After wrapping up the story about a group of teenagers delving into people’s psyche to help better humanity she was staring wide eyed with awe in her eyes.

“S-SO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL MAGIC LIKE THAT IN YOUR WORLD?! THAT’S AWESOME! Oh can you teach me? Why don’t you use it?!”

Suppressing a laugh and with a bright grin I responded.

“N-No It’s something close to a fairy tale. It’s all made up. The technology stuff was real though.”

“Ehhhh! That’s weird, a world with a BIIIG carriage on tracks that goes at super fast speeds..”

“Ah sorry but could we get to the magic teaching part?”

A small pout instantly appeared on her face as she complained

“Awwww, j-just one more story than we start with that okay!.” She looked up at me with glittering eyes. I let out a sigh as I put my hand on my head. She is cute… BUT I need to learn magic so I can live. I pat her head as I respond.

“How about this, if you help me learn how to use magic, every time I’m recovering or finished learning something I’ll tell you a new story.”

She nodded excitedly in response and we got on with it.

My first lesson was first to feel the energy sitting within. I sat cross legged as she instructed me.

“Okay so first you gotta focus on closing yourself off from the outside world. Stop your thinking and focus on understanding. For now all I want you to do is try and find mana in your body.”

I tried to empty my mind and focus on what she said. Searching my body for the energy I had collected earlier or been washed away in. As I closed my eyes and searched I began to lose focus. This is stupid.. I wonder why she wanted to help.. I wanna headpat her again.. STOP THINKING…. I shook my head and tried to shut out my senses. Slightly irritated at the failure, I took a deep breath and released it before slowly focusing on each part of my body, relaxing them one by one. As I got to my head and let it fall I felt a strange emptiness within me. It was almost as if there was a container with nothing in it inside of me. I delved deeper into the feeling, letting it wash over me.

This emptiness.. It was where I had felt the mana from the crystals disappear earlier. I searched, yet it seemed like a yawning chasm of nothing. Like no matter how much was poured into it, everything would just slip out. As I tried to understand this I was jolted back to reality by a snake tail poking my head and a worried looking Ran staring at me.

“Are you okay mister Kieran?”

Startled by the return and slightly stung by the fact I was apparently old enough to be called mister I gave a small nod and replied.

“I searched inside myself but didn’t find any mana. I think I may have found the container though? I might've also found a problem possibly.”

She tilted her head curiously as she asked.

“Whatcha mean by that?”

“When I was looking for this mana stuff, I found something but it definitely wasn’t like you described. It was like some sort of chasm type thing? It gave off a deep sense of emptiness…” She stared confusedly for a few seconds before responding with a small shrug and simple answer.

“You’re weird…”

I sighed and decided to at least humor her with another story. Even if was a bit unfortunate that I wouldn’t learn anymore about magic for now. Filing that away for later I began to tell her a story about a young man’s journey to become the best at battling using mysterious creatures.

After the story, she’d panickily left realizing how much time had passed and I was finally left with my own thoughts again.

Judging by the light coming in it was around late midday at this point. As I relaxed and thought on my next course of action the door once again opened. A familiar face appeared as Cecilia, the magic using lamia and the leader of her people appeared. She gave me a dirty look as she looked down at me and pointedly asked.

“Really now trying to get a child to teach you magic? Well I suppose you’re nothing if not resourceful. Let’s just hope that resourcefulness will help you get through this training. I’ll have you training with the snakelets aiming to be hunters. Try not to slow them down too much, alright?”

I nodded firmly as I stood, still quite sore from the earlier workout I resolved myself to go as far as my body would allow. After that I was guided to where the training would take place. I saw a familiar face as I waved at the same lamia who had saved me from the panther-like beast. Her white hair and vibrant green eyes glancing over me. She was surrounded by a group of smaller lamia in varying sizes as she seemed to be in the middle of giving instructions.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“And ensure at all times to be with a partner. The Shé do not hunt alone. If you find yourselves in a dangerous situation your lives come first, do everything you can to escape and preserve yourselves. Human, Ran, you’ll be with me for this training session.”

I walked to her side and saw the cute little lamia who had been listening to my storytelling by my side. She seemed a tad glum but brightened up with a small grin as she greeted me. The white haired lamia continued directly to the two of us as the rest set off.

“I’ll be instructing you firsthand, as the two of you seem to be just starting. We’ll begin with some basic physical exercises before getting onto tracking and hiding.”

