Guardian of the Sacred Fire

Training

The next morning I walked down the stairs tired.  I knew it was my own damn fault.  But it was kind of like that time when your parents tell you you’re going to Disneyland and the night before you can’t sleep a wink? Yeah it wasn’t Disneyland but hey, I was a little excited.  I got to know I was different.  That I wasn’t doomed to live a mundane existence like everyone else.  And today would start day one.

The dwarf met me at the end of the stairs and I followed him to the grounds.  An arena had been set up I guess overnight behind the mansion.  Without warning he tackled me.  The damn dude could hit hard for his size.  He was maybe only four feet tall.  I kicked him off of me and he went to tackle me again.  This time I used his weight against him and ended up hurtling him a couple of feet down the field.

            “Where did you learn that?” he asked in a huff.

            “My real father is a marine.  He taught me how to protect myself.  I do know judo.”

            “I underestimated you.” He said and actually smiled.  He quickly recovered. “You will need to know more than judo.” He grabbed a sword and threw it at me, and grabbed an axe for himself.  He charged at me and I jumped over his head.  He turned and charged again.  The sword and axe clashed hard enough to ring the metal.  The blow made my arms go numb.  He came at me again and again until I was on the ground trying to catch my breath.  We went at it until sunset.  I had never been so damn tired in my life.  My entire body ached.

            My feet dragged as I climbed the stairs one sore muscle at a time.  I finally reached my room and a tray of food was waiting for me.  I scarfed most of it down in minutes. It was all of the basic food groups.   But I refused the corn. I hate corn.  I went to my bathroom and ran the shower.  I stripped off my clothes and looked at myself in the floor length mirror.  Bruises were blossoming all over.  My hands were blistered and bloody.  I got into the shower and relaxed.  I let the hot water run over me.  I planned on doing that until it ran cold, but it never did.  I washed the dirt off of me and out of my hair.  I climbed out of the shower and put a towel around me and in my hair.  I was so damn tired.  Tomorrow I would be with Adrian.  I hoped like hell he would go easy on me.  I walked out of the bathroom and headed to my bed.  Once I hit my pillow I slept.

            What seemed like five minutes later a knock came to my door.  The sun was coming through my window and I groaned.

            “Give me a minute.” I said.  I had fallen asleep in the towel and I ran to the wardrobe and got dressed as quickly as possible.  I ran the brush through my now shoulder blade length hair and hopped to the door as I put my last shoe on.

            Adrian stood there patiently.  “Tired?” he asked.

I nodded and I followed him outside.  We went to the meadow where I saw him as a wolf.  “How are we supposed to unlock my inner beast?” I asked.

            “Like this.” He said and sat down.  I followed his lead and watched him.  His eyes were closed and he looked like he was sleeping.  I was afraid to close my eyes in fear of actually falling asleep.  Instead I zoned out.  It was mental sleep with your eyes open.  I learned it with going through high school.

            Someone cleared their throat and I snapped back to reality.  Adrian was standing over me.  I guess I did fall asleep.  Well…shit.

            “We need something to wake you up.” He said.

            “Coffee would be nice.  And food.” I answered.

            “Well you didn’t eat yesterday morning because too much physical exercise that quick after eating would make you throw up.  Eating with you so tired right now will just make you full and more tired.  Let’s go for a swim.” He said and helped me to my feet.  I followed him through the woods for about ten minutes watching my feet so I wouldn’t fall over something.

            We came to a small lake or a large pond.  Whatever the hell you wanted to call it. Adrian took his shirt off and my jaw dropped.  I quickly composed myself and looked away as his fingers moved to his jeans. His body was tan and muscled. When I saw him in doctor scrubs I did not imagine that he had a body like that.  I felt the heat rush to my face and then a splash of warm water.   I looked out and watched Adrian surface.

            “It’s a sudden drop off from the shore.” He said.  “It goes about fifteen feet down, so I hope you know how to swim.”

            “I didn’t bring a bathing suit.” I said.

            “Isn’t a bra and panties the same thing?” he asked.

He did have a point.  I always made this point to other people.  Little teenage girls flaunt around in barely there bikinis and then call you a creep if you see them in their underwear.  It always annoyed the hell out of me. I sighed and took off my shoes and socks first.  I hesitated when it came to my jeans and shirt.  I didn’t have the perfect body.  I wasn’t toothpick skinny.  I had wide hips. “Baby makin’ hips” an old pervert had told me.  Yeah he got a restraining order fast.  I didn’t have a flat stomach but I wasn’t fat.  I was built right to make sure of it.  I had average size breasts, not small and not large.  But thanks to the media I was self conscious about my body.  You had to be skin and bones to be considered hot.  And that, I was not.

            Adrian turned as I took off my shirt and jeans.  I quietly thanked him for that.  I usually tried to match underwear and bras.  Today I was lucky enough to find a matching red set.  And no, I do not wear thongs.  I like bikinis.  I don’t like feeling like I have something between my ass cheeks all day long.  A perpetual wedgie if you will.  I jumped in the water and it was surprisingly warm.  Not bath water warm but I didn’t freeze my ass off.  And he was right. It did wake me up.  I swam down as far as the air in my lungs would allow me to.  I went back to the surface and took a breath of salty air.  I looked around and Adrian was gone.  My heart pounded.  My brother would always grab my feet and pull me under. He always managed to scare me that way.  With thinking about it I was prepared when a hand grasped my ankle.  I took a deep breath and was pulled under.  Adrian was smiling at me underwater.  He pointed down and then back up.  I nodded and we both surfaced.  I had seen something shining in the silt at the bottom.

            “What is it?” I asked.

            “I don’t know.” He answered.

            We both took a deep breath and swam to the bottom.  He took my hand when it became hard for me.  I’m not the best underwater swimmer in the world, I admit it.  I was decent on top, but underwater I was slow as hell.  His hands reached it first and he tugged.  It wouldn’t come lose.  I grabbed the other side of it and we both lowered ourselves to the bottom and pulled.  It was a silver chest.  We kicked off from the bottom and swam to the surface.  I mostly held on to the chest.  Adrian’s feet had turned into fins.  So he could turn into a fish too.  Lucky bastard.  We broke the surface of the water and both gasped for air.  I don’t know why he was holding his when he could have just grown gills.

            We hauled the chest to the shore and he climbed out.  Thank god for boxers.  I smiled, I couldn’t help it.  It had Beaker the Muppet on them.  He was my favorite Muppet.  He tried opening but most of it was rusted shut.  I watched as his hands turned into bear claws and pry it open.  It looked empty at first until Adrian’s normal hands brought out two amulets.  They were gorgeous.  One was ruby and the other sapphire.

            “What were those doing at the bottom of the pond?” he asked.  Aha! So it was a pond.

            “Maybe we should ask Midael.” I said and pulled myself out of the water.

            “We should dry first.  Midael is anal if we track in water through the mansion.  Permaz did once.  He made him get on his hands and knees and clean it up alone.  He had flooded the kitchen and tracked it throughout the mansion.  Funny as hell watching the dwarf cuss every step of the way.”

            I lied on the soft grass and Adrian lay beside me.  We watched clouds roll by and named the shapes.  Today was ending up being perfect.  Too bad I wouldn’t see him again until next week.  When sunset came near my stomach was growling something fierce. We dressed and walked back together with the amulets in the chest that was tucked under Adrian’s arm.  Our hands accidentally touched with us walking in close proximity to each other and I quickly clasped both of my hands together in front of me.  He didn’t seem to notice it at all.  Maybe it was him being so nice, maybe it was the green eyes, hell maybe it was the Beaker boxers, but I think I was beginning to like Adrian.