Sayed jumped from rooftop to rooftop as he chased after the wolf. It was a fast creature. Whenever he thought he had caught up to it, it jumped ahead of him again. Sayed leaped another time onto another slanted rooftop as the wolf waited for him with a wagging tail.


    "You are very fast, my friend," he said after he landed, putting his hands on his hips and laughing. "You are giving me a great exercise."


    Ruff.


    The sound didn''t come from the creature''s mouth but echoed over the rooftops nonetheless. Sayed grinned broadly. The merry chase had been a good distraction, and the wolf had not led him far from his vantage point. If he looked back, he could still see the sails of the slipship behind him.


    "But I am afraid our chase must end," Sayed said, his face turning into a frown. "I cannot leave too far from that ship. It is my mission, given to me by a brother, to keep watch over the goings on."


    The wolf tilted its head, looking up at Sayed with yellow eyes as it sat there. Sayed shook his head and turned to look out over the bay. He spoke to the beast, but the stories where they talked back were fables, just like the stories of giants back on his world of Hajh.


    "Farewell, strange beast." Sayed flexed his leg muscles, squatting as he prepared to leap away.


    As he was about to do so, he looked down. Two men, unmasked, unlike the rest of the populace, walked down the streets. One of them was an old man carrying a metal box in his arms as he hobbled down the street on his cane in his white coat. The other was a man in a tight duelist''s uniform, his hand on the hilt of his sword even as he walked. As he walked, the man tilted up his fancy feathered cap, looking right up at Sayed.


    "We might have some trouble, Doc," the man said as he examined Sayed and the wolf.


    "Alas, I have been spotted." Sayed looked at the wolf. "Perhaps a talk would be better than a fight."


    "Who are you?" The swordsman walked forward, his hand still on the basket hilt of his sword.


    "I am Sayed," Sayed said without hesitation. "I am known in this world as ''Sword Saint'' Sayed."


    Shing.


    The swordsman immediately drew his sword. He pointed the double-edged blade at Sayed while taking a long stance. He held the sword in his left hand and locked eyes with Sayed. Sayed felt a smile stretch across his face as he reached for his sword.


    "I do not take a fight lightly, but let it not be said I do not enjoy a clash of blades," Sayed said as he put his gauntlet on his left hand and fastened the straps.


    When he was finished, he pulled his sword off his back with his right hand, holding his khopesh by his side as he looked down on the two men. In contrast to the swordsman below, Sayed''s own blade was closer to an axe than a sword. From the hilt, it started as a straight edge before it curved outward along the sharp end of the blade, ending in a sharp tip at the very end. Along the back, the dull edge was hooked before following the curved edge back down to the straight portion of the sword.


    "What do you want?" the swordsman asked. "Why would an outlaw be running around an Empyrean outpost?"


    "I am glad my name precedes me." Sayed''s smile showed his teeth. "However, I want nothing more than to fulfill my assigned mission. If you put away your blade now, swordsman, I will put away mine, and we will go our separate ways."


    "Doc." The swordsman nodded at the older man. "You get a move on. I''ll handle this guy and catch up to you at the lab."


    "Certainly." The old man shuffled forward, and Sayed watched him go.


    The wolf darted off behind him, following the man down the rooftop. Sayed had no idea why, but it didn''t matter much to him. Right now, he needed to defeat the swordsman and make his way back to his watch.


    "So, how shall we start this tale?" Sayed asked. "Perhaps you will do me the honor of telling me your name, swordsman."


    "Tanis is enough," the swordsman said, lining up the tip of his blade with Sayed''s chest. "Consider it a flower on your grave once I kill you."


    "Ho." Sayed chuckled as he took on a stance, holding his khopesh high above his head with one hand as he held out his gauntlet before him.


    He left his gate closed for the moment. He did not yet know if the man below had a blessing of his own to fuel his combat. If he were a normal man, it wouldn''t be fair to fight with such an advantage. If nothing else, Sayed wanted his tale to be a grand one, not one in which he might be seen as a cheat for being favored by God.


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Step."


    Sayed knew that phrase. His brother, Alex, used that technique repeatedly to move quickly over a short distance. Sayed reacted on instinct, clenching his gauntlet into a large fist. Tanis'' blade appeared a moment later, thrusting forward at Sayed''s heart.


    Ting. Sksh.


    Sayed forced the blade up and away from its target with his gauntlet. Across his shoulder and through the sleeve of his cloth shirt, the sword cut through the skin on his arm. A stinging pain ran across the cut, making Sayed smile.


    "Very good," Sayed said, knocking the blade away with his gauntlet as he swung his sword toward the man''s abdomen.


    "Step."


    The man disappeared instantly before reappearing at the rooftop''s edge, far away from Sayed. He retook a stance as Sayed did the same. This time, Sayed extended out his blade to the tip of his gauntlet, holding his body back in a relaxed stance while he pointed the tip of his sword in a horizontal line right at Tanis.


    "Demon''s Thrust," Sayed said and disappeared.


    Ting. Sksh. Crack.


