Tomlin stopped stretching abruptly. She turned around as if she had heard a noise. James held his breath and listened quietly but did not hear anything.

“What is it?” he asked.

She shushed him and walked over to the naginata case that he had left open between them. She reached down and pulled out the real naginata with the sheathed blade. She flipped the sheath off the end and it dropped back into the case. James saw for the first time the polished blade. It was longer than he expected, longer even than it looked with the sheath covering it. The blade was slightly curve and reflected the distant lights from the parking lot lights. The wood along the handle of the naginata was darker than the practice blades. It was almost black and seemed to disappear in Tomlin’s hands.

She held the blade up and close to her body, a resting position they had been taught in class. Seeing the weight of the blade, James understood much about the art. The real blade was much heavier than the practice blades, and the sword end more dangerous looking. James felt nervous just being near the weapon. He felt the same way when he was in close proximity to a gun. Here was a device that with just a slight pull—or in the case of the naginata a slight swing—and someone would die. It was a similar feeling he had when climbing to high places. With just a small step the world as he knew it would end. There were times that he feared that he looked forward to that small step. It would allow him to escape some of the problems of the world around him. It would also solve the biggest mystery: what comes after.

Tomlin turned with the naginata held, the metal ball at the end touching the ground and looked into the distance. The air was noticeably colder than it had been a few minutes ago as a strong wind blew across the vacant lot.

“I don’t see anything,” James said, trying to fill the heavy silence that pushed against him. He was nervous but he did not know why he was nervous. He was wearing a light jacket with a sweatshirt underneath and still he felt cold, colder than he should have with the temperature outside.

“Take a step back away from me and don’t interfere,” Tomlin said, not looking at James but looking into the darkness. She had turned and dropped into a ready stance with her naginata, the blade up and facing the darkness as if she saw whatever it was she was looking for and was preparing for a charge. “Whatever you do, do not get in our way. It is dangerous.”

James took a step back not knowing what to expect. That she was holding an unsheathed blade in the middle of an empty parking lot did not make James feel very safe. When he thought about it, he did not know much about his sensei. She did not seem the one for jokes. She barely smiled at class, and only laughed once at Samuel’s mishap during a sparring match. He had struck with a powerful sune attack to the leg and then fallen over sideways, his balance not what it should have been. As he was falling, Rachel, his opponent, struck the top part of his men with a quick sho men. Tomlin had taught that until the opponent is on the ground, all is fair in battle, and Rachel had taken advantage of the moment.

James saw a glint of reflected metal in the distance where Tomlin had been staring. “Something is out there,” he whispered to Tomlin. She nodded slightly but did not otherwise respond. Her body was facing perfectly sideways toward the glint, her shoulder pointing at it, and her hands grasping the naginata so her back hand touched her back hip, and her front hand was about a foot in front of the her body. The naginata was pointed slightly upward at the tip. Tomlin appeared relaxed in her stance. James had seen her stand like this countless times before sparring with her students. She looked uninterested and unready, but he knew better. She was always ready. James had tried trickery and subtly to try to best her with little luck. Others in the class that had much more skill than him had similarly tried such techniques. When she fought with them it was like a child fighting an adult. No matter how clever or quick the child was, she did not have the physical skill or prowess to best the adult at the young age.

The glint materialized out of the darkness. Someone approached the middle of the parking lot. They held a blade of some sort in front of them and made a straight line to Tomlin. They walked slowly and smoothly toward where Tomlin was standing. James unconsciously started backing away from the approaching person. He stopped himself when he realized what he had been doing.

It took a few more minutes before the swordsman approach Tomlin. He was a tall man, but outside of his height, all James could concentrate on was the long and thin sword he held in front of him. James was not a sword expert, but he though the recognized it as a rapier or a sword used for dueling in Europe. It had an ornate hilt, and the blade was straight and almost too thin to see.

The man stayed on the outside of the darkened circle where Tomlin waited. He did not approach closely. He stood about twice the distance of where Tomlin could strike him.

“It’s been a while,” the man said. His voice was high pitched and nasally. He spoke English with a slight accent that James could not place. He guessed it was European of some sort, perhaps Eastern European.

“It is nice to see you as well, Dmitri. It has been too long. You asked for this meeting. Here I am. What is it you wanted to talk about?” Tomlin did not move from her stance. Her shoulders were relaxed and the naginata was still against her body. Her feet were well planted on the ground, and James knew from class that her weight was shifted slightly onto her toes so she could move quickly at a moment’s notice. Much time could be lost if the weight was leaning toward the heels of the foot.

“I was hoping we could do away with the weapons and just talk for a bit. It’s not often I meet others of our kind, and it grows tiresome to always meet them at the end of steel.” Dmitri did not wait for Tomlin to respond. He reached out the hilt of the blade and slammed it back into a long scabbard he wore across his belt.

