Here is a snippet of a scene in my current novel project. Enjoy!

“What are you doing?” Rune asked, eyes narrowing as he stared over towards the human.

“I’m guarding, what does it look like?” Calem asked, the small hand movements Rune made, against his sword’s hilt, Calem followed with it.

“You cannot guard forever.”

“Neither can you.”

The small twitch of the other’s features was enough to make Calem grin just slightly enough to let Rune know that he knew he purposely was trying to irritate him. This was something their instructor had told them before, guarding can be useful but eventually you have to attack and he did not want to be the only one doing the attacking. As a prince, Rune had to learn all aspects of the sword and while Calem would openly admit that Rune had far better skills than he, the prince played the same games over and over in practice.

“Alright then,” Calem stood straight up, extending his arms outward, his sword pointed towards the ground. “I’m not guarding anymore,” he told him, leaving himself completely open for any sort of attack that Rune could offer for him.

There was a slight hesitation in Rune’s movements. At first his guarded stance was absolute, but then the pause of movement made him aware that Rune was suspicious of his own, newly open stance. Then the moment came, Rune’s elbow raised, his sword in striking position and range, he let loose, moving the blade toward his friend’s chest. Timing was important and Calem turned against Rune’s thrust, back to his arm, then around until he was now behind the prince, blade to the other’s back.

“Checkmate,” he said simply and Rune turned around quickly, eyes narrowed and face flustered.