บท 22: Greece (7): Beginning of the training.
I found it at home just now and posted it as soon as I turned on my computer. Sorry for the delay.
Well, the next chapter will be out on July 31st (or August 1st if this month doesn't have 31 days; I really don't remember).
There are 7 chapters ahead on (P)(A)(T) if anyone is interested. Thanks for your patience, I'm not dropping this story!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
[...]---[...]
POV: Chiron.
Both sleeping and waking up in a house specifically made for my kind were among the nicest things that have ever happened to me.
The rooms, hallways, the furniture, everything adapted for my centaur part ensured one of the best mornings I've ever had; even my night's sleep was one of the best, I slept like a baby.
The first thing I did after waking up and doing all my basic hygiene, which was done in an adapted bathroom that almost made me cry, was to go out and look for Lord Hunter and offer my services, in this case, as a chef.
Although he and Lady Doll seem not to have the need to eat, they could and even had a certain appreciation for the act, as I saw yesterday when Lady Doll prepared the appetizers, even offering some to everyone, kind soul.
Even though Lady Doll had an artificial, or so I thought, doll-like body, she seemed to have all the senses, including taste, as she seemed to enjoy the food she had made herself.
Lord Hunter, on the other hand, seemed to appreciate only the fact that the food was something prepared by Lady Doll, since the other times I saw him eat, in restaurants, always at Lady Doll's request, he simply treated the food as fuel, eating only what was necessary and nothing more than an ordinary human would eat.
He wasn't human, much less ordinary, but he seemed to try whenever he could to act like one.
To my non-surprise, Lord Hunter was already awake; I didn't have to walk far to find him leaning on his cane while looking out at the sea from under the tree where he and Lady Doll had eaten the day before.
"Good morning, Chiron, I hope you had a good night's sleep." Lord Hunter was the first to speak, not turning around as he greeted me.
It wasn't surprising that he noticed me; after all, I didn't even try to conceal my steps.
As much as I learned to hunt with Lady Artemis herself, to conceal my movements and presence while walking and hunting, something told me that the simple act of trying to do so in the presence of Lord Hunter would be an offense to him.
"Good morning to you too, Lord Hunter." I returned the greeting before replying. "I slept well indeed, one of the best nights of sleep in all my life." The lack of dreams only seemed to make my sleep even better.
Oddly, Lord Hypno seemed to be silent; it's been a while since I've had dreams, strange, even though it doesn't bother me or concern me really.
"Have you eaten yet? If not, go ahead, have breakfast; Doll went to wake up Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale, take your time, no need to rush, we'll start training later." Lord Hunter spoke, his voice steady and calm.
"I haven't eaten yet; do you wish for me to prepare something for you and Miss Doll?" I asked Lord Hunter, while at the same time glancing sideways at the house where the three sisters currently resided.
After the brief discussion, if I can call it that, between Lord Hunter and Medusa's two sisters yesterday, not much more was said, at least on Lord Hunter's side, who seemed to prefer silence.
Lady Doll, from what I had observed in these days I accompanied them, seemed to have a great curiosity that involved all topics and took it upon herself to converse with the three sisters.
She and Medusa got along the best; the youngest sister of the three had a curiosity very similar to Lady Doll's, loving every second of conversation and every new piece of information.
As for Stheno and Euryale, the two, although not as involved as Medusa, still were drawn by the kindness and calmness that seemed to emanate from Lady Doll.
The two weren't like Medusa, but they were courteous all the time and even seemed to have started to appreciate the conversation after a while, even though something told me it was only because Lady Doll was neither human nor man.
"It won't be necessary, don't worry." Lord Hunter declined my offer without saying much more, continuing to look at the sea in silence.
I took that as a cue to bid farewell and returned to my quarters to prepare my own food.
Lord Hunter was kind and shared the fish he had caught yesterday with me; it was the first time in years that I lost a fishing match, even though it wasn't really a match.
