Chapter ten:

A spark is lit

    “Training’s off for today, we’ll resume tomorrow,” Mr. Asani excused everyone from class. I felt like I was out of breath. I had tried very hard to get Leo, but I ended up losing most of the matches. I looked around the crowd of kids, looking for Ella. I soon found her walking up to me. 

    “Hey, how did your sword training go?” she asked. 

    “Could have gone better, for me anyway. Leo, again, beat me every round, I only won once because he accidently performed a move wrong,” I replied. 

    “Oh, okay.”

    “Hey you two,” Leo said. I looked sideways to see him holding his sword, the tip of his sword was pointed at the ground while he held onto the hilt to keep it stable. 

    “Oh, hello Leo,” I greeted. 

    “I’m heading back home. Just wanted to say goodbye real quick,” he

said, giving a smile.

    “Oh okay. Bye then, Leo,” I said, giving a small wave of farewells. 

    “Bye,” Leo said. He then grabbed his sword, put it on his shoulder, and walked away. I waved to him goodbye. 

    “Oh, wait!” I said, remembering. 

    “I forgot to ask him something!” I exclaimed. 

    “What?” Ella asked curiously. 

    “Well, I was going to ask him if he wanted to come to the shop and restaurant for a bit, so we could get to know him a bit better,” I explained.

    “No, don’t ask him that,” Ella said, shaking her head in disagreement. 

    “Why not?” I asked innocently, even though I could easily think of the reason why not. 

    “I’ve already told you, he cannot be trusted!” she exclaimed. 

    “Oh, come on Ella. Give him a chance. I mean, you could easily just be wrong about him, you have this feeling about a lot of people! Come on, it could even be fun to get to know him, you might even like it! Please, just give it a chance?” I pleaded. Ella stared at me as if she was deciding what

to do. 

    “Fine. Okay,” she gave in after a few moments. I smiled, then looked around the training area. I just saw Leo in the distance, he had almost been blocked by the sun. I ran up to him, with Ella trailing close behind me. 

    “Hey! Wait up. Leo!” I called loudly. Leo seemed to hear me as he turned around to face me. 

    “Oh, it’s you. Did you need something?” he asked me.

    “Yeah. Ella and I wanted to ask if you wanted to come over at the restaurant and shop,” I offered. Leo thought for a moment, and looked nervous. 

    “Uh, I’m not too sure about that…” he said, sounding a little uncomfortable and anxious. 

    “I know that you said that you don’t like to go out at night. But I was only thinking for a bit, then you can leave. We can even practice there, if you really want to, if that all will make you feel any better,” I suggested. 

    Leo’s face looked thoughtful for a few minutes, and he looked up at the

sky. 

    “Um, okay. Just for a little bit, that seems nice,” he responded to the question, and looked more comfortable now. 

    “Okay, nice!” 

    “Lead the way, then,” Leo said. I nodded, and Ella and I started to head back to the place with him following.

    We soon arrived, and when we did we opened the door. 

    “We’re back, Nana!” I called when we entered the house. I looked around, and I could see that it was neatly clean as we had left it this morning. Nana came out from behind the counter. 

    “Welcome back, dears,” she greeted them. After spotting Leo, she asked, 

    “Oh. I see you brought someone. Is this your friend?”

    “Uh–yes, this is Leo, he is my training partner in sword fighting class. Leo, this is Yana” I introduced them both. 

    “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Yana,” the boy said. 

    “Nice to meet you as well, dear,” Nana greeted kindly. 

    “Well, It looks like you kids are tired from training, and I imagine you all to be peckish. You three want anything to eat, at all?” Nana offered. 

    “Um, I’m a bit hungry, now I’m thinking about it,” I answered. The other two nodded in agreement. 

    “Well, okay then. I’ll get something for you all.” With that, Nana went behind the counter. 

    “Take a seat anywhere,” I said to Leo. The boy sat in a chair that was next to a table, which was the closest one to him. I sat in a chair next to him, Ella did the same. 

    “So, Leo, did you grow up in this town?” I asked him curiously. I thought maybe I could get a little more information about this town, and its origins, and maybe he would know, but unfortunately the boy shook his head. 

