The night was bright, with a full moon high overhead. David was already in the clearing, doing a sort of warm-up exercise, with Megan sitting in the grass well out of the way, watching. Aidan had taught him a few of what he called "forms," patterns of regular sword movements, almost dance-like, that were meant to cement a particular combination of motions, in various permutations, into the brain and muscles. Aidan had known only a few, but David had made up more of his own, and was working through one of the more complex ones at full speed when Alek stepped out of the cabin.

Alek stopped and watched, a little wide-eyed. He realized exactly how much David had been holding back in their few practice bouts.

"Wow," he breathed as David came to a halt, poised perfectly in the center of the clearing.

David sheathed the sword in an easy, familiar motion, and walked over to Alek. "Ready to practice then?"

"Yeah," said Alek. "But I'm never going to be that good, even if I work at it my whole life. Did you know sword fighting before, in the city?"

David shook his head. "No."

"You learned all that in just..." he paused to try to count up the time. "Not much more than a year?"

"Seventeen months since the day I died," said David softly. "Aidan said I was a natural. This is what I was meant to do, what I was born to do. Call it a coincidence, or call it fate, but sword fighting is the one thing where all my talents, all the abilities I ever had, come together just right." He paused. "I think that's why I never made anything of myself in the city. Sure, I have great coordination. What am I going to do with that? And okay, I can think ahead a few moves on just about anything. You can't make a living being a chess player. And really my mind's not set up for chess. The thinking ahead... I played a pretty mean game of speed chess, but I'd get beat at the regular slow sort. None of those things really amounted to much, until now, until this."

Alek nodded. "I dunno if I'm fated to do this too, but..." he smiled then, "I think I have come up with something to help me fight."

"Oh?"

"Yup." He patted his belt, where his sword was sheathed on one hip. On the opposite hip was his knife. "I was just thinking. I'm ambidextrous, don't know if I ever told you that. It's like you said about your skills, what are you going to do with it? It's not much use in most things. But I'm used to working with both hands. So... I'm going to fight with both. Sword and dagger."

"I don't know..." David was kind of dubious. "I'd think that would make it just that much harder to get your sword in place quickly enough."

Alek shook his head. "We'll see, but I don't think so."

Megan broke in from where she was still sitting on the edge of the clearing. "It's a valid historical style. There were fighters who used a sword and a dagger together. Usually a light straight sword with a double-edged blade, but still, they weren't even ambidextrous. From what I've read the main emphasis was on the sword, and the dagger was mostly to block with, but instead of a shield that was heavy and no use in attack, it was lighter, allowing for more speed, and could also be used offensively."

"There, see?" Alek grinned.

David chuckled and shook his head. "Once again you amaze me with the things you know," he said to Megan. "All right, we'll try it."