Macha's Journey

Tyr said nothing and stared at her as she swallowed the food he had cut. He continued to stare at her, waiting for her explanation. While he did not appreciate that someone kissed his girlfriend, it did not intimidate him. He refilled her wine and crossed his arms. A dark brown eyebrow raised, and he tilted his head.

Despite the food tasting delicious, Macha could not enjoy it. She peeked at Tyr. He had been so quiet, and it made her nervous. She saw him sitting there with his arms crossed. In her mind, the temperature seemed to have dropped a few degrees. "I have a duel at midnight," she announced meekly. "We had a misunderstanding about the nature of our relationship. I guess she didn"t realize I"m your girlfriend."

Tyr raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "And she understands now?" His question was less of a question, but more of a statement.

Macha nodded. "I made it clear." As soon as she answered Tyr"s question, his face relaxed. She watched him take a bite of a chocolate cake and his earlier ire disappeared. "Tyr, I feel bad about the misunderstanding. Do you think I led her on? I treated her like I would any friend." The whole situation caused her to lose her appet.i.te, so she pushed her plate away.

"Do you think you led her on?" Tyr countered. He did not believe it made a difference what other people thought when it came to Macha. All that mattered to him is what she intended.

There was a small pause in their conversation as she reflected on his question. After a moment, she replied, "No. I would have acted that way with Luna." She was confident in her conclusion and the guilt that she went through earlier disappeared.

Tyr got up out of his seat. "We should dance once before we go." There was no way he would allow Macha"s only memory of dancing here to be with a woman instead of him.

He made a motion for the check before extending his hand to Macha. Her small hand easily fit into his and he led her out onto the dance floor. Their height difference made things awkward, but she did not seem to mind. As he looked down, he admired the shape of her face as she looked up at him.

It surprised Macha that Tyr danced so gracefully. He was muscular, so she did not expect him to be so light-footed and graceful. His hand pressed against her back, helping to guide her around the floor. She was able to read his movements so easily that it allowed her to focus on enjoying the dance.

As they danced, the music created illusions of white rabbits hopping around them in a field. Yellow flowers fell around them. With the dancer"s movements, the flowers would fly up into the air and float down to the ground again.

Tyr did not practice dancing, so he knew he did not excel at it. Growing up, he learned the basics, but it had been years since he last danced. He worried that Macha would misunderstand his movements or that they would step on each other"s feet. In a low voice meant only for her, he asked, "Did you have fun tonight?"

A wide smile spread across Macha"s face. "Of course. I loved the food and the music here. Thank you." She understood that Tyr felt out of his element here, but he did it to make her happy. She then added playfully, "Next time I"ll take you out on a date."

****

On the way to Zaysan Lake, Tyr continually discussed how to discern what element an attack would be. He wanted Macha to win this duel, so he gave her tips on what information he could dig up on Kurbiika.

Tyr felt bitter that this duel overshadowed the romantic evening he intended to spend with Macha. "Don"t forget, last time she probably wanted to use a water attack. Based on her skill level, I doubt it was a ranged attack. Either way, don"t give her time to charge it." The more advanced a fighter became, the less time was needed for them to channel their energy. Since Kurbiika was still a novice, she required a few seconds to focus her energy properly.

Since they left The White Rabbit, the only thing Tyr talked about was the duel. Macha nodded her head. "All right, we went over this already. I will try my best to win." She did not understand why Tyr seemed so invested in this fight.

It surprised her to find a large crowd gathered at the lake. Many people from both guilds showed up to see the duel. They were making bets and a few snack vendors came to make a profit off of the crowd. Macha spotted a spring roll vendor and tugged on Tyr"s sleeve. "Can you get a few of those for home? I want to try it."

His eyebrows drew together. "How can you think of food when we just went to The White Rabbit? Focus on your duel," Tyr shook his head. He did not know why Macha did not seem to take this fight seriously. He wanted her to do well and show everyone that his girlfriend was not to be taken advantage of. "Remember, you"re my girlfriend and I"m your teacher. Don"t let her embarra.s.s you or me by losing."

Hearing his words caused Macha to wonder if that was what he was really concerned about. She did not care if Kurbiika embarra.s.sed her since she did not even want to partic.i.p.ate in this duel. The whole problem was a misunderstanding that should have been resolved easily. She put her hands on her hips, "Who cares about if I"m embarra.s.sed or not? I shouldn"t even be here. If I lose why should you be embarra.s.sed, anyway?" Macha thought how if she won, she would show Tyr the meaning of embarra.s.sment.

Tyr gave her a pat on her head and ignored the question. He then gave her a small push, and she made her way through the crowd to meet Kurbiika by the lake"s edge.

The moonlight reflected off the water and Kurbiika was dressed in a yellow jumpsuit that tied around her waist. She braided her hair and had gold beads decorating the braids every so often. She narrowed her eyes when she gazed at Macha.

In an effort to stop the fight, Macha asked, "Do we really have to do this duel? I"m sorry, I really misunderstood."

