The chains were gone, the walls keeping the room quite cold. Food and water coming from the hole down on the metal door. Last two weeks since the curse I got or whatever contract as they told me. It’s been a little bit overwhelming to be a slave now, but I seem to be alive at least with Veronica pulling the last cards to save me, even though I think it was a real bad move. The letter I received last week about my training starting today doesn’t seem to be correct at all. Nobody seems to be coming for the training today.

Suddenly the door opened and a guy with only underwear, freckles and orange hair looking like a mushroom was standing by the door. I took two steps back, well to be a wanted man you never know the intentions of other people.

“Are you Berk?”

“Yeah...Who the hell are you and why the hell are you only in your underwear?” I asked the guy.

He laughed and told me:

“Well, I am the other prisoner in this place. Why...You thought you were alone because it was quiet?” He asked.

“Eh…Dah…yeah! What the fudge do you want?” I asked him.

“Well, my assignment is to help you out with your training. So…lets go!” He told me.

The tension was mounting as the clock was ticking…nah just kidding. The guy kept staring at me waiting for me to respond.

“Eh…We are going to train here in this…room?” I asked and followed up with:

“I mean you come here with only underwear on you. I won’t do anything here in this room, not with you here with underwear. Also, could you please go and at least get boxer shorts. The underwear isn’t exactly 2022 man.” I told him.

“Well, this is the most comfortable I have on me, because I won’t need it later when changing.

Did this guy just tell me he was going to get naked.

“Well, you still have to walk 10 meters in front of me.” I told him.

“Fine” he answered and opened the door wide and started to walk down the dark hallway.

I walked behind him with a good distance and was ready if any indication at all an attack would come from him. I am a wanted man and have killed a royalty, maybe people all over are trying to kill me as revenge for what I have done.

“While we are walking, how about you tell me why all these cells are empty and only you and me are in prison and of course why you are in prison also?” I asked.

He glances back at me, and his happy face was suddenly gone, and he looked more focused now when he turned his head back at the hallway again.

“Well! You and I are in a prison on earth, the most secure prison there is. I am an assassin from Valiant, while you are the bastard who killed the king who was protecting earth and Valiant from anything to happen. Now we are stuck together, and I must help train the murderer of the hero.” He answered.

Geez…this guy didn’t seem to like me at all. I was sad though that I took another mans life, but I didn’t have control over my body. I still don’t know if it was my fault or the one inside, I uttered the word close to death experience, still wonder though if I would have died if I didn’t utter the word. Also, as a reminder for myself, why the fudge was I in a big prison with only two people and the freckle guy was an assassin. It didn’t add up at all.

He reached the outside door and opened it up and the sun was shining in so strong that I couldn’t see what was outside. He vanished into the light, and I followed suite. Suddenly the environment changed and there was a small field with sand all around with rocks covering the circle field as some type of cover for my perspective most probably is, so the prisoners have hard time escaping, I mean the rocks just covered around five meters above ground, but still trying to climb on the rocks is a challenge. I watched around for the freckle who had disappeared suddenly.

“EH…CREEPY GUY, WHERE ARE YOU?” I yelled out.

“I am here” he responded.

I turned around and saw a raccoon sit three meters above on one of the rocks that was covering around the field.

“THERE IS A SKUNK HERE, BUT I DON’T SEE YOU” I yelled again.

The skunk slapped its paw against its forehead. Why the fudge did it do that.

“Its me idiot, I am the creepy guy you yelled at.” The skunk said to me which was a big surprise for me.

So, the skunk talks, and this is not an imagination right now. Calm down now Berk, it’s just an animal…it’s just an ani…fuck it! It’s a freaking animal talking. Need to stay calm and don’t overreact.

“Thanks for helping me, Karada! I was a little bit late because it was hard to catch a fluffer in the woods.” A female voice that sounded like Veronica came from the left.

I turned left and saw her standing quite a distance from me. Beside her were an old bald man and something that looked like an animal. Shit…! That animal must be like 400 pounds, from the ground up it was to my shoulder and Veronica laid her hand on it stroking the fur that looked like a sheep. The face though looked like a dog, more like a Shepherd dog, the yellow and black one I thought for myself, but the head was four or five times bigger than usual.

“Eh! What’s up Veronica?”! I asked

She looked at me with a serious look. I knew this cant be good, because when me and Mejni was younger she trained us in a lot of hand-to-hand combat and how to use our legs when fighting, but the sheep dog was something else. This didn’t feel right!

“So, what are we going to train today?” I asked.

“We call it Run for your life, the training session.”

Right, run for my life. Wait a minute…run for my life.

“Veronica, what you mean Run for your life?” I asked.

She gave a smirk smile towards me; this was not good. I remember that smile during all the training sessions as kids.

“Well, you see, this fluffer animal here that I brought back from the woods, well I put a small spell on it to kill you. Your training is to try surviving five minutes on this field with a fluffer hunting you down.” Veronica said.

Okay, survive five minutes, how hard can that be to run away from a dog sheep for a couple of minutes.

“So, what does the old man beside you do here, watching sports or betting?” I asked.

Veronica knew I was an asshole now and she gave a smirk smile again and turned here eyes away from me.

“No, he is the doctor to heal you when your bones break. You see, to escape from a fluffer, you need vast experience. While biting you isn’t allowed because we can’t risk your life, but the spell does allow it to stamp on you and to take a nap on you and of course attack you. If you are on the brink to death, I will move it away from you so the doctor can heal you.” She said while the doctor was bowing towards me like its his way of saying hello.

Well, at least she won’t kill me, just breaking my bones. Sounds intriguing training session.

“Couldn’t we do anything more fun?” I asked with a grim face expression.

“No, we will start in one minute” She answered and a stair popped up from nowhere so she and the old man could walk up the stairs.

“HEY SKUNK! Aren’t you joining the training session.” I asked the creepy guy…animal…something.

“I am not a skunk idiot! Don’t you see I am a raccoon.” It answered.

“Voääääh!” The fluffer uttered.

Did I just hear a combination of voff and määäh from dog and sheep.

“Voääh...Voääääh!” It uttered again.

“BEGIN” Veronica yelled and the fluffer took a big leap towards me.

Fudge my life, so I am going to get stamped on from a freaking dog sheep.