Friends and Lovers

At Master Tszarek's office Blink found the bundle. It was held together and wrapped around by a blue cloth. He tied the bundle to the end of his quarter staff together with all his other stuff, which he bundled up with a brown cloth.

As he had no time to scrutinize the bundle, Blink didn't bother. A short sword laid on top of it. The double-edged sword had a fourteen-inch blade with a base width of two inches that progressively expanded to three inches before the two edges converged to a sharp pointed tip. It was sheathed in a wooden scabbard that was covered only on one side

"Why did Master include this sword?" he wondered. Blink had never held a sword in his hands, thus he could not understand what the sword was for.

Judging from the shape of the bundle, Blink could tell that there was a book in it. He hanged the bundle on his quarter-staff, together with the bundle he had carried from his room.

Blink looked around at the familiar office of his master as if taking in every detail: the type of wood used on every piece of furniture, the simple and unadorned lampstand on top of the drawer, the old wooden floors… Everything in the small office spoke to the man's character.

Master Tszarek lived a frugal existence. This despite the fact that he had hundreds of disciples in and out of the academy. He had simple tastes and delighted at little pleasures while frowning at the slightest extravagance. Many a time disciples from rich families tried to give him some precious gifts only to be regarded with extreme displeasure by the master. After a while everybody had got the idea that Master Tszarek hated any attempt at currying favor from him and no one tried since then. He was even more wrathful towards flattery.

It was a good thing that Master Tszarek was like that. Life at the academy would have been like hell for poor disciples like Blink if the disciples from rich families would have been able to flaunt their families' wealth. Blink was sure Berge and Flip would not have survived in a year.

It wasn't that Master Tszarek did not play favorites. Blink was very much aware how much the master had always favored him without his fellow disciples noticing it. In fact, they all thought Master Tszarek actually had an issue with Blink who realized early on that every harsh word he received contained within them the master's greatest hopes.

Blink recalled his conversation with him the previous night. He recalled Master Tszarek's reply when he asked if the master's notebook could bring him back.

"In a way, yes."

Those words gave Blink the greatest hope he could hang on to at this point when he was going through the saddest moment in his life.

"I shall return," he quietly promised to the empty room. It was all he could do to keep up his spirit. He turned around and walked out the door to re-join his girlfriend and his bestfriend at the back of the building.

"What! Are you accusing me of promiscuous conduct? Say it, I dare you!"

Blink could overhear Berge giving Flip a terrible tongue-lashing. When it comes to giving a verbal barrage, not a single soul in the Ragha Martial Arts Academy could hold a candle to Berge. It was said she got it from her mother, who had grown terribly bitter of her husband's hopeless lack of ambition she had sharpened her tongue from all the vitriol that spewed out of it.

"What?! I was merely asking you what you and Blink were doing together at early dawn."

Blink sighed and shook his head. Flip beat all when it came to irritating girls. Worse, he didn't even have to try.

Flip had a problem talking to girls. He could never seem to look straight at a girl even when he had known the girl for a long time. This skittish attitude of his usually had led girls to suspect him of harboring unseemly thoughts of them.

"Who are you kidding?!" Berge was getting louder now. It's a good thing that their location was far from the dormitories. Otherwise, there would have been a lot of curious teenagers running over to see what was going on.

"Right now when you were asking me, you were giving me a sideways glance as if I had done something inappropriate."

Blink reached them right at that moment.

"Relax," he told Berge. "Flip truly hasn't suspected you of anything. He is too much of an idiot to have such thoughts."

"What?!" Flip said. His eyes glaring at Blink.

"You truly are best of friends. You both have that irritating tendency to shout 'What?!' You both even have that same mouth and eyes wide open look. Really, you must both think you look real cool doing that. It's a disgusting sight."

"Wha…" Blink nearly did it. He was only able to stop himself because Berge shot him a malevolent glare. "All right, can you please just calm down. Your voice can be heard over the mountain."

"I'll calm down if your friend stops accusing me of any impropriety."

"I assure you Flip is not accusing you of anything at all. You're just making a big fuss over a small matter."

"You! Don't you dare try to use my words against me! Your friend was clearly giving me a dirty look."

"He is not," Blink overemphasized on the third word. "You're just tired and emotional over everything that went through. And now you're totally stressed from all that worrying."

"This would not have happened if you only woke me up earlier," Berge snapped back at Blink.

"Whoa! Wait a minute. You slept together last night?" Flip had never been so shocked by a girl's revelation.

