The next day dad woke me up early for training, he was determined to get me up to the skill level I would need to be at to be able to pass the entry exam for the knight academy, but I thought he would take it easy on me considering I had never done any of this before. I was certainly wrong about that.

“Time to wake up Alex.” Dad gently woke me, making sure he did not disturb Tigra in the process.

“Dad.” I rubbed my eyes confused. What was he doing waking me up before the sun had even risen?

“Time to begin your training again,” he replied.

“What?” I stared up at him, blinking quickly, trying to get the sleepiness out of my eyes.

“True knights don’t sleep in,” commented dad. He was giving me no choice but to get up and go with him. “When you enter the academy there will be no sleeping in.”

“But I’m not in the academy yet,” I moaned.

“No buts Alex.” I definitely had no choice.

Tigra was still asleep next to me. As I got up I noticed she was quite cute when she was asleep, with no worries on her face, not even what troubled her yesterday. I smiled; she was most probably dreaming of what trouble we could get into.

“Come on Alex.” Dad whispered. Was me doing this training really that important to him?

“Coming.” I got changed quietly while dad was waiting by the door. As I put a long-sleeved jumper on, the sleeve with Larana’s bracelet on was shredded to pieces. I looked at it but was too sleepy to really care. I quickly followed, glancing back at Tigra. I would do my best today, for her.

“Are you ready?” Dad asked as we stood in the living room, all the furniture had been moved to create a bigger space to practice in.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“After yesterday I thought you might have given up,” commented dad.

“No.” I shook my head, seeing the face of Dumah kicking at me. I didn’t realise it then, but he was strong, far stronger than me. I could feel that anger again, almost like we were destined to fight, and I had a promise to keep.

“Good.” Dad was holding the sphere in his hand. “Then let us begin.” Dad was not wasting any time with explanations, as the sphere became airborne just like yesterday. “Level 2.” Dad was not hesitating this time beginning where things had ended yesterday.

I was surprised to see that he was starting with the level I had failed at the first time, but this time I was ready, I knew what to expect, staying focused, seeing the path of both spheres, it wasn’t too hard to keep an eye on both of them.

I kept this up for a few minutes, realising that both spheres were indeed going at two different speeds, perhaps this was to try and throw me off of which sphere to watch; with just the two targets I could easily keep track of which of the two spheres moved fastest.

“I think I am ready for the next one,” I said.

Dad was nodding. “You learn quickly. Level 3.” He was impressed.

I could picture Dumah as I avoided them all, just like the second one, the third had a different speed than the other two.

I felt that strange blood boiling I had when I encountered Dumah. What was it about him that riled me up? I could feel my body buzzing as I avoided more, seeing them before they came in too close, was this the ability dad had told me about? It was so accurate. I almost messed up with surprise, but I couldn’t let myself fail on level 3.

I continued with my training without a word, so focused on what I was doing, I didn’t realise when dad even called out another number, creating four spheres, then five. The shape of the two new ones were slightly different, they even smelt a little different, perhaps these two carried a different consequence than the spiked ones.

Dad had just called out Level 8, each level was just an increase in the number of spheres. I noticed each also gave off a different energy, some contained pyro, e;ectro, and those spikes. I was guessing they would only get more intense as the number increased.

I caught a quick glimpse of dad’s expression, it was a mixture of proudness and surprise, maybe I had even surpassed what he thought I would be capable of on the second day of this stuff, after my experience with the first training session. To be honest I didn’t want to get scratched again, let alone what those other spheres were capable of.

I jumped back, ducked low, then rolled forward. Panting and running out of steam, I had been so lost in what I was doing I hadn’t paced myself. My energy levels running low, almost out.

I stumbled my footing, barely avoiding two that came towards me, then I was finally hit by one of the spheres, right in the centre of my back. It was an electro sphere, the consequence was a shock, which resonated throughout my body.

I stumbled forward shocked falling to the ground. I braced myself expecting to get bombarded by all the remaining spheres but looking up they had all come to a stop, floating around dad as if waiting for something. Could they sense when the one training was not ready, or capable of continuing?

“That hurt.” I moaned, feeling this stinging pain running through my back. I did not like being hit by the electro sphere, it was worse than getting the scratch from the spiked sphere.

“Alex.” Dad came over, placing his hand upon my back. “Don’t worry it was only a small shock.”

“Small.” I winced. “I’m okay.” I wanted to seem like it hadn’t hurt.

“You don’t have to act tough.” He shook his head. “When did you get this good?” Dad helped me sit up, concerned.

I shrugged. “I don’t know.” He sat opposite me.

“Hmm…” He was thinking. “Perhaps you came into contact with something or perhaps someone with dark intent.”

“Dark intent?” I repeated.

“Someone who lines themselves with dark power, much like those who opposed the legendary Fang in your favourite stories,” informed dad. “When we come into contact with such Animalia, our clan has what is called an awakening, would appear you may have had a small awakening.”

