“So, this is the kid you were talking about, huh?”

As I stepped out of the front door, the mercenary girl leant forward, her brow furrowing as she inspected me with narrowed eyes.

“...I can see why you’re asking me to train him,” she said after a short pause. “Yeah, he wouldn’t suit your fighting style at all.”

“When I was trainin’ ‘im, he took to your style of fightin’ super quick.” Alvin looped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me out of the shade of the house and into the bright sunlight. 

“Isn’t your Dad a musclehead though? I’m surprised he didn’t shove his method of fighting onto the poor kid.”

“Oh, he certainly tried. Wait here for a bit.” With a quick wave, Alvin rushed off towards the village centre, leaving me with the unknown mercenary girl.

She stared off into the distance at his slowly retreating back, letting out a hefty sight.

“...Is he always this wild and all over the place?” the mercenary girl asked, turning back to me. “I can never figure out what Al’s thinking.”

“...Yeah. He’s always like that.”

“Ah, well.” She shrugged, strolling under the shade of the house and leaning against the wall.

What exactly did Alvin have in mind, when he brought the mercenary girl to our house? He was… well, very enthusiastic about how he wanted to introduce me to her, and how her fighting style was the one that he used as a reference, when he was teaching me to fight.

But… every other time the mercenaries were visiting the village, he would be constantly out with them, training and sparring against them. He seemed almost obsessive about it, to the point that he’d skip meals, and even sometimes spend the entire night doing sword swing drills, just to perfect the motions he was working on.

So why was he so focused on helping me train? And throwing me right into the flames of battle, too… I was a complete beginner, so sparring with a skilled mercenary — especially one skilled enough to beat Alvin, who was arguably the best fighter in the village — was far too out of my league.

As I moved back under the shade of the house, pondering about how frantic Alvin seemed, the mercenary girl waved to me.

“Sorry ‘bout all this,” she said, a hint of a smile showing on her face.

“No, it’s okay–I…” I hesitated, leaning against the side of the house as well. “I’m sorry, I… he’s probably asking for something annoying for you, and…”

“Nah, it’s all good.” The mercenary girl waved her hand dismissively, her slight smile turning into a cheeky grin. “I’m bored here, anyway. Alvin’s the only one worth sparring against, and I’ve fought against him so many times already.”

“I’m… probably nowhere near as good as him, honestly.”

“Hey, that’s what training’s for, isn’t it?” She shuffled across, nudging my arm with her elbow playfully. “I’m Karla.”

“I’m… Matty,” I replied.

“...Maddy?”

“N-no, Matty. It’s… short for Matthias.”

“Ahh,” Karla giggled. “Sorry, it’s just… when Alvin was talking about someone related to him, I was honestly expecting another musclehead just like him, but… this is so much better.”

She pushed herself away from the wall energetically, spinning around to face me.

“Someone whose strategy isn’t going to be ‘just completely overpower my opponent with brute strength’? Sign me up.”

What exactly was I getting myself into?

*     *     *     *     *

Once Alvin had returned, with a bundle of wooden swords in his arms and a few pouches of water hanging from his shoulders, we started walking towards the edge of the village.

“So, Matty,” Karla slowed down to match my pace as I trudged along behind Alvin. “How much experience do you have?”

“A-about a day’s worth of training.”

“Right, so we’ll be starting nearly from scratch, then.” She hurried a few steps forward, spinning around and walking backwards in front of me. “A clean slate will be easier to work with. Al, where are we training?”

As we reached a small clearing a little ways into the forest, Alvin stopped, laying the water pouches on the ground in front of him. 

“Right here,” he said, beginning to sort through the wooden practice weapons he had brought.

“Ooh, far away from everyone else.” Karla, still walking backwards, shielded her eyes from the sun as she peered past the trees and into the village. “It’s nice and quiet here.”

Just as she was about to crash into Alvin, she elegantly twirled to the side, halting just next to him. 

“Yeah, we won’t have to worry about any of the guys botherin’ us here.” Alvin sorted out two short daggers from the bundle he was carrying, and handed them to her.

She waved them around, adjusting her grip as she watched Alvin hand two more daggers to me, keeping the last one, a longer sword, for himself. Her eyes had a mischievous glint to them as she bounced around, doing practice swipes and jabs into the air.

“Hey…” she began, her voice carrying a playful undercurrent to it. “You said you’ve trained for a day so far.”

