Inaki woke up the next morning, his entire body sore. He felt like his muscles had been replaced by rocks, and moving his muscles had the weight of rocks, and the stiffness of them rubbing against each other.

Inaki’s legs were the worst in this regard. Inaki had to hold his legs to remind himself he still had them. They were somehow both numb and in pain at the same time.

Inaki had trained extremely hard his entire life. He had spent entire days from sunrise to sunset in the training room, just practicing, and he hadn’t ever woken up this sore in the morning. Moving each muscle as little as possible as he walked, he stepped to the little table in his room, where he found a note.

“Take a break today, you probably can’t train if you wanted to today,” Inaki read the letter. “Signed, Yan Gael.”

Inaki put the note down and sat at his desk. He was extremely hungry. Yan hadn’t given Inaki the opportunity to eat breakfast yesterday, so his two meals were lunch and dinner instead of breakfast and lunch.

Inaki definitely wouldn’t be able to live on only two meals if he began training like this. He would either die, or be sore for the rest of his life. Inaki sat at his little table.

A knock came at the door.

“It’s open,” Inaki yelled. Somehow talking made Inaki’s chest ache. Another knock came at the door.

“It’s open,” Inaki yelled once again. Whoever was knocking on the door was either hard of hearing, or something was stopping the door from opening. Cursing himself, he stood up and limped to the door, moving each muscle as little as possible. He pulled the door open. It was open, no lock, no nothing.

Behind the door stood Yaz, with an impish grin on her face, Inaki’s plate in one hand, and the other rubbing the scalp of her bald head.

“The door was open,” Inaki said, walking to his bed moving to his bed with the grace of an ant whose limbs had been ripped off by a deranged child.

He sat down on his bed, slowly, and holding in a yell as he sat.

“I see you met my father,” Yaz said. “Regular training or a spar?”

“Regular training,” Inaki said. “But he might as well have repeatedly stabbed me with his spear. Anyways, don’t act like you didn’t know your father came to train me, that’s why you didn’t open the door yourself, and made me walk like this.”

“Average day with dad,” Yaz said. “He’s a bit eccentric of a master.”

“I’ve had my fair share of eccentric masters,” Inaki said, remembering the fact that he had spent the majority of his time being trained by a figment of his own imagination and a book.

“You know you can use just a few drops of the Urima herb solution and you’ll feel better,” Yaz said, pointing at Inaki’s table.

Inaki felt extremely stupid. Yaz put down Inaki’s breakfast plate on the table, and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you.”

Still groaning in pain, Inaki said, “You didn’t open the door on your own on purpose.”

“Hey,” Yaz said. “I didn’t open the door because of my manners. A polite young girl doesn’t just barge into a young man’s room.”

“I yelled that the door was open five times,” Inaki said.

“You didn’t tell me to come in did you,” Yaz said. She walked up to him with the bottle of Urima herb solution in her hand. Inaki was about to try and take off his robes, but as he struggled to get his robes off without moving his muscles Yaz stopped him.

“Don’t worry,” Yaz said, “I’ll get it.”

She untied the belt holding on Inaki’s robes and pulled them off him. Inaki blushed a little bit. Inaki looked at her and she had a tinge of red on her face, but she was much better at hiding it.

“Being around the tree in the garden seems to have turned you into an apple,” Yaz said, as she rubbed a single drop of the Urima herb solution onto his muscles.

“It’s the first time that a beautiful girl has taken my robes off,” Inaki said.

“And you said you have no experience with the ladies,” Yaz said. She seemed to look away, a little tear in her eye.

“Are you crying,” Inaki said, pointing at the tear in her eye.

“No,” Yaz said, wiping the solitary tear out of her eye, “Just a yawn.”

“Didn’t get much sleep last night?” Inaki said.

“Yes,” Yaz said, rubbing her hands against her bald head.

Inaki felt much better after the Urima herb solution. It made him feel like he was lighter somehow, the rocks in his muscles had turned into sand and mixed into the ocean.

