I woke up early as it had been the practice for a while now, with dad’s training. I quietly walked out of my shelter, being careful not to wake up Kiba. He was still fast asleep, perhaps yesterday had taken more out of him than I thought.

Dad was still sat where he had settled yesterday. Tigra was also still asleep. I walked over to dad, smiling. “Morning.”

“Morning,” nodded dad. “Finally got you in the habit of early mornings then.” He smiled.

“Yeah.” I rolled my head a little thinking about it. “Dad since the others are still asleep can we train a little?”

“Sure.” Dad stood up. “Fire is boosted by wind. I want you to infuse your wind with the last flames of our fire.”

“How?” I looked at him confused.

“Summon her power like you usually do then direct it at the fire, simple,” explained dad.

I nodded, facing towards what was left of our campfire. “Larana.” I held out my hands, quickly pushing a small gush of wind at the ambers, on contact the fires grew a lot stronger. “Wow.”

“During battle with someone you must always remember your elemental advantages and disadvantages,” informed dad. “Anyone using a fire element will only be enhanced in strength if you use Larana, so be careful.”

“Okay,” I nodded.

“But once you master Larana’s power, not even fire will stand a chance, as you can choke the flames by removing the air which it uses as food.” Dad picked up Zekon, it changed its form into a bow, where dad proceeded to fire a wind arrow at the flames; on contact the flames went out.

“Awesome,” I gawked.

“It takes a lot of practice to master a talisman, so never quit on your training,” said dad as Zekon changed back into a sword.

That was all dad, and I covered that morning as Tigra had just gotten up, her hair was messy, her eyes still full of sleep. “Morning.”

Dad pulled out a hairbrush from his pack. “This way your highness.” He had Tigra sat in a chair and began brushing her hair.

“You look funny,” I giggled.

“You look funny,” she hissed.

Dad laughed, spotting Kiba coming out of our shelter. “Today we will start with breakfast. We will hunt down fish from the pool of water over there, then I will show you two ways of preparing it.” We all nodded as dad finished brushing Tigra’s hair.

“Thank you.” Tigra jumped to her feet, rubbing her eyes, and seeming happier.

Dad grabbed four sticks he had carved into spears. “If you don’t have the help from a talisman, this is one of the ways to catch fish.” Dad headed into the shallows of the waters, standing still, upright, the spear posed to strike. “Now silence.” We stared at him with curiosity.

After what felt like a long while waiting for something to happen, I began getting a little bored, then suddenly dad moved, striking the waters with his spear, so fast I almost missed it. Lifting the spear there was a fish skewered on the end of it.

“Wow.”

Tigra had started to laugh as Kiba had fallen over in surprise.

“I at least want you to have a go, as beginners rarely catch anything,” informed dad. We all entered the shallows without a word.

Dad repeated his stance, we each copied him. “Be patient, seeing the fish swim below you, and only strike when the fish least expects it.”

We all stood patiently waiting for these fish to come along, which took most of the morning, my stomach had begun to rumble.

I looked over at the others seeing them having no luck either, was there any fish in these waters. I sighed; dad had not described how to do this very well. I glanced over to him, seeing his tail in the water, bobbing up and down, perhaps that was his secret.

I repeated what he was doing, then shortly after, I had some fish showing interest. I smirked, ready to strike.

“Wait,” whispered Larana. “Aim first.” I slowly adjusted my spears position. “Now,” instructed Larana. I thrust my spear downwards at the fish, feeling a boost in wind, making it move faster, Larana was helping me.

It struck the fish. I pulled my spear out of the water, rising it in the air in glory. “Look I caught one.” My bubble was quickly burst as Tigra held her spear up with two on it.

“I’m good at this,” cheered Tigra.

“Good job,” smiled dad.

Kiba did not have the same luck, locked there in his stance waiting for the fish to come along, but nothing came. His expression stayed focused, but his eye lids were slowly closing, until he ended up in the water.

I rushed over, helping him to his feet. “Are you alright?” I asked concerned but laughing on the inside.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Now for some more lessons.” Dad headed back over to the tent where he had rocks, sticks and a knife set up. A pile for each of us.

Dad proceeded to show us how to light a fire. It was simple really, making a spark, then encouraging the flames to burn. Tigra was the first to get it while Kiba and I struggled. It was the same with preparing the fish. Dad had caught six fish, along with Tigra’s two and my one.

The first fish was simply skewered on a stick and put near the fire. The second we had to gut and cut, basic cooking skills or if the fish were small enough dad said you could eat it straight away, popping one of the smaller ones straight into his mouth.

It was actually sometime before we were eating our fish for breakfast, but when we did it was worth it, really tasty, and fresh.

“Now then.” Dad stood up, signalling us to follow him. We were headed back into the undergrowth of the forest, surrounded by the grasses and trees. “I want you to simply hide from me, using the scents in the forest to mask your own, some plants smell terrible, deterring the one searching, or even sweet, which masks it just as well. Go.”

