032 – Training – Part 1 –

The sun climbed through the sky its warmth beating back the cold for another day.

On that particular day, the sun fell upon a basin of water where rampant waters hurried down and splashed against the many inhabitants of the stony basin as they sat in tranquil silence, their minds like unbending metal as the heat of the sun and coldness of the water waged a war against them.

Well, all with the exception of one.

Uriel opened his eyes a peep and glanced around at the various people sitting as still as the rocks they sat upon and sighed in vexation.

He didn't understand what it was that he was doing exactly, or what it was that he was supposed to do.

He had received only one instruction after he sat down and that was to breathe.

His eyes narrowed in vexation, it wasn't like he could stop himself from breathing even if he wanted to it's something that people did naturally, and no amount of telling him to breathe would change the fact that he was already breathing.

After a while, he started to direct his breath out of his mouth in streams while moving his lips into random shapes and trying to focus on blowing the hair out of his eyes.

But apparently, that was the wrong approach because an elder who was overseeing them gave him a smack on the head, "Stop playing around and focus on your breathing," the elder said harshly and walked away.

'I thought that we were supposed to be training,' he thought and tried to focus on his breathing again, but just like before he was left vexed breathing was a pretty boring activity even by the standards of a farmer.

Eventually, he chose to focus on the coolness of the water hitting his feet and the heat of the sun baking his skin, it was rather uncomfortable the constant barrage of the two contrasting elements hot and cold striking against him at the same time.

Like that the first few hours of the morning ticked by, and one by one the people started to get up and leave.

'Am I free to leave?' Uriel wondered and took the opportunity to climb up, seeing that no one stopped him he got up and walked into the shade of a tree where he sat and waited for Urlo, it wasn't like he knew anyone else, nor did he know the way back to the groove on his own.

A short while later Urlo left his spot on the stones and made his way to Uriel.

"Come we should get started," he said and started walking towards the waterfall.

Uriel followed after him, "What was I supposed to be doing back there?" he asked in complaint with a sensation of frustration as he felt like the entire morning had been wasted.

But his question caused Urlo to look at him strangely.

"Don't flat landers train how to breathe?" he asked.

It was Uriel's turn to look up in confusion, "Do druids not know how to breathe normally?" he asked in response feeling a little insulted.

Urlo sighed seemingly understanding what the problem was and suddenly his entire body exploded in size as he shifted from a six-foot-tall human to a ten-foot-tall baboon.

Uriel was taken by surprise and took a step back feeling like he might have insulted Urlo and his people with that last question.

The massive baboon looked down at Uriel for a second and took a large breath then he suddenly started shrinking back down into the six-foot-tall Urlo.

Urlo patted his own muscular chest and let out a powerful breath, "See when we transform our breathing has to change to be like that of an animal," he said trying to explain.

"If I don't control my breathing and breath like a human when I transform then the transformation will be useless and it could even be harmful for me, which is why before I take on the shape of an animal I must first study it, learn its habits and the manner in which it breathes," he calmly explained.

Uriel breathed out in relief that he wasn't about to get pounded by the baboon, "Okay, I get that it will be useful for druids who can turn into animals, but I'm not a druid," he said.

"Ay," Urlo smacked his forehead, "I wonder if all flat-landers are as stupid as you," he said shaking his large head.

"I'm not stupid," Uriel complained with his face gone red from embarrassment, "But go on prove to me how this is useful for me?" he challenged.

Urlo shook his head, "Can you breathe the way that you normally do when you fight, or if you were to pull one of those wagons," he said pointing to a wagon at the edge of the waterfall, "Or when digging the soil,"

"Imagine what would happen if while running you were to breathe the way you do when you lie down," Urlo smacked his lips together and started to laugh.

"Your lungs would explode, or you would suffocate to death," he shouted as the beads on his clothes clattered together.

Uriel's entire face went completely red from embarrassment as he was showered with example after example, but still, he was unwilling to admit his defeat, "But it still makes no sense to sit there and breathe for hours," he muttered weakly.

But Urlo merely shook his head, "We practice how to control our breathing while being exposed to hot and cold to learn how to discipline our minds in uncomfortable circumstances, that way when it is time for us to exert ourselves we don't need to waste time focusing on controlling our change in breathing, it happens naturally," he said.

"Learning how to breathe properly is also important in learning how to be a warrior, as a warrior that knows how to breathe can last much longer than one who can't, that's going to be what I'll teach you,"

"Next time you face a monster, when your legs start to shake you must remember to breathe, breathe, and calm yourself, don't let your breath go where it's going to slow you down," he explained as they reached the side of the waterfall.

Uriel wasn't sure if he got it fully, but what Urlo had told him made sense in a strange way, which left him with a confused look as they came to the waterfall.

Behind the blanket of water, there was actually a door that Uriel would have never guessed existed.

Urlo pushed it open and revealed what looked like a small weapon shed, with rows of weapons and shields stacked neatly against either side of the wall, upon close inspection the room extended from one side of the waterfall to the other.

"We don't use swords here, so I can't teach you how to use the one on your waist, but if it's any of the weapons here I'm sure that I can show you the way," Urlo explained and invited him in.

Uriel looked at his sword with regret, he was sure that if he could use it with eldrin it would make his trail much easier, but there would be no learning how to use eldrin until after he passed the trial if he could succeed at all.

Realising that he walked into the weapon shed and started to browse through the various weapons.

Most of the weapons were polearms, spears, and staffs, as well as a few bows and shields, very little had a sharp pointy end.

Uriel stopped by a rack and looked up at a quarter staff, of all the weapons here there was nothing that he was more familiar with, it was a useful tool for farmers and the boys of Old Meadow were quite fond of challenging each other to see who could best each other with quarterstaffs.

If the boys used any other weapon in their duels, only minutes would pass before a mob of angry and frantic mothers would arrive to put an end to their fun.

Just thinking of the time that he brought out his sword to show to all the boys had him rubbing his butt as he recalled the number of times his mother whipped his rear end.

Uriel smiled as he picked out the quarterstaff, he turned to leave when a large shield more than half the size of his body caught his eye.

He didn't know much about weapons other than his small talk with his friends and their fantasies about wielding massive swords, but rarely did anyone ever mention using a shield.

Looking at it he couldn't stop himself from picking it up and holding it in front of him in a readied stance, as he looked down the narrow space he pictured the archer Harald drawing back his arrows and firing.

In such a tight space he would be dead, except that now he had a shield in hand, he clenched his fist as he made his decision, he was going to use this shield to stop that scoundrel's arrows and wipe that smug smile from his face.

And when he was done he was going to plunge every arrow that entered the shield into his body and leave him for dead.

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