"Today there aren't many people around here," I said, looking around at the place that was almost empty.
"Most of the town is traveling to the nearest city to sell what they produced in the last few months, so it's normal," Rowan answered me while bringing his water canteen to his mouth.
"Makes sense… oh look, there they are," I pointed with my head.
"Hi guys,""good morning," Claire and Daren said. We had invited them to have lunch so we could get to know each other better.
We responded with a simple greeting and invited them to sit at one of the nearby tables. I bought stew for everyone at Miss May's stand, the best in town in my opinion.
We ate for long and silent minutes; no one spoke beyond Daren praising the food. I was sometimes very shy in these kinds of situations; it wasn't easy for me to start a conversation.
"And where are you from?" my brother broke the silence.
"We come from Thariel, near the imperial capital, we lived there with our mother," Daren answered cheerfully. "Have you been there?"
"Not that we remember."
"Remember?" Claire said with one eyebrow raised.
"We had some kind of… accident apparently a few months ago, we don't remember anything prior to that," I replied with some embarrassment.
We had talked a few days ago with Edric and agreed to tell them the truth so that living together would be more comfortable. Although it wasn't a vital secret, we generally kept it that way for safety, since we still had no idea why we didn't remember anything. It was really difficult to maintain a false story about my past like I did with Miles; fortunately, he wasn't very interested and didn't ask about it.
"Really? And how do you know your names or that you're brothers?" Claire questioned. "Or even how you know how to do anything."
I didn't know what to answer immediately; my brother noticed and did it for me. "We lost the memories of our lives, but not how to live. We know how to do everything normally; about our names and that is because when we activated the pulsar in our blood for the first time, some fragments of memory came back to us, although they were few."
"Oh, I see," Claire leaned back and stayed thoughtful.
"And how did you end up with our grandfather?" Daren spoke.
"He rescued us near the city of Aldefor while we were fighting a wild panlagor," I answered.
"What, are you serious, you two alone?!" Claire stood up from the table and leaned forward with a clear shine of excitement in her eyes.
I leaned back with a small blush on my cheeks and answered, "Y-yes… but your grandfather was the one who killed it. It was also thanks to Row; he managed to use his pulsar naturally and hit it, making it fly a few meters."
Rowan nudged me with his elbow. "You also gave it a good beating, you stabbed it several times in the neck."
I blushed even more and avoided everyone's gaze. Daren and Claire were pleasantly surprised, especially the latter, who didn't stop asking questions about what the panlagor was like.
It was clear that she was fascinated by beasts; she looked very happy talking about it. We answered everything as best we could until it got late and we had to return home for training.
We were in the yard of the house again, standing in front of old Edric. "Alright kids, today you'll have normal duels among yourselves; Claire against Rowan and Luke against Daren."
We hadn't trained the pulsar in the last three days. After I broke the rock, I recreated it the next day in training and Edric congratulated me, but we returned to sword practice and meditation as usual.
I was sitting next to Daren, looking in the direction of my brother and Claire, who were facing each other. "I bet 3 centos on Claire," Daren said at my side with a wide smile.
I looked at him for a moment and smiled. "And I bet on Rowan."
"Begin," Edric shouted softly.
Both advanced for a quick clash of swords. It was clear that Claire knew what she was doing; she responded to all of Rowan's attacks quickly, but there was something very important: she was always on the defensive. At no moment did she have a single opening to attack.
After approximately a minute, Claire lay on the ground with Rowan's sword pointed at her head. "Gods, you're a monster," Claire murmured.
I completely shared her perspective, and now even more so that I could see it from another angle that wasn't Rowan's prey. She was not bad with a sword at all; she was far superior to me, but Row was simply incredible.
I tapped Daren on the shoulder, who was standing with his mouth open, surprised by what he had just seen, and stretched out my open hand as a sign for him to pay.
He looked at me with suspicion and took some centos out of his pocket and gave them to me.
Now the two of us were facing each other. I looked to the side and could see Edric talking with Claire and Rowan off to one side; he was pointing out to his granddaughter what she did wrong and how to improve it.
A few minutes later they sat where we had been before and Edric approached.
"No pulsar," he looked at both of us. "Begin."
Daren lunged forward; I took my guard. The first attack came from the side; I was able to stop it easily with my sword. The clash of steel vibrated through my arm, but I kept my stance firm, sliding his blade downward to deflect the force.
He pushed off to the side with his lead foot and attacked from another angle. I managed to dodge by throwing myself backward; this time his attack had much more force than speed.
We continued clashing our swords a couple more times until he took a different stance, placing his sword in a thrusting line. It didn't make sense for him to attack that way… ah, so that was it, it's a feint. I refrained from defending against the first movement; I bet everything that he would change direction.
And he did. I could notice a hint of surprise in his eyes, but he continued with his attack, dropping his sword vertically with all his strength. I rolled to one side and attacked his leg; he was able to block it.
I stood up quickly but couldn't recover my balance. He saw this and attacked me with a series of thrusts directed at my torso. I retreated quickly, deflecting one, two, three. I was starting to get tired; he was bigger and stronger. If he managed to land a blow on me, it would be over. He had me against the ropes.
I tried to press as much as I could. I couldn't give him any margin to strike; I had to use my smaller size and speed. Finally, I dodged his last attack and as a result he struck the ground hard. I took advantage of that moment of instability to launch a thrust at his chest with all my strength. Upon impact, Daren threw himself backward, coughing due to the lack of air from the strong blow he had just received.
"Are you alright?" I approached and asked worriedly.
He coughed a little more and composed himself. "I'm fine, nothing happened," he smiled at me and held out his hand. "Very good fight, you're good."
I accepted his handshake and relaxed. Fortunately, I hadn't hurt him.
"Well done, boys, you both did excellent," Edric stepped closer. "Daren, when you attack you use a lot of strength at the end of each strike, which makes you lose momentum for not using it earlier. You need to balance strength and speed."
Daren nodded seriously at his grandfather.
"And you, boy… I don't have anything specific to point out. You did well; you simply need to refine your handling of the sword."
"Thanks, uncle," I nodded happily and headed toward where my brother and Claire were.
"Well done, even if you're not better than me, not just anyone beats my brother," Claire said with a playful smile.
I looked away embarrassed, and there was Rowan, who nodded in approval; although lately he was kind of an idiot, I didn't know if he was doing it because of my fight or because of Claire.