Zara’s opponent was taking shape. She could see features taking shape under her strikes, muscles and features resurfacing from the wood. What she noticed as well was that she was starting to chain strikes one after another, planning her moves in advance and chiselling at her opponent faster as the days went by.

Not everything was well, tough, Walker was looking more and more bored and antsy. Spending more time away from camp and only coming back now and then to give her the opportunity to ask for guidance. And when he was in their camp he looked to Zara as if he was a caged beast unable to stay still in its cage.

By the time Walker decided Zara’s opponent was ready he was barely spending any time in the camp. He waited by the guttering fire for her to wake up. It was a late mid-spring morning and only the smell of a dying fire and a forest in full bloom coloured the morning wind as Zara puled herself out of her waxed sleeping blanket. The shoddy covering was a good investment as it kept her merely damp instead of soaked trough the occasional sudden spring-night showers.

Walker stood from his spot at the side of the fire, he looked calmer than the last weeks of her training. He turned to Zara’s training spot and motioned over his shoulder for her to follow. Reluctantly Zara followed as, while she got used to training full days with only a light breakfast, she still found herself grumpy if Walker prepared no food before she woke up. It annoyed her that she felt that way, only the nobles wined when food wasn’t delivered to their gullets on time and she hated that this seemingly infected her.

Zara followed Walker to her training spot, it changed a lot since she started. The top part of the tree was long moved by her, so it wouldn’t trip her as she worked, and the ground around the statue she carved was stripped of grass by her movement around it, the area of walked in dirt was littered by the chips of wood she shaved off the tree stump.

Walker looked at her as she stopped in front of her wooden opponent thinking of places she wanted to work on next, she noted that Walker was holding another sword in addition to the one hanging at his hip. Then Walker spoke.

“You finished learning the basics of using a sword.” He announced, “Now it’s time for you to start to learn how to fight.”

This broke Zara out of her concentration

“But my opponent isn’t ready yet.” She stated, motioning to patches of rough wood littering the statue.

Walker assessed the statue and shook his head. “No. It is done. You can carve another if you need it, but it being incomplete makes it better to learn with.”

“If you say so.” Zara agreed reluctantly, “So what now?” she asked.

“Now you try to cut me.” Walker said casually motioning at his chest. “Best way to learn how to use a sword is to use it on someone.”

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That caught Zara off guard. I didn’t know how to fight. She thought. I’ve only ever swung a sword at wood. And I don’t think I want to cut Walker. He is weird but he helped me.

The conflict fuelled her indecision until she noticed Walker fiddling with the sash around his waist. She saw Walker untie it and move the ends of the fabric away from his body, and her memories flooded her mind.

That is how it starts. She thought. Memories of Him taking out His anger, boredom or whatever He was feeling when He did it, on her. She felt the fear and helplessness all over again. And it hurt more now. It hit her so hard that it knocked the air out of her lungs. She would sometimes wake up from a nightmare of Him in the past weeks of her training, but the exertion and purpose of it kept the memories back.

Now seeing Walker untie the sash around his hip sent her into the past. To the first time He did it. The day they arrived at the Castle. The smell of His sweat and her blood, the pain of His anger at her refusing him, the cold empty shame and weakness He left her with when He was done.

Zara was choking on the air that refused to enter her lungs. The world swam in front of her eyes as Stars danced in her vision. But she could barely notice the world outside of her mind as the memories attempted to drown her.

She tried to fight back the feeing Walkers actions caused, for a rational part of her mind sensed no intent from Walker do recreate the past now. That part of her fought the rest of her for control, for even a breath. And then in the moment when she felt like she would die, she managed to take a breath. And the feeling of spring air filling her chest gave her strength to take another.

It was a hard task, but she fought through it, slowly regaining control. First she remembered how to breathe, then she felt her limbs again, and then she found herself wound around her knees in the dirt beneath her opponent.

As her awareness moved out from her body and to the world around her Zara saw Walker, he retied the sash around his shoulder and trough a loop on his pants, he moved his usual sword to his back, and was leaning on the new one looking at her curiously and expectantly.

“Don’t ask.” Zara growled, she could understand his curiosity, she did collapse for no apparent reason, but right now she needed to get angry at something to flush the worst of her memories from the front of her mind.

Walker shrugged and straightened his back when he saw her get up. “I won’t.” he answered simply.

Zara stood on shaky legs, getting angry at Walker was proving useless as usual, so she pointed her anger at her own weakness. And the anger caught and burned brightly, letting her steady her legs and fuel her, again, tired body.

As she steadied herself, Walker drew his new sword, or better old sword, because it was pitted and dulled from obvious use. In fact as Zara looked more closely the damage on the blade was similar to the damage on her swords.

He stood in front of her casually at first glance, but she could see in his eyes he was anything but. The sword he drew was aimed at her but held next to his hip. Zara shook her head to disperse the mist of memories that was still lingering in her mind and drew her swords. Training always helped her forget, might as well train.

Walker’s expression changed when she did, the curiosity disappeared, and what was left was a calm neutral expression that gave nothing away. Zara watched him for a few moments, thinking about how to start her attack.

While he looked casual and nonthreatening the swords point was a perfect deterrent for any would be attacker. Zara saw no smart way to approach this task so she decided to just do something, she imagined the way her right hand sword would cut at Walker, took a deep breath and attacked.