    “No. I didn’t, I grew up away from this town,” he answered. 

    “Oh, then where did you grow up? Maybe we know it.” 

    “I have no idea, I have little memory of it. My parents used to travel a lot, before they settled down here in Durithia,” he explained. 

    “Oh, okay,” I nodded. I gave a quick glance at Ella as she did the same to me. I was looking as if I was asking; should I ask him about it? 

    I looked back at Leo. 

    “Um, okay. Have you heard of a town by the name of. . .Rivia?” I asked, feeling nervous as I wondered what the answer could be. 

    “I haven’t,” he shook his head again. “Why?” 

    “No reason, just that we were wondering,” Ella said quickly before I could answer. 

    “I’m going to go and help Yana with the shop, looks like she needs a hand,” Ella informed me. 

    “Okay,” I acknowledged. As Ella got up from her chair and scooted it into the table, she casted me a quick serious warning glance. She had left behind the counter. 

    “Anyway,” I said, quickly changing my focus back to the boy. “So, if your parents traveled a lot while you were younger, where do you live in this town exactly, then?” I asked. 

    “I don’t live in town, I live out in a cabin in the forest not too far away

from the town,” he replied. I then started to ask him different questions, until we decided to spar for a little bit with wooden swords. 

     When it was getting close to dark, Leo had to leave. I waved him goodbye, until I lost track of him. I turned around and opened up the door.

    “Hey, Ella, I’m going to the library to grab something, I’ll be right back!” I called through the open door. 

    “Okay, just be back soon, and try not to get lost!” I heard her shout back. I closed the door, and made my way to the library. If I remember correctly from the first time I came here, It should have been near the entrance and exit of the walls.

    I soon found it without a problem, and I entered the building. I quickly went to the bookshelf, already knowing what I was looking for and where it was. A few moments of looking around, I found what I was trying to find. 

    The History Of Rivia. 

    I smiled slightly when I looked at the book, cover and name. I softly

brushed some dust that was on it. I went to a desk up in front of which there was a librarian. And I bought the book with some money that I had.

    I made my way back to the place, and entered through the door. 

    “Oh, welcome back,” Ella greeted once she spotted me. “What did you need from the library?” she asked, coming up to me. 

    “I just bought a book,” I said. 

    “Oh? This book? Why did you get it? You didn’t need it,” she said after reading the title. I noticed even though she acted calm, I felt her body stiffen for a couple of seconds. 

    “I just–just wanted this as a memory of our hometown, you know, since it burned down,” I said. 

    “Oh, okay…well, Nana said it was time to go to bed, so you can read it tomorrow, if you’d like,” she said. I nodded, and we both headed into our room. We got dressed to go to bed, brushed our hair until it was unknotted and clean, and we went to sleep. 

    I had woken up in the middle of the night from nightmares. It was the same one that I had a couple nights ago, in fact, the same one that I had last night. 

    The same nightmare that I had with the house burning down. I calmed my beating heart and trembling body. 

    I then unhooked my necklace and brought it in front of me and I stared at it…I started thinking of the dream. 

    I must keep having that dream for some kind of reason, I thought, smoothing the necklace for a few minutes.

     I almost died by that sinking hole. Is that because I almost got killed that night before I got saved? And what about…Eagles skeleton? Laying there, dead? As I stared at the necklace, I was going into deeper thoughts. 

    Why did Eagle save me in the first place? He went inside a burning house, saving me from dying, but ended up dying himself…that was incredibly stupid. 

    He sacrificed himself just to save me, he could have just let me burn

away and die in the house, but he didn’t, and I was useless in trying to help him. I should have done the same for him, I thought grimly. 

    I shook my head, not wanting to think of his death, but I couldn’t ignore it. I suddenly had a realization.     

    The death, the skeleton…does this dream indicate that I am too weak to do anything for myself? Too weak to defend myself and friends when there is danger?

     I had suddenly realized that I was too weak to do anything…I had my friends help me with anything that I needed, and they would do it without complaining. . .

