Chapter Seventeen

You could barely even see the sun before I was out on the training ground. I didn't make much progress on the first day, all I could do was summon the little dagger and keep it floating in the air. I was going to grind harder, 'let's see if I can do better today', I thought.

Next in the book was the kitchen knife, why on earth would I need a kitchen knife if I was fighting?

"Nobody said I had to do this accordingly, I can always come back to it".

Up next throwing star, 'Okay, let's do this, you've seen the image before make it a reality'. Like the results I got when I was summoning the little dagger, three throwing stars appeared, that lifted my lips a little.

I kept concentrating on keeping the stars airborne, it was harder because there were three of them it helped that they were the same in every way.

Now to the main reason I choose to practice with throwing stars, 'Aiming at Targets'. The training grounds were equipped in such a way that no matter the kind of training you wanted to undergo, it serve.

My first attempt flew by like it was scared to hit the targets, the second one the same thing happened...On the fifth attempt, one of the stars grazed one of the targets.

"You're never going to hit anything like that, you'll just keep missing".

I hadn't heard that voice for quite some time, and almost forgot what it sounded like.

My throwing darts went poof from the loss of focus, and a lot of questions swirled in my head. Is she no longer afraid of me? Why is she home? Were the major ones.

"I thought you were scared of me, what changed?", I asked not succeeding in hiding my confusion.

"I wanted to check on you, is that so suspicious", she replied.

"I know Rickhel sent you, so just tell him I'm fine I don't need him to keep trying to get you to talk to me".

"Rickhel didn't.....oh forget it".

"Wait! I'm sorry. You haven't talked to me in weeks and you decide to talk now, I thought you were scared of me or something", I said as she was walking away from me.

"I wasn't scared of you...", she paused because she could see the disbelief on my face. "Okay I was terrified, but anyone would be if they saw what happen that day".

"Yeah I was pretty freaked out when I saw it myself", I replied.

"What do you mean when you saw it?" She asked.

"Don't worry about it. So are you not scared anymore or did you come to face your fears", I said and was delighted to see that it got a smile out of that hard face.

"I was thinking that what made you rage out that day was Rhyo's taunts, so I guess if I don't get you angry we are good, right?", She asked.

"Well basically you're not wrong, but did it take you more than a month to get to that conclusion?" I asked.

We were both sitting on the stone bench made for the people who wanted to watch others train, positioned in the area a little bit above the training area, it was a step-up step-down kind of situation.

"It didn't take me a month, but after avoiding you for reasons best known to me I kinda felt like I was a bad person for thinking that you wanted to do that on purpose, you almost killed us you know?", She answered not making eye contact, just focused on watching the morning horizon.

"I know I'm sorry, but it wasn't on purpose that one's for sure", I replied.

"Then why didn't you say anything? you've been silent all this time, if you have a problem there are people around who can help you", she said.

The smile that appeared on my face at that moment could freeze water, "I'm already helping myself, you don't need to worry about me, I tried to talk a few times but you didn't act like you wanted to listen", I replied.

With the way her face fell to the ground, I guess she didn't remember that part. This whole conversation had me wondering, was this the girl meet on my first day at this mansion that would attract you at every comment, and was very unsociable? Maybe that was her way of treating strangers she randomly found in her home.

You could hear every single sound that was moving with the wind because of the silence that descended between us.

"Anyways, thanks for coming round check on me, I appreciate it", I said breaking the silence.

"Yeah no problem, if you need any help anytime just let me know if I can do anything", she replied.

"Find out if she knows anything about Rickhel or their family", the voice almost made me jump out from where I was sitting.

'Strig! don't scare me like that, that was loud'.

"I didn't even yell, but don't worry next time I will use my haunting whisper", he replied.

"So can I....", I turned to see that Axy that was sitting next to me had vanished. I looked toward the door and saw that she was walking toward it. "Wait!", I yelled.

"Are you busy?" I asked when I caught up to her.

"No, why?", she replied.

"I need your help with something", I answered.

"I thought you would sleep on the help offer or something. Well, you're lucky I have nothing to do today", She said.

Yep, that's the Axy I remember alright. "So first I'd like to know what Rickhel did in his days in the War Guard if he told you anything that is, then I would like for you to guide me to the library please".

"Real smooth, what if she suspects something", Strig commented.

'Not everybody is you Strig, just leave me to do what I can', I replied to him.

"What Rickhel was like when he was in the War Guard? I don't know much about that, it's the one thing he seems not to ever talk about, even though his the most chatty person I've ever seen", She said.

'I knew it wasn't going to be easy but really? does it have to be this hard, I thought.

"That's okay, then could you show me the way to the library with all the knowledge I can find, because I know this kind of house would have that kind of area, that small library I saw wasn't it".

Time to start looking for some names.