LEGEND REDUX 2
BURDEN
Pivot. Thrust. Block. Thrust thrust sweep block.
Eric had found early on that the cane wasn't a cane, it was something more. He had felt it when first the old woman had put it in his hands. He had looked down at it, his attention seemingly magnetized. When the boy had looked up the woman had disappeared.
His first instinct had been to throw the cane, but for some reason he hadn't been able to. Something about it's weight (which was heavy for a simple cane) and the way it fit his hand had stopped the motion even before he started it.
Then there was the feeling of security and power he inexplicably felt whenever he held it, even to this day.
And on this day, nearly six years later, he was in the middle of a park, in a clearing in a woods he had found shortly after the cane had been given to him. When he had first started the practice he was now engaged in, he had put it off as a young boy doing what young boys do, playing out fantasies of slaying dragons and rescuing princess' and defeating evil wizards.
Eric carried this notion for a few years, until there was an abrupt change in the nature of his practices. They had become more intensive, the moves more extensive. He no longer imagined princess', wizards, or dragons, but iron-clad knights wielding a variety of weapons. And he found that he was sweating each time, seemingly fighting for his life.
In the years since he had been given the cane he had grown in stature, first gaining height, then filling out solidly. He was not big, not in the sense of a bodybuilder, but he was powerful. Eric could feel it in every movement. Even when he took a breath, he could feel his stomach muscles flexing. When he was fully clothed, Eric looked to have a normal build, though obviously solid, and he had never trained with weights. It was a blessing he didn't complain about, but also one he didn't take advantage of.
Eric avoided fights, avoided trouble whenever possible in all honesty. Even growing up, during school, he stayed to himself, speaking only when spoken to, never putting himself in others business.
Now, he spent his days working in a factory, and training in swordplay on his off days.
It was how he had come to look at it, was how Eric had basically been forced to look at it.
Thrust. Sweep. Pivot. Block.
He always brought along a towel to wipe the sweat off his face and upper body. Eric leaned the cane up against a tree and was in the middle of wiping his face when he heard a stick snap right in front of him. Without thought the cane was in his hand and Eric dropped into stance, even before the towel hit the ground.
"Ah here you are. I just remembered the other day that I left my cane. Completely walked off and forgot it. You're such a dear for holding it for me for so long." It was the old woman, standing there as if she had never left. Wearing the same friendly grin she had worn the day they had first met six years ago.
"How did you find me here?" Eric was very wary. What were the odds that this woman would come back six years later for her cane?
"Oh, I often walk in these woods, I just decided to take a different path today, lucky me. Now I can retrieve my cane."
Her smile was still the same serene smile it had been before, but now there was a bit of a glint in her eye that Eric thought looked decidedly out of place. "This might sound a bit strange, but I've kind of grown attached to it."
"Most people who wield it do, which is precisely why I'm here." The lady looked at the cane and suddenly Eric's hands were empty.
"What.... I'm sorry to be rude, but I want that back."
"Well, if you want it, take it."
The smile was starting to drive Eric mad. It was there, constantly, never wavering. Where he had first found it charming, and maybe even a bit motherly, he now found it condescending, maybe even a bit snide. "You're an old lady. I don't want to hurt you."
"You judge far too much by what you're eyes see." The old woman took a step forward and held the cane out, barely out of Eric's reach. It would take him a step and swing of his arm and he could snatch it out of her hands.
"Well?" With her words he made his move, moving quicker than he had known was possible.
And came up empty handed. The woman stood across the clearing, still wearing that infuriating smile. "See, you assumed by what you saw that I would be much too slow to avoid your grasp for the cane." She stepped back to the center of the clearing, to her previous position. "Now, I want you to try something. I want you to close your eyes, and concentrate on the cane. Will it to come to you."
"You're cracked." Eric let his hands drop to his sides. "You're some homeless old lady that is cracked in her head." But even as he said it, Eric remembered the power he had felt when holding the cane. There was something about the cane that was not normal. The woman herself was not normal also. He could see no way in which that woman could have gotten across the clearing that fast. He hadn't even seen her move.
After a few moments of silent thought he nodded his head and the woman moved back across the clearing. Eric closed his eyes and concentrated everything he could muster on the thought of that cane being in his hands. Oddly, in his mind's eye, the cane had a metallic glow, a blue aura that seemed to pulse with the beating of his heart. And then suddenly he realized the cane was in his hands.
"Good, it has accepted you. You have passed the test, and Excalibur is your burden now. Remember one thing young Eric," Eric opened his eyes to find a young lady in the place of the older one. "You must protect it at all costs. It is now your lifeline." With that the girl disappeared. Leaving a very confused Eric holding a sword where he should have been holding a cane.
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