The first thing Khalid noticed was warmth - not from the yellow Sun, which shyly hid behind the dissipating clouds, but from a strange feeling of safety, one he hasn't felt since the death of his mother.
Still mostly asleep, he rubbed his eyes and begun to scratch the back of his head letting a large yawn escape his lips.
Slowly opening his eyes, Elena struck his vision, cleaning all laziness he had in that moment.
She stood a few feet away, damp red hair clinging to her neck. Most of her clothes hung on nearby branches, leaving her in just an oversized black shirt and a pair of dark shorts.
'You're awake.' -She said to break the awkward silence - 'I only just got back, didn't mean to stand there.'
'You bathed yeah? Nice. I might just do so too.'
'Yeah, I bathed in the river close to here'- she replied, tucking a strand of her dazzling red hair behind her ear -'Saw it on my way back and decided to dip for a little.'
Another awkwardly long silence followed. Not because they had nothing to say, but because Khalid was not paying any attention right now to anything but Elena.
'Stop looking at me,' said Elena feeling shy and wrapped her hands around her body. 'I mean, I get it and all - since I'm so beautiful - but I can't accept your feelings.' She quickly begun to half bow in front of Khalid.
Did I just get rejected without even sharing my feelings that I don't even have? Oh man I'm too tired for this right now.
'Oh God - what will I do with myself? Khalid groaned whilst clutching his chest.-'Elena rejected me before I could even bear any feelings toward her - how shall I ever recover?'
'Anyway I'm going to take a bath real fast and we will begin the learning.'
'Sounds Good.'
- - - -
Returning after a short while, Khalid was very interested in what Elena did during her visit at the corpse, but even though he was curious, he had learned one thing, the more knowledge, the more in danger your life is and decided against asking since all who he knew that know about the corpse have died.
'How is your shoulder?' asked Elena as if to say that a weak shoulder means no training.
At the mention, Khalid noticed his shoulder. Yes the marks were still there, but there wasn't any pain associated with it. No, instead he felt stronger, more powerful. A bit foreign due to the increase in strength, but similar enough.
'It feels great actually, like a whole new shoulder.'
'Great.'- Elena said and clapped her hands. -'Chop, Chop. Get ready to go to Hell'
Oh... She wasn't joking about that?'
'You weren't serious about that whole 'hell' thing, right?' Khalid asked with a nervous chuckle.
'Oh I was, but now I can heal you muscles as they tear, increasing efficiency, like, crazy. So, no questions—just copy exactly what I do.'
'F*ck'
And she didn't lie.
Training began with two full hours of stretching. Khalid discovered muscles he didn't even know existed—some in places he wasn't sure were even meant to move.
He though he was a master of his body, having all that experience running from enslavers and police what else would one think? But how wrong he was.
At least the healing helped a lot. One thing bothered him though. Every time Elena used it, she became a little pale.
Perhaps using the Ather gives one a physical setback.
Was Khalid's speculation.
And right it was. Every time Elena chose to use her flames on a ally, she has to suffer their pain for the time she uses it on them.
Well Khalid didn't and doesn't know this. So he just continued to copy her exact movements with no questions.
After stretching and what Elena optimistically called a "short" warm-up—only five minutes shorter thanks to slightly longer breaks—Khalid felt like his bones were planning a rebellion.
'Now, remember my exact moves, and attempt to copy my movements. I'm going to do it in a loop for as long as I can.'
And so she did. Barefoot on the waving grass, she took a deep breath, and begun to dance.
Some slashes low, some stabs high, punch here, kick there.
Khalid chose to properly look at her, internalise her movements first, then copy her at a much slower pace. He also noticed that she is doing her movements at a much slower pace, and something felt off.
'Say, Elena, this isn't a technique for daggers is it?'
Stopping, Elena said - 'No, its meant for a weapon called "odachi".'
'Yeah, I noticed longer reach attacks are being used which are perfect with the odachi. But a problem I see. How am i meant to use that?'
'Fair point. Alright, I promise that if you impress me enough ill gift you an odachi.'
Something about the precision and elegance of her movements pulled at him. He didn't just want this style—he needed it.
Agreeing to her offer, he begun to thoroughly analyse her.
She seemed to delay some attacks, some faster, some left, some right, some high some low. Frankly, Khalid had a hard time keeping up.
After 1 hour of looking at her, he had a rough idea of the foundations, but he believed the main idea of what he saw was to break and disorient the opponents rhythm.
'Elena. Check my form please.'
Sitting on the floor, Elena looked at Khalid's form.
It wasn't the best, but quite impressive for a beginner. Then Elena begun to shout similar to her late coach.
'Lower kick, higher slash, shorter dodge...'
By the end of 2 hours, Khalid had fully grasped all the foundations of the defence, but the attack was different.
Since this style highly relied on the mistakes of opponents and the user exploiting them, Khalid found it hard to practice it.
And to his horror, Elena noticed.
'We are going to spar now.'
Not having wasted the two hours, she had made two sets of wooden daggers from a fallen tree trunk using her pocket knife that Khalid had taken all the way back from the cave.
'Yeah, yeah real funny you stand up comedian.' - said Khalid fully believing that she was kidding.- What next? I'm getting an Ather?'
'I'm not kidding.'
'...' Khalid stared at her with a smile - 'You know I F*cking hate you right?'
'Right back at you. Now pick up your dagger.'