Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (6 page)

Uktesh turned to tell her that he stayed up because he had struggled to sleep in a new place. But when he looked into her eyes he felt like he’d been electrocuted. Her glare was so strong.  He swallowed and looked around for Laurilli, but couldn’t see her.
She must still be asleep! 

How stupid could we have been! Of course Heathyr would realize that we were both tired.
  “Heathyr, I apologize if I’ve given a bad impression of myself, or seemed to not conduct myself as I would wish a guest in my home would.  As you can guess, Laurilli did sneak into the loft last night. However, all we did was talk.”

Uktesh tried to portray complete honesty, and was rewarded when Heathyr relented and said, “See that your ‘talks’ don’t become more.”

“I’ll be leaving today after I teach Laurilli some basic defense.”

Heathyr nodded to herself, “Where will you go?”
Uktesh hadn’t thought about it, as he had just planned on living in the woods by Manori.

“I like it here and I was thinking of checking if there was any work available here.  Maybe I could sign on as an apprentice for one of the blacksmiths or work at the lumber mill.  It’ll be dangerous work, but less dangerous, I think, than living near any of the borders for a while.”  As he spoke he realized that it was a good idea. The islands south of Jubay were uninhabited by humans, just some strange monsters. If he could make an island safe for people, the reputation of strange monsters would discourage anyone from trying to bother him, but that would have to be after Laurilli became tired of him.

“That’s a terrible idea. You’ll be killed. You will stay here under our roof, until you’re older, and more able to take care of yourself.”

He tried to not show how happy he was with that idea, “I wouldn’t want to impose. You’ve already been so kind.”

“Oh it won’t be an imposition. You’ll earn your keep, and there are chores enough around here to keep the two of you busy for months.

“Me and who?”

“Why Laurilli of course, since you enjoy each other’s company so much you’ll get to spend every waking moment with her from now on.”

Uktesh liked the words that she said, but the way she said them made him feel as if he was being handed a death sentence. 

“Now your first chore is to wake up my daughter.” He turned to enter Laurilli’s room and Heathyr’s said, “Anyway you want, just be on your toes!”  She laughed to herself as she continued to get breakfast ready. 

Uktesh opened the door and saw her asleep on her bed golden hair spread out in almost every direction.  As he walked forward he imagined several ways to wake her up, but as he got closer to her he started to imagine more and more that he would wake her with a kiss like a fairytale.

As he blushed in the dark of her room, he tapped her toe lightly. But when she didn’t wake up, he grabbed her big toe and shook it slightly. His instincts saved him from injury, or embarrassment, as he flowed into Sun Awakens the Sky, and dodged a kick because he leaned back till his back was parallel to the ground.  Had the kick landed it would’ve hurt
.  Heathyr did say ‘Be on your toes.’  It’s my fault that I didn’t understand her meaning.

“Uktesh?  What are you doing in my room?”  Her foot flashed downward towards him again, and he moved, still in balanced style, to an offensive unarmed form Frog Swims in the Water, to parry her foot away.  He could only use one hand instead of two, as his other hand was needed to steady him from the Sun Awakens the Sky.

“Your mother asked me to wake your lazy bones. I was only doing as she asked.”  He stood up and said the thing he thought would be the most annoying, “You sure are cute when you scowl,” he dodged a thrown pillow and exited the room with a laugh.  He saw Heathyr turn around quickly to hide a smile as he entered the kitchen and started to help prepare the table.  When Laurilli exited her room and ran her fingers through her tangled hair, Uktesh wished that he was the one with his fingers in her hair. 

She yawned silently as she walked toward Heathyr.  Uktesh tried not to stare as her night shirt rose up and her stomach was revealed.  His heart started racing,
What in the nine hells is wrong with me!  
He could feel his face heating as he continued to put dishes on the table. 

When he finished setting the table he saw that the pile of firewood by the oven was low. So he put on his boots, went outside, and grabbed an armful of the logs he’d cut the day before.  He paused as he was about to enter the house. He felt something odd in the air, and turned to the left to see the bushes move.  He stared for nearly two minutes, but soon boredom, and the weight of the logs pulled him into the house. 

