"Always remember it is not about the size or strength of the man, but his ability to move with purpose and precision." the last word he spoke with accentuated with a stiff jab that sent the small boy dealing onto his behind.

"Hey! that's not fair your arms are twice as long as mine whether I move with purpose or not!" the small boy cried after struggling to pull himself up. the man let out an amused chuckle while walking over to assist.

"I didn't say it's easy! anything worthwhile never is," he said sagely while looking off into the distance like a man who had seen the world twice over.

"Oh don't give me that, you know as well as I that I have no chance against you even if I had half the Golden sea worth of either." He huffed with exasperation. His father's strange whimsical teachings were only harder to grasp every time they trained.

"I see why mother rolls her eyes so much as time passes!" He quipped at the older man with a small smile.

"You sting me with your hateful words, I've begun to see her influence upon you more and more. already, barely at the age of 12, you have learned her dislike for common theatrics." he mimed in pain while holding his hands over his heart exaggeratedly.

"And is he so wrong for learning such a dislike?" Came a voice from behind him. With no small hint of playful scathing in the tone. The man jumped around immediately with a smile that would have suited a Cheshire cat more than him.

"Of course not my love! It was truly a compliment I dare say!" His meager attempt at appeasing the woman fell off her like rain on glass.

"It had better be. Now enough roughhousing and come inside for supper it will grow cold. These "dance lessons" as you call them make me nervous enough without them taking up time to eat!" The young lad did not fail to hear the genuine worry she held while talking about his father's daily practice bouts. He knew that everyone in the village would see them as hugely blasphemous and incredibly dangerous. Yet with them living further into the woods than most and the insistence his father put on them, he mistakenly did not share in his mother's worry.

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"I'm sorry mother I tried to get him to see reason but as you've said before, nothing can cure stu-." The sentence was quickly put to a stop with a wooden spoon that smacked perfectly into the young lad's forehead with no small amount of force. The laugh from the father that followed was also quickly ended with his own spoon to the side of the head.

"Where do you hold all those women! Are you a mage after all!" The man asked holding his head gingerly.

"I am nothing of the sort now you two will cease with the nonsense and come eat before I find sharper objects to throw!" with a harumph she twirled back into the small cottage that they called home with the promise of pain if they did not follow shortly.

"Do you think she weights them? they feel much heavier than normal spoons father." the young boy asked after lifting the spoon from the ground knowing he would have to bring the weapon back to her or else he would be beckoning another to follow. His comment once again pulled a laugh from the man heading towards the doorway.

"There is no doubt in my mind child," he said with a smile while waving his hand beckoning the young man forward. The boy laughed back while jogging over to join his father when the world went dark and everything began to fade away.

"shit," Sasha whispered, finding himself sitting straight up in his small dingy cot, soaked in sweat and hands clenched at his sides. Why must his dreams assail him with such warm memories only for reality to be so cold? He glanced out the small slot in the wall that was considered to be his window with no small amount of disdain, checking to see if the light had risen over the cold grey buildings that were his world. The very first signs of the dawn were beginning to show and thus his day would begin in earnest.

Just yesterday he had fought with Gregory the Grolger of a man and the rest of the daily activity had shown no change or special interest. This in and of itself was extremely worrying. He knew that fight was not meant for him to win. Yet he would not let these monsters beat him into a place of self-induced weakness, that path would lead back to the Parade, and that was not an option.

He slowly shifted off his resting place not needing to remove a blanket of any kind as those were not given here in the Compound. Such things would hinder their 'growth' according to the teachers. Today would be a long day and there was much to accomplish if he planned on living long enough to see any of his goals come to fruition.

With one long inhale and exhale he placed his hands on the frigid stone floor and lifted his legs into a perfectly balanced handstand and began counting in his head. while the blood rushed into his head and ears it was a welcome respite from the screams that were forever insistent on being heard over and over in his mind.