Chapter III

Solo

Ten months of training brought me here: Ten months, ten lessons and three teachers. Month One was ‘Prophecies and Fairytales’; what they are, how they work. Month Two was ‘Vampyre’; what they are, how they work and (most importantly) how to kill them. Month Three was ‘Weapons’; how they work and each and every weapon’s strength and weakness. Month Four was ‘Whips’; I’d picked the whip as my weapon so I had to learn everything there was to know about whips so I could become the best whipper I could.

Brother Rael was my first teacher. He didn't teach me the whip stuff, he said the whip was a 'exotic and unusual' weapon and that he didn't know that much about it. He taught me about prophecies, though and told me about my fairytale - or at least my part in the fairytale.

I'm the chosen one - picked by the faeries themselves, he said. They chose me to defeat the last vampyre. He said that by killing just that one vampyre I'd be wiping out the entire race, because once its dead there won't ever be any vampyre again.

He also told me all about how the vampyre work as well. How they don't have children, but that instead they can turn anyone into a vampyre, just by biting them. There was so much to learn about. There were old vampyre stories about how famous vampyre had been killed. The stories I read in the library said you needed to put a spike of wood through their hearts to kill them. My dad said it had to be untreated mahogany and I read in another book that you needed a pure silver spike. Brother Rael said that all that was rubbish and that vampyre might be able to heal quicker than people but that they could be killed in the same way as a person could. He said the best way to kill a vampyre was to cut its throat or if you could, cut off its head.

That's why I've got the special whip with me. I made it ‘specially for tonight. Instead of a long rope of leather or ivy, this one is made of loads of tiny barbs. Usually I just have a vine of ivy with one barb at the end, but with barbs all the way along, it means all I have to do is swing the whip around the vampyre's neck and pull and his head will probably come right off.

I practiced on stuff and it seems to work. Like last week, cause it was my revision month, I was practicing on the fence out the back of my house and I swung the whip round the fence post and when I pulled, the barb dug a good inch-deep ring around it. I came up with the invention myself, but Brother Rael helped me with the barbs cause there were so many to make.

There were a few times that I wished I'd picked a different weapon. I first picked the whip ‘cause it was easiest to hold. Swords and bows were too heavy or too big and the whip was about the only thing I could really run with. When I picked it Brother Rael was surprised, but he said it was probably the best weapon I could have picked for someone that’s my age. The very same day he sent a message to The North to ask for the most skilled whip-users they could find and within a week Nona showed up.

Nona was much younger than Brother Rael. She had short, chin-length hair that swung back and forwards when she spoke and her face was pale and pretty. When I first met her I remember hoping that I'd look like her when I was older even though I didn’t want to cut my hair. Later on she told me that Whip users had to have short hair because they were moving so much and they needed to be able too see all around themselves. I said I would cut mine if she wanted, but she said all we had to do was tie it up and it wouldn't get in my way. I wear it in bunches all the time now.

I thought she was going to teach me how to fight but instead we spent most days at the edge of the forest finding strong vines and loose bark so we could make our own whips. The one I'd got was too weak, at least that's what Nona said and she threw it away. I've still got it though. I went back and found it, because it was the first whip I ever had and even if I didn't use it again, I wanted to keep it. Brother Rael said that I was ‘sentimental’.

It turned out that Nona was right. The first whip I actually made was much, much stronger. After I'd chopped a long enough vine, I had to file it all over completely and then wash in salt water. Then we got bark and thick twigs to make up the handle all tightly wrapped up in the end of the vine. My favourite part of making whips is the barb, though. Nona said you can use anything you want as long as it doesn't weigh you down too much. I like to sew nettles along the vines as well and Nona said that she used to do that when she was my age, too.

In fact I was really sad to see Nona go. But after a month, she said that I knew how whips worked and that I was good at making them and that I had to learn to fight with them now. She said that only Decima would be able to teach me to fight and then she left. And the very next day, Decima showed up.

I didn't like her at all. Right from the moment she walked into the training grounds she was nasty for no reason. She made fun of me, said I was too young to learn and that my hands were too ‘grubby and stumpy’ to hold a whip properly. She was a wrinkly old woman and I was used to old people not liking me very much. I hated her and I couldn't wait till training because I wanted to hurt her. In fact that's the first thing I said to her. Brother Rael scolded me and told me to be polite and she said that I'd never beat her and to think I could was ‘childish and foolish’.

I hate to say it, but she was right. Whip against whip, she kept on beating me and it annoyed me because she wouldn't teach me anything. All we did for the whole month was fight and she kept on beating me without telling what I was doing wrong. But I got better anyway and gradually it would take longer for her to beat me, by the end of the month. We'd be able to fight for an hour without me getting caught out by her. Even though I hated her, I managed to pick up how she moved with her whip and I even beat her once, though she didn’t say anything about it and I think she might have let me win a bit. Anyway I must have got better along the way even if I did keep getting beaten, but not even a month of getting beat by Decima made me ready for Morta.