"Shut up!" Berge and Blink both glared at him.

Recalling Master Tszarek's bidding for him to be gone before sunrise, Blink proceeded to check out the secret passageway. It took a little work to find it. Blink discovered it by feeling along the vine-covered stone wall and discovered that the wall stopped at an end and there was a gap that could let a person through between the wall and another layer of wall that stretched behind the first wall.

They followed the gap until they eventually found themselves outside the academy walls.

The trio proceeded along the edge of the wall going eastward. Upon reaching the corner, they followed the trail towards the gate. Along the way, Flip just could not contain his curiosity no more.

"Did you sleep together last night?" he asked. He had to know. The two others could beat him up if they wanted to, but learn the whole truth he must.

"Yes."

Shockingly, it was Berge who admitted first.

"It's not what you think. Nothing happened. We just slept together on my bed."

Flip was puzzled why it was that Blink and not Berge who seemed to be more concerned about his image. Flip was sure any guy who managed to pluck the flower of the most beautiful maiden of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy would love very much to declare it.

Flip was even more confused by the fact that, a few moments ago, Berge was ready to fight him on mere suspicion that he thought she and Blink did something inappropriate.

When Flip said nothing. Blink twisted his shoulder to glance at him.

"I said nothing happened." Blink was obviously on the verge of fury.

Flip just looked at him nonchalantly.

"Okay," he just said.

"You're asking for it!" Blink launched his fists at Flip, but Flip wisely hid behind Berge.

As Blink could not be stopped from going after Flip, Berge held the former's shirt on the waist.

"Something did happen between us last night," she declared.

"Eh!" Blink was stupefied.

"Don't you remember? You asked me to be your girlfriend? You even went down on one knee and said 'please'?"

Flip stopped squiggling as he had a sudden understanding. "Oh, so you are officially a couple now?"

"Yes!" Berge excitedly concurred.

Blink did not join in her excitement. "I must insist that we had always been a couple even before last night," he said.

"That's great; I'm excited for both of you," Flip replied. "But I'm curious about some other thing."

The newly official couple turned their attention to Flip.

"Why are you walking around at early dawn with a bundle tied at the end of your staff?"

Blink didn't need to think of how to respond.

"Didn't you hear master say? He's sending me on a mission."

"If it's just a mission, why do you have to leave in the dark? You could always do so after first light. It's not like you had never been on a mission before."

"It's a secret mission," Berge butted in.

Blink nodded his head, eyes trained on Flip as if what Berge just said actually explained everything.

"??? I still don't get it," Flip admitted.

"It's Master's order," Blink said.

"See he even gave me a sword," he added as though that fact should explain it all.

"Oh! Okay." Flip responded as though he understood.

They continued walking and soon reached the gate. The gate stood at the center of the eastern wall of the academy while Master Tszarek's residence was located at the southern part of the enclosure.

Along the way, Flip learned that Blink would be gone for at least five years, most probably longer. He started getting teary-eyed and was soon sobbing and sniffing. His emotional display affected Berge whose eyes welled up and started to sob. Then the sobbing turned into moans; then the moaning turned into wailing. Flip started wailing as well.

The two of them formed a horrid duet that rather annoyed Blink instead of touch his heart.

"Will you please stop embarrassing yourselves? You make it look like you're crying over a dead man!"

"We can't help it," Flip said. "You'll be gone from our lives for a long five years, maybe longer."

"Maybe never," Berge put in.

Blink shook his head. He flashed a crooked grin at the atrocious duet.

"Stop being so dramatic," he said.

"We're not being dramatic. We're just showing the appropriate emotion. You're the one who's acting cool and unconcerned, as if it has nothing to do with you."

"He's right!" Berge interjected.

"What? You want me to lose it in front of you? In your dreams!"

"What's wrong with showing a little emotion? It's human nature. Maybe you just don't really care about us the way we care about you."

"He's right!"

"Okay, fine! I really am gonna miss you both."

Blink was about to say something more, but his emotions choked in his throat. The tears then welled up in his eyes and just gushed forth.

Berge and Flip reached out to him and they both hugged him, one on each side of him. This lasted for a while until Blink regained his composure.

Blink looked towards the east and saw a thin line of silver on the horizon.

"I have to go now," he said.

Yet, it took a while before they could extricate themselves from each other.

Standing before them. Blink smiled with much bitterness.

"You take care of each other now," he said.

He turned around and walked towards the mountain range.