**** Chapter Twenty Five: NO PAIN, NO TRAINING

**** Chapter Twenty Five: NO PAIN, NO TRAINING

Four days went by and Demon made sure they were hell. He knocked me down and out every chance he got with every weapon imaginable; swords, spears, bows and arrows and sometimes guns, daggers and even fists. The only weapon he didn't use was his power of fire simply because the enemy couldn’t either. Besides if he did, I was told, I would only end up dying or wasting time healing since I couldn’t possibly learn to fend that off in the time we had to train. And we needed me alive, of course.

I was waked up – correction – dragged out of bed at 4 a.m. each morning. Then after a quick breakfast – just a couple of spoonfuls of some kind of cooked grain – Demon would hand me a sword and we would spar the day away.

En garde! Parry left. Parry right. Step back. Turn your wrist. Blade up. Point to the opponent. Thrust in. Deflect sword. And riposte. At this point I would usually respond with a Fall-Thud-Ouch routine.

“Back on your feet! I haven’t got all day!” He would growl and we’d continue.

“Can’t we use guns? You know they fire a bullet and it can kill faster.” I only received a glare from him.

“Guns can freeze.” His lip curled. “Then they are useless.” I had no clue what that meant but I dared not ask.

If I thought swordplay would be the death of me then I should have thought twice. The longbows and crossbows and arrows with the multitude of their heads were a bigger pain in the rear when the darn thing just kept missing the stupid target!

“You’re supposed to have excellent eyesight! Why can’t you hit on target?” He would glower at me.

”Oh, I don't know, perhaps because the target is up in a five hundred foot tall tree and I’m standing on the ground by its roots!” I’d yell at him. “I’m sure even Robin Hood would have a hard time hitting this one!”

“Oh, don't exaggerate.” He’d frown. “It’s just three hundred feet. Shoot now.”

But I was good at fist fights from day one. Perhaps because it allowed me to use my body more or less the same way I did while skating. And that often tricked and defeated Demon. The best part was he still didn't know why I was so agile – till he saw me skate one day.

My powers weren’t all under control. And by that I meant my control. Demon knew how to make good use of them. He could manipulate my mind in a way that would unleash them to best suit the particular skill I would be learning at the time. Other than that, I was usually a disaster without Ogaz’s potions to keep them under restraint. That wasn’t cool because the potion thing had to go eventually. I simply had to learn to control my own strengths.

I had very keen hearing and amazing sight that allowed me to see objects placed at a distance of a few miles as if I held them in my hand. And I could knock over a giant Redwood with one forceful kick. To learn to use all that to my advantage and not be on a superhuman freak ride 24/7, Ogaz suggested I meditate.

“So sing!” He insisted until my high pitched crow’s voice broke not glass but Demon’s eardrums.

“I have blood streaming out of my ears!” He would clap his hands to his head.

“Make it stop!”

So that didn't end well either. We were running out of options when Ogaz had the good sense to ask me, “What do you do to unwind?”

And I spread my arms like an eagle does her wings in flight, looked up at the morning sun and trilled, “Skate!”

Ogaz took me to a pond in the back of his vast cottage and its lands. It was a circular gem studded amidst grassy meadows. Cool, clear water, shiny as glass. Perfect for a swim but for skating – not so much. I would drown, I told Ogaz. I needed a swimsuit not skates to be there. I was still rambling when Ogaz took out a small glass tube of white crystals from his pocket and poured it into the pond. The water froze as soon as the crystals hit its surface.

“There you go. Your very own rink. Skate!” Ogaz took out a pair of skates – my old skates! When I asked how he got them he just put a finger to his lips and smiled.

I couldn’t believe it! That was the best gift anyone had ever given me besides my own ice rink that Daddy had bought. I leapt onto it – which was a mistake. I broke a hole and went straight in, splashing water all over and out of the hole. That in turn put a crack in the entire iced surface and well – the whole thing went crashing into the pond water underneath.

Take two. Ogaz solidified the pond again. I stepped on it cautiously. Skated for a while and all was well until I warmed up, decided to spin and – well – splash! My Hulkulean powers were making a fool out of me!

Take three – and Ogaz was running out of crystals – or so he warned me. Azure stepped in on the ice with me. He said he’d help. He was confident. Me; not so much.

He held my hand as we skated silkily over the smooth ice. Then Azure picked me up by the waist and spun a little, putting me down gently. I was impressed. I didn't know he could skate.

“Immortality is a long time to learn stuff.” He grinned at me.