“You have me at a bit of a disadvantage,” Tomlin said. She took a step backwards and turned swiftly and grabbed the sheath she had dropped into the case. She leaned the naginata against the floor and slid the sheath onto the blade. The sheath clicked as it completely closed over the blade. She turned the naginata sideways and lowered herself to the ground until she was sitting with her legs crossed and her naginata across her lap.

“One hundred fifteen,” Tomlin said as easily as if she had said a normal greeting. James did not follow. It seemed to be by way of greeting. She looked at Dmitri expectantly.

“A hundred and forty eight—but who’s counting?” Dmitri responded. He took a few more steps toward Tomlin and lowered himself until he too sat cross legged on the ground. He pushed the sheathed blade out behind him so it was at an angle pushing off to his left side.

Tomlin shook her head in the negative and frowned at Dmitri.

“You’re not still worried about that myth, are you?” Dmitri said. “I thought you were more sophisticated than believing in such old tales.”

“It’s funny to hear you speak that way, old man. Some could say our entire lives have been those types of superstitious old tales. And look how real they turned out to be. What’s one more taught truth? From my way of reading it, if all that I’ve learned turned out to be true, then the biggest law that underpinned the entire system could not be too far from it.”

“If that was true, you would not have agreed to this talk. You would have spoken with that long stick of yours when you saw me. That is why you chose this deserted parking lot. Less chance for interruptions when the sparks started to fly, eh? Now, who’s this strapping boy behind you? Have you finally taken an apprentice? Are you willing to share him?”

Dmitri pointed at James, who continued to slip further into the darkness. Their talk had made little sense to him. That a man with a real sword—not the bamboo types that they sometimes sparred against in practice—had noticed him was concerning. That he had called James Tomlin’s apprentice was almost laughable. He would have probably used the term “charity case.” And what was he talking about sharing? But he remembered Tomlin’s warnings from earlier. He did not say anything in response or interfere in any way.

“He’s not your concern,” Tomlin said. “Did it feel different?”

“You would think it would,” Dmitri said. “On my one hundred twenty first birthday, you would think I would feel something snap, something come apart. Nothing did happen. I feel the same today as I did back then. I’m not less evil—or for that matter good—than I was before. I personally think it was about control, Tomlin. I believe they used this myth to control us, to divide us into two factions, the hunted and hunters. I can just see them laughing at us.”

Tomlin nodded but did not respond. She stood still studying Dmitri’s face.

“How far along is he? Oh, we shouldn’t talk about him in the third person when he’s sitting over there, just outside the light. Hey, you, cutey. At least tell me your name. It’s silly for Tomlin to have to talk for you. Unless you’re into things like that? I’m certainly not one to judge; especially if you knew the type of things I was into.”

Dmitri continued to look at him. His stare was intense as if his eyes were boring holes into James’s head. “I’m James,” James stuttered, losing himself on the second half of his name. He looked away after he had spoken but still felt as if eyes were boring into his forehead.

“Leave the kid alone,” Tomlin said. James felt a stab of ego at the need to be defended by his teacher.

“James Pleasant,” James finished, looking up not at Dmitri but at the back of his teacher’s head. He felt an irrational fire burn in the back of his head toward his teacher. He heard Dmitri laugh and looked up at him. Dmitri’s smile was worse than his long face. With some effort he quelled his anger and looked away, embarrassed by his outburst.”

“Your student has some fire in him,” Dmitri said. “That will be useful later.”

“For me, perhaps,” Tomlin said. “But first we have business to conclude.” Tomlin stood up and with a flick of her wrist, flicked the sheath off the blade. The sheath flew through the area and hit the case solidly. She did not watch where it landed. She held the naginata with the blade pointed upward and the front close to the ground. The back end was held high near her right ear.

“Ah, I see I wasn’t able to convince you that I’m not soulless or evil; that I’m not a blight on the world.”

Tomlin began to move slowly toward Dmitri, walking toward him in a circular motion as if trying to find the right angle to attack. Even as she moved, Dmitri flung himself upward. Before his feet touched the ground, his sword was out and the blade was close to the ground.

“We could walk away and avoid this unpleasantness,” Dmitri said. His eyes were focused on Tomlin as he circled in the opposite direction away from Tomlin. James took another unconscious step backwards.

“It’s too late for that,” Tomlin said. She spoke through gritted teeth as she approached him. “You shouldn’t have come if you wanted to avoid this unpleasantness.”

“Should have, could haves. You know us evil, soulless creatures. We can’t avoid a fight when called by such a beautiful lady.”

Before Dmitri finished his sentence, he leaped toward Tomlin, his blade racing up in a wide arc.

Word count: 2,134.

Words remaining: 42,569 (7,431)