Some Goddess

Training

The next morning, I woke up, had my bath and headed downstairs and surprisingly, Elena was in my living room. I didn’t bother me though.

“Good morning,” I said going to the kitchen. She didn’t reply, not like I expected her to. She was probably still angry with me. I looked through everything in the cupboard, there were like normal earth stuff but with different colours, shapes and probably name. I wasn’t sure of anything, but I was going to treat them like normal earth stuff. I needed to make an apology breakfast, so I started off with some blue waffles; no idea why they were blue, but I didn’t want to think about it. I put some green looking syrup on it and topped it with a brown strawberry. Then I made a cup of cream cappuccino. I set them both on a tray and actually took it out to my living room. Please, forgive me m’lady,” I said, down on one knee, my head bowed. She said nothing. I sat beside her.

“Look, I really don’t remember anything except from the fact I feel like I’m not from here. I forgot my manners along, but I’ve remembered them back and I’m really sorry for everything I did. I promised to be better. I still don’t remember anything and you’re my only hope to get me back on track. Don’t you want to help your powerless, good for nothing of a friend you have? I want to be able to be worth your friendship.”

She looked at me and sighed. I mean, I had just given a poorly written speech with all my effort, she had to give me. Besides, she wouldn’t have come if she didn’t want to forgive me. She took the tray from me and went to the dinning table. I got my own food and joined her.

“When did you learn how to cook?” she asked.

Did I ever not know how to?”

“Yh, I couldn’t even ask you to boil water.”

“I couldn’t have been that bad.”

“You started a fire.”

“That’s bad.”

For a while, we ate in silence. I didn’t know where to start from, but I needed to get things straight.

“So, you really don’t remember anything?” Elena asked, playing with her food.

“Not a thing,” I replied.

“Which means you don’t remember our training for the mission?” she asked.

“I don’t even remember the mission,” I replied.

“We’ll need to start from there,” she said after a pause. Then she started eating again.

“Am I really the only one without powers known?” I asked. She stopped.

“So, you remember that?” she asked.

“Not really, I overheard,” I replied.

“Well …usually, your powers develop as you grow and become more prominent. So, no you are not the only one without powers. Apart from you, we have babies,” she said in a rather low tune, “but we’re not supposed to think too much about it.” Then, she had a fork full of waffles.

“Do people hate me because of it?” I asked again. She sighed.

“People hate us, Vick. Both of us. And the only way to stop them is to complete our mission.”

“Which is?”

“… You see… Long ago while we were younger actually, our kingdom was attacked. What was taken from us was our seapol. The seapol of every member of the land. In case you’re wondering (our explain). Every member of the land has at least a power. But this power can only be used for their daily lives. A seapol enhances those powers and make them suitable big stuff like war. It’s like a wizard wand. Without them, the kingdom was rendered weak and dependent on migration for safety. Sometimes, they had to fight and no warrior ever came back. We both of us though, didn’t give up. We started our training when we were little and now, the kingdom depends on us to retrieve our seapols. But all we do is fail.” Then she just stared at her food. I was quite sure, if she didn’t like being tough, she would have cried.

I patted her back saying, “don’t worry, we’ve almost got it,” I didn’t expect it to make a difference but at least, I tried.

“So when does my training start?” I asked cutting into the last piece of my waffles.

“Immediately after breakfast,” she said, eating her barely touched food. “And note, this is the last time we’re eating breakfast before a morning exercise.”

I agreed. I knew it was going to be tough, but I needed to be done with whatever I was doing here soon enough. As soon as she was done eating, we set out of the village.

“What are we doing today,” I asked, as we walked through the forest.

“Nothing much, we’re just going to work on your speed and strength. Then we can start your building up. Now all I want you to do is catch me.”

“Say what now?” I asked but she was gone. I saw her passed with speed, like a shadow. Then I saw her behind some tree. I immediately started running towards her but as I reached her, she was gone again. “Faster,” I heard her say from behind me. I started running again and yeah, I couldn’t reach her.

“Faster,” she said from another angle. We went on like that for about thirty minutes and I was the one panting.

“Are you tired?” she asked, literally a few feet in front of me.

“May be,” I replied charging for her again. She was fast.

“Good. So, let’s switch things up a bit.” I didn’t even know where she was. Suddenly, I felt a heavy hit on my back and I fell face down on the ground.

“Are you trying to kill me?” I asked. Alarmed. “It’s a test of strength or alt least, resistance. Let’s see how far you go.”

I stood back up. Not straight though, I was too tired for straight. Another hit and I was down. I don’t know how long I lasted but I know I fell and didn’t stand up again. She came and squatted in front of me.

“You’re weak. You lasted for only three hours. We have a snack break by 12:00pm, then, we’ll continue. Lunch is by two and dinner is by six and then, I’ll leave you to rest.”

That was exactly how the day went. The lunch was a bit too small, but dinner was okay. She then let me be. We returned to the village and as soon as I reached my bed, I slept off.

