He saw Pallia rush out into the woods with her sword and no pack, so Hitch decided to follow after the girl. She walked with a purpose, nearly jogging until she got to the place that ended up as the training clearing. There, she started going through the motions of her training, but they were different from normal. At first, they seemed simply more fluid, but quickly grew more and more elaborate, as though the girl performing them were training with the sword for years, rather than days.
As she swung the blade around, the wind started to rise. The grass and trees swayed with it as the girl spun, swung and moved with the blade, until finally finishing her training with a singular cleave. It was aimed at no one in particular, the blade extended towards one end of the clearing, slicing through the air. But as it cut, the wind stopped, air still after being sliced clean through.
The boy dared step closer only once she was done, standing completely still in the center of the cleaning.
“That was new.”
She looked at him as though in a daze and took a few moments to reply, speaking softly and slowly.
“Yeah. I think I dreamt about it. Or read about the moves? I’m not even sure I’m awake now, the sword doesn’t feel any different.”
“You were asleep for a while after you touched that marble.”
“I remember picking it up. I think it was magic. I spent a while in my dreams just going through the motions, one after another, swing after swing. I didn’t have a mentor in there or anything, just things feeling right and me doing them until… Well, until I could do it in my sleep. Now just to make sure I can do it while I’m awake too.”
She lifted the blade in one smooth motion, the tip moving along the ground without touching it, the ground getting ripped up.
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“Ouch, okay, I still need more muscle to pull that one off. But I think it’ll be fine.”
“You’ve gotten strong. We should head back though, tell everyone you’re okay.”
“You’re right, sorry for just running off like that. Did I miss anything?”
They strolled back together, waking the remainder of sleepers in the camp.
—
Olivia darted to the right, then jumped back as the beast lunged at her. It was half as tall as her, had dark green fur and a long face. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth it was gnashing at her, and it had six legs. Its body was long, and the legs were tipped with claws, though it wasn’t using them to attack. Instead, the beast ran at her until she was forced to move to the side again, and it continued forward, claws digging into the tree she just dodged and moving up it swiftly. It then kept running under a branch before dropping on her again, twisting its body out of the way of her spear. Moments before it could land on her and let its fangs sink into her, it was stabbed by another spear and pinned to the tree, Ssamalih having impaled it clean through.
“{You have to get it after the first dodge.}”
Olivia had gotten the basics of the speech down, though it still took a few tries for her to get some of the words. But they’d talked about this particular beast, an oshluh, enough that she’d been able to learn the words most used when fighting it.
“I know, but I don’t have the time to make it dodge, then strike before it can get ready again.”
She was feeling quite frustrated with herself. This was the third oshluh she fought and she had yet to land a blow.
“{That’s why you bring a youngling to bait it.}”
The lizard ruffled her hair before grabbing the beast and tossing it over her shoulder.
“{You can be the one to prepare it today.}”
“Ugh.”
Olivia was learning at a pace that seemed extreme to her. Her spear skills were not too bad to begin with, but after a few sessions with Ssamalih and these hunts, she felt she was improving by leaps and bounds with every fight.
“Are we close?”
“{A day, maybe two more until we get there.}”
“I can’t wait to see an actual city again.”
