Apparently, I should fear fairies
2065 Words
Once my afternoon classes were over, I had to go inside a changing room to change into my Fantastopia clothes. Thankfully, they had stalls for those who are too shy to strip in front of others, which is me. Don’t judge me.
So after changing into my Fantastopia clothes, I pulled out the ring from the backpack and slid it onto my finger. The gem was still blue, meaning I was calm, and I was. Okay then, here goes nothing. Like before, I rubbed the gem 3 times and poof! When I opened my eyes, I was in front of the castle. Thank you ring, thank you for not placing me in the middle of the woods where I nearly got my a*s stabbed by a unicorn. I still can’t believe that happened.
But anyway, using Aria’s map, I began my way to the arena. I still wasn’t sure about today, oh who am I kidding, I’m never sure about any day. I know I’m going to be using some training weapons, but hey, there’s a chance I could get killed today. Who knows, I might get hit in the head with a wooden training weapon, hard enough to break my skull.
Man, I can be so negative at times.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this loud annoying sound struck my ears that caused me to flinch. It sounded like giant nails against a giant chalkboard, and boy was it irritating. Where was it coming from? I followed the sound to a room that was near the hallway that led to the arena. The door was slightly ajar so I peeked in to see that it was a blacksmith room. This must be where all the weapons are made.
The sound had stopped, finally, and that’s when I saw the blacksmith. It was Averyl, and he was cleaning off a sword he had sharpened. But that’s when I noticed that strange mark on his arm, what the hell is that? Is it a birthmark? If it is, that is one big birthmark. I was too focused on trying to figure out what the mark was that I nearly jumped when Averyl turned his head up to me.
Oh crap! Run!
I hurried away from the door and walked fast down the hall to go to the arena. Man, that was so awkward and embarrassing. He probably thinks I’m stalking him now. Why do I have to be so weird? Just forget about it. Although that’s gonna be hard, thanks to my huge brain, I always seem to remember everything. And that sucks sometimes.
But moving that to the side, I entered the arena to see Aria along with Hazel, Dale, and the trainer Farrell waiting for me.
“There he is!” Dale pointed to me with a big smile “Jesse! You’re back! Wait a minute! I finally got your name right!”
“Yes, you did!” I grinned back, it’s about time he did.
“So,” Farrell rubbed his hands “You ready to begin your training?”
“Nope” I replied with a fake smile “I am actually certain that I will die today.”
“There’s a chance you can die any day” Hazel stated with her arms crossed “Thankfully, you’re still alive. So let’s just hope you’ll still be by the end of the day.”
“Well, thanks for the words of encouragement, Hazel” Aria thanked with sarcasm.
Yeah, thanks, Hazel. I feel better already.
“Don’t worry, Jesse,” Farrell affirmed, “Nobody has ever died during their first day of training, especially with these training weapons.”
“Wait,” Dale suddenly spoke, “Wasn’t there that one guy that actually did die-?”
Before he could finish his sentence, Hazel elbowed him in the guts as he yelped in pain.
Yikes!
“I’ll shut up” he croaked out while hunching over with his hand on his stomach.
So a guy actually did die while using these training weapons. Now I’m even more scared. Although, I kinda wanna know how he died. But I probably shouldn’t ask.
“This way” Farrell directed me as I followed him to a table that had some wooden weapons on it, mostly swords.
“This is all we have at the moment” he pointed “Most beginners start with a sword.”
“Then I guess that’s what I’ll use” I determined while picking up one of the wooden swords.
“You still interested in using Defender?” Aria asked me.
“Defender?!” I heard Dale gasped as we turned around to see the shock look on his face.
Hazel also had a shocked look on her face, I couldn’t tell if it was funny to see her like that, or serious.
“As in the sword that has a mind of its own?” Dale finished his remark in a gasp.
“Are you for real, Jesse?” Hazel demanded, “Do you have any idea what that sword could do to you?!”
“I know,” I told them, “King Hardwin told me everything. I mean, I’m still thinking about it. But the thing is, as long as I don’t use the sword to kill anyone for revenge or out of anger or any other negative way that’s not for protection and defense, I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so,” Hazel doubted while rolling her eyes.
I did my best to ignore her as I turned my attention to the wooden sword in my hand.
“So” Aria spoke while picking up another wooden sword “You ready to begin?”
“I still don’t have a choice, so I’m pretty sure you know the answer.”
“Come on” she motioned me with her hand as I followed her to the center of the arena as everyone else stepped back. “The first rule of fighting, always have the confidence to do so, when you’re feeling down or scared, it makes you weak. And right now, I can tell you’re feeling scared.”
“Should I make it more obvious?”
“Jesse” she muttered “You’re not going to die today. Like I said before, I’ll make sure of it. We’re just gonna take things nice and slow. Now, follow my moves.”
She got into position as I copied her pose.
“Good. Now, try to block every one of my strikes.”
And just like that, she began to swing the wooden sword at me as I did my best to block her strikes while stepping back.
“Not bad” she noted “You’re quick, that’s good. But you’ll need to be quicker.”
