Second Chances: Starting Anew

Alex blinked when Yvonne mentioned kidnapping and quickly began to sign to Father Vehr. "She is joking. She really is. You know, she has such an imagination." He paused, emphasizing "joking" and "imagintion". Wait, who was he kidding, this was Yvonne he was talking about here. "I am truly sorry."

The priest slowly nodded. "Y're right." If anyone knew about child-rearing, it would be Mary Halliberd. He peered at Alex. Was the child truly only sixteen? There were times he seemed so much older. Why, it seemed like the boy had changed already but it might have just been his eyes. He wasn't getting any younger.

But, this would be just the type of thing the priests had spoken about often, about Alex spending time with others his own age and taking a break from all his studies and work. They tried time and time again, like making him study outside or volunteering him to help watch the younger kids. But he always managed to sneak back into their humble library and as soon as he was done babysitting, he came straight to ask them what else needed to be done.

"Aye, right, 'ndeed. Y'two go. I'll tell th' others." Father Vehr nodded again and turned, missing Alex's sign any other excuses to him. The other priests would like this, perhaps enough to dismiss the boy from his daily duties for the day.

Alex even began scribbling those excuses down on paper and tapped furiously on the note. But to no avail. Father Vehr turned the corner and was gone. He huffed, crossed out his words with a single line. He looked at Yvonne, then began inching away to the side door that led to the closet. He could hide there until she went away ...
 
"Alex. You don't have to sneak away like I have the plague or something." Standing there looking sheepish with her hands on her hips, she almost laughed. He probably thought she had cooties or something dumb like that. This time he wasn't getting away, though!

Yvonne grabbed his wrist and was already tugging him out for the door. "I think we should be wizards today. If I can find Beni, maybe we could even learn some real spells. Dad doesn't think it's such a great idea, but I had this weird dream that I was a wizard and it was pretty neat. ...Well, up until the demon and getting stabbed with a fork. But it was vi-" Just outside the temple doors she had cast a glance at him again. He had a peculiar look on his face when she mentioned dreaming.

"Are you sure nothing's wrong? You look like you swallowed a bullfrog."
 
Alex felt his stomach churning. Perhaps this was a sign he was coming down with something. Yvonne wasn't the type of person to drag a sick person all over town to do crazy things ... was she?

He quickly shook his head, aiming a quick prayer to the powers that be--Fresjiit or any other force of nature, he wasn't being particular right at the moment--that Yvonne would let the matter drop. All this talk of dreaming. It sounded like she'd had quite a time with her dreams. While he was dreaming, he'd also enjoyed himself. He was fairly certain he had. But now that he was awake, he didn't understand why he'd enjoyed it. It made no sense ...

Alex glanced ahead of them and quickly pointed something out to Yvonne. Up ahead, was Kyr and his friends, sitting on a barrel outside of his door. He hadn't noticed them yet so if they cut behind the herb seller's small shop, they would be just fine.
 
This was getting ridiculous. He looked like he was going to hurl. Following where his finger pointed, she spotted Alex's "arch nemesis", Kyr. But Yvonne wasn't the sort that went dodging around hiding from people, and kept right on pulling Alex along with her. Kyr wouldn't be dumb enough to bother them. Everyone knew she didn't fight fair! Be it screaming for William to come help, throwing dirt in someone's eyes, or kicking a guy in the balls. Dad always said that fights weren't about honor, they were about staying alive. She thought that still counted for scuffles around town too.

"Why don't you ever talk? I know you can, I've heard you do it before. Not that I can't understand the sign language or the writing, cause I'm clever like that, but I bet you'd have your hands free to hit people with if you didn't always have stuff in them." In this case she meant Kyr. Kyr needed someone to knock the hell out of him, and Alex needed to get out more often!
 
Dig the heels in, dig the heels in! But that made little difference, if any, at all. Yvonne was still dragging him and no matter how much he wished otherwise, even Kyr would notice them soon.

The bully was stupid but he wasn't blind. Not yet anyways. If Kyr was blind, he probably wouldn't see an elbow coming or his legs being swept out from under him. If Alex could get him off his feet, Kyr would lose the advantage of balance, height, and a lot of his strength--Huh, what was he thinking?!

Kyr, a tall, brawny guy was the same age they were, but had the muscle mass of a blacksmith in his prime. His dad was one of the richer folks around town so Kyr had money and strength to throw around. Despite being dumb, he was still clever enough not to be seen bullying while adults were around, to buy people off or just intimidate them into not bringing any issues up with his folks.

Kyr cocked a head at Yvonne and Alex, slapped one of his friends on the shoulder with the back of his hand. He didn't say anything but there was a dumb grin on his face and a couple of his friends, there were five or six of them, started snickering.

Alex felt his face burning and he was doubling his efforts to escape. He could do with the humiliation of running away just as long as he could suffer that humiliation in silence and solitude.
 
"Jeeze, stop squirming so much, animals can smell fear, you know!" By animals she meant Kyr and... apparently all of his friends too. Seven people including the head dummy was a few more than she expected, but luckily all you had to do was take out the leader. It worked for horses, it probably worked for boys too.

Yvonne switched to holding Alex's hand cause that way it looked more like he was hanging out with her, than him trying to escape. He needed to look tougher in front of bullies!

"Don't worry so much. I'll protect you." Yvonne cast Alex a wide grin. But as they were passing Kyr and his buddies, she made sure to turn and stick her tongue out at him and give him a cross-eyed look. SHE wasn't afraid of a bunch of jerks.
 
Alex winced when Yvonne turned and he was more than certain she was making faces at Kyr. She couldn't protect him all the time. Kyr and his friends would probably get him back later. Probably make a stupid excuse about "making up for lost beatings" or whatever it would be. He would feel so much better if there were adults around. The bullies were more pleasant as long as someone was there to keep an eye on them. Except Crazy Man Oro whom they also beat up on. Where was everyone?!

Miraculously, the two of them past by without Kyr talking to them. But he must have whispered something bcause a few of his friends snickered. Alex had a bad feeling in the pit of his gut as he glanced over his shoulder.

... And a rock came out of nowhere to slam into his temple and send him falling to the ground!

Kyr and his friends erupted into laughter.
 
"Hey! You jackasses!" Yvonne knelt by Alex to check his head and make sure he didn't go and get his skull bashed in. The boy needed to learn how to duck! That she'd worry about later, though. For now, someone needed to teach Kyr a lesson.

Scooping up that rock, Yvonne was pushing up her sleeves and reach under her skirt to pull out the small slingshot she brought along for 'hunting'. Aiming, she popped the rock right at the group, smacking one of the chuckling creeps right where it hurt. Down he went clutching his balls in a whimpering fury. THAT got their attention!

"How about you bunch of cowards try throwing stuff at me! Are you just a bunch of pansies with tiny muscles and tiny brains! Oooh, big mean boys gonna cry now?" Even as she was taunting, she was swooping down to pick up a few smaller rocks and reloading her slingshot to send a few more at them. Yvonne was intend on sending them home bruised, bleeding, and limping too!
 
Alex winced. His head was throbbing and the first thing he did was check to see if he was bleeding. No blood which would have caused him to sigh in relief under normal circumstances, ones where he hadn't been hit by a rock. He willed the pain away and was too busy doing that to realize what Yvonne was up to.

"Hey!"

"Ow!"

"Cut it out!"

"Stop it!"

"Gah!"

Kyr cursed. "Let's get out of here!" He'd deal with Yvonne's girly little boyfriend later! He disappeared around the corner, half-limping, half-running.

In a few minutes, Yvonne and Alex were the only ones on the street. Alex was breathing deeply now, reciting his prayer to keep himself from having a panic attack. But his breath was still coming out, hard and fast and his teeth were clenched. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain, more than normal people would consider after being hit with a rock.
 
Ha! Take that, damned hooligans! Yvonne kicked the dirt after them, standing with a victorious pose of her hands on her hips and a big wide smirk across her face. This was the difference between cowards and heroes! Bullies and the brave! Men and women!

Casting a look over her shoulder, Alex looked like he was about to have a hissy fit. With an exasperated roll of her eyes she was dropping down next to him again, double checking he didn't have brain damage. Just in case.

"You can stop freaking out now. When are you gonna stand up for yourself, anyway? You can't let people bully you all the time. In all of those books, none of them talk about heroic people flopping on the ground and taking it like a sack of potatoes." Grabbing his hands, Yvonne hauled him back up to his feet.
 
Alex found himself hauled up to his feet. He didn't dare meet Yvonne's eyes. She already knew he was a walking doormat. It was just the way he was. He pulled his hands out of her grasp to dust his clothes off. A side of him mused that it was a good thing his clothes were brown. The priests wouldn't notice the dirt. He winced when he touched the wound on his temple. They would most certainly notice the bruise that was going to form, though.

Alex signed a half-hearted "thank you" to Yvonne and began shuffling back to the temple. Now he just wanted to crawl under his bed and die and it was better that she not be there to witness. Then he'd truly never know peace.
 
Yvonne allowed him to walk past her, only to reach out and grab him by the collar. She was walking with Alex in tow!

"Well, that's it then. I figure, bullies always come back for revenge, and it's better to be prepared when you're at war. If there's going to be a battle, we should train for it! I've got some stuff stashed at my tree house. First I'll show you how to hit people then we'll try wrestling and fighting with sticks." In fact, Yvonne already had a rigorous training schedule mapped out in her head. They'd be sort of like knights, preparing to fight off a hoard of bandits plaguing the town. William could be the warrior teacher and Beni would teach them magic. There were others in town too that could teach some skills! A whole day of learning stuff followed by a battle! That sounded awesome!

Of course, Alex was putting up a fight now! Yvonne turned around to have both hands grabbed on to him. Dragging him kicking and fighting was only making it more fun!
 
Alex gulped! This could only result in trouble! He didn't remember a lot about his dreams but he did remember ... emotions. Anger, hatred, resentment and contempt. There had also been greed, selfishness, a cold, calculating mind that defied having a human heart.

At first he'd thought those emotions were just long buried from being beaten up, suffering the hardships he'd been through, not having a family in the sense that other people had theirs. Now he was realizing those emotions were different from his own, but familiar as well.

Alex opened his mouth to say something but shut it. No matter what he said, Yvonne would ask him questions and those were questions he couldn't answer. Or, didn't want to answer. If he answered them, that would only lead him to think about things he'd rather bury in some dark corner of his mind and never dig up.
 
Finally! Once he gave in to the inevitable, Yvonne drug him off down the dusty street. Occasionally she'd wave at other curious villagers as they passed. The very same people that dreaded having Yvonne stop to chat for too long, yet at the same time always find themselves wondering what she was up to when she wasn't. In this case, dragging away the quiet boy from the Temple probably brought up many curious blinks.

Nearing the edge of the small village, she took a path that led in to the nearby woods. The area of trees wasn't too big, and it laid neatly in between the property of some of the towns people, but it was the perfect private grove that she claimed for her own exploits. It's not like anyone dared to invade it unless they were looking for trouble!

Right smack in the middle of some trees, surrounded by some very tall bushes was her make-shift fort. Part of it was ground level, with the second "floor" perched up in one of the branches above. It took her forever to put it together with pilfered wood, discarded barrels and random things she traded around town. But it was good and solid.

Perfect for warrior training!

"Here we are! My Fortress of Doom. Now you are the newest initiate in my personal army, and as such we're going make sure you are properly trained for combat." Yvonne finally let go of him to wrap one arm around her waist as the other hand was tapping her chin in thought. Looking him up and down... he needed some work.

"We better try the basics. Like pushups or throwing stuff. How far can you throw things?"
 
Alex sighed and huffed when they finally stopped and Yvonne had let him go. He wasn't about to bolt, though. They were too far from town and who knew what sort of traps she had lying around to make navigating around recklessly a dangerous move. He huffed as she studied him. He shrugged.

Alex huffed and pulled out his slate. He drew a line that arched up like the gentle curve of a mountain, tapped the picture, shook his head and then crossed it out in an "x". This was his way of explaining that he couldn't throw things that required you to throw it up in the air to get to someone. He erased it.

Then he drew a straight line with an arrow at an oval with smaller circles inside one could interpret as a target and tapped it before drawing a circle around the arrow and the target. This was his way of telling her he could accurately throw something if it was to travel in a straight line. It was odd, really.

Last, he shrugged to tell her he didn't know why or how he could do that. He just could.
 
"That's a good start. Let's try it!" Dashing in to her fortress, she was heard fumbling around until she brought out a nice big piece of fabric that looked like it used to be a sheet from someone's bed. On it were faded red rings where she had painted target circles. Target practice seemed to be something Yvonne had done before.

She disappeared back in to the fortress a second time. With some pins, a piece of paper and some colored chalk. First the sheet was strung up between the trees, making sure the target areas had something solid behind them. Second, she pinned the paper on the bullseye. For an extra added touched, she doodled a face on it. It probably looked like a potato with hair, but at the bottom she wrote Kyr's name to make sure Alex knew who he was throwing at.

"There we go. Now, something to throw..." This time she jumped up on a ladder, nailed to the side of the tree. On the second level, she was moving around boxes and stuffing things in to a small sack. Items collected, down Yvonne jumped and returned to Alex.

"Most of these are kitchen knives I borrowed. But I sharpened them really good. Here, take these." She handed him the bag and took a couple out. "The objective is to smack Kyr in the face! Of course, we'll be using rocks and pine cones on the real Kyr, but it's good to be prepared!"

To give him and example, she drew a line on the ground with her foot, aimed and threw one of the kitchen knives! It missed the mark by at least two feet and didn't even get a stab on the sheet. She frowned, and shrugged her shoulders. "We're going to need a lot of practice."
 
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CARMA
"Curse you? Why would I do that, silly? You already have a curse! That's why I'm here!" The sprite flew up and tapped Beni on the chest. "That's what the fey-mark means."

She looped around and plopped herself onto Beni's shoulder. "I do wish you hadn't dumped me on the ground though. All the kinks in my wings were just starting to work themselves out, and now they're back."
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Alex blinked when a sack was thrust into his hands and then watched as Yvonne demonstrated how they were going to do things. He looked from "Kyr" to Yvonne and back again, then at the bag when she was through. He pulled out one of the knives and looked at his reflection in the flat of the blade. It certainly looked sharp. And dangerous; very dangerous.

Yvonne was watching him expectantly which snapped him out of his daze, making him clear his throat and glance around a bit. He put the sack down and took half a step forward so he was toe to toe with the line she'd drawn in the ground.

Alex had to roll up his sleeves so the knife wouldn't get caught in it, then suck in a deep breath. He focused on the target, took another deep breath but held this one. Then he drew his arm back, holding the knife lightly in his hand, swung it forward and let the knife fly.

... The knife spun in circles, light flashing off the blade only to end up embedded to the hilt where "Kyr's" heart would be.

But what disturbed Alex was that he had known the knife would fly true so it was less a feeling of "Yes, I did it!" that filled him but more a feeling of "I knew it would." He was worried that when it came right down to it, throwing a knife at a living person would feel the same as throwing it at a badly drawn target to him. No remorse, no despair. It would be business as usual ...
 
Yvonne blinked. And blinked again.

"Well... that was a pretty lucky first shot. Let's try ano-..ther." Taking a look at Alex, he looked white as a sheet! Like he'd just stabbed someone right through the heart. Or maybe he was just feeling sick and missed out on breakfast?

Yvonne reached in to one of her pockets, pulling out a pastry and handed it over to Alex. "Eat that. It's my turn now." Grabbing a few more kitchen knives, she tried to mimic how he had stood and thrown. One hit the bottom trunk of the tree, one hit way too high and nearly missed the sheet, and her last didn't hit the sheet at all. Flying off somewhere in to the bushes! With a sheepish look and a stomp of her foot, she turned back to Alex again.

"Okay, do it again so I can see."
 
Alex signed a quick "thank you" to Yvonne before he accepted the pastry. The throbbing in his head was subsiding, making it less easy to ignore the pangs of emptiness in his tummy.

In retrospect, eating only a bowl of soup and some pieces of bread were not the best choice for one's dinner. So it was with a small sigh of relief that he bit into the flaky, sugary treat filled with apples. It eased his stomach and gave him a chance to do something normal for possibly the first time today. He was so engrossed in eating that at first he didn't notice Yvonne's mistakes but he felt her stomp her foot which made him glance up at her.

A look of uncertainty crossed Alex's face. He pointed at her and then moved his finger in circular motions toward the target. "You. Try again?" he was asking her.
 
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