4 I’m Only Eight

After a restless sleep Jemman ate a huge breakfast. It was a fruit that looked like a logan berry but tasted like bacon. She was pretty happy because she'd basically lived as a vegetarian in her past life, well, excluding the very rare meal of chicken or fish. Life-style choices aside, Susie had loved the smell of bacon. "What will Jemman do?"

Decision time. To meat or not to meat? That is the question. "What is nobler in my mind?" Throughout the vegetarian breakfast Jemman muttered to herself. For many it might be a funny internal debate but for Jemman it was deciding who she would become.

With a last gulp of water she decided, "I will do what it takes to become strong. If that means to eat meat, I'll eat meat. If it means not to eat meat, then I won't."

After the breakfast Jardin provided her, he took Jemman for a training run. He hit her a fair bit, leaving light, pink streaks along the back of her legs.

"What are you doing? This isn't training, it's bullying. How can switching an eight year old on a run teach her anything? I'm only eight!"

"Well, Only Eight," he replied, voice heavy with sarcasm, "it must be nice to learn everything in a short eight years. To know whether a switch will help or not. To know that you can push yourself to the limit without external motivators. To know how far and fast you can push yourself. Only Eight, it is most impressive to know your boundaries and all it will take to become a great mage-warrior. I've lived as a mercenary for a decade, trained soldiers and militia for another decade and young Kenstar-to-be like you for another five." At the start you'd have thought the sarcasm couldn't be thicker but with each sentence it continued to grow. After a quiet tirade he finished. Then twitching her across the legs once more he made her run again. Of course, he called her Only Eight for the rest of the day.

He had her work through a series of dynamic stretches that loosened her back and legs. "Today is about finding your boundaries in body, mind and spirit. Only Eight, every boundary has something on the other side. If you don't get to the boundary you simply can't cross it. Until you cross it you don't know what is on the other side. Once you get to the other side you'll always need to push yourself to look for another boundary.

"Only Eight, the first boundary looks simple but is hard." He the made her get into a strong horse position. Stay in the this position for as long as you can."

One minute later, with her thighs burning he said, "Do what you want for thirty seconds but then you need to hold the horse position perfectly for at least five seconds longer than you have previously. This is your first boundary. If you can do this three times in a row then we will move onto something new."

Throughout this time Jardin made sure Jemman kept perfect form. He pushed her thighs down with the birch stick. "Only Eight you're lifting up your legs to release tension."

"Only Eight, you're back is not straight." Jardin smacked her across the back.

"Only Eight, you only went for forty-five seconds not one minute thirty. I didn't switch you yet you failed to meet the boundary. Perhaps eight years has not been enough." Of course, the stick then smacked down on her lower back.

After a full forty minutes she sat down, legs and back burning.

Jardin then had her go and hit a straw dummy with her birch stick.

"Hit it for as long as you can, Only Eight, and then we'll see how we go from there. Don't worry about form."

Tempted at first to take it easy and complete it with energy to spare, Jemman started to whack the dummy. After a moment she gave it her all. Even that moment of being tentative set Jardin on a tirade of sarcastic 'Only Eight' comments. It drove her on. Soon, images of her life as Susie filled her head. Watching her father lose his profession and health and then dignity. Watching her mother lose hope. Suffering the shame and embarrassment of a loveless courtship. Having to make promises due to being powerless. "I will not be powerless again."

Her actions finally became ragged as she smashed at the straw man, tears running down her face. Finally, Jemman turned to Jardin. "Is it enough?"

He looked at her face and then down and her hands that had numerous small blisters, "Is it enough?"

"It is."

"Good then. Go and get a drink."

Ten minutes later he had Jemman sit down. "This is my second day training you. Yet I haven't seen you take note of anything besides yourself and your tasks. Only Eight, how can you be so unaware?"

Jemman thought the question was rhetorical but realised, eventually, he actually wanted an answer.

She didn't say anything for about ten minutes.

To herself she realised that her previous life had been focused on her iPhone and her studies. She really related though social media and was basically unaware of her environment. She didn't say this in case they had some sort of mental faculty where they put the insane.

Eventually, she answered, "I don't take much notice of nature. I live inside my head. I tend to relate impersonally to people because I never expect them to like me for who I am but what they can get through knowing me. Even you, Jardin, notice my unawareness because you are paid to train me. It is not because you are my friend."

The wolof looked like a savage but his answer was calm. "Is friendship so easy then? Is being paid for a job well done something to be looked down on? Should anyone give you the trust of their friendship when all you give is ... well, not much really?"

Without waiting for her answer he turned and walked away. Gesturing for her to follow he silently took her for a short walk into a large unkempt garden. "I don't want you to think about what I just said. Just look at the world around you. In one hour I'll come back and ask what you've just seen."

To be honest, it was the longest hour of her life, two lives really.

"I just want music. Would someone hurry up and invent iPods already" she said to herself.