Aide Me

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Love Me

[Music: Asami Zdrenka - Strange And Beautiful (Aqualung Cover). The drawing is made by me]

"Left, right, spar! Keep ye' parade up, if ye' lower that sword even for a second, ye're dead!"

Emaia walked up to Hanke and tapped him on his shoulder. "Hanke?"

Hanke turned and looked surprised at her. "Emaia! What are ye' doing here?"

"I want to learn how to fight with a sword," She firmly said. "I don't care what you say, I just want to learn for when I step out on that battlefield."

Hanke lost all his color. "What?! Ye' can't go out there! Ye'll die in three seconds! Those men have been trained to kill since they were twelve! Ye've barely started a month ago! And now ye' want to learn how to handle a sword?"

Emaia thought back to her conversation with Kai, and couldn't help but think how she indeed had learned how to handle a 'sword.'

She shook her head and fought the urge to slap herself. Her mind had gotten so perverted ever since their talk. Damn Kai and his dirty mouth.

"It's not up for discussion, Hanke," Emaia said. "Either you teach me, or I get one of the elves to do it. I just thought you might want to help me, since I know how proud your wife would be, if she knew you were supporting women soldiers."

- Yes, she was feeding his ego a little, but sometimes that was necessary. And it worked too. Hanke expanded with proudness and hiked up in his pants.

"Well, I see ye' point. But Me Lady, ye' don't know what kind of men are out there."

"I'm guessing the kind of men we want dead," She flatly replied. "The kind of men that would do stuff to me if I couldn't fight back."

Hanke ground his molars for a moment before throwing his hands in the air. "Fine! Ye' can take Dashel's spot. I haven't seen the lad all day, that kid is always flying about. Young people these days!"

Emaia shortly wondered where Dashel could be. It wasn't like him to miss practice. Especially this close to the great battle, he knew how important it was. She wrote a mental note to go look for him if he didn't turn up eventually.

-*-

Two hours later, Emaia could barely lift her arms. They ached, and her feet hurt from all the difficult footwork that apparently went into learning how to handle a sword. It was like a dance, except in this dance, you were actually meant to hit your partner, not avoid it. And it was so very tiring to swing a heavy broadsword around.

But Emaia still hadn't seen Dashel's shadow, and she was beginning to worry. Had he run into trouble somewhere?

Suddenly there was a loud rumble of a horn. It was a horn that Emaia didn't recognize, but apparently, it was a call of some sort. Every elf around her stopped what they were doing, and ran to the front gate. Emaia quickly followed them.

When she came to the big wooden doors, she saw that no other than Shea, the woman who Aide had kissed, came through the gate, which had been narrowly opened for her. In her hand, she carried something that resembled a document.

"I think you'll all want to read this," She held the scroll up and smirked. "Who wants the honor?"

Aide stepped out from the crowd. Emaia felt a jealous pull in her stomach, when he walked up to her and she smiled seductively at him. She waved the scroll in front of him.

"What do I get in return?" She asked, her venomous smirk growing. Emaia was beginning to see what Kai meant. She really did resemble a snake.