Chapter 30 – Training
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“Humming?” I regained consciousness and realised I was in my stiff and previously injured body. Slightly angling my ears towards the sound I could hear, it seemed that Teival was weakly humming his tune to me, which I found greatly soothing for my sore body. Not bothering to alert him to my stirring, I pondered over the dream I had.

 

I was a human in it, again. I was that same girl – only an adult. “A woman.” Ah, I was a woman. I didn’t understand why I was dreaming from a human perspective, after all I was an aardwolf – ah, a correction: a crystal aardwolf. Still, it was odd how I kept dreaming as that human, especially when I sometimes felt it difficult to distinguish her reactions from my own…but I decided to not think too much on that matter.

 

The thing that piqued my interest was how I realised Teival had the same hair colour as the two humans in my dream, yet none of the villagers in this place seemed to share that trait. I angled my head to examine Teival – who was currently slumped beside the bed with sallow cheeks, humming weakly. “How long was I unconscious for?” It appeared my minor movement aroused my master from his trance-like state as he jolted upright and ogled at my tiny body.

 

“Kia! Are you all right? Do you hurt anywhere?”

 

Wondering about that myself, I decided to test my health out and attempted to stand up. The result: my limbs shook as they struggled to maintain my slight weight. Still feeling incredibly stiff, I stretched and yawned – relaxing my taut muscles and easing the involuntary shudders. Happy with my physicality, I turned to look at my master but was bombarded with a hug from him.

 

“Argh! Too clingy! Let go! I can’t move like this!”

 

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Kia…”

 

Teival then released me before gently scratching behind my delicate ears. Moving to his bag on the floor, he took out a dry block of food and broke little pieces off before feeding me. As I nommed on the food, I noticed several grey and brown crystal particles mixed in, which reminded me of what the woman in my dream was doing. Examining the particles more closely, I realised they were the same kind of crystal used in the contract ceremony, which caused me to ruminate over the purpose of doing such a thing.

 

After finishing my food, Teival’s relaxed face turned serious as he leaned close to my face:

 

“We need to get stronger.”

 

I barked in affirmation and wagged my tail before licking his nose. Recoiling from the sudden attack of affection, Teival wiped his nose before smiling at me and laughing a little. He then picked me up and carried me to our secluded spot in the garden to initiate some training.

 

+++

 

The next number of days and nights proved to be both entertaining and draining at the same time. Teival would wake me up before dawn and we’d sneak over to the secluded spot. While there, we would run from one end to the other over and over again. I have to admit, I may have become queasy a few times from running a one-directional circuit too frequently. Of course, my master often noticed when this occurred and had us run counter to the previous course. Once late evening arrived, we would sneak back to our humble abode and fall asleep.

 

My meals increased in both quantity and quality, with Teival noticeably grinding a grey crystal for one course, then a brown one for another. As for the food they were mixed with a plethora of juicy bugs and insects, or a block of dried crystal termites. My favourite was the juicy version, though the dry blocks made me feel nostalgic over my family.

 

As for other types of training we practiced, Teival had me constantly swiping my beautiful claws at a tree – which resulted in one of them breaking off entirely…There were many tears and hugs that day. It seemed that my master remembered I was more used to digging the land, than trees, and so changed my target to constantly digging the soil. The many pot-holes looked spectacular from a distance, however they were filled in by the end of the day with Teival performing some kind of magic on the soil to make it become hard again.

 

Sometimes, my master would just sit and open that item with symbols all over it – or I should say a book, as my mind blurted at me a few days ago. As he read from it, he would sometimes mutter something before examining me. After feeding me some food, he would place his hands on me and start humming but nothing ever happened – resulting in me tilting my head at him in puzzlement over not receiving any of that energy I felt in the dream.

 

Teival would often show frustration over this, whenever he attempted it, by throwing the book and ruffling his hair with his hands. I once had a go at trying it myself, however I failed to grasp the sensation, or concept of how to use magic, thus resulting in me going back to digging since it was something I did know how to do. “Don’t you dare belittle my skills in digging! I’m already much faster than Mother and Father were! Just…forget about the fact I’m comparing their speed to when they were digging the crystal termite mounds, okay?”

