A ray of sun hitting me directly in the eyes jerked me from my restless slumber. Groaning from lack of sleep, I slid my half-exposed blade back into its sheath after I realized I wasn’t in danger. Between the nightmares and the screams of ecstasy coming from my Teacher’s room next door, I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.

The nightmares were a bit of a surprise as I hadn’t suffered from them since leaving the city. At the time I had been too exhausted by training and travel and my nights following Teacher had been dreamless until today.

Realizing that this may have been Teacher’s plan all along didn’t make me any more endeared toward him. The guy was an ass and his idea of training wasn’t far from torture. If I didn’t need someone to show me the ropes of being a Chosen or how to manifest my calling. Not that he seemed to know how or care. I assumed I would get actual training from someone that was more inclined to properly train me when we reached our destination. So for the time, I would put up with the man’s eccentricities.

That certainly didn’t mean I had to like it or how he treated me. It made me wonder why any woman would let the man so much as touch them. I guess I could see the appeal, not that I agreed. The Teacher certainly gave off the air of barely contained violence that women seemed to like. I suppose displaying his power helped. What woman wouldn’t want to sleep with a Chosen? Something only dreamed of. It was like getting to bed royalty without the risk of getting beheaded for spoiling the royal line.

Seeing as I wouldn’t be getting any more rest, I got up and stretched. The aches and pains of the last week left me sore and bruised. The first thing I did was inspect the gash on my leg. It had itched like crazy the day before but with trying to keep up with Teacher, I hadn’t been able to even scratch at it.

The bandage didn’t have any discoloration on the outside so that was a good sign that it was healing. When the bandage came away it had a bit of gunk on it but there was no blood or pus. I poked around the edges of the wound and while tender, didn’t elicit the shock of pain I was expecting. I was relieved by that as I had been worried that it had gotten infected during my run through the city. I was going to give it a few more days to heal before I removed the stitches. It was scabbed over but I didn’t want to risk it tearing open before a bit more healing took place.

I wrapped the bandage back on the wound. It wasn’t ideal having to reuse it but it was my last bandage and I didn’t have the spare plates to splurge for more. Not after having to pay for a room, food, and a replacement bow. I couldn’t even afford arrows so I would need to make some of my own and hope for the best. My other option for food was setting snares but I wasn’t sure Teacher would stop long enough for me to be able to take advantage of those.

After that, I splashed some cold water from the basin on my face and used the towel provided to wipe myself off. The rooms we had rented were above the same bar from the night before and only had plumbing for a small wash basin in the rooms. It was cheap and the owner had been ‘grateful’ for Teacher’s assistance at getting rid of the ruffians so he gave us a deal. In reality, the man was terrified at turning a Chosen away and had practically given us the rooms for nothing.

While I felt bad for the owner, I wasn’t about to complain about a discounted room. I certainly didn’t have enough to get a room for myself. What Teacher expected me to do in that case, I wasn’t sure and thankfully didn’t have to find out. Without my camping gear, it would have been a miserable night.

I dried off and started getting dressed. A bit of soap and water from the night before had gotten most of the stains out of my clothes but I was happier that they no longer smelled like week-old sour sweat and blood.

My throwing knife had been neglected since I entered the city and it showed. I used a short stiff-bristled brush to scrub its surface with the oil I had, removing any rust buildup. That taken care of, I cleaned the blade and put it back in its sheath. So far the thing had been more work than anything but selling it felt wrong. My father gave it to me to defend myself with. I was happy I hadn’t needed to use it yet, unlike my sword.

The memory of my blade slicing through that man’s neck was still fresh in my mind. The ease at which I had killed someone left a bad taste in my mouth. I knew it had been necessary but I had chosen this path to help people. I knew the possibility of having to kill someone to defend others was there, it hadn’t fully sunken in at the time what that entailed. The nightmares about the town and the monsters didn’t have the same impact as the one about the man’s pleading eyes as he tried to hold his gaping wound closed.

I shook off the memory and took a deep breath. The past was the past and I couldn’t change what I had been forced to do. I could only try and live with my decisions.

The inn’s great room was empty. I wasn’t surprised. It was doubtful anyone ever chose to spend a night in this dump. I was glad I had shaved my head before going to bed, I swear I could feel the lice crawling around on those filthy sheets. But it beat sleeping on the cold hard ground.

The owner saw me enter and nodded hurriedly before he dipped into the back. I took a seat at a table and yawned when I heard the owner exit the back room. The smell of bacon and eggs hit my nostrils only moments before the man set a heaping plate full of food in front of me along with a large cup of water.

“It’s on the house,” he said before hurrying away. As with the cheap rooms from the night before, I didn’t argue as I dug into the food. While the bacon was mostly fat, it was still good and I was shoveling it wholesale into my mouth when I spotted Teacher strut down the stairs with a satisfied smirk that almost made me lose my appetite.

He spotted my food and gave a shrill whistle using two fingers that brought the owner scurrying back. The man had been prepared and set another heaping plate down in front of Teacher along with another ale. Then he scurried out of sight and probably hoped out of mind.

We both ate in silence and then left the inn behind.

We returned to the stable that Teacher had left his horse in and the stable boy had two horses ready to go.

“What’s this,” Teacher pointed to the other mare.

“The magistrate sent a message and said to have a second horse ready for you in the morning. Said your acquaintance would need one.”

