Learning new things.

6. Learning new things

I wake up feeling safe and well fed, a feeling I haven’t had before. I lay on the ground smiling while I think how this place feels like a paradise and how I am glad to be alive.

The woman said that there are dangerous beasts outside and she can’t leave here because of them, doesn’t it mean that I can’t leave this place either? I like this place but I can’t live here forever, I need to find a way to not be afraid of the beasts.

I should ask the woman, she knows a lot of things so I am sure she can tell me how to deal with the beasts. I stand up and take some meat and eat it, I still can’t get enough of the taste and the pleasure it gives me almost brings me to tears.

I open the door and walk to the corridor, the door to her room is closed so she must be sleeping still. The box of meat has also disappeared from the corridor, she must have taken it to her room like I did. 

I wonder what I should do in the meantime as I wait for her to wake up. I could see if all the boxes are filled with meat, I go into the box room and start opening boxes. After opening all the seven boxes I am quite surprised that they were all meat, I look around the room and it truly doesn’t have anything else inside except the meat boxes.

I leave the room feeling a bit disappointed and at the same time the woman comes out of her room, she is dressed the same way she was yesterday but her hair seems messier.

“Good morning.” She says with a smile.

I am bit startled and only nod as a response.

“Can you tell me how to beat the beasts that are outside?”

She thinks for a while before answering.

“That will be difficult for you, well you did manage to defeat the bandits so I think you could do it if you try hard enough but it will be a lot of hard work, are you all right with that?”

I nod again.

“so, training your body, skills and mind will be required. I can’t help you with skills like swordsmanship and such because I have no experience in fighting but I can help you with training your body and mind.”

“Swordsmanship?”

“It’s where you swing that metal thing that is in your room, the one that looks like a dagger but bigger. There are people that can use it masterfully and cut beasts in half with a single slash. Try to get used to the sword on your own time and try moving it however you like, it won’t make you the best swordsman but I’m sure it will help.”

I nod.

“Your days will consist of training then I will teach you about beasts and the outside world and then you train again and then you will play with the sword, after that I will teach you again and then you train last time before going to sleep.”

Nod.

“Start by doing push-ups, let me show you how to do them.”

She went down on the floor face down and the pushed herself upwards with her hands, then she went down again and pushed herself upwards again then she stood up.

“Do that move as much as you can, I will go put out something to signal that we are here so my people could find this place.”

I nod and start doing the move, it feels hard to do and after a few my arms start to hurt. I ignore the pain and keep on doing it, soon my arms started to feel like there is no strength left and after a few I couldn’t push myself up anymore. I try to lift myself up with everything I have but I am unable to.

I lay on the floor breathing heavily with sweat running down, I my arms feel powerless but get a good feeling for some reason. I smile while I lay on the ground breathing.

“Seems you could do a number of them, that’s more than I expected, now go run around the cave while you have your right hand on the wall, when you get to the entrance swap walls, in other words don’t leave the cave.”

I start running around the cave like I was told, as I run I think how much cleaner it is here now compared to earlier, the wide area is cleared from all the trash that the bandits left around. The small rooms have the blankets put neatly in one place and the floor that was bloody, is now clean without a stain.

The first room is also clean and the clothes are in a neat pile in the corner, when I got to the entrance I swap walls and run back to where I started. When I had run one lap I started to feel out of breath, at the entrance I feel a sharp pain in my lower right side of stomach but I ignore it and keep running.

At two and a half laps my speed has lowered and my feet feel weak, the sharp pain has disappeared but it didn’t really bother me anyway. When I reached the end of my second lap the woman said that that’s enough for this run and I stopped running.

We then went to her room and she told me about the different beasts near this place and their weak points, she also told me things about the outside world, where different cities are and what races live there.  She taught me the meaning of various words and showed me weird symbols and what they meant, she also wanted me to make the symbols but it was difficult.

Then she showed me a new move where she held down my feet and I rise myself to an awkward sitting position and then go back to the ground and repeat it. I did those until my strength left me and after that I ran and did push-ups.

My body was sweaty all over as I finished the push-ups, I go to my room to get the sword I was supposed to play with. I take the sword and it feels extremely heavy, I can barely lift it from the ground. I try swinging it but it is extremely slow and I must use all my power to stop the sword from falling to the floor.

It will take time until I can use this thing, I think about the things the woman taught me as I try to swing the sword around.

Then it was again with a lesson with the woman and after that the last training for today, I was completely worn out from today and I just collapsed on the floor in front of our rooms.

“Well done, you have exceeded my expectations. If you can keep this up you will be a powerful man in no time. Take off your clothes ill wash you, let’s go to the toilet room.”

I was confused about many things she said but I did what she told me to, we went to the room with a hole in the wall and she explained that you are supposed to grab the ropes and do your business through the hole.

She then closed her eyes and concentrated on something, soon from her hands came water and it surprised me. The water hit me and it felt cold but refreshing, I just stood there confused about what is happening and enjoyed the feeling.

After she stopped the water I asked what was that. She told me it is magic and that she would tell me more about it tomorrow but not to get too excited because I couldn’t do it apparently.

I wipe my body on a piece of clothing and put on my clothes, I walk out of the toilet room and leave the woman to clean herself up. I go to the cage and eat a lot of meat, I felt hungrier than I did normally.

At that point, I was suddenly hit with exhaustion and I barely managed to fall on the blanket before passing out.

I open my eyes and my body felt sore all over, I was hungry again but I still felt a bit happy inside. I reach the box to grab some meat as I notice that I had left the cage door open, I freaked out and looked around me but nothing was out of the ordinary.

I started to calm down a little but it my heart was still beating fast, so I was defenseless and she must have known it. She was still in the toilet room as I fell asleep so she had to pass by me, yet she did nothing. Does this mean I can trust her? Not necessarily, she could have been wary of a trap and not done anything because it was too suspicious.

Yes, I won’t let my guard down around her, but I think I should trust her a bit more. I felt quite happy that nothing happened even though I messed up, I like her more now.

I went to the corridor and see Alessa in her room looking at the map.

“Morning.” I say to her.

She looks up with a surprise and then breaks into a wide smile as she said good morning back to me.

Then I started to train again. 

Chapter five. Chapter seven.