The Throne of Bones.

8. Training

Miriá looked to her side at Minto then back to their new master with a burning red blush. "L-Lady-Shaél, this can hardly be seen as training, please do not request such a thing!" She hissed coming closer to Shaél.

"What are you on about, we no longer have the time for games." Shaél stated, tapping her foot and summoning a large reel of wrapping from out of thin air with just a wave and a whisper.

"A little help here?" Shaél asked, to which two of the maids quickly came forward to snatch the reel from mid-air, they were shocked when on contact the reel became so heavy that it dragged them down and shook the ground when it landed.

"What's this?" Miriá asked helping them pick it back up as the other maid came to help, but the reel didn't even budge.

Shaél sighed and picked it up from them with no effort at all. "It is a training tool from my time called the Kilokloth (kilo-cloth), each foot of length is ten pounds of weight and it is endowed with magic-binding runes, you will be wearing this throughout all of your training, I will teach you how to make your own as well." Shaél placed the large reel on her shoulder and gestured that Minto look away.

He nodded and turned his back, walking a distance away as did Dariél, while he did this Shaél with the assistance of the maids stripped Miriá down to her undergarments and wrapped her from her neck to her ankles in the Kilokloth.

It was wrapped sternly and fitted like a second skin on her, but the weight that the cloth produced caused the halfling to take a knee after the maids helped her dress again.

Immediately, she began sweating from the pressure the torture-cloth forced on her body.

"For the first few days, focus on moving alone, when you can walk properly, the real training begins." Shaél left her there and made her way to Minto where she wrapped him from neck to toe.

"L-Lady-S-Shael." Minto stammered. "Is this-s really n-necessary?" 

"You rely too much on your magical powers, if you seriously wish to take down dragons and take the throne, you cannot make the same mistake your father did, you must attain an unholy strength akin to a dragon itself." Shaél smiled as he fell to his hands and knees sweating and shaking. "Focus on training your body for now."

For a few hours Astrá watched amused as they tirelessly tried overcoming their handicap before a summons from her guild took her away.

A day passed by with them barely able to crawl, and then another.

By the time both of them were able to stand and walk, three painstakingly long weeks had gone by, and in this time Shaél had not given them the privilege of food, only tea and water.

At first light, before the first sun had peeked over the horizon, Shaél came onto the grounds with the triplet maids; Laná, Kēéla, and Álēne, standing and watching them sleep back to back with their heads hung low and their knees to their chests.

A step closer and Shaél was surprised when both of them simultaneously opened their eyes and looked at her.

"Master." Miriá spoke first before a tear rolled down her cheek. "Is that for us?"

"Yes." Shaél replied, making way for the maids who had warm bread and freshly roasted meat on platters. "Eat and rest until the second sun rises, today your training will begin."

They did just that, scoffing down the food like starving Wilder-Bears after a two-year hibernation, then they sat quietly beneath one of the trees and waited for the second sun, watching as the stars faded and the light washed away the darkness and purged the sky.

"Stand." Shaél came before them, and although they were slow, they stood without much problem. "Now that you have gained the ability to walk, you will learn to run." Shaél gestured to the entire arena they were in. "A hundred laps should suffice, you have until sunsdown."

Minto and Miriá looked depressed as they scanned the area before Minto suddenly jogged off at a slow steady pace. "This is barbaric!" He hissed.

"i***t, don't waste your strength shouting!" Miriá jogged after him, Shaél sighed for what felt like the thousandth time since they started.

"They're not very different." Álēne, the blonde elf with grey eyes stood beside Shaél with a small smile. 

"They are opposites I think." Laná objected.

"Such things do not matter to them, at least for now." Shaél watched them slowly pass for their first lap. "Did you hear what young Minto's goal is?"

I meant to ask you Lady-Shaél." Kēéla looked down at the short elder to her side. "Why would you train a boy to slay a Dragon, don't you know what would happen if he attained the Throne of Bones?"

Shaél looked at the three identical faces staring back at her. "Minto is powerful, his innate powers far surpass that of the grand Fae elders, if it is him, he can destroy an army, he can take on any Dragon." She confessed causing the three elves to stare at her with the unblinking eyes of dead animals. "That is the scope of the darkness that resides within his magical power, but he lacks discipline, his untapped potential is otherworldly."

"Why would you teach such a monster?" Álēne asked almost gasping.

"Even if Minto is a monster, he is carrying the wishes of all those who lost their lives in the Wolfberry attack, he is our instrument of destruction that will be aimed at the head of the Dragons, I believe that he can succeed, but must first understand what his end goal is."

"Just... just what exactly is he?" Laná asked as a single bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. 

"He is an incomprehensible mystery born of Light and Darkness, an enigma." Shaél looked worried at this point as Minto and Miriá passed again. "More than anything else, he is a boy who seeks revenge for the untimely death of his parents."

"Who could give birth to something so scary?" Kēéla gulped. "It is unimaginable.