I flinched as she jumped towards me, holding the two daggers behind herself. Was she planning on having a sparring match with me? I was nowhere near practiced enough to match her… but she looked so eager. 

And what if I transformed? I had no way of knowing how she would react to me suddenly… changing in front of her. Would she see me as… a monster, like those mercenaries did in my dream?

“Just a… a few of the basics,” I finally replied, unable to withstand the pressure of her sparkling eyes at the prospect of… whatever it was she wanted to do.

Her gaze flicked to my hands and I unconsciously tensed, adjusting my grip on the daggers to match what Alvin had taught me yesterday.

“I see you’ve got the fundamentals down,” she said, looking back up at me with a sly grin, before spinning around to face Alvin. “Hey Al…”

“What’s up?”

“You’ve got that game you told me about in the village, right? The one where if someone’s holding a practice weapon, they’re fair game for a sparring match?”

Oh no.

As Alvin took a deep breath, Karla hunched down, her legs bent as if she was a wound-up spring.

“Yeah, we do,” he replied as he checked over the pouches of water, completely unaware of what was very likely about to happen behind him.

“...Sweet.”

“Wait, I’m not read-” Before I could finish my sentence, Karla jumped towards me, swinging one of her daggers in a wide arc as she spun around. Lifting my own weapons up, I barely managed to block her attack, crossing the two daggers I had in the path of her weapon.

As she slid backwards from the recoil, I caught a glimpse of her yellow eyes, staring at me as if she was a predator and I was her prey. 

“Oh, very good,” she said, readjusting her stance so that she was upright. “You’re quick on your feet.”

Yesterday, Alvin had only taught me how to manage the grip on my weapons, and a few basic attacking and defending motions, such as swipes and jabs. Against someone like Karla, who was slowly circling around me as if looking for an opening, I didn’t seem to have a hope at winning a sparring match.

I braced myself for another onslaught of attacks. 

Karla kicked up a small cloud of dust behind her as she rushed forwards, swinging both her daggers at me in wide motions from opposite sides. As I ducked back out of reach, I saw her subtly nod, her arms still moving as they carried the momentum from her earlier swing.

Even though she was this fast, she was going really easy on me, wasn’t she?

Before her arms had stopped moving, I jumped towards her, trying to swipe at her stomach. She quickly moved both her daggers to her middle, forming a cross shape to block my attack.

Too slow…

“Good effort, but…” She shifted her feet, grinning as she watched me backpedal out of range. “You need to be a little quicker than that.”

She had left me an obvious opening, and I had taken it, though she still managed to block my strike. The next time, though… Her eyes roved up and down my body. She wasn’t going to give me an opening like that again, was she?

She elegantly weaved her two daggers around in front of her, slowly stepping to the side as she began circling around me again. This time, I tried to copy what she was doing, walking to the side as I recalled the things that Alvin had taught me when we trained yesterday.

One of the techniques he had gone over was feinting, as a way to bait your opponent into making an unfavourable move. If I pretended to try to strike her from one side, then pulled back and made an attempt from the other side, I might have a chance of getting through her defenses.

Karla seemed to be extremely skilled, however. Skilled enough that she could probably see through any pretend attacks I tried to make. On the other hand, though, I didn’t think she had a grasp on my own skill level yet, given that she seemed to be adjusting herself such that I had more of a chance.

And she only knew I had learned the fundamentals. Alvin had backpedalled when he was teaching me, saying that he had slipped into going over the advanced techniques that he always thinks about. 

...Maybe it had a chance of working.

I watched intently as she weaved her daggers around in a figure-eight in front of her. Alvin had taught me a few motions for how to feint, but hadn’t gone over when it was most effective to. Should I be looking for an opportunity when her weapons are at the furthest point away from where I pretend to strike? I waited for a moment, my own hands lowering ever so slightly.

As her right hand reached the lowest spot in their figure-eight motion, I jumped forward, swiping at her right side with the dagger in my left hand. She flinched, quickly bringing both of her daggers up to block my strike.

In that moment, I pulled my left hand back, thrusting forwards at her stomach with the dagger in my right hand. Before I could strike, however, she pulled back, and I ended up stabbing at the empty air just in front of her.

As I tried to regain my previous defensive stance, she rushed forward. I retreated, backpedalling as much as I could away from her as she rapidly closed the gap.

“Nice try,” Karla said as she barreled forwards, “but you gotta be a lot faster than that.”

