FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Shimmer

The next couple days seemed to pass by in a blur. Horseback riding lessons went much more smoothly after Marian helped me, and I think Sigurd and I were even getting a little friendship going, though he was hard to read, being a horse and all. Yesterday I even managed to get him up to a gallop without falling off, and I was pretty proud of myself. Vidar shot Marian disapproving looks, but she came to each lesson after that, helping me saddle Sigurd and take all the gear off afterword, giving me huge grins and a thumbs up when I was doing something right.

Lessons with Erik were going a bit differently. The sword play and hand to hand were all right, progressing smoothly even. The meditation – safe to say – was not. We were even doing two lessons a day now, one after horseback riding and one before.

“How much longer do I have to sit on this floor?” I could hear the whiny note in my voice and it made me cringe, but my butt was killing me.

Erik’s back was ramrod straight. Somehow he seemed perfectly relaxed, even though we’d been sitting on the hard stone floor for twenty minutes straight. I couldn’t keep composed, I was fidgeting and grumpy.

“As long as it takes,” he said shortly.

I squeezed my eyes shut, miserable and furious with myself. He was probably getting fed up with me. For the last three days he’d tried to get me to “unblock” myself all the way, but it was a frustrating, painfully slow progress. As far as I could see, no progress had been made at all. All I could see was blackness now, the inside of my eyelids. I tried to force myself inwards, to push the stupid block further out of the way. My fingernails bit into the palms of my hands as I grew more and more frustrated with myself. Anger flooded my chest, making it tight, making me grind my teeth together. He must think I’m not trying. He must think….

“Megan…”

Erik’s voice was alarmed. My head jerked up and my eyes snapped open. I was sitting cross-legged, my fists on the ground, something sharp was digging into my knuckles. All around me was a circle of thick, slippery ice. It encased both my hands, running up my arms, freezing the fabric of my shirt. The floor in front of me was frozen solid.

Now he looked excited, “Just now, what were you thinking? What were you feeling?”

“I…I was feeling…mad,” I stared down at the ground in shock. The ice had begun to melt into slush already, “I was frustrated.”

He looked thoughtful, “I guess that would open your powers up fully. Can you make yourself mad at the drop of a hat if you need to?”

“I think so…” I shrugged, “I mean, sure why not.”

There were things I could think about to drum up frustration when I needed to.

“Alright,” Erik nodded, climbing to his feet with a groan, “that will have to do. Just remember your trigger is anger. When you need the ice, access it that way. It shouldn’t be hard in battle. Eventually we’ll fine tune it, but we only have another week or so.”

“Does that mean lessons are over? No more meditation?”

He laughed at the hope in my voice, “You wish, don’t you? No, we’ll still utilize every day we have left.”

“Alright,” I glanced up at the clock, “it’s almost dinner time though. We’re done for today, right?” I was tired and sweaty for riding horses and sword fighting. If I went quickly, there was just enough time for a bath before dinner. There was no way I was going like this.

Erik looked over at the clock as well, “yes, alright. Same times tomorrow though. You go on, I’ll clean up.  I’ll see you at dinner.”

I groaned in reply and shuffled for the door, my legs and backside aching from sitting on the stupid floor for so long.    Walking outside the training room and into the halls was like emerging into a different world. The training room was always cleared out by the time Erik and I had our second lesson, so it had been silent, but the rest of the castle was bustling with activity. Just a few more days and we’d been going to battle. The jotun were preparing. I pushed down the dread that was trying to seep up into my chest and suck the air from my lungs.