The strangers face wasn’t visible, or any part of him, for that matter, since he wore a black hooded cloak that flowed down past his ankles. The hood of his cloak covered his eyes and above, but his nose and mouth could be seen.
“Who're you?” Luna asked, grabbing the hilt of her sword in defense.
“I should be asking you the same question. What is a wolf doing in cat territory, in the middle of the night, stalking the backsides of the castle? Are you going to perhaps try to assassinate our queen?” the cloaked man said.
“What makes you think that?” Luna countered, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at him.
“Hm, lets take a look at the evidence, shall we? You, a wolf, are here in the cats' city at night, armed with a weapon, and is heading for an open window on the side of the queen's castle. Nothing suspicious about that,” he said sarcastically.
“Look, I’m not here to chat, so just let me do what I came to do and you can slip quietly into your shadows,” Luna said, becoming annoyed with the man, since he was right about why she had come. He laughed at her remark.
“And what makes you think I'll just move so easily out of your way?”
“Well for one, you don’t even have a wea-” Luna began to say, but her sentence got cut off when the man pulled out a sword from underneath his cloak. “Okay...nevermind....” She then unsheathed her sword and got herself into a defensive position. “Now remove your hood so I can see the face of the man I’m about to kill,” she ordered. The stranger let out a short but haughty laugh.
“The only way that's going to happen is if you remove it yourself. And that's not going to be happening.”
“Looks like someones a little cocky.”
“Just try me,” he replied with a smile.
Provoked, Luna ran at him and swung her sword. He moved so discreetly she didn’t even see him do it, and ended up a few feet away from Luna.
“Whoa, he's fast.” The cloaked man laughed at Luna's failed attempt to strike him.
“Are you even trying?” He said mockingly. Luna in turn became furious, and charged toward him and attacked. She missed again, and the man stood another foot away.
“Hm....” He said, staring at Luna.
“W-what?!” What are you looking at?” She said, suddenly becoming self-conscious.
“Have you ever used a sword before? You're swinging it around almost aimlessly, as if it weighed a ton,” he commented.
“Uh, w-well...” Of course, she did have training with her sword from her father, but practice was nothing compared to the real thing. During the fight with Halle, she hadn’t even used her weapon against her. And with this fight, the man was so fast that she didn’t even have time to think about what she was doing, as if he made her forget all of her previous sword training.
“I'll take that as a no,” he assumed. “Let me tell you something. In order to become one-so to speak- with your sword, you must swing it as if it were as light as a feather. You have to slice through the air.” He demonstrated by swinging his own sword. His arm didn’t appear to move nearly as fast as his sword did, which was just a blue. He stopped and looked at Luna. “Now you try.”
She attempted to do the same, although her sword sliced through the air nothing like his did. With the man's sword, you weren’t able to tell what direction it was going in, but Luna's sword's movements were slow and predictable, the complete opposite. The man shook his head.
“That’s not quite right..”
“I could do it a lot better if you weren’t watching me!” Luna complained, angry with her amateur sword skills at the time.
“Don’t worry about me, pay attention to your sword,” he advised her. She continued practicing for a few more moments, still not getting the hang of it. After a few moments he came up behind her and took her hand that held her sword in his. Luna blushed, not used to someone doing that. The cloaked man made her loosen her grip on her sword. “Don't grip your sword so tightly,” he murmured in her ear. He then released his hand form hers and took a step back for her to test it out.
Luna swung her sword, and it flew out of her hand and hit the side of the castle with a 'clang'. She quickly ran over to it and picked it up, hoping no one had heard it. A light flickered on from inside the castle. The mysterious man ran over to Luna, grabbed her, and hid themselves behind the tall bushes planted alongside the castle walls.
A second later a guard with a lantern walked over to the side of the castle, taking a moment to look around and shine his light over the shadows. He saw nothing and then returned to his post at the castle's front. The cloaked stranger let out a sigh and let go of Luna.
“Okay, next time, grip it, but a bit tighter,” he whispered to her. The two got out from behind the bushes and went back to Luna's training, making sure to be even quieter this time. She calmed herself, took a few deep breaths, and took a moment to remember what the man said to her. She began to swing her sword, which gained speed with each swing, and sliced the air as if it were a skill that she had known for years. Luna stopped after a few slices, both pleased and amazed with herself, but also confused. She turned to look at the cloaked man.
“Wait, you're an enemy. Why did you help me?” She asked.
“Well, that guard would have alerted everyone in the city if he saw us,” he replied.
“No, not that. I mean, yes, that too. But...” Luna glanced down at her sword and then back up at him. “Why?” He didn’t respond, and just looked at the ground. Seeing as to how he wasn’t going to answer, Luna decided to drop the question and attack him. Since he wasn’t expecting it, their swords clashed together.
“Wow, you got me. Pretty good I suppose, but that was just a lucky shot,” he complemented. “Try again, now that I’m ready.” Luna did as he said and attacked, hoping to cut off his hood to reveal his identity. Instead, he dodged just as he had before, and stood a few feet away.
“What was the point of teaching me how to slice if you're just going to keep dodging?” Luna said, seeing no logic in the process.
“Lesson number two; opponents movements,” he replied wisely.
“Oh great. What are you, my personal trainer now?” Luna grumbled, rolling her eyes. He ignored her and kept talking.
“In order for you to hit a quick opponent, you have to watch their movements carefully. You have to keep a keen eye on where the enemy appears to be going, where they're actually going, and when they move.” Luna took the advice he gave her and charged at him. She swung her sword slowly, concentrating not on hitting him, but watching him. As she did, she saw and understood what he meant. Luna looked at his feet and saw when they moved and what direction they were going in. He moved in a way that tricked the eyes, in which he took a step or two in one direction, then quickly moved in the opposite direction.
Luna sprinted toward the place where he was headed to and swung her sword. The sword made contact with fabric and sliced through it. His hood was cut diagonally and it fell to the ground, revealing his face. Seeing that his cloak was now useless, he whipped it off and it flowed to the ground, revealing the rest of his body.
“No....way....”
