One-on-One: Hunter Phoenix and Sophidian

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén was slumped on the bed, bleeding where the demon had struck him, his ribs were burning with pain and he was also burnt in several places where the demon had grabbed him, his chest was covered in scratches and now he had a large gash on his forehead as well.

"Well now I think I shall stay in bed a little longer than a day, that one really hurt"

He laughed, he often did this after a life or death situation, he found room to laugh about it afterwards because he was lucky to be alive.

Trying to sit up, he failed and just stayed as he was.

"Are you ok Shie? It didn't get you at all did it?"

[Sophidian]

One hand remained on her neck as she swallowed, trying to find her voice. She reached out to touch him, hand shaking. From the cut on his forehead to the burns on his shoulders, she just stared in surprise. "You're... The gods bless you, why didn't you yell when you saw him? My father would have been able to do something at the very least before I got up here."

Feeling the swell of anger again, she stood and left the room to ask a passing server to fetch the doctor. Again. Taking a moment to collect herself, she walked back in and shook her head. "I'm fine. You... You cannot do this. You'll end up dead." She let her hand drop from her throat, ignoring the pain - and the symbol that remained, glowing against her white skin in injured red. "Then we have no hope!"

[Hunter Phoenix]

"Well I am sorry but it isn't like I planned to be attacked by a demon is it, I was just reading, minding my own business when it came for me, I shouted out to you when I heard your voice and it went for me, before then it had been happy to sit outside my room and make my edgy"

He was a little upset that she was mad with him again, then he saw the mark on her.

"Did that creature do that to you?"

He pointed at the mark on her.

[Sophidian]

"The creature didn't even touch me." Ignorant of the mark, she turned to him, finger shaking in his face. Her eyes seemed a bit wetter, a bit larger, and shining. Unlike her calm disposition of before, this on is threatening to crack. "And don't speak to me that way! I...I'm only try to make sure you don't get yourself killed like Tsai! I can't have another death on my conscience."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén looked down, feeling ashamed of himself

"I am sorry, but I honestly didn't expect another demon so soon, I will be more careful from now on, I promise you that"

He pushed himself up a little bit and then wiped blood out of his eyes as it trickled down him.

"How did Tsai die? If you don't mind me asking"

[Sophidian]

She grabbed the dirty gauze and began to dab at the cut on his head. "Demons killed him while he was protecting me. He was always protecting me. Like I was some sort of invalid." She ripped another piece of gauze from the roll and began to bind his head, careful of his hair. "And I just sat there, like an invalid, letting him fight and die. I won't do that any longer. I refuse."

Moving down to the burn marks, she swore. "I don't know how to treat these."

[Hunter Phoenix]

"Cold water usually take out the sting of them, there isn't any need for bandaging them"

He listened to her while she spoke of Tsai

"I am sorry to hear about that, I know you can fight, I have seen you and I will teach you how to wield a weapon, then we can both stop this demon problem once and for all, I won't make any more mistakes and I certainly will not underestimate you, you have saved my life twice now"

"I'm proud of you as well, I saw that you used your magic without having to say anything, you are gaining more control of it"

[Sophidian]

Shie ran and got a bowl full of cold water, bringing it back to work on his burns. "I'm surprised that I did, to be honest." She left the matter of saving his life untouched. "I mean, I didn't pray. That must mean the gods hear me without saying anything." She wiped down his marred skin, being careful not to harm him more.

"It seems we may have to find the source of these demons. Perhaps we should leave here."

[Hunter Phoenix]

"I agree that we need to find the source of these demons and put a stop to them once and for all, but I think we should push on and get the defence of the village underway first, just to be on the safe side"

Lièrén stood up slowly after Shie had dabbed the wet cloth over his burns, they weren't stinging as much now so he could handle them

"I might as well walk around and do what I can to teach people how to fight, things are escalating quickly, would it be ok to bandage me up while I am stood up? Or are we waiting for the good doctor to come and look at me first?"

[Sophidian]

"The doctor can check you while you're teaching." She helped him to his feet and finally realized just how short she was compared to him. Trying to push that to the back of her mind, she began to work on bandaging him with soft, careful touches. She circled around him, inspecting anything that seemed off before standing before him again. Some blood had leaked out of the makeshift covering she'd made.

"Oh," she said, reaching up to wipe it off. "This may not be good."

[Hunter Phoenix]

"Yeah, this could be bad, I'll just keep pressure on it till the doctor gets here, let's get downstairs so we can get to the teaching shall we?"

