Title Pending
an excerpt

Reth kept pounding on the door. After a few minutes of fruitless attempts, he started to kick on the door and make an even bigger racket. Ceroth watched with slowly growing anxiety as his brother’s aggression drew the attention of random pedestrians. Just when Ceroth though things could not get much more embarrassing, Reth started to pound on the door with his sword sheath, yelling, “Open up teacher! You can not just kick us out like this! Open up you bastard!”
Just as Reth was about to launch himself into another furious assault the door swung open, and he stumbled past the door frame. Before he could correct his balance, a pole arced down from inside the room and slammed him into the ground. Rubbing his back he asked, “What the hell was that for teacher?”
“I could ask you what provoked you to start attacking my door,” said Formjen. When Reth reached for his sheath to strike again, Formjen’s staff whirled around and knocked it out into the street. While Ceroth went to retrieve it Reth asked, “So why did you kick your best student out teacher?”
“I would not say you were my best student,” replied Formjen. Watching Reth scowl on the ground he said, “Get up Reth. Just do not do something stupid like at-“ before Reth punched him in the face.
“Reth you idiot,” said his teacher as he grabbed Reth’s arm and pulled. Spinning Reth around before he could react, Formjen soon had his former student’s arms pinned. “The reason I kicked you out is simple. You have never paid me for a lesson.”
“So?” asked Reth, struggling to get free. “A teacher should be willing to teach”
“Yes,” said Formjen rolling his eyes. “A teacher should be willing to teach a student out of the goodness of his heart, and never expect anything in return. What did you offer me for all those years I let you study here Reth?”
“The knowledge that your fighting techniques will be remembered by another,” said Reth grinning.
“I have lots of other students who can do that for me. Students who pay.”
“Yeah, but they are nowhere near as good as me,” quickly said Reth.
“True,” agreed Formjen, nodding his head and gripping down tighter while Reth tried to wriggle away. “But you overlooked one thing Reth. They all pay me for teaching them. You just stay at my school and expect to be taught for free because you are a skilled fighter.”
“Hey you were the one who let me stay on probation as long as I was good enough,” said Reth, trying to kick his teacher in the knees, only to be spun around so his legs flailed in the air.
“It was not a hard deal Reth. All you had to do was continue to be a skilled idiot and beat the students from other teachers of Fen. So what did you do?”
“Well I followed the rules for the most part,” answered Reth, letting his muscles relax. Why bother fighting now when teacher had him utterly defenseless?
“You brought your brother along for one thing,” said Formjen, tilting his head to indicate Ceroth who was silently watching the whole ordeal. Clenching his fists, Ceroth waited and cursed under his breath. This was just like Reth. Get into trouble and not even consider the possibility of accepting help from anybody else.
“What was so bad about Cero,” asked Reth.
“It was not what he was bad Reth. Your little brother is quiet and a good boarder. The problem is, he is does not have your skills so was not worth keeping.
“So I worked twice as hard to make up for Cero being dead weight for you fancy academy Tef Formjen,” said Reth while his teacher shook his head.
“Picking fights with the other students outside of sparring is not a way to make up for dead weight Reth.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that they would always lose. How else am I supposed to get more skilled unless I keep fighting?” asked Reth harshly.
“You only won those fights because you had your brother behind you,” coldly replied Formjen. “He was always there waiting to patch you up after a fight.”
“Hey Cero healed the other students after I fought them too,” said Reth. “You can not claim that he was making me win.”
“But he was. Because you knew he would heal you after you got hurt you were free to fight recklessly, getting yourself injured in the process. Your opponents did not have this knowledge, so you always had an unfair advantage.”
“Bah,” snorted Reth. “You would think that they would have figured out that Cero would heal them too.”
“You would think so, but people are stupid like that,” said Formjen. “Regardless, keeping you two around is not worth it anymore.”
“But I’m your best student! Don’t you want me to go on and master your lessons,” protested Reth as Formjen lead him out the door.
“Best student or not, keeping you around is not worth it,” said Formjen as he closed the door. A second later Ceroth and Reth heard the lock click.
His face mask of anger, Reth glared at a rock lying in the street and kicked it. Scowling he snatched his sword back from his brother. As they walked away from the school, Ceroth asked, “Why didn’t you let me help you brother?”
“Because, I caused the problem Cero. I can’t let you fight my fights.”
“Only help you fix things afterwards,” muttered Ceroth.
“Heh, a twelve year old kid like yourself should not be thinking like that Cero,” said Reth clapping his brother on the back. When Ceroth oofed as the air was pushed out of his chest, he asked, “So what do we do now brother?”
“I dunno,” replied Reth with a shrug. “Whatever we do we are not going back to that old bastard. Me not being worth it! Bah! I am the great Reth Drent! He should be willing to teach me just to be content with the knowledge that he was teaching me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense brother,” said Ceroth, while he looked at the streets. Seeing a certain corner, he tugged on Reth’s shit and pulled his older brother onto a new street.
“Who says it needs to make sense Cero?” asked Reth, not that concerned that the route was an unfamiliar one.
“I don’t know brother! Things are just better when they make sense,” answered Ceroth.
Looking around, Reth finally asked, “So where are we going Cero?”
“To get money,” answered Ceroth absentmindedly. Reth promptly grabbed his brother and spun him around stopping Ceroth in his tracks.
“No way Cero. We are not drawing on Senna’s money to find a place to stay,” said Reth coldly. “Come on Cero, doesn’t she mean more to you than that?”
“Of course she means a lot to me brother,” snapped Ceroth, pulling away. “But we can’t keep paying off her debt if we don’t have a place to stay!”
“We can squat under a bridge,” replied Reth flippantly.
“Or food to eat,”
“We can steal stuff.”
“You don’t know the first thing about stealing stuff brother,” said Ceroth.
“How hard can it be?” asked Reth with a wild smile. “You just take something you want, and run away with it before somebody else catches you.”
“I thoughts you were supposed to be stealthy and subtle when thievery is involved,” said Ceroth.
“Naw,” said Reth, shaking his head. Wagging his finger, he continued on, “Those thieves are just too slow and stupid to get away with stealing in broad daylight.”
“How is stealing while people can see you stupid,” asked Ceroth.
“Cause…” started Reth before his voice trailed off. Then he clapped his hands and said, “Oh they are stupid because they think that not being noticed is the only way not to get caught!”
“It is probably the easiest,” said Ceroth rolling his eyes. Why was Reth so stubborn? How hard was it to agree that a quiet, unnoticed thief would be a better thief?
“Besides, they are probably too stupid to figure out how to run away and loose somebody who is chasing them,” said Reth.
“You haven’t done something like that before,” said Ceroth. Looking for a place to sit down, he noticed a tree and leaned against it. Sitting down next to him, Reth whispered, “So what have you always wanted to steal Cero?”
“I was trying to make you realize you were being stupid,” said Ceroth angrily. “Come on Reth, this is a stupid idea. We should be more worried about finding a place to stay or get food than something I’ve always wanted to steal.