Saving Anezmae

The rest of the morning was hectic, she had decided to start on my combat training, and I must say, it’s pretty hard to keep up with an elf. And this is when they’re trying to slow down the movements in their muscles just so you can keep up. “Don’t think I’ll be this easy on you for long.” I looked at her in disbelief, and half yelled, half panted, “This is supposed to be EASY?” which caused a swift “swoosh” from where the dulled blade would’ve decapitated me. “Stay focused, if we were in battle I would’ve just killed you.” Completely ignoring what I said, she continued going at me. And it continued to be like this for several days, every morning she’d have to shock me awake someway or another, I’d complain for a good hour or so, continue with my magical training, and then move on to combat, complain some more, goof off, you know the drill. Honestly, I never asked for this, and in all seriousness I didn’t want to do it, and maybe, just maybe they got me mixed up with someone else. Yeah, maybe that’s it, before long Alaeya will walk to me one morning, and say, “I’m sorry Melody, we were wrong you aren’t the future queen anyway! You can go home now and get that sleep you oh-so- deserve!” I wallowed in that thought for awhile, while trying to block Alaeya’s attacks, reacting strictly on defense. “Try attacking me Melody.” She said smoothly, reminding me of soft, creamy ice cream. “How are you not tired?” My voice, unlike hers, was rough, ragged, like the edges of shattered glass. “You need to build endurance.” I gave a half laugh, my hot, heavy breath clogging my throat, “Yeah, no kidding.” I replied, rolling my eyes. She instantly seemed to get stronger, and knocked me to the ground, a loud thud sounding because of it. “This isn’t a joke! You don’t seem to understand that. I don’t usually get upset, but in times like these, I can not afford to have the patience I would normally have, listen to me girl, and listen good. If you don’t take what I have to teach you seriously, you Melody, will die.” she gave me the coldest glare I’ve ever received, and something inside me, something deep within my belly, snapped. I looked up at her, gulped, got back up, and fought, no complaining this time. “Your swinging isn’t controlled.” She was referring to the arm wielding my “sword”. More like a rusted piece of junk if you ask me, but oh well. “Don’t let your arms flail about, control, Melody, control.” She stood there, watching me attack the ghostly figurines she had conjured up. “Better! Try again, here on this one.” she pointed to a grey-white transparent collection of air, that carried on the form of a long-dead soldier. I stepped out my right foot, crossing it with my left, kicked with my right, causing a cloud of what-was-supposed-to-be to disintegrate, and pooling itself on the ground, forming it’s human body once more, before I slashed his head off, and made it disappear. “Well done!” casting a spell, several of the non-existing ghostly apparitions surrounded me and turned into solid, frowning, experienced fighters. “Oh…crap.” I mumbled, low enough that I only could hear, or at least thought only I could hear, until I heard Alaeya let out a small laugh. “Melody, put down your sword.” I gave her a pleading look, which she looked straight through. With almost no time to waste, they quickly ganged up on me, punching me in the face or stomach a couple times. Taking it like a girl, I got up, and eventually got the hang of things jumping up, I kicked two of my four opponents in the face, knocking them to the ground, while simultaneously punching another in the weakest part of the chest, possibly causing cardiac arrest in a normal body. They didn’t stop though, oh no, they kept on coming. A fist over here, a knife over there. I dodged and flailed about, survival mode in tact. “Use control, Melody!” when Alaeya said that, I became instantly centered. I used my minds eye, as well as my regular eyes, to see the fight in a 360 degree view. Using magic, I let out a spell that would defend my body from physical attacks, seeing that using a spell that fended off all attacks would only deplete me of a heck-of-a lot more energy. I also concentrated on one focal point, a single strip of dying, yellow-green grass. By doing this I was guarding my mind, so that my phantom enemies couldn’t infiltrate my mind and leave me all sorts of confused. Letting out a shallow breath I whispered, “Bring to me the powers of air.” and whoosh! A large gust of wind picked them up, and threw them far and wide. Leaving them immobile, and seemingly dead. Alaeya walked up to me, and congratulated me, proceeding to say, “As you advance in your training, you will come to notice that your opponents will become stronger and take on different shapes. Of course, they will never be anything more than phantoms, but they will one day take on the form of elves, and dwarves, and a multitude of others, so that you can see where you would stand with different types of foes.”