Chapter 9: Progress

            Almost four months had passed since the two of them started Austin’s martial arts training. Day in day out they would make their way to the top of the wall and spar for hours on end and even after all this time Austin still hadn’t been able to get a single win. He hadn’t actually managed to land very many decent punches or kicks either. But recently he had been getting worse. Something was plaguing his mind.

‘What’s the deal with these Soul Bindings anyway? Everyone I ask knows nothing about them, not even Ellie knows, and she’s got one. And apparently, they can tell us their names and scare us half to death. Why’s it not spoken since then? Why did it even speak then? How did it even speak? Why did Ellie’s only speak then as well?’ Austin lay on the floor deep in thought after just being roundhouse kicked in the face by Ellie.

‘my name…’

‘Oh great. Now it decides to talk again. Why now? Why after like, what four months did it decide to just start talking again now? And why does it sound so FUCKING FREAKY!?’

‘you tried… to change… my name…’

‘And now it’s mad I tried to change its name when I never knew it even had one in the first place… great.’

‘you could… have asked…’

‘Sure. My bad. I’ll ask next time I need anything.’

‘good…’

Suddenly Austin’s eyes widened, and he sat himself upright. ‘Wait a minute! What the fuck? What the fuck? What the-’

‘don’t say it again.’

‘I- uh- eh? Huh? Why are you talking to me?’

‘Because you started thinking about me like I wasn’t here. So, I thought I’d make myself known.’

‘Huh? But you’re not here.’

‘Not physically.’

“AUSTIN!”

“HUH? What? Sorry! Uuhhh.”

“You alright? You seem a bit off today.”

‘Don’t tell her.’

“Uh I er… Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry. I was just thinking about stuff.”

“I’d advise against doing that, you’ll tire yourself out.”

“Pah! Says you.”

“Oh! Alright then. Why don’t you stand up so I can put you back on your ass.”

“You know what, now that you mention it, I am kinda tired.”

“Get up!”

            Austin got up and the two of them began sparring again. Ellie was not holding anything back this time hitting him with all her strength. It was taking all Austin’s effort just to try and pre-emptively block her attacks or at least try not to take the full force of them. Ellie kept up a constant barrage of punches ranging from hooks, uppercuts and jabs. Until she took the extra millisecond to prepare to launch the finishing right hook. She pulled her shoulder back and put her full body into the punch.

‘I can’t dodge this in time. I’m gonna have to just protect my head!’ He thought as he began to tuck his head tightly into his arms.

‘It’s a feint. She’ll grab and slam.’

            Just as her fist was about to slam into his forearm all its speed seemed to stop, and Austin seemed to be able to see everything in slow motion. He watched as her fist began to slowly open up and he saw as she shifted her weight onto her back foot to kill the motion of her punch. And he saw his chance to counter. As Ellie slowed her punch to be able to grab him Austin pushed her arm just slightly off to the side and stepped in low and close against her. He wrapped his right leg behind hers and slammed her into the ground. But not just before he slipped his left arm behind her head subconsciously.

            For the first time since meeting Ellie, sleeping alongside her and waking up with her on top of him for almost three months, Austin was on top. The two stayed like this for a moment staring passionately into each other’s eyes until Ellie seemed to snap out of her trance, probably imagining him kissing her, and began to panic. Her face went completely red and she could no longer hold the intense eye contact. She quickly looked away over the endless fields, but couldn’t keep it up, she kept glancing back into his eyes over and over again and noticed as he began to smirk, and she began smile uncontrollably too. She couldn’t help it; this was the happiest she’d ever felt. Out of nowhere Austin gently pulls her chin back towards him with his finger and leans in closer. She can’t look away anymore. Her eyes widen and her pupils dilate as she also starts to lean in and their breathing begin to sync.

“Lesson one…” Austin starts in a half whisper, deep, husky voice.

‘WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAH!!!! YES! YES! FUCK! YES!’ Even with all of Ellie’s internal screaming and excitement she managed to keep a straight face and remain composed.

“…never let your enemy distract you.”

Within a second Ellie had slipped out under his arms, climbed onto his back, wrapped her legs around his neck and had him in a choke hold. And only a few more seconds after that Austin could no longer take in any air and began smacking the ground repeatedly.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.”

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH!”

“Okay fine! I don’t know! Fuck! I’ll kiss you next time or something!”

“You promise?!”

“yes.”

“Say you promise!”