“Wake up, it’s time for our morning exercise,” Elena said, hitting me with a stick.

“Is it morning already?” I asked, turning around.

“Yes,” she replied. I opened my eyes. It was still dark.

“What is it like, 5:00?”

“4:00 actually,” she started, “and we need at least a three-hour exercise,” she replies. Like she couldn’t see I wasn’t interested. I dragged my duvet over my head and settled to continue my sleep but the next thing I felt was a real heavy kick.

“Do you wear metal on your feet?” I asked as I let the pain pass through my body.

“May be. Your training starts in five minutes. We should be out of here by then.” She then left. I got ready as usual and met up with. I couldn’t be so good. No improvement from the day before, and to top it all, my back still hurt.

“You’re worse. Pathetic,” she said to my weak body. “Get up. It’s time for breakfast. From there we’ll go meet the council. They await your apology.”

Of course, they did. It’s a congregation of stuck up people who believe their opinion matters. I’m sure they must have been torturing the poor girl for an apology from her ‘powerless nobody of a friend.’ So even if I was going to apologize, it was going to be just for her.

The staircase kind of skipped my mind though, so I was speechless when I was face to face with the golden, supposed-to-be tempting staircase. Elena could just float up but she decided to keep me company on my journey up even if she didn’t say so. Elena gave a gentle knock on the door when we reached there and waited patiently and nervously for the come-in command. Such a good soul. Nothing could make me nervous over people that could not see my effort.

“Of course, you brought him along.”

“Yes sir. Victor has something to say.” Elena said, nudging me with her shoulder. I stepped forward. Obviously, I have nothing to say but I just had to.

“I just want to say I’m sorry for the other day,” I said after a sigh.

“The other day,” King Grumpy said mockingly as always. No surprise there. They’re all stuck up.

“Yes, the other day.” I wasn’t going to be nicer than that. I looked the small man straight in the eyes, waiting for him to say something else. He didn’t. that was best for both of us.”

“Is that all you came here for?” the head of the council asked.

“Yes. I also want to inform you that …” Elena squeezed my hand. She didn’t want me to say more.

“That what?” Mr. Grumpy asked.

“That I’ll like to make up for my mistake by donating an elevator.”

“Oh, your death trap.”

Again, depending on who uses it.”

“How?”

I grinned to myself. Of course, I was going to take advantage of this.

“It’s magical. It detects judgmental people and does away with them.”

“What do you mean does away with them?”

“I don’t know, you might have to find out,” I was smiling and looking him straight in his eyes. I saw fear. That was good, he knew how he was.

“We cannot allow such a nuisance in our community.”

“It’s not a nuisance. It will help us to get rid of the unproductive people in our community.

“Are you included?”

“No, but some people I recently met are.”

“I think we’ll take our leave now,” Elena said. Her voice was firm. She was mad at me. She took a bow and left. I followed suit.

“I’m sorry,” I said as we got outside. She ignored me.

I’m really sorry,” I repeated,

“We’re late for training. If I get to the forest before you, then you’ll do a hundred push-ups before we start.” The she floated off. She knew what she was doing. There was no way I could have reached there before her. I still increased my pace, but I did not put a lot of effort. I did some push-ups before the training started. She went all out on me; even when I was down, she kept on attacking. I used my lunch time to regain my strength to move for the continuation of the training. I was down again when we continued, and she left me when it was over. After I got a little strength, I dragged myself back to my house and slept on an empty stomach.

Our timetable continued but my progress was really slow, and I was already designing a manual elevator for the hall building without anyone’s consent. Elena’s anger eventually faded away, but she was still intense with the training.

“Again, no progress,” Elena said after one of our trainings. There was a clear progress. I was not on the floor half dead; I was just sitting down on the floor.

“We don’t share the same point of view,” I pointed out, looking up at her.

“Seen that might be why you tend to praise yourself without doing anything,” she said, leaning on a tree.

“May be if you were more encouraging, I would have had a reason to work harder.” I avoided her eye contact.

“I’m training a warrior, not a kid,” she replied.

“But seriously, I need something to look forward to be faster.”

“Isn’t the freedom of our village enough?”

“Nope.”

“Then, what do you want, something I can provide?”

“Something else.”

“Like?”

I wasn’t sure. Like what? Something she could provide. I had something in mind only her could provide but I couldn’t be dirty here could i?

“A secret”, I said as it crossed my mind. I still needed to know more about her.

“A secret?”

“Yes. After every lesson”

“No way”

“Every change in course?”

“No”

“At the end of the training?”

“No”

“Oh come on!”- she really didn’t want to tell me anything, -“I’ll tell mine too”

“Still no”

“Why?”

“….Well no reason”

I looked down at my feet disappointed. What could she possibly be hiding that she just didn’t want to tell me anything. That just made me more curious.

“But….”

I looked at her waiting for what she wanted to say, trying not to look too enthusiastic so she won’t change her mind.

“….I’ll consider it. And I’ll give you an answer the day you’re able to catch me”