Vern woke up screaming. His heart was racing. His whole body filled to the brink with adrenaline. He clutched his right hand with his left, expecting it to be gone. Then he moved his fingers along his neck but everything seemed fine. As it should be.

He stared at the ceiling and tried to remember every detail of the insane dream he just had.

A few moments later, his brother Alvyn rushed in with his sword at the ready.

Seeing him like this, Vern jumped up in shock and fell backward from his bed.

»Where is the enemy?«, asked Alvyn moving around the whole room, checking every corner.

»No, I just had a nightmare.«, answered Vern after he had composed himself.

»Wait, really? The way it sounded … I thought you were getting murdered or something for sure.«

The 17-year-old boy swung his sword around a few times, slaying invisible enemies.

»Well, since you haven't been assassinated yet, will you tell me what dreamed about? I couldn't really sleep either, maybe an exciting story will put me to rest.«

He put his sword back in its scabbard and leaned it against the wall, before jumping into the bed.

Vern has been staring at him all this time, with his head just bearly above the edge of the bed.

»Iaahh!«, exclaimed Alvyn. »So wet! Are you sure you're not ill? And now that I look at you, you are quite pale.«

»No. That's just the … moonlight.«, insisted Vern and walked over to his wardrobe to take off his sweat-drenched clothing.

After that, he joined his brother on the bed. »I am telling you that was the most vivid, most insane, most everything dream I've ever had.«

Alvyn nodded in excitement.

»So … how did it start again? Right. We were in a bar and I was talking to the lady at the counter.«

»Oh wow, you were flirting, or what? Would love to see that! No wonder you were sweating so much.«

He burst out laughing.«

»No! I didn't. Stop it.« Vern started shoving his brother out of the bed.

»Hey … okay, I'm sorry, really, I am sorry. Please continue.«

Only after Vern had glared at him for a few more seconds and Alvyn finally seemed to be serious again. So he carried on.

»Where was I? Ah yes. While I was having a pleasant conversation with the lady at the counter, a drunk man shouted the whole bar down. Incidentally, that man looked just like me.«

»Well, can't disagree with that. Sounds like something I would do.«

»Agreed. Anyway, after I paid her for our drinks-«

»Only for our drinks?«, repeated Alvyn and chuckled.

»Only for the drinks. Then I came back to our table and there were you and the others, I mean the other two wielders we met a couple of times.«

»Oh they're nice I would definitely hang out with them. Especially the girl.«

Vern was now relieved he left out the marriage part to not get teased in the first place.

»Yeah, so I came back and, we all also looked older. Like we were all in our 20's. Well, I didn't see myself but you know, I probably looked just like you.«

»Figures.«, commented Alvyn.

»So now for the interesting part. We went to bed and the next morning we went on a grand adventure. After leaving the city, we just started running for a long time, mostly through a forest. There, we just dodged all the monsters like it was nothing until we reached the mountains. And there…«

Vern made a dramatic pause and glanced at Alvyn.

»There was a horde of monsters. I mean there were like … more than a hundred easily. All huge. Mostly bears, some wolfs as well. We stopped but it was too late, they'd already spotted us and came at us immediately. Without hesitation you jumped forward and started cutting them down like grass, together with the other two, finishing them all off in minutes.«

»Hell, yeah. An then?«

»It turned out the monsters were protecting a hidden path. Where might it lead to? We decided to follow it up. Spend hours climbing up the mountain and occasionally slaughtered some monsters there. After a while, the sun set behind the mountain peaks. It was so beautiful, I tell you. How the sun painted the whole sky in a faint red and all the–«

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»Yes, yes I get it. Go back to the exciting parts.«

»Ahem ok … So we continued our path but now your sword was illuminating our way forward.

Sometime later we reached a cave guarded by monsters. Without any fear, you jumped right into the action burning them all to crisps.«

»And then what was in the cave?«, urged Alvyn him.

»Uhm, ahem … I don't know … «

»What? We didn't go in after all this way?«

»Well … we went inside and the next thing I remembered was being dead. I was decapitated to be precise.« Vern rubbed his neck again as soon as he relived it in his mind.

But Alvyn seemed disappointed about the sudden end.

»Well, at least that explains one thing«, he mumbled into the pillow his head was resting on. »Why you screamed like you were dying. Because you were dying, at least dreaming it.«

Vern looked at him and felt a faint hint of fear deeply rooted in his mind.

»I guess I did … .«

At dawn, the two of them went outside their accommodation and lined up next to the street. There they waited while the sun slowly rose behind the roofs of the village they had been staying in for a few weeks.

After some time, a woman came towards them. She wore leather armor and a sword hung on her left side.

As soon as the boys noticed her their posture straightened.

