Simon and the old man were on a boat, their destination was to the southern side of the whirlpool islands.

  In the morning, rather than the boy doing his daily chores the old man demanded to be brought there. The boy obediently complied.

  “Simon… come back tomorrow after dropping me off,” the old man said, tapping the boy's back. Simon had already become skilled at navigating the waters around the island; they were even using the whirling currents within the cluster of islands and they were moving really fast.

  “Really old man? But you can’t even move,” Simon said, he was clearly worried about the old man. He didn’t know why the old man wanted to go there, did he intend to die there.

  “Yeah… in a day I will probably be in my best condition to give you the final lesson,” he said smirking. “By the way did you find the tumbler?”

  “No…” a quick reply from the boy.

  The old man’s legs have given up on him and for a month now he has not been walking. The boy was silent… it just made the old man feel lonely. “Life is about meetings and partings… it's what it gives meaning,” the old man said sensing Simon’s demeanor, it was the second time he said that, he said that too when Jedi left.

  After hours of rowing the old man signaled the boy by pointing out their destination, the southern island was a very small piece of land, and most of its edges were sand. There were few trees there but what stood out was a small large monolith standing in the middle of it.

  The boy beached the boat, jumped down, and pulled it higher into the beach.

  “Help me, boy, just near the rock!” the old man smiled.

  The boy pulled him up, then the old man used the boy’s shoulders as a support to walk to the spot he wanted.

  “There,” the old man said as he found a smaller rock to sit on.

  The boy carefully guided the old man into the rock. The old man sat there smiling. He took a deep breath enjoying the smell of the open sea.

  “Are you sure old man?” the boy asked as he stood in front of the old man “Maybe I should just wait with you here?” the boy asked.

  “No… you will understand why, come back tomorrow, please,” a rare please from the old man.

  It made Simon step back and he left the old man.

  <--->

  The boy silently stared at the ceiling. It was already dark, he had some meal as per usual but a void feeling was on his stomach. He sat up looking at the spot where the old man used to sleep.

  The old man didn’t tell him what to bring. He stood up and checked on his sword, which was gifted to him by the chief of the fisherman’s village.

  Rummaging on their things he found the same sheathe stone that the old man used to teach him how to sharpen his sword.

  Simon began sharpening it. Getting lost in the sound of the blade and the grind. He could feel that the old man wanted something from him. Uneasiness was keeping him awake.

  If he could give the old man what he wants then maybe he could return the favor of the old man raising him. He understood that he himself was a pain to deal with but the old man stayed with him.

  The boy pulled a water basin on the side poured a bit of it into the sheathe and continued sharpening his sword. He didn’t know why he was doing it all he had in his mind was tomorrow’s last lesson.

  <--->

  The boy woke up really early, he brought his sword with him that he sharpened last night. Went down to the beach where the boat was tied. He pushed it down until it floated. He rode it and began rowing.

  It took him a bit of time to get back from the southern island but it was already a short travel as long as he rode the whirlpools properly.

  A few hours into the ride he finally saw the island. The old man was there standing. Simon could feel the intensity of the old man’s concentration. He had never seen this before.

  He beached the boat and pulled it off the waters.

  “Boy… this is the final lesson…” The old man checked out the boy, he brought his sword with him. It made the old man crack a smile. “If you brought wooden swords I would be very disappointed.”

  “I just felt it… you don’t want to die in a bed,” the boy was right on the mark. There was no thought behind it.

  The old man pulled out his sword. In a different light this time. Simon pulled his sword in response.

  Old man: “Are you ready?”

  Simon: “I don’t know…”

  A slow step, full of confidence, a stride that didn’t falter. The old man moved to close the distance between Simon and him. There was no magic in the air and the boy understood all of the old man’s movement.

  The boy parried the attack to the side but the intentions of the old man’s attack were clearly sent out to him.

  “Are you really trying to kill me?” Simon asked. It was the first time the old man attacked him like that.

  “I’m actually feeling lonely that I would be dying alone, I’m thinking of taking you with me,” the old man said smiling.

  He must be crazy Simon thought… but he was crazy from the beginning.

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  “I’ll send you off… with a slash,” Simon said his aura started changing.

  “That’s right… I’m serious this time… I’m taking you with me…” the old man smiled.

  Simon started to believe his words but believing meant to stop thinking. He has to do it now… a technique he has been developing to beat the old man.

  “I won’t let you die without beating you first… I will beat you,” Simon said as he made a stance that the old man had never seen.

  “You got something to show huh? Come on kid show me! No regrets!” the old man was taunting.

  “I threw away the bottle that you have been searching for… your favorite metal tumbler when I found it,” Simon then confessed a lie hoping for some good provocation from the old man.

  “You little devil!” the old man screamed as he raised his sword.

  There was silence from the waves of the waters and the flickers of the leaves.

  The two began moving slowly getting closer to each other. At some point, they stopped. The old man was staring daggers looking for the openings that the boy always had, in return Simon was calm.

  “Calm boy?” the old man asked before he launched an attack.

  The two began the dangerous dance of blades. Each step and slash moved with the intention to further their next action to harm each other. A pure dance of skills and sword art.

  In a few moments, the best of the two immediately emerged in their battle. The boy got cut on his torso, it was not deep since it was a stolen cut from the witty use of the old man’s sword plays.

  “Does it hurt?” the old man taunted again with a cold face staring at the boy’s face.

  The two never had the intention to stop the exchange, the rhythmical sounds of their blades clashing mixed with the sands that were splashing because of their steps offered a good visual of what was happening.

  If one could only witness what was happening then it was probably the most calculated battle of swordplay and wit.

  Another cut landed on the boy’s face, this time it made him tilt his head. This shifted the boy’s balance on his stance and feet, the old man was all there to exploit it.