The gesture got me in the mood a bit but fear rushed in as I pondered: to spin or not to spin.

“Think about what you love about skating,” Azure said. “Think about what makes you want to fly.”

I closed my eyes and breathed deep. I thought of open summer skies, of kites and Daddy and me. Of ice that made me dance and twirl and the feeling it brought with it. Of the rose buds I picked from my garden every morning for Daddy before breakfast. In my dreams that was all still real. I closed my ears to every other noise I could hear and listened to just Daddy’s voice. There he was, by the rink, cheering for me. I could fly higher. I could be so much better than the rest!

I jumped. I landed. I was perfect. Daddy broke into applause and rushed to hug me. I opened my eyes and – and he wasn’t there. But Azure was; just as happy and cheerful and hugging me. I hugged him back – tightly – losing myself in the warm embrace of his friendship that was for me alone.

It was nice to have Azure as my partner on the rink. We skated. We bonded. I told him how a stepmom could be the worst birthday present for a six year old. He told me how the Phromaz race was all men, created to serve both Enth and Volttus during the rule of Marzong as a goodwill gesture between the two kingdoms. So yeah, we had stories to share.

I was allowed very little time off from my rigorous training to eat, sleep and relax in the beginning. Every day Demon went off to God knows where during the relaxing hour and I never tried to find out or ask where he went. Frankly, it was nice to get away from him for a bit after being yelled at by him for the whole day.

Luckily for me, things began to change from day five. Demon declared that we could now practice only from morning till noon since I was almost getting there. And that’s when he, one fine day, walked up to the pond and found us skating. Dancing on ice to be exact – Azure and I.

We had been waltzing for a few minutes before Azure lifted and threw me up in the air. I did my loops and landed safely to join him in another flowing rotation. Azure took me by the waist, spun me and spun with me, lifted and threw me again, jumped with me and around me till the music in both our heads stopped. We struck a grand finishing pose with me resting my back on his bent knee and he bending down in a bow.

When I looked up, I saw Demon standing by the edge of the frozen pond. I don't think I can ever forget the look on his face as he stared at me for a full minute before he blinked, not uttering a word.

“Join us.” I gave him a royal wave. Very presumptuous of me yes but for some reason I knew he could skate. Perhaps five hundred years was also a very long life to learn stuff? But he shook his head and smiled.

“Ice and I don’t gel.” He turned and started to walk back to the cottage.

Thanks to skating, my powers were finally under control. In spite of my super strength, I wasn’t breaking everything I touched any more. Skating had helped in strange ways – much to Azure’s relief.

“Anything gets broken around here you know who has to be there with a mop and a broom!” He had often complained. And it was true. Neither Ogaz nor Demon cared to clean up. It was always Azure’s job. I tried to help but he wouldn’t let me.

Ogaz had no house staff. He did everything himself; the cooking, the house maintenance, tending the gardens, the general cleaning, but when it came to sweeping the floors – Azure was the one who arrived with the broom. I wondered who swept and mopped the cottage while Azure was in the castle.

Demon, of course, did his best to help with nothing but Ogaz made him run errands for sure. Fetch the knife. Fetch the bowl. Take this to the kitchen. Take this to your room. Turn the heat down. Turn it up! Sit down and shut up! Well – no, not the last one – not really.

A weird lot these guys were. I couldn’t remember the last time I had had so much fun.

During those days I spent at Sikri, I learned many things about my own heritage. I learned about Enth from a book I found in Ogaz’s library. His library was basically his entire house. He had books stuffed into every nook and cranny he could find from bookshelves to tabletops to fireplaces. There was only one fireplace that he actually used for its intended purpose – the one in the living room. The reason was obvious as daylight since the living room was nothing but a big space surrounded by walls with built-in bookcases and a sitting area by a huge window that opened up to the front yard and a field of sunflowers.

I loved that room. I spent hours there devouring text after text since most was in English. And if I got stuck with Akina, I’d pester anyone into translating it for me. Demon was my favorite at such times. I loved to listen to him speak Akina and translate it. He sounded so amorous, almost as if he was making love to the language itself, and I loved it.

“So what does this mean – Em gufron toru?” I would ask him.

“I talk to you,” he would say, sprawled under the sun on cool grass or on the living room lounger.

“Em zarron toru?”

“I need you.”

“Toru nami zarronish em.”

“You annoy me like hell so shut the hell up and go away!”

“Nope. It means ‘you don't need me’.” I would smile at his frowning face. “It says so in the book.”