The Flower of Life and Death

☾ 5 ☾ There are no rules in love and war

The whole court was gathered at the training ground to watch a demonstration by two foreign warrior lords. There were thrones for the royal family, normal chairs for the aristocrats and the guards and everybody else was standing. Selene was standing in the first row next to Orpheus. Matthew was standing on the other site of the fighting area keeping a close eye on her.

The two foreign warrior lords unhooked their cloaks, took them off and entered the fighting area. They wore their typical clothes: black leather pants, boots, ornamented breastplates and a horned helmet out of engraved steel. They were known to be exceptionally skilled warriors.

They came from a culture where there were no families. The men were warriors and always lived near the training grounds, far from the women and children. The women gave birth and raised children on their own. As soon as the children were of age the boys became warriors and the girls gave birth themselves. Neither the women nor the children had any contact to the father or knew who he was.

This shut off the possibility of families existing. Because warriors needed to focus on war and not on family, or at least that's what they believed. So in their culture women only gave birth and raised children. They were not free and independent. But Katherine was very much free and independent.

They bow down in front of the royal family and afterwards in front of each other. Then they squatted down and began to swing their shields and spears with complicated twists and turns, so fast, that the weapons were blurred before the eyes of the spectators. Their movements were effortless and their whole bodies were extremely flexible.

Their elegant, precise steps reminded of complicated dances and made the spectators forget which brutal power was in every single movement. On a battlefield they slaughtered their enemies with the same graceful movements. Finally they threw their weapons away, hit their chest once with their right hands and then stretch it forward in salute. The demonstration is over.

The foreign warrior stood in the middle of the area and screamed, "Who wants to go up against us? Just a little friendly fight merely for training reasons." Silence. "If nobody else will, I will", Katherine responded and smiled politely.

The one warrior, slightly higher ranked than the other, chuckled as he looked at her, "What a joy to see you again, Katherine! You truly are the light of life, my friend!" "I see your leg regained full mobility and so did your arm", she noticed slightly smiling. He chuckled at her asking, "Are you impressed by your own work?"

Katherine tilted her head, "Yes. If you would've taken better care, the scaring wouldn't have been that severe." "You must be the healer that saved Gideon's life", concluded the second warrior. The higher ranked warrior, Gideon, answered, "Yes, she is. Which is why I could never raise my sword against her, so you will have the honour of battling her, Bastian."

Katherine entered the training ground. Bastian looked at her as if she was insane, "You are wearing a dress." "A dress is typical for women to wear. Just like trousers are typical for men to wear", she smiled slightly. It was a black flowing dress with a high slit on each leg. The sleeves were off the shoulder and on her arms were leather bracers. She had a leather corset around her stomach and her hair was in a up-do fixed with hairpins which probably were as sharp as a knife.

He still insisted, "You should wear trousers." "Why would I, a woman, wear typical men clothes?", she asked still not willing to give in. Gideon interfered, "You will not win an argument with her. She healed countless warriors and argued with each one multiple times. Do you want my sword, Katherine?"

Katherine smiled and drew a dagger, "No thanks, Gideon. I am fine on my own. Bastian, be nice to me. I am no warrior." "I will go easy on you. Ladies first", he drew a dagger as well. Katherine's movements were even smoother than Bastian's, but obviously not as powerful. Still as she has proven, even a small cut was fatal, if the blade was poisoned.

Arms, legs and blades were flying through the air. It was a truly beautiful and deadly dance. Suddenly it all stopped. They held their daggers to each other's throats and were circling each other slowly. Then they stepped away from each other, lowering their blades.

Everyone believed their battle to be over but they only stepped away from each other to launch at the other. Once again they were dancing with blades whirring through the air. And again it all stopped. Bastian held his blade against her throat while her dagger poked his stomach.

One more time they created space between them just to get involved into their battle one last time. Katherine lost her dagger during the fight only to suddenly show up behind him. This time the battle ended with her pulling out a knife and holding it to Bastian's throat. He only scoffed, "That was against the rules." Katherine put a bit more pressure on the blade as she smirking wile warbling next to his ear, "There are no rules in love and war."

They bowed in front of each other and Bastian chuckled, "You said, you were no warrior." "I am not, but I am a well travelled woman", she tilted her head. Still he showed quite some interest, "How did you learn to fight like that?" "I have dealt with one or two thieves and used to train with a skilled warrior, besides I have traveled one year with Adofo Depuis, so I picked up a thing or two", Katherine smiled slightly.

Gideon laughed, "If all the warriors in this kingdom were as good as Katherine, we would never stand a chance." "True but luckily for us, they are not", Bastian chuckled as well. He then laughed and turned towards her, "You are the kind of women I like. No wonder that the men in your country get married when there are women like you. You, I would marry." She tossed her head back and laughed, "I would never agree to marry you." "You think, I would leave you much of a choice?", Bastian smirked.

Katherine slowly walked closer to him, "You would think, I would let someone control my life, me?" "She would rather slit her own wrist than letting someone even control a single decision of hers, if possible in front of as many people as possible to make it even more dramatic", Gideon stepped between them smiling genuinely.