She was friends with Brother Rael and he said that I reminded him of her which made me feel nice. Morta wasn’t as old as Decima and she was even more prettier than Nona... She was beautiful. She looked like and angel from my storybooks. She wore robes and shawls and carried a huge sword with a gold handle and a really white, leather whip. As soon as I saw her I knew there was no way I would ever beat her, but that doesn't mean I didn't try. I must have made over a hundred whips that month. The thing is she would always use two weapons; her whip and something else. Her sword was the worst, though. With the other stuff, daggers, scythes, spears, I could keep away from them all right, but every time she pulled out that sword, I knew whatever whip I was using was gonna get cut to pieces.

I didn’t think I got any better that month, but Morta and Brother Rael said I did and I guess, now that I think about it there was a few things that I must have learned, because before she arrived I didn’t know how to block attacks with my whip and now I can send daggers and other stuff back at people if I time it just right.

So even though I hadn't been able to beat Morta and I’d only beat Decima once, Brother Rael said I had done really well and that after only three months of Combat Training, I couldn't expect to be better than someone who had been training for more than thirty years. Anyway, Morta had said I was good enough to ‘hold my own’ and that she thought I’d be able to beat most people.

I was kind of glad to have the training over because it was tiring and I liked it better when me and Brother Rael did the studies, because I just got to sit down while he read me stories about vampyre and warriors and the Olden Days. I thought that we’d go back to doing that stuff but we didn’t.

We never went back to that, because the next month was about training for ‘Agility and Endurance’ and the month after that was about making traps and using the environment in Combat and then the next month was just meditation and sharpening reflexes and stuff, so by the time I got round to testing my fighting on Brother Rael, it was my revision month and it meant I only had a few weeks before I was meant to fulfil the prophecy.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been only ten months of training. It feels like a lot longer. In fact I can’t even think of a time when I didn’t know about whips or traps or anything. It’s weird to think that after this I don’t have to do any of it ever again. If I wanted to, I could just throw all my whips away. But I won’t do that. I like my whips and I like training with Brother Rael. Once I’ve done this, I’ll train even harder until I can beat Decima and Morta. But I don’t need to think about that right now.

All I have to do, right now, is kill the vampyre and go home.

I don't know why Brother Rael looked so worried. He looked really serious when he said 'good luck' to me. It was him that told me about the prophecies after all. He of all people should know that no matter what, a prophecy always comes true and that we only play along with it to make it right. Not that I wasn't trying in training; I still took it seriously, because it's a mark of respect to the faeries to do it properly and to do what the fairytale says, because if we don’t the world will stop and we’ll be in Armageddon.

Brother Rael even showed me the prophecy. The actual prophecy that appeared on the village elder's door nearly a year ago - the one that named me as the chosen one who would destroy the last vampyre. I know it all by heart:

A warrior was needed to kill the last vampyre. One was chosen and she was named Ivy and she was trained well. She trained through many months for the village knew that one month before her next birthday, her challenger, the last vampyre would come. She entered the forest without fear for she knew she would succeed. She looked in the eye of the vampyre and through her strength and skill she destroyed it.

They had a town meeting the night it arrived. Kids weren't allowed and there was a lot of arguing going on. My parents said it was because the other villagers were jealous - that they'd wanted their kids to be the chosen one. My Mum and Dad looked sad as well, though. I think my Mum was worried that I might not be able to beat the vampyre, but after I told her about it all and how there's no way I can lose she seemed a bit happier. My Dad... well I don't know about him, I don't know if he believes in prophecies.

This is my moment, though. It's weird to think that after tonight, I'll be famous, that I'll be the one who destroyed the last vampyre and that everyone will know it. Maybe I’ll do so good that the faeries will want me in another fairytale because I did so well in this one. Then again, I'd be happy just to keep training with Brother Rael, but I don't have to worry about stuff like that right now.

The rains a bit heavy. Not that I'm worried - it'll just maker it a bit harder to see the vampyre and also to hear him. I've had training, though. I learned in month eight and nine on how to hear twigs snapping or bending, even in the rain. I keep walking, keeping an eye out for traps, but it's completely deserted. Nothing looks out of place or suspicious... except maybe that there’s no animals, but they're probably hiding from the rain.

I've got my special whip coiled up at my side and I’m using just a basic vine of ivy. I don't want the vampyre to see my secret weapon until it's too late He's got his own weapons. All he needs is a bite. I've got to stay safe, cause if he bites me then it's all over. It's weird... even though I know I can’t lose and I know I'm going to do this, at the same time I'm still a little bit worried.

I catch a movement in the distance.

I know he's here. I heard a roar from deep in the forest a while back. It was when Brother Rael said good luck to me at the edge of the forest and my mum hugged me a bit more than I think she really needed to and my dad said good luck as well, but didn't look at me. I took my first step westwards into the forest and heard it. It was like an animal in pain or maybe it was the vampyre roaring in anger. He has no idea that he's going to die tonight, he's got no idea that near enough a year ago, the faeries decided he would die and that I'd be the one to do it.