My shoes lost grip against the dusty ground, and I stumbled, waving my arms to the side in an attempt to regain my balance. I only looked away from Karla for a brief moment, but as I looked back, I saw a fierce look in her eyes, and the wooden dagger in her left hand mere inches away from my face.

I was going to get hit with a wooden dagger. In the face.

I closed my eyes, bracing for the inevitable impact as I tried to bring my hands up to protect my head.

“Now that is interesting.”

Instead, as I opened my eyes, I found Karla staring at me. All previous fierceness that she showed had disappeared, and instead she held the daggers behind her back, her eyes roving up and down my body.

“Anyway, my bad, I got a bit too into it,” she said, finally averting her gaze. “I wasn’t expecting you to go on the offensive, so it caught me off guard. You okay?”

“I-I’m fi–” My hand shot to my mouth as I started talking.

My voice was different. That’s why she’d reacted like that. I had changed right in front of her.

As the shock of nearly being hit wore off, I started to feel the familiar heat of the transformation coursing around my body, and the wind flowing through the fur on my ears and tail.

This was bad. I scanned Karla’s face, trying to figure out what that reaction to this form meant.

“Let’s… call it here for the sparring, I think.” Her gaze flicked briefly to the top of my head again. “I went a bit overboard. I think I have a grasp on where you’re at in terms of skill, though.”

“R-right.”

I took a deep breath, slumping forwards and letting my arms hang loosely at my sides. My heart was still racing from the tension, and the sun shining directly overhead made my body feel like it was on fire. Dropping the swords at my feet, I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the sound of the wind rustling the leaves around us.

“It’s terrifyin’, ain’t it?” As I stared at the ground, I heard a set of heavy footsteps approach me, accompanied by Alvin’s voice. “Goin’ up again’t her. She really doesn’t know how to hold back.”

He gently pressed a cool pouch of water against my cheek. I gratefully took it, my hand trembling as I held it there. My legs shook as I tried to stay upright, and my breathing was just as unsteady. 

“...You okay?” Alvin asked.

I flinched as he touched my shoulder, staggering back slightly. 

“I’ll…” I gulped, trying to clear the lump in my throat. “I-I’ll be okay.”

“Let’s… let’s take a break.” He held out his hand towards me.

I took it, letting him lead me out of the small clearing we were in, and into the shade of the forest.

*     *     *     *     *

As we reached a small patch of grass, Alvin let go of my hand, sitting down with his back against a tree. I shakily sat down near him, my tail curling around my ankles as I brought my knees close to my chest. My hands still trembled as I opened the water pouch, and I greedily drank from it as Karla flopped down nearby.

“You look like a scared animal,” Karla said, and I lowered the pouch to find her holding her hands up to her head, mimicking a set of furry ears. “Your ears are folded back.”

I looked away, still wary. She wasn’t going to… tell anyone else about me, right? About what happened to me? This was the first time that anyone other than Alvin saw me like this… though she was only a visitor to the village. As long as she didn’t tell any of the guys…

“So how was your first taste of a real battle?”

“Um…” My hands were still shaking as I hugged my knees, and I felt my ears quivering atop my head. “It was… I…”

I still couldn’t figure out what her reaction to seeing this form meant. As I thought about it longer, I wasn’t sure what scared me more; that, or the sparring match. Taking a deep breath, I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear out the few tears that had formed, and faced her.

“Why are you not… surprised, seeing me like this?”

“Huh? Well…” Karla looked away, scratching the back of her head. “I’m a mercenary. You meet… You see a lot of different people… as a mercenary.”

So there were… other people like me, outside the village? Other people with ears and tails like mine? Since Karla had pointed them out earlier, I couldn’t stop myself from focusing on my ears, and I felt them flick upright at what she was saying.

“A-anyway,” Karla hastily continued, her eyes darting back and forth. “How did you feel, sparring for the first time?”

...What was up with that? As I stared at her, she quickly looked away, staring at the ground next to her. Why did she seem so… defensive? 

“I… I felt a bit out of my depth,” I replied, stretching my legs out. “I’m nowhere near a match for you.”

“That was your first time fighting, right?” Karla’s eyes lit up as the discussion turned to the sparring match. “You did great, so much better than a lot of other people I’ve fought.”

As we rested in the shade, Karla relayed her thoughts on the fight. How I went, what I did well, what I could improve on… Even as she did so, however, I couldn’t help but ponder her strange reaction to my question.