It took me a few minutes to figure out how all the kitchen utensils worked, especially the stove that was made entirely of metal and seemed to run on some kind of gas, but it was somewhat easy to figure everything out.
After eating some fried fish with bread and what I think was orange juice that was in the icebox with a small note written "Refrigerator," I returned to where Lord Hunter was.
He wasn't alone this time, as Medusa was there with him; strangely, only she, Lady Doll, and the other two sisters were not in sight.
"Are you sure everything will be okay?" I heard Medusa ask worriedly as I approached. What's going to be okay?
"Are you concerned about Doll, or about your sisters?" Lord Hunter asked back. Medusa gave a hesitant look at the question but didn't have time to respond before Hunter continued.
"Doll is not fragile, quite the opposite, and I know she won't harm your sisters, so don't worry." Lord Hunter spoke calmly.
I think I understood what was going on. Lady Doll took Medusa's two sisters somewhere, didn't she? Probably to train them, from the context I gathered from this short conversation.
Medusa hesitated for a moment, looking towards the southern part of the island, probably where Lady Doll and her sisters were, before sighing and nodding.
"Alright, I just... It's just that I know my sisters, I can't help but worry." She said in a tone I had seen mothers use when talking about particularly mischievous children.
If I didn't know Medusa was the youngest sister, I would think she was the oldest, or maybe even the mother of Stheno and Euryale, but from what Lord Hunter had explained, they were triplets.
"As I said, don't worry, focus on your training, or do you think it will be easy?" Lord Hunter's voice had the same tone, but the atmosphere seemed to grow colder with his statement, almost threatening.
Medusa nodded quickly.
"No, I know it won't, I'll focus on the training." She waved her hands briskly.
Lord Hunter nodded, then turned to me.
"Chiron, I'll use this part of the morning to train Medusa's concentration and focus." He nodded, starting to walk. Both Medusa and I followed him. "If possible, pay attention to create a training plan for her; I'll leave the technical training to you."
"I'll do my best." I replied without hesitation. It had been a while since I trained someone like Medusa.
With the brief battle, or rather, test that Lord Hunter had applied to Medusa, I was able to discover several things; one of them was that Medusa was extremely talented in combat.
It was clear she hadn't had any formal training, but her instincts made up for that fact, along with the extreme physical strength and speed she possessed. Without the seal that Lord Hunter had placed on her, Medusa was an uncut gem...
Lord Hunter didn't walk for long, just a few minutes, until we reached a part of the island that was a plain, with sparse green grass mixed with sand from the nearby beach, where the waves lazily crashed against the shore.
Lord Hunter looked out at the sea for a moment.
"The next... Hero will arrive tomorrow afternoon, and the next a few hours later." The gleam in his eyes didn't exude mana or divinity, but his vision seemed to be able to see far beyond what any god or mortal could.
"Can you predict the future?!" Medusa widened her eyes. I understood her surprise.
The gift of foresight was rare, and those who could control it even more so.
Lord Apollo was one of the few, and his apostles, prophets, and some children could only do the same thanks to his blessings.
"Something like that." Lord Hunter replied with few words and didn't elaborate, starting Medusa's training. "Start with some simple push-ups, about twenty, how about that?"
Medusa seemed confused for a moment, not knowing what that exercise was, before Lord Hunter explained, and she began to do them.
Even sealed, Medusa was strong and resilient enough to do ten push-ups quickly without showing signs of fatigue.
At the fifteen-mark, when I was starting to wonder what the reason for such an easy training was, an aura emanated from Lord Hunter.
I had been in the presence of Lord Dionysus; his divinity exuded madness, even in his calm state, in his angry state, it was even worse, as if all rationality began to slowly disappear.
The aura that Lord Hunter emanated wasn't just madness, it was madness focused on killing; an aura so bloodthirsty, insane, that my body reacted instinctively, grabbing my bow and jumping back.
Even before completing my jump, the aura had disappeared, along with it, the madness and the bloodlust.
I landed with my bow still in hand, my heart and breathing accelerated... I had to take several deep breaths to calm down.
