My Beloved Shadow

**
DanishGirl: *sorry didn\'t say anything earlier* Thanks. Hope you had a good trip. I\'ve always wanted to travel, though the air fare in my head is pretty cheap...
Rosemary: I know... *lol* I\'m not mentioning too much at the moment but, I promise, I will mention more about his planet, and why the sky is always grey, soon enough.
massacre_04: Thanks! Good luck on your novel, too. I\'m always encouraged when I see new, and appreciative, readers. Not that I don\'t love the ones who have been reading since nearly the beginning. *smile*
Now, onto what everyone is really reading this for. :D **


“These are wooden swords!”

Nick exclaimed, holding up a sword carved out of wood. It is the same size and weight as a regular sword, only not as sharp.
The night had gone by rather fast, Nick had felt surprisingly peaceful for his first night in a new world. Or he was just too tired mentally to let it bother him. True to his word, Michael had awaken him early, at least Nick guessed it was because the sky was still the same dark grey but the land was lit again.

They had eaten a quick breakfast, roasted meat with what looked like potato’s. And then they had immediately gone outside to the training area. Nick had chosen to wear an old pair of jeans, they are beyond well worn, the knees worn out completely. But they are comfortable to wear and easy to move in. His shirt is a plain white muscle shirt.

Nick is taken by surprise when Michael hit’s the back of his head with the flat side of a sword blade. A wooden sword.

“That’s so you don’t get hurt, meili.”

Nick makes a face and rubs the back of his head, it throbs a little in pain. Michael hadn’t hit him very hard.

“I won’t get hurt.”

“Trust me, until you learn how to properly handle a sword, you will hurt yourself.”

Nick turns to look at Michael, Michael stands to his left, leaning against the wall as he moves the sword in his hand, testing it‘s weight. Michael looks up, but his attention is on the person standing in front of Nick.

Michael had pulled one of his people to train Nick, a man with white hair who looked to be in his seventies. But even as old as he is, the man is taller than either Michael or Nick and his body is still in good shape.

“They are getting better at carving these.”

The man bows, “They wish only to please you.”

Michael smiled, then tossed the sword to him.

“If he gives you any trouble, you have my permission to hit him.” Michael turns to Nick, warning in his eyes.

“Do as he says, no back talking. If you get any good, you will be allowed to use a real sword.”

“Your not staying?”

“As much as I would enjoy watching you, I have duties that I must attend to.”

That said, Michael pushes off the wall and walks off, not even bothering to look back. Nick sighs softly, turning to look at the man who will be his teacher. His teacher has a strange expression on his face when he turns around, though it is quickly lost in a mask of blankness as the man addresses him.

“You’ll want to do a few stretches before we begin. You want to be as limber as possible starting out, though the more you practice the easier it will become.”

Nick does as he’s told, stretching a few times. The old man directs him in the proper way to stand, a ‘good strong stance’ that he said will ‘give you balance and save your life’.

“Now, hold your sword like so-” He raises his arm up to chest level, sword held in front and slightly to the side, arm bent at the elbow. The sword is held up and with confidence. Nick mimics his stance, though with less confidence.

“Now, tilt it to one side, then the other, following me.”

The old man makes an X in the air with the sword, holding it and tilting it one way, then moving his wrist and holding it the other way.
Nick does this, even doing it compliantly the first ten times he tells him to. The old man, after awhile, touches Nick’s sword with his own and tilting it so that when the swords connect they do make an X shape. This keeps up for a long while, then he starts to get bored and his mouth opens.

“Is this all we’re going to do?”

The old man doesn’t say anything, the next time he goes to strike Nick’s sword he nearly knocks him on the ground.

“Your guard was down, yours was a weak defense.”

Nick narrows his eyes in annoyance as he gets his balance back, and his arms stop shaking. “I wasn’t ready.”

“Your opponent won’t care if your ready or not. If this had been a real sword, and I had really been the opposition, then you would be dead by now.”

Nick steps back up, moving back into his previous stance.

“This time I’ll be ready!”

The old man just laughs and goes at Nick again, this time he succeeds in knocking him down. Over the next couple weeks Nick comes to learn that all of Michael’s people are strong and have an odd sense of humor.

He works in the morning with the old man, learning how to use the sword and a few other weapons. A pause for lunch and then he’s off helping them with something around the castle. Helping to carry large feed sacks for the animals, which he discovers is in an area away from the castle.

He even gets to learn a little about healing, more herbs and what *not* to do type things than actually healing with magic. He’s kept so busy that, come nightfall, he’s too dead to do anything but collapse onto the bed, in his room.

After the first night, Michael hadn’t asked him to share his bed, Nick hadn’t even been able to see much of Michael since they arrived. And he’s been kept so busy that he has forgotten about Jason and Norris and the fact that he hasn’t seen them, or seen them together since they arrived.

The days seem to blend, one into another, until one day everything changes.

Nick is helping to repair the roof on a house when he hears commotion coming from the direction of the gate. He looks to find that they are letting someone in.

