Chapter Text
The young lord’s dance
“Rein it in! We will camp here for tonight.”
All twenty horsemen obeyed the master’s command. As was their custom, they arranged the carriages into a circle, while the women prepared the tents, the cookware, and the fire. Everyone in the caravan had a role to play, and they hustled and bustled with purpose and experience.
Then there was Sempurna, who skirted around the perimeter. Despite his best attempts to look busy, and the curved sword at his side, his height undermined whatever vision of strength and bravery he thought he had.
The master didn’t especially hire dedicated guards. To save on costs, he had everyone in the caravan train in the sword, or hired only those who already had fighting experience. Everyone could protect the caravan if the need arose, their menial duties notwithstanding.
Then there was Sempurna, who didn’t have any other role but as a guardsman. And even then, one barely worth considering. Everyone in the caravan knew this, even Sempurna himself, and so he often found himself in a constant state of awkward unbelonging whenever the caravan stopped to rest.
“Letting your guard down this early, master elf?”
Sempurna yelped at the *thwack* to the back of his head. A young man of around twenty summers whipped around him, holding a wooden practice sword, and sporting a handsome, smiling face that promised excitement, adventure, and mischief with every visible white tooth.
“I told you not to call me that!” Sempurna groaned, rubbing his nape. “I have a name, and I’d appreciate it if you used it more, young lord.”
“Right.” The young lord pretended to stroke the beginnings of his beard. “Sempa something or other.”
“Sempurna!” cried the elf boy in exasperation. The teasing he got used to, but he still felt the need to stand up for the name he'd chosen for himself whenever it was challenged.
“Sure, I’ll call you that as soon as you stop calling me ‘young lord’.”
“The master would disapprove,” Sempurna replied dryly.
“My father’s disapproval should matter little. After all, you’re the master elf!” The young lord bowed low, a tuft of blonde hair twirling ever-so-slowly onto his forehead. He gave Sempurna a wink and a smile, and stuck out his tongue for good measure.
Sempurna wanted to look annoyed but gulped instead, looked away, and blew a long calming breath. He didn’t notice the young lord smirking at him.
“Since everyone is attending to their duties, I should attend to mine. Come!” The young lord extended his arm, and Sempurna turned to look at him again.
“Isn’t it your duty to assist the master with the books and numbers?” Sempurna asked.
“Sure, that is the duty of the merchant’s apprentice…” the young lord began. Before Sempurna could protest or interrupt, he grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him into a sprint. “...but my duty as the young lord is to set a good example to those who will follow me!”
Sempurna’s face lit up, and a boyish grin widened his cheeks. “If you wanted us to do training again, you should’ve led with that!”
The master of the caravan was a fairly successful trader in silks, garments, and metalwares in Haseong. On a certain day a year past, a shabbily dressed boy with elven features approached the caravan and offered his services. At first, he had offered ‘any’ service, as he had limited knowledge of what services a caravan would need. The master had soundly rejected him, and so the boy had offered his services as a guard, presenting the curved blade strapped to his side. The master had laughed him off, but the boy had persisted, claiming his true worth lay unseen by wary eyes. Finally, the master seemed taken by his words, for Sempurna had grown much in the art of beguiling men with his voice and body. And so, the master nodded…and rejected him a third time.
Before Sempurna had finished considering doing something embarrassing and drastic, the young lord had emerged from his carriage and vouched for the boy, claiming he could be trained to fight during their travels. Sempurna had asked only for half the pay of the adult handlers, and so the young lord argued he would be cheaper to have as a companion than another sellsword twice his size, and much easier to mold in their ways. Much to the master’s chagrin, the young lord had his way, and whenever time allowed, he made good on his promise to train Sempurna’s sword arm and other disciplines besides.
On Sempurna’s part, he gained everything he could ever want—three square meals a day, protection, and a group he could be a part of…at least somehow. That, and sparring and learning from the young lord gave him the happiest moments of his life. He did his best not to make that last point too obvious. It helped that the young lord was very easy on the eyes.
