Sel, Chapter 2 Options

[Dantrag]

In those days, I was quite wild. I searched for adventure in everything. and more than once, I looked for fights. I find it sad that other people made excuses for me, even when I refused to give one for myself. I was often convinced I was right, such as in the time I tried to rob a Legion fort and got caught. Then, I got out of trouble because of my 'horrible childhood'. Looking back, it wasn't so horrible until the deaths started happening.

-Selenil Vendas

"Sh!" A ten- year-old Sel ordered his sister as he put his finger over his lips. "You don't want us to get caught again, do you?"

Vysi put on a pouty face and shook her head 'no'.

"Stay here." he whispered, handing Vysi a piece of bread.

They were hidden in a storage closet in Fort Buckmoth eating some bread that was stored in the crates. They often went there when they got hungry, and had only been caught once. That hadn't been pretty; their mother was less than happy to say the least.

Sel wanted more than bread this time though; he wanted some gold; hat way his family could have more than two changes of clothing each. Besides, why pass up an opportunity for adventure?

He sneaked out the door of the storage room and made his way up the stairs; he was disappointed in the fact that the corridor was lighted. He peered under the closed door to the next room, the soldiers were drinking and lagughing loudly. Sel even thought he heard a song somewhere in the choas of noise. Smiling, he made his way into what he had found out days before was the Fort commander's quarters. He opened the door, now confident that he would have no trouble. He stood straight up and opened the door. To his dismay, the commander wasn't one to drink.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?"

Sel stood there wide-eyed for a moment before finally taking off down the hallway. Unfortunately for him, the commander did too.

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It's short, but hey, it's really late here.

This post has been edited by Dantrag: Nov 27 2005, 05:39 AM

[Dantrag]

*triumphant music* Yeah, I don't know why it's playing either.

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"Ow!" Sel exclaimed after standing up. He was knocked over time after time; Dralen was not one to go easy on someone, even if it was someone as young as Sel. He was at his fourth or fifth day of training, and it wasn't going so well in his point of view. All he seemed to gain was bruises and scrapes.

"You aren't as strong as me. You can never hope to overpower me; you're going to have to use your size to your advantage."

Sel sighed; Dralen said that every day, and he stilll didn't know what that meant. All swordsmen were strong, right?

"Yes, sir." Sel replied, and charged back in, his small wooden sword leading the way.

Dralen easily blocked, and hit Sel over the head with his own, much larger wooden sword. Sel fell on the groun again, blinking a few times to gather his senses and hopefully rid himself of the stars he was seeing.

Dralen blinked a few times too; most children his age would be crying after that blow. In fact, he remembered having much older students crying after weaker blows.

"Come on. we'll take a break." Dralen said, suddenly regretting having hit the boy so hard.

"One more try?" Sel asked.

Dralen smiled. This boy never ceased to amaze him.

"Do you even understand what I'm saying when I say use your size to your advantage?"

Sel answered with an honest and blunt, "No."

Dralen chuckled. "And that would be why you charge me head-on all the time. You have a smaller body, and that makes you hard for me to hit. You need to be darting in and out of my reach, scoring minor hits until you tire me out. Use your head for something other than my target, boy."

Sel nodded. He put on a grim expression and charged again, this time darting to the left at the last minute, trying to fool Dralen. Dralen wasn't fooled, but by Sel could gather from his teacher's smile that he was getting the point. He darted away once more to the left before attacking Dralen's side. Dralen easily blocked, but his smile got much wider.

Sel continued using that same tactic, but he often acked away when he knew for sure that he couldn't hit his teacher. This time, he attacked head-on, but instead of eing whakced on the head, he dodged to the side, and swung is sword hopefully at Dralen's side.

Sel's hope faded as Dralen's sword doubled back to intercept his own, and went into a nasty counterattack that left him in the position that he had gotten used to; lying on his back.

"Very good. You lasted much longer that time."

"About ten seconds." Sel replied gloomily.

"You, a ten year-old. lasted ten seconds against House Redoran's trainer on your fourth lesson."

Sel smiled; the man had a point.

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enjoy.