Morning Interaction and Morning Training

"Lucius, get up!" I heard a cheery voice and I opened my eyes only to see the orange light of sunrise coming in through my window. Groaning, I picked up my pillow and covered my ears for the oncoming noise.

Alas, my enhanced senses had betrayed me yet another morning and as Brienne barged into my room, banging two wooden swords together, I sat up and threw my pillow right at her face, "Shut up, Brienne! It's barely sunrise!" I gave groaning shout as I lay back down on the bed, trying my best to block out the sound.

The pillow, despite having my strength and precision behind it, was still a pillow and was easily blocked by the wooden swords in Brienne's hands.

"Ah! Come on, you big oaf, get up! We have practice with Ser Goodwin today!" Brienne, ever the diligent person, called out with a smile I could basically hear in her tone. But there was also something else in there.

Yet I ignored it and turned to look at her with a sidelong glance, "At least leave so I can get dressed," I said but when she didn't leave I knew she'd caught onto my ruse.

Looking a bit ticked off, Brienne coughed before glaring at me, "Really? So, if I leave right now you won't just go back to sleep?" she questioned childishly, her glare nothing more than her squinting her eyes at me, trying to look intimidating while only achieving looking like a child. Holding back a smile, I raised my hands in surrender.

"Yeah, yeah, you got me. I'm getting up for real now, so leave," I moved myself off the bed, moving a hand to wipe the sleep and tiredness from my eyes.

Nodding with a sense of victory in her eyes, Brienne turned and left the room while I vowed I'd pay this 'betrayal' back ten fold in our training session.

What? I'm really not a morning person. I like sleep and sleeping in.

Though I also know I need the training. Superhuman body aside, you can't just rely on that. Giants and Dragons can still be killed and they're very physically strong. You need skill or technique alongside your enhanced attributes to survive in this world. Not to forget wit, creativity and split second decision making to survive the plots and ever-changing circumstances of Westeros.

Which is why for the year I've been on Tarth, I've not only been training with a sword and shield combo (the most effective combo for the battlefield; both defense and offense) but I've also been taking my lessons with the Maester of Evenfall Hall exceptionally seriously.

After all, the SPARTAN II's were also intelligent not just mindless soldiers who only knew how to use their brawn.

I'd been learning medicine off of him and trying out theories of my own. Though such experiments were limited due to the limited supply of herbs and medicines Maester Caluth would provide me with. But, this small experiments now, would allow me to build a foundation for later.

Medicine in this world relies a lot on pain relief rather than figuring out what stops the disease. Anti-infection treatments exist but they're very...simple. Probably not the most effective either.

If I can figure out a way to make some sort of antibiotic medicine, I could make a lot of money. Same goes if I take my studies with medicine further and mix it with magic and alchemy - that should give me a way to push the world's medical world even further.

It would also give my future troops and faction an advantage over others.

Sure, magic could heal but who has a spare healer next to them at all times? Wouldn't cheap health care and medicine be preferable? At least, that's what I think.

Looking at myself in the slightly blurry mirror, I looked myself up and down for a few seconds before picking up some pants I'd laid out for myself last night and put them on. My body was developing quite nicely - the benefits of my brilliant genes and enhanced cells, I would assume. But also because of the intense regimen I put myself through.

A regimen that included calisthenics, yoga and bodyweight exercises, all aimed at increasing flexibility, stamina and my ability to control my body and strength. Also includes what I remember from my boxing and kickboxing lessons as a kid and teenager.

Because despite my 100% muscle usage, it doesn't hurt to know exactly how to use that strength, does it?

Pulling my shirt/tunic over my somewhat developed upper body and across my slightly showing abs, it was hard to think of this as a 6-year-olds body and not the body of an athletic 12-year-old. But one look at my face would show my young age almost instantly.

Baby fat, chubby cheeks, immature features--whatever you wanna call it, I have it.

Maybe it's an evolutionary benefit to be cute for as long as possible? Maybe.

Making sure I was probably dressed and didn't have the clothes on backward or inside-out because of my sleepiness, I nodded to myself when I'd done the last check and I slipped on some basic shoes. No protection for the soles of my feet but it beats walking around on dirty and cold stone floors barefooted.

Exiting my room, I saw Brienne leaning against the wall just outside. She was also like me - tall for her age. If I looked like a 12-year-old in terms of build and height, she looked like a 10/11-year-old in terms of height. So bigger than people her age but still shorter than me.

Smiling, I teased, "You didn't peek at me getting changed, right?" I asked with a laugh.

Brienne looked at me with a sense of confusion, "Ew, why would I want to look at you getting changed?*" she seemed genuinely confused by what I'd implied, "You're so weird at times, Lucius," she said with a shake of her head as she threw one of the swords to me. Catching the sword that was a bit too small and light for my liking, I smirked back at Brienne.