  “No!” the boy muttered, he knew what the old man’s next actions would be. He had to be brave, stupid, or probably out of his instincts. He used the shift of his body to dodge the old man’s horizontal attack, shaving a part of his clothes in his shoulders.

  The old man was clearly surprised. The boy launched another attack at a strange angle. The old man knew of the boy’s strength, the old man stepped back to evade the last-ditch attack of the boy.

  This created another draw between them but rather than letting the boy regain his feet, he launched a pierce aiming at the boy's knees.

  The boy using his feet touched the flat surface of the sword making it miss and even landing his other feet on the old man’s face.

  The force of the kick made the old man stunned, even creating a space between them.

  “Fuck boy… that hurts!” the old man complained.

  “You… you tried to kill me, what are you saying?” the boy said.

  Without even noticing the spaces between them the old man found the monolith that was already just behind him, that was how far Simon’s kick pushed him.

  “You are lucky that I can’t use my magic,” the old man spoke. He tapped the large stone. “Do you want to know why I picked this place?” the old man suddenly began a conversation.

  The boy was silent. He didn’t care at all, he was thinking of how to deal with the old man. There was no other choice, he was raised this way… to keep thinking in the face of danger.

  “Calm down boy,” the old man stood there with his sword pointing at the ground “This stone… this large monolith, legends say that this was the gate to the realm of the gods.” the old man took his eyes from the boy he looked at the stone. “What do you think happens when one dies?”

  “Nothing… we just die… we live and then we die,” the boy answered.

  The old man’s eyes widened, he was sure that the boy’s answers was not from him rather it was from the boy himself.

  “You are thinking about things huh…” his eyes fell back to the boy “They say that the gods absorb our souls, cleanse them then use them again.” it was a teaching that was a part of the Church of Light. “You think it's true?”

  The boy began moving closer, “I don’t know… but when we die then it's over,” he was technically right.

  The old man began laughing. His voice crackled in the whole island. “Whew... You pass… what am I thinking… leave me alone,-” the old man then sheathed his sword. “-You may go now,” the old man said again.

  All of the blood lust coming from the old man dispersed. The intention to fight, the fierceness of air around him.

  “Old man, what are you doing? Although I can’t understand you… I can’t let you die in this place!” the boy muttered.

  “Just leave me here… I wanted to pray to the gods myself, maybe they would grant me my wish,” the old man said and he sat back to the rock.

  Simon glared, it was really getting really hard to understand the old man. “I will be back…” Simon said he went back to the boat to rummage, it seemed that he took a fishing rod and some dried fish bundled in leaves. He placed it in the old man.

  “Thanks, I was starving,” the old man said. “Sorry… I will be here don’t worry.” Somehow he understood why his old friend wanted to be a hermit in the Sun God Peak.

  But the boy then just stood there. “Then what was supposed to be the final lesson?” the question that had been ringing in his mind ever since the old man said it.

  “... I want you to think for yourself… it seemed that the time I spent in a comma you grew… you began thinking,” the old man spoke with a sigh.

  “I still don’t understand… why do we have to fight to the death? You could have just told me to learn to think to myself!” the boy didn’t want to end it like that. He wanted to know more.

  “Boy… before I met you… my sole purpose of going into the eastern frontier was to die in battle…” The old man smiled “Then you came and changed my life, I’ve realized so many things,” the old man learned how to cook efficiently, learned how to care more.

  “It made my life the worst but probably the most meaningful time in my life… I thought that I just wanted to fight and die but your existence made me better…” the old man was speaking directly from his heart, it totally gave the chills to Simon but at the same time a warm and fuzzy feeling. Words were truly a spell that could change one's heart. “But I still want to die in battle… in your hands if possible but… I know you can’t kill me… and I can’t kill you… sorry boy I’m an idiot too.”

  “Old man… thank you for putting up with me, sorry for not meeting your expectations,” the boy said with composure while looking at the old man’s eyes. He understood that the old man was not disappointed with him.

  There was silence for a while. The old man began to blush even Simon too. It was really an embarrassing moment for the two.

  “Buuu hahahaha!”/ “Hahahaha!” and the two burst out laughing at the same time.

  “Be careful on your way back… sorry… let me pray to the stone for a while.” the old man waved dismissing the boy.

  “Pray?” the boy muttered.

  “Yeah, Pray.” it was a word that he never taught Simon. The only thing he could do in his impending end.

  The boy finally gave up and left, he will probably be back to check on him. The old man proudly watched the back of the boy, he never had a child and Simon was probably the closest one he could call.

  But he was still not satisfied. This day was the peak of him and it will probably never happen again. For the old man who has mastered his swordsmanship and climbed to the peak, he wanted someone to defeat him. To test his sword with his life in the line. At first, he wanted to die against a powerful foe but as he taught Simon with swords he began hoping that Simon could surpass him.

  He tightened his grip on his sword. It can’t be the end of it. He was frustrated and his heart grew weary.

  The boy looked at him one more time before riding the boat. After a while, the boy disappeared.

  “It's going to rain,” the old man muttered as he felt the change in the atmosphere.

  <--->

  Simon was back to the main island. There was an impending rain behind him. He was worried for the old man but first, he quickly beached his boat and ran into the house. He needed to take the dried fish and the pink salt.

  He quickly took action. He took all of it inside the house then he climbed up into the roof to close the canopy in the tip of the roof. Upon finishing it he laid his eyes through the horizon, it was not a simple rain, the dark clouds brought some lightning with it.

  “Old man… should have dragged him.” the boy muttered but it was too late now. Even the old man warned him once that it was impossible to row around the whirlpool islands during bad weather.