Dangling from a Cliff

A person stood at the edge of a cliff, their eyes looking down into the darkness below. The person sat on the edge, their eyes observing the way land was different from the sea. They grumbled lightly at the coldness, they stood up stepping on a patch of ice they slipped they drew their sword quickly and managed to force it into the rocks a few feet from the top of the ridge. The swordsman drew a second sword while holding onto the one sword with their other arm, they then boosted their body up and drove another sword into the rocks a foot higher holding onto that sword they did the hard task of removing the other sword from the rocks.

The swordsman cursed under their breath, "This isn't going to work, I'll lose my balance." The swordsman sighed under their breath, as they pushed the fear of falling, from their thoughts. The swordsman closed their eyes and tried again to remove the lower sword, trying to remove it was hard since she had lodged it in the rocks quickly in a panic so she wouldn't fall. They were two feet from the top, but their sword was important. They felt the other sword's instability when they tried to remove the other sword. The swordsman could feel the pressure of holding onto a sword growing. They knew they couldn't hold on forever, and neither could the swords.

The swordsman once again closed their eyes and pulled upwards in a hand version of a jump, pulling on both swords. Both suddenly came out, their eyes opened, and widened as they tried to get a hold on an area closer to the top with their sword. Still a two feet away from the top, the swordsman grumbled. "This isn't going to be a good day is it?"

"Use my swords to climb up higher."

Her arms were hurting, and her swords were once again stuck in the rock. She heard the person above and noticed their swords, "No that's okay, I have my swords stuck in the rock again." The swordswoman said to the person above, "They are important to me, so I rather finish climbing up the hard way since my swords would be left behind if I climbed up your's." She said her brow furrowed, she was strange for a female. Her swords were nearly as important if not more important than her own life. She didn't look like a female though unless someone was studying her face and clothing or had a keen eye. Chances are someone could be able to believe she was a man for a while without it dawning on them.

She closed her eyes once again and preformed another hand jump, opening her eyes after she made contact with the stone again, it was hard and she merely traveled six inches upward because of the strain on her muscles as well as the fact she was fighting against gravity. She wanted to rest her arms, but she couldn't let her swords stay in the side. It was hard to remain gripped on her sword and jump and catch her swords in the stone fast enough. She was lucky that it worked, she felt her hands getting sweaty from the strain of keeping up. She wasn't one to ask for help or give up easily, though part of her was afraid of dying so easily without accomplishing her dream.

She figured if she couldn't get herself up, then there was no way she could be the best swordsman in the world. She felt the coldness in the air slip into her hands. Her hands were white from the pressure and strain of holding herself up. She didn't want to request help, she had too much pride to ask for help.

"You're an idiot.. Since it's obvious you won't accept my help I'll just wait over here for you.."

She had pride too, though she was busy at the moment to try to retort. She saved up energy and once again preformed a hand jump. She managed to make it up another 8 inches. She was almost a foot from the top now, she needed to make the last jump all at once or else she'd get unfirm ground and fall, but she needed to remove her swords as well. She thought, if only there was a ledge she could preform a back flip forward and land safely on the side of the cliff without a problem. Then there was the chance of ice being on the top, that could really screw everything up for her.

Her breathing rate increased, she needed to jump. She closed her eyes opening them as she went for the last jump this time trying to get her swords in the top soil of the ground where it was firm so she wouldn't slip. She managed to get a firm grip on the ground and slowly eased herself up, her breathing was hard now and when she finally was back on firm ground she laid down next to her swords in the earth slowly catching her breath. She closed her eyes relaxing from the previous moment. "I'm not an idiot, or else I would've fell and died and lost both of my swords."

She had a proud smirk on her face as she placed her hands beneath her head looking up at the sky. "Besides if I asked for help on such a simple thing, what kind of swordsman would I be?"

"There are two things wrong with what you just said to me. First of all, that's not a matter of idiocy. That's a matter of athleticism. The biggest idiot in the world could have done that if he was athletic enough."

"Mmm, true. But it's best to not need any help than to be reliant on others when it comes to a matter of life. And my swords are important to me, I can't just leave them behind. A sword is a swordsman's soul, though one of these swords was given to me by someone important. So if I lost it or left it behind I wouldn't be able to forgive myself." She said looking up into the sky, yep that sword meant a lot to her and perhaps no one could understand how much it truly meant. She got up taking the two blades from the earth she put them into her sayas and gave the sayas a pat. "What was stupid of me, was slipping on the ice." She said laying back down, she looked quite comfortable in this position. She remembered how her captain would always think while smiling and laying on his back. So many small things she remembered that made her feel happy or sad.

"Besides..If you had fallen I would have made sure you wouldn't have died..I would have transported you back up."

"Mmm, but I didn't know that anyway. Besides you're neither friend or foe at the moment, how would I know your intentions." She noticed his vast collection of swords, "Hmm, what sword style do you use?" She asked gazing at his swords, she wondered why there was five swords when the most she had heard of using was three swords, and even then it'd be hard to handle having two swords in each hand and two in the mouth as well.

"Secondly, as a swordsman you shouldn't feel obligated to show off a simple thing. That should be something you're willing to accept help from because it shows that you are wise enough not to use up strength needlessly. It should be the more difficult tasks you refuse help with, that way you are TRULY proving something to yourself."

"I wasn't showing off, I was saving my swords and keeping myself from dying. And you were a complete stranger, why should I expect help from a stranger? Besides how could one know your power could be that type of power. I merely didn't expect help from you and didn't make you obligated to help me either." She said sitting back up, a stern look on her face. "It's not like you said, 'Want some help?' Or 'You know I can get the swords out of the stone for you.' So I didn't expect you to be able to do it, and therefore didn't accept your help." She said remaining seated this time crossing her legs Indian style.

"All of your points are irrelevant. You had no idea of whether or not I could help, however after you saw me pluck my two swords from the cliff face from the shadows, it should have been fairly obvious to you what my power were. True I had not motives to help you, but I also had no motives to watch someone die. You are thinking along one line instead of all of them, which means that you're only seeing one possibility and not all of them. If you're gonna survive as a swordsman, you're going to have to take risks sometimes to attain victory, that applies to life as well."

She pondered the thought, "After you removed your swords you left, therefore it would've been stupid to ask for help to someone who just wanted to wait at the top. Anyway it doesn't matter since what was done is done." She said getting up to her feet watching where she walked, she moved farther away from the edge and then sat back down. She eyed him, he seemed a bit odd to her, though she was an odd one herself. Besides the fact she had managed to save herself anyway and didn't want to need a man to rescue her. After all if she hadn't been rescued by her Captain perhaps he would've been alive now. She sighed at this thought, she hated how one simple thought could make her feel down.

"My style is one that I developed on my own. It takes a great amount of coordination and control, and unless you have my powers it is unable to be performed. However the only down side to this style is that it's energy consuming, and I can't use it for any fights that will last more than an hour or so. At that point I just fight on skill alone, typically wielding two blades. and discarding the rest, or using the two blades attached to my gloves of course.."

She sighed, "Why not just use regular sword style and make it better with one's secret weapon, I enjoy the traditional fighting styles. Though one sword isn't enough since you want to keep a person on their feet. I once tried three blades, though one in the mouth was a bit annoying and it hurt your teeth quite a bit when a person pressed against it." She said carelessly, she didn't care much for company. She almost wanted to test his fighting style, though her arms ached from keeping herself from falling for so long. She looked at him and wondered what kind of person he was and why he came to the cliffs. She checked her bandanna making sure it was in place on her head, she sighed in relief when it was. She didn't enjoy people knowing she was female, often times it only annoyed her because they would fight with less power.