Blink

--Sky's Perspective--

I sat on the overhang of the rock by the forest, eating my breakfast, which consisted of berries and a piece of ham. I yawned, wiping my eyes of any tears. My hair was beginning to get into my eyes whenever I moved my head back and forth. I need a haircut. Maybe I'll do that today.

Our base is coming along better than expected. Our attempt with electricity failed, so we're sticking to classic torches and fire, but we have over thirty houses in our new village, all big enough to house six people with drains on the bottom and separate rooms. We slowly moved into part of the forest, claiming more of the Isle than the beach. In fact, our workstations were at the beach now, along with our animals. Lia's dog stuck next to me for the entire month, watching me train, eating the same food as me, this little guy is my companion, but I don't know if I should take Lia's name for him or give him my own.

Shiro, is the name etched into the chunk of metal on his collar, but should I really take a name from that girl? Although, I had no idea of a better name for him. Maybe I'll name him White, or something…

"Sky!" Dani shouted at me from below and climbed up to me. Dani's hair had gotten longer too, but her pretty blue eyes were the same after all this time. Dani tied her hair up in the back and kept a headband, but even after all that, it still hung over on her forehead.

"So, the checklist today, we have a little training with Ellie, we need to check up on the workstations, and today we'll be working on domesticating any wild boars we come across in the forest. Although, it might be hard considering we've only seen two of them in total." She said.

It was my main job to go around and help wherever I was needed, but on days like this, I focused on making sure everybody else was okay doing their work. Dani stuck by my side usually, but other times she was a tailor, creating clothes. She said she had a special project for me, and I couldn't wait to see it. Ellie apparently gave her the idea, so I know it should be… interesting.

"Can you two let go of each other for ten seconds? I need help rekindling the fire." Carl shouted up at us this time. Red stood beside him and smiled.

"Why can't Red help you?" I asked, but Carl seemed to get more upset afterward.

Finally, Red chipped in, "Because I thought it was funny watching him struggle, and now, he's mad at me." I laughed and Carl turned away.

"Whatever!" He walked back into the house. He wasn't actually annoyed or mad, he was just joking around, but he was really good at faking it.

Wait, was he faking it?

"So, let's get to work then, shall we?" I nodded and sat up, chewing the last bit of ham before walking off into the forest. Red, Carl, Dani, and I decided to place our house under the overhang to make sure the workstations were okay in the morning. Now, we would have to wake everybody up.

Dani and I walked around to everybody's doors, knocking on them and telling them it was time to get up for the day. I visited Mandi's, Charlie's, and Drake's house, while Dani visited the others. The three separate houses gave me trouble, while Dani got the other twenty-six.

"A new record for work I've done over you." She pumped her arm, running off towards the beach.

"Morning, Sky." We were all clustered in the forest, walking towards the beach at different speeds, when Ellie caught me off-guard. She instantly attacked with her wooden sword, and I blocked, kicking her back and reassuming a position.

For the past week now, she performs sneak attacks on me at any given point during the day, even giving me an alert if I was sleeping. My mission is to hold off her attacks and land a cut on her arm, making sure I wouldn't kill her in the event she's a real opponent.

We swung back and forth, moving accordingly to the pressure we put on the swords. She tried kicking out my legs, but I tensed up to assure that she couldn't get past. After her attempt, I put weight on the blade and onto her body, pushing her to the ground and slashing at her arm.

"Dammit… I'll give it to you." She flipped up and sheathed her wooden sword, handing me a sheathe for the sword I stole from her.

"I had Drake attach little stars on a string at the end of the handle for you, and he curved out a little of the guard... I don't have a name for this sword, but this is yours now, Sky." She threw the sheathe colored in a light-blue lacquer and I caught it, unsheathing the sword. Surely enough, the guard now looked like a crescent moon, and there were little stars made from metal scraps at the end of the handle, attached by a string.

"I like it… and we have to come up with a name, huh?" I swung it around, realizing the sheer weight hidden behind each slash. This was… lighter than before if I remembered the weight properly.

"How about the Night Sky-" Ellie shook her head. "Let's try a different name, shall we? I'm worried that might be... a conflict of interest..." She said.

"Hm, how about Sky-Blade?" I asked her. She paused, then reached for the sword.

"You're going to give MY sword a name that bland?! What the hell?" She yelled at me, but what else was I supposed to name it?

"It has a night theme, let's call it Midnight" I scanned the blade up and down, then the sheathe.

"Blue Midnight?" I asked her, seeing if it would be better. She nodded and let go of the handle.

"Blue Midnight is yours. Take care of it." I nodded and hung the sheathe around my hip, but when I walked around, it annoyed me.

"Help me put this on my back," I asked Dani. She quickly came over, adjusting it for my back.

It hung diagonally around my back, the handle pointing towards the left side. "Left side? I thought you use your right hand?" Red asked.

"I can use both, but I prefer my left side if possible." Everybody seemed to be surprised.

"What? Can you all not do that?" Everybody shook their heads and I dodged the gazes, looking back at the sword after pulling it from my back.

"Now, let's do the right thing." Ellie charged in with a real sword and I stepped backward, adjusting my sword position and rushing at her. Our two swords clashed their blades together, but the force coming from both of them sparked our blades when we slid against each other. I haven't reached this level of force from Ellie, but I felt malice from her stares, I need to take her seriously…

Ellie faked a step forward and I fell for it, understood my mistake, and tried to overcome the free hit I gave away by defending. Ellie went for a stab, and I redirected the blade over my shoulder, coming closer to her stomach.

I shoved my elbow deep into her belly and sent her back a little, but she didn't take any time to feel the pain, she only charged forwards with another stab, this time at my chest.

I swiftly pushed my body to the right and slid my sword against hers. Again, my sword slid against hers and created even more sparks than last time. I could tell Ellie was even amazed, jumping backward at my counter.

"Now… end it!" She took a wide stance, and I took a similar stance. We both charged in towards each other and Ellie opened with her move: she jumped off of a nearby rock and tilted her body ninety degrees midair. I was too shocked to parry and only defended.

The amount of power and height behind her jump caused her blade to hit mine three separate times as her body spun around in a complete circle. Again, surprising me, she hit the ground perfectly and dove forward, keeping her feet on the ground and taking a wide swing.

I jumped over her swing in a similarly ranked acrobatic side-flip and slashed at her arm to finally end the fight. Ellie didn't stop at one slash to her arm, which meant I needed another strategy to get her again.

"Disarm me!" Ellie rapidly swung back and forth, I couldn't even get close to her hand that held the handle to her sword tightly, all I could do is try to mimic her swings through the sparks we created.

I finally caught her blade with my own and pushed it upwards to throw her off. Ellie backed up into the tree, which happened to be my plan. I slashed again at her arm, right below my first wound, and grabbed her right hand, leaving her sword in an unreachable position.

Out of all of Ellie's surprises, she pulled a dagger out of her sword's sheathe with her left hand and swung at my chest, unlike any of her other attacks, my system reacted:

[SYSTEM ALERT: DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!]

As quick as my body could move, I dropped her right hand and kicked upwards into her elbow, throwing the dagger into the sky with my kick. I panted heavily, but she finally admitted defeat.

"Impressive. You're sloppy, but it'll improve over time. Other than that, impressive work, Sky." Ellie told me.