He placed pressure on the wound where the blood was coming from and hobbled as best he could out of his room and into the hallway, once he reached the stairs, he was panting slightly, taking the stairs one at a time he was soon downstairs and had reached the door.

He walked out into the village and stood in the middle of the street, the villagers soon gathered around him and Shie, interested in what was happening and looking horrified that he was deeply battered and wounded.

"People, we have a serious problem coming our way and we need to act now, if it is ok with you, I shall teach you all how to wield and use a sword and I will also forge new swords for you with the power to defeat any demon that stands in your way, there are dark times ahead of us all and we need to stand together before we are swept away and become a footnote in the history of the world, what do you say?"

[Sophidian]

Shie wrapped an arm around his waist, seeing how much trouble he was going through. She gazed upon her people, her neighbors and uncles and aunts, and sighed. "He's right. We need to fight. We can't sit here and let these demons take us. If we don't know basic self-defense, we're nothing more than meat dangling before them."

The murmurs of dissent morphed into acceptance, and finally a set of the strongest men stepped forward, varying in years from teenaged to middle-aged. "It will be some time before Lièrén can make swords for all of you, so it will have to be practicing one by one..."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén held onto Shie lightly so that he could lean on her without knocking her over.

"I can teach you how to fight using swords, is there anyone among you who has some knowledge of working with metal so that we can get working on making some blades for everyone else? We will have to work long and hard, it will be tiresome, it will be frustrating, but it will work, we also need wood and nails to erect a wall around the village with gates for people to come in and out without problem and it will help keep out the demons as well"

One person of about middle age stepped forward and said that he had some knowledge of working with metal, but not a lot. Lièrén nodded and told him that making a blade was easy enough and very quick to learn.

"Once we have some blades made, I will begin to teach you all how to use them and soon you will all be well defended against demons, but we need to work quickly, once I am healed up enough, I will take you through the more complicated movements of sparring so that you can catch demons off guard, the stronger of you may even be taught how to use two swords at once, we shall see"

[Sophidian]

A teenager, one of Shie's many cousins, held up his hand and announced that he was good with wood and nails and is quickly assigned to assist the elder man. Once they head out to find proper metal and pieces of wood, she gazed up at him. "You've got them believing that they can live. That's a start. And if they can use blades, perhaps leaving here won't sentence them to a life of constant struggle or death."

She took a few steps, easing him along with her. "Now. What do you have to do?"

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén nodded

"Hope is always a good thing to have in a situation like theirs, it is better to have a slither of hope than no hope at all, that is when things get out of hand and people panic"

He thought for a minute

"I think I better get working on some blades, the sooner we have them, the better, would you like to come with me? It might even be interesting, but I doubt it will be, black smithing can be such a tedious business"

He began to hobble along to the building where all of the tools where for him to start working on blades, he would have to do the first one himself, which would be painful, but it needed to be done so that he could show the other guy how to do it.

"There will be a lot of heat in the building and it will be noisy at times because I have to work hard on the metal to get it into the right shape, but you are free to stay as long as you want, unless you have other jobs to do?"

[Sophidian]

"I've finished my jobs," she said, wincing at each of his steps. She moved inside, removing her outer dress to leave herself in short sleeves and a shorter skirt. She slipped out of her sandals, leaving them by the door, and walked on the dirt floor. "I can watch and make sure you don't hurt yourself any more, though. Are you sure you can handle one blade?"

She found a seat on an old bench, sitting with her hands on her knees, leaning forward a bit.

[Hunter Phoenix]

"I think I can just about manage it, I may need your help at certain parts though, sometimes moving the metal about from one place to another can be awkward enough without the wounds getting in the way, you have steady hands don't you?"

He stoked a fire up and used the billow on the floor to pump it up into an inferno, pretty soon the whole place was sweltering with heat and he was sweating already so he took off the top half of his robe and picked up a long length of metal and dropped it into the fire to heat it up.

"First I need to heat the metal up until it is red hot, then when that has been done, I use these tongs..."

He picked up the tongs off the workbench

"...and I use the tongs and hammer to fold the metal and hammer it flatter, then it goes back into the fire and is reheated and then beaten flatter again, then dunked in water so that it cools and the folded metal is nice and locked together into once piece, this gives it strength so that it will not break when it is used as a sword"

He took the hot metal out of the fire and hammered at it while he explained, stopping momentarily to recover from the pain in his ribs before continuing. He went through all the motions and proccesses that he had been taught when he had been back in his old village, and soon he had a piece of metal that could be used as a blade, he put it back in the fire and heated it again, using the billow to heat the fire up to make sure the correct heat was met. Then when he was satisfied, he took the metal out of the fire and placed it on its side, keeping hold of it with the tongs, he gently started to mold one of the ends into the shape of a blade and then he turned the metal when this had been done and hammered it flatter and flatter until it was flatter than it had been the first few times he had worked it. Then he dunked it in the water again and smiled when it hissed.

