The Sun was hiding behind the veil of clouds. Leaves of tall trees made rustling noises as the gentle wind blew past them.
"Balance the weapon in your hand. Focus on the target and Strike!"
August followed the instructions of his father and swung with his full force.
Surprisingly, the blow landed pretty well. He was still a beginner though—concepts like conserving strength were far beyond his small brain.
So, only after the first strike it seemed he had used all of his force. That's why at the next strike August stumbled on his own footsteps and fell on the ground—his training wooden sword dramatically falling after him.
August ignored the sound of laughter that did nothing but annoy him.
His father quickly came to his help,
"Are you okay son?"
August however, picked himself up from the ground and nodded, "I am alright dad. Let's start again."
"So you have to fix your stance," his father continued with his explanation.
But August wasn't able to focus on his words because the laughter hadn't settled up yet. Out of annoyance he gritted his teeth and asked,
"Dad, everything is fine but…" pointing towards the person who was laughing.
"…Why is she here?"
A few steps from him Shelly wasn't even trying to hide her amused expressions,
"Hehe…sorry, please continue. Don't mind me, you are just so …competent."
Saying so, she started laughing even more loudly now.
"Argh.." August let out a growl and turned to his father. Why should he mind this stupid creature anyway? To his surprise, he saw that his father was also trying to suppress a smile.
Rolling his eyes he accepted his fate and said,
"Yeah, okay, very funny …now, can we start again?"
Lowering his voice he whispered to his father,
"...seriously dad, why is she here?"
His father however spoke in a normal tone,
"Ah… Shelly's here to learn obviously," gesturing her to come he spoke of the matters about her which Shelly herself didn't know yet.
"Sophia told me her core element has affinity to the wind but it's not quite as simple like that. Not like mage Vala, who can consciously control and manipulate crescents of wind."
He picked up a wooden sword from the box nearby and handed it to Shelly,
"Instead of that, wind does something different to you. It forms a layer around your body and reinforces it up to a higher extent. Which makes it easy for you to integrate both essence and the physical strength to your attacks. And an opponent like that, we call them a nightmare of mages."
He instructed her and corrected her stance,
"And if your core element wants you to perform like that you might as well give it a try. Now…"
Gesturing her towards the target,
"Strike it while using the essence. But don't worry this is the first time so failure is all but common."
Shelly nodded at him and closed her eyes while remembering Valerius' instructions and Sophia's learnings.
Then, she suddenly opened her eyes and struck the target letting out an attacking shout, "aaaa…."
The edge of the wooden sword struck the target but because she had put so much force in the swing, the sword slipped from her grip and flew into the air.
Shelly on the other hand had no idea where her sword had gone all of a sudden. When she realised, it was already too late. The training sword fell down with the tip of it aimed at her forehead.
"Ouchh.." a helpless scream escaped her lips. She heard someone laugh their lungs out in the background.
And it didn't take a genius to figure out who that was.
"Are you alright my lady?" August asked dramatically. "I think this insolent sword doesn't know its boundaries."
Shelly shot an annoyed glare at him, "Ah… you're reading too many books." By her tone she sounded too angry but when she opened her mouth she said something August hadn't expected at all.
"What the hell does insolent mean?"
After a quick session of chuckles, the training continued.
August was repeating the moves just as his father instructed him. Yes, there were mistakes in his posture, force and timing but he was slowly getting a hand of it.
On the other hand as it turned out Shelly wasn't getting any good at all. She successfully called upon her core element to reinforce her but the problem was something else.
And Valerius wasn't a warrior for nothing. He pointed out where the fault lay not so long after.
The problem wasn't her spell or how long she was able to maintain that, no, it was something else. Something much simpler.
Valerius observed that the force of her moves demanded less surface and more impact area. Which wasn't possible with the sword.
So he went and picked a perfect weapon for her.
The kind that would suit her battlestyle perfectly.
"Woah!" August gasped in amazement as he saw his father handing a battleaxe to Shelly. While it was made of wood for training, it was enough to pique the interest of children like them.
"Try this," Valerius said. "I think this will be more compatible with your battlestyle."
Just as Valerius predicted, Shelly's attacks improved significantly after that.
Swinging her new training weapon Shelly gave August a smug, "don't you worry kiddo, I will protect you with this weapon of mine."
At her words, he rolled his eyes. He was about to say something witty but then he thought Shelly would reply to him with something more nonsensical.
So, he just heaved a sigh and smiled at her,
"How kind of you."
With that he returned to his sword training.
Time, indifferent and unhurried, observed everything as it passed slowly.
He would get up early in the morning, do his sword training and in the afternoon he would sit with Shelly and Elias to learn more about essence and core elements.
And in the evening, or anytime he happens to find some moments free, he would read books, talk to lady mist without having his parents know about this ofcourse.
Amidst all this every now and then in the day, Shelly would force him to play with her, roam the streets of the town with her.
Sometimes he would go to Rowan and Martha's place, and sometimes Logan would give him treats from his shop.
Of course, the echoes would never let him live so freely. Every now and then they returned and every time his pain and agony would increase very much then the previous times.
Just like that, August's life kept going on.
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