A Bored Lich

The first day of training, the most painful according to Alexander, went by all too fast. Thomas and Frey, covered in fresh, smelly sweat and bruises, returned to Alexander's home, where a warm dinner awaited them.

They sat themselves at the dining table and winced. One of Alexander's few servants set up three servings of porridge and left. The spoons were there, their stomachs were growling, yet the two waited for the last disciple to arrive.

"You got some leaves in your hair," Frey gestured to Thomas, whose head was covered with leaves and broken twigs. Small sections of his clothes were ripped open, and bits of ice were dotted around his legs.

"Thanks." Thomas yanked out some of the leaves and tried to flick them away, but they stuck to the tree sap on his blistered fingers. He sighed and gestured to Frey. "You got some straw in your…everywhere."

Frey absently nodded, not even bothering with the straw. Simply existing took up the little energy he had left. The two slumped down, fighting exhaustion. Hunger kept them awake until Elero wheeled herself in the doorway, whereupon they let out enthusiastic groans.

"You didn't have to wait," She smiled as Frey pushed a bowl to her. It was a quiet, calm, lukewarm meal. Halfway in, when Frey had dropped his spoon for the third time, Elero finally asked. "Aren't you right-handed? Why are you using your left?"

Frey held up a bleeding, bandaged arm that he had been hiding under the table. "It hurts too much to use the right one. I keep swinging each of my different training weapons the wrong way. I just kept straining my wrist, so I might need to see Oliver tomorrow and ask him to fix this."

Thomas set his spoon down. "If it helps, you are probably doing something more productive than my training, even though it hurt your wrists. Alexander…The general even chucks rocks at me."

"Maybe because you suck," Frey let out a laugh which turned into a fit of dry coughs.

"No really," Thomas insisted and leaned forward. "You saw me get chucked off the mountainside." Frey attempted and failed to cross his arms, but his contemptuous smile alone made Thomas frown. "He had me running up a sheer wall using vegetation instead of the ground. I jumped from tree to tree, and if I was too slow, he would chuck a rock at my head and say…"

"Come on Thomas, keep it up!" Alexander clapped. Thomas let out a curse and rubbed his head. "and what did I say about that kind of talk!" Another pain shot through Thomas's head. The rock ricochet, bouncing off of sideways trees and bushes for hundreds of feet before cracking through ice at the valley's bottom. "Go faster. Don't think of the vegetation as obstacles, but handholds for you to use."

Thomas's hands were already raw from twisting around bark. Each time he bent his legs, pain flared up. Leaves and branches slapped him as he hurtled himself up the side of the mountain. Alexander chucked another rock down. Thomas bent a branch, intercepting the trajectory.

"You will almost never be fighting on a flat field," the general boomed. "especially with the type of fighter you are. Learn to move around in any environment." Thomas went to leap to another branch, but the general halted him. "Look at that, wasting effort."

"Bending a branch to defend myself is wasting effort?" Thomas asked in between heavy breaths.

"No, you could have used it better. Lean your weight back." Thomas hesitated before leaning back, away from the safety of the tree. His stomach sunk as he imagined the deadly fall. "W-what now?"

"Step off the tree trunk!"

Thomas would have laughed if he wasn't facing imminent death, for the moment he stepped away, the branch cracked, and he plummeted down. He held on for dear life, cursing his heart out. Panic set in and he flailed about, eyes wide.

Then he stopped even though he hadn't hit anything. He cocked his head to the side and glanced up to see that, while the branch was cracked, it was still holding. He had bent the tree's branches down like rubber. Before he could sigh in relief however, his stomach sunk again.

The branch, like rubber, snapped back into place. His weak grip slipped. He was flung upwards, leaves and twigs cutting into his face and arms. His knees buckled as he hit something solid, ground. He collapsed and kissed the mountain, relief finally washing over him.

"See how you did that, saving energy?" Alexander pat him on the back. "Now do it again."

"He made me climb over and over again," Thomas relayed to the other two disciples as if retelling a nightmare. "My only solace was when we moved on to practice with one of these gun things." He slid the device in question onto the table. "Did I mention that the swamp is freezing?"

Frey and Elero nodded to each other. "So is that what we were hearing while we were training?"

"What were you hearing?" Thomas asked.

"Well at first I thought it was me," Frey shrugged. "I would pick up a random wooden training weapon, set up the dummies, reel back and hit it. Then I'd hear a distant, booming echo. It threw me off for a while but I eventually figured out what it was."

Thomas waited, expecting something more. "Is that it?" he asked. "Practicing is all you had to do. What's so bad about that?"

"I didn't say it was bad," Frey shrugged. "It can be a bit tedious at times but it's just training. Alexander shows up occasionally to give me some tips. He suggested to use a mace in the future so I'm looking forward to trying that out."

"Oh don't give me that. You were looking down on me. Admit it." Thomas scooped up some porridge and chucked it at Frey, who caught it in his mouth. "Goddess you annoy me sometimes." He sighed, then looked to Elero. "How about you, what are you doing?"

Elero looked up from the porridge that she was absently staring into. "Nothing, nothing at all. He just threw me into the lake and made me float there. If I moved, or he saw a ripple, he would yell at me to keep still. I tried to but I keep twitching every minute or so."

"Well you are not in control of that so it shouldn't count, right?" Thomas asked.

Elero shrugged. "That's what I said but he didn't seem to accept it. He said that…"

"You keep twitching because your mind isn't clear." Alexander tapped the water, rippling outwards. "You need to restore the link between your body and mind, the link which you have severely damaged. The best way to do that is to unify the two. Do nothing and think of nothing. If you are thinking of something, your body will do something. That is why you twitch. Stay there for another half an hour, then lay down on the ground."

"Why be in the water in the first place if I can just meditate anyway?" Elero asked. Several ripples traveled to the lake's shore.

"It's for the pain," Alexander barked. "Your muscles, tendons, skin, and organs are all strained. The water lets them…" he rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know. Miss Vessa said something and I tested it... It works. That's all that matters."

"Some training this is turning out to be," Elero sighed. "I don't feel like I improved at all. I'll give it some time." She downed the last of her dinner and wheeled away. "Good night."

"Good night," the other two echoed.

"Frey," Thomas said when Elero was out of earshot, looking out the dim doorway.

"Yeah," Frey responded, looking at the same place Thomas was.

"Look out for her while you're training, will you?"

"She can look after herself," Frey finished the last of his meal. "If it is about training, it's you I should worry about." He chuckled and set down the bowl to find that Thomas was still staring out the doorway.

"I have no doubt that she can handle herself," Thomas said. "But it doesn't look like she is looking after herself. I still feel a little uneasy about this." They finished their meals and went to sleep, resting for the days ahead.