A few people in the crowd overheard her ask to cancel the duel and made a few jeers, calling Macha a little wimp and a baby.

Kurbiika crossed her arms, "It"s too late to go about canceling the duel. Too many people have shown up. I want to teach you a lesson. Everyone knows I like women, so you shouldn"t have led me on the way you did." She had a lot of pride and refused to lose face.

Macha"s fist balled up. She thought the word "everyone" was a bit misleading. She did not know Kurbiika liked women and Tyr did not warn her either. "Fine! Have it your way. Since you challenged me, I want to state the rules."

The request did not intimidate Kurbiika. "Fine, I"ll let you have that. It"ll make beating you much more embarra.s.sing." Her mother had been training her, and she felt confident in her abilities.

In a clear voice, Macha declared, "No weapons or armor. The winner is the first one to fall down."

Both women bowed, and the match began. The crowd created a circle around the two and the people cheered for the person they bet on. Most of the crowd realized Macha won the duel in the tournament but still put their bet on Kurbiika. The people from the Azure Bengal guild wanted to support their leader"s daughter, while the women from Obsidian Dragons hoped Kurbiika would beat Macha up. The only people who bet on Macha were a handful of new recruits from Obsidian Dragons who respected her.

Tyr walked over to order the spring rolls from the vendor. He thought Macha would lose. In his opinion, she lacked the drive to win this fight and did not seem to take it seriously when he was going over the strategy with her. He figured he would order the spring rolls to make her feel better while Mathis healed her soon-to-be swollen face.

Kurbiika took off her gauntlets and threw them at Macha. As the armor flew in the air, she dashed in to tackle her.

Macha did a backflip to dodge the gauntlets. It also allowed her to kicked Kurbiika in the face, causing the woman to stagger backwards.

As Macha landed on her feet, Kurbiika did a roll and kicked her across the face with her long leg. Their height difference gave her an advantage, which was further highlighted when she used her legs.

A bright flash of light blinded Macha, and she had to shake her head to refocus her vision. She extended her arms to stop herself from falling to the ground.

After Kurbiika"s kick landed, she spun around to follow it up with another kick to Macha"s face. Macha was lower than expected and her leg swept over her head, narrowly missing.

While Kurbiika had her leg in the air, Macha spun around to regain her balance. The moment the woman stood upright, Macha dashed at her and extended her knee, hitting Kurbiika in the solar plexus.

Kurbiika fell backward, clutching her stomach. She gasped for breath and clutched the gra.s.s. Macha looked around for a medic, but a few from the Azure Bengal guild already ran to a.s.sist their guild member.

Aeson squeezed through the crowd to patch Macha up. The damage was mild because the fight was only until someone fell, but she had a loose tooth and some swelling that needed to be taken care of. Aeson wiped the blood from Macha"s mouth, "Nice kick in the end there! I thought you would lose after the kick to your head. Luck for you, her second kick missed."

Macha used her ear cuffs after Aeson fixed her up. She scanned the crowd for Tyr because she wanted to embarra.s.s him now that she had won. She spotted him paying for a bag of spring rolls. "Tyr!" she yelled, so everyone could hear.

Tyr looked in her direction. He did not expect the fight to have finished so quickly. By the way she smiled, it appeared like she won. She strode over to him with a grin on her face. "Yes?" he asked.

Macha grabbed his scarf and pulled him down. She gave him a deep kiss in front of everyone. When she was done, she turned to everyone. Pride sounded in her voice, when she announced, "This is my man. I"m not looking for anyone because I"m taken. No one better be confused about my intentions!" This was the last time she wanted someone to get the wrong impression when she was talking to them.

Try stood frozen in place. Macha still grasped his scarf firmly. His face turned red from all the eyes that stared at them. He could not believe Macha made such an embarra.s.sing announcement. She had declared he was hers as if he were an object. Part of him felt slightly offended, but the other part of him lept with joy at her declaration that she was taken. When she pulled him away from the crowd, he followed as if he were a puppy following his master.

"So," Tyr began, "I"m your man, huh?" he played with the words on his tongue. Macha grabbed the spring rolls from his hand. He watched as she summoned her mount and hopped on it. She seemed so defiant right now.

The freshly made spring rolls smelled delicious. She took one out of the bag and shoved half of it in her mouth. "Yeah. I don"t want to hear you complain about being embarra.s.sed about anything from now on. Embarra.s.sment only lasts a moment. It isn"t anything to be bothered about. Now hurry up and get on your mount, I want to go home." Now that the duel was finished, she wanted to relax.

Tyr did not know what got into Macha tonight, but he enjoyed her little burst of a.s.sertion. "I"m glad you won. Do you need Mathis to see to anything?" She looked and acted fine, but he wanted to make sure she did not hide a wound from the crowd.

Shaking her head, Macha explained, "No. I"m fine. I want to go home and go to bed early. We need to go over those profiles before the interviews tomorrow. I hope the refugees can find jobs they like." She wanted the refugees to be as happy as she was after relocating.