 

One evening, we got too engrossed in our training, resulting in both Teival and I hearing a gasp escape from a nearby bush. We immediately turned out heads to see Dinara standing with her not-so pretty mouth wide open and her Umbral Spider sling staring at us with its many disturbing beady eyes. Teival reacted first and whispered to her:

 

“Dinara, please…don’t tell Dad about this.”

 

I watched as Dinara held her chin in thought before smiling sweetly, “Okay!”

 

I heard Teival breathe a sigh of relief before he took a sharp intake of breath from the girl’s next words:

 

“Just give me all of your Tamer’s Allowance for this month and I’ll keep quiet about it.”

 

“…Dinara…I can’t do that. Anything but that! I need that money to buy Kia’s food and crystals!”

 

“As if I care!”

 

I then saw the nasty girl run away while laughing – the sling following on its many skittery legs. Wondering what we were going to do, I tilted my head at my master and saw him pacing around in a panic. My ears kept picking up on his fast and shallow breathing as I realised he was terrified with trepidation over Dinara informing this ‘Dad’ person.

 

Eventually, a stern-faced Teacher arrived with Dinara hugging on his arm and smiling. The man tapped on the girl’s shoulder to tell her to let go before he looked at the many pot-holes I’d so enthusiastically dug. After taking in the surrounding scene, he turned to Teival:

 

“So? Mind telling me why you broke curfew and destroyed the garden?”

 

“…”

 

“Since you don’t have a response, should I take that as you defying the rules of this household?”

 

“No, Dad! I was just…helping Kia…train…”

 

I felt a chilling gaze on me which froze my movements due to an instinctual fear that told me he was dangerous if provoked. I then realised that ‘Dad’ was another word for Father, and that Teacher was Teival’s parent. “Wait…does that mean Dinara is Teival’s sister? But they look nothing alike…” As I was addled over how the boy and girl were related to one another, I vaguely caught the continuation of the conversation:

 

“Well, since I did ban you from school, I suppose it’s only fair that I allow you to do solo training.”

 

I saw Teival raise his head in surprise as his eyes lit up in happiness: “Thank you, Dad! Thank you!”

 

“HOWEVER!”

 

Teival then paused and cowered in response.

 

“I expect you to have sorted out your aggression by the end of the month. I told your class that there’ll be another sparring session then. Prove to me you are properly training here by successfully defeating your opponent and I’ll allow you to attend classes again. There’s only so much you can learn from that grotty book.”

 

Dinara then piped up in a whiney voice that grated on my nerves: “But, Dad! He’ll try and get revenge on Tabitha for beating him last time! Remember how he grabbed her last time!”

 

“Enough, Dinara! Don’t think you will get away with also breaking curfew. Besides, I’d rather have a competent son who can contribute to the safety of the village, than one who simply drains our resources.”

 

I swear I saw the evil girl pout before smiling sweetly at ‘Dad’: “Speaking of resources…Dad can I have a bigger Tamer’s Allowance? My current one isn’t meeting Zillah’s needs!”

 

The man chuckled before patting Dinara’s head, “Sure. For now, though, go to bed.”

 

Teival and I watched the two humans leave in the direction of the large den before daring to move a muscle once again. My master sighed in what I assumed to be relief before picking me up and hugging me. “Let’s go to bed, Kia.” I was then carried back to our small home where Teival placed me on the ground before collapsing onto the bed. Not wanting to sleep on the hard ground, I jumped onto Teival and curled into a ball on his stomach.

 

With my tail tucked around me, I rested my head on my paws and enjoyed the soothing humming emitted from Teival. As my consciousness began to slip into slumber, I thought about how things seemed to be improving for us slightly. My last thoughts were of who we’d end up sparring against at the end of the month. “I hope it’ll be against Mr Stripey. I have a score to settle with him!”

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