I was lost, I was sure of it. It was only because I had been seeing the same bent tree with the same bird’s nest in one of its branches. Even the bird in the nest knew I was lost since it kept giving me a certain look whenever I passed it by.

But it wasn’t my fault that the damned old man had been so vague in telling me where to find him. I didn’t even know if I was going in the west direction or not. But I knew that I was in the forest since the trees around me had gotten thicker as I walked further inside of it.

There was a reason nobody wanted to stroll into the forest near the houses and buildings, and it was for this very reason. The forest was thick and vast. People had gone missing inside of it and still to this day haven’t been found.

I don’t even know why I had been stupid enough to listen to the old man and step foot inside of the thick woods.

Thinking about going back, I sighed loudly and turned around. But as soon as I had turned myself, my eyes caught the rising smoke from further down. It looked like something was being burned several feet away.

Seeing how I had nothing better to do, I shrugged and began walking in that direction curiously.

Moving away from branches and sidestepping bushes, I finally got to the place where I was seeing the smoke coming from. “Really?”

“You’re late.” I frowned at the old man, who was sitting in a chair right in front of a fire. He was poking the flame with a stick while I looked around at the clearing where just a small cottage was built. So, this old man lived inside of the forest.

“You didn’t tell me where to go!” I retorted as I walked over to him, but he threw the stick at my feet, making me halt my movements. His aim had been accurate enough and I watched with wide eyes as the pointed end of the stick had been lodged into the ground properly.

“I told you enough to know where I would be.” He spoke while getting up from the chair, grabbing his walking stick from beside it. “Now.” I watched him walk over to me with a determined look on his face. “Are we ready to train?”

I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into, but I knew that there was no way I could back out of it now. “Yes.”

“Very well then.” I didn’t see it coming as I felt the old man’s walking stick hit me in the right leg. My leg gave out from under me, and I almost fell. “Hey!”

“Close your eyes.”

“So, I can’t dodge your attacks?!”

“You can’t dodge them with your eyes open anyway.”

Alright, that was rude, but his serious expression was making me nervous. And I didn’t want to disobey his stupid orders, so I closed my eyes.

“Now, listen to the sounds around you.”

“That’s such a boring thing to do.” I felt another hit on the same leg, and this time I fell to my knees. “Stop hitting me!”

“Listen!”

Grumbling to myself, I got up onto my feet again, trying to do what the old man wanted. His words echoed in my head but as I focused more on what he wanted, I realized how loud everything was. My eyes remained closed as the sounds of birds chirping and the fire cackling flowed through my ears.

Amongst the few sounds around me, I had also managed to hear the man moving in front of me. And before I knew it, I had stepped back.

“Good.”

“Wait, did I avoid that?” In my excitement, I didn’t notice getting hit again. And this time, the sadist had managed to whack my other leg. With a groan of pain, I fell to my knees again. “This is just the first lesson.”

“Yeah, by the end of all your lessons, I’m going to kill you or I’m going to need a stick to walk.” I grumbled to myself as I opened my eyes, catching the old man turning to walk over to the fire.

“Your opponents will be men.” Standing up again, I followed him as he went to sit on the chair he had previously been sitting on. “By the looks of the men training in the arena, they will all be bulky and loud.”

I frowned seeing how there was only a single chair near the fire, so I stood awkwardly. The old man gave me a sharp look as he stopped talking. “Your thoughts are all written on your face.” Squinting my eyes at him, I sat down begrudgingly on the grass.

Seeing that I had sat down, the old man chose to continue speaking. “I will train you to be vigilant and as light as you can be.” I looked down at my body and frowned at him. “Is that a dig at my weight?”

The old man sent me a disgusted look before he shook his head. “Weight has nothing to do with being silent, child.”

“Then why do you think the men would be loud?” My eyes squinted at him. He shook his head at me in disappointment. “You’ve been frequenting the arena for almost a week now and you haven’t noticed how all of them grunt when they move to attack.”

I frowned at that information as I looked at him with surprise. He not only observed that little detail from the training men but also noticed me at the arena for the past 6 days I had been going there to support Felix.

“Okay, I get your point.”

“No, you don’t.” He looked at me with a frown as he leaned forward in his seat. From my angle, I saw his face being covered by the flames and it made the situation more frightening since he looked so serious. “This is not child’s play. I can train you to beat every single one of those men in that arena, but I can only do that if you’re willing to listen to everything I say.”

His eyes were dark with an emotion that I had been gravely familiar with. It was an emotion that I had felt most of my life, more so from the moment I knew I had been orphaned. It was a dark and fierce emotion. The hatred, that only had one target, and one target only.

It was as if I could see my life changing and my revenge being taken as I looked into his eyes. And my head nodded on its own. “I will listen to you.”

Almost immediately, he leaned back in his chair and sent me a friendly smile which broke off the trance I had previously been in. “Excellent! We will continue the rest of the training tomorrow!”

I frowned since I didn’t know what had actually happened. But he had already gotten up from the chair and was making his way inside of the cottage. “What just happened?” I couldn’t even say anything to him as he opened the door, walked in, and then closed the door behind him.

Was this how I was going to be spending the month?

“Definitely.”

….............