It was a bright morning. The sun was shining on Ravion's face.
Due to the injury that Ravion got he was tired. Father Alric's Healing of life may have healed the wounds completely but it also drained significant energy from his body.
Ravion didn't want to get off the bed. He covered his face with a blanket to stop the sun from shining on his face. "Five more minutes",said Ravion.
But it suddenly got dark. A silhouette was approaching Ravion. The blanket was yanked away from Ravion. Ravion was devastated.
In front of him stood– Sister Isolde. She shouted,"Get up."
"Just five more minutes. I was having a great dream.", replied Ravion.
"You have slept through morning prayer. Now are you planning to sleep through also?", said Sister Isodle with an angry face.
"I don't want to-",said Rvion while making a cute face trying not to get out of bed.
"I made your favourite meal-",said Isodle trying to make Ravion getup. But before she could even finish her sentence Ravion had already got up and was ready to go eat breakfast.
"Why are you here? Are you not going to have breakfast?"asked Ravion with a smile on his face, trying to tease Sister Isodle. Then he ran off to the dining hall.
When Ravion arrived at the dining room, Father Alric was already there sitting at the dining table. "Finally awake",said Father Alric to Ravion with a calm tone. "Yes. I was really exhausted. I wanted to sleep all day.",said Ravion with an exhausted face.
"Are you alright?", asked Father Alric with some concern.
"I am fine. But my back hurts, I don't know why.", said Ravion. At that time Ravion forgot about yesterday's incident and just thought it as a dream.
"It must be my Healing Of Life magic that I used to heal your injury. It did heal that deep stab but drained a lot of energy.", replied Father Alric.
Memories came flashing to Ravion. The hunting, regretful and beautiful night. Ravion remembered everything.
"Sorry that I ran off. I now realise that I shouldn't have.", said Ravion.
Father Alric smiled gently. "Don't worry about the past, be happy that you are alright and can live in the present.", he said, placing his hand over Ravion's head, comforting him.
At that moment sister Isodle entered the room with a plate full of food. "Moreover we haven't given your gift for your 8th birthday. If you want it then finish your lunch first.", said Sister Isodle, making ravion excited.
After listening to what sister Isodle said, Ravion started to quickly eat his lunch.
"Slow down there is no need to hurry", said sister Isodle while laughing.
Few minutes later. Everyone had finished having their lunch and the room slowly started to become silent.
Father Alric took the book out of his robe and placed it on the table and said to Ravion, "This was given to us by the hooded man that saved you in that forest. He said you were meant for a greater reason. But before you achieve any great feat, you have to learn to protect yourself from this cruel magical world. So this book will teach you to survive in this world."
Ravion's eyes were filled with tears. He went to hug father Alric and whispered, "Thank you.", his voice cracking with emotions. "Thank you for believing in me.
Father Alric was touched by his emotions and replied, "Now stop crying and start training yourself. I would help if I could but know nothing about swords."
Ravion said, "Ok father.", with an excitement in his voice and left outside to train.
"Are you crying Father Alric?" asked sister Isodle, seeing tears falling down from his eyes.
"No. It was just some dirt.", replied Father Alric, sweeping away his tears.
Ravion stood outside the church, the sun was warming his back as the breeze stirred the worn pages of the book.
The cover of the book read, "The Basic of Swords", but the name of the author was torn, lost in time.
Ravion opened the book and read.
The first page didn't speak of any battle tactics or any stances. Instead it just gave a simple command, "You want to wield a sword? Then you have to train your body until failure. Train until you don't feel your arms. Until you can't move a mussel of your legs. Train until you want to vomit all the food you have eaten- then keep going."
Ravion stared at the book, and thought,"I guess the world will be more brutal than the training." Then he flips.
"Hope, you have eaten light. For now we will start from small and work towards big."
Ravion was a little happy thinking this was manageable .
"By small I mean, until your legs scream not to take one more step."
"Ok. The book is trying to kill me.", Ravion thought while his smile faded.
"Nonetheless, I have to train hard.", Ravion thought and went to train his body.
It was dusk. Ravion was drenched in sweat, lying down in the ground. The blades felt like needles when it touched Ravion's back. His breath came in ragged gaps. His legs were not ready to take one more step.
"Day one finished. And I think I am going to die. I don't think I can take this anymore.", Ravion said to himself while gasping for breath.
He lay still.The sky above him turned purple and gold. But then he remembered that there is still one more page left for day one. He rolled onto his side and flipped it open.
It read, "You must be tired from just day one. You might want to give up. You might just want to tear this into pieces. Do it if you want. But remember, Rine wasn't built in one day. It takes time and effort to see progress. Don't give up now. Wake up early tomorrow and start the second day with more confidence."
He laid there for a while, eyes half closed, chest rising and falling slowly. The stars were starting to show.
The church door cracked open.
Footsteps. Then a voice, "Zombie!!!". It was the screeching and terrified voice of sister Isodle.
"Oh! It's just you, Ravion.", said Sister Isodle after noticing that it wasn't a zombie but just a rest deprived Ravion.
Ravion stood at the door, drenched with sweat, dirts on his face. He was barely standing still. "I may just be a zombie.", he muttered.
Sister Isodle giggled. "Come on corpse, take a bath and come to the dining hall to have dinner.", said Sister Isodle trying to hide her worry behind sarcasm.
After Ravion took the bath he entered the dining hall.
"I told you to train yourself, not to die.", Father Alric sitting on the dining table said jokingly to Ravion.
"You don't have to train this hard if you don't want to.",Father said, worrying about Ravion.
"I have to. If I don't then I will not be able to show my face in front of anyone that believes in me.", replied Ravion.
Father Alric didn't reply to Ravion but he was proud of him.
The dining hall was filled with laughter and both Sister Isodle and Father Alric were proud that Ravion was pushing himself to grow. Even though he didn't have a single drop of mana his hardwork and determination was enough to be considered one of the greatest. But there are many pages remaining in that book and in Ravions life.