He stacked the logs neatly on the rest of the pile and went to the ladder that led into the loft to get his weapons.  When his right foot touched the ladder, the same odd vibe in the air caught him, but this time he spun around fast enough to see a blur as it moved towards the house. 

He leapt up the ladder and hardly felt the steps until he was in the loft. He had just grabbed his weapons when the back door crashed open, and he could hear Laurilli scream in fear, as he jumped through the hole for the ladder.  He landed in Butterfly Kisses the Leaf to find that one of the most dangerous Afflicted creatures, a saber rabbit, had entered the house. 

It was clearly half starved as its’ ribs were visible through its fur, saliva dripped down its two elongated fangs. All eight feet of it coiled back on its two enormous hind legs, as it prepared to spring at the two unarmed women.  Uktesh did not have time to string his bow, so he threw it at the beast. It turned and roared at him.

Uktesh smiled, because now it was distracted.  He fought the saber rabbit just like the hunters back home would’ve fought, only his problem was there was no other hunter to kill the distracted beast, and no spear to keep the injured beast at arm’s length.

It pivoted and with barely a moments warning launched itself at him.  Uktesh dropped and rolled to his right, away from Heathyr and Laurilli.  Uktesh could feel the wind from the rabbit’s front claws as it swung at him.  The beast crashed into the ladder and snapped it as Uktesh rolled to his feet, turned and threw one of his two knives at it. 

The blade lodged itself in the saber rabbit’s left hind leg.  Uktesh quickly threw his skinning knife, but the beast spun, faster than Uktesh would’ve believed any injured animal could, and the knife bounced off its hide and spun towards the women, who, Uktesh noticed, had armed themselves with knives.
The rabbit gathered itself again as Uktesh slid his sword out of his sheath and wished that he wasn’t such a coward.  A true man would’ve died to kill the beast instead he had chosen to roll under it. He glanced at the door and thought about if it was possible to lead it outside, but he didn’t know if he would be able to be better bait than the two women. 

Heathyr threw a frying pan full of cooking food at the saber rabbit.  It splashed onto the rabbits head and the beast roared in pain and pivoted towards the women.  The smell of burnt fur filled the room, but Heathyr had done what was needed. She distracted it which opened its flank to the hunter. 

Uktesh didn’t think, didn’t fear. He acted. With a quick scan of the layout of the room, the height of the ceiling, the remains of the door, ladder, and his distance from the saber rabbit, he seemed to glide in one long lunge, that ended with Sword Raises the Sky.  Sword Raises the Sky was an imperfect attack. Ordinarily Uktesh would’ve had to have moved from balanced to imperfect, but there wasn’t enough time, space, or chance for failure. 

If he had been better at perfect stance he would’ve tried Farmer Scythes the Wheat, even though he knew it would’ve killed him. 
This’ll probably kill me as it is.
He thought resigned
, but I will die a man, not a coward!
  Tears blurred his vision as he felt a muscle in his shoulder tear. His sword point slid across the floor, before it suddenly flashed up.  It met resistance; skin, muscle, then bone, all parted before his attack’s strength. The rabbit’s two front paws left its body.  Before his sword’s upward arc could hit the beast’s neck, the rabbit reared up faster than his imperfect attack could move. 

Maybe its last thought before it died was to attack, or maybe the only thing left for its clenched leg muscles to do was spring forward. Uktesh didn’t know.  All he knew was that once his sword was lifted high in the air the rabbit flashed out from beneath the loft and sprang towards Heathyr and Laurilli! 

He moved again, and jumped to the side, he mirrored its path. Everyone knew that a saber rabbit was faster than any human, and that once its coiled back leg muscles uncoiled, it was faster than an arrow. But he had to try!

He felt his left leg push off the ground, and then the muscles down his leg tore. He would be too late!  He pivoted in the air, he had one option left. He flowed into the perfect stance and performed one of the three one legged perfect attacks, Serpent Strikes. As he sprung forward, he didn’t think about the improbability of being able to keep pace with a saber rabbit. He didn’t assume that his speed wouldn’t be enough.  He just coiled the muscles in his right side and Struck.  He felt the sword Strike, his shoulder gave out, then his head hit the beast, and then he knew no more.

