The Twelfth Moon || ✔️ [LOTM #1]

24. A Quick Learner

"Keep your weight in your heels," Feytan ordered me as I slowly bent my knees for the exercise he'd given me. "Don't let your knees track past your toes." 

Feytan kept giving me pointers, making me adjust my posture every few seconds. The exercises looked easy when Feytan showed them, yet when I tried them myself, my body seemed to fail at even the easiest of exercises.

But Feytan seemed to see it differently, as he kept praising me about how well I was adapting and how fast I was learning.

I threw every inch of myself into this, to keep my mind from straying to thoughts about Lotta. I felt worried about her. I didn't know when she'd return—if she even would. Fire Moon was a dangerous place to be, and I didn't dare to think about Lotta being there. I hated the thought of Beckett getting his hands on her, touching her, hurting her, ruining her, taking one more thing from me.

Stop it, I ordered myself. I barely knew her. She had shown me kindness, and she had acted as my friend—the first and so far only friend I made here—and I was already overthinking everything, assuming Beckett would take her away from me as he had done with everything else.

If Aven had sent her on this mission, that had to mean she was capable of fulfilling it. I had to trust that, I had to trust her, and Aven, too. 

Every time my mind got caught in patterns it shouldn't be in, Feytan seemed to notice and made me do even more reps. His approach was brutal, yet effective. After a while, I could not think about Lotta any longer; only the burning feeling in my legs, the shake in my breath, the rise in my pulse.

To my surprise, I was able to finish all the exercises. I had fallen once or twice, but quickly recovered each time; got back up, and finished the exercise. I hadn't even taken the effort to dust off my trousers, which earned me a respectful nod of Feytan, accompanied by a small smile he tried his best to hide.

"Well, look at you killing it," Jerr suddenly said. 

My head turned to the source of the sound, and I saw him standing at the edge of the training space, leaning against a wall. His stance was casual, and playful; his arms crossed over his chest and one eyebrow gleefully raised. His brown waves were ruffled away from his face, allowing the slight sharpness of his jaws even more to be noticed. I had been so consumed in myself I hadn't even noticed Jerr had joined. How long had he been standing there?

"I didn't know I had any spectators," I shot at him.

He threw his hands up, shrugging his shoulders. "What can I say, maybe I like looking at you."

"I'm sure you do," I bit. I heard Feytan snickering behind me.

Jerr winked at me before he addressed Feytan, who had gone to get some water flasks for us. "Aven wanted me to come check how Sari's progressing."

Feytan handed me my water, and I almost drank it in one go. "She's doing good. She's a quick learner."

"Wonderful," Jerr mused and he looked at me with flickering, green eyes. I rolled my eyes at him. Bloody Wise Moon. "Is her training finished?"

Feytan nodded. "We are done for today."

"Perfect," he said with a promising and warm smile, turning to me. "I want to show you something."