"How come they like you so much Catherine?"
raising an eyebrow she questions
"Well, I've proven myself, they expect a lot from me so they show it. Strength is everything here"
seeming to remember something she looks at me
"Hey, what's your goal?
Do you want to stay here forever or be a king, boys usually dream about that kind of thing I guess?"
I put my hand over my mouth, trying to stifle my laughter, when she raises an eyebrow.
'Women are scary'
"Sorry, it took me by surprise, well..."
'Have I ever dreamed or wanted something? Normally Julian always gave the direction I had to follow so I never thought for myself'
Looking at her ashamed of the question I say
"How do I find out what my goal is?"
I turn my face and hear a muffled laugh, when I turn my face again I see her hiding her laugh.
'she is beautiful'
I pretend to be upset with laughter as I turn my face away
"What a stingy huh"
It seems to have improved her mood.
"Well, I admit that I am. But I was really surprised by that, with the willpower you had to run away from the wolves I thought you had a clear objective."
I see her narrow her eyes as she looks up at the sky
"Well, goals are something that comes from the moment you are born or when you find them yourself"
Her eyes seemed to glow with a certain danger as she closed her eyes.
"Well, it's good not to have a goal imposed on you from a young age, because you can't always choose your destiny."
His expression hardened so I decided to change the subject.
"Well, how do I know if you're really strong huh? Compared to my athletic body you look weak."
I mock her while I force my right arm so she can see my thinness
The corners of his mouth turned up, threatening a smile.
'Well, at least she doesn't hate me'
We continue the usual path when we arrive at the arena I see Hermódio and around him several boys and girls,
Everyone seemed to feel Cath's presence when they turned their eyes to us
Almost all the children turned up their noses when they saw me, I felt oppressed
'Will I leave?'
When I look to the side, Catherine had already gone ahead, she looks back and smiles and says
"How long are you going to stay there, are you shy?"
Smiling she turns and says
"Come soon"
Hermódio observed the entire interaction in silence as I sat at the end of the large circle
and began to sing
"Well now that everyone has arrived, let's start advanced combat classes, pair up and don't overpower each other but try to teach and learn"
as he looked at me he ended up frowning and he examined me
"They go."
All the boys watch me trying to see if I'm weak or strong, some even turn up their noses while laughing at me
'The people are really bad, maybe I was wrong about this place'
In my peripheral vision I see a small commotion of girls around Catherine
A red-haired girl, about our height says while pleading with puppy dog eyes
"hey are we going to be a dueling duo? it would be an honor to learn from you"
Catherine listens to her skeptically before when she seems to feel my gaze and I see a mischievous smile on her face, where I feel a headache coming on.
'No no no'
Denying the redhead's request, she says
"I had already arranged to be my friend's duel partner there"
All eyes turn to me as I start to blush
'Now it's fucked up, I'm going to live alone forever'
I hear your footsteps coming towards me before stopping in front of me innocently
'Very petty'
I hear a scream when Hermódio returns with some wooden weapons, including spears, swords, shields, knives, sticks and a strange thing made of two pieces of wood held together with an iron
"You know, I think it's best we go without weapons today, you're not familiar with combat yet so I don't want to hurt you."
'How cute, it doesn't even look like you just made me a target for the whole class'
"Well, proposal accepted"
Harmódio guides us and notifies us of what the training will be like
"You will have two minutes on each side, defending and the other attacking, try to learn from the other!"
we moved away from the other groups so as not to interfere and went further away from the center
We look at each other as she starts to smile superbly.
"Well, you said I looked weak, right"
'It's not possible'
"I'll take it easy because it's your first day so.."
I see a wild smile appear on your face
"Your first objective is to try to survive"
I hear your footsteps running towards me
when I see her with both palms open at chin level
Cath threatens to punch me in the face, when I instinctively move my body to the left,
My eyes widen when I notice that it was a feint and that the real blow was his right leg approaching my face
I instinctively put my arm in front of him when his leg makes me wobble to the side,
she jumps back and smiles
"You have good reflexes but you are so innocent"
I think about answering her and I see her jumping towards me, I notice that she started to increase the speed of her blows when two hit me in the face at the moment I lost focus
"Focus!"