I tried to move my arms, but when I did so I heard the clanking of chains holding my arms in place.  Opening my eyes, I found myself chained and kneeling on a stone floor in a dark room.  Panicking I tried to call out, but there was no response.  I heard a shuffling noise from behind me, and I tried to turn my head to look at whatever made the noise.  However, I couldn’t move my body, it felt like my body was made of stone.  No matter how I tried or struggled I couldn’t move a muscle.  Suddenly a red light caught the corner of my vision.

A large red lion stepped out from behind me and started to circle me.  Another red lion stepped out from my left and joined the first.  Once they made a full rotation around me the lions walked forward.  They both stopped at the same time and turned to face me before sitting down.  When they did so a throne appeared between them.  I looked toward the figure sitting on the throne and found myself locking eyes with my brother Darius.

“You are found guilty of treason.  Do you have any last words, oathbreaker?” Darius’ voice boomed out from the throne causing my ears to ring.

“Oathbreaker?” I called out in confusion.

“I kept my promise! I did my duty!” I yelled out to Darius.

“So, your final words are a denial. Pitiful.”  Darius responded.  “The punishment for treason is death.” Darius said as both he and the throne faded out of existence. 

Once he had disappeared the lions which had been watching the exchange both stood up and moved towards me.  I tried, and failed, to move away.  The chains kept me in place as the lions grew closer, bearing their fangs.

“I kept my promise!” I yelled out one last time.  The lions let out a powerful roar shaking the room and causing my ears to ring yet again.  Then they lunged at my throat.

……

I opened my eyes and sat up.  I was out of breath and drenched in a cold sweat.  My ears were still ringing, but other than that I was fine.  I tried to bring my right hand to my throat, but it was stopped by a rope that was connected to the table I was sitting on.  Confused thoughts flooded through my head as I tried to remember where I was.

“Ahem.” Someone cleared their throat off to my left.  I turned to face the noise and saw an orc sitting in a chair observing me.  When we made eye contact, he stood up and walked towards me.  “How are you feeling?” He asked.  As he stepped forward, I took the time to observe his appearance.

The orc had a thin, almost wiry look to him.  He appeared to be a bit shorter than me.  His eyes were a dim rust color and he had medium length black hair that was currently tied in a ponytail.  He wore a long white coat with various stains on it that covered some rather plain clothes.  He stopped moving once he stood in front of me.

“Can you not hear Jesh, or are you unable to speak?” He asked.

“Sorry, no, I can hear you.” I responded. “I feel fine, my ears are just ringing a bit.”

“Ear’s ringing….” He mumbled.  He then raised his hands and placed them over my ears.  As he did so I took notice that he was channeling water magic again.  After a moment I felt a pop in both of my ears.  Once he moved his hands away the ringing in my ears was gone.

“How did you-” I started to ask a question but was cut off. 

“Jesh is a doctor, and you are Jesh’s patient.” Jesh stated rather plainly.  He then looked to the rope that was binding my hand to the table.  “Will you try and run again?” He asked.

“No, I won’t run this time” I answered

 Jesh nodded and flicked his hand, when he did so a small blue scalpel shot out and cut the rope off of my wrist.  Jesh pulled his hand back and the scalpel returned to him disappearing after it did so. 

I looked at him in surprise, “Was that your spark?” I asked.  Jesh just nodded at my question.  I’d never seen anyone control a spark remotely.  I was curious as to how he did it but decided not to pry too much.  I then thought back to our previous encounter.

“Did you hit me in the head with a club?” I asked the strange doctor as I swung my legs off of the table.

“Yes, after all you did try to run away” he answered.

“You could have given me a concussion” I said.

“Correction, Jesh did give you a concussion.” He answered.  “Then Jesh fixed the concussion” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

I looked towards the door and remembered the beast that I had seen outside of it.  “Was there a panda or did I imagine that?” I asked.

“Ah yes, you are talking about Ms. T” he said as he moved towards the side of the room we were in and pulled on a rope that was hanging down from the ceiling.  As he pulled the rope the wall of the room, we were in swung up like a large door letting in daylight from outside.  After the wall had finished raising a panda appeared in the opening and walked into the room carrying a tray on its back.

“This is Ms. T” Jesh said as he removed the tray from the back of the panda. 

“Ms. T….” I mumbled while looking over the panda.  Ms. T gave me a quick glance before turning around and walking back out of the room.  She then plopped down on the grass outside and started to snore.  Looking past Ms. T, I saw what appeared to be the side of the main building that Lord Studer lived in.  Meaning that we were currently in one of the many buildings that I had passed yesterday on the way to the training grounds.

Jesh placed the tray on a desk next to the chair he had been sitting in earlier and took two wooden bowls off of it.  “Here, eat this.” He said as he handed me one of the bowls.  I examined the contents of the bowl and found that it was filled with soup.  My stomach growled when I smelled the soup and I realized that I hadn’t eaten since the night I was sold to Lord Studer. 

I brought the bowl to my mouth and quickly devoured the contents.   As I was finishing off my bowl of soup a voice came from the opening in the room.  “Ah, glad to see you looking so lively.”  I looked up and saw that Griff had walked through the opening and was now standing in the room. 

“How’s he doing doc?” Griff asked Jesh.