He woke up and was unable to stop the scream that escaped his throat.  His whole body was cramped into a ball. Quickly he remembered his lessons, and he relaxed first one then the next muscle, until he could think of something other than the pain, and how to make it stop.  Laurilli was next to him.  He first saw, then felt, her hands massage his right calf. As startled as that made him feel he next realized it was night. Then he realized he was not in the same clothes as when he fought the saber rabbit. 
Who changed my clothes!
  Then he realized that if either of them changed him it would have been embarrassment enough,
but I don’t know if I could handle it if Laurilli did it. 
There was a glass of water by his bed, and he quickly drank it all. He gulped it down like he hadn’t had anything to drink in days.  “Mom!  He’s awake again!”

Again?  What happened?  The saber rabbit!
  He tried to sit up too quickly and his stomach muscle cramped again. He arced his back and forced his resistant abs to relax. 

He felt Heathyr place her hand gently on his shoulder and the back of her hand on his sweaty forehead, “His fever’s broken.”  She sagged into his view and he saw past his pained tears, that her eyes were sunk in, and that she had dark circles under her eyes.
I don’t remember those?  How long have I been out?  
Laurilli also came into his view and like her mother, she looked clearly exhausted to Uktesh. But Laurilli’s eyes were clearly red as well,
was she crying?

“What happened?” he croaked.

“You saved us!”  Laurilli said before she unexpectedly burst into tears and flung herself on his chest. He tried not to show how much pain her action caused him, and must’ve succeeded because Heathyr didn’t immediately ask her to get off of him. 

“How long have I been out?”  His voice was getting slightly better and Heathyr filled his glass with water.

“This is the fourth night. Since then,” said Heathyr, “you’ve woke up twice to scream mindlessly.  Mother Esrun said that if you made it through the first night you would probably make it, but other than bruises and your dislocated shoulder you didn’t have a mark on you.  I’m afraid that news of your valor spread before we could stop it. At first people were amazed that any one person could kill a saber rabbit, much less survive the process.” 

“Then they started whispers that your unnatural sickness was not caused by the rabbit, ‘How else could a boy be able to kill a saber rabbit?’ They would ask me.  I told them you were not Afflicted, just greatly skilled in weapons, but by then the damage was already done. For a while I would recommend you stay inside, at least until you get better.”

“I’ll stay with you the whole time!”

“Between the three of us, though, how did,” she emphasized the word, “you kill that beast?  I saw it lunge at us. Then out of nowhere it was pinned against the wall, slammed there by you and your sword. By the time I was able to process what had happened, and they we were safe, you were already unconscious.”

Uktesh knew that even though he had saved her, she was scared of him.  He looked at Laurilli and saw her frown at her mother.  “You may not know this, but I’m from Beletaria. We train from a young age to be warriors and out of all the students training, I was the best by far.  I’m not there anymore because I’m a coward.  When my village was attacked, I froze up and ran away.  I guess the reason that I could fight the saber rabbit is because I’ve hunted before. This was just a more dangerous hunt.”

He glanced at Laurilli and knew the real reason he was able to fight.  “Where I come from there are grand masters who can,” he paused to collect his thoughts, “First I should tell you about the three forms, balanced, imperfect, and perfect.  Well I guess some of the grand masters say there’s a form above perfect, but no one knows for sure. I guess there is also unbalanced, which is trying to do balanced, but doing it wrong.  When you fight, good fighters will be able to move from balanced to imperfect without any injury to themselves.”

“How would an imperfect attack hurt the user?” asked Heathyr.

“Well normally it wouldn’t, if you started in balanced.  Balanced is the way to begin everything, either an attack or a defense. It’s basically how to move and dodge.  Only by making sure to start in balanced should a warrior move to, or ‘flow’ to imperfect.  This form puts great stress on the body, if it isn’t used properly, but it enhances what the body can do.  I become faster and stronger in the form.  Flowing from balanced to imperfect allows the stress on the body to be lowered to nothing, if you’re a master, or to very little if you do it right.”