Chapter 18: Training (III).
Francisca's POV
I remember laying my body down at the entrance to take a small nap. To make sure no one would take my ingredients away from me and claim it for themselves, I dragged and hid my ingredients in the corner of the temple where there were a few circular trimmed bushes making it the perfect hiding spot.
"I'll take a small nap, I'll wake up soon enough."
…
"Zzz…"
I could feel the cold breeze of the morning, and a few footsteps walking towards the direction of the temple entrance.
"Ahhh…" I yawned, immediately seeing almost all of the children came back with their baskets only half full. John and Kc were on the corner arguing who got the most ingredients. I could hear them yelling back and forth.
"Hah! You only got two little tiny winey ginger! Well I got three!" (Kc) holds up her ginger and shows it to John who rolls his eyes.
"I focused more on fruits, please what will we even do with ginger? Apples are nature's candy." (John) shows his basket that was full of apples, those two were being too loud to the point the other kids were looking at them weirdly.
I stood up from my position and stretched my arms.
"Finally you guys are here." I told them, John and Kc came running, they were happy to see me and showed off all the ingredients that they collected.
"Big sis! What do you think of my haul? Clearly it's better than John's!" (Kc) exclaimed, shoving her basket to me and I could see that she did quite well. It was full of lemon grass and ginger, her hands appeared dirty meaning she got lucky and dug a few times.
"Please, milady take a look at mine." (John) shows me his basket being full of apples. They were turning this into a competition, it was um… very clear they both wanted praise.
"You two… did good. I can't pick who's better since I know both of you worked hard." I tell them, both smiles widened with their chest puffed.
"Oh by the way, big sis where's your basket? How many ingredients did you gather?" (Kc) asks, and I turn to the bush where I hid my ingredients. I walked over to the bushes and found them untouched.
"Hngh…" I dragged the huge leaf with one hand while the other held my basket. "This is my haul as you can see."
Everyone's attention turned to me, the other temple children gasped in excitement when they saw the ingredients that I brought.
"Whoah! You even have the [Crying Flower]! Those are super rare! You can only find them near the borders but wow!"
"New kid, how did you even find a [Mandrake Root]?!"
"Yeah those ingredients are super rare! You're really lucky to have found this!"
Wait, I thought these were ingredients that you're supposed to get. Why are they so surprised that I came back with this?
"You…" I could hear Nuo Lin's voice booming over as she held her basket looking shocked at what I brought. "Are you hurt?!"
"P-Pardon?"
Nuo Lin goes over to me and presses both of my cheeks with her hand looking concerned, scanning my face I could see her pink lips so clearly and her long tied hair being down.
"Don't you know the dangers you could've faced getting these?" (Nuo Lin) asks me, looking angry. She holds my arm, raising it up, looking to see if I was hurt.
"Hey! Let go of big sis! What are you doing with her?" (Kc) yells out but the other girl ignores her and continues looking over my body.
"Um…" I wasn't able to answer her, because I really didn't know what kind of danger trying to find these would bring and besides- this whole time I felt safe- there was nothing harmful that went in my way.
"Wait I don't know what you're talking about- I just saw these lying around and thought they were alright to take seeing that they were on the list." I took the list out of the basket and showed it to Nuo Lin.
"...!" She takes the list from my eyes, I saw her eyes moving left and right reading the contents with speed. "You were given the normal list without any warnings-! I can't believe it… I should've checked it first or-"
"Um… What's wrong with the list?"
"Seeing that you're new around the temple- ingredient scavenging would be hard, it should've been drawn and written with descriptions in your language for you to understand." (Nuo Lin) gives me back the list with a heavy sigh.
"The [Crying Flower] has small little petal guards that would make sure it wouldn't get plucked so easily- and the [Mandrake Root], if you would hear its scream it could leave your ears impaired." She looks over the dry mandrake root on the leaf and holds it down with her own hands. "You were supposed to avoid these scary things, but- there's already a bite mark in the side mark of the root."
A bite mark?
I didn't notice anything like that there.
"Thankfully it seems something has managed to kill it first before you got it. This would help tremendously in medicine making.You were extremely lucky that you came out of there without a scratch on you." (Nuo Lin) smiled at me and gave me back my ingredients.
"Wait, there's a bite mark?" I reached for the dry mandrake root and turned it over, I saw the faint bite mark over it and she was right.
"Arf! Arf!"
Fenrir!
The familiar bark caught my attention. I turned around to see my mom's familiar having something on his mouth.
"Woof!" He barks at me, with his tail wagging. So he's also been in the forest all this time? I thought he was inside the temple sleeping.
"What in the-"
In his mouth something was moving, it was alive- it was little flower petals that kept moving- the sharp edges of its leaf was torn and the little guy was almost dead. "Fenrir! Spit that out! I don't think that's good for your mouth!"