Before I knew it, she began to swing at me again, only this time, she was faster. It was harder for me to block every one of her strikes as I kept on stepping back, plus I could feel the vibration from her hits, kind of like when a baseball bat hits the baseball, the vibration hurts. I could feel the wooden sword beginning to slip out of my hand from her strong hits when I suddenly stumbled back and landed on my back from stepping back too fast.
“Okay,” Aria said “Once again, not bad. We’ll have to work on your speed and not falling back.”
“Damn” I breathed while setting down the wooden sword as I clutched my hand “I should’ve worn gloves.”
“You’ll get used to it” she held her hand out to me as I took it as she helped me up “Come on, let’s try that again.”
Oy.
For a couple of hours, I had to practice sword fighting against Aria. It took a few tries, but I think I got the hang of it. At least as a beginner. During our break, we took a seat on the bleachers as I wiped the sweat from my forehead, I never realized how much work sword fighting is, even Aria was shining from the sweat as she took a seat next to me.
“You feeling tired?” she asked me.
“This better make me sleep well tonight” I muttered while hunched over to relax my body.
“Oh, it will” she assured “That’s one of the best things of being a warrior, all the training and fighting makes you sleep well. Well, except for the thoughts that keep us up. When you’re fighting and you see a lot of blood and gore, it can keep you up at night. Although once you get used to it, it’s like it never even happened.”
Well, that just made me feel sick to my stomach. I can’t stand the sight of blood, so how the hell am I going to do this?
“We’ll keep on practicing with the training sword until you’re ready to move on to a real one. Just sit back for a moment and we’ll get back to training.”
“I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow” I grumbled.
“Oh, no doubt about that” she agreed “The first day it will be your arms, and then soon it’ll be your legs. And depending on how badly your training is, it can be your whole body.”
I blinked “You know, I was kinda expecting you to say something encouraging to take my mind off the upcoming soreness.”
“Oh,” she froze “Um... it’ll wear off. How’s that sound?”
“Close enough” I shrugged.
After the break, we went back onto the arena where I got ready to train. My hands were still sweaty from earlier, the training sword will most likely slip out of my hands, I just hope it doesn’t hit anyone.
“So how’s he doing?” I heard the familiar voice say as I turned to see Lindel entering the arena with Oswind following.
“I can see he’s still alive” the hobgoblin observed, “That’s a good sign.”
“We’re using training swords until we know he can handle a real one,” Aria told them “He’s doing pretty well so far.”
“Really?” he smirked, “How about a demonstration?”
Oh no.
“Jesse?” Aria turned to me “You ready?”
I didn’t say anything as I got into position. It shouldn’t be that hard right? Once we were ready, Aria swung the wooden sword as I did my best to block all of her strikes. She was quite fast, and like before, she hit my wooden sword a bit hard that I felt the painful vibration.
“Not bad” Lindel nodded his head “For a beginner.”
“What’s that suppose to mean?” I demanded.
“Don’t take it personally, but since you’re not an elf, your senses and reflexes are quite slower than an elf. It’s not your fault, it’s just something you need to work on.”
“You’ll get the hang of it” Aria assured “Just remember what I told you, it’s alright to be afraid, fear keeps you alert. And when you’re scared, your senses and reflexes get stronger. That is if you allow it.”
Oh, I better allow it. Unfortunately, I have the habit of shrieking while jumping up and down when I’m startled badly. I am able to control it sometimes, but when I can’t, it’s really embarrassing. But all of a sudden, I was so lost in my thoughts that the exact thing I was thinking about happened when I heard a loud scream to my side.
“BOO!”
Just as I thought, I let out a loud shriek while jumping up and down as I scooted away while clutching my chest, seeing how the surprise came from Hazel.
“What the hell was that for?!” I screamed, still clutching my beating chest.
“Just testing your reflexes,” she told me casually “A hero shouldn’t scream and jump like a girl when frightened, especially a guy like you. You did step back which was good, but you were a bit late doing it. You do need to work on your reflexes.”
“Jeez,” I breathed while letting my arm drop to the side “Seriously, don’t scare me like that again.”
“Oh please,” she snickered “You should always expect surprises like that, especially in this world.”
“The main thing is-” Aria put in “You’re gonna have to get used to everything around here, it may take some time, everyone’s different. But don’t worry, once you get the hang of it, you’ll barely feel scared.”
“That’s not entirely true” Dale suddenly proclaimed “In this world, anything can happen. You can never know what’s trying to kill you if you don’t know anything about them. Mermaids can kill you, gnomes can kill you, bandits can kill you, and you wanna know what else can kill you, fairies. That’s right, fairies. They’re not at all like Tinkerbell, when they go into battle mode, they can kill you in seconds, and I’m talking about them in their natural four inches size. And you wanna know something else-?”
“Okay, Dale!” Aira cut him off “I think he gets it!”
“Yeah” I nodded “The main thing is, be careful who you trust. And that’s my everyday goal so I think I’m good.”
I wasn’t kidding, that really is my everyday goal, maybe I should turn it into my motto.
“He’ll learn these things on the way” Aria assured Dale.
“Fairies” Dale pointed to me with a warning look “Be careful.”
- Writer
