~ 52: Tutelage Of Sorts - Part 2 ~

I wrapped his words around my head, trying to figure out why he had ended up this way.

"Is everyone that unworthy of your trust?" I asked with concern. "Besides, when do you even know that life might turn me around? I don't think your skills as a seer will work there."

"You aren't that kind of person," said Lucas with a sigh. "If you were, you would have already taken advantage of my powers."

We watched the moonlight appear between the spaces of the leaves of the trees. The blissful nature after a gruelling duel kept me from dropping myself from the training.

"Five minutes are up," he announced. "Time for the last task of the day and you are free to go."

He got up and pulled me up by my arm. I groaned as I was too reluctant to do through another session. But with him tugging my arm, I felt like it would be torn away from my sockets if I didn't get back on my feet.

"This time we will focus on building your strength," he announced as we jogged around the pavement ten times. "Sometimes a little bit of strength can get you across which speed or other essential tricks cannot. You will have to combine a bit of both to get through."

"Are you a martial arts teacher?" I asked, panting. "How in the world do you know so much?"

"Let's just say that I have a lot of experience. You would learn the same thing if you joined martial arts, but you would never get private training with the best ones, including me."

"Aren't you a little cocky? You will get in trouble."

"Watch your own plate, young lady. It will be filled with a good deal of impositions if you don't get this right. And to answer your question, I know what I know best. I never brag too much about it with people unless I'm close with them and I'm confident with my skills."

After the warmup and some stretching, he focused on building up the muscle in my limbs. He used two stones instead of dumbells to do the trick. He had to correct my posture as we worked through different squats, including lunges and jumping, increasing the intensity as one got easier. There were only ten-second breaks between each exercise.

In the last five minutes, we went through some of the core exercises, which turned out to be really painful. The plank was as difficult as ever, but with the stone on my back, my short endurance ran out quickly, and he made me repeat it until I could hold it out for thirty seconds. After the crunches, I was crying and begging to stop as the pain became too unbearable. When the timer ran out, I collapsed on the floor, panting and sighing with relief.

Lucas teased me for another, but I didn't smack him back. Doing that would land me in more trouble as he would be saying that I have more energy left to expend.

He calmly sat down beside me and brought out two food packets, passing one of them to me. What was cute was they were dumplings exactly the way I liked them to be — steamed, spicy and with meat.

"What a sneaky cat you are," I said with a sigh as I plopped the packet on my lap, receiving a snort from him. "You got exactly what I love and I can't even be angry at you."

"Because it's food?" he said through half-pressed lips, possibly trying to hide his next outburst of laughter.

I just pursed my lips as he laughed silently. He had gotten to know too much, although it wasn't the disturbing ones.

"Laugh all you like. It totally wasn't fair that you could get through my head and search the place."

'It's a shame that you still haven't learnt your lesson. Shall I make you go —'

I immediately shut him off. He had found out that teasing me, or rather provoking me, was the best solution to keep him off that pitch. It was painful to always keep the walls up as the back of my head felt stressed.

"It will fade with time," he said as he massaged the top of my nape, relieving the pain instantly.

"It's a wonder how you can still see things despite the walls being pulled up," I replied, moaning at the pressure he exerted at the right spot.

"Your face tells everything. Plus, it's not like I haven't gone through that phase."

'What are you, really?' I asked myself. 'How come I can't understand much about you but you thoroughly get me?'

We silently munched on the delicious dumplings, savouring their flavour. It turned out that both of us were fans of the sweet chilli sauce and couldn't stop dipping them into it.

"Where in the world did you get them from?" I asked when we were done gobbling them down.

"Someplace nice," he answered. There was his mysterious side again.

"Well, it was delicious. Who knew you could cook so well?"

I smirked as he stared at me.

"How did you know?" he gasped.

"Checking in on your mind," I said with a giggle. "Quite a cosy place it was."

I thought I heard him roll up his walls after pulling them down slightly quite a while ago, which had created a larger gap than before. I laughed mischievously as I watched him prepare something behind his dark eye.

"You do know what you have asked for, don't you? Come here, you little thief."

I ran away from my spot as easily as I could. But he would teleport in front of me and I would always escape his hands.

"This is so not fair!" I yelled as he chased me around the clearing. "I only checked in about a dumpling while you saw dozens of tales in mine!"

Just before I could reach into the woods, his strong pair of hands clasped my waist and we tumbled down together.

"Gotcha," he exclaimed, holding me tightly so that I couldn't run away again and tickled me near my waist.

I shouted my laughter into the night, partly wishing to be let off and partly wishing that this joy would just never end. I wished to the heavens above to pay me the happiness I had lost right then, just to not look upon my family and cry in grief.