Once Elara agreed to train him, his relaxing days were over. Every day, wake up in the morning, run till you get exhausted, then start working on making your body strong: do squats, lunges and all kinds of activities. He had to eat different types of food; some tasted good, but most were awful. Initially, Lucas was excited, but in a month, he understood why she had tried to stop him from this. His body was too weak for the training that he was doing. Sometimes, she had to give him pause because of excessive harm to his body due to training.
Though Lucas would be deadbeat by the end of the day and may feel like giving up, he continued. Every time he thought of giving up, the eve of that day would scare it away. This routine followed for a few months. Two months earlier, the selection day was for those who wanted to join Hunter training. Elara had taken him and Ivy to watch the selection.
Lucas had paid full attention to the children fighting in the arena for the training spots. It was one-on-one hand physical combat; no weapons were allowed. Many such selections were going around the outer city. Every Arena was given a maximum of twenty places, and people fighting for those twenty places were in the hundreds. There were two ways to join the training: either you get selected from the arena or get recommended by hunters from the central city, hunters like Gideon. The selection was not solely based on winning; it was also up to the judges to decide the candidates for training. While they watched the fights, a group of hunters approached them. Elara put herself between them and the siblings, guarding them.
Lucas had seen this group many times during his training with Elara. They would come and taunt them, insult Elara by calling her hopeless, seeing her guiding a ten-year-old child, Some other things which were beyond Lucas's understanding as he knew nothing of Elara's past here, and he never cared about her past, all he knew was the good things she had done for them.
"People should stop dreaming things that were beyond their reach." one of them commented.
"Elara, you won't be scared again and leave them to the vampires again?" the other one added.
"She will feed you to vampires like her brother," another added, targeting Lucas.
Many more insulting comments started being passed, and other people joined in. They started chanting "Elara coward"; some even said, "One big coward and two small cowards." and many more comments.
Lucas was surprised because only a few people would usually say something like this. But now, a large crowd was passing comments on her. Tears started falling from her cheeks. She held me, and Ivy firmly raced out from there. They laughed, but none dared to stop her. One thing they knew was that they could not win against her one-on-one fight. For the first time, Lucas had seen her crying. She sent us home and left after that. Ivy wanted to follow her, so she pushed her gently and went out, closing the door behind her. Lucas held Ivy as she again rushed for her. She started crying. Lucas tried to console her but to no avail. Ivy kept shouting, "Sister…sister…sister..". Lucas consoled her and told her he would look for her, and then she stopped crying. He took her along to look for Elara.
They looked around their house, around the stream, and other places. The only place left was the closed arena, used for challenge combats. It was where two hunters could challenge each other and fight fairly. Elara had strictly forbidden Lucas to go there. But upon Ivy's insistence, he went there. It was a closed area with a large audience. And two figures were fighting in the arena. Elara was fighting with someone. This was the first time Lucas had seen her fighting someone. She could evade every attack of her opponent, and her attacks left the opponent with substantial injury.
Upon asking some audiences, Lucas came to know that Elara had given an open challenge to anyone from the outer city for one-on-one in physical combat. Lucas became afraid as an open challenge would mean that even males and seniors could fight her. She had completed her training only two years back. The outer city contained hunters who had completed their training for seven years. He knew nothing about her past and didn't understand what those words meant. But at that moment, he knew it was something big and her sore spot.
She defeated a few hunters easily and then came a well-built man who seemed quite well known to the audience. The fight starts, and she begins to fall at a disadvantage. This hunter was good at evading her attacks and faster than her. Upon asking around, Lucas found that he had spent four years in the outer city, and she had never won against him. He moved closer to the arena with Ivy in his arms. Even though the hunters were impolite, they were decent enough not to stop Lucas from moving closer to the arena.
Fighting continued, and she was barely defending against that man's attacks. When she couldn't hold, he started attacking fiercely. He attacked her weak parts, knee, neck, face and breast, which can be considered shameless. And finally, he kicked her, and she fell to the ground. Ivy screamed upon seeing her falling. Upon hearing Ivy's scream, she looked towards them. They were standing in the second row of the audience. Upon seeing them, Elara tried to smile, but her face was covered with scratches. Ivy started crying, and Elara tried to stand. Slowly, she stood up, but she couldn't stand properly. The other Hunter had already been declared the winner. She started walking, truthfully she was limping, towards Lucas. He put Ivy down and rushed to support her. Ivy followed him behind. Lucas supported Elara, and Ivy held her other hand. They slowly walked to their home.
Lucas opened the door and helped Elara to lie on the bed. Ivy helped Lucas clean and dress her wounds. Lucas had also learned basic healing techniques from Elara while training. For the following days, Lucas gave Elara time to heal. He trained on his own these days. He did all the household work alone. After a few days, when she could walk and do things. She started forcing Lucas into training again while they began to do household work.
Though Lucas's earlier learning speed had amazed her, after this incident, he had started to train more rigorously than earlier. He had set a clear target before participating in the training selection. Lucas wanted to ask Elara about her past experiences, but he didn't, and neither she said anything. He now worked hard because he had one more thing to do: challenge anyone who mocked Elara ever again. He had been with her only for a few months, but her action was taking them in, training him, and caring for Ivy. Lucas himself had seen her love and care for them. He had already decided that even if she had done something unforgivable in the past, he would still stand by his elder sister's side.
Elara was surprised by Lucas's progress after two months of her incident. On average, a fifteen-year-old boy would take a year to make the progress that Lucas had made in two months. She thought that Lucas was exceptionally talented; she was half correct, but she didn't know that he would also practise extra hours after she halted his practice daily.
She started practising fighting with him to train him. Every move she taught him, he would practise for more times than she said. This went on, and Lucas never slacked from training. During this time, Elara became more cheerful, spending most of her time training Lucas or playing with Ivy. They would go to the markets, festivals, and other places together. Their bond started to grow stronger day by day.
In the month of Wolfsbane, there is a tradition of honouring the fallen Hunters. No one is prevented from going to the Hunters' Stone, a monument where the names of fallen Hunters are engraved. It is a large piece of stone placed on the ground, and no one knows what it's made of or where it came from. This place is only open on two days: first when is the day of taking Hunter's Oath by a new person who had completed their training, and the next is the seventh of Wolfsbane.
When Elara took Lucas and Ivy to honour the fallen hunters, she was stopped by the gatekeepers. She didn't get emotional or anything; she calmly gave a wood sculpture to Lucas and asked her to place it near the Hunters' Stone. The sculpture was a boy, and it was very detailed. When Lucas entered, no one made any objection. After he went in, Elara and Ivy waited for him near the gate.
Stone was huge, and the people around it appeared like rats before an elephant. An endless list of names were engraved on it. Lucas placed the sculpture at the foot of the Hunters' Stone. He prayed the way Elara had taught him and left the place. After he came out, all three of them left the place together. Later that night, Elara took Lucas to the roof of their house.
"Aren't you curious why those gatekeepers didn't allow me to enter the memorial chamber?" Elara asked Lucas.
"If you don't want to say, it's okay. But remember, Ivy and I will stand together with whatever it is." Lucas replied. Though it was a lie that he wasn't curious at all.
It was silent for a while.
"I killed my elder brother… I drove my sword right through his heart." Elara said and broke into tears.