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Chapter 3

Training

"So, child. Go ahead and sit down. Take whatever feels more comfortable for you."

I shrug, not really having much to say about it. I am glad for the break and the ability to get off my feet for a while. Though they do seem quite capable of long distance travel compared to normal feet, walking for a few hours straight on brand new feet without any sort of shoe definitely gets a bit tiring. I sit down and rub at my feet a bit, finding the padding at the bottom particularly strange.

"Now go ahead and close your eyes. I want you to try and picture your core, the spot where all of your magic comes from. Your particular form is far more sensitive in the flow of energy. It should fairly simple to see it. You've probably seen it quite a few times already. It'll be like saying a little wave or ripple in the air surrounding a thing, seemingly without any reason. Now try and use your mind to turn that inward. As it is now that should be in your tail. Let me know when you can feel it."

I don't entirely know what all he's talking about. And that judgmental sensation only growing more disappointed and impatient in me. And then suddenly I can feel like something has snapped a little bit and my entire vision seems to shift slightly and I can see everything with my own eyes in a sort of glow. And I can see a shifting and rippling of the space around me, with a large light in front of me that I can only really see with my eyes closed. I can also see something behind me, attached to my butt is a glow that's much brighter than the one in front of me. I guess that must be what it's talking about?

"Okay, when you can, try and draw some of it to your hands. Just slowly visualize it going from your core to your hands."

I have no idea how to do that but I try anyway, playing in my head the notion of a light coming from what is likely my tail and flowing forward and through me. But it doesn't really seem to be doing anything. I can see it, just not do anything with it. The thing inside of me has apparently given up on simply waiting and I can feel it act on its own. I can feel something practically wrench at that light behind me and throw it through my body towards my hands. I panic and fall back, rolling up to my feet. I hadn't realized that it could try and take control over me like that. Is there anything else it could do to me? But I did at least get a feeling for what it felt like to have it move. When I look up I see a little bit of the grass in front of me has caught fire.

"What was that?" I demand.

"What was what?" the priest asks.

"There was a thing in me that just took over and threw that stuff out of me."

"Ah, well we have progress but should probably stop training for now and let it calm down a bit," the priest reaches down and helps me up. "Each of the forms we take has a guardian spirit. It is by channeling that spirit that we are able to take on their form and their powers. But as a direct result of that, they are aware of everything we are doing. And if they desire, they can take over control if they feel doing so will help protect you. That is why you transformed when I tried to paralyze you. They force themselves to exert their form in order to protect. The fact it did that when there is no real threat means that your spirit has grown impatient and took over to push things along. So we'll just focus on travelling for now and try again once its calmed down a bit," he says and begins walking off in the same direction as before, forcing me to try and follow in my still halting steps.

I follow as best I can, trying to figure out how to make use of what I had seen. I try to trigger that other sight a few more times but it seems to be somewhat beyond me at the moment when I'm not standing still. I am able to do it when I have stopped walking, but I can't do it while walking and I know this annoys that spirit thing he was talking about. One thing I can sort of do is recreate that energy motion thing. Not all that well, but I can get little sparks of light to come out of my fingers when I focus, though doing so makes walking even more of a challenge trying to walk on these strange feet. I know that one thing is annoyed at me but in some regards I'm not exactly happy with it either. I mean I fully understand being impatient at me struggling from things it thinks I should be able to do immediately. But it's not like I asked to be this way and until today I was nothing special and all of it was just a fantasy, that kind of dream of growing up to be some major wizard. And something getting mad at you when not instinctively knowing something it isn't trying to teach correctly isn't helping.

After we stop again he ponders as if listening to something in his head. I accept the food and drink readily. At this point there isn't too much I can really do that can make things any worse than they already are. Once we're all done I stand up, expecting for us to go another stretch of time trying to walking. Instead he takes off his cloak and shirt and turns to face me.

"Okay, new plan for the time being. I've been talking with my spirits and they have asserted that it would be a good idea to at least start training you on another matter, even if I need to delay training with magic until your spirit has calmed down. Now go ahead and stretch your arms and legs. I'm going to show you some other effect of your current form and something that you can rely on in the immediate time but long term will actually want to get away from."

I don't entirely know what he's talking about, but I obey, if for nothing else than to potentially get that sense of silent judging from that thing inside me. Once I've done as good of stretching as I can figure I wonder what he's going to do, if it's going to be like a sprinting thing or something. And without warning he charges at me, roaring in the process. I take a step back, wondering if perhaps he's decided he's going to kill me anyway. I try to back away but he's so much faster than me. He lunges with his clawed hand aimed at me. But when he reaches me I find it rather odd that the attack didn't connect. Instead my hand had moved on its own accord to deflect the attack. And now, the thing inside of my is radiating off this very smug sense, which to be fair is much more preferable to the constant impatient disapproval.

"This is another extremely useful aspect of what we are. We are supposed to be keepers of peace and quite likely justice as well. Not entirely sure. The ones that were around when we first came about are long gone and didn't exactly keep any records saying what they did or why they did. But in any non-human form when attacked it will act independently of thought to protect you. And it does learn and improve over the generations. The whole point of this part of your training is to try and get you to understand what your body is doing and how to react in that manner so that you can choose not to do it."

