As I was standing alone in the forest a young boy came up to me nervously, He looked to be in his thirteenth cycle and I could see him edging towards me cautiously, “I won’t bite.”

He smiled, slightly embarrassed, “Sensei sent me to find you with a message.” I looked at him, expecting him to continue, but he said nothing and stood staring at me intently.

“And the message was?”

“Oh, he said to meet him by the clock tower at two.” He paused and I could tell that there was more to the message, he scuffed his toe on the grass “Are you really to have private lessons with Sensei?” He blurted out and then stared back at the floor nervously.

I smiled at him, “Yes, I am.” I watched him as he looked up at me in wonder, I felt slightly self conscious, “So, what’s your name?” I asked him friendly.

“Me?”

“Well I’m not talking to the tree.” I joked and smiled at him again.

He grinned sheepishly, “It’s Isaac sir.”

“Hey, less of the sir please, I’m only four cycles above you, call me Shigeru and save the ‘sir’s’ for the teachers.”

He thought about it a moment, “Okay then, Shigeru.”

“That’s it.” I said smiling at him again, he reminded me of what I was like in my thirteenth cycle, “So Isaac, what cycle are you in?” I asked him sociably.

“My thirteenth.” He said proudly.

“Really, I thought you were older.” I lied, it was worth it for the beam that spread across his face.

“No, just my thirteenth, so what are you in?” He asked energetically, more comfortable with me.

“My seventeenth.”

“Cool, you’re Shigeru Noguchi right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re the one who throws those amazing parties aren’t you?” I knew that our parties were popular, but hadn’t realised that the stories had spread all the way down to the thirteenth cycle.

“Well, it’s mostly my best friend Roan, but yeah, I help.”

“Wow, wait until I tell my mates that I’ve spoken to you!” he said, “Did you really tie that guy up and put him in the fountain?” he asked me, shy again.

  I laughed at the memory, “Yeah, one of the unbreakable rules is that only our cycle are allowed to them, so when that guy from the cycle above tried to sneak in, we all jumped on him and tied him up and Roan thought that it’d be a good idea for him to take a bit of a swim.” I laughed again, remembering the look on Roan’s face as he’d made the suggestion.

“Wow, that’s so cool.” I smiled again and saw the admiration in his eyes.

“What sort of weapon do you fight with?” I asked him.

“Well, mostly the Ontoneon but sometimes the sword.”

“The Ontoneon’s the double ended axe isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“It takes a lot of strength to use that.” I said impressed, I had used the Otoneon a couple of times and had found it heavy and brutish, personally I preferred the sword or even the Althease, but I admitted that it took a lot of power to fight well with it. Isaac glowed from my praise. I heard the clock strike for quarter to two, “I better go to meet Sensei, do you walk the same way?” I asked him friendly.

His eyes open a bit and he nodded his head, five minutes later he was chatting like mad and bounding around me, I was replying when I could get a word in edgeways, but mostly listened to him telling me about his school life and the village that he came from. We passed what I can only assume were a group of his cycle and he smiled at them knowingly and continued to talk to me. When we got to the clock tower he said goodbye and went off to his next class, I could see all the stories that he was bursting to tell his friends.

I stood statue still by the tower and waited for Sensei, he was on time exactly, arriving at the base of the tower as the second bell rang out. He nodded at me and inclined for me to follow him, we walked to the training ground and went into the weapons armoury, in it were a variety of the basic and crude weapons; swords, Otoneons, axes, spears, Altheases, throwing daggers and shields. We walked through the armoury, right to the back where Sensei removed a key from around his neck and slotted it into a hole in the wall. My mouth drooped open in amazement as a rack of spears swung towards us to reveal another room.

In this room were weapons of the same basic structure of the ones in the other room, but the craftsmanship of the weapons in this hidden room was stunning; every weapon had carvings on the blades and the handles were all shaped to fit the grasp of a hand, some were even wrapped in leather to provide more grip and security when fighting with them, the shields had designs and seemed to be made out of an iridescent metal and they were all different shapes and sizes. I stared around the room in wonder, noticing the difference in colour to the other room, it had been dull metal colours of grey and black, in here bright metallic bonze, silvers and golds stood out brightly against glossy blacks and deep blues, greens or reds.

