POV Amanda Brightcloud

Amanda sat on the veranda of her mansion and watched the sun slowly vanish behind the far-away mountains. Deep in thoughts, she slowly stirred the spoon in her tea. The reason for her melancholic mood was her oldest child.

Aron had changed during the last week. He had become quieter. Where before he open and easy to read now he was the complete opposite. He observed everything; he held his thoughts to himself and did not let her know what really was going on in his head. Aron had developed an astonishing drive to learn, be it martial arts or theoretical knowledge.

She was happy about his no zeal but hoped that he would open up again. Amanda knew that such things needed time. She had only limited options to help him. It depended on himself to find a solution on how to handle the memories of his near death experience and become the man he wanted to be.

Sighing, she took another sip of the tea. Aron had started to train with Sephiroth, his new bodyguard. At the beginning their Servant-Master relationship had looked quite strained, but that had changed during the last week. Now they were quite friendly with each other.

She had observed them in secret. Her son had really thought he could hide his training from her. Well, she could understand him. When she saw him for the first time lying broken with a bloody face on the ground, she wanted nothing more than to squash Sephiroth. She had dared to hurt her beloved son.

But following her intuition, Amanda had waited and observed a little further. And thanks to that, she saw with her own eyes how her son was healed in seconds by some miracle elixir. Having been healed, Aron didn’t seem to mind the pain he had suffered before. He even joked with his bodyguard/tormentor before they moved towards the direction of his chambers.

It wouldn’t have been hard for a real healer proficient in light magic to heal him. To do this much and this quickly with a healing potion was quite the feat. Normally people saved them as a last trump card. No normal person would try to take them as a training supplement.

As they had left, she walked towards the table on the side of the training area. Aron had left the cup there. She probed the remaining drops of the liquid with her magic and perception.

Amanda immediately felt the immense energy left in the one drop of liquid. It was the real deal! It was too little for her to ascertain what it was exactly, but Amanda was sure that it would not leave any problems in her son’s body. She couldn’t fathom why the girl would give such a precious healing tonic to her son.

On one hand, she wanted to find out more about Sephiroth. On the other hand, she knew that her son would be furious if he found out about her spying on him. After some pondering, she let the matter rest for the moment. Amanda would observe from the sidelines. In addition, she would ask her husband for more information about the girl. The deciding factor was the care the girl had shown her son when he was unconscious. Amanda was sure that Sephiroth really cared for Aron.

She thought about her own tragic past. As much as it hurt her to admit but the strength and will, Aron formed now would help him immensely to survive the challenges in the future. He was benefiting extensively from the new training. Aron’s strength and techniques were growing by leaps and bounds.

Relaxing, Amanda gazed at the stars that slowly had become brighter and brighter. At some point she would have to induct him to the secrets and heritage of their family. But there was still time. She wanted him to enjoy some more, living a blissful life in ignorance.

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POV Aron Brightcloud

Opening my Eyes, the familiar walls of my bedroom greeted me. Right, I had gotten knocked out again. Sephiroth was a real sadist! The memories of the awful pain that had lanced through me as she had broken my nose was still very clear in my mind.

With a sigh, I sat up. Feeling the smooth surface of the bedsheets against my skin, I realized that I was naked. What?! Why was I naked?!

I heard laughter from the other side of the room. The well-known voice of my tormentor followed it. “You look hilarious making that face, you know that?” I turned my head and was greeted by Sephiroth who was lazing on the couch.

“why am I naked?” I asked. “Did you undress me?”

“Relax, I had to clean you up as you were bleeding on everything. Your clothes were red all over. I had to undress you. It wouldn’t do if your mum found you lying in here all bloody. Don’t be a chicken. What's so terrible about it?”

Sephiroth grinned at me mischievously. She lifted her body gracefully and walked towards me. Her beautiful long and slender legs didn’t help to mask her beauty.

Wait, what the heck was I thinking?!

She had arrived at my bed before I had my emotions under control again. I slowly breathed out. Damn, why couldn’t she be like before. It was easier to deal with her when she was still cold and distant. Since she had knocked me out the first time she had changed and had gotten much more open. Sephiroth loved now to provoke me and push my boundaries.

I focused myself on her again only to see a pair of pants flying my way. Not quick enough react, they hit me in the face.

“Clothe yourself. You have slept long enough. It is already afternoon. Exactly the right time for another training session. Mors is waiting outside.” she said grinning. Having ended her sentence, she turned and walked out of my bedroom, leaving my flustered self behind.

I didn’t know if I should be annoyed about her obvious dismissal of my status in our master-servant relationship. Indeed, I had told her to call me by my first name when we were alone, but that didn’t mean that she could completely dismiss my higher standing. The part of my soul which belonged to the youth was furious at that. On the other hand, the bigger part that had come from the other world didn’t see any problems. I didn’t know how to conduct myself as a master. I only knew equality.

In the end I let her be. I could learn much more about Sephiroth when she wasn’t a guardian statue. It was refreshing to have someone who didn’t mince matters.

My mother told me once that Sephiroth would be my guardian twenty-four-seven, but obviously that was impossible. We agreed that Sephiroth would swap guardian-duty with one of our own soldiers. That let her catch up on sleep she missed otherwise.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Stretching myself, I donned some comfortable clothes to train in. Having finished my preparations, I stepped out of the room.