We all ran off in different direction. I began sniffing around looking for the plant’s dad had described, if I found one that overwhelmed my sense of smell, it would do the same to dad.

Most of the ones here, were plain old grasses, but occasionally I picked up a different smell. I followed it to a nice sticky grass.

I darted underneath as I heard Tigra climbing up a tree and the rustling of grass behind me as Kiba too tried to find a suitable hiding place.

I felt my heart pounding in my chest, filled with this strange excitement, it was just like when Tigra and I hid from her Guardians. I heard rustling above my head, I looked up to see a grinning Tigra; she was enjoying herself.

I put my finger to my lips, as I could hear dad approaching. “Now let’s see how well you did.” I watched as I saw his feet moving around the area, looking for us. “You’ve taken my advice to heart in your hiding.” He stopped at a tree. “A point to distract the eye, good job.”

“Wow.” I looked up hearing Tigra as she slipped and fell down right on top of me.

“Ow.” I let out a little cry, but quickly covered my mouth. “Don’t move,” I whispered. I didn’t hear a response from her but that only told me she had listened to me.

Dad stopped right in front of us. I thought he had found us already until Kiba sneezed. He was in the bush opposite, which had tall feathery like stems on it.

“Not the best choice as this particular plant irritates a Feles nostrils causing uncontrollable sneezing for at least twenty minutes.” Kiba sneezed again and again, crawling out from his hiding place. “But not bad.” He turned around. “Quite the fall your highness.”

“He noticed,” commented Tigra.

“Of course, he noticed,” I sighed as she rolled off me and we left our little hiding spot.

“Not bad for your first hiding exercise.” He clapped his hands pleased with how today had gone too. “I believe all three of you will make fine warriors one day, just keep up the work and remember the will of protection.” With those words I knew our little trip would be over soon. “How would you like to spend your last day out here?”

“Dad said it is dangerous to play in the forests, so not that.” Tigra shook her head.

“How about you show us some of your moves,” requested Kiba.

“Alex.”

“What Kiba said.” I was curious to see what dad could really do.

“Alright, let us first return to camp.” Dad led the way back to our camp, where we all sat down to watch him. “Are you sure this is all you want?”

“Yeah.” We all cheered; this was going to be a show.

“This may be just a demonstration, but I want you to take notes on stance, movement and how I wield each weapon.” We all nodded excitedly as dad stood still for a moment in the opening, taking in a deep breath before drawing Zekon from his back. “Ready Zekon.”

“Always master.” I heard Zekon reply.

I watched dad intently, he stepped forward, posing his sword ready to strike, from there he proceeded to swipe at the air, the flow of his blade cutting at nothing, yet each movement had a purpose, each step, each swing.

Twisting around on his heel, Zekon’s sword changed into a dagger. Dad changed his stance, his movements faster, than when he was using a sword. He brought in his movements, making them tighter, taking on more of a hand to hand approach.

Throwing the dagger, it changed into an arrow and dad was now holding a bow. He fired multiple arrows, which twisted between the trees, then flew up into the air, exploding in the skies above us as they came into contact with each other.

Dad stood proudly smirking. It was obvious that he enjoyed doing that.

“You are so awesome.” I ran over as he sheathed Zekon. I jumped up at him, he picked me up, swinging me around.

“You will be just as good one day,” said dad.

“I doubt I’ll ever be as strong as you.” I looked down towards the ground.

“You will,” encouraged dad.

“No wonder they called you the best of the Guardians,” commented Tigra.

“Gual is just as skilled as me, maybe more with his natural abilities to fuse within shadow,” responded dad honestly.

“I hope I can be just like you,” said Kiba.

“Who wants to have a little go,” smiled dad.

“I do.” We all replied.

Dad put me down. He walked around the camp, picking up long sticks for us to use as swords. Handing one to each of us. “I’ve seen you playing with the foam swords with Tigra, not bad, but you need to try to be more skilful with your moves.” Dad drew Zekon again. “Stance.” Dad stood strongly, showing where our feet should be and position of how to hold our swords. Dad then put Zekon into the ground, walking round to adjust any mistaken footwork.

“Pretty good Tigra.” Dad commented, then moved on to me. “Lower yourself here, widen stance, and lift sword a little higher.” Dad straighten out all my flaws. “Not too bad Kiba.” I was a little annoyed that I was the only one with so many flaws in my stance. “Now swing, left and right.” We did as dad instructed. “Keep checking your stance and jab.”

We continued to take instruction from dad for the rest of the day, all of us improving. He was very pleased with how quickly we were picking up his lessons.

This time when night approached we got to sleep in the big tent, it was so cool, even though we had settled down I could only think about how to improve my skills with the sword, falling asleep and dreaming of dad’s performance.