By My Side - Sam/Aomaris Fanfiction

45) Settling In

Training that day did not start how I would've expected it to. I ran into a young man, who apologised over and over for bumping into me and was then led off by Diana to hear whatever message he had from his lady. I continued on my way and stopped short at the entrance to my training hall. Rabbit was standing in the centre of the room, as I thought she'd be. What I didn't expect was for her to be facing a semi-circle of pig faun demons. I recognised them immediately; they were the Demon Lord's minions. A few years ago, Sam had shown me a few visions of his past after my curiosity about the Abyssal Plains had grown more than he could satiate with words.

Despite the presence of the Demons, Rabbit was surprisingly calm. She took a step back from them and gripped her staff. As she did, icy blue light began to emanate from the orb at the top and the demons surrounding her all began to stare at it. Rabbit closed her eyes for a moment, then they snapped open and she swung her staff in an arc in front of her. Every single imp demon was caught in a wave of ice that engulfed them and froze them solid. With a single calm tap on the ice using the end of her staff, the imp demons dissolved into the ice as if they'd never even been there. I stepped forward in awe. Rabbit turned, hearing me come in, and the ice behind her evaporated too.
"O-Oh! I'm sorry, I just-" She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. I was doing some training of my own. I'm usually not on the battlefield in war, but since the next battle is our last, we need to have as many people fighting as we can."
"No, that's understandable." Rabbit smiled at me.
"Anyway, we should start your training for the day. We can't let this time go to waste." I nodded and summoned my wolf, who licked my hand in greeting. Rabbit took a step back but instead of summoning her bear, she pointed her staff and caused a large group of illusion imps to appear, each wielding some form of weapon. I had to refrain from smirking. Something told me this would be an easy challenge.

Upon my command, my wolf pounced and began easily clawing its way through each of the imp demons, deftly dodging the swords and spears, making sure to rip each one's throat out as it passed. The more my wolf killed, the more appeared. It became a test of endurance after a while. I hadn't fought for this long before, and could sense myself growing weaker with each swipe my wolf took. We trained nonstop until the moon was beaming its silvery light through the windows of the training hall. Rabbit gradually increased the difficulty as time went on, forcing me to strategise quickly before my wolf could take a hit. I learned how to use certain moves against certain formations in order to conserve my energy as best I could. It wasn't long after Rabbit lit all the candles in the room that my wolf and I collapsed simultaneously, the former dissipating into mist without my energy to sustain it. Rabbit waved her staff, causing the remaining imps to dissipate too. She smiled at me, her face a mix of pride and warmth.

"I'm very shocked to see how long you managed to keep fighting. Many people would've dropped halfway, but you managed to push through."
"Heh, thanks..." I shuffled myself up against the wall as the door opened and a familiar figure dashed in.
"Bajang, what is it?" Rabbit asked. Bajang hesitated and Rabbit stepped forwards, obviously concerned.
"What's wrong? Did she take your energy?"
"Oh! No, no, she didn't. She refused to take any from me. But she... She gave me another message to take back to you.  She wants to speak with you alone tomorrow morning, before anything is settled."
"Tomorrow morning?" Rabbit repeated. "Why not tonight?"
"Well... She said she had plans later tonight, so she can't."
"With whom...? Wait, never mind. I don't wish to know." She turned away from him and sighed. "Thank you, Bajang. You're dismissed for the night."
"Oh! Thank you, my lady." Bajang left the room and Rabbit hugged her staff to her body, clearly upset.
"Why do we have to keep discussing this...?" She murmured to herself. I didn't say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was offend my trainer somehow. After a short while, Rabbit turned back to me.
"Are you ready to go again?" I smiled and nodded. Exhausted I may be, but I wasn't about to let that stop me from fighting.