It was a calm day, just like any other. Elise was training as usual at her favorite spot. She had found this little opening inside the forest on her third day of training. It was almost a perfect circle, big enough to perform any sword move, surrounded by the forest's usual trees with their warm-colored leaves and bushes. A small stream of fresh water was passing by, branching off from a nearby river. It even had some medium-sized rocks on the edges for her to sit down and rest if needed. The old farmer didn't object to her coming here, so she kept coming.
The main focus of her training for the past weeks was integrating her Energy usage with her sword moves as long as possible. She had spread her daily workouts throughout the day and worked with her sword in between. But she was still having trouble with the aftermaths.
She was failing to distribute the Energy she drew in for long durations without hurting herself. After what happened in the duel with Lord Avir Fortis, she was trying to be especially careful about her Energy input. But once the Energy was inside, it was sharpening all her senses and also dulling them. Too much information was stimulating all her senses at the same time, making it impossible to distinguish what came from where. So, she was unable to tell how much Energy was too much for her body. The only way was trial and error.
Weeks had passed as she hurt herself with Energy and recovered in her breaks, again with the Energy. What a complicated power it was. It had been easy at first, sensing and absorbing it into the body, and BAM! Infinite power, she had thought. But unfortunately, it was not the case at all.
After all her experiments, she noticed that this Realm's Energy had slightly different characteristics. It was resisting her commands. Most of her injuries were caused by misjudging this resistance and forcing herself more than she should have. She was used to the chaotic nature of the raw Energy from the first Realm she visited, and the Energy in her origin Realm was mostly neutral. When she tried to ask the old farmer about it, he had simply ignored her, not even allowing her to bring it up. Stupid old man!
Stupid Traveler!
Why had he left her with this grumpy old man? They hadn't even shared a single word since she started to live here. Every attempt she made to start a conversation was fruitless. The best she could get was inaudible mutterings. He was only coming near her to bring her a meal twice a day. She was hoping to eventually meet the other person the Traveler had mentioned just before he left, Kaith, but there was no sign of anyone else living in this damned boring place.
She was all alone and had no idea what to do, but this was not enough to break her spirit. She used those feelings to fuel her training. If no one wanted to train her, she would do it herself. Who even needed a master?
After weeks of polishing those moves against imaginary opponents in her secluded training area, not yielding even after hurting herself dozens of times, she wanted, or even needed, to hit something real.
So, today she decided to use a tree as a training dummy. This was about to dull her sword; she knew that, but swinging her sword aimlessly was not enough to vent out her backed-up frustration.
After her warm-ups, she took an aggressive stance against one of the trees around the little opening. She filled herself with Energy without any care about the backlash. She started with a strong vertical slash.
Only to be interrupted.
A calloused hand caught her attack from the pummel of her sword. Before she could realize what had happened, a strong wind blew from the side, but faded away quickly, causing a disturbance in the calm forest.
"What do you think you are doing?" A rough voice asked.
Elise turned to the old man, meeting his displeased eyes. So now he decided to talk to her, huh?
"What does it look like?" She snapped. "I am training!"
She tried to pull her sword, but instead, the old man effortlessly pushed her away. She didn't lose balance and stood proudly against him, challenging him with her eyes. She had not seen even a piece of respect from that man, so she had no reason to show any.
"I have tolerated you using my training spot. At least try to be respectful of your surroundings." He was unfazed by her challenging attitude.
His training spot? She should have guessed since this small area was too perfect to be natural.
"How am I supposed to train without hitting anything?"
"You were managing just fine before."
"No, I was not!" Her pent-up feelings were starting to surface. "I am stuck in this place with a grumpy old man, who I hoped would be my sword master, but he is not even talking to me."
"I have no obligation to do so. Even so, I gave you a place and fed you. Try to be more grateful. If you want to blame someone, blame your asshole of a master."
"Oh, don't worry. I have a couple of things to say to him, too. He started teaching me about all this Energy staff less than a year ago, and now he is expecting me to manage things on my own!"
"Less than a year?" He quickly checked her out. "It is quite unusual."
Unusual? What was he talking about? "In a good way or...?"
"It's too quick. What did that monster do to you?"
"Oh! It must be because of my Blessing. I learn things a bit faster." Then she realized that he might not be familiar with the term. "A Blessing is..."
"I get it."
They looked at each other in an awkward silence. It was good to be able to speak with someone after all that time. She had spoken without thinking, and her words may have come out a bit harsher than she intended. She just hoped that she didn't offend him in any way.
"You do not need to be frustrated. Being able to sense and guide the Energy within your body, even though it is crude, is no easy feat in less than a human year."
That was an unexpected compliment, except for the 'crude' part, of course. "Thank you. But I cannot just stay still. I need to do something, or I'll die from boredom. I can't just stop training."
After another moment of silence, Elise saw his wrinkled eyes soften. The old man closed his eyes and took a deep breath of surrender.
"Fine." He said and started to walk back toward the garden.
Finally! Elise was thrilled. Not because she could train once again, but because she felt that a wall between her and this old farmer had broken after all this time.
"So, can I use the trees?" She asked behind his back.
"No!"
No? Was he making fun of her?
"Go rest for today... Tomorrow... Come help me in the garden." He kept walking without a single look at her side.
Help him in the garden? Was he serious!?