    Right then and there, I had the determination to become stronger to protect myself. I need to become stronger to protect me and Ella, I thought while glancing over at Ella’s side of the room and seeing her sleep peacefully in bed. 

    I layed back down to go back to sleep after I put my necklace back on. I closed my eyes, and managed to go back to sleep even though I had a lot of thoughts pouring into my head.

Chapter eleven:

Rebuild from within

    I woke up feeling determined, I looked over to see that Ella was asleep in bed. 

    Taking a deep breath I yawned and stretched while getting out of bed. Looking out the window I realized it was still early morning.

     I got dressed and brushed my hair quietly not wanting to wake Ella. going downstairs I realized Nana also was not awake yet because no one was in the kitchen or the shop.

     I went over to the storage room and started preparing the ingredients for today's menu. 

    When I finished I went to the shop and started cleaning and making sure nothing had been stolen. Nana came into the shop and greeted me. 

    “Well you're up early dear.”

    “Yea, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.” 

    "Ah, I see. Thank you for getting everything ready." 

    "Thank you, I didn't really have much else to do, and I am supposed to do this anyway."

    "Yes, that is true. Well, we’re not open for a while, what are you going to do after breakfast?"

    "I was thinking of taking a walk."

    “Going to buy something?”

    “No, just think and clear my head a bit.”

    “Well, I'll go ahead and make something to eat, would you like to help?”

    “Yes, I could use the experience,” I said following her into the kitchen.

    We made breakfast and ate together at one of the tables. 

    “I'm going to head out now.” I said after cleaning my dishes.

    “Alright dear, have fun.”

I walked along the roads thinking.     

    Why did that man come to our house? Why did he kill Mother? If he wasn't there Eagle would still be alive. I was getting mad at the man. Who is he? 

    I realized I was clenching my fist tightly so I took a deep breath to calm down. Letting out a sigh I decided to focus on how I could get stronger. 

    What are my flaws? Should I change myself? Maybe if I learn to protect people that will change all by itself. How can I protect people? How can I protect Ella? But Ella is more responsible than me, more observant, more mature, do I even need to worry?

     An image of Eagle’s corpse from my dream flashed in my mind. But will I ever see that man again? 

    I wondered about this for a while and came to the conclusion, it doesn't have to be that man, anyone else could do the same. 

    So how can I protect Ella? Should I be more observant? More mature? How can I be more responsible? How long would that take? 

    Then I realized one way that was more simple and may change myself in the process. Learning the sword. So far I was learning something to do but, if I want to protect Ella, and anyone else I have to learn it, not just for my sake but theirs too. 

    I went to the library and looked through the shelves until I saw some

books on swordsmanship.

     I looked through them until I found one with pictures showing you what to do and words to describe them. 

    Flipping through the pages I left the library with the book looking for a more secluded place to practice. 

    I wandered around thinking until I found myself at the town's main gate. Maybe out there… I looked at the sky wondering how much time had passed. I still have time to look around before sword lessons. 

    Going outside the town I started wandering around following the outer edge of the wall through the woods. I started to move faster to cover more ground before I had to head back. 

    I found a place that seemed good enough. It was in view of the wall but not right up against it, the floor had lots of ferns and a few bushes but other than that it was flat enough and could be cleared out a bit more fairly easily.

     Moving back over to the wall I loostend some of the bricks making a hole just big enough for me to slide under. 

    Sliding through the hole to see where it was I was greeted with another wall.

     Looking around I realized it was the back of a house that was built close to the wall with just enough space for a person to walk through.    

    Following the narrow passage I walked until I came to an alleyway close to the road. 

    Moving out into the road I looked around trying to find out where I was. I had to walk around a bit more until I found the road connecting 

Yana’s house to the training area. 

    Looking back I mapped the route I took in my head trying to remember the path I took. Going back to the hole in the wall I was confident that I could get back so I hurried off to the training hall.  

    After training with Leo, me and Ella talked as we went back to Nana's house and helped clean up. 

    After we had finished I went to my training spot and practiced with my wooden sword.

     A pretty red and orange bird perched on a tree and watched me

practice as the sun went down and night fell. 