When he held up the metal to show Shie, it had the basic shape of a sword.

"There we go, now it just needs a handle to be attached too and then it can be sharpened and then we have our first sword"

[Sophidian]

Shie went forward and took the sword between a set of tongs, moving it over onto a work table that her cousin sat it, measuring for the handles. "That didn't seem too difficult," she said, though she knew she couldn't hammer anything that strongly. "Perhaps I can sharpen them? I imagine it's like sharpening cooking knives. Just...with more blade."

She searched around the area before finding a whetstone. She took a seat on the bench, rather unlady-like once again, and began to work on the sides of the sword

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén nodded in appreciation and then sat down on the bench, he was exhausted, it had taken most of the day to make the blade and he was in a lot of pain as well because his ribs were hurting from the effort of working on the blade.

"Once the blade is sharpened, I will have to heat the unshaped end of it in the fire along with part of the handle so that they will meld together when cooled"

He wiped sweat from his brow and sat back, relaxing and letting his ribs slowly stop hurting.

[Sophidian]

Shie came to sit beside him when she was done. "That can wait. You're in too much pain." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "Let me walk you back to the Inn. You should get some rest. Tomorrow you can finish the swords and start training."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén nodded

"Thank you, I think it is time for me to go to sleep, get my strength back up and then start again tomorrow, I'm pleased with the progress we are making"

He stood and leaned lightly on Shie, who led him back to his room in the inn and helped him get into bed.

"Thank you Shie, have a pleasent evening, see you in the morning"

He laid back and closed his eyes, offering a silent prayer to The Gods to help them get through the ordeal as quickly and swiftly as possible. Then he was asleep.

The next morning:

Lièrén awoke early, like he always did, he felt different immediatly, he wasn't in pain, his ribs weren't hurting and the burn marks on his arms weren't stinging. He didn't feel any pain what so ever, at first he thought he had died and was at peace, but when he looked to his left and saw the wall of his room, he knew it wasn't the case. He sat up, confused, then realised that he wasn't in pain from sitting up, looking down he got the fright of his life; he was completely healed.

He jumped up out of bed and looked down at his body, every mark and blemish and wound was gone, he took the bandage off his head and felt the skin on his forehead, the gash was gone. He tore the bandages off from around his chest, he was completely healed, the skin was smooth and unblemished like they had been before he had fought the demons.

He put on the bottom half of his robe and then went downstairs, being careful not to awake Shie. He grabbed his sword off the table and took it outside, no one else was around, so he unsheafed his sword and practiced with it, feeling good that he could move freely again. He smiled as he worked his sword, going through the familiar motions that he always went through.

[Sophidian]

Shie awoke to the callings of birds and the noise from the town below. With a heavy yawn, she rolled out of the bed and grabbed the bandages on her nightstand. Shuffling down to Lièrén's room and paused. He wasn't in there. He wasn't anywhere in the inn, she soon learned, and raced outside.

"Lièrén!" she called, her voice loud. "Lièrén! Where are you?"

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén stopped sparring when he heard Shie calling him, he ran back to the inn and stopped in front of her.

"Good morning, how are you?"

He was smiling, she had a shocked expression on her face.

"I know, I don't know what's happened either, as you know, I went to sleep last night, I prayed to The Gods to give us a chance of survival, I woke up this morning completely healed, so I came out here to do some sparring, I didn't mean to worry you, I snuck out because I didn't want to wake you"

[Sophidian]

She managed to remember to close her mouth, the bandages now unraveled around the ground. She took a step forward and pressed two fingers into his chest. "You... don't hurt at all?" Shie gazed up at him, then back down at where his wounds should be.

"This is a miracle."

[Hunter Phoenix]

Lièrén shook his head

"No pain what so ever, I can do a full sparring workout and not feel a single ache or pain in my chest or my arms, I pushed myself harder than normal this morning and no pain or ache what so ever, it's like I have been completely regenerated over night and given a complete lease of life, I can finish the sword today and get a whole batch underway by the end of today no problem, then tomorrow I can hand them out and start teaching people how to use them"

Lièrén laid a hand on Shie's shoulder and smiled to her

"Thank you for looking after me while I was wounded, it means a lot, now we have work to do, do you think you would be able to copy the symbol from Tsai's sword and engrave it on the new ones I make?"