"Minto does not know of his parents' true identity." Shaél sat beneath the tree where the two had rested. "His father, Mithos former King of Fae, was shunned by his kind and exiled for taking a demon as his mate, that demon was Sitri."

At the mention of Sitri's name the elves all went pale.

"Sitri.. The Sitri?" Laná asked with a suddenly dry throat.

"That very same one." Shaél replied.

"How could a Dragon kill her?"Álēne asked wide-eyed.

"That is the shocking part, Ashrótt would not have been able to kill her." Shaél admitted, looking at her own wrinkled hands. "It took both her and Mithos' life force to repair Minto's fading soul, that alone is testament of the power that boy can someday wield."

The triplet looked across at Minto with horror. "It killed both Sitri and the former King of Fae to save one person..." Álēne clutched her crimson maids' uniform and shuddered. "Can such power really exist within a single individual?"

"I thought the same as well when I tended to him while he was unconscious." Shaél admitted. "He is a living, breathing, cataclysm in the happening."

"That brings me to my original question Elder-Shaél, why would you train such a monster?" Álēne asked again.

"Because I want Ashrótt dead as well, he also took my life, but my power is minimal compared to a few millennia ago." She looked at the ground as the wind blew against the grass. 

The sisters looked at each other then back at Minto who was now screaming as he stormed around the field at the speed of a regular human.

"Stop screaming like that!" Miriá shouted from behind, keeping pace with the loudmouth.

For the next three months, Minto and Miriá started their day with a hundred laps before Shaél would teach them melee and weapon skills, this time passed by peacefully.

The second sun stood high in the middle of the sky when Shaél called both of them off the field to rest, because although they were on the verge of collapse, they refused to stop.

The two ran toward the well and desperately fetched the water dousing themselves while they drank from the very bucket.

While they drank, Astrá approached.

"Lady-Astrá!" The elves greeted with a curtsey. "How was your mission?"

"Another success." Astrá grinned before looking at the two again. "They move so freely now." She stated amused.

"Astrá!" Minto ran over to her drenched from head to toe in sweat and water. "There's something I'd like to ask you later!" He rasped before turning to Shaél. "Master, please add more weights to my arms, they're feeling light again."

Shaél's eyes opened wide when Miriá also came beside him and held out her hands. "Mine as well."

Wordlessly Shaél complied and summoned her reel, adding another layer from their wrists to shoulders.

Minto backed away with his hands hanging and shaking before lifting them with a shout and clasping his fists. 

Miriá backed away and raised her hands with a grunt before Minto ran off screaming on the top of his lungs again. "You i***t, I said stop screaming like that!" Miriá snapped before they both fell in line at the corner and began their seventieth lap for the morning.

"They show such dedication." Dariél appeared from the shade of a tree. "Youth is a blessing indeed." 

"Dariél?" Astrá called.

"Milady's House has a guest requesting entry." Dariél clasped his gloved hands and opened them up to reveal the illusion of Okorak Wolfsword, the high Orc who had fought against Minto on their first day in Eliós.

"Welcome him and keep him in the study, I will be there shortly." Astrá nodded.

"Understood." Dariél nodded before vanishing from their sights.

"Astrá." Shaél looked at her quizzically. "Why do you only have Elven servants in your household?" She asked, it had bugged her from the start.

"Ah that." Astrá turned to her. "Dariél is the one who has been taking care of me since birth, he has taught me everything I know, and going outside I learned that he was the only truly trustworthy person I knew, as a result, I've only ever been able to trust elves, humankind is untrustworthy, and other races look down on or resent us." 

"I see." Shaél nodded in full understanding.

Within another hour Minto and Miriá collapsed beside the well, slowly dragging the bucket to the top and drinking until they dropped to the ground heaving.

"Another meal will be here shortly, so catch your breaths and take the rest of the day for yourselves." Shaél instructed with a nod of praise before nodding to Astrá and vanishing just as Dariél had.

"I had a feeling." Astrá thought out loud. "Dariél has been avoiding her as of late, because she too has practised and further mastered the arts of a dark elf."

Nobody was there to hear her words, but she conversed with herself nonetheless.

While they were in the middle of their meal Astrá returned with Wolfsword walking behind her.

"My savior, I have brought a guest." Astrá announced as they neared.

"Welcome." Minto grunted.

"I come bearing an apology young Lord." Wolfsword stood a respectable distance. 

"No need." Minto bit into his meat and waved it like a sword. "We fought and that is the end of it, I have no room left in my heart to hold such a small grievance." 

"Heh, sounding all mature all of a sudden." Miriá chuckled causing Minto to glare spears at her.

"Your request my savior, what was it?" Astrá asked, causing Minto to straighten his posture and then stand.

"Astrá, can you teach me how to cast a fire-bolt?" 

Astrá practically jumped as she approached him. "Most definitely!" She chirped happily. "I would be honoured." 

Wolfsword, new to her antics tilted his head to the side like a confused pup.

And so began Minto's second lesson: The art of combustion.