"Is Aunt Gabby's familiar turning into plant based options? I never thought I'd see the day." (Kc) tilts her head, joking around and places a hand on her waist grinning.
I didn't find the joke funny and told Fenrir to spit the thing out.
"Fenrir bad! Come on! Spit that out!" I order him around the second time and he follows. He spit the thing out and it was covered in saliva, the little petal guard was torn apart- but it was still walking on its feet and pointing a broken blade at us.
"#@&(#@!" The little flower guard was cursing in an unknown noise.
"I see he managed to catch one of the petal guards of the [Crying Flower]. Perhaps your familiar made sure you'll be safe around the forest." (Nuo Lin) slowly bends down on her knees and gives something to Fenrir, he sniffs it first before deciding to eat it and lick her hand. "Good boy."
"Woof! Woof!" (Fenrir) barks comfortably around Nuo Lin and I could see his tail wagging left and right.
"Whoah… Fenrir is usually not this friendly around others." (Kc) walks over to us and stares at Nuo Lin who shrugs.
"I gave him some medicine that will help with the poison that comes if he gets in contact with the petal guards. Give it a few hours, it'll kick in soon enough and you should give him some water after this." (Nuo Lin) stands up looking over to me, she takes my hand and places the same medicine he gave to Fenrir on my palm.
"You too, make sure to drink this. I can't have you getting the same poison spreading."
I took a look at the pill… but it doesn't look like a pill but- candy?
I was surprised to realize it had a cute design, it seems the strict scary lady Nuo Lin also had a soft side she doesn't show so often.
"Thank you…" I thank her, keeping the medicine close.
"Alright everyone-!"
Nuo Lin nods, being the leader of the kids, she tells everyone to dismiss and walks inside a shed taking a broom to clean the temple around before heading out to train.
Other elder monks have come down to the temple to collect the ingredients. I could see Nuo Lin who stayed behind to help and give the report on the harvest.
Fenrir came with us on our cleaning duties first and just slept on the side. I chuckled, feeling thankful that mom left him with us.
He made sure I was safe and I think it wasn't only me. I'm sure Fenrir thought of the other temple children.
"There, there boy. Thank you for watching over us." I pat his head before joining the others to clean up.
Sweep… sweep…
"You know I thought that girl was mean- but she's not so bad." (John) was sweeping around the leaves and Kc kept trying to kick the leaves instead.
"Same, but she's not bad! She even gave big sis some cure for poison!" (Kc) exclaims and I hold down my broom, having the medicine in my hand. It really does look like hard rock candy-
"Hmm…" I was in deep thought, I should eat this right?
"Also is it just me but imagine if she grew up she would probably be really pretty!" (Kc) walked over to me and asked.
I didn't really think much of it but… now that she mentions it.
"Yeah I think so. Why do you ask?" I tell Kc while sweeping the leaves around in one place. Nuo Lin, she really is something. At first she didn't strike me as someone I would get along but-
She softened up after hearing my mutter about the meaning of her name.
"Well then-! She's like those cold beauties you would see in books! Isn't it cool?" (John) walks over and joins in the conversation.
"Hey that was what I was thinking!" (Kc) replies and I just ignored the two.
I should get the work done than gossip around. After this we'll train.
…
Training room…
After cleaning, we got separated from the other temple kids and were sent to a private room with Xiao Lu Shifu. Fenrir also came along but he settled on keeping watch in the corner as always, so I made sure to give him water from the public dining hall.
The elder monk lady was kind enough to give me some. Fenrir was sleeping soundly after drinking so that's one less thing for me to worry about.
I felt my head getting nauseous and thought it was the poison, so I made sure to drink Nuo Lin's medicine before coming into training.
"This is where you three will train." (Xiao Lu) points at the very wide training room prepared for us, equipped with dummies and an open space area to spar.
"Not with just magic power and spells but also martial arts. What's the point of chanting if you don't even know how to protect yourself? If you run out of magic power then just use the arts of fighting."
Martial arts… so exciting! We got into our positions and bowed to Xiao Lu.
"When do we start training?"
"How about now?"
…
"Now what you need first is balance."
Xiao Lu Shifu gave us old fashioned training. Placing a bucket with water on our heads and we held potted plants in our hands, trying to keep our posture still and balance everything despite our muscles aching.
"Wah…" (Kc)
"Hngh…" (John)
"..."
"Focus your core, when you balance objects you focus on the goal. Diminish all distractions, this is the same when you chant your magic spells. You have to keep your mind clear." (Xiao Lu) gave lesson speeches from time to time while we groaned in pain.
Kc is doing fine, John is well he sucked at balancing- fell over after fifteen minutes while I did great.
