Metal and Flesh (The Rohvim, Book 1)

10.3 "Beheadings Can Be Recovered From"

"You what?" Aeden looked askance at the smaller boy, clearly doubting this measly pest had any fight in him.

   "I challenge you to a duel!"

   "Do people even say that anymore?"

   "Would you rather go have a shuffling race with my grandmum? Are you too womanly to face me? OW!" He ducked and waved his arms above himself as Darla aimed another well placed punch at the back of his head. Everyone laughed as Darla pointed to her eyes and then to him, menacingly.

   "Ok then," Aeden began to draw his sword that he had brought to show some of the other boys at their request, "but you don't even have a blade."

   "Not a sword duel, you silly little man! A head duel. In true rohva fashion!"

   "Is this where I punch you repeatedly in the back of the head until you scream 'mommy! Come save me'? Or is that just what you and Darla do?"

   "No no no. Well, yes, Darla does do that a lot, but no. A rohva duel takes place in the head of a third party, a disinterested third party, Darla," the girl hit her knee in disappointment, "where we both meet and try to best the other with any method we know how. Has the master healer explained any of this to you?"

   "No. He did not get the chance before I left the city."

   "So in our heads, you can't get hurt. Your head can get chopped off, you can sink into the ocean, be lit afire, be swallowed whole by a, a,"

   Frederick piped in "by a wild Stuart!"

   The round young man consuming a turkey leg suddenly looked up. "I heard my name!"

   Frederick, not missing a beat said, "Never mind, Stuart."

   "Got it," and the teen turned his attention back to his half-eaten turkey leg.

   Rupert continued, "by a sea serpent, or a dragon, or your mother or whatever. Nothing can hurt you."

   "So how do you win?" Aeden asked, skeptically.

   "Easy. By crushing my head. Or pulverizing it, or incinerating it or chopping it up into tiny bits."

   "But you just said if I'm beheaded that that won't hurt me."

   "Right. Beheadings can be recovered from-just grow a new body. But once your head is destroyed, you can't exactly grow a new head, and without a head, your connection to the host's head is broken and you kind of fall out. Got it? You'll understand more once I beat you."

   "Don't count on it runt. Ok, so let me get this straight. Nothing can hurt me, but protect my head. Got it. Can I use any weapons? Or do I have to turn into some massive creature that sits on you?"

   "Stuart impersonations are perfectly acceptable..." Stuart yelled out "I heard that!" not looking up from his mostly consumed turkey leg. Rupert continued, "but you are also allowed to think up some weapons. You just can't alter your surroundings-that is, you can set them on fire, crush them, but you can't invent new surroundings or make the current surroundings disappear. Only the host can do that." Rupert was rubbing his bony hands together. "Ready?"

   "I guess. Who's the host?"

   Betha piped in, "I'll do it."

   Aeden glanced over at her, almost betrayed by the blush of blood that rose to his face, though his hand shielding his face from the sun managed to hide it. "All right. What do we do?"

   "Betha sits here in the middle and we put our hands on her head. If the others want to watch, they can just touch our heads and they'll be able to observe."

   Aeden got up to allow Betha to sit on the log he had been on. She half-smiled at him and took her seat and the two duelists each put one hand on her head. Many of the others approached and touched either Aeden's or Rupert's. When all were settled, they entered Betha's mind. At first, their surroundings were dark, but soon they found themselves near the top of a mountain. They were seated on stone steps that looked to be some sort of amphitheater, and below them sloped the mountain, with lakes glittering here and there, trees and shrubs dotting the landscape. To their right a small waterfall cascaded off into a stream below feeding one of the lakes, its source some unknown body of water above them. The amphitheater on three sides surrounded a small, stone surfaced performance area, and on the fourth side stretched a field, white and yellow with dandelions, trailing down the mountainside until it came to the first of the many lakes in view below them.

   "Is this all right?" Betha asked.

   "It's perfect. Thank you, Betha." Rupert's thin wiry frame bowed low to the girl, who nodded and playfully curtsied in response.

   "All right, let's start down in the field, and everyone else can watch from these steps." Aeden followed Rupert out of the amphitheater down into the grassy area. After a ways, he stopped, and the pale bony boy turned to face the now very broad and muscular Aeden.

   "You look the same." Aeden remarked.

   "What else would I look like?"

   "Um, I don't know. When do we start?"

   "Now!"