Callisto
watched as Joxer unsuccessfully tried to hide how badly he felt. She
could at least admit that he had spirit. It was just unfortunate that
he seemed to lack any warrior skills whatsoever. The Gods must indeed
be looking out for him, there could be no other explanation for him to
have survived this long.
"Ok Joxer, this time I want you to look at my eyes," she tutored
to her pupil. "Stop watching my sword, or my arms. You can foretell
most warriors' next attack by looking at their eyes. You'll need to
learn to read their eyes so you can anticipate their next move."
The student looked into her brown eyes. The Warrior Queen, a name
he recalled having coined a lifetime ago, looked right back at him with
an intense, piercing glare. Once in a while he fancied he saw the glint
of amusement in her eyes, something that had surprised him the first
time he had noticed, only this morning.
Yes, Callisto sometimes smiled, smirked, grinned, or did any of
several other things which people might assume was how she expressed
joy. But Joxer had never seen her eyes light up with happiness. Anytime
he had looked at her eyes all he had seen reflected was anger, hate,
fury, madness, sadness, emptiness.
This morning though he had, inexplicably to him, tripped over a
root and had performed a dazzling feat of acrobatics as he tried to not
fall or drop the dishes of food he had been carrying. He ultimately had
fallen, spilling food everywhere, mostly on himself. As he got up he
had noticed Callisto sitting off to one side, smiling at the mess he
had created. But this time her eyes were alight too...
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The blond
whirlwind attacked, thrusting her blade one way, then the other;
spinning about to attack from a different angle, twisting impossibly to
avoid his counterattacks, which she didn't bother to block. It took
only the count of a score of his heartbeats before he found himself
disarmed with the tip of her sword pointing to his heart.
"That's enough," she said disgustedly as she dropped her sword
arm. "There's a limit to my patience, and we went past it an hour ago.
I need another swim."
With that parting shot she walked quickly away, heading for the
lake they had camped close to. Joxer thanked the Gods that this ordeal
was over, at least until tomorrow. Too tired to walk back to camp, he
sat down and decided to enjoy the respite while it lasted.
That morning had
started out normally for Callisto. A nightmare had woken her up in the
predawn hours. At least this time she hadn't been screaming, although
she had been crying. She wasn't sure which was worse.
Once again Joxer had still been asleep, which was just as well.
She didn't want him to see her in such a state. Imagine, the Warrior
Queen, scourge of Greece, crying! That would ruin her hard-earned
reputation as a cold-blooded killer, which had taken her years and
countless of victims to aquire.
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