Thirty minutes later…
"Good Job, now we will go to the main temple." (Xiao Lu) announced while we were panting for our life, tired and aching.
"M-Main *wheeze* temple? So that means this is just a part of the temple?" (John) asks, wheezing at almost every word.
"Yes this is just the west side of the temple. There are five parts. The west, south, east, middle and north." (Xiao Lu) raises five of his fingers showing it to us.
I take back what I said about my house being bigger.
"The main temple is also in the middle part. So come along now, you have much to do in your training." (Xiao Lu) motions for us to follow him, ruining Fenrir's nap.
"Woof…" He whimpered while I walked by his side.
One walk later.
I thought we were going to walk forever.
Wait, I saw something. I saw guys with bruises. Blood. In that room.
Or maybe I'm just… overreacting and hallucinating after all that balancing. I ignored it and continued walking.
We were now inside the middle temple, realizing it was a whole armory! There were so many blades displayed- made out of different metals- and armor!
"Now, here on the main temple we train with weapons. Choose your weapon. It can be anything: swords, bow, spears and many more. We'll be responsible and make sure- you get the wooden ones first." (Xiao Lu) points at the weaponry made out of wood.
"I'll choose this." (John) took the longsword.
"And I'll choose this." (Kc) chose the recurve bow.
It was my turn to choose the weapon.
"What is your weapon of choice miss francisca?" (Xiao Lu) calls out to me, showing the other side of the wooden weaponry. "You can choose whatever you like here."
I looked at the weapons. They are swords, bows and arrows- even a shuriken, spears and many more that I don't know the name of.
"Oh?"
A weapon caught my eye.
It was a katana.
I noticed they had a katana hanging on the wall. I practiced kendo when I was on a business trip in Japan so I know how to use this weapon.
I chose the katana. I took it out of the display and held it by the handle, feeling its weight, giving it a few swings and stabbing techniques in the air.
Soon I was getting comfortable with it.
"Impressive, do you all know how to use your chosen weapons?" (Xiao Lu)
After asking that question instead of answering it seems that all of us decided to show him instead of answering with words.
Kc quickly targeted the dummy, pulling on the string and placing a wooden arrow with a sharp tip. Her eyes focused completely on the target and when she let the arrow go, it made a satisfying swish sound!
"!!!"
It was a headshot.
John adjusts his weight, runs into the field and cuts the head of the dummy leaving a slash mark on its face.
It was my turn to show off.
I aimed at the chest of the dummy, holding the Katana tightly in my hand. I striked my katana in that exact place. The chest part of the dummy was a sack filled with cotton, the moment I stabbed it in place- cotton immediately started falling out of it.
"Seems like we have quite the prodigies. Why don't we test your skills in actual combat and you may attack me with all your might." (Xiao Lu) seemed to be impressed with our display.
"Seriously?! On the first day of training we have to fight you?" (John) complains.
"Is there something wrong with that?" (Xiao Lu) asks, not looking happy with John's question.
"This is something to be expected of, John. Mom didn't send us here if we weren't going to learn anything." I told John and he bit his lip realizing what I had just said.
"Did you have a look around? This place might be beautiful but I saw a few monks with bruises and blood. Just because we're kids doesn't mean they're gonna have mercy on us. They train us fair and square. No matter the age or gender."
"Hahaha! Now I like how you think!" (Xiao Lu) laughs, raising his hands in my direction before retracting his fingers almost playfully before nodding. "Now come at me."
John attacked first on the first swing of his sword.
"Hragh!"
Xiao Lu dodged it, without getting a scratch.
While he was distracted with John swinging his wooden sword back and forth. I could see Kc aiming her arrow towards Shifu's leg and took the shot.
"Hmph!" (Kc) huffs feeling proud of her aim.
"A surprise attack from you, you almost got a clean hit." (Xiao Lu)
Kc's arrow was stopped, he caught the arrow right between his fingers leaving my cousin stomping her foot seeing the scene.
"It was such a clean shot too!" (Kc) yells and tries aiming for another.
John caught Joshua holding both of his arms while I attacked and aimed at his chest. I'm not gonna kill him, I'll just stop a few inches at the place.
"?!"
But before I could even aim he disappeared.
He threw smoke bombs and kicked john and the only thing that was left was a part of a wood.
"A substitution technique?" I picked up the wood and saw Xiao Lu Shifu standing without a scratch in the wooden weapons section, slow clapping.
Clap… clap…
"You guys are awesome, you almost caught me. I'm certainly impressed." (Xiao Lu) seemed to be having fun with all of this- and honestly the three of us were getting the feel of adrenaline too.
He was hiding in a pot in a plant near the weapon area, that monkey!
"John, Kc! Let's get him!"
"Right back at ya big sis. "
"As you wish milady."
This is going to be much more fun than I thought.