Chapter 7- Motherly Love!

We arrived at the end of a hall in the vast mansion in front of us was an unsuspecting wooden door with iron rivets lining the edges. Jared opened the door unceremoniously and light flooded my eyes. Like a child who first steps outside my horizons instantly soared as I took in all of this new world.

The sky was a beautiful blue with little cloud coverage to shade from the sun that hung in the sky above. In the distance I could see a few tall mountainous areas and a giant peak that rose into the sky. I could hear the sound of rushing water, so I assumed there was a creek or river nearby. The smell of sweat, blood, and clean nature all mixed into a concoction that pervaded my nose. I then started to focus my eyes on my immediate surroundings.

A the dirt courtyard with stone walls surrounding it spread before my eyes. In one area to the right there were twelve wooden dummies in the shapes that barely resembled a man with open arms. Two barrels were found in the closest corner to my right, I couldn't see their contents from where I stood though. Three unknown shirtless men were doing different work out regimes. Even Harold was out and running around the courtyard at a pace that could be counted as a sprint.

When the three unknown men saw the three of us they immediately stopped what they were doing and kneeled. They appear to be part the knights commanded by Jared.

"Ah don't worry we aren't here to harm you. Go back to what you were doing." Jared came forward and eased some of the tension that had set between us while waving his hands. Harold had come up long ago wondering what we were doing, but mother said she was here to witness my training.

"Ahem, well prince Glen shall we get started?" Jared turns to me and opens his stance. I begin to expect him to charge at me again so I ready my body and prepare for his movements. He sees this and starts to laugh.

"Haha, no, no, we're not going to spar. I'm going to teach to the steps to my sword style. This is the most important since the basics of everything starts from footwork. All you have to do is mirror me." Jared says with a smile, but the smile stretches his his scar making him look more menacing than kind. He then grows a serious face that fits him better and his knees rise. However all I see is him moving in a circle with his toes barely touching the ground. He as definitely reached an impressive in level of footwork.

He stops after doing five circles and I see the foot prints in the dirt ground. To my surprise they are all in a straight line! I could've sworn I saw him move in a circle, but then why is it a circle!? I guess I have severely underestimated the people of this world. I should've known that if they are able to mobilize mana when they are still mortals, then they shouldn't be weak and definitely have a plethora of strong skills to supplement themselves.

"You're probably wondering why I didn't move in a circle." Jared said with very obvious hints of pride throughout and instead of giving me time to answer he continued,"Don't worry, that is when you have reached the state of turning the complex into the simple. Right now you are too young to even attempt to strengthen your body. My estimation is that you need one more year to grow before we can work on that. In the meantime work on the steps I showed you. You don't need to go fast just walk through."

He's good. He accurately guessed my body's current state by just watching me. However what steps did he show me? He just showed off and didn't really teach me anything.

"Um, what steps do you mean? I can't possibly reproduce your previous steps." I speak my thoughts out loud while sending a glance at mother. She is just calmly watching us from a distance not saying anything. I know she will jump in and help me if I need it, so since she is doing nothing this must be part of the training.

"Sure you can. Just step the way you believe you saw me step." Jared said such silly words so seriously. He wants me to step the way I saw it? I thought he was going to teach me his sword? Why is everyone in this world so confusing.

I begin to move my body right while swaying to the left and the momentum forces my left foot to catch myself. In the same moment I send my right foot backwards and turn my hips to face the right while my eyes are still focused on Jared. Pushing off my right foot I use my left to catch myself once again and at this point my hips have flipped to the left and my body is following the momentum backwards. Then I instantly halt myself mid-step by dragging my right foot in the dirt. My heels click together and my body is sent to the right while my left foot advances in front of me. I arch my spine so that it looks similar to an arched bow than I snap it back in a quick motion while I hit the ground with my right foot. My body ends up in the position I started in and I repeat the process four more times. When I finished I was breathing hard while perspiring heavily. I look to the curved square my steps have made and give a light sigh.