    The swordsman parried Sayed''s thrust with the flat of his blade, and sparks flew out to light the night sky as he held back Sayed''s strength. Tanis had to put two hands into the blow, one pushing against the flat of the blade while the other held the hilt and Sayed noticed. He brought up his gauntlet in a hard punch and caught the swordsman in his side as a follow-up.


    "Oof." Tanis grunted as his body twisted to the side to try and avoid the blow.


    He fell back a few steps down the other side of the roof, and once again, Sayed held the high ground.


    "Quite the fighter, aren''t you?" Tanis rubbed his side with his free hand.


    "I could say the same for you." Sayed laughed, holding his sword by his side. "It is rare that I am able to fight another swordsman. Normally, in this world, I fight monsters and people with guns and spears, but rarely swords."


    "And do you find that fun?" the man asked, taking another stance and facing Sayed.


    "I think this fight will make a grand tale," Sayed said, holding his khopesh high above his head. "That is all that matters in the end."


    "Far be it from me to ruin that," Tanis said as he glanced down the side of the roof. "But I am not as interested as you are."


    His muscles tensed in his stance as he returned his glance to Sayed. Sayed held his gauntlet forward, knowing the man favored his thrusts with his thin sword. He would not be knicked a second time by that blade.


    "Line Thrust."


    The man didn''t move. Instead, his blade cut forward into the air, and the air itself shot forward with it. Sayed flinched as the wall of force and wind hit him, and he found himself off his feet and in the air from the strike. He flew out over the street below and into the water.


    Sploosh.


    The water rushed up at him, and cold wrapped around him as he fell into darkness. Sayed momentarily went limp in the water as he oriented himself to his surroundings. He held his grip tight on his sword as he looked up to the wavering brightness of the obscured moon above him.


    He hadn''t expected that. If he were above the water, he would have laughed. Instead, he swam upward and gasped for a big breath as he broke the water''s surface.


    As the water fell from his face and covered his eyes, he looked for the swordsman but quickly discovered that he was gone from the rooftop. Grumbling, Sayed paddled over to the docks and pulled himself up onto them with one hand and a jump.


    Cold immediately cut at him across his body like a thousand tiny blades. Sayed opened his gate in response, letting the heat flow through him as he sheathed his sword. He left his gauntlet on. There was no sense in not being prepared if the authorities now knew of his presence.


    "A fighter worthy of a story," Sayed said as he looked both ways down the road.


    No one was out in the streets now, but if he looked down a nearby alley, he could see the wolf''s yellow eyes watching him. Sayed smiled at it and waved with his gauntlet.


    "You return again, my friend," Sayed said as he walked over to the alley. "Do you know where the swordsman ran off to? I would very much like to continue our battle."


    Whine.


    The wolf sat on its haunches, wagging its tail but still not moving. Sayed tilted his head as the wolf looked off to both sides before standing up and approaching him.


    "Maybe you do not." Sayed shook his head as he squatted down to the ground.


    The wolf approached him, and he reached out to pet its head. The wolf''s fur felt oily and slimy, but Sayed ignored that. On Hajh, they had sand wolves that some trained to be pets. He knew how to deal with this kind of animal. The key was to rub them behind the ears until they were your friend for life.


    "Alas, I will have to go back to my watch soon," Sayed said as he rubbed both sides of the wolf''s head. "I will say that you are a good boy."


    The wolf looked up at him from between his hands, its yellow eyes glowing in the night. Sayed let go of it and stood. Around him, he could see crates and barrels that he could use to leap up to the rooftops. He still had a vague idea of where he needed to go to return to his watch post.


    "We may meet again someday," Sayed said as he flexed his legs in a squat and jumped up on a crate before leaping again to the top of a roof.


    He ran along the rooftop, not looking back at the wolf at all. With a few well-timed jumps, he went rooftop to rooftop until he came upon where he had originally made his watch. As he lay on the tiled roof and looked out over the ships below, he noted that nothing had really changed in his small adventure. Thankful for the opportunity to relieve his boredom, he settled into his watch without complaint.


    At least he tried to.


    Click. Tap. Click. Tap.


    From behind Sayed, he heard the wolf approach and turned to face the beast. He had enjoyed the distraction, but enough was enough, and he needed to work. He looked up from where he lay, and the wolf was there at the edge of the roof, its tail wagging as it looked at Sayed with its yellow eyes.


    Yip.


    Sayed sighed and stood, ready to shoo the creature away, but it immediately took off down the rooftop. Sayed stopped, shaking his head as he watched it go. As soon as it was two rooftops away, it came back, yipped again, and ran off toward the end of the rooftop a second time.


    Sayed felt the wolf was trying to lead him somewhere. Maybe their play earlier was not just play but the wolf''s attempt to show him something. Sayed knew he should stay for his watch, but at the same time, he couldn''t successfully watch in secret if a wolf was constantly bothering him. He had to make a choice.


    "Okay," Sayed said, following after the wolf. "I will give up my post for a time, but no more play. Show me what you want me to see, wolf."