The young lord tossed Sempurna the wooden sword and then picked up a sturdy-looking branch on the ground. He raised it parallel to his face, then pointed it straight at the elf boy, who mimicked his stance and movements. The young lord was formally trained in swordplay, as was expected of any heir to a wealthy inheritance. When he’d seen that Sempurna had at least known the basic forms, something in him sparked, perhaps a certain desire to pass on his knowledge.
“By your leave then, master elf,” the young lord offered with a smirk.
“I’m thinking I should help you remember my name by smacking you on the head,” Sempurna said with a sly grin of his own.
“You will try.” The young lord winked.
Sempurna pounced.
*thwack*
*snap*
Striking wood produces dull notes, but sure strikes and firm grips nonetheless gave the sound a distinctive echo. In that sense, only practiced hands could make wooden weapons sing so clearly. Sempurna could do that easily now. He jabbed, exploring the young lord’s defenses with several probing pokes, before varying his footwork and attempting to strike the man’s knees.
*thwack*
“Aha, going for my legs to throw off my footwork? Fair move, yet predictable, since you barely come up to a man’s shoulder!” the young lord teased as he blocked strike after strike.
“I’ll grow yet!” Sempurna retorted. He doubled his assault, attempting to hit the young lord’s elbows and chest with quick slashes. The stick intercepted all of them, however.
The young lord’s smile grew from amused to competitive. “Now, I’m feeling motivated! Good form, master elf. Your strikes are firmer, footwork is faster, I daresay you’ve improved by several leaps since the day I met you.”
“Seeing as you’re my teacher, you sound more like you’re praising yourself more than you are my progress!” Sempurna accused even as he struck thrice more.
“Ah, we’ve been together so long that my motives have become transparent to you!” The young lord spun gracefully to one side and struck, meeting the broad side of Sempurna’s wooden blade. “Come then, student of mine, dance with me!”
Their battle continued. The young lord was particular about footwork above all, as it was the foundation of the body. He’d drilled Sempurna repeatedly on this and honed not just the precision of Sempurna’s hands, but of his steps as well. He likened it to a dance, matching one’s footwork with the opponent’s while advancing, adding pressure and never letting them get any breathing room.
Sempurna had always been light on his feet, but he’d grown in the past seasons and was quicker still. He knew he could outrun most men, and this speed was what he counted on to press the young lord. Whereas before, the young lord could effortlessly dodge Sempurna’s strikes, he now actively needed to parry and concentrate. Sweat dripped in beads from his fair forehead and down to his lips. The saltiness satisfied him in more than just taste as he met the elf boy’s assault with all of his might.
*thwack*
Sempurna attempted a heavy blow to the head, but the young lord swatted his strike aside with such force that the wooden sword buckled in his grip.
“You’re fleet of foot, yet you cannot match anyone this much larger than you in strength,” the young lord said, both as a lesson and as a fact.
“Then I should match it with something else instead!” Sempurna cried as he recovered from staggering and charged at the young lord again.
“Impatience will get you nowhere!” the young lord countered as he readied his stance.
Sempurna’s thoughts were clear. He raised the wooden sword and wound his arm, telegraphing a heavy strike. He knew that the young lord would know to counter it, and to sidestep if it was a feint. Sempurna swung—the young lord saw the feint as predicted and dodged. What the man did not see was that his back was to a tree, and that by stepping to the side, he allowed Sempurna to tumble past him. Sempurna used his momentum to leap at and kick against the tree, launching himself like a javelin at the young lord before the latter could react. The pair crashed onto the grassy earth in a heap, both panting and sweating, looking at each other’s crimson faces, but with Sempurna on top.
The young lord blinked and then laughed.
“That was…that was…impressive!”
Sempurna felt his cheeks warm up and laughed along. They held each other’s gaze, their breaths late in catching up to their thoughts. A force was pulling them closer, attracting their faces to meet slowly but surely. Sempurna could almost taste the young lord’s breath. They’d never done it out in the open, where just anyone could see…
Then a whistle blared. It was the master’s summons.
Both man and boy blinked and dusted themselves off each other. The young lord nodded as he led the way back to the camp. He couldn’t hear the whisper of a sigh that escaped Sempurna’s lips.