“Good afternoon. Mors, is everything fine?” The guard, who was watching the surroundings, turned to me and bowed lightly.

“Young Master, nice to see you full of energy again. You shouldn’t push yourself too far during your training, that can be harmful for your body.”

Seeing the worry in his eyes, I felt warmth in my heart. I still wasn’t used to the friendliness and care that my new subordinates had shown me during this week.

I smiled at him, “it is okay, Mors. I can take it. Let's walk to the backyard, I want to practice my swordsmanship and footwork a little. I think I found a solution to some of my problems. All thanks to the lesson from Sephiroth.”

“Yes, young master, I will follow behind you.”

We proceeded to the Backyard. I pushed the door open and walked out of the house. Breathing in the cool air, I enjoyed the luscious flowers and the even grass for a moment. To the right side, a training area was built with armored dummies and wooden poles that could be used for balance training. On the other side was the open area, which I used in my previous training sessions. I got myself an iron training-sword with a blunted edge from the wooden shack. It was directly next to the training area.

I laid my sword down on the ground before beginning my warm up. First came running, directly followed by pushups and sit-ups as well as special movements to warm up my joints. When I felt my body was in excellent training condition I grabbed the sword.

Now ready, it was time to begin. I could still remember where I had faltered under the onslaught of Sephiroth. I positioned myself in the correct position before I moved my sword toward my upper body. I changed the angle until I had reached the correct stance.

I slowly moved to replay my movements when I had tried to parry Sephiroth’s attack. Ah, there! My left foot was too close to the rest of my body. I needed a wider stance. Following this, I rectified all the mistakes I had made during the last match.

It started with a slow approach where I identified and solved the problems, followed by repeating the sequences until I was sure that I executed them properly. Without me noticing, nearly two hours had passed. At some point I had entered a trance. Completely focused on what I was doing, I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings.

I would have worked longer, but Mors woke me. He carried over a mug filled with water and some beakers. Suddenly loosing that marvelous feeling, I wanted nothing more than to dive back into it. It was like my whole being was focused on the sword and my control over my body was much better than before. Things eluding me before were suddenly crystal clear. I felt annoyed about having been disturbed during such a special occasion.

Breathing out, I stopped my irrational thoughts. I would have the chance to experience it again. I shouldn’t be angry at Mors. He only wanted to help me. I grabbed the cup full of water and nodded thankfully towards him. “Thank you Mors, I needed that.”

The guard nodded contently, taking the empty cup from my hands.

Only now as I had drunken the water did I realize how thirsty I had been. I comfortably stretched myself as I felt the liquid revitalize my body. It was time for a brief sparring match. I wanted to see how much I had improved.

“Mors, get yourself a training sword and lets spar. I want to test how far I have come.”

“As you wish young master.”

He grabbed himself a sword from the shack. Warming up his body he slowly circulated his arms and shoulders.

“I am ready, young master, you can begin.”

With an anticipating grin, I threw myself at him. Mors fought with a different style than Sephiroth. Where she was fast and aggressive, he was composed and precise. Landing his blows with the surety and timing of a clockwork.

Mors slowly stepped up his game. At some point we had reached the level I had been at with Sephiroth. I was fully focused. Nothing else mattered. Where I would have faltered previously, I could now go on. My stances were straight, full of power, yet flexible and allowed me to attack Mors from all sides.

It surprised my guard. I should have still been a beginner. But somehow I had eclipsed that already. Now that he knew that I could take it, he ramped up his speed and power.

At some point I couldn’t take it anymore. But differently to Sephiroth he didn’t hit me into the rips or arms with a malicious grin. No, he stopped after he had indicated where he would have hit me. I already liked him much more than evil Sephiroth.

I was wheezing. This fight had exhausted me. Sephiroth had been right with building my endurance. One week earlier I wouldn’t have lasted a minute, let alone the twenty minutes I had fought now. My improvements were truly magnificent. In my old world, my body development would have been much slower. I don’t know what was in Sephiroth’s miracle elixir, but it really helped.

“Young Master, you have improved incredibly quickly! I mean you are still a beginner, but you have solid footwork, techniques and endurance. How did you do this so quickly?”

I grinned at him. “Ask Sephiroth if you want to know. She has been training me.” Luckily I had previous martial arts experience, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to improve so quickly. But that wasn’t all. Somehow I could ingrain this new techniques even quicker with my new body than in the previous world. The trance had helped a lot as well.

I wasn’t sure how I performed in comparison with other youths from this world, but I had for sure become much more competent at learning martial arts than my previous self.

I was still reveling in the exceptional feeling of success when I suddenly heard my name.

“Aron, where are you?” Not long later I saw blond locks and a cute little face appear at the door to the backyard.

“Hey, little sis, what’s up?” I smiled at her.

“Ah, here you are. Aron, can we play something?” I couldn’t refrain from smiling as I heard her forceful tone. She immediately cut to the chase.

In reality, I had planned to study. I still knew too little about the world. But when I saw the pure anticipation in her eyes, I couldn’t deny her wish. With that, the rest of my day was decided. In hindsight, one could call it training as well. It was exhausting! I had never known that children had so much energy.