“Have you got your own breakfast,” Inaki said, getting up and fetching his plate.

“Yes,” Yaz said, pulling an apple out of her bag, along with the apple, she pulled out a book.

“Which book is this,” Inaki asked.

“This is one of my favorites,” Yaz said. “The Travels of Tyra Jaran.”

“What is this about,” Inaki asked.

“It’s about a woman from an axe clan, about to get married off in a political marriage, but she runs away, and travels the Province.”

“Sounds interesting,” Inaki said, handing Yaz the last book that she had given him which he had devoured quickly.

“The entire book is about her collecting resources for an expedition outside the Province,” Yaz said.

“Does she succeed,” Inaki said.

“Read the book,” Yaz said. “You’ll find out.”

The Province was shielded by snowy mountains on one side, and a rolling desert on the other, so trade with those outside the Province was very little, and usually took place in the desert in the middle of nowhere. There’s only been one man from outside the Province to ever enter the Province, and his book was the only source of real information that the people of the Province had about those outside the Province.

“I am guessing she failed,” Inaki said.

“Correct,” Yaz said.

“Then why should I read it,” Inaki said. “If she fails in the end.”

“Read it,” Yaz said. “You’ll find out.”

Inaki stowed the book away, and began eating his breakfast. The two of them began talking about the things they usually talked about. Books, swordsmanship and spearwomanship, casual advice for a swordsman fighting against a spearman, and the sorts.

Inaki laughed, smiled, and rejoiced as they spoke. He forgot about his breakfast as they talked, and by the time he realized it, his food had gone cold. He ate the cold rice and eggs without complaint.

By the time Yaz left Inaki’s room, it was already afternoon.

Inaki ended up spending the rest of the day sitting in bed and reading the book that Yaz had given him. Inaki finished half of the book by the time he fell asleep, and was eager to talk to Yaz about how much he loved the book.

----------------------------------------

Inaki woke up that morning to a thud sound. He was on the ground next to his bed. Standing over him was Yan Gael.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Good morning, boy,” Yan said.

There was a clear lack of sunlight creeping in through the small gap in the garden sliding door.

“Is it sunrise yet,” Inaki said.

“Nope,” Yan said. “We’re going on a trek.”

Inaki forced himself to stand up. Yan tossed an apple at Inaki, Inaki caught it and took a bite from it. Instantly he revulsed. The apple was rotten from the core.

“Sorry,” Yan said, throwing another apple at Inaki. Inaki took a bite from this one, and it was normal. One of the worse apples that Inaki had eaten in his life—it was almost sandy in his mouth—but at least it wasn’t rotten.

Yan stood there and watched as Inaki ate the apple. Inaki looked at Yan and realized that Yan hadn’t brought his spear with him.

“Where are we going,” Inaki asked.

“The hills,” Yan said. “I think you’re going to enjoy this, come on, we need to reach there by sunrise.”

“What time is it now,” Inaki said.

“About four hours to sunrise,” Yan said.

“Four hours,” Inaki said.

“Is that complaining I hear,” Yan smirked.

“No.”

Thus with just an apple and a few sips of water in his body, and his wooden sword at his waist more as a symbol than anything else, the two of them set out.

The streets of the Gael town were quiet, as they walked through. A few merchant caravans were arriving into the city with their wares, but that was the only footfall in the city. Breeze, crickets and snores were the only sounds that were heard.

Yan and Inaki arrived at the gate to the city. Unfortunately, Inaki was ahead of Yan.

“How did you escape,” The guard yelled at Inaki jumping at him.

“Stop,” Yan yelled, and the man froze in place. “Calm down.” Instantly the man loosened up, as if he had never about to leap at Inaki in the first place. He just smiled. It didn’t even look voluntary. It was as if the minute the sound fell on his ears he was compelled to stop.

“What was that,” Inaki said.

“Sage powers,” Yan said, matter-of-factly as if he wasn’t just revealing to Inaki that Sage’s had magic power. It reminded him of Taral’s command, that year ago, how he had felt compelled. But this looked different. The man couldn’t resist.