    A few more days continued like this and my swordsman ship had improved enough for me to be able to beat Leo more and more. 

    I was swinging my sword in the clearing when I heard someone slide through the hole in the wall behind me. 

    “Ella!?” How did she know where I was?

    “So this is what you've been doing?” she asked. 

    “Uh, yea, I wanted to get better with a sword so..”

    “So this is your new hobby?” What did she mean by that?

    “Yes?”

    “So there's no other reason other than you think it's fun?”

    “Umm..”

    “You've been different lately.” she said, staring at me. 

    “What do you mean?”

    “You're always gone when I wake up when you used to sleep in, you come to practice looking tired all the time, we only really talk when we are going back to Yanas, then you sneak off again and dont come back

until late every day.” She seemed annoyed at me. 

    “So? I want to practice.”

    “Why?”

    “Why can't I?” I said getting annoyed. 

    “That's not what I meant.”

    “What do you mean then?”

    “This, right now, you're not being yourself.”

    “This? What do you mean by ‘this’? Is there something you don't like?”

    “No, it's just..”

    “Just what? Say it. What don't you like?”

    “It's not that I… well it's… Is something bothering you?”

    “What?”

    “You seem different, and… you never really used to do stuff like this and try this hard to do something.” she motioned towards me and my sword. 

    “What? So you don't think I've tried to do anything before? Actually try and put in effort like this? ” I was surprised. I've never…  I never tried to

do something to this extent? Is that what she means? She's worried because I've never tried this much before? 

    “Oh!  N-No! That's not what I meant! Orchid I didn't mean for it to come off that way!” she said with wide eyes. 

    “Is that what you came here to say? You're worried because I'm trying to do something and I don't usually do that?”

    “No! That's not-!”

    “What's wrong with me wanting to try something!? Am I not allowed to change? To be stronger at something? Because I'm not normally like that?”

    “No! I just meant you've been quieter lately! You're more distant!”

I was still mad so I just ignored Ella and swung my sword some more.

I had spaced out while swinging my sword and was shocked when it was so dark in the woods. 

    Turning around I noticed the silhouette of a person. She's still here!? Ella walked up to me so that we were only a few feet apart.

    “Orchid, I'm sorry, I was worried about our friendship, I'm not really

good with words, I didn't mean that you don't try, you just seemed more distant lately and I was worried that we wouldn't be as close anymore, because you.. It seemed like you were drifting away and I… got scared.” 

    “Ella, you don’t need to be scared, I hope you know that. I’m doing just fine, you don’t need to worry about me,” I said. 

    “I do though. You always seem like you're sad…and I thought it was just because of your moms and Eagles–deaths, and I was trying to let you be and figure it out. But now, I’m getting really worried. . .” Ella spoke quietly. “You're my best friend, and it hurts me to see you hurting so much.” 

    “You're my best friend too. And I didn’t mean to worry you! I just–it’s really hard to get past these deaths I–” I broke off, my voice breaking as I tried to hold in my tears. 

    “I’m just trying to protect you too. I can’t lose you like I lost my mom or Eagle,” I said with tears now streaming down my face. Ella started to have tears coming down her face too. She came up to me and we hugged each other. 

    I have known that Ella had rarely ever cried, or gave hugs to

people. She must be really struggling with this too…    

    We walked through the alley ways until we came to the spot that opened up into the street. 

    Lights from torches lit up the walls as we looked to see who was holding it. A group of soldiers stood around a hooded figure carrying torches as they walked down the street. 

    I froze and grabbed Ellas wrist. 

    The silhouette, that cloak in the fire light, it looks just like… the figure noticed us and turned to look at me and Ella. His gaze locked with mine as we both stood motionless. 

    “Get her! Now!” he shouted as the people around him turned to find us. 

    “Run!” I told Ella, pulling her back into the ally. 

    We ran through the alleys as the people behind us were forced to chase single file due to the tight space. I could see the hole in the wall but I knew there would not be enough time to crawl through it. 