After that we set out into a small clearing next to the jungle. The white haired lamia turned towards us and introduced herself.

“I’m the lead huntress for the Shé, Artemis. I’ll be teaching the two of you on both the basics of hunting. Now let me ask both of you something before we get started. What is the most important thing for a hunter?”

I stopped to consider it. Perhaps it’s their ability to kill prey? Or maybe their knowledge to be able to locate and track their query. Hmm… My thoughts were interrupted by the abrupt outburst of Ran.

“Oh I know! It’s their hunting skills!”

Artemis looked fairly amused at the answer and gave a small nod before asking.

“And what are those hunting skills?” while looking at me patiently.

“I suppose the ability to find prey and kill it?” I responded. She put a finger on her chin, considering something before answering.

“You’re not entirely wrong but in an environment like this that’s not all there is to it. You also have to be able to return with the prey, without dying yourself. You’ve already experienced what sort of predators lurk in the jungle, and what you fought is by no means the apex either. Now, let’s get started.”

I felt my stomach heave as I laid on the ground staring up at the crystal lights. I slowly turned my head and looked at the small lamia splayed out similarly by my side. Between heavy breaths I asked

“So.. you doing alright?”

A small groan was the only response I got to which I gave a small nod too.

“Yeah… me too.”

Artemis stared down at us with a clearly irritated expression on her face as she let out a long sigh.

“You know that was only the warm up right? We haven’t even gotten to sparring yet. This is basic physical conditioning most of our snakelets can do while barely breaking a sweat.”

“Well,-” my response was broken by a fit of coughs before I forced myself to continue.

“To be fair.. I’m a human.” I responded with my speech being slow and messy.

She simply helped me back up by picking me up by the back of my torn up shirt and standing me up.

“Grab some water and we’ll continue after.”

I clenched my fist as I felt a twinge of annoyance before I simply gave an tired nod and helped Ran up. Both of us moved in silence as the exhaustion had quickly put a damper on our spirits.

God how are sprints a warm up. Combined with all those absurd movements and stretches I can barely walk straight. Guess that makes sense though, considering how strong they are… Seriously if this is what Yoga is like I’m sorry for assuming that it was easy…

After we rehydrated and slowly made our way back the worst part of the training began, spars.

Facing across from Artemis I lowered myself into a ready stance focusing on trying to read her moves and potential attacks. I heard Ran cheering at me to avenge her from the sidelines as I focused.

Her eyes are focused on me, closely observing my movements. Tail is swaying and coiled at the ready to launch. Expression focused and confident.

I put my foot to the right feinting a dash before twisting to the left and sprinting directly at her. Aiming to distract and get in close in, I felt a surge of hope as I approached right before a massive tail slammed into my abdomen sending me tumbling across the ground and stealing the air from my lungs.

A flaming pain bloomed in my chest as I struggled to catch my breath. Combined with the dizzying confusion of just being thrown across the ground sent my thoughts into disarray. A few moments later I discovered her calmly standing over me looking down at me.

“Humans are surprisingly disappointing.” she remarked calmly

I clenched my fist in frustration as I struggled to sit up, Ran helping me. A hot streak of embarrassment and anger shot through me as I growled under my breath.

“I did my best alright… I don’t have the abilities you guys have..”

“And your best clearly wasn’t enough was it? Of course we have different capabilities, you have to figure out how to use them better to have any chance of succeeding though. For the next couple of weeks we’ll continue to train you both physically and mentally. If you want to succeed, use that brain of yours and accept that you have weaknesses.”

I grinded my teeth together as I glared at the ground, tears threatening to spill as I swallowed both my pride and the awkward lump forming in my throat.

“We’ll end here for today. Rest up for tomorrow.” she said as she shot me a cold look. Ran looked up at me concerned as Artemis left and asked.

“A-are you alright? Um, do you want to talk?”

I shook my head as I barely managed to respond

“No… I just need some time.” I muttered irritation painting my voice.

Before plodding back to the hut that had become my temporary home. I laid on the floor glaring up at the roof as my thoughts tumbled through my head. I haven’t changed have I? There were so many other things I should have done. Why did I let her get to me? I shouldn’t be that stupid… I swear I’ll show her that I won’t back down. I’ll prove myself not just to her, but to me as well.

My body relaxed as exhaustion overwhelmed me and my irritation subsided as the familiar comfort of sleep took me.