Being a mentor

Wednesday was boring. The home class lasted only for fifteen minutes because teacher only told us, about the club choosing on the weekend and answered some questions. Nothing remarkable.

Alchemy and survival class were almost the same. We went to the nearby forest and looked for ingredients, ones for drinks and others for food, I did those exercises in record time because of my mom's teachings. However, the main point of today was after dinner, when I met up with the read haired girl... I should really ask for her name.

I walked towards the place where we had our fighting classes and waited. The place was empty, it had some wood blocks to slash, dummies, an arena, and swords. Nothing too interesting, but soon she came. The first thing that I said was.

-What's your name?

-Ayla.

She luckily didn't seem embarrassed, irritated or didn't burst out laughing.

-Take a sword from there and let's start.

She nodded, took a sword from the rack, and came back to me.

-Show some of your moves on the arena.

Again, she just nodded and without a word, she took a stance and started to show her style.

Just like I expected it was fast and made a good use of her flexibility. She seemed to leave a lot of openings but she could just dodge any attack with an absurd move and great reaction time. It was overall great; I didn't know why she even needed me as a mentor.

It wasn't perfect still. She lacked stamina and strength but those could be improved with training and such. She could do those alone, so why did she want a mentor. Did she lack experience?

-That's enough. Let's start part two.

-What's that?

-A duel.

She didn't object and only got ready again. I also took a practice sword from the rack and stepped into the arena. She looked a little nervous but nothing more.

-You start.

She charged at me right after. She did as she had shown me, lots of feints but I only blocked and didn't do any necessary attacks. Then I quickly understood the problem that she had. When she left another opening, I punched her and she took a hit. She didn't actually know what her style was.

-Let's stop.

- I can still keep going.

-It's not about that, I know your problem.

She tilted her and looked at me with a question mark on her head (it was my imagination, maybe I was already too old at 17).

-Isn't it because this style sucks?

-Why do you think so?

-It was shown to me by my brother and it hasn't worked even once.

She looked irritated and sad. I guess that her brother didn't tell her the whole truth and only looked it at the surface.

-I will demonstrate how your sword style should look like. Please, attack me.

She looked at me suspiciously and surprised. She didn't seem to believe me fully. She still did as I asked.

She attacked and as she had shown I did some blocks and such but when it was my turn to attack, the style would shine brightly. I left openings like she had but when she was trying to attack, I did weird dodges like midair turns, splits and flips and such.

She didn't get a single hit on me and it would have looked more like gymnastics show if nothing else.

-Let's stop again.

She was now exhausted.

-What was that?

-What do you mean?

-What style was that?

-Yours.

-No, it wasn't.

-Yes, it was.

-What were those absurd moves.

-Let me ask you another question. Do you stretch every day?

-Yes

-Why?

-Because my brother told me to.

-So why don't you use them

She was confused, she was trying to figure out what I meant.

-Just look, I will show all my moves in that last match and you will have to figure out how to use them.

She was focused and truly tried to figure out, how to improve. And after showing her, she figured it out. The reason for those stretches, gymnastic type moves and the style.

-If I were you, I would start training gymnastics and start doing some stamina training. Let's meet next week, same time.

I left her and headed towards my dorm. I had no ideas what to do for the rest of the evening. Maybe I just go to sleep.

It will only take about three months till I can meet my mom again. I hope that she is alright, I want to tell her everything that I've done. Even if I'm a 40-year-old dude, mom is till important to me and will be more important than anyone else.

While walking I saw Olivia near the forest. I had no reason to talk to her but I still wanted to say hi. Maybe ask how the Baron was doing and what did he do after she returned.

I walked over to see her crouching in near the bushes. I walked behind her and asked a question.

-What are you doing?

-AAACK!

She jumped in the air and fell on her butt. I was surprised at her stunt and wondered why she did like that.

-What are you doing!

-What could you possibly mean?

-Why did you scare me like that!

-I just asked you a question.

She was glaring at me with her cheeks puffed. I raised my eyebrows asking, what was wrong.

-What were you doing anyway.

-Nothing

She was looking in another direction. Was she hiding something?

-Hmm, so if I peeked at this bush, I could find nothing?

-NO, DON'T LOOK!

Too late, I had already moved the bush branches from my way and were now staring at something. It was a bird. It looked like a northern goshawk but as a baby. The weird part was that it had fire on its tail and head. Was it a magic beast?

-What were you doing with this?

-What could you possibly mean.

She was again trying to dodge my stare and was looking elsewhere.

-So, you don't mind if I report this to a teache

-NO DON'T

-Just tell me then.

-I wanted to raise it.

-Why

-Because it's fire element so my wind could work well with it.

I had considered to get my own beast to help me at some point bit didn't know when. I then got an idea.

-I won't tell anyone on one condition.

-What is it.

She was at my face, eyes sparkling and ready to do almost anything to save the beast.

-Help me find my own beast.

She looked at me like I was trying to pull a joke but I seriously wanted a magic beast. They could be greatly helpful and support my capabilities.

-Are you serious?

-Yes

She was still trying to see, if I was lying to her but after some time, she gave up and decided to help me. She was carrying the bird that she gave a name "Lukas". It was a boy it seems.