(*Always found it weird how authors make kids weird and slightly pervy or at the very least flustered when the implication of them peeking on someone getting changed gets brought up. I sure as hell know an 8-year-old me would most likely be like 'What are you talking about? Why'd I wanna look at a girl?'. Moral of the story? Kids don't care about the opposite gender. Or the same gender, depending on which way you swing.)

"Nothing. Just checking to see if you're developing any weird tendencies, Brienne. Plus, you're the weird one, not me," I denied strongly, jogging ahead before she could realize what I'd said. But upon her realizing, she shouted after me and ran to catch up.

Though I constantly elevated or lowered my speed to stay just out of reach. It was a favored past time of mine, I'll have you know.

Soon enough, we came to the courtyard for the castle. A beautiful place with a stone platform, adorned with a dozen dummies. It was the private practicing grounds of House Tarth, so there weren't a need for anymore than that. Next to the dummy platform, there was a square of grass and dirt, outline by four posts and rope - like a boxing ring. But much bigger. Probably about 15 meters by 15 meters in size, with the center 5 meters being just dirt in a perfect (enough) circle.

This was where we'd be starting our training for today.

Just as I noticed his presence, a tall grey-haired man came from the opposite end of the courtyard, coming from a door that I knew led directly to his quarters, and shouted out, "Ah, finally arrived, I see? Get over here you whelps!" he roared like a military drill instructor and Brienne and I quickly went over to him, "Present your swords!" he shouted and we both held out our swords, horizontally with both hands underneath the sword.

Seeing our display, he gave a satisfied nod while stroking his finely trimmed greying beard. It was mainly blond but there were parts of it that were definitely grey. Hard to see unless you had eyes like mine, however.

He took our swords off us, starting with mine. He tossed it aside and walking over to a nearby rack and I could barely control my joy.

He was finally giving me a bigger and heavier sword. Waving that kiddy-sized sword around was barely doing anything for me. Well, other than getting my foundations up to the level they needed to be at. But still, there was no physical exertion in swinging around the small, light sword. It was somewhat boring and felt like I wasn't doing anything.

The man, Ser Goodwin, the master-at-arms for Evenfall Hall, turned back around holding what looked like a wooden longsword twice as big as the one I'd been practicing with. So a sword just under my height of 149cm at a full length of 138cm. A big sword for my current size.

Taking the sword, I did a small bow in thanks before taking the sword in my right hand and giving it a few swings. I instantly felt the higher weight and while it didn't strain my muscles, it did give the practice sword some very well needed momentum for the swings. Which would make practicing with it better and more realistic.

Brienne, on the other hand, got a new practice sword smaller than my new one but it was still big for her height. She's about 141cm tall and the sword is about 129cm long; both the 'blade' and the hilt.

She looked at my sword and looked like she wanted to complain but instead a fire lit up in her eyes as she took her new practice sword and began swinging it around like me. Though with a lot more difficulty. But she kept at it, I'll give her that. All until Ser Goodwin barked at her, "Use both your hands, girl!" he said before giving me a slight glare for giving Brienne the wrong idea about how to use a sword because of my higher brute strength.

As you know, my way of fighting includes a shield, which means I need to use a single hand for my sword and another for my shield. Which means I need to train now to get ready for it.

Brienne, despite being able to use a bastard/longsword with a single hand in the future, as shown by the TV series, was still a child at the moment and needed to know the basics before relying on her brute strength. Not that she had the necessary brute strength to wield with a single hand but she'd no doubt try and it could ruin her progress.

I, on the other hand, had the strength, the diligence to train properly and the maturity to listen to the training and to know not to rush my training or overdo it. So, despite trying to stop me, Ser Goodwin taught me how to properly wield a longsword with a single hand after enough pestering.

"Alright, enough messing about! Connington, get your shield! Brienne, get in the ring!" he barked another order and Brienne quickly got into the ring while Ser Goodwin threw some pads at her to keep her safe from the blows that were to come.

Meanwhile, I quickly rushed over to the rack and picked up a traditional knight shield.

Putting my sword down for a second, I fit the shield to my left arm and picked up the sword again, hoisting up and leaning it against my shoulder.

Jogging back to the ring, I jumped over the ropes and landed without a scramble or a trip and turned to smile at Brienne who was fully padded up now. I didn't wear pads - I needed to get used to the possibility of pain from blows and attacks because the gods know that I'll get hit eventually and when I do, I need to be able to deal with the pain and not squeal like a pig.

Well, it didn't matter. Even if it hurt, I was gonna get revenge for the 'betrayal' this morning!