Nothings happened since I saw that movement in the trees. Maybe it was an animal. The rain keeps on falling, making a kind of buzzing all over the forest, so it's hard to tell. I see another movement, this time it's to my left and I decide to break into a run, and then I change direction. All the while I'm looking out for traps cause they could be anywhere. I stop really suddenly. Rule Number Eight: Never fight in a pattern.

I wish I could see him. I'm a little worried, now. But as if it hears my thoughts, it walks out from the trees and smiles at me. I can hear shouting in the background - "Oris, wait!" Someone else is here too. So I need to kill the vampyre before that person gets killed... or worse, bitten.

I run at the vampyre and crack my whip at him, but he sidesteps it and his smile widens. His teeth shine in the moonlight. The rain's bouncing off of everything and I can see my whip throw showers of rain droplets as it misses him again.

"You must be my adversary.” he says and even though it's loud with all the rain, I can hear it speaking so clearly. It's not at all out of breath and every swing and crack I send its way, it just dodges almost like it’s not trying. Like Morta moved. I know I’m going to kill it, but now, I don’t really know how I'm going to do it. I wish I'd picked a different weapon now; A bow, maybe. It couldn't dodge the bolt from a crossbow, could it? "Come now, surely you can talk to me? You've already shown great bravery by entering this forest." It dodges another attack "It doesn't make you weak to talk to me. Still, I do wonder what force could bring you in here."

"I'm... Here... To... Kill... You.” I say through gritted teeth, trying to swing my barb around his ankle and only scuffing the grass as the thing strolls out of harms way.

"You're trying to kill me? You think you can defy fate?" its voice is calm and makes me feel a bit better, the way Brother Rael makes me feel

"It is fate." I say and try another attack at it.

What follows is a weird bunch of attacks that I can barely remember. I'm sticking to Rule Number Eight, but it's hard because it's too quick for me and most of my moves aren’t working. I wish I'd spent more time on speed and agility. After a few minutes of fighting I manage to break its defences and my whip wraps itself around the vampyre's neck. I’m angry with myself. I wish I'd used the special one, but before I can even forget about that, my whip falls away from the vampyre. It’s holding a long black sword in its hands and it pulls my barb from its neck. It throws that half of my whip to the side.

I’m starting to panic a bit.

"You still think you're going to kill me?” it asks, “You still think you can beat me?”

"I don't need to think it.” I say, “I know I’m going to beat you. It's out of your control. The faeries chose me to kill you." I’m not so sure of that now, but I stare at him anyway.

"I don't think so. You're just a little girl. There's no way you could ever defeat me. I'm over two hundred years old. I've been killing for centuries. How long have you been training? A few months?"

It makes sense when he says it. I understand that the idea of me, a twelve-year-old village girl, being able to kill him, a killer monster is just silly, but then the faeries can't be wrong, can they?

"Little girl," he says, "I'm going to hazard a guess and say you were sent into this forest under the delusion you were prophesised to defeat me. Let me brunt and say you were lied to." He walks closer to me. “You're people, your friends... heck even your family allowed you into this forest to fight a vampyre. With… what? Less than a years training? …They were prepared to let you face me. They were willing to let you die at my hands... well my blade. And why were they willing to do this?"

"That's not true.” I say and I know it isn't. Brother Rael would never lie to me.

"Yes it is. The only thing uglier than the truth is hopeless denial of it. Accept it and then we can play our parts and be done. Now before we fight once more, would you like to hear the real prophecy? Would you like to hear what every other person in your village probably knows and kept secret from you?"

"You’re lying.” I say. I know he is. Rule Number Five: Emotion is not a weapon. I smile a little, thinking about what Brother Rael taught me. The rules of combat he made up to help me stay safe. But then I remember Rule Number One... the first rule he ever taught me... When in doubt: run.

"Tell me then, does this sounds familiar? ‘A girl was chosen by the village; she was trained well. She trained through many months for the village knew that one month before her next birthday, her challenger, the vampyre, would come The girl entered the forest without fear for she was determined to succeed. She looked in the eye of the vampyre and though her strength and skill was unparalleled, the vampyre broke through her well-placed defences and the terrible tragedy unfolded'."

"That's not- how do you...” I don't need Rule Number One to tell me to run right now and I try to but he sweeps towards me and grabs me by the shoulder pulling me into him as though he's about to hug me. And then I remember Rule Number Ten, Don't hesitate, I reach for my special whip, but it falls to the grass and as he pulls me closer I remember Rule Number Eleven, Don't die and then everything begins to fade, I watch his dazzling grin fade to black and then there's nothing...

***

…Nothing but a voice.

"Hey girl. Girl! Wake up!"

I open my eyes slowly and see the clearing where I met the vampyre. Did I fail? I failed. I didn't kill him - I didn't kill it, I mean.

The boy’s still speaking to me. "Are you okay, did you see a guy... he didn't hurt you did he?"

"Who are you?", I ask him.

It's just a boy. He's thin and tall and weird looking and he's covered head to toe in mud. Through the mud I can see two soft brown eyes staring back at me. He helps me to my feet and I reach down and find my special whip. I'd been hoping that it had been a dream; that it hadn't really happened... but it has... I failed.