“Fine,” Teacher grunted. “Hope you know how to ride, Kid, we’re behind schedule.”

I wanted to groan at those words but I suppressed that urge and accepted the reins from the stable boy and mounted onto the horse. I hadn’t ridden much but as long as the horse was well trained, I probably wasn’t going to fall off.

Teacher urged his horse into a slow trot as we weaved our way through the growing crowds of people along the main street.

Once free of the confines of the city, Teacher urged his mount into a gallop and I was forced to keep pace. I could tell that my horse wasn’t a thoroughbred. It had probably been a workhorse or farm horse that a destitute farmer had been forced to sell off going by its placid disposition and slow pace.

We alternated between walking the horses so they could munch on grass and trots until after the sun reached its peak before we stopped for a break. After hobbling the horses so they could eat and drink out of a nearby stream, I quickly ate and gathered some acceptable-looking sticks to make arrows from.

Teacher snorted at me, “if you spent more time trying to figure out your calling, you wouldn’t need that stupid bow.”

I snapped back, “perhaps if you told me what to do, I would know already!” drawing a glare from the man. It was likely to earn me a painful training lesson but I was sick of his attitude and I was tired from lack of sleep.

I finished the rough arrows, sticking the ends in the small fire to harden them since I didn’t have the ceramic hunting tips to attach or even a stone arrowhead. With my arrows prepared, I walked into the forest. There were plenty of sounds of animals so catching a rabbit or squirrel shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, I spotted a fat rabbit chewing on some clover. I drew the cheap bow back and let the arrow fly. The arrow curved left and fell just shy of the rabbit, causing it to scurry away. I cursed the cheap bow and my shotty arrows as I went to collect the one I fired only to find it had cracked. I threw it down and pulled a new one as I went in search of another animal.

While I looked for prey, I thought about what my calling could be. The books I had read had a lot of information on the main sorts of callings but they never really dove into how to learn what you were capable of after getting one. It wasn’t like I felt any different after escaping the city. Taking a moment, I let my mind focus…nope nothing. I sighed, realizing this was going to be a difficult process if I couldn’t even feel the change. I knew I must have one because Teacher seemed assured that I did. And him taking the time to train someone without a calling seemed pretty unlikely.

A squirrel bounded down the side of a nearby tree and I snapped the bow up, letting the arrow fly and hoping it would land. The arrow curved wildly through the air before impacting the squirrel and pinning it to the tree. I couldn’t help giving a surprised yell. Finally, something was going my way.

I spent another twenty minutes hunting with no further luck. The arrows were just too inaccurate to hit anything at more than twenty feet. I thought about buying a sling but I hadn’t used one of those since I was little. I could throw my knife more accurately than the arrows but I wasn’t about to toss about my most expensive piece of equipment in the forest, that was a good way to lose a perfectly good knife.

When I returned to the camp, I found Teacher sitting next to a fire with three skinned and gutted rabbits roasting.

“The mighty hunter returns after felling a dangerous beast, eh,” I ignored his barbed comment and mocking laughter as I sat on the opposite side of the fire and skinned my one meager squirrel.

My stomach was rumbling and I could tell by the bastard's smirk that he could hear it rumbling. But my pride wouldn’t allow me to ask for some of his food. As my squirrel roasted on a spit near the fire, I pulled out one of my remaining rations and dipped it in my cup of water to soften it. It would help offset my meager amount of meat. I didn’t eat much and with my almost obsessive training, I was skinnier than most men my age. What I lacked in bulk, I made up for with lean wiry muscles. I was quick on my feet and with my hands.

The meal was mostly quiet, only broken by Teacher smacking his lips and sighing in contentment before tossing a bone into the fire. I figured I was already on his bad side for after-meal training so I decided to ask him something I had been wondering since last night.

“Is that the extent of your ability?”

“Is what the extent?” he burped out as he picked his teeth with the broken end of a bone.

“That,” I gestured, “the glowing thing.”

Teacher scoffed, “hardly. Spos’ it don’t hurt to tell ya. Not like you got blessed by Pryon.”

I made sure to roll my eyes while I wasn’t looking at the man. Even though I had secretly wished I had gotten Pyron’s blessing.

“You’ll learn this soon enough but we Chosen are conduits for the Mother’s gifts. As such they take their toll on our bodies.” He held up one finger and a small flame leaped from the nearby fire and danced an inch above the extended digit.

“You might think I just created fire. Well, you would be an idiot then. Even with Pyron’s blessing, there are many aspects that one can awaken to. Mine isn’t to create fire, I control temperature. With enough temperature, I can ignite a flame sure, but it’s a tiring prospect. By simply pulling the flame from a nearby source, it lessens the cost but it still isn’t something that is sustainable in a fight.” The flame above his finger winked out.

He pulled a stick that I recognized as his teaching branch. “But, if I concentrate heat at the very tip of something, I can cause it to burn. Then it's only a matter of continuing to feed it more heat to keep it at the desired temperature.”

“…that, that sounds mentally exhausting,” I said honestly.

He chuckled, “for someone like you, it probably would be but I've been doing this so long that I don’t even have to think about it anymore. I can also see the body heat generated by people and animals,” he grinned.

“…Wait, is that how you spotted those bandits hiding?”

“Course, it’s also how I managed to snag a bounty of food. Hard to run and hide from something when it can track the heat you give off.”