Denial of the Whisper

Chapter Thirteen.

Chapter Thirteen.

"Block", he shouted at me, again.

Exhausted, I lifted my arms, but was too slow. Again.

Caaln stopped shortly before he hit me, and again, I was glad that he had so much control over his blows.

He huffed and shook his head, his eyes still trained on me. "I think it's enough for today.", he remarked and nodded to the shadow across the small training field, indicating that I should get out of the burning sun.

Caaln had picked me up quite early, just like it had been his plan days ago. Alone the fact that he hadn't said anything about my mood change on that matter, made me know that Nyshard must have told him that I was now willing to be trained.

But of what use it would be, was still to be seen.

Caaln had led me to some training field within the castle grounds. I had not questioned it, because he had started with the exercises right away, had let me run around the field a few times, and had then tried to teach me some basics of hand-to-hand combat.

I highly doubted he ever had such a bad student like me in his whole life.

But he had been incredibly patient when he had told me what the best stance for me as a beginner – and a woman – was, then, he had shown me some basic blocks.

Afterwards, the fun, like he had called it, had begun. I assumed he hadn't even used a tiny amount of strength and speed when he had begun to attempt to punch at me. Those had been slow swings at first, not with fists, but with flat hands, and over the time he had increased in speed, telling me to go faster and to push myself against my limits.

Which I had reached quite fast.

Caaln had told me, that he would soon show me how to get my footwork right, and then he would teach me some more techniques to free myself if someone was holding me.

"It's all about the right technique. Even if your opponent is much stronger and bigger, you still have a fair chance because of your agility and flexibility."

I just had the impression, that it would take me a lot of time to get to that point. But nevertheless... training with Caaln was something completely different than how I had spent my past days, and it somehow felt good to not just sit in a room the whole day. And, as many other things I had seen and experienced in Ilyria until now, it was something completely new for me.

"You did well.", he remarked, as I let myself very much fall onto the ground and leaned back in the cool grass under the tall tree.

"You don't have to flatter me", I murmured exhausted.

He grinned and sat next to me in a bit of a distance, leaning against the tall tree. I took it a bit personal, that he wasn't even sweating, while I felt like I've worked the whole day in a vegetable field, working under the hot sun.

"I'm not flattering you.", he assured me with a wink.

I groaned as I sat up, and glanced at him. "Why do you train me?"

"Because you need to learn to defend yourself."

"No, I mean... why do you train me?", I clarified "You're Head of the Guards. I'm pretty sure you have more important stuff to do."

Caaln watched me for a moment, then he answered, with an almost neutral expression "You don't like to train with me?"

I blinked, and looked at the tall, black-haired man with the deep, dark eyes. Then, I shook my head, and for a moment I thought I saw his expression drift to one of sadness. "That's not what I meant, Caaln."