Cutlass Sharpened (33 page)

He shook his head. “No. It stopped as soon as
you ended doing whatever you did to send it to me.”

“
Good. This is
good.”

“
Why?”

“
Because using a little is
perfect to learn how to mold compared to a massive load. I should
know, I’ve learned the hard way when mine flooded an empty lake and
I nearly killed myself trying to control it. I barely got it closed
and I was knocked out for nearly a week. It was the only time I can
remember seeing my Papa look worried.” She held a hand to stop him
from asking more. “Think of whittling a piece of wood to shape it.
A stick is easier to shape than using a whole tree
trunk.”

“
I’ve not done it
yet.”

“
Ugh… fine. Uh… the gravity
training you did. You learned how to first really balance yourself
in zero gees. Gathering is a lot like that. You need to
start
small
and
work your way up. Find your balance first. Otherwise you’ll bust
your ass like you did before Stone and the others hooked themselves
to you and hopped around deck like a group of fleas. I can already
feel you saturating your body. I’m sensitive enough to feel yours
this close. So you don’t need me to teach how to shield from
projection that caused your psionic sickness. Do this if you feel
in any sort of danger. Most cannot sustain the vibrations for more
than a few minutes at a time for a class one psionic. Do this and
no one can disrupt your body nor pierce your mind without serious
skill. Only Drakes can pierce the mind no matter what you do. I
want you to hold this feeling for as
long
as you possibly can. When you
start getting lightheaded, close the lever. If not, I’ll close it
for you.”

“
I can do that.” He smiled.
“While we wait, where are Sparky and Rose?”

Renee shrugged, her lovely eyes holding his
in a serious rather than lustful way at the moment. Ruby rosebud
lips moved and he was still spellbound. “Doing whatever a Drake
wants. Sparky and I are connected telepathic and empathically, but
we don’t always communicate. Right now he’s probably playing with a
group of Hunter children. I feel his excitement and love for youth.
Either that or he just made Rose a rather satisfied female. I’ll
know more if he falls asleep in the next few minutes. He’s a rather
horny Drake, but I still love the old lizard.”

“
How did you two bond… if
you don’t mind me asking about that story? I read Drakes don’t
commonly take on riders.”

“
Funny story actually.”
Renee chuckled as she leaned back in her chair, her eyes losing a
little of their serious edge remembering the fond events. “I had
just finished Phantom training and was finishing my last school
credits in medic training when my class gathered and traveled to
Drakken Prime ten years ago. I was an ignorant and lively twenty
year old woman finally visiting the Drake home world for the first
time and thought I knew it all.” She shook her head, smiling of
past events. “As you know I’m a rather solitary person and I
diverted from my group to go explore rather than listen to the
lifeless drone of my teacher. Papa told me of the Drake caves, past
the glowing forest left in perpetual night.

“
So I went down the path I
thought was the right way, but went down another to a rather
dangerous place where the only apex predator above even Drakes
live. Next thing I know I hear a strange sound and just manage to
throw up a barrier before a Serpenthinine, the snake with eight
spidery legs, dropped down on me from its web. I blew it apart with
no real problem, but I wound up trapped in their heart. Their
largest lair. And I had no way out.

“
Psionics have limits and
endurance, like a muscle. You can exercise it, but eventually
you’ll get exhausted without food and rest.

“
Well here I was, all cocky
twenty years old firing massive kinetic blasts every few seconds
that could level skyscrapers while keeping a whole host of
Serpenthinine from making me their next meal and tiring faster and
faster. When I saw there was no end to them I worried.

“
Sparky picked up on my
distress and didn’t hesitate to fly right in and snatch me up in
his talons. His glow was the last thing I saw before I felt his
mental touch. Combine his soothing thoughts with my exhaustion and
I collapsed midair.

