22

Your weekdays are tightly regimented, every lesson and work-evening watched by a military overseer, making regular outside training an impossibility. You use the weekends to evade the squads, training your body and mind, skills needed now more than ever before.

Who do you spend the majority of your limited time training with during the military occupation?

The weekends when you're able to slip away unnoticed are one of the only things that have kept you sane over the last few months.

You watch the squads patrol beneath you as your mind drifts back to one lesson in particular, not long after the occupation began….

Your chest burns, and the tense muscles in your arms scream out for lack of oxygen as you hold your breath, not daring to move until Jolon has passed you by. In the weeks since you first trained with him, the huntmaster has added considerable depth and complexity to his training maze, including the cramped skylight that currently houses your crouching werewolf form.

While Jolon no doubt knows every crevice and cranny of his masterwork intimately, he now plays the part of a human from a pacification squad, largely unfamiliar with his surroundings and the nature of his opponents' strengths and weaknesses. Padded black and gray armor covers his body, capped by a battle-scarred helmet, doubtless retrieved from some unfortunate human who tarried too far from his squadmates for too long. The armor is designed to dull the cut of a werewolf's claws, but the helmet hinders peripheral eyesight, giving a wolf trained in the arts of stealth a notable advantage. A semiautomatic rifle held in sling-ready position finishes off the disguise and raises the hair on the back of your neck even though you know it isn't loaded.

The presence of the humans has everyone on edge, and Jolon has doubled his efforts, working night and day to train as many wolves of the pack as he can to be prepared to fight or disappear into the shadows of Haven's urban jungle at any moment. The current exercise is designed to test your ability to think on your feet and eliminate the threat of a single human squadmember in tight quarters. The means by which you accomplish this task were left up to you.

There. He's moved on down the narrow hall to your left. You have a split second to make a decision while Jolon is still close enough to take out, remembering that he's playing the part of a human and will react accordingly.

You slide down from the skylight, landing on the pads of your lupine feet as you approach Jolon, silent but for the whisper of wind in your wake. Or so you think.

Before you can react, the faux-human whirls, bringing his rifle to bear. To your credit, you react quickly enough, knocking the barrel of the weapon away with the flat of one hand while the other crashes into Jolon's padded helmet with inhuman strength.

Your instructor collapses to the floor, and his hands fly from his weapon as he tries to regain his footing. You step forward to follow up your attack, but Jolon taps his hand on the floor indicating the conclusion of the exercise.

"That was a sloppy takedown, Elizar Evenwood. I know you have better in you…we just need to tease it out over time. Of course, had you been stalking the real me and not an opponent with the reduced capacity and senses of a human, you'd have been spotted in that skylight immediately. But you played the game I set up for you, and you can't be faulted for that."

Next

So," Jolon says as the two of you walk out of the maze, "we have some time left before I see my next student. I've been impressed with your dedication and tenacity. You've devoted yourself to the art of stealth with an enthusiasm I've rarely seen in other wolves. Tell me. What drives you in your training here? What desire focuses you so?"

"You've certainly proved yourself to the shadow. And to me. Bly often laments my abandoning the Way of the Claw, but brute force has never been a match for cunning."

Jolon walks over to the far wall of the dojo and opens the door to a small cabinet, procuring a vial of clear liquid. He waves Bly over from the other side of the dojo, and the two of them return to you. "This drug will help you learn a technique that I've rarely been able to teach. Do you remember seeing me before our lesson on the art of fear, lying on my back?"

You nod, not sure where he's going with this.

"Imagine you could enter a trancelike state, slowing your heartbeat and breathing to the bare minimum needed to sustain your body over a period of several minutes. You could remain undetected, masked from even the sharpest of feral ears. You could pass for the dead in a large-scale conflict, rising from your proverbial grave as the enemy passes to take them unawares. The applications of such an ability are more numerous than you might realize."

You nod quietly, starting to get the idea. This could indeed be useful, especially if the pacification squads are here in Haven to stay.

Jolon hands you the vial. "Drink it," he says, and you uncork the plastic tube, sniffing at its contents. "Don't worry. Sometimes the body can be led to the path of enlightenment with a firm hand, but reaching another plane of understanding occasionally requires the assistance of a foreign catalyst. In time, you'll be able to accomplish this without the need of outside assistance. Let me walk you through it. We'll be here in the dojo at all times, and Bly's here to assure you that nothing untoward occurs, if such a thing concerns you."

You look to Bly, and she nods. "I trust Jolon with my life," she says, "and I've seen him use this technique before. You'll be fine, Elizar Evenwood."

Well, bottoms up, you think before swallowing the tasteless liquid. I need every advantage I can get.

The training goes slowly, but you never feel that you are testing Jolon's patience. Over the next several sessions, Bly stands by your side as Jolon teaches you how to wrest control over your body's unconscious functions. Breathing and heartbeat slow, but your hearing and sense of smell can be sharpened with the proper focus.

Over time the need for the liquid passes, and you attain mastery over yourself. It feels as though a whole world of possibilities has opened itself up to you.

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