Kapitel 2: Chapter 1
"Ash Blake and Mort Gavin" the announcer on the raised podium shouted the two names while looking over the circular ground. Around the ground watching were the people from the valley down the White Fang mountains. Among the watchers, in a separate section were a group of men and women dressed in better clothes and armors who had been watching the previous fights too. As the names were called, two young men just turned eighteen stepped out. One of them had dirty brown hair, with crooked teeth, a big stature, and a predatory smile as he looked at his opponent, the other boy was leaner, of normal height, black hair, as black as the night, and an unsure and nervous expression on his face.
Ash Blake was cursing his bad luck right now. Of all the people he could have been paired up against it had to be, Mort. Their rivalry went back almost two decades, they were neighbors, actually, born around the same time. Their families weren't close but since they were neighbors there was a lot of contact. So, they had always competed for everything.
The crowd cheered. Ash looked at the familiar faces, doing anything in front of so many people made his stomach churn. Then he made the wrong decision of looking to his right where he knew, Melissa was standing. She had the same excited expression as others. for a second, he felt sick at the way these people were so excited to see two guys fight. But then he had also very fondly looked at the fights that had happened yesterday.
It all started when the news that some recruiters were coming from the capital to the valley, and were going around selecting recruits for taking back to the capital. Ash like all boys in the valley, wanted to become a swordsman. The age to become a soldier in the army was twenty years, and so yesterday all the boys over that age had shown their skills by fighting amongst themselves in front of the recruiters. But another news came at the last minute, that they have decided to reduce the age to eighteen years, there were rumors that they were planning to increase the numbers in the forces, and that's why they had done this.
Well Ash had with the approval of his parents submitted his name to the village chief, who had done the pairings. A horn sounded from the podium jerking him out of his thoughts, Mort ran towards him like a charging bull, his sword in front of him like a spear. Now the problem fighting with Mort for Ash was his fear. He knew he should jump out of the way and attack at the so many openings he had left with his straightforward and stupid attack, but when a large maniac like him is trying to skewer you to death in front of him with a four-inch wide blade, your body doesn't move normally.
Still, this wasn't a training match, this was the biggest opportunity of his life, he had to move. So pushing off the ground he jumped sideways, dodging the sword, he was much slower due to his nerves, and so when he slashed back, he was only able to grace his arm. Mort roared like he always did, every time, like he was hitting a nail with a hammer, he swung his sword up to bring it down on his head and cleave him in half, the image flashed in his mind again making him freeze, he raised his shaking arms to clock the sword with his sword. The impact wrang through his bones, almost making him drop the sword.
Then he saw it, an idea popped into his head. In the training they were always just practicing moves, but this was a real fight, with no rules he could do anything. So when he looked down and saw Mort's foot in his range, he ducked from the next slash and instead of slashing upwards, like they were trained to, he slashed down, Mort thought he was going for his leg, but as he moved it away, he feet flew up to meet his sword and he slashed it. A strong cry emerged from Mort, Ash didn't know he had it in him, but he didn't back down and drove in with the final blow and poked him in the right shoulder, which enabled him to hold his sword.
The crowd didn't see what happened all they saw was, Ash duck from an attack, Mort tried to kick his sword away, and then Ash landed a strong attack. Mort was carried off to the healer's tent, Ash bowed wiping off his sweat, and went back from where he had come, where his family was waiting.
They were all cheering and congratulating him for the win. Ash would have been happy as well, but his goal was not to win the fight, but to get selected by the recruiters. He had seen yesterday much more experienced men from the village fight long battles, and still not get selected. Now he was feeling bad to be paired up against Mort because the idiot was so easy to defeat, that he wasn't able to show his skills. Now Mort didn't seem like a threat at all, he felt stupid for being scared of him, and he felt confident he could take guys like him easily.
"When will we know, if they selected him?" asked his mother to his father.
"They'll tell the names to the chief soon, it shouldn't be late now," said his father.
Ash looked at the tent where the people from the capital were. They had come two days ago, on big horses, a small group of them. Some of them had heavy armor, some were just carrying a sword. But they all looked and felt different, which made him keep looking at them. He wanted to be like them and live that life, they all seemed so awesome.
He was also worried about his family, they had been through a bad time when two years ago, his elder brother Caleb had died. He and some other of his friends had gone to the Fang Forest, to check on some monster sightings, when two days later only one of them made back and told the rest what had happened. His father and mother hadn't taken the news well, his mother had gone much quieter since then, and Caleb was always his father's favorite, his pride, an amazing swordsman, the best in the village. He and his elder sister, Fiona, had both supported each other through the dark times.
"Someone has an admirer it seems" teased Fiona. Fiona was a cheerful girl, she was beautiful, and she already had a lot of admirers in the village which he didn't like. She also still treated him like a kid, even after what he had just done. She had always teased him about Melissa, knowing his crush. So he glanced at where Melissa was standing, but she wasn't looking in their direction she was talking to her friends.
"What do you mean?" he asked when he realized she hadn't meant her.
She raised her eyebrows towards the other side and pointed. He turned and saw the tent where the recruiters were. There was a middle-aged man who seemed to be looking in their direction. He was too far so he couldn't tell where he was looking.
"Is he looking at us? how can you tell, it's so far" he asked.
"Yes, he is, oh now he is looking at me," she said and looked away. She always had a great eyesight he thought.
The man was wearing a simple chainmail shirt with a sword on his side. Nothing on him seemed brand new, rather aged like himself, Ash got the feeling that he was a battle-worn commander, now living his retired life recruiting and training warriors.
"Look there, they just handed, Chief Torin, the list of names, just like yesterday," said Fiona again looking somewhere far.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein