Fly

Sam the Blighter

It's been a long time since I last posted. Today, I'd like to tell you a story about a friend of mine who had been there since almost the beginning, but I hadn't written about.

This is Sam, our guild's weaponry crafting, blighter and businessman extraordinaire. He was also one of the first few people to extend a helping hand to us when we first joined Freedom Orient.

Sam is a hulk of a firran who looks incredibly serious and fierce, but he has a hidden mischievous streak. In that mischievous streak, however, there is also a streak of seriousness. Sam is like a samurai that can never be fathomed. Like a true samurai, Sam has the ability to talk to cats, even crazy shy ones. He is also incredibly strong, and wields one of the rarest blade in Haranya, a hand-crafted legendary Ayanad sword of Life that can give life as easily as it takes it away. However, I had hardly seen Sam draw his weapon, nor had I seen him lose his cool. If he broke a great weapon trying to regrade it, he would just walk off and go to sleep. Perhaps under his disguise, he is also a great master of Zen?

I had gone on so many interesting journeys and adventures that involved Sam, but today, I'd like to tell you this one story about a time when he secretly helped me.

---

One day, a long time ago, I was sitting on the steps of Ynyestere town, looking and feeling rather battered. Finny, who had been trying to teach me how to fight, was watching from the side as I challenged the many duel seekers in town. I could feel her eyes burning a hole through the back of my helmet, my hair, and into my head, annoyance rising as I missed my combo and lost another duel for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Same mistake again! What were you doing!?"

"S-sorry ... I'll try again ..."

As I sat defeated, rubbing my throbbing bruised head, a large tall shadow rolled over me from behind, waking me from a brief wallow in self-pity. I looked up to the sight of Sam towering above me.

"Hello, Sam."

"Hello, Luka." Sam replied cheerfully. "She's really strict with you, isn't she?"

"I'm feeling rather beat." I stated feebly. From Sam's bemused expression, I guess I must've looked the part ! 

In the cobblestone square, Finny challenged the person who had defeated me. She pounced on him viciously, and proceeded to beat him to a pulp in front of us ... perhaps to show me how it should be done? I had a dreadful feeling she would do it to me when we get home, to ensure that the lesson was well learnt.

"Is it just me? Maybe I'm really bad at this after all..." I sighed.

Sam took a look at the fighter, who was surely becoming as battered as I was, then took a look at me. Quietly, he unbuckled his sword and passed it to me stealthily. Curious, I took the sword and unsheathed it a crack, and my eyes widened at the glowing blade. It was Sam's hand-crafted Epherium sword, imbued with fiery power and glowing with enchantment.

"N-no ... I can't use this !!" I said, quickly sheathing the sword and made to return it.

"It's ok. Try it." Sam insisted, with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"O-okay.."

I took the sword hesitantly and stood up, feeling a little apprehensive, as if I as going to do something I shouldn't. I looked around, trying to convince myself that it was alright, since many people have much better armor and weapons anyway. I walked up to the square for another duel, but before I could challenge anyone, Finny stepped in front of me.

"Show me what you've learnt from the fight just now."

I felt a horror rising in me. I can't use this on my own Shifu ! I turned to Sam, but he was pretending to be obliviously looking at something else. 

The duel began. 

Finny leapt into the air, draw her blade and move into a possibly highly painful move. The terrifying airborne outline approached, as though in slow motion. I drew the sword, and for a brief moment Finny's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the glowing red blade. 

*CLASH!*

Our blades met. Somehow, I managed to parry her opening move. I could feel the sword's power in my hand. Finny took a glance at my new weapon, and quickly moved into her next attack. If she was surprised, she no longer showed any hints of it. The next attack that I parried mercilessly shook me to the shoulder sockets. Finny wasn't just strong because she had good weapons, she was strong because she was good at fighting. The sword might have made up for my slower reaction and lack of experience, but I still had to work to keep up.

What followed was a fierce, explosive battle of blades, and I wondered how I survived. Somehow, I managed to pull off the attacks that was taught to me. The glowing blade made my attacks more powerful, and my parries more precise. I landed a heavy hit on Finny, but my feelings of guilt was rapidly cut short by her counter attack. After a stormy exchange of blows, Finny stepped back. The duel was over, and I wasn't half as battered as before. 

---

"Thanks, Sam." I said sheepishly as I quietly returned the sword later. 

"No problem." Sam replied, "It's not you. Sometimes, we just need to level the playing field." He winked. "I'm really starved. Wanna go for a steak?"

Up on the Mountain (Again)

This peak was even higher than the one we climbed before, and there weren't any farms here!

Cathedral

I held my breath for as long as I could, and just at the last moment, I took out a vial of Dahuta's Breath potion and gulped it down. I sat at the bottom for a long time, listening to the soft sounds of the sea.

I'm driving by the place we met

for the ninety-seventh time

Throwback - First Serpentis

Out of these nine who took me to Serpentis, only three are still around ...

So near yet so far

"I'm so bored." she said. "I robbed someone the other day. Some idiot who tried killing me once."

"Are you going to be a pirate?"

"I don't know."

I hardly get to see her now. She was still the same Finny I knew, violent, a little bad tempered but kind of caring somewhere deep down, and the first one to talk to me without freaking out after I blew up and ran away from the family. But somehow, even though she was right beside me, sometimes I felt like I was talking to someone far away.

"I'm so tired of all this. I can hardly gear up, I'm losing out to people, and I've been sick of the way things are since Freedom Orient broke up. I really want to leave this place."

I thought of Finny's shiny leather armor pieces, and glanced at the two gleaming weapons hanging from her waist, but I kept quiet because those weren't important.

"But Finny, if you go, I'll be so sad."

"What for? Go find someone else to play with."

"You talk like Jeon did when he left." I didn't know what to say anymore. I knew there was no stopping her. It was like you were going to lose a fight, but you hit that guy anyway.

Finny turned around as I swung my fist towards her. It missed.

We went at each other until she beat me up thoroughly. Then we sat on the grass and talked, like we always did.

"Anyway, just because I'm leaving doesn't mean you can't come along. Besides, you know exactly how you can find me. I'm going to think things over. Look after the house until I have everything sorted out."

"I'm going now. See you later." climbing onto her flying sloth, Finny flew away in a burst of light and disappeared into the distance.

I sighed, and, sitting down in the grass, slowly tried to rub my bruises out.