by Per Holbo
***
The red light of the sun turned darker and darker, as Loki walked down the old stony path to the burial ground. It went downhill all the way and some of the way the gravel hadn´t been maintained for a very long time. He had to be careful not to lose his footing and a few times he almost slid his way down to a more secure surface. From a distance he saw the light from a torch at the spot of his goal. Probably Gilling had already arrived and decided to light up the place. Loki was not happy about it. If anyone in the city – or even worse: at the academy – had a hard time sleeping and went out in the night gazing at the stars, they would be able to see the torches quite clearly. And whatever kind of excuses he and Gilling could come up with, being found at the burial ground in the middle of the night would definitely raise suspiscion. Even if they could keep themselves out of trouble with a feasible explanation, the drill sergent would keep a very close eye on them afterwards.
He sighed. There was nothing he could do about now, though. He just had to pick up his pace and get there as soon as possible. He almost ran the rest of the way and as he arrived, he went as quickly as possible from torch to torch.
“What are you doing?”
Gilling was not only furious to see Loki turn off the torches. There was something else in his voice, too. Loki knew what it was, but he didn´t see any reason why he should accuse Gilling of being afraid of the dark. They already had more than enough to fight about.
“What am I doing?” Gilling heard Loki´s voice in the dark, “Let´s see… ehm… trying to not invite the whole academy to come investigating, maybe?”
“Oh.. yeah.. I hadn´t though of that.”
“Of course not…”
“What´s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing… Let´s do it… Ready?”
“No!”
“No? Did you forget your sword too?”
“It´s pitch dark! I can´t see a thing!”
“Maybe you should´ve thought about that before lighting up the place like a desecration festival!”
What an idiot! Loki was angry. Still, there was something about the whole situation making him smile. Here they were, two Yetten warriors, who had been at eachothers throats from the very first day of their training at the academy, and they were bickering like an old couple.
“Okay,” Loki said, “I suppose we can wait for a few minutes. Get used to the dark fast, Gilling, I won´t wait forever.”
Then they sat in silence for a while.
Loki thought back to the first days of the academy. He had known as he travelled from his father´s farm to the city, where the academy would be his home for the next few years, that Gilling had been admitted the same year. Already then he had expected trouble from him. Gilling belonged to a very powerful family and it had been his great grandfather, who had made his own great grandfather a ‘banisher.’ So, it really hadn´t been a surprise that Gilling had been unfriendly from the beginning. What had surprised Loki, though, was that Gilling didn´t in any way resemble the image in Loki´s head before going to the academy. In Loki´s mind, he had imagined Gilling to be courageous, strong and skilled with both the traditional sword and axe as well as with modern weapons used in contempory battles. Instead, Gilling had proved to be a coward with feeble skills and Loki had easily beaten him in every sparring, they´d ever been teamed up to.
Of course, Loki could´ve done what most of the others had done: let him win in a misplaced loyalty to Gillings family, but Loki just couldn´t. The result had been that Gilling had agitated the others to hate him. It hadn´t been all that difficult either. Not with the reputation of Loki´s family hanging over his head.
And even if Gilling wasn´t the most intelligent, he had at least a basic understanding of how to behave in the presence of others. Sitting here with Gilling, who knew his chances of survival were slim, Loki suddenly realized Gillings true nature was surfacing. Right here and right now, Gilling had no face to lose, but willingly let go of all pretences showing who he really was: a frightened boy with a burden of his family´s reputation, he wasn´t able to lift.
Loki almost felt sorry for him. But there was no going back. It had to be done, if Loki would ever have even the slightest chance of becoming an officer in the Yetten fleet.
Loki lifted up his head and looked to the horizon. The small moon patched the top of the Grailing Mountain to the dark sky. It was time. Soon the big moon would come up and they wouldn´t be able to hide from curious eyes anymore.
He got to his feet and his noise woke up Gilling, who likewise prepared himself. They´d both gotten used to the dark by now and bowed respectfully according to tradition. Then they raised their sword and rushed toward each other.
