The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 19 - building confidence

"come on girl, you aren't tired already are you? We have just begun!" Peter yelled at her from his chair.

Cara looked at him for a moment and growled. He was currently strapped to a cart full of metal. Peter had ordered her to pull it at least 3 rounds around the clearing, to build strength he had said.

She struggled to get the cart moving again but managed to make it another round around the clearing. Once she was done peter unstrapped her from the cart. "time for fight training." He said as he took a few steps away from her.

"shift to your full power Cara!" peter yelled from across the field. She hesitated but shifted anyway. When she shifted, so did peter. Peter seemed to grin again as he took a few steps towards her. Then to her biggest surprise he talked while being like this.

"you are scared." He now stood right in front of her. "you are scared of your own power!" he swung at her with speed cutting her shoulder. She winced and growled back. Peter taunted her by opening his arms inviting her to attack him.

she clawed at his face but he was faster and stepped to the side while he punched her gut. "come on girl, is that all you got?" she growled again getting quite angry now as she put more force in her blows. The best she managed to was hit him once in the face. She went for the exposed parts as his armour was covering most easy to reach parts.

now that Cara was up close she could see the armour better, he had a breastplate with a snarling wolf head in the middle and bracers on his forearms that he used to block her attacks with. While she was slightly distracted he pushed her on the ground. "and you're dead".

He shifted back to human as she did. "girl, why are you so afraid of your power?" Cara was irritated by the man, first he exhausted her with 'strength training' then he beat her up as he was clearly more powerful than her and now he was asking her questions that he already knew the answer to.

he did not wait for her answer. "you will never be able to go back to your boy if you do not master your power properly." She glared at him, if looks could kill he would be dead right now.

he walked over to his chair again and motioned for her to sit in a chair next to him. "Cara let me tell you something, not fully mastering your power is more dangerous than holding back. If you hold back you loose control. That happened to you didn't it?" Cara nodded. "good, then you know how it feels."

he looked up at the sky for a moment before speaking again. "i was never a good teacher" he turned to her. "Cara our power is deemed to be the most dangerous one in the world, apart from those shadow men of course. And it was used for bad things, to the extend of mutation of our power. I was the first generation of 'monsters'. My mother was injected with a serum that made me to what i am today."

Cara dared not interrupt him. "we were treated like dogs, trained for war. But when we resisted we were deemed to dangerous. We served out of fear." Peters eyes glazed over as he remembered his past.

"you cannot let fear rule over your life. Cara do not fear your power, yes it can be used for bad things but it can be used for good things just as easily. Hold on to that thought."

"when we transform you can feel the instincts of the wolf, do not fear them but embrace them. They will help you make the right decisions. They will help you grow stronger. They will help you to give you energy where there is none left."

"now if we are going to do this i want you to understand that i will not tolerate you being afraid of your power anymore, i don't know what happened in the past and i won't ask, all what matters is the present and the future."

Cara nodded, the words of her uncle hitting her to her core. She was afraid of her power, she was afraid to hurt the people she loved. But she had one burning question tho.

"how did you talk, when you shifted?'

peter laughed. "have you never tried? It is not that hard actually although you can only do it when you are in your monster form, your vocal cords won't sound like your human ones but with some practive you might make yourself understandable."

Cara giggled, she was definitely going to try that out.

"now girl, instead of giggling why don't you shift back to 4 legs so we can finish that strength training."

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a few days had passed. Cara felt much more confident in her powers. She had not heard or seen anything from kaz brekker or the crows but she was not ready to worry about that just yet.

she and her uncle were in the smithy today.

"so how does the armour work?" Her uncle smiled at her.

"its a special metal, the only metal that will shift with us. Only few smiths can get their hands on it. It is completely bullet proof, it won't scratch ad it is as light as a feather. Oh and very expensive of course."

"and let me guess, you are one of the smiths that makes it." Her uncle grinned at her.

"can i have armour?"

"i already made a set for you." He walked to the back of the smithy and came back with a breastplate and a set of bracers.

Cara hugged her uncle. "can you help me put it on?"

"of-course"

she walked out of the smithy and shifted to her monster wolf. Her uncle started with the breastplate first, adjusting the straps. "does this feel comfortable?"

"yes its good" Cara had also mastered her talking, no long sentences but her uncle had said she was a natural talker. Her voice sounded deeper than normal with a growl.

her uncle also strapped on the bracers and then took a step back. He got a bit emotional "you look just like your dad." Cara shifted back and hugged him.

"Cara i am proud of you, i think you have conquered your fear of your power. You have come so far. I have taught you everything i knew. You came to me as a scared little wolf but now when i stand next to you i can almost feel the power coming from you in waves.

suddenly they heard horse hooves, at least 2 horses. Cara turned to the sound and could not believe her eyes.

AN: a small extra chapter, i am sorry i did not update yesterday i was not happy with what i wrote and had to start over. Let me know what you guys think! I am always open to suggestions!