"If it's there to protect me, why wouldn't I want it to do so?"

"Because it's a reflexive action. A very skilled reflexive action but a reflex nonetheless. Anyone who knows its coming can work around it and exploit weakness in the form or bait out certain reactions. It won't know what attacks are real and which are feints. It will simply respond to the stimulus of an attack, which can be used against you. I suppose an example is probably the best way to show this," he says, quickly deflating back down to his human form. "Right now my strength and speed are far more comparable to yours. I am still taller and larger, but in the grand scheme of things you have your own forms combat training. I would want to give you an advantage to make it more obvious of the limitation of this reflex, but I lack any form smaller and weaker than your current form, my child. But can't be helped, an adult usually is going to be naturally faster and stronger than a child. I suppose I could do it this way," he says, rubbing at his shoulders and stretching them out a bit. "This is about the best I can do. I'm a bit on the old side of things so I can't exactly take all that much of a beating in this form. Anyway, prepare yourself."

He rushes at me and starts to attack me again, though this time he keeps throwing in feints and other quick attacks and I am able to quickly see the message he was talking about. The thing reacting for me cannot tell the difference between which attacks are actual attacks and which ones are designed to draw out my response. Which means that he frequently is able to get me to overextend in a counter-attack and then reach in and pull me off-balance before doing a quick tap at my back or stomach. It keeps trying to fight and he's able to keep exploiting its weaknesses. Eventually it seems to switch to a more defensive stance, which he is again able to just work around. But thankfully, that thing inside me doesn't seem to be getting annoyed at me for not being able to deflect these attacks. It seems perfectly fine with just continuing as normal, however much it's having trouble in this regard. We end not so much because of what he wants to do but rather I decide that he's made his point enough and am tired of getting poked at and force the body back into my own control and just cross my arms and refuse to react to his attacks. If nothing else he did say it's something I need to learn how to do anyway. And he does quickly get the point, laughs and then start to grow back up into his large green form. I half wonder why he likes being in this particular form so much. If I had the ability to do otherwise, I would have gone back to being human as soon as I was able, regardless of the fact that I probably need to burn out some of that energy stuff again so I don't catch stuff on fire some more.

"Anyway, child," the priest says, "I think it is important to keep moving for now. There's still a good deal further I want to make by the end of day. We should have been able to burn enough energy to keep your spirit more contained and subdued for the time being."

"Does that mean you'll help me turn back into a human?"

"I could, but I think it is still better for you to stay in your current form for the time being."

"And why is that? Why do you stay in that green form?"

"Because I'm sure you're aware that the world is not all that safe to travel, especially considering we're only two people. I could teach you to travel as a human, but the moment a threat arrived your body would just shift back again anyway and would slow you down. You need to learn to be able to move in this body fluently and travelling around as a human is not that safe until you've been trained on how to protect yourself effectively enough."

I don't really like the answer but I can't exactly fault the logic. I would really rather prefer it if I didn't have to deal with ever having this body. But he was able to draw it out of me so effortlessly earlier. And if he can do it I'm certain that others can do so fairly easily as well. Possibly even without trying if what he's been telling me about why it came out is true. And I would at the very least like to get to the point where I can move around and do things without having to deal with a very judgmental personality in my head constantly expressing disapproval or annoyance at me.

"Besides, my child" he says, one hand on the back of his head. "I'm not exactly as young as I used to be. My human body is wearing a bit thin. I can still do quite a lot, just not what I could in my prime. And this form doesn't age like the rest. This form could keep me in perfect fighting form well after I've died of old age."

"So where are we going anyway?" I ask as we get moving again.

"To a place I know of that should be safe. It's full of people who are all just trying to live their lives that society would find to be less than desirable."

"So a town of abominations?" I infer.

"I wouldn't call us abominations. They were born just like everyone else, grew up just like everyone else. They all have hopes and dreams just like every single person on the planet. They just happen to not be human. And to those in charge that's enough to be labeled as something to be destroyed. But Foznetal is hidden. No one can find that city without knowing where it is or knowing someone that does know. If they don't want you there you could end up just walking right past the city and never even know it. And they will have quite a few supplies that will be catered to be something you can make good use of. Not to mention unlike the rest of the lands, do not judge you based on how you look."

I shrug, still not really liking the prospect but still not really having all that much say in the matter. About half an hour later I notice that the air is starting to smell very foul. It seems to be coming from a sort of light mist that is settling in on the area. The thing inside of me is suddenly on the alert from the smell though I can't fathom why at the moment.

"What's that smell?" I complain, wondering if it's some kind of poison or reason we should go in some other direction.

"It's sulfur," The priest says, one hand quickly reaching up to the simply of his charge. "There has been gas intentionally released into the area."

"And what does that mean?"

"It means don't cast anything that could cause a spark. But the gas brings an even bigger danger. One I had hoped to not have to deal with for a good, long time. Hunters."