“I promeeyyuuuaaahhhs”

“Good.” And with that she loosened her legs and Austin flopped on the floor gasping for air. “Well, I think you’ve passed your training now. I’m not sure exactly what that was, but it was pretty good.”

“Hahhhh… Well, you see actually I-”

‘Don’t tell her.’

“-I… actually… have been holding back on you the entire time… Cos’ I didn’t want to hurt you. You know.” He wheezed as he finally gathered enough strength to turn onto his back and continue grasping for air.

“Right. Sure. Whatever… Anyway. I have a little present for you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. So, get up already and we can go get it.”

“You know, usually your supposed to hand people presents, not drag them around town with you to collect it.”

“Get up.”

“Fine.”

            Eventually Austin found his way to his feet and stumbled down the stairs of the wall. The two made their way through the town taking their usual route and stopped in between The Weaver’s shop and Jezza’s forge.

“Take your pick.”

“Does this mean you’ve got me two presents?” Austin snickered.

“Just pick one.”

“Well let’s go for the one I’m pretty sure I know about then.”

They went into The Weaver’s shop and made their way into the back room, but not after ogling at everything in the shop first. The Weaver was hunched over a table and working on what looked like the ugliest, yet coolest looking shirt Austin had ever seen. It was a bright, stripped shirt that alternated between magenta, yellow and cyan, and seemed to be made of the smoothest silk you could possibly imagine.

“Ah! Apologies! I didn’t hear thou come in.” He announced finally.

“No worries, we only just got here.”

“So, I take it that means thou hast finished thine hero training then?”

“Pfft. Some hero he is. But yeah.”

“Then! Young sir! Would thou like to follow me to the fitting room!”

“Uh… Sure.”

            Austin and The Weaver moved off into another smaller room and Ellie stayed behind. It wasn’t until five minutes later that they returned, and, in that time, she just grimaced at the brightly coloured shirt and thought about how bad it would look on Austin. And then thought about how good it would look not on Austin. And then she thought about punching him for not telling her he wasn’t going to be wearing anything. And then she felt confused.

“How do I look?”

“GREAT! I mean… uhh… oh… whoa…”

“Yeah. It’s pretty cool eh!”

            Austin stood in front of a large mirror and for the first time in a while, he felt seriously confident in his appearance. The hoodie was pitch black, blacker than he could possibly have imagined. There was no sort of fading or shading in it, it was the sort of black that you would usually only ever see when you die, the endless pit of a black hole, a vortex of pure darkness. Even while being eerily black, it was somehow quite majestic. Due to its oversize, it was like it was merged with an elegant cape and with every step Austin took it seemed to swish and swoop alongside him. The considerable size of the hood also added to the cape-like effect. Completely unlike the hoodie the jeans were a nice, tight fit and not as terrifyingly void of colour. To everyone around these were quite an odd-looking pair of trousers, but to Austin, they were just a pair of black skinny jeans, except with far more manoeuvrability and flexibility to them and he didn’t feel like his junk was trapped in an airtight vacuum. To top off Austin’s new look, a pair of brilliant, glistening white trainers that were designed for use in all terrains. They were pretty cool as far as trainers went, but they really didn’t seem to go with the outfit that well.

“I gotta say… I don’t quite get why the trainers are white?”

“They were added as a gift young sir.”

“Oh yeah, no, yeah, I get that, and I really do like them, they’re cool as hell… But. I just think the white… kinda counters what I was going for. You know?”

“Ugh. Quit your complaining. And anyway, isn’t your Soul Binding white? So it matches that.” Ellie snapped at him.

“Oh shit! Yeah you’re right.”

“I know.”

“Well then young madam, if thou would like to go through to the changing room too.”

“Okay.”

            Austin didn’t even notice them leave; he was too busy being impressed by his own new look. A moment later The Weaver returned and a couple minutes after that, so did Ellie. She was wearing a white shirt… and shoes. The shoes were also white, but Austin really didn’t care about them.

“I- uh- um- er- uh- think- er-m… You look good.” It took him a second, but Austin finally picked out the words he thought would work best.

“I am wearing shorts by the way.”

“Oh…”

“… “Oh”? You’re not supposed to just say “Oh” to that.”

“Ah… well what I mean by that is… your physique looks good.”

“By “physique” do you mean my legs?”

“I… yes.”

Once again, due to Austin’s stupidity, Ellie found her head resting in her hands and letting out an enormous sigh that wasn’t even close to big enough to help her. The only sigh big enough to relieve any stress brought on by Austin’s idiocy would blow away half the town and probably cause earthquakes and tsunamis.

