28 Spear of dark

A cold breeze flew through the iron bars of the cell. It came to our beds and cooled our feet. That very breeze woke me up. And then I sat and wiped my eyes. Looked around as well with those sleepy eyes. It got pretty cold as my feet with shorts and small boots were the only thing protecting me from the nightly freezing winds. Then I stood up and with my hands, I started warming my legs up.

Everyone has the same clothes… We look almost like slaves. Or maybe we are slaves? I don't know anymore… The pain from yesterday is much smaller than before but it still isn't fully healed. Some of the wounds are a little better because of the cold, especially the legs… Legs that were broken before and have been 'reforged'. Now it's pretty hard to walk and I somehow feel like a cripple. But I have to survive.

I want to change this place… Place as the world. I went to the iron bars and looked outside. It was still very early in the morning and from behind the bars, I saw what I always see when I look outside. Two men on the ring. A small piece of the sky. Other cells and beds from the other side. A cyan breeze in the air made the whole place look very cozy. Marcus also woke up by then. Since he was always the first one to wake up he always stretched. This time I joined him and we stretched together.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked me with a curious look when he had a small pause between exercises.

"I think I slept well. Besides a small problem in my mind because of yesterday… I'm ready for today. Even pain is slowly fading away. I think I will join you." Already pretty excited that I can train a little bit… It won't give me anything though if in three days we will try to escape. Well, I can do it but… Ugh.

"Wow. To this extent? Does it hurt though when you do it?" I'm doing sit ups. It doesn't hurt very much but there is still some pain left on my… Entire body.

"I can manage but it could be better" Now I got a small pause and afterwards it will be time for pushups.

"Today will be a hard day. The first thing we will do when we enter the mountains is to get spears or something of that sort. Good wood for a fire and everything like that." He explained.

"I… Never had a spear in my hands actually… My family never bothered teaching me anything like this." When I said it he snorted and immediately stopped

"You were a general's son, weren't you? How was it that he never taught you how to fight?" His right eyebrow went up. Well, not an eyebrow because they were burnt away before but the skin still did its thing.

"I am. But he never actually taught me anything important. Well, there were some moments but very few… I wish my father was actually a 'real' father figure." I looked down on the ground… And started doing the push ups. New energy than yesterday which is really amazing. Really happy out of nowhere… Maybe because of the fading pain?

"Well… I could give you some advice but there is no spear around here." Then two spears started manifesting on the floor.

"Good idea Marcus. Teach him something about the spear. Since spearmanship for today won't be so challenging it won't take much time. And today in the mountains I will try to teach him some swordsmanship. It will be both fun and educating, I think" Estel nodded while changing into a sitting position. With his elbow on his knee, he looked at us. "Am I going to wait for you to do something?" He added.

"Ok, Hayden. So…" I held the spear with the pike pointing to the ceiling. "Hold it with your both hands one on the back and one on the front but not too close to the edge. As long as it's comfortable. Your main hand on the back part of the spear. The push will be stronger but the movements will be restricted." I did what he told me to and it felt pretty comfortable. "Now you just push with all of your strength. If we had another type of spear with a more blade like tip you could use special martial arts. But firstly I don't know any sadly and secondly, we won't need it. But that's basically the basics for how to use this spear." Estel then created a small body of sorts that looked like a shield.

"Try to hit it and after a couple of hits, I will start moving it. You okay with it?" Estel said.

"Emm… Okay." I started then thrusting in the direction of the plate. The first thrust was a miss. When I pushed it in the end it swung really weirdly.

"Your thrusts must be strong. You can't overswing too hard though and if you do it too soft it won't do a thing as well." Then I did it once more. Again a miss. Then a third time which was a hit but at the edges. Marcus came to me and with the spear in his hands. "Watch." I stepped back and he thrust with his spear with high speed. A quick and decisive one. He has made two more which were bullseye. When I look at his muscles when he does that there is no hesitation in him. Full focus on the thrust. It doesn��t fly away anywhere or nothing more. It just hits the target it's supposed to hit.

I followed his lead and took my spear. Pointed the head down the ground to make the thrust. Looked at the target. A small black shield. Full focus.

A thrust. All my back and arm muscles fully onto the thing. Working in perfect harmony with one another the spear in my eyes was slowly getting to the target. And… It hit. But not where I pointed. It was slightly off to the left.

"One more!" I said and took the spear from the shield. It then repaired and with the same look in my eyes, I thrust once more. And again and again. And so 30 times with no perfect hit.

"Listen. I think that's good enough for us now." His head shook in the direction of the iron bars in our cell. The dark things then disappeared and the guards walked around while looking in our direction. The thing he saw was two men standing there one just normally and the other tired and a little sweaty. He just went by and gasped. "Now you can continue."

"Why can't I hit the target where I want it?" I asked Marcus and I saw Estel with a small smirk on his face.

"It's the mastery. You can hit a target somewhere but to hit the exact perfect spot is a long time. Well, it may sound a little weird but that's somehow how I did it. It took me a little longer to get there." He explained while checking the spear's sharpness. I think.

"How long did it take you?" I'm really curious about how long it actually took him.

"Something around a year or two. Well, it wasn't the entire day all the time but it wasn't easy. There was always something… Missing in my spearmanship. It maybe never was a martial art but for the ancient art of hunting that was an important thing. Some monsters could survive if you won't hit the weak spot. Like a great lion's heart. It won't die easily if you will hit anything else. And even three millimeters off can be major." Marcus nodded with a smirk on his face.

"Are you a hunter?"

"I… Was. Since I didn't hunt for more than six months or so my skills with the spear rusted a little but I still got it to some point." He put the spear down and it disappeared. He then went to the beds and sat on his one. "Now if you want you can go one but you don't actually have to learn more. If you want you can try to get better but that also depends on Estel." As he sat and Estel couldn't see him anymore he put his hand on his face and started breathing loudly. He is stressed because of what happened yesterday. But I think it's somewhat better now… I hope it is.

"I'm fine with it for now. I can do exercises and keep this up at the same time so go on. When you will hit the target right at the point I will start moving it. Damn it I need to wake Matthew up… That snorting dwarf…" I didn't realize this but Matthew was snorting pretty… Loud. But I started thrusting more and more… Getting used to the feeling of the spear in my hand trying to punch through the middle. I went on for several minutes with each swing getting closer to the middle but still not there in the meantime hiding when the guards went by. I hope they won't have anything to say why I'm sweating… 100 thrusts and still not good enough. It will be a rough time. But learning this may be a good thing for later. But after another couple of minutes, Matthew already woke up and the guards again started walking around.