“Lets see what’s going on.”

The man with him says. Nick doesn’t know his name, didn’t bother to ask it either. With the exception of the two girls on the first day, no one has given him their name. No one has offered and, on the rare occasions he has asked, they haven’t given it. So he doesn’t ask.

They climb down from the house and make their way towards the crowd. Nick feels his stomach turn over when he moves through the crowd of people only to see Michael and another man touching, intimately.

“Athan has returned.”

Nick hears someone say, though he cannot pin point the source. Athan? So they know him and he’s been here before. Though that knowledge doesn’t help Nick in anyway.

Michael spies Nick and walks over to him, bringing Athan with him. Like so many of the other’s, Athan is taller than Michael, though his appearance is drastically different.

Where all of Michael’s people, including himself, are dark and dark complexioned, Athan is red. His hair just barely reaches his shoulder in red curls. The red is a dark red, like dried blood. His eyes are a kaleidoscope of red and gold. The colors mix together as if someone had spilled paint.


His skin is light, very pale, and he’s wearing an ornate robe that is black with red and gold embroidering.

“Nick, I’d like you to meet Athan. Athan, this is Nick. Athan has come to pay us a visit for a few days.”

Michael said, as he comes to stand in front of Nick. The two nod heads, agreeing all most immediately that they don’t like each other. Michael turns away then, leading Athan off. Nick learns later that Athan comes to visit once a year and that he and Michael are well known to be lovers.

Strangely, Nick finds that he cannot stand seeing Michael and Athan together. The two of them practically hang off each other, touching all the time. It makes him sick and he doesn’t even understand why it should bother him so much.

Hasn’t Michael said that they are ‘married’, or at least ‘engaged’? Michael should at least let him know what’s going on, not just go off. Either which way, whether Nick has a right, after what had happened with Jason, to be mad, he is.

Finally, after nearly a week of watching them together, with him as merely an after thought, he goes into Michael’s room late in the evening when he knows Michael is there.

Michael doesn’t even look up when Nick enters, pretending to be too busy lacing his shoes to notice.
Nick shuts the door behind him and takes a step into the room but finds he’s unable to any move further. His voice suddenly gone now that he’s in the same room as Michael, alone for the first time since the night of his arrival.

See, not only is he upset about Michael and Athan, but he’s also come to the realization that Jason and Norris have been separated the whole time they’ve been there. He knows it must be tearing up Jason to be alone.

Michael finally looks up, his shoes laced.

“What do you want.”

“I want to talk to you.”

The words come after only a small pause. Michael stands and crosses his arms, impatience showing in his eyes.

“Well, what do you want to talk about? I’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Where? It’s time to sleep for the night, not get up.”

“I don’t see where it’s any of your business.”

Nick takes a step forward, “You’re the one who says we’re zorey. You’re the one that is always saying we shouldn’t have secrets, that we’re ‘married’.”

“No, the ceremony is only partially completed, Nick, we’re not permanent and until we are you cannot dictate what I can and cannot do, as such neither can I to you.”

Nick’s anger suddenly appears in the pit of his stomach, boiling up, screaming to be free. So long, it sings in his mind, so long we’ve been trapped, release us! This time he isn’t in a mood to say no.

“What about Jason and Norris? You’ve kept them locked up, away from each other, haven’t you?”

“They are here for one purpose only. After awhile they will simply forget about each other.”

“You can’t do that. Jason won’t survive it for long.”

“Oh, so suddenly you care?”

Michael shakes his head and starts walking towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

Michael stops at the door and turns around, “I’m leaving. I do not have time to mess with you today.”

“You can’t just brush me off like that, Michael! You’re the one who did this to me. You bound me to you then brought me here. Sure, I could of said no, but did I really have a choice?

But, I could handle that. Hey, it’s not too bad. But then you go and push me off to the side and just ignore me as if I don’t exist. News flash, Michael, I do exist and I’m getting really mad about all this.”

Nick had moved closer to Michael and now stands less than a foot in front of him. Michael doesn’t blink, doesn’t react in any way to Nick’s words. Though Nick had spoken calmly, fire burned behind his words.

“Like I said, the ceremony isn’t finished. It’s none of my problem.”

Michael turns to leave and Nick touches his shoulder.

Ever have one of those moments where you know that your action, though nothing great, will lead to something even bigger, and not altogether pleasant? Nick had one of those moments as Michael turned back around, anger leaking out of his eyes as he swung at Nick.




**
I know, I sped through that first little bit, but I was so excited about getting to the last scene with Michael and Nick that I couldn\'t help it.
Wow! Michael and Nick are having their first *real* fight as a couple. It will be very interesting to see how it ends. Will Michael really hit Nick? And why? What reason does he have to hit him?

I\'m going to be completely cruel on this one. *grins* I want to know what everyone thinks, need some reviews, lots of reviews, before I put up the next chapter.
So, until I get some kind of return, no new chapter. (Yes, I can do this, especially if I need to buy time in which to actually write the chapter out...)