Too soon it seemed, but to the great appreciation of my dwindling internal energy and screaming muscles, Monroe brought an end to my staff meditation training.
After having me set my staff aside, at close distance, he had me begin following him in limbering and stretching exercises.
Following those movements which aided in restoring a modicum of strength back into my sore arms and hands, he then invited 2 of his other hidden staff to aid us in the next demonstration. They were both young women, dressed in modest cleaning attire which led me to feeling a bit embarrassed for the next part.
“To be honest.” He started explaining. “If I were to use Dalton in this part of training, then you’d miss out on a lot of key details in take downs, counters, and avoidances.” Turning to one of the ladies he said. “Stacie, you’ll be my sparring partner and Denise will be Andrew’s partner.”
Stacie looked notably excited for the favor, while Denise looked somewhat wistful at her failure to procure Monroe as her opponent. They were both elven, excepting they looked to be half or partial bloods as other indiscernible features appeared to blend in with their overall appearance.
“Stacie.” Monroe called out. “Come at me barehanded with a strong right punch.”
She didn’t even hesitate, as she rushed at him and swung her right arm in a rapid move with a seemingly real intent to hit him in the face. Monroe, then swiftly took a step back with his right leg, firming his stance, gripped her swinging arm in a unique grip with both off his hands, then seemingly pulling her down to trip over his now bent left knee, he then simply pulled her off balance into tumbling on the ground.
Stacie smoothly rolled out of the tumble into a quick and efficient recovery.
Watching on with pride in his eyes he said. “As you can see Andrew, there will be no need to be gentle as all of my staff are routinely trained in self-defense and have each cultivated a strong body.”
I could only dumbly nod as I watched him take down Stacie and her subsequent rapid recovery. I was starting to have flashbacks to the time I was on that playground so many years ago with the blonde girl who kicked my but in the chicken game on the parallel bars.
Shaking my head to clear the mental distraction, I looked towards Denise and prepared the stance that Monroe had shown me in order to counter her moves. Before she had taken her first step, Monroe intervened. “Denise, take half speed and hold on demand.”
She gave a curt nod with a “Yes Sir!” before coming at me. As I awaiting her slowed approach, Monroe began making minute adjustments to my form, requesting Denise pause every once in a while, if I wasn’t getting it right for a bit. Finally, he appeared somewhat satisfied as he allowed her to make contact.
I honesty hadn’t had this close of contact with a woman in too long, and so I had mentally to struggle a bit with my not fully compliant hormones in order to keep myself from getting overly stimulated. Getting a hard-on down below during a marital arts spar, was certainly not something I felt I could live down the embarrassment of.
Thankfully, it did feel like lately I was having to struggle less and less to get my juvenile drive more under control. I wasn’t sure if there was a correlation to it, but I believe that my increased sense of the sensation I was used to in real-life, coming to me here, was to thank for that improved control. Either that or time granted me more restraint.
In either case, I now sought to mimic Monroe in his movements as I tried to redirect the momentum and movement of Denise to bring her tumbling over my knee. I was somewhat successful, but I felt woefully under-skilled as she demonstrated a superhuman ability to hold still in even the most precarious of positions as I was frequently corrected.
Together, Monroe and I repeated this movement until he was somewhat satisfied. Then we moved on to them attacking us with a weapon. At that point he had Denise and Stacie switch partners. This led to Denise lighting up with delight and Stacie looking somewhat disappointed.
‘Come on ladies, I’m hopefully not that terrible to practice with!’ I practically yelled out in my mind. However, I really couldn’t fault them. Monroe was their employer and based on Victoria’s interest in him, he was almost guaranteed to be quite the catch for some lucky woman. Watching on wistfully a part of me yearned to find a woman who looked at me in such a way that there was no one else in the world that they would rather be with. I felt a trace of energy pass through me in that moment, as if reinforcing this desire.
Wallowing in regret was not something I allowed myself to indulge in for too long as it tended to not accomplish anything positive. And so, coming back to focus on the present, I watched and prepared as Monroe had each of them pick up a sword. My sparring partner Stacie had a padded sword, while Denise wielded a bare bladed weapon. I gave Monroe a concerned look, but he appeared ready and waiting for the attack.
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As Stacie came charging in at him with the sword, he simply did a kind of pivot step using his hip to slightly displace her momentum. That entire time, his hands appeared hovering somewhat near the blade, as if remotely guiding it past him and harmlessly forward.
I had no honest hope of mastering such a move in the short term, but still together we worked on such with me treating Denise with her padded blade as my partner. We continued the practice until he was satisfied and then we moved on.
On and on we continued with several moves that I had no chance at replicating any time soon on my own. As my energy flagged and my arms became as limp as noodles, we were finally interrupted by the now more formally dressed butler Dalton. “Sirs and madams” he addressed Monroe and me, as well as our sparring partners. "It is time for dinner and we should not miss it as we have already missed out on lunch."
Dinner!? Only now, that it had been mentioned did my stomach begin to tell me that it was suspiciously empty and wanted filling. I had been so caught up in the training that time had just flown by without awareness.