“Whatever… Well thanks Mister… uhh… what do we call you anyway?”

“Ah! Of course! I’m sure the Hero and Heroine have more important things they need to be getting on with to increase their fame. Or maybe there’s something thou would rather be doing?...”

“Well… I don’t know about babies… He hasn’t even kissed me yet…” Ellie’s face went bright red again and she began to fidget her hands and legs.

“Who the fuck said anything about babies?... I’m pretty sure he was on about my other present.”

“Shut up! Let me think!... let me think…”

“About what?! Wait, never mind. I don’t care. We’re going.”

            Austin thanked The Weaver, took the money off Ellie and paid him. He then dragged her out his shop in her own little dream world again and across into Jezza’s armoury. Almost as soon as they crossed through the doorway and Jezza looked at Ellie she snapped out of her trance and into a state of childish professionalism. The three stood in an awkward silence for a while.

“So… have you got a present for me or what Jezza?”

“Oh. Hah. Haha. Yeah, one second.” He turned around and wheeled himself off still chuckling to himself.

‘That was… amusing.’ Giddenavya’s sonorous voice began, ‘Humans are very… peculiar.’

‘Don’t start… That was awful in every way.’ At this point Austin was getting used to hearing her voice appear all around him from out of nowhere.

            Ellie turned towards Austin with an obviously fake smile and teary eyes and let out a slight whimper. For unknown to himself this made Austin feel quite warm and happy and again, only one word came to mind.

“Cute.” He whispered.

“Huh?”

“I said you only have yourself to blame.”

“Sure you did… whatever anyway.”

“Alright you two! Break it up or fuck off and get a room. But before that, try this on Austin.”

            Jezza handed him over what looked like the top half of a set of light armouring. Austin threw the armour over his head and Ellie helped him tighten the leather straps. It sat across his chest and on his shoulders and the white metal lit up the darkening room. The white of the armour was in perfect contrast to the black of the hoodie and yet it also managed to not take away from its vortex and cape-like effect.

“I gotta say, I’m liking this look: the black hoodie and jeans; with the white shoes, armour and sword. It looks good on me.”

“As much as I hate the admit it… it does look pretty cool.”

“On me?”

“… Sure.”

“Ehh! That’s the first compliment you’ve given me!”

“Is it?”

“No, you said you wanted to touch all of my muscles in your sleep the other night. I took that as a compliment too.”

“AHHHHHH! SHUT UP!”

“Get a room God damnit!”

“Give me my armour first!” Ellie yelled back while pushing a very smug Austin out the door as quickly as she could.

“Here! Take it and fuck off!” He threw Ellie her leather paddings while simultaneously laughing at how flustered she was as she dropped her armour then failed to pick it up twice as she tried to get out as quickly as possible.

“Right. If you would stop being a pain in the ass for another ten minutes, we need to go see another friend of mine. …Then we can go get that room hehehe…”

“Why’re you so obsessed with getting a room now? It’s not like we haven’t been for the last god knows how long.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t have plans most of those nights…”

“Plans?... Most?”

“TO DRINK!! …As a celebration. That’s all. It’s not like I had plans to try anything else with you…”

“…Sure… But who’s this friend of yours we’re meeting now? I hope they’re not quite as… unique as Jezza.”

“If by ‘unique’ you mean bat shit fucking crazy, then no, she’s not.”

“Oh good. Can’t wait to meet her then.”

The streets of Incipancy were still busy even as then sun began to set, and the bright courtyards and cobblestone roads darkened into a dull gold. As time went on the use of the town turned from selling and shopping to pup crawls and night life. Ellie and Austin eventually stopped at a very scruffy hand-written sign that pointed down a back-alley.

SMELLS GOOD, RIGHT? ->

“Well, that’s sketchy as hell.” Austin said as he walked past the sign without a second thought. “So where’s your friends place then?”

“It’s this way.” Ellie pointed in the same direction as the sign.

“Great. So we’re gonna get kidnapped and have drugs tested on us. That’s just what I always wanted.”

“Quit your bitching. We’re not gonna get kidnapped.”

“That’s what they all say.”

“Well, if you’re so worried about getting taken away maybe I shouldn’t have passed your training yet and we should go return your presents.”

“No, no. If I’m gonna be kidnapped I’d rather not be naked.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind that.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t. …Fine then, let’s go.”