Chapter 122 Self acceptance
The meeting with the Alpha of the Vance pack was drawing closer every passing day and it was just five days to come now. Melissa was in her room with Candice, Vanessa and Richard. Today was one of those days where she was a little free and she could have time to do normal stuff before she would go to her afternoon exercise.
She was already in the attire, a black sports bra and a pair of black pants. Her hair, which she hadn't had time to style or braid had grown so long it was touching her butt. She'd tied it into a ponytail while having a bandana tied around her head.
She'd always dressed like this for her training, the clothing was mostly just for a boost of morale, it made her feel kind of like a soldier in combat. She checked the clock once more only to discover she was still an hour early.
Melissa sighed, she wasn't really used to having a lot of time on her hands and yet in this fun mood, she didn't know what to do with her time. She glanced across the room from her chair. Vanessa and Candice were seated, facing each other and playing monopoly.
They'd wanted to leave her room this morning as soon as they were done, but she'd told them she had nothing to do, so they stayed. Now they were having fun and she was just looking at them, eyes darting around like a hungry bear. Maybe she was starting to develop a mental ailment like hyperactivity.
She glanced up and saw Richard, sitting on the floor, in a meditating posture and reading a book calmly while sipping coffee from a small mug. The calmness that surrounded him every time always puzzled Melissa. It was as if he wasn't thinking of anything throughout his life.
She shook her head and decided to focus on the game the two maids were playing.
"I have Hazel county and Amber zone," Candice said. "You have Gale zone, so you need Amber zone obviously," she said with a thought. "Why are you not doing an exchange instead of just waging money? I change the wager, I want Ten County," she smiled.
Vanessa chuckled. "You are starting to catch up," she smiled. "I decline and I cancel the trade."
Melissa watched the game throughout and at last Vanessa won but it was really close for a while before Candice made a misstep and Vanessa did everything to make sure she went bankrupt. The game was fun and she'd even made comments through it and she was so into it that she wanted to join the fun but Richard closed his book loudly to get her attention.
"It is time,"he said and Melissa sulked.
Just a few minutes ago, she was bored to the bone, now, suddenly it was time for her to start training. She sighed and walked behind Richard, waving at the two maids who shooed her away as they started a new game.
…
The training room had been upgraded a lot by Richard. Now there were fitness devices everywhere and lots and lots of equipment to help training. All of these equipment were arranged systematically at the far edges of the training ground, leaving the large centre with an empty space.
She entered into the training ground and Beatrice was already there and she was on a threadmill, running so fast Melissa was seeing a blur. The moment she noticed they entered the room she stopped the treadmill.
"How did you guys do it?" She asked, in a tired tone.
"Do what?" Melissa replied.
"Your innate abilities, how did you guys develop them?" She asked again and Melissa couldn't help but smile a bit. She didn't know why, but she found it really cool that Beatrice couldn't do something and she could do it.
"It just kinda happened," Melissa said. "But Margaret will be here soon, so she might have another thing to say to help you," she advised.
Margaret started taking them all classes on how to gain their innate abilities last week and they'd been doing the training everyday, except for Avalors who claimed he wasn't interested in any magical nonsense. He claimed he was too old for it.
Richard and Melissa had been improving their abilities under Margaret's guidelines and it'd been going great. Richard'd learnt to use his shadow ability more effectively. He could hide things from people without touching them and forcefully even make things travel. Coupled to that was the deadliest improvement he held. He could use his ability to separate things, or cut them.
Margaret had explained them as him tearing off the aura of whatever he wanted to affect there by separating them. Literally Richard was deadlier than he'd ever been.
Melissa on the other hand had improved the use of her aura, she could now increase the intensity of her presence so much that she would become a centre of attraction, a little more than that and everyone around her would break down in fear.
She could also now use it as an artificial arm and leg. Using her aura to lift things and even solidify it enough to defend herself from harm.
Throughout the course of the training too they'd discovered Margaret's innate ability. She had a photographic memory. Anything she sees once she could easily discern and separate the information from it weeks later. She didn't need to set her mind to reading it, her eyes only needed to have seen it, or her ears heard it faintly. Her brain would then automatically sort them out.
Only Beatrice had been struggling with this, so the woman had been anxious. Margaret had claimed the reason she wasn't manifesting was because she was yet to accept who she was.
"Yeah, yeah," Beatrice sighed. "I feel like a total wuss," she sighed again.
"Oh, don't be," Margaret said from the door step, rushing towards the two of them, smiling wider than a hyena while stuffing grapes into her mouth. She had an entire basket of it as he walked in.
"So shall we begin again today?"she said with a smile.