Chapter 9 – First Day Of Training

“Ruten! You fell asleep!” Cora shouted.

The sun rose over the tree branches glistening on the dew speckled grass. The campfire in the middle of our site was still warm; I made sure to put more firewood on when it ran low. Two bedrolls lying next to the fire, but I wasn’t in mine. I was lying against a tree, combing the area with mana sense.

“What? I’m awake? I wasn’t sleeping.” I pleaded.

“Then why were you sitting there with your eyes closed? You were supposed to wake me up for my shift,” she said, her hands on her hips staring at me. “We could have been eating by wolves. You can’t fall asleep on watch.”

I opened my eyes and looked at her cute petite silhouette standing over me. “I thought you needed the sleep more than I did. You had a pretty rough day, and again I wasn’t sleeping.” She had almost died the day before; besides, I didn’t really need the sleep.

When our eyes met, it must have caught her off guard; she took a few steps back. “If you weren’t sleeping, what were you doing?”

Hesitantly I tried to describe it. “It’s hard to explain. It is like feeling the mana around you. If you get good enough at it, you can almost see without opening your eyes.”

Cora gave me a skeptical look. “That sounds like an excuse to take a nap. I’m sure you can come up with a better one than that. If you fell asleep, just admit you messed up.”

“Hey! I’m telling the truth; I’ll prove it.”

“Ok, go on, do it then.”

Feeling as if I was some street performer getting ready to perform a magic trick, I asked Cora to hold up any number of fingers behind her back.

Cora started to laugh, but I cut her off. “Come on, just do it.”

She put her hands behind her back. “Fine, I’m Ready.” She said.

With my eye closed, I said, “Seven, three, five…” Each time she would change the number of fingers she was holding up.

Wide-eyed, Cora looked at me. “Are you a psychic, Ruten?”

Stifling a laugh, I responded. “No, I’m not a psychic. It’s the mana sense I told you about.”

Cora pursed her lips because she could tell I was holding in laughter. “Don’t be mean. Psychics can read your mind and stuff, but if you can sense mana that must mean you have an affinity for it, right? Can you use magic?”

I did attempt to use magic back in the dungeon but it didn’t go well. That was before I had Zozi’s mark filling me with power; I should probably try again and see if I can perform proper magic this time.

“I’m not sure; let’s give it a try. I haven’t tried to actually cast anything in a while.” I gathered the mana around me how the old lady taught me they were testing if I had an aptitude for magic as a child. I would use that same spell I had back then; it was the only one I was familiar with.

“Facere Aquam,” I uttered. It was the basic create water spell. I felt the pull of magic as a ball of water formed in the palm of my hand. Shocked, my concentration waned, and the water ball fell apart, leaving a small puddle on the ground.

“It worked!” Cora shouted.

The spell wasn’t anything fancy but the fact that it even worked amazed both of us. I was a child the last time I had tried to cast the spell. A mage had come to the orphanage looking for those with talent in magic. She could tell I had A bit of mana and had me try casting this spell. At the time, I didn’t have enough magic to cast it. Since I failed her test, she didn’t take me on as an apprentice.

Focusing, I tried again. “Facere Aquam.”

Once again, a palm-sized ball of water formed in my hand. As long as I kept focus, it didn’t fall apart. With mana sense, I could see how the mana was being formed how it changed from mana into the water as it converged from my body with the ambient magic in the air. I let the water ball fall to the ground again.

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Cora stood there, staring at me. Her eyes twinkled with excitement. “This is the first time I’ve seen magic.”

I focused again, but this time without uttering the spells name, I tried to form the magic in the same way. Pushing the mana from my body, swirling it around in my hand, changing it into that pale blue mana I seen when the water formed. A ball of water began to form in my hand.

Cora gasped, “How did you do that without an incantation!”

I stared at the ball of water in my hand. “I-I just tried to match the mana I seen with mana sense. It actually worked…” I was still a bit shocked too that I was able to form the water without the incantation.

The mana I was controlling faded when I stopped focusing, causing the water to once again fall into the puddle below. “Magic sure is something else.”

