Chapter 47 CHAPTER 47
Meeting with Master Florian again, I anticipated the same thing as yesterday, and even tried to get ready to open my mind as he'd been screaming into my head but this time, he looked like he'd been through a shredding machine and was reassembled hastily.
“Sir, do you want to take a break? I can just continue next week.”
“No, you have to train to survive. Get in your position.”
“But you're not –”
“Get in your position Alira!”
Oh.
I did as he said, placing my feet on the spot he'd drawn for me on the ground yesterday as a demonstration and then my hands before me.
“I don't want you to fight back today,” he whispered but I could hear every breath coming out of him.
“What?”
“I know you can hear me.”
“Yes, but I don't understand what you just said. How do I just stand here and watch you beat me to a pulp without even trying to defend myself?”
“You make it sound like you've been able to defend yourself. So we might as well just save you the trouble. Stand there and don't move an inch, alright?”
I didn't know what had gotten into him but I have learned to just let him flow in whatever direction he wanted to go and hopefully, I come out of the back of this quest with my life still intact.
I heard the air shift as a punch headed my way and on instinct, I dodged it.
“Run around the field three times,” he growled.
“But –”
“I don't want to hear anything but your legs running!”
“Ugh!” I groaned but did as I was told, running faster than the version of me that had gotten bullied the first time I did this.
I was looking forward to the next Sprinting class, I knew I didn't have their stamina or speed but I sure as hell won't be on the first lap while everyone else was finishing their third.
Breathless, I finished the third lap and stood before him, trying to still the anger I felt.
“Now, when I say stand still, what will you do?”
“I'll stand still,” I grumbled, still trying to catch my breath.
“Good. Now take your position!”
“No need to yell,” I muttered under my breath as I adjusted my footing.
“Is that how you talk to your other Instructors?”
“They don't ask me to stand still and get beaten up Sir.”
Some of them will watch others try to kill me though but he doesn't need to know that.
“We'll have to do something about that smart mouth of yours soon but for now, make sure you stay still.”
The punch broke my skin like a whip on a slave's back and a cry erupted from my soul.
Not because of the pain, the pain was the fuel, but because nothing was holding me back from reacting but myself.
He didn't stop though, punches followed, tears and blood hurled to the ground and my anger kept rising.
The healing pool had repaired every inch of my bruised skin and now he was tearing it up all from the bones, hurting and hurting and hurting me.
And I had to just take it.
But then he slapped my face and I fucking lost it.
“You never hit me on the face!”
“You can't tell me what to –”
“Fuck you!” I screamed as I hurled myself at him, punching, hitting, claws out and my head hitting every piece of skin I could touch.
I didn't care that he was hitting me back, I just kept going like a rabid dog.
I didn't care about how I felt, the pain in my body, his lack of movement, anything.
I just kept hitting, punching, tearing skin, pulling at flesh, biting him.
Until he pulled me off of him and held me up, my feet dangling in the air.
“Open your eyes Alira,” his voice sounded so proud and happy that I snapped my eyes open, “see the wonders of your hands.”
“Oh my goodness!” I gasped, horrified at my own self.
At what I did to him?
His body was literally struggling to cover him, his flesh was peeled to the bone, I think I broke his ear and I saw his liver.
“How…”
“Because you stopped overthinking it. You let one emotion win. You let one thought win.”
But I didn't feel proud, I felt horrified.
“No..” I gasped, the memories I'd long buried rising quickly to the surface, “I didn't… I can't…”
He slowly dropped my crying self back to the ground.
“What is it Princess?”
For once, he didn't call that name with condescension but I could barely notice anything but the burnt hands in my head, the dead eyes staring back at me, the boy who died because of my fire.
Now, he'd gone and unleashed another thing from inside of me.
“Talk to me. Please,” he cupped my cheeks with both hands and forced me to look at him. “You can tell me anything.”
“You'll just run off to the Principal and tell him everything.”
He frowned.
“I haven't seen Draco since I started training with you.”
I frowned despite the tears in my eyes.
“He's been watching us.”
“You're a special student Alira,” I turned to see Styx walking out of the shadows, her rider above her with a pompous look on his face.
“What does that have to do with you spying on us?”
“Watch your tone!”
My spine straightened, fear coiling into me.
This wasn't Master Florian who traded words with me, this was the Principal who could order me thrown off a dragon in the blink of an eye.
But that wasn't all that made me complacent to his voice.
There was something else. Deeper. Inside of us that made my mind listen to his commands.
“Get her to the healer's pool,” Master Florian told him, “I have to go take care of this,” he pointed at himself.
“Thank you Florian, you've done a good job with her. She's ready to meet the King’s people now.”
“Does that mean he won't train me anymore?”
“You don't need me anymore Princess, until your trial day when I'll throw you off my dragon to your death.”
He winked at me and then took off, disappearing in the darkness within seconds.
“He's joking right?” I asked as Principal Draco’s shadows lifted me onto Styx.
In that crazy position again.
“No.”