When I look up to Jared I see his left eye twitching slightly and the three others in the courtyard have also stopped what they were doing and were standing behind Jared. They all held strained smiles on their faces. Mother had appeared next to me awhile ago with a bright smile on her face. Harold was standing next to her with a sphere of water hovering above his hand.

"Don't strain yourself too hard Glen, here have some water." Mother beamed a smile at me while pulling Harold forward and I put my face next to it and began to drink.

"Q,queen, I believe you asked me to teach your child, but his steps..." Jared had a face that contained a complex array of emotions. The three behind him also shook their heads as they returned back to their work. Did I do good?

"I told you he was a genius. What do you think?" Mother says with her head held up high. So I did do well. I only followed the steps I saw and apparently it was right.

"Queen I've seen my fair share of geniuses back in the royal grounds, but someone who can put some of the soldiers to shame on his first try is not a genius. He's a monster." Jared said without a hint of hesitation. Mother had a huge smile on her face when he complemented me and turned around to return to where she had been earlier.

"Well, I guess you barely pass." Jared instantly contradicted his earlier words and gave a little cough when he saw me rolling my eyes at him.

"Anyways lets get to the actual swordsmanship. Now this is not like footwork, it must be honed from the beginning like the sharpening of a blade. You must not get hasty in perfecting your techniques and don't get hung up in finishing moves. Like I said the basics mean everything! For example, that mage over there, Harold was it, I can cut him down before he has the time to use any magics that could harm me!" Jared felt like he was regaining his confidence and spoke with a louder voice around the end.

He walked over to a corner which the barrels had been located. He reached into on of them and pulled out two wooden swords. They were crudely carved into a double edged blade that had a worn leather strap wrapped around their hilts.

He threw me the shorter of the two and took the longer for himself. And I grabbed the hilt as it flew through the air. The familiar sense of a weapon translated through my hand.

I remembered all time I put into learning different weapons back when I had finally entered the world of immortals. Since I couldn't rely on the immortals to give me what I needed I took up weapons of all sorts to increase my survivability. I felt the stronger I become the less I relied on the beautiful and awe inspiring techniques I used during my time in the mortal realm and more on weapon proficiency and brutal tactics. Back then it was a weird feeling of becoming an immortal just to once again feel like I had become a weak mortal.

"Alright this time I'll go slower so you can see my strikes better. I don't expect you to understand it on the first try so I'll repeat it. Feel free to begin when you feel like you are ready." Jared advanced towards one of the wooden dummies and breathed in. I felt a slight wave of mana emanating from his body and curl around the wooden sword then he moved.

With fluid strokes he maneuvered his sword around the wooden dummy and struck it in places where vitals would lie. He pulled back his sword and began to implement his footwork into his strikes. He would become like a calm stream flowing around and accurately stabbing at the dummy one second then a raging ocean viciously striking clean blows onto the wooden dummy.

His movements were like a work of art. I had a hard time grasping most of them, but was he really going slower? He couldn't really answer my mental question, however the sweat that accumulated on his body and his heavy breathing spoke well enough.

I sigh and get into a firm stance. If he wants to compete in sword skills, then I'll give him a challenge! I close my eyes and feel the changing currents in the air. I smell the accumulated sweat in the air. I focus my mind on the dummy in front of me slowly molding it into an enemy who I can train with. I concentrate on my surroundings and the enemy I perceive in front of me. The dummy slowly splits into five illusory people each holding a different weapon. From my right they hold a spear, sword, mace, staff, and dual swords respectively.

The first to turn into my dummy was the one holding a mace in his right hand. He gave a downward swing that swayed the wind and brought down a force that carried the weight of a mountain. I pushed off my right foot to evade with a larger difference in between thenI had hoped. Then I quickly advanced, not giving him time to fix his faulty stance, while sticking to the dummy's right side. I gave a quick slash to the wrist of my opponent that disrupted his next attack while pushing off my left foot and instantly switching to his left side while turning my back towards him. Before I sense a counterattack I rotate counterclockwise while blocking his line of sight on my sword with my body. With a loud crack my wooden sword transmits a sensation of connecting firmly to the neck of the dummy. The first illusory opponent has been dispatched.