“Oh Andrew.” Monroe spoke up. “I would appreciate if you would join me for dinner as I have some things I would like to discuss with you.”
Not seeing any reason why not to as I was hungry and especially since he had spent so much of his time on my training, I gratefully accepted.
Soon enough, we were situated at a decent sized table filled with various types of delicious smelling food. What I suspected to be almost all of his staff were actually joining us at our or the surrounding tables as well to enjoy the meal. The only ones remaining standing were the serving staff that were getting everyone drinks. Dalton appeared to be suffering somewhat at the impropriety of it all, but he seemed very accustomed to this lack of decorum from his boss at this meal time.
Monroe was apparently very different at home than what he portrayed himself to be in the public. The food was delicious but still not quite up to standards for what Victoria made. However, I was relatively relieved that I didn’t need to have a fear of being poisoned this time in the name of continued training. That had happened on more occasions than I cared to recall at my teachers dining table. Sometimes, I honestly felt like she was training me to be a poison taste tester in preparation for some espionage like work eventually.
As the meal progressed with small talk discussing various happenings throughout the city, Monroe finally brought up the main topic. “Andrew,” He started, looking more gravely at me. “I have greatly enjoyed our time training together today and I would like to continue it at appropriate intervals.”
This started to sound promising to me as I had gained much from just this single day of training. However, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that I was going to be able to implement what we did today in a practical setting without far more reinforcement and in person practice.
“Today,” He continued. “What I taught you can be considered a free lesson with no strings attached.”
“However,” He added before I could interrupt. “My time is limited and there should always be a balance in favors given and received.”
I gave an appreciative nod in understanding where he was coming from, and thus waiting to see where he was going. “I have an issue that I cannot in my current position address, for various reasons.”
Confusion covered my face as I was unsure about what he couldn’t do that I might have a chance at doing. But he continued to address that. “Due to the risks involved, there is a project at the site of the Falls which the other members of the council do not want me personally to invest in. Upon much debate and requests from members I am friendly with, I was able to convince them to allow me the project contingent upon the use of a Traveler to do the work.”
By now I was fully curious about what he wanted done and again why he could not be the one to do it.
“I am needing a cave to be dug into the cliff side beside the falls themselves in order to house and rear a precious egg of mine. It is my attempt in ridding us of the need for our current, dangerously fickle and unsafe monster guardian at the Falls.”
Okay, this sounded very interesting. I was not aware of there being a creature there that the city appeared to be intentionally retaining for some reason.
“What we currently have is an adolescent freshwater Kraken who guards our waters day and night from would-be predators and monsters. It gives off a natural deterrence whether in sleep or while awake that drives away many problematic would-be invaders which are sensitive to such deterrence. However, it has no master, and we are in a kind of uncertain symbiotic or tolerant relationship with it.”
This was completely news to me. I had wondered why all those onlookers at the Falls appeared so relaxed and care free in the presence of such a nearby monster. But then I also recalled how at the very end, when I was fleeing from the wolves that night for Victoria’s test, that what should have been a guaranteed capture and subsequent mutilation by them, had instead ended early, as they cut short their pursuit and then retreated. Was that possibly due to the unseen influence of the kraken?
Monroe continued on despite my inner thoughts. “You more than likely have no need to worry about the presence of the kraken during daylight hours, as it is fully nocturnal, preferring to sleep during daylight and waking to eat at night. Hence this is why no one goes to the falls past dark. We don’t restrict anyone from doing so. It is just common sense to not throw yourself into the eager tentacles of the hungry monster.”
Finally, he got to the point. “Basically, the Council is concerned that the repetitious pounding of an excavating pick, could awaken the creature enough to deal with and eat the offending individual before going back to sleep. Thus, they are requiring the recruitment of a Traveler due to their unique form of immortality.”
Huh. To be honest. This actually sounded kind of fun to me. As such I responded. “I would be more than happy to work away at the cliff side by the falls. It sounds interesting, and if such work allows me to learn more from you, then I consider this to be a more than fair trade in my favor.”
“Excellent!” Monroe proclaimed. “Then I would be able to provide lessons comparable to what we did today on a weekly basis, if you can find the time.”
I nodded at his offer feeling that Victoria would not at all begrudge me this, since she was always trying to find a way to get closer to Monroe in the first place.
“Good.” He concluded. “It is too late today to begin general instructions at the Falls, but we can begin tomorrow if you feel that Victoria will be accommodating.”
My lips twitched in humor at the thought of her type of accommodation. I still had occasional memories of when she had purposely leaned forward at our first introduction, in order to target Monroe with her voluptuous upper assets. I then had to struggle to maintain proper thoughts about my own teacher and master, maintaining the expected decorum between teacher and student.
Soon enough Monroe and I worked out the details that we could at that time, dinner finished up, and he sent me back to Victoria’s home in a pre-arranged carriage.
.
.
.
Arriving back at the store, Victoria was very excited to hear about how my day was training with Monroe. She appeared particularly pleased with our future arrangement with training and my work at the falls. Apparently, my thoughts had been correct regarding her designs.
Soon enough, I retired for the night and went to bed.