“Sir,” the guard said, letting them pass through the gate.

“Can you use that on me,” Inaki asked.

“Only spearmen, after all I am a Spear-Sage,” Yan said. “The other Sage’s are secretive, and the power only works on weaklings below Gold, so don’t tell anyone. They say Okan gave it to us to control our armies.”

The two of them walked through the dark forest street outside Gael. This wasn’t the gate that Inaki had used to enter, this was on the opposite side, which is why instead of leading to a river, it led to hills.

The walk through the forest was an exercise in itself. The first hour was simply boring, but Inaki didn’t feel anything. By the second, Inaki’s feet began feeling like lead weights.

That’s when Inaki had realized he had forgotten to bring the Urima herb solution with him. There was no path in the forest. They walked over a bumpy stony path, stepping past trees.

Inaki swatted leeches and other insects off his legs and arms, he felt like they were going to catch him off guard and kill him. Yan kept walking as if there was nothing in his path.

After a long walk that felt like it took a million years, they stood in front of a tall hill. It seemed at least thirty feet tall. Inaki stepped to the cliff face.

“This is an easier one for beginners,” Yan said. “Amazing handholds, and enough stability.” The cliff face was a steep slope, but it was far from vertical, just more than a forty-five degree angle with the ground.

Yan leaped at the wall, and began climbing. He threw himself up the cliff face, and climbed it like a spider. In less than five minutes he was already at the top.

“Come on, get here, we’ve got to go even ahead of here.”

Yan pulled a rope from his bag and tossed it at Inaki. It was tall enough for Inaki to tie around his waist. Inaki tied it around his waist and began climbing.

“I’m only giving you safety because it is your first time,” Yan said. “Next time onwards, if you fall you fall.”

Inaki grabbed a hand hold and tried to pull himself up, but he was too weak. He placed his foot on a foothold, and tried to push himself up with his foot this time. That helped him much more.

He caught two rocks which jutted out, and pulled himself up with all of his body. He couldn’t. So instead, he saw the foothold he was aiming for.

Still holding the handholds, he jumped and shot his foot at the foothold. It slipped, but he was still hanging with his hands there. He jumped again, and this time, he had his foot in the foothold.

He wasn’t even six feet above the ground, and he was already freaking out looking down. He felt like he was going to fall. He imagined his body splattered on the ground, a bleeding mess. He tried to get the image out of his eyes and keep climbing.

Inaki pushed his hand forward, looked for another foothold and pushed himself up. Each step was laborious, and took all the strength in his body. Inaki had never ever done mountain-climbing in his life, but he imagined that if he was doing this task when he was his old self, it wouldn’t have been as much effort. Just as he thought that, his old self’s voice entered his mind.

“You can’t even pull your own body up,” The man Inaki used to be whispered. Inaki tried looking for another handhold or foothold, and found none. He saw one just out of reach. He would need to jump for it.

Yan just looked from above, smiling at the struggling Inaki. He had made it only ten feet off the ground now. Inaki jumped, he tried grabbing at both the handholds, but he was only able to grab one, leaving him hanging from one hand.

He didn’t know how long his one hand would stay in the hand hold. He quickly found a foothold and planted his foot as best as he could, which wasn’t much. There was one big problem with his jump, Inaki was now facing the other way. He looked back at the forest, and from even such a short vantage point it looked wonderful. But that wasn’t what caught his eye. It was the death he saw below. The terrible height, and the even more terrible fall.

Inaki swung himself off one hand, turning back to the mountain. He soon found himself in a rhythm of sorts. His palms and hands were completely blistered, but Inaki used to be a swordsman, he was used to blisters. His muscles were slightly sore from the previous day, but he could ignore that.

He jumped, found a foothold, then moved his hand holds. He repeated this slow process, he looked up at Yan, who was sitting with his legs over the edge, holding the rope in one hand.