    Running forward we turned one sharp corner after another. The people

chasing us were a bit farther behind us now but I had no idea where we were going. Suddenly the alley opened up into a place full of crates and buildings. The sound of voices grew closer to us. 

    Frantically I looked around when Ella pulled me towards a big building with an open door not too far away. 

    Running as fast as we could we slipped inside and I closed the door as quickly as I could.  

    I was leaning on the door trying to stay as still as possible as the small crowd shouted to each other trying to find where we went, while a couple of people continued to run down the streets . 

    After a while someone tried to push the door I was behind open. I braced myself on the door near the handle trying to make it seem like it was locked. 

    There was a pound on the door, I closed my eyes trying not to have my head hit the door. The door needed to be locked, not blocked by something. 

    “Locked!” A voice shouted as the footsteps hurried away. When the

sound of people had moved on, I let out a pent up breath and leaned on the door grateful we had not been found. 

    “Are they gone?” Ella asked.

    “I don't hear them,” I said. We both listened in silence for a bit longer. 

    “I think we can go out now,” Ella said. 

Slowly we opened the door and peeked outside. It was quiet, no one was visible. We stepped out of our hiding place into the open space, still wary of any people that could be lurking around. 

    “Lets leave,” Ella said.

    “How? We can’t let them see us. What if there are more?” I asked.

    “We can’t stay.”

    “I know that, but how do we leave?”

    “We might be able to go back to your training spot and leave that way, we can find the road maybe.” 

    “We can't use the wall to find the road because they might have people watching the town's gate.” 

    “That's fine, we still know the direction it's in.”

    “Okay.” 

Slipping back into the alleyways we tried to retrace our steps only knowing the direction we ran in. 

    “There.” I said, pointing to the hole I made in the wall before. 

Ella slipped through under the wall as I followed. 

    We ran as fast as we could without tripping until we could see the lights of the town's gate. We stayed in the woods and followed the direction of the road.

Chapter twelve:

Leo & Zeke

    Ella and I quietly exited the town of Durthia. Once we were out, we started running away. 

    Once we were a little farther away, Ella and I had turned around and looked at the walls of the town that were in the distance. 

    “I’m going to miss this town…We didn’t even get to say goodbye to Leo or Nana,” I said in a quiet sad voice.

    “I’m sure that they’ll be fine,” Ella reassured me.    

    “I hope so…” 

I soon saw lights in the distance, they looked and shined brightly as if they were the sun. Then I noticed they were flames. 

    “Come on, we better hurry before we get caught,” Ella said. I nodded,

then we both rushed to the bushes. 

    We ran for a little bit. I noticed that the place was dark, covered in shadows everywhere I looked. 

    The wind started to pick up and started whistling past the trees, making their branches creak and leaves rustle. The path was barely visible. 

    I could hear owls in the trees, although I couldn’t see them. Moonlight was shining down from the big plump yellow moon.  

    I was trying hard not to trip on my legs. 

    Suddenly, there was something that came out onto the path, and I was going too fast to stop. My body pushed into the shadow, and I then knew it was solid. Luckily, we didn’t fall to the ground. 

    “Watch where you're going!” the shadowy figure exclaimed. I widened my eyes a bit. 

    “Sorry! I didn't mean to do that!” I apologized quickly. 

I looked at the silhouette to observe it. 

    The silhouette seemed to be a human being, telling from its shape and

form. 

    Once my eyes adjusted to the dark I could see that the person seemed to be in a cloak of some kind. It was a nice cloak too, a black one to blend in with the shadows. The person’s hood was pulled over their face so I couldn’t see it at all. 

    “Orchid?” the hooded figure asked with surprise in their voice. I was confused. 

    How do they know my name? 

Then my mouth fell open a little in shock and realization. 

    “Leo?” I questioned in a loud voice. Ella, who was beside me, and I totally forgotten about her, asked,

    “What are you talking about?”

    “That’s Leo,” I responded. “Right? You are Leo, aren’t you?” 

The hooded figure stayed silent. Then they responded. 

    “Yeah, you caught me.” 

I was both shocked and surprised to see him out here. 

    “What are you doing out here? In the middle of the night. I thought you