“
When I finally woke up I
found myself in his lair with Rose tending a few of his wounds from
the rescue. As you know, female Drake saliva is a natural
antiseptic.” He nodded. “He first berated me as I know my father
would have for leaving the group. But Sparky and I were connected.
Our mental connection is identical and his sensing of my distress
bonded us together. Before he met me he was a ruling Drake elder of
the second largest colony on Drakken Prime. He’s also one of the
oldest Drakes too. But his connection to me gave him the out he had
been searching for to finally leave Drake political affairs. Bonded
companions are the freest to do as they will and have the fewest
binding laws. Rose could come with us as his mate, but she had to
give up her nest of young. But she is fine now. She wants a few
centuries not worrying about being a mother, now that she is on
birth control. One day though she’ll want babies again, but for now
she is enjoying being free to travel with Sparky and me aboard the
Dorgenox.”

Oliver smiled at the story. “But why name him
Sparky?”

“
Because before we were
recognized by the Drake council he’d piss me off and I’d shoot
sparks to get him off my case. The name rather stuck. Since Drake
names are impossible for human’s to vocalize, Sparky is fine. Rose
got hers, not for her scales, but loves the smell of rose oils she
sometimes rubs into her pink scales.”

“
I’m starting to feel
lightheaded.” He announced after the nice story.

“
Okay. Close the lever and
cut the flow.”

Closing his eyes, Oliver found the mental
lever, pushed and like before it was difficult. Renee saw his
grimace of exertion and held out her crackling hand, but held her
palm over his forehead and didn’t jerk away as she was shocked
again and again. She added her own atop his and the lever was
lubricated enough to close. As soon as it was, he sighed and no
longer was Renee being electrocuted. With the stream closed and no
longer pooling, the feeling stopped worsening.

“
Much better.” His chest
swelled with air and deflated.

“
Keep breathing just like
that till the sensation passes. You actually did fairly well. Three
minutes four seconds.”

“
A compliment from Renee
Dorgen. Someone add it to the record books.” He teased.

“
Shut it.” Her shoe kicked
him in the shin with more than necessary force. His yelp made her
grin and cross her long legs with one ankle behind her calf
muscle.

In about ten minutes he said, still on the
hard floor “I’m back to normal. Can we do it again?”

“
Work it on your own. I’ll
help loosen the block, but the more you do on your own, the sooner
you’ll be able to pull the lever without my aid.” He closed his
eyes and struggled for a few minutes till she added herself and the
gateway widened within him.

For the next eight hours Oliver sat in front
of Renee doing the exercise over and over, still needing her aid
opening and closing. They parted on better terms, talking
throughout the session, but she still didn’t reveal much of
herself. Nevertheless, the exercises had drained Oliver to the
point when his head hit the pillow in the guestroom, he was
asleep.

“
Time to get your ass out of
bed, Brother. My man is ready outside to get started.”

Oliver looked down to the open door to find
Grand Elder Talon in the doorway wearing nothing more than a loose
silk bath robe. Her long blonde hair wasn’t braided so early in the
morning, but she remained an intimidating figure in strength and
beauty. He sat up, rubbing crust from his eyes. “Thank you. I
forgot to set my com to wake me up.”

“
Not to worry. Ms. Dorgen
already informed us you achieved the initial basics of gathering
energies. I still remember how tired I was when I discovered how to
do it myself. I didn’t want to wake up either. Hop in the shower,
clean up and meet him out back.” She smirked.

“
Thank you.” He climbed out
of bed, adding shorts before the sheet fell away to show he slept
nude. She nodded and went elsewhere as he headed for the
facilities.

Waiting as promised was Vanishing Claw in a
pair of loose workout pants and nothing more. He was barefoot and
shirtless. In his right hand was the same shortsword used to block
Oliver’s strike that first night. The short man wasted no time.
“Oliver, go barefoot like myself.” Boots disappeared and cool
crystal of the empty courtyard crept up his bare feet. He removed
his shirt and kept the pants, sheathe and blade. “Humans learn best
by mimicking, it’s no different in being a swordsman. What is good
is you’re left handed while the bulk of humanity is right. It’ll be
the advantage most are unaccustomed to. I say it’s good because you
will mirror me. Draw your blade and do as I do.”