This wasn't magical, nor divine... It was something like nature; Lord Hunter was madness, his presence was insanity... At the same time that it was natural, it wasn't, it was something totally anomalous...
Only after calming down did I realize that Medusa had stopped doing her push-ups and had fallen to the ground, her body paralyzed when the aura fell upon her.
"Twelve push-ups, start over." Lord Hunter's voice was emotionless, totally opposite to the pure insanity he had exuded moments before.
"Come on, Medusa, if this is enough to knock you down, we better not continue this training." He didn't sugarcoat his words. "Get up."
I'll give credit to Medusa, even being the target of the strongest burst of Lord Hunter's aura, she took only a few seconds to recover and resume doing push-ups, starting from scratch again.
"Is this the training you planned?" I asked, putting my bow back on my back.
"Yes and no, just a part of it." Lord Hunter replied, not taking his eyes off Medusa, who was doing the push-ups, this time with trembling arms.
It wasn't from fatigue or exhaustion but from anxiety, realizing that Lord Hunter would throw his aura at her again, but not knowing when. He did it on the fourth push-up.
This time I managed to contain myself, without reacting, even though it was uncomfortable and a horrible feeling. Medusa, on the other hand, collapsed like a wet sandcastle, all her muscles tensing with the sheer weight of the madness that fell upon her.
At first, because I was also affected by Lord Hunter's aura, I thought he was just throwing parts of his power to induce Medusa to fail, but I realized that this simple "aura flexing" required much more control than I thought.
Lord Hunter had infused enough power, enough madness into his aura for all of Medusa's muscles to lock up, her body to become paralyzed, even her breathing, which prevented her from attacking us.
With the amount of bloodlust, insanity, I was sure that if Medusa hadn't been paralyzed, she would have attacked us, both me and Lord Hunter.
At the same time, Lord Hunter had restrained himself enough not to cause any lasting harm to Medusa, not only to her body but mainly to her mind… Does that mean I was affected because he wanted to be?...
Was this a test or something? I'll stay alert then, just in case.
"Again, get up." Lord Hunter spoke again, without emotion or hesitation.
Medusa took a little longer to get up, but she still did. Lord Hunter threw his aura at her this time on the first push-up… This time Medusa didn't fall.
Again, Lord Hunter's aura disappeared a few moments after appearing, almost like a mirage, a fleeting dream.
The moment this happened, Medusa continued her push-ups, a second, then a third, and so on, until the eighteenth, where Lord Hunter threw his aura at her again.
Medusa didn't give in, just like last time, but it visibly required much more effort, so much so that I could even hear her teeth grinding, rubbing against each other forcefully enough that I thought they would break.
She even took a moment to realize that Lord Hunter had pulled back his aura, but when she did, she finally completed the "simple" twenty push-ups.
"Good job." Lord Hunter's voice remained emotionless, but there was a warmth behind it that didn't exist before, something minimal, like a brief spark about to extinguish, but it was there…
"Rest for a minute, then I want another twenty."
… For a few moments.
Medusa looked tired, even though this single exercise was something simple, and lasted less than five minutes, but still, she didn't complain or throw a tantrum, just nodded and sat down, taking deep breaths, enjoying this one minute of rest.
While Medusa was doing push-ups again, and being bombarded by Lord Hunter's aura, with variations of intensity, I turned to ask.
"Have you done this kind of training before?" He turned to me, letting Medusa continue her push-ups calmly.
"No, but I've been through something similar; my tutors liked to improvise, nothing as meticulous as what I'm doing." Tutors?… Lord Hunter had been trained by someone?… Several people?… Now that was surprising.
I didn't have time to delve deeper into my question, even before finishing speaking, Lord Hunter had turned back to Medusa…
"Get up."
… Who this time fell with the intensity of the aura.
I really wanted to know who had trained such a being…
[...]---[...]
Well, here's the start of Medusa's training. Don't worry, it won't be something tedious or lengthy; training arcs aren't that cool (at least for me).
That said, have a good night and happy reading!
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