“Awakening, dark intent?” I began thinking about it. I had felt different after coming into contact with Dumah, perhaps that had been the cause of this strange change, this small awakening as dad had called it.

“Someone who wishes someone else harm.” Dad continued perhaps hoping to find the cause of my small awakening.

“I met a Leo yesterday named Dumah.” I paused; it was the only thing out of the ordinary that had happened. I remembered the strange feeling I had felt from that Leo, the room being shrouded in a strange mist. “I don’t know how to describe what I felt, but it sent shivers down my spine, and there was this mist everywhere.” I looked at dad, did he know what it could have been?

“Did he attack you?” questioned dad.

“Yes.” I nodded. “What was that mist?”

“It is a remanent of dark power which tries to infect others, but don’t worry in small amounts like what you most probably saw it is harmless.”

“He was with King Alton looking for Tigra,” I mentioned.

“I see.” Dad seemed to fall into thought again. “It seems it has begun sooner than I thought. Unfortunately, you are far from ready for it, but at least it has awakened some of your latent power.”

“Latent power?” I repeated.

Dad touched my shoulder. “You are still too young to understand much of this, I will tell you when you are a little older, perhaps when your true awakening happens you will understand everything, okay.”

“Why am I not ready now?” I asked, wondering why he wouldn’t tell me, considering he always taught me stuff.

“Trust me Alex.” Dad smiled. “I will tell you all you need to know when the time comes.”

“Okay.” I nodded, he had no reason to lie to me, I would need to be patient to find out the answers I wanted to know.

“I can see from today’s improvement that you will advance quite quickly,” informed dad proudly. “But don’t let it frustrate you when you have times when your progress feels slow, this just means you have to pass a hurdle before you can progress again.” I nodded to his words. “It won’t be too long before I can teach you how to access Larana’s power.”

I grinned from ear to ear, that was the one thing I wanted to know how to do most, unfortunately I would need to get through this other stuff first. “I can’t wait.”

“Neither can I.” Larana had appeared, we gave each other a high five.

“Hey Larana, why don’t you stay visible all the time?” I asked her as she came to sit on my shoulder.

“Well, that uses energy to do so and yours is not yet refined enough,” answered Larana. “Plus, there is no real benefit for me to stay manifested all the time, Animalia always like to stare at me.” Was that because she was so much different than us Animalia?

“I suppose,” I nodded. “Oh, wait.” I looked at my torn sleeve. “Why’d you destroy my sleeve? This was one of my favourites.”

Dad laughed. “She has a thing about being covered over.”

“Really.” I looked at Larana.

“Um…” Larana had no response to give, so she just disappeared instead.

“Larana!” I yelled.

“Alex, you’ll soon discover that each talisman is different with many personalities and powers, including elemental control.”

Tigra walked in rubbing her eyes. “Morning.” She yawned.

“Sorry.” I bowed frantically. “I didn’t wake you did I?”

“No.” Tigra waved her hand.

“If anyone needs your protection in this world, it will be Tigra.” Dad looked at the both of us.

I wondered where those words came from. I took this moment to get to my feet, walk over to stand beside her. “I will become her Guardian.” I stood proudly, accepting what Tigra had asked me yesterday, the path she had chosen for me.

“A noble cause.” It made dad happy for some reason. “It won’t be easy.”

“Who said anything about it being easy,” I responded. Dad nodded acknowledging my response.

“Did you do it?” asked Tigra.

“Yep.” I boasted proudly, sticking out my chest as if I was the best. “I made it to level 8.”

“Really.” Tigra clapped. “I knew you could do it.” She patted me on the back. I winced and fell over again. “Alex.”

“I’m okay.”

Dad let out a sigh. “Maybe I should lower the consequence setting.”

“No.” I shook my head. “All the more reason to avoid them.”

“Tigra, he has done well but before he can enter the knight academy, he must reach level 15 and have a high sync rate with Larana.” Dad spoke. “They only except the best, considering you already have a talisman will fall in your favour.”

“Right.” I nodded.

“Remember this Alex, you must restrain your power, only use it when it is needed most,” added Dad. “For someone who has never used her power before, it will be hard to determine how much strength you need when doing even the simplest of tasks.”

“Um…” I glanced at Tigra not quite understanding what he meant.

“You’ll understand when you start to use Larana’s power.” Dad looked at Larana’s bracelet on my arm. “The first time can be quite a surprise.” He smirked. “It’s wild, powerful and sometimes overwhelming, but you’ll be fine, you are a Fang after all.”

“Alex, Tigra time for some breakfast!” called mum.

“Pancakes!” Tigra and I looked at each other, shouting out at the same time. Recovering to my feet again, I bowed to dad before we both ran off to have some of mum’s best pancakes.