Inaki was now twenty feet above the ground. The whistling wind was the only thing that Inaki could hear, but his own heartbeat began becoming louder, fighting for dominance with the sound of the wind. He looked behind him at the forest.

There was a light fog as the sun was just rising. Inaki smiled as he stared at the view. But he remembered his hands were tiring out. He quickly pushed himself up.

He stepped up, and jumped. He grabbed a hand hold, but his hand fell. Good thing he had his foothold. That slipped too. Inaki tried scrambling at the wall, but that didn’t help him at all.

Inaki began falling down, but stopped. He looked up as Yan held him up, with one hand, without even straining. Inaki pressed his hand forward, and found a handhold, he had lost about a foot of progress.

After what felt like two days of climbing, Inaki reached the top.

“Good,” Yan said. “Better than I had expected. You didn’t even fall once. Take a two minute break, then climb back down.”

“You said we’re going ahead,” Inaki said.

“If you can’t climb this one effortlessly, then you might as well give up any hope for the next one.”

“Anyways,” Inaki said. “Why are you making me do rock-climbing?”

“Because it’s the greatest exercise for the entire body,” Yan said. “Rock climbing requires precise control over all of your muscles, and that’s what I am trying to develop for you. Come on, time to climb down.”

Yan jumped. He began climbing down, and he made it look as effortless as breathing. It almost looked like he was sliding down instead of deliberately picking footholds and handholds. Soon Yan was on the ground.

Inaki stepped forward and tied his robe on a rock that seemed sturdy enough to tolerate Inaki’s weight. He tested both the rock and the knot, and they seemed to hold.

Inaki then began climbing down. This was even worse than climbing up, because Inaki couldn’t see as well as he could before. He stepped his foot down, then moved his hand.

He climbed down a few steps, but this time as he placed his foot in a crevice, he pushed down towards a handhold, but the foothold broke, the rock sliding off. Instantly Inaki began falling. He grabbed at the cliff face, his fingers and toes getting sliced up as they tried to grab at the wall. His rope wasn't very useful. Inaki realized how stupid it had been to tie his rope the way he had.

Inaki stopped, he was holding onto the cliff-wall, his legs still dangling in the air. He looked back and saw that he definitely couldn’t afford to fall now. He didn’t know how much more of this his cut up fingers could take.

At that moment Inaki was surviving purely off adrenaline. Inaki tried to look for a foothold underneath him, but it was just his luck that he couldn’t find one. His legs dangling, he tried probing the wall for a foothold, but he wasn’t successful.

His only option was to jump. Having no other ideas, Inaki pushed against the wall, giving himself some swing to get towards the foothold and handhold he could see.

He let go of his only grip to life, and fell through the air. The wind whistled in his ears as he desperately hoped to get the correct timing. His hands grabbed the wall and his feet settled in. He sighed in relief, and stared down, he was almost there, much quicker than it had taken him to get up.

Inaki stepped down carefully for the last few parts of the climb, and found himself on the floor. He cherished having his entire foot be on land instead of just his toes. His arms, his back, his toes, his fingers were all either bleeding extremely or were in a lot of pain.

“Come on, put the Urima herb solution on yourself, we got more climbing to do,” Yan said.

“I forgot it,” Inaki said.

“I knew it,” Yan said, smiling wide. “That’s why I didn't.”

Yan stepped forward and put a drop of the solution on Inaki’s fingers, one drop on his toes, one drop on his back, and one drop on his arms. If just one drop of the damn thing can do so much, Inaki couldn’t imagine how much a good amount of it could do.

Inaki looked at the bottle and said, “How am I supposed to make this last two months?”

“That’s for you to think about, not me,” Yan said. “If I could spare more I would, but I’m not allowed to take anymore.”

“Fair,” Inaki said.

Yan climbed up the wall again. And this time, Inaki had no rope as he climbed up.

As Inaki climbed up, Yan looked down at him. “Heads up,” Yan screamed, but from that high up, Inaki couldn’t make out what he was saying.

A boulder rolled down at Inaki.