Oliver’s cutlass sang as it announced its
arrival. He spaced his feet and held the curved sword out with the
tip angled in front.

“
Not bad, but drop the tip a
little more… more. There! Now turn your left foot… there. Watch my
entire body as it moves, but especially focus on my eyes. The eyes
are the key to surviving conflict. My eyes will tell you where I’ll
next strike.” He moved slow and Oliver mirrored him. “The eyes tell
you where to defend, but can also be a ruse to lure you into
opening a weak spot. Watch how my body moves. How the muscles under
my skin tense and relax. Our feet are the key to having a
foundation to stay upright as well as a weapon. Since our legs are
twice as strong as our arms, they can do much harm, but to rely on
just one is a risk. It upsets our balance so judge accordingly. Use
imagination to anticipate your prey. Lure them into your rhythm and
never fall in theirs unless it is your plan.” He made a gradual
motion so clean it was natural, but Oliver could not do it so
smoothly. “But the ultimate key is to know how to
breathe.”

“
Breathe?” Oliver asked as
already the slow moves and early morning humidity made him break
out into a sweat.

“
Our bodies need oxygen and
nitrogen to function. Starve the body of air and your strength and
endurance will fail accordingly. The key to breathing is to work
with it as you move. Strike out, breathe out. Pull in, breathe in.
Do not go for the relentless berserker assault. Be calm during
stress. Pace yourself. Like when you tracked for three weeks. You
found a way to be still though you moved fast. You avoided danger,
but didn’t leave it to draw attention.” The steps continued. “You
breathed correctly. Swordsmanship is no different, Brother. Never
stop breathing. Make it remember as your muscles will remember with
practice.”

“
How do you make it
look
so
easy?” he
wiped his sweaty brow, but followed as best possible.

“
As I said. Practice. We
learn to do by mimicking and adapt it into our own style and needs.
And at the rate you learn, you will master these steps on no time.
The only way for the body to move properly it to allow it to learn
too. It will make many mistakes, but it
will
learn. It shall sharpen one day
to such an edge only an equal master could test.” Vanishing Claw
mentored.

Explanations of proper breathing went on
throughout the evolving sequences and Oliver found he enjoyed doing
them despite the struggle to keep up. They moved face to face, a
mirror of moves no matter their size differences.

When words were no longer necessary and all
questions had been answered Oliver asked “Grandest Claw, may I ask
to hear your story?”

“
Why do you wish to hear
it?” he stepped and made an underhanded thrust that turned around
to stab an invisible opponent coming up from behind.

“
Because I already know I
hate for someone to die, but I’ve yet to see human death. With my
memory wiped, I’m obsessed to hear other stories so someone isn’t
truly alone like I am. I’m sad beyond anything I can compare with
that no one knows who I am, where I come from, anything I did. At
least with people who do have amnesia, someone out there knew them.
I’m alone and have no clue as to who I was.
Was
I a Hunter?
Was
I a husband? A father? Brother?
Did I have
any
friends? Was I a good man? Was I evil? A murderer? Thief? Who
put me in that dormant Volcano? How long ago? Are they still
around? Did I do it to myself? Was it a punishment?...
My
story is gone. No one
knows definitively who the hell I was.
My
past story is gone. What if yours
is too one day. If we met again and you were as lost as I am, I
would tell you about yourself gladly, even if you were evil. The
worst thing is not knowing and I’d go insane if I didn’t have
distractions.”

“
I see what you mean.” They
didn’t stop and weren’t alone as some elders had come to watch and
listen. “Very well. Since no one can see off into the future, such
an event could happen. It is public knowledge of my exploits.
Still, I’d hate to die and my own story die with me as yours
has.