»I hope you have slept well«, said the woman and looked them over from head to toe. »We will be doing a lot today.«

»Yes, commander Ezra«, both replied simultaneously.

However, Alvyn couldn't suppress a yawn right after.

»I see. You still seem to think that it is not necessary to rest properly. Guess I'll have to beat you up some more.«, she said and started walking again. »Follow me.«

Alvyn glanced at Vern as if him being reprimanded was his fault.

They walked for about half an hour, before they reached a wide meadow, just outside the village. Ezra took out some equipment from a shed.

»Today, you go first against each other.« She handed them some leather protection and a wooden sword.

»Don't bead your brother up too hard.«, she said to Vern and winked. »Okay. Start.«

Alvyn stopped swinging his wood sword around randomly and moved into position, holding it now ready to strike.

Vern gulped. His body felt heavy and he didn't know why. Maybe he also should have slept more last night instead of fooling around so much.

Nevertheless, he positioned himself a few meters away as they had been doing hundreds of times before.

Without warning, Alvyn rushed forward, swinging his wooden sword right at his neck. Vern's hands cramped and he couldn't block in time so that the sword touched the leather around his neck.

»Oh wow«, commented Alvyn. »You don't have to make it that easy.« He moved back. »Tell me when you're ready, ok?«

Vern nodded slowly while trying to banish all of his thoughts, telling himself that it was just a dumb dream.

As all of his attention was now fully focused on his breathing and the sword in his hand, he gave Alvyn the signal to attack again.

Then he came at him, aiming for Vern's left side. Vern stepped back so that Alvyn's strike just barely missed him before he aimed his sword at his opponent's arms.

Alvyn barely managed to block and staggered backward, to gain better footing.

He looked at Vern surprised, before showing a smile. »You baited me with the first time, didn't you?«

»I sure did.«, confirmed Vern and smiled back.

Immediately Alvyn pushed his sword forward again, making sure not to overswing too much this time.

Vern gripped the hilt harder and parried the attack. At the same time, he made a small step forward, forcing Alvyn to move back to maintain his balance. But his forward leg was still too far away from the rest of his body, so Vern struck it with his sword while being out of distance from any counterattack.

Now Alvyn was in disbelief. Vern couldn't disagree, as he rarely got a hit in on him, much less in such a clean fashion. It had just felt so natural to him, that he didn't even need to think about his motions beforehand as he usually did.

»Those were some clean movements. Pretty good.«, said Ezra from the side. »I also want a round now.«

Vern turned to her and wanted to give her his sword, but he realized that she addressed Alvyn with her last sentence. Still speechless he handed her his sword and they changed positions.

»Come at me.«, said Elzra.

Vern hesitated as he rarely fought her, much less did he like being the aggressor.

Finally, he attacked, moving his sword as if he were going for a right frontal strike. As soon as he saw her getting into a parry position, he smoothly moved his sword to the left.

Ezra adjusted and defended against it just in time.

»Not a bad faint«, she said with a grim expression and immediately started throwing attacks at him herself. Vern could barely block them. She was aggressive and her strikes were heavy, but she never overcommitted to any movement that would have given him an opening.

After a few exchanges, which slowly intensified, Ezra suddenly changed her sword's trajectory at a speed, he couldn't react to. The wood smashed hard into his side, making him tumble and fall on his knees.

»That was … unexpectedly good.« She reached her hand out to help him up. »Sorry for the rough treatment. But doing it slower would have allowed you to block it …«

»It … it's alright.« He gasped for more air but still stood back up.

»Did you watch closely?«, asked Ezra Alvyn. »That kind of footwork is what I expect from you. So let's go at it.«

She picked up Vern's sword and threw it toward Alvyn. He picked it up, a stern expression on his face, and got ready to face Ezra.

They sparred for hours, with little rest in between. All this time, Vern watched their moves closely, especially Ezra's, trying to predict her next action.

They finished long after the sun had passed its zenith. Now they said in a circle on the grass.

»That was a good training session for once, Alvyn«, remarked Ezra. »But as always you need to work on your basics. Movement, Footwork, and especially – stop overswinging so much. I hope you noticed that these small things are the difference between an easy victory and a crushing defeat.«

Alvyn only grunted in response and kept rubbing the places Ezra repeatedly hit on his body.

She stood up. »That's enough for today since we will start our journey later today. Make sure you prepare properly.«

With that said, she picked up the equipment that was scattered across the meadow and put it back into the shed.

Alvyn's mood had brightened significantly due to Ezra reminding him of their imminent excursion.

»Hey, Vern. Those were good moves. But if you train outside of the official training … you better tell me so that I can join. Can't allow my little brother to be better than me …«

Vern looked at him and smiled. »Sure thing.«

They left the training area together with Ezra and got ready for their journey.