A gust of wind was blowing through a field of grain. Most of the inhabitants of Brennen had never left their lovely village, nor had they ever seen the sea. The ones that did ever see it would say that the movement of the grain fields resembled it.
An golden sea with waves that followed the wind, with a few houses in the horizon. That was what a group of man saw while taking their early morning run.
Everyone in this group knew each other, that didn't mean that they really liked each other, nor that they actually talked to each other. They have different jobs, different aspirations, different age, different social and economic standing. There were only two things in commen, all of them were from Brennen.
And all of them were to be knighted in a few days.
"Allright guys, that concludes the training for today. Get some good rest and start gathering your belongings. The day after tomorrow will be the day we head towards Orthel."
'Could he ..... wait .... a second..... for .... me to regain my breath.'
Caelus was the last one to reach the end. Most of the man in Brennen had jobs that required a lot of strength and stamina, like farming, woodwork and smithing. These workouts that started a few weeks ago were a piece of cake for those well trained men.
Having a 'creative' lifestyle doesn't realy help with training a body, and Caelus was painfully aware of that fact since he joined this group.
'Ha I made it this time without taking a break. Maybe I can earn myself a higher rank with what I am capable of now.'
That illusion was instantly broken.
"Remember that this training is the bare minimum for a knight. Normally you would have had 2 years of education and training after being knighted, but that has been greatly shortend because of the dire situation our country is in. This means that every day you need more than one hundred percent of dedication an precision. Most of you will not reach a higher rank than knight and that's fine, you only need to survive."
The man talking was Paul Burnin. He was a 50 year old geezer that became a knight after the bandit atack on brennen. Aparantly he was quite the troublesome guy in his younger years but that all changed after the passing of his whole family after the bandit attack. Paul went to become a knight to fight all the injustice in the world, but after his 2 years he came back as a wisend mountain of a man. Now he just dealt with criminal cases around Brennen and trained whoever needed training.
"Rank is not going to save you. Your enemies are not going to care if you are a knight or a grand cross commander. Training is the only thing you need to focus on, it's the only thing that can protect you and your brethren."
Paul took a breath and looked around him, most people were listening but he saw that a few guys were losing their focus.
"Alright than, you all are already aware of this. Enjoy the free time you still have, you will be missing it soon enough. Dismissed."
The old knight that was still in his prime turned around and continued his run towards the village.
'How can that man still run, he ... he is running even harder than he did with us.'
Caelus eyes were stuck on the slowely disappearing Paul. It didn't take the fifty year old long to reach his house.
'That was 2 km in less than 5 minutes. What a monster of a man.'
The young painter sighed and started to walk towards the village. He didn't go home though, he had another appointment.
Bonk bonk
The door infront of Caelus opend immediately and a lady completely clothed in training outfit was standing infront of him.
"Caelus, you are late again. Me and dad have been training for more than half an hour"
'God where did you get all that energy. Did she sneak of to another town and receive her gift in secret.'
"Come on Edith, today we had a 20 kilometer run with sir Burnin."
Edith smiled and grabbed Caelus hand, dragging him inside and leading him towards the training hall.
"20 kilometers is childs play, I did that when I was 15. Did you do it without taking a break?"
"Yessss I did, with ease even. Sir Burnin was explaining a few things before dismissing us so it took me a bit longer to get here."
"OOOOOHHHHWWW YOU DID IT WITH EASE. HAHAHAH THATS GOOD THATS GOOD."
'Oh great, he heard me.'
Charles Fray was standing in the middle of the training hall wich Caelus and Edith just entered.
"Did you hear that my dear daughter, he did that with ease. That means that we can go a bit harder on him today" a big evil grin grew on the normally noble looking face of Charles.
"Ahh uhh I did some training after sir Burnin left. I am still recovering from that, yes my arms are still a bit sore from doing push-ups. Maybe I will watch you guysssss firrrsstt."
Caelus couldn't continue lying through his teeth, Edith pulled his arm so hard that he stumbled towards the middle of the hall.
"You are not going to sweet talk your way out of this training session. Get ready, we are starting with hand on hand combat, after that some sword training and we will finish with endurance and balance exercises."