♦♦♦♦♦

“Come on, Ruten, where was that strength you had yesterday?” Cora chided.

After my little attempt at magic was successful, Cora was eager to get into training. Hardly missing a beat, she picked up a small log about the size of a sword and tossed it to me, and found herself one too. I hadn’t been using my mana strengthening because it wouldn’t exactly be fair to use that during our training. Cora was the one that seemed to do the teaching, though, because she easily outpaced me in swordplay.

She caught my attack with her stick sliding it down to my hand, smacking it. That caused me to drop my stick, and she followed up by slamming the handle side of her stick into my diaphragm.

“You were much quicker when you fought that spider.”

Cora stood over me after whacking me in the stomach. One hand on her hip and the sword sized log in the other—her shoulder-length blonde hair disheveled wet with sweat caught in the breeze.

“Well, I was using mana to strengthen me yesterday. I didn’t think you would be this much better than me, though.” I responded.

“Mana, to strengthen yourself? How do you do that?”

It wasn’t a very well-known use of magic, and it took a lot to maintain. You had to have an aptitude for magic, so not many people could do it—those who could typically become full-fledged mages instead of warriors.

“It’s where you focus the mana in your body for bursts of strength, speed, or defense. Most people that can do it just become mages. I only learned it because I didn’t have enough mana to cast any spells, but I could use it to give me a small burst of strength and speed.”

The disappointed look on Cora’s face vanished as she ran up to me, helping me up.

“Can you teach that to me?”

I did notice Cora did have some mana. I wasn’t sure how much mana would be enough, though. “I don’t know if you have enough mana, but we can try.”

“Thanks!” she said, pulling my arm to her chest. When she realized she was hanging on to me, she quickly let go, and it looked like her cheeks got a tint redder.

“I’m not making any promises. Don’t get mad if you can’t do it.” I didn’t want her to get angry at me if it turned out she was unable to.

♦♦♦♦♦

Ruten and Cora sat in the clearing of their campsite facing each other. Cora's palms were face up, and Ruten’s hands slowly slide over them.

“First, you will need to be able to feel your own mana,” Ruten said

Closing her eyes, Cora could feel a warmth spreading through her body. From Ruten’s hand, there was warmth. It would spread then recede back as his other hand pulsed with the same heat.

While lost in thought, she began to think of yesterday when he saved her. Remembering when she was had encountered that spider. She was prepared for goblins, but not that massive man-eating spider. She had carefully made her way through the dungeon killing a few goblins until she leaned back onto a wall. Only to realize it was a spider’s web.

Pulling on the web is what must have alerted the spider because, after a few moments of trying to get untangled, the spider came out of one of the holes in the ceiling. The spider quickly grabbed Cora, squeezing her tightly as it began to spit more web covering her.

She began screaming for help. She couldn’t get away and didn’t even have a chance to try and escape. It was happening so quick. Before she knew it, she was already completely covered by the web, it was difficult to breathe, but she wasn’t dead yet.

Cora struggled with every ounce of strength she had, trying to free herself, but the web was not budging. The spider hung her up high on the web. Probably saving her for a snack later. Hanging there, she tried to scream, and all that came out were muffled sounds. Thinking back, she was sure this is where she was going to die, but at that moment, when she was about to give up hope, she felt herself falling.

She began trying to scream again; Cora was only able to produce muffled sounds through the cocoon. Shortly after, Ruten started to cut the web that covered her face. She saw Ruten, his dark eyes staring back at her, a smile on his face. How could he smile at a time like this?

Noticing the giant spider pouncing down at him from above, Cora shouted, “Behind you!”

Ruten quickly turned around, entirely blocking the spider leg that tried to pierce him. Then just like that time when Randolph had saved the group of merchants, the fear washed away.

Was this my knight? My knight like in the stories that comes and saves the maiden? She thought

No, that can’t be it. I’m a knight; I am just admiring his strength. That’s all, I just need him to train. He jumped back up in the air chasing after the fleeing spider.

That’s right, I’m a knight. I’m just impressed with his skill. I can’t let him go. I’ll have to make him train me so I can be as good of a knight as Randolph and him.