Surviving

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

10/04/97:

The sound of wood striking wood echoed though the small room
as I attacked one of my old friends. He defended with the
bamboo training sword, the same as I was attacking, as he
defended himself.

"Damn it Fox!" He swore, "calm down!"

I wasn't to much in the mood to listen to him, instead I
just keep swinging away not really thinking about what I was
doing, just doing it.

Finally my friend gave up and lunged, falling against me
with his shoulder. Pushing me off he caught my sword in his
and flipped it out of my hands as I fell to the floor. As I
came to rest against the mat he pressed the tip against my
throat.

"Elegance, it's always elegance!" He said, pushing softly on
my neck, "brute force may win out against someone who's ever
used a sword before, but if you can't control it you will
lose." He finally stepped away and stared down at me.

"Bad day?"

I sighed, sitting up and rubbing the back of my head. "Week,
it's been a bad week."

Terminus nodded, picking up my practice sword and putting
both of them away. "It shows in your fighting," he said as
he came back. Even after our last hour of 'training' he
still looked perfect, at least for him. He was a dog-morph
of indeterminate breed, some kind of hound I think.

We had know each other off and on for about three years, and
he was also the first person I teamed up with after Ken
decided to go off onto his own life, and was still with me
when first meet Oriana.

Left a couple weeks later as well, had his own business to
take care of.

He gave me his all-teeth smile as pulled out one of his
cigars that he so desperately loved. I personally though
they stunk, but I guess they where ok to him. Unless he did
it just to annoy me, which he has hinted about.

A mid-evil man who is quite happy with living in a modern
world, and had addled better then some people born into it.
I usually would see him once or twice a month as he was
living on Prid, mostly to help me train with swords.

Opening a silver Zippo lighter which I had brought from
Earth as a present, he made motions to light the cigar.
Half-way there, he stopped, something registering behind his
eyes, gently he closed the top of lighter and tucked it back
into his pocket, the cigar following.

He sat down next to me, "I forgot." He said in a hushed
voice.

I shrugged. "It's ok, you found out second hand, and late,
not as really as much of a shock value as it was to me."

He nodded. "Miss her?"

"Always," I sighed, hanging my head.

Yes, it had been a hard week for me, wednesday was the first
of October, my time... and two years sense Becky's death.
Terminus had been a friend of her's as well (she joking
called the pair of us 'The Fox and the Hound' usually when
she was ribbing us).

It's been hard of me more then anyone else who knew her off
of Earth, she was the best friend I've ever had, and what
nobody really knew was that I had loved her. The fact is, I
never knew myself until I found out she was dead, the second
was when I realized that I loved her.

I had tried to spend the day doing something constructive,
but all I could really do was mope. For most of the day I
keep finding myself in the cave, under the house, starting
at that little room of Becky's. The day that Oriana had
showed me the that room, a year and a few months ago, was
the last day anyone had been in it. As I left I locked the
door and keep the only know key on my person at all times.

I was tempted to finally go inside, to see if there was
anything to actually see, or maybe just to pack it up. I
wasn't able to though.

The rest of the house was alone, Sora had gone off to take
care of some things (she had been back for a few days) and
Oriana was back on her world. It was hard for me, but
somehow, I always spend days like this, the painful ones,
alone.

I didn't stay alone though, as it got later, Oriana came
back. She consoled me, and then did something unexpected,
she took me to her world and explained a small part of her
religion to me.

She explain that how, according to the 'Book of Thryn' a
message could be sent the departed by tying it to a rose and
throwing it into a river of dreams. Or, on the anniversary
of there death, any river at all.

Sending a message helped some.

Terminus patting my knee with one of his large paws. "So...
what are you going to do?"

I sighed, standing up. "What I always do... survive," I said
as I left. I always do survive, that was something I was
good at... even if everyone else was killed, I survived...

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.