Edith took a pile that showed that she was battle ready. Charles in the meantime sat down on a bench that was somwhere on the side of the hall, eagerly waiting for the spar to start.
'Can anyone save me from these demons, dad, god, the one, someone please help me.'
Caelus prayers were unheard, the training continued as it did everyday since he woke up from his 'awakening dream'.
Caelus doged a punch by slightly moving to the left.
'Man, it has been more than a month already.
So much has changed. I havent been able to paint in such a long time to. I wish I said no to all this training'
Edith's punch turned into a grab. She made Caelus fall with one circular motion and a foot behind her opponents foot.
Bam
" I didn't expect you to dodge that punch, your improving."
Caelus was on the floor looking at the ceiling.
He was remembering what had happend after waking up. Jonathan was in complete and utter distress, the doctors had tried to calm him down but to no result.
Caelus had an 'awakening dream' according to them. They explained that some people experience a weird dream after gaining there gift, this dream normally gave some hints to what the gift actually did. So the doctors left after a small check up.
But that wasn't the last time the doctors saw Caelus that day. The young painter was experimenting with his gifts, wich caused him to faint again. Aparantly he used to much mana.
Jonathan was afraid for more meetings with the doctors and so he asked Charles to train his son. Originally the plan was to do only mana training but it extended to combat training after their first session.
'What did he say back than? Every gift has a requirement or recourse. I fear the moment that Edith gets her hands on hers.'
Charles had explained that their were three forms of requirements for gifts documented.
The first is called 'emotinal gifts'. These gifts can only work when the one using it is experiencing a certain emotion. The stronger the emotion is, the more power it can give the wielder. This resource could never be exhausted as long as the person kept feeling that emotion.
The second is called 'sacrificial gifts'. These gifts are the most common. The user would lose something after obtaining their gift. Jonathan was a great example. He could make perfect copies of the thing he witnessed, but he wasn't able to draw anything but copies. He had lost his artistic ways. Sacrificial gifts normally have greater effect the more someone cares about the things they lost.
The third and least commen was 'mana gifts'. Mana is something every living thing has, it nourishes the soul and it is another form of energy that is necessary to live. Humans throughout the years became less and less reliant to it, so most have a small mana pool nowadays. Acquiring a gift and training are the only ways to make your mana pool grow. Someone with a mana gift could have a stronger effect by refining their mana and using it more.
Edith joined the training session later on. The awkwardness between them that was formed after their last dinner toghether had disappeared completely. Her body language was clearly showed that she enjoyed sparring with someone her age.
But Caelus had another way to see how Edith, or anyone else for that matter felt. He was using that ability right this moment.
The young painter could see emotions in the souls of people. Every colour was connected to a certain emotion and Caelus had learned to recognise it. Now he was looking at Edith's chest, waiting for a change of colour to appear.
'Defence the instant a speck of red shows.'
"Oiiii Caelus, could you stop looking at my daughters chest" Charles said while laughing.
" but I wasn't, you you know what i was looking at. How many times do I neeeeee"
Caelus couldn't finish what he was about to say. He lost focus, and his opponent didn't let that opportunity go.
Edith grabbed him around the neck, turned her back towards him and threw him over her body.
"Come on now Edith, enough with throwing Caelus on the ground. Throw some punches instead."
Edith than walked towards her dad, a smile was on her face but Caelus saw something different.
'Charles run you idiot.'
Out of nowhere Edith directed a punch towards her fathers chest. The older man wasn't prepared for it and took the full force. He fell of backwards and laid on the floor for a bit.
"What did I do to you" He asked while looking proud.
"You wanted me to throw some punches right."
"Hahahaahhaah that's my daughter, you ready to get your ass beat again."
Edith signaled that Caelus could take some rest, than walked back towards the middle of the hall.
"come on old timer, less talking more pummelling."
'She really does change during training, I could have never imagined her saying that before joining her sessions.'
Caelus sat down in one of the corners of the hall, his body resting but his mind was still busy. He was studying how the soul worked during a battle.
'Finnaly a break, let's see what these monsters can show me this time.'