34 After a few days

I was feeling fine and was already training again with my mother and alone in the forest. Well, it was better than learning how to sew or build a house. There really isn´t much fun to do in our village. Either go hunting, bring water from the stream or learn to build, sew or tan the leather. Learning by doing that is. There is no public written language and so the only fun time might be the evening when the people gather to eat and sing. But even then it wasn´t fun for me, since the villagers really don´t like me, even though it has become a little better after the tournaments, but after the blessing ceremony, everyone knew that I was chosen by Aer. The weakest god of them all, according to the myths. So they began to look down on me once more. So I avoided the evening gatherings and instead spend the time with my mother or Elder Irvin learning how to write and hear more about the myths.

I was informed, that there wouldn´t be another tournament for a month, since we needed time to get used to our newfound powers. My mother told me, that after her blessing she accidentally destroyed her house after having a nightmare in her sleep. She did not exactly say nightmare, but I think that was the cause since she really did not want to tell me the reason she tossed and turned in her sleep.

The blessing's effect on my body was strange. My body felt lighter and I could move much faster, even though my body weight didn´t have seemed to change at all. I pick speed up much faster, but the weight of a body slam has not changed and that´s why I believe my weight did not change either. My jumps reach much higher and my reaction time seems to have slightly improved and the wind seems to behave a little strange around me. During one of my sparring, the wind tried to interfere with my mother´s advance or support mine. Even though it wasn´t strong enough to make a difference it certainly had a nice feeling to it. Like wind in the back. Perhaps I might be able to use the wind if my blessing was stronger? Sadly the strength of a blessing is determined by the ceremony and won´t change at all during the lifetime.

"Concentrate, Arn!"

Elder Irvin scowled at me with his deep voice and bore some resentment. After what my mother did to him a few days ago I can understand.

"You wanted to hear about any story of your patron goddess, so why are you not listening at all?"

I know, but in all of those stories, Aer is only dancing around and either ignoring the other gods or messing around with their goals while laughing and snickering.

"I know, but I have a feeling, that the last story will be the same again! Just dancing and laughing while being a complete nuisance to everyone around her!"

I don´t understand people that feel the need to destroy what others build or trying to do just for the laughs of it. Just let them be and they should let you be, too. It´s not a realistic view, but...

"You are right."

He heaved a big sigh.

"But she did stop doing that long ago. Perhaps she found something more interesting."

The world is big and beautiful. Of course, there should be something more interesting than to harras other people.

"Yeah, I can only hope so because the only time she did help was during the creation. Then she stopped helping and just..."

A loud sigh escaped my lips.

"Elder, how do other people train their blessings?"

He looked dumbfoundedly at me.

"Train their blessings? That´s not possible. The blessing will stay the same for as long as you live."

Really? I thought only the strength of the blessing might stay the same, but for a god that helped to create the world, the blessing seems a bit underwhelming.

But all Domhain is doing is sleeping and if he is not sleeping he is punching people left and right. The other gods are behaving in exactly the same way. Shouldn´t they take care of their people a bit more? Or is there some underlying message in those actions?

Can´t hurt to try, can it?

I thanked the Elder and left the village for the grassland next to the forest. Here I should be safe from most animals in the forest, while I try something out.

All Aer is doing is dancing, so for now I will try that out, too.

I remember dancing with Aer and while my soul was in her realm it seems like my body was still dancing around. I don´t remember all of it, but the first minute of dancing I can remember!

I took the first step in the dance, then the second and the third. After a few minutes, I noticed, how I danced and danced, even though I could not remember, my body did.

I took steps and jumps dancing around the meadow. The wind picked up and all around me began to dance with my movements and began to increase in speed the longer I danced.

I stopped and the wind dissipated almost instantly. I did not feel any different. Seems like this much did not have any effect at all.

I started to dance once again and the wind picked up once more. I focused on the steps of the dance and tried to remember how to move my body. Remember the steps without relying on my body alone.

After a few hours of dancing, I noticed how some steps and movements were similar to my movement during combat.

Can it be? Is that dance actually a Kata?

Some cultures had a tendency to hide their martial arts inside of dances. Mainly because weapons or training in martial arts were forbidden. So they composed a dance to teach others martial arts without seeming to train martial arts. Seems like Aer has developed something similar out of her preference to move and dance.

Does she even know what she might have created? Or was it intentional?

No matter. If this helps me to train in another martial art, then here I go. Let´s try and understand this art.