust grows as his onslaught continues. His eyes grow even more bloodshot. However, Lincoln is also growing as this manslaughter ensues. His eyes are slowly able to follow his movements.
(A hook from the left. Another ax kick. Two straights coming straight to my face. Oompf. Did not see those two liver shots.)
Lincoln is increasingly either blocking or dodging Stephan's attacks which excites him enough that his intent to kill intensifies urging him to bring out his scythe. Seeing the weapon, Lincoln cowers and stops. His legs shake like the child that he is.
(Move, damn it!)
But his body will not.
He closes his eyes. Despair taking over him as he awaits his sentence, but Shinyo reappears just in time to meet Stephan mid-swing.
"Stop it!" Shinyo warns as he swings Stephan's scythe aside, with difficulty, but Stephan's bloodlust is so strong that he takes another advance towards Lincoln, his scythe now coming from above. Shinyo barely comes in between them as Stephan's speed comes as a shock.
"What the hell are you doing?" Shinyo directing his frustration in his words. The volume and the force in it shake Stephan back to sanity who groggily goes back to his chair on the platform.
As he regains his composure, he insults Shinyo by telling him how much he coddles Lincoln. Ignoring him, Shinyo drags Lincoln. Powerless under his grip, and still in a state of shock, he follows him without resistance.
"What was he thinking of, attacking you from nowhere like that?" Shinyo grumbles, his voice having an echo-y quality to it as they walk down the hallway away from the Center Court.
"I will train you," he adds, "The way Dirkan did."
This snaps Lincoln out of his stupor. Putting his foot down now. He looks at Shinyo with a mixture of resentment and anger as he turns to see what is causing the disruption.
"You DON'T get to say that!" Lincoln telling him off, the look of disdain intensifies, "YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ABOUT DIRKAN!" putting his breath in every word.
"What are you talking about?" Shinyo asks, tugging him along as he inquires, but to no avail. Stephan is looking on afar, but Shinyo can feel how he is bursting out laughing from amusement.
"YOU LEFT HIM THERE! TO DIE! YOU COULD HAVE STILL SAVED HIM!" he starts, the sobs threatening to break through until they do, "Y-y-you cou-could have st-still," as his voice slowly disappears. Stephan from afar showing no sympathy.
"And risk leaving you there? Not a chance."
He kneels to Lincoln's level with sympathetic eyes. Brings him closer to him.
"It is what Dirkan wanted."
"Then, I would like to stay."
"Why?"
"To train."
"With him?"
Stephan smiles. The bloodlust returning in his eyes.
Shinyo wants to refuse. The courage to tell him rising, but then a tap on his shoulder startles him and it dissipates.
"If he wants to stay let him," Birch says. His eyes are heavy and his voice somber.
"Sorry," he adds, "I have to go."
Lincoln sees this and the temptation to comfort him in return was strong, but Birch tells them that he wants to be alone.
Three other figures follow, all looking distraught with utter defeat weighing down on them.