I breathe heavily while unconsciously reaching in my back pocket for some restoration pills that I normally had stored there. Not caring about my unnecessary movement the imaginary spear wielder assimilates with the dummy and I take a couple steps back to gauge his movements. He starts with a straight thrust that shakes the air and the spear appears in front of me like a snake striking it's prey. I push off both feet in a small jump while rotating my body into a sideways flip to dodge the strike while my sword trails behind me in my right hand. I land on the imaginary spear effectively snapping it in two and kick the stump that represented his left leg, and with another loud crack my sword slashed downwards onto the dummy's chest. The second illusory opponent has been dispatched!

I was nearing my limit and my dilapidated four year old muscles could barely keep up with my movements. I could feel my strength leaving me, but I still geared up for the third imaginary opponent. I definitely will feel this later.

"H,hey Prince Glen, it's ok to stop please rest properly. Your body is still too young to train this strenuously." Jared's trembling voice woke me from my illusory training and I saw him standing to my right while panting and sweating. He had eyes that seemed as if he had seen a ghost. I also felt some gazes from the three training soldiers and Harold behind me. It appears I got too caught up in the training.

"So you can learn my footwork from just watching and your sword play resembles an old soldier that weathered hundreds of battlefields... Queen, what did you want me to teach this little monster again?" Jared mumbled a couple of words before calling mother over. He had an exasperated expression on his face which was quite comical to look at.

Mother was still smiling since I accidentally showed too much talent, but as long as she's happy I guess it's ok. She showed some concern when she saw me exhausted though and pulled Harold along with her.

"Well what can I say Glen is a genius." She bluntly stated while pushing Harold once again towards me with a sphere of water for me to drink.

"Of course... I can't really teach him anything then. He's already got most of the basics down, and he is too young for any of my other training regimes. There's honestly nothing for me to do right now." Jared raised his hands in defeat while shaking his head. Harold nodded his head as if to express his confirmation. Mother's prideful smile just got larger.

"Then, what am I supposed to do till then?" I express the thoughts I've been having for awhile and everyone focuses their attention to me. Then they turn their attention to mother.

"Hahaha, well you're just a bundle of wonderful surprises aren't you Glen! Hmmm, I guess we'll continue to work on your language then?" Mother doesn't put much thought into my future plans and I am dragged back to take a bath. I could hear Jared yelling at the soldiers who were in the courtyard. Something about how they need to return to the basics.

"You're mysterious Glen." Mother's voice invades my thoughts as I hold her hand while leading me towards the bath.

"At first I thought you might not be like other children and when you started to absorb an abnormal amount of mana I could tell you were destined for something great. I tried to hold onto my time with you, but the faster you grew I could tell something was wrong. From the way you handled certain situations to your everyday actions. Sometimes I wonder if you're even a child at all. However you are my first and probably my last child. Did you know back before you were born physicians had told me that I couldn't have a child due to my body?" Mother's eyes began to grow misty and I strengthened my grasp on her hand in response, as she sucked in a deep breath of air.

"However I was moved here, given medicines that could severely harm me, and I was isolated in this fort in case the medicines had a negative effect. Then when I had you even the stars in the night changed their usual pattern before you were born. It felt like destiny for you to be my child. And you are definitely not like other children and I know one day you will have to leave me, but for right now please be my little Glen. No matter what you do, or who you become I don't care. You are my child, and nothing changes that, ever..." Mother trails off and her smile starts to waver as tears begin to stain her cheeks. I felt a tug on my tear ducts, and a warm stream began to flow down my face. This is the motherly love that I missed so much. The feeling I gave up on my quest to become an immortal. My hands unconsciously wrapped around my mother and I gave her a tight heartfelt hug.