Not All Heroes Are Guiltless

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Aela’s POV

The next morning, I know I have slept in. The old lady is outside holler insults at my mate. I stretch and jump off the cot. The fireplace is still burning coals and keeping the cabin cozy with just a slight bite of the chilled mountain air.

The smell of roasted meat makes my stomach growl again. I glance around and can’t find the source. I decide to step outside to find out what the old woman is so angry about. I pull the cloak close to me and shiver as the cold bitter wind hits me.

I found the old lady yelling at my mate, who was trying to repair her roof. Her berating and scolding almost makes me believe she isn’t entirely blind. But his response always has a hidden ornery side to it. I only see in small flashes when he’s trying to flirt.

“So, what did you do to be punished by the gods to have such worthless rift-raft as your mate?” The old lady snickers as I walk closer to her.

I giggle and watch as he shakes his head at her comment to me. “Honestly, I’m starting to believe he’s the one being punished for having a mate like me.”

The old lady embraces me and hugs me tightly against her bosom. She picks me up off the ground in her giant form. Her strength and muscle tone surprises me completely. The woman is still a warrior. A low growl rumbles the cabin, “Yeah, yeah, I didn’t mean to startle her. You can stop your threats, dark one. I won’t harm the little wolf.”

Little wolf? Now, I have to figure out what manner of creature this woman has come from. She berates my mate again, and he just growls and whimpers from his post on top of the cabin. “One thing that wise devil has told me in the importance of names. I will keep calling you little wolf, and you and him can keep your secrets to yourself. But you may call me Belva, for it may be important to you in your journey. Do you want to spar with me? He said he’s been training you.”

I have a moment to hesitate but can feel my wolf perk up at the idea. “Sure.”

She walks over toward a small clearing filled with sand from the lake, but most of the debris is cleared away. She throws me one of the small walking sticks nearby. I swing it to get a good balance on the weight.

Belva stands with her long can in resting position, and I know she is ready. I watch for a bit on her stature. She’s blind so she will be reliant on more reactive maneuvers, and with her size and muscles, it will make counters even more forceful than what I am used to. She also sized me up in the embrace earlier, so she probably has more knowledge of my techniques, levels, and my limits.

“Its always good to analyze your opponent, little wolf. But you learn more from actions.” Belva sneers at me. I giggle at her impatience. That must be her weakness.

I spin the staff in my hand and move into basic maneuvers and feints. She deflects with very minimal movement, and I’m starting to doubt again if she is truly blind even with the missing eyes. Her counters are just as forceful as I had anticipated, and if I deflected them, I would more than likely tire quickly.

I keep light on my feet and concentrate on making sure her counters don’t touch me. He kept to a pattern of constantly moving to her left flank to attack because she also seems more sluggish on that particular side. She still manages to use her cane to block any attack. After almost a full hour and I have yet to let a hit land on her, and I’ve been successfully dodging from her devastating blows. Neither of us has made headway. We have made a nice pilgrimage around the edge of the lake.

Then, in a moment, she turns her head to the left to listen to something a little closer. I lunge at the opportunity to hit her on the right side with full force. Her hand catches my rod and twists it out of my hands. She throws it swiftly into the lake, and I move to prepare for potential onslaught or barrage because I have nothing to defend, but I know I can move easier without the walking stick.

Her reach feels like it expands twice as much as she did in the first hour. We keep sparring even without my use of a weapon because I find myself having to continuously dodge and be crafty on trying to exhaust her movements but no matter what she seems to be just as calm and collective as she was when we first started the fight.

Thankfully, one of the things I’ve been training with my mate is being able to endure for longer spans. His onslaught is just as brutal, and he doesn’t tire out at all. She is of the same caliber, and I’m starting to enjoy the burn of my muscles from the overuse.

At the start of the third hour, my stomach growls again because I still haven’t eaten anything. I keep my eyes on my partner, though, because she hasn’t given me a chance to concentrate on anything but evades her incoming attacks.

I twist my ankle as I accidentally step between two stones, which makes me flinch slightly, but I try not to allow a slight injury to cause me to fail this spar. I step around the stone, and my steady foot slips in some mud. I try to lift my shoe out of the muck, and it grips me down. I look up weary that she will bring her staff straight down on my head from an overhead club.

A staff and body jump into my rescue. My mate pushes Belva back away from me. She growls to intimidate my mate, and then I perceive him to move into a quick succession of exercises he’s given me. I tried to do them, but she would interrupt me continuously. He does the movements so quickly that I can now tell how much more training I need.

Belva quickly gets red in the face from the barrage of attacks from my mate. She doesn’t even flinch when he knocks her cane out of her hands. Instead, her arm grows hair, and she swipes at my mate with a paw full of claws.

The paw is large, and my mate steps back, “You always lose your cool collective outer appearance with me bear. But I would never hurt you, you know that, right?”

“Your presence still unnerves me, dark one. But you are right. You have been more helpful and generous towards me. I can not deny that your intentions are not honorable. Thank you for letting me have some time with the little wolf. She is coming along nicely. Seems like there is a trainer in that dark callous demeanor.”

She walks back to her cabin, and I watch her sway. Bear? She must be massive if she shifts into her animal form. My mate turns to me as she walks away. “We need to travel soon. Let’s get you fed.”