Heir of Dust and Wind

Chapter 35 - Belonging

The mornings still weren't Ava's favourite time of the day.

"Ouch," she yelped as Gainor's fist collided painfully with her right hip.

Although she enjoyed having breakfasts in the kitchen of her residence with her companions and there was no evil Alderman waiting to tell her how useless she was, mornings now meant exhausting physical training. Today it was the smaller Dracaeni's turn to help her improve her hand-to-hand combat skills.

Back at Frode's headquarters, it had been only Trygve's patient instructions. Ever since they had completed their business with the Council, however, Ava had picked up daily sessions with all of them which meant her every move was now scrutinized by another Dracaeni and a Fae. All of whom had different fighting fortes and centuries of practice, whereas she'd only just started.

As much as she appreciated their feedback, sometimes it just sucked. Royally.

Naturally, all three of them - even Gainor - had very distinct opinions about how to best hold a sword, a dagger, or any other weapon for that matter. When the first training sessions had resulted in more bickering than actual practice, Trygve had declared that she would work with only one of them at a time, each man being responsible for one part of her training. Much to her surprise, he had included Raban.

But then again, the inclusion of the Fae certainly made sense because nobody was his match when it came to the use of blades - in various shapes and forms - swords being the only exception. Although Raban was a formidable fighter with this weapon too, at least Gainor and Orla had both said so - he was still no match for Trygve's swordsmanship.

During the warm summer mornings, even Orla occasionally come outside to watch them. She always brought a book with her, of course. However, the quite frequent and usually sassy mental comments - at the most inconvenient moments during her training - had let Ava know, that the Goblin wasn't reading at all and really watching them rather intently.

Although the librarian would probably deny it if being asked, Ava got the impression that she rather enjoyed following their training - and bickering. While she still spent most of her time in her library, she never missed a meal in their company.

Ava, however, wasn't surprised at all. While Orla had been relatively safe from Frode's cruelty, she had also been terribly alone, the books her only companions. As much as she had enjoyed reading and as often as Ava had preferred their company over that of real people, she had at least hat Tina and her colleagues. Orla hadn't had anyone at all.

During her beginnings in the Between, she had felt terribly alone. Even though she had never had many friends, being all alone in a world she wasn't familiar with, living in the home with a hostile sorcerer had been absolutely horrible. Now, living in her own house and sharing it with friends, she started to perceive a sense of belonging which grew with every day they spent together. 

The exhausting training sessions were no exception. In a way, they had even helped them get to know one another.

After their first couple of training spars in which Raban and even Trygve had - much to their surprise - received black eyes and bloody noses at Gainor's hands, the Fae had asked him how he had developed such vicious techniques. The Dracaeni had simply shrugged and said: "I grew up with three elder sisters. I guess I picked up a thing or two." While Trygve, Raban and herself had looked at him quizzically, Orla had cackled with delight. Gainor had gazed at her, giving her a small, almost shy but also very genuine grin, Ava thought.

"Penny for your thoughts," Gainor interrupted the mental excursion that had taken her quite far from the sparring rink. The Dracaeni had his head cocked to one side, his golden eyes looking at her curiously.