“He’s made a full recovery” Jesh responded as he continued to eat his own soup.

“Good, then we can continue training.” Griff said with a smile as he walked towards me. 

“Wait” I protested.  “Don’t you think I should rest for a bit, last time we rushed things you nearly killed me” I said.

“You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, now let’s go.” He answered cheerily while pulling me off of the table.  He then basically started dragging me out of the room.  I looked desperately towards Jesh hoping that he would say something to save me from this crazy demon.  My hopes were shattered when Jesh called out “You know where to find me if you break something.”

As we made our way back to the training area Griff gave me a quick tour of the complex.  He pointed out the barracks where Lord Studer’s guards slept, as well as the mess hall where my soup had come from.  Unfortunately, the tour didn’t last long and within a few minutes we were standing at the edge of the sand pit.

“Let’s start off with a warmup” Griff spoke.  “Run a few laps around the inside of the pit.”  I groaned in complaint but started running all the same.  Surprisingly, my body wasn’t sore from all the sparring we did yesterday.  I suspected that Jesh had something to do with that.

Running in the pit wasn’t easy.  Every time I took a step my foot would sink a little into the sand, and whenever I went to take another step, the sand would try and keep my feet in place.  Making every step a struggle.  I stumbled and tripped several times on my run around the pit.  Despite the fact that the sand pit wasn’t too terribly large it still took me around ten minutes just to run a lap.

I thought after a couple laps Griff would tell me to stop, instead he just observed making sure that I kept running.  After a short while I was out of breath, and my whole body was covered in sweat.  It felt like my lungs where on fire and I could feel my knees starting to ache.  Finally, after I had run six laps Griff called out for me to stop.

I collapsed to my hands and knees and tried to catch my breath.  My whole body was aching at this point, and I could feel the sweat dripping off of me and into the sand.  My throat was dry, and I could start to see dark spots appearing in my vision.  Griff casually walked over to where I was and pulled me to my feet.

“Here, drink this” he said as he shoved a jug of water into my hands.  I quickly started to drink from the jug, the water was warm and had an earthy taste to it, but to me, it was a blessing.  “Slow down” Griff said as he took the jug back from me.  I tried to protest but he stopped me before I could say anything.  “While it is important to stay hydrated, if you drink too much, you’ll only succeed in causing yourself to vomit later.” He spoke.

“Now follow me” he said as he turned and made his way towards one of the shacks lining the sand pit.  I was hoping that maybe we were going to sit inside and rest for a bit, but once again my hope was shattered when he opened the door to the shack.  When I looked inside, I saw that it was filled with a variety of weights and benches.  “Next we’ll do some strength training.” He said with an evil smile on his face.  I tried to turn around and leave the building, but he just grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me back into the building.

The strength training involved just moving a variety of weights in ways that worked out different muscle groups throughout my body.  We continued doing the strength training for a couple hours.  After I reached the point where I could barely lift any part of my body Griff nodded to himself and said, “Time to move on to the next exercise.”  I groaned and tried to crawl away from this madman, but he just picked me up by my shirt and dragged me into the next shack.

In this shack was several weapon racks with a large variety of different weapons on them.  “Alright, lets start sparring.” He spoke.  “Now go ahead and choose a weapon.” He said as he tossed me into the center of the room.  I struggled to my feet and felt my whole-body ache in protest.  I looked over at Griff and saw from his expression that he wouldn’t let me give up yet.  So, I reached over and grabbed a spear from a weapon rack.  “Good choice” he said as he grabbed a short sword off of the rack next to him.  He then grabbed my shoulder and dragged me back out to the sand pit.

He then spent the next few hours effortlessly parrying my blows and striking back at me with the blunt of his sword.  Eventually after the sun had started to set, I collapsed face first into the sand.  I couldn’t move my body anymore even if I wanted to.  Griff walked up to where I had collapsed and flipped me onto my back using his foot. 

He looked down at me and nodded with a smile on his face “You did good today.  I’ll go grab us some food. While I’m doing that focus on your mana and move it throughout your body like we practiced yesterday.”  He said as he started to walk towards the mess hall.

I gave a slight groan in acknowledgment and focused in on my core.  Laying in the sand I pictured mana spreading from my core and moving throughout my body.  I don’t know exactly how long I kept at this before Griff returned and placed a bowl of soup next to me.  The smell of the soup caused my stomach to growl and my concentration broke.

Griff reached down and helped me sit up.  I grabbed the bowl of soup, and in a similar fashion to this morning, I quickly devoured it.  After I finished the soup, I let the bowl slip out of my hands and onto the sand.  I then laid back and rested on the sand again.  Griff picked up the bowl and looked down at me “Keep moving your mana through your mana veins I’ll be back in a bit.” He said as he walked away from me again.

I did as I was told and focused on my core.  Soon after I felt my mana spread throughout my body.  After a short while I drifted into a deep sleep.  For the first night in a long time, I was able to sleep peacefully.  When I opened my eyes, I was laying back on the table in Jesh’s shack.  I looked over and saw Jesh sitting at his desk as per usual.  He noticed I was awake, and he stood up and started walking towards me “How are you feeling?” he asked as we began what would be my daily routine for the next couple months.