I turned to Sensei, feeling his gaze on me as I admired the weapons in the room, I was standing in the middle of a treasure chest of destruction. I said nothing, but could feel the questions burning on my tongue, “Ask me three questions.”

“Why are these all hidden?”

“Surely you can see the materials that make up these weapons, they would be worth a lord’s ransom and more, we may be gentle, but we are not stupid.”

“Why are they hidden here?”

“If someone knew about them, the last place they would look is where they are truly meant to be kept, they would expect them to be kept in a more guarded place, maybe the main building, but certainly not n the outhouse of students weapons.” I could understand that reasoning.

“Why have you shown this to me?”

“To show you the weapons that you will now be using, we need someone to be the next great fighter, with the skill in all weapons, we cannot expect you to fight with the crude tools of students, you are in line for a master as you stand here today, therefore you will be taught with the master’s weapons.” I stood there with my mouth open and tried to take in what had just been told to me, I was now inline to become a future combat master, I was euphoric, it was everything that I had ever dreamed of; combat master of the guardians.

“I know that you usually fight with a sword, so we will start there, however as we proceed through this training you will need to diversify and expand you hold on all weapons.” I followed him as he walked through the maze or racks and stands. Finally we came to the section where the swords stood tall and proud, they were amazing, I knew more about the sword than any other weapon and these weapons were graceful but lethal even as they stood at their wooden stand, you could see the destruction and death that any one of them could unleash in the wrong hands and it was awe inspiring.

Sensei carefully put each one into its sheath. “Pick whichever you like, I will tell you after what each sword’s essence is, so pick carefully, for it may reveal more about you and your future than you’d like.” I carefully looked at each sword and saw that no two were the same out of the twenty there. My attention was immediately drawn to one sword in particular with a black sheath that had gold, silver and bright blue lines crossing over each other from the point of the sheath to until they met at the top which created a pattern of intertwined branches and leaves. The handle of the sword had silver, gold pattern up the grip with a sphere of silver at the end.

I walked up the sword, put it on my palm and slowly drew it out it’s sheath, the hilt of the sword carried on from the handle seamlessly the gold and silver pattern flowed into a design that wove its way around the set of a blue stone that looked to be a sapphire and then went on to join the blade it’s self. The blade was a white/silver colour that seemed to have iridescent sheens of blue where the sunlight touched the blade’s surface.  

I gently touched the stone with the tips of my fingers, it shone slightly where my fingers made contacted it. I took hold of the handle and held it out in front of me carefully, the grip fitted my hand  perfectly and the sword was well balanced and felt like an extension of my arm. I had been well aware that sensei had been watching me as I had chosen, but had not rushed choosing and now I was happy with the sword I had chosen. “This is the one Sensei.” I said and then held out to him with the blade flat across my palms and bowing my head to the floor.

Sensei made no sound and I eventually raised my head to look at his face, “What is its essence?” I asked him quietly. Sensei took a deep breath and smiled slowly.

“You have exceeded my expectations” he said slowly and I saw the truth of his words in his eyes “This sword is the sword of the wondering path, the crossing lines on it’s sheath represents the number of paths that you will have to choose from, the three paths will end up in the same place, but it is the journey that will change you into the man that you are meant to be. The leaves at the top of the sheath represent the growth of new life and prosperity. The intertwined gold and silver of handle shows how you will have a lover that will help you to reach your goals and stay with you throughout their life. The sapphire in the hilt shows that you will end up in a place of power and will be balanced leader as it rests in the middle of the blade, however when you lead, you will have people all around you, but will lead alone. The sheen of blue on the blade will give you luck when the light from sun or moon shines on you, but beware the dark nights with clouds covering the light for your luck will go,” he put his hand on the side of my face in the way that a father would to his son, “You have been chosen by fate to do great deeds, now you have chosen you must live up to your sword, for now it is yours alone and will be yours for the rest of your life.”

Until that moment I’d had the utmost respect for Sensei and it thought that I was certain what I wanted to do with my life; become top in my class, be a successful guardian and then perhaps become the combat master, but suddenly I wasn’t sure if that was what I really wanted. In my eyes, Sensei was now the one that had tied me to my fate with a lock and hidden key.