Not All Heroes Are Guiltless

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The morning sun leaves a halo behind the tall trees. I watch wanting to frame their memory into my mind. My mate walks from the forest and nods to me. He hands me a branch which is heavy. But he’s cut off the bark and leaving it about the length of a sword.

“I know where really swords are. I haven’t fought with a wooden one in a long time. My trainers told me I didn’t need it anymore.” I said with a chuckle.

“Your trainers knew you couldn’t hit them. They never challenged you to connect on your strikes.” He says lowly.

I growl at his comment. He insulted Marquis Andrew and several of the other best trainers in Redland. I could best all of them in a duel. Then I realized what he referred to, too. They didn’t want me to become better, and they never challenged me.

“Your mother was in a similar situation growing up. Meeting your father made her able to assess a situation less like a spoiled brat.” He says with a scoff. “Redland loves their royalty, and they will do anything to keep them from putting them at risk. Whether that is patronizing them with just enough training in the martial arts to keep them out of trouble.”

“I guess that is how I would describe my training. I always thought I was given special tasks because I was able to be dependable. Such as be given mage targets to slip through their wards.” I say, looking at him.

“Your Marquis could easily do it himself. There was no need to send you ahead of him. In fact, you were constantly in his way when he was trying to cast spells and made him hesitate.” My mate says with his expressionless. “You have a habit of rushing in when you should pull back and regroup.”

I cross my arms angrily, “And you have a way of irritating me when you insult me or Redland.”

He smirks and laughs, “You need to burn that temple off.”

He lifts up a similar stick to himself and puts himself in a defensive posture. I follow his lead and choose to lunge. He deflects, and I find myself falling forward to eat dirt. I stand up and dust myself off and then feel wind rush and move to deflect and counter with a sidestep and find myself toppling over into the dirt, again.

I jump up and run a distance away from him and brace for another attack, but he is just standing there watching me and waiting. I set my feet and move to a defensive position, and I get a nod of approval from my mate. He lunges I move to deflect, but his stick pushes through and hits me in the gut, and I topple over while vomiting up my breakfast.

I feel his hand brush my hair away as I stare at the contents of my stomach. For a moment, it felt like my world was crashing around me, and now I’m sated with just his stroke on my hair and back.

“Take your time. I shouldn’t have been rough with you.” He whispers. I smile even with the odd taste in my mouth. So, he doesn’t want to see me hurt, and that’s why we are fighting with sticks. He doesn’t want to hold back, and he doesn’t want me to hold back. He hurt me, and now he’s regretting it. I think I know how to knock him down.

“Let me get something to wash the taste out of my mouth.” I stood up, and he stepped back, giving me room. I lunge at him, and he’s already prepared and stops my stick in mid lunge.

“Go get that drink. I have a lot to teach you.” He smirks. And pushes me away from him.

He spends the entire day sparring with me, and even though I’m finding myself in the dirt more times than I can count. I am picking up a few things. One is this man has more stamina than anyone I’ve ever met. His strength is inhuman, and he seems to be able to even pick up on muscle movements before I even consider the motion.

When the sun sets, he finally says we are done, and my muscles are so sore, and I’m covered in dirt. He offers a hand to pull me up. “You know, you can always move your magic reservoir to speed up you’re healing.”

I tilt my head to the side, puzzled, “I don’t have a magic reservoir. All the mages said I was inane.”

“The ability to shift into a wolf is drawn from your reservoir. Maybe the collar blocked them from getting a good reading on you. But you have the potential to be one of the strongest mages Redland has seen since Delia.” He says with almost some mournful undertones.

‘Does that make sense to you.’ I think-thought to my internal voice. ‘No, I’m not sure exactly what a reservoir is, but maybe do that mantra our mother taught us, but instead of searching for a calm, see if we might be able to sense anything else.’

“What does your voice say?” He asks me with his eyes, almost teasing me.

“Still don't understand about this reservoir I allegedly have, but my mother did teach me a mantra to help control my emotions. Maybe I could try it and see if I can sense something else.” I say, and he nods in approval.

“Let’s go hunt first and fix some dinner.” He says, taking my hand and leading me into the forest.