Chapter 7: A warrior's path

Rey returned his face to normal, though the small feline on his head seemed to fall asleep.

"Would you be willing to help me in that situation as my master?"

"Only if your eyes ask me to."

As one who wanted to confirm his guess, Heroclades threw out a guess accompanied by a penetrating and serious look:

"Then if you know what I mean by the word allies" he spoke as if it were a secret, as if a crime was about to be committed.

Someone naive was not capable of survival. But his disciple was not naive at all, if he really had memories of when he was little he surely had been able to notice Katherine's intentions.

"Your behavior when you said goodbye to your brothers gave me a clue" said Heroclades as a good investigator. "You want and expect them to remain your family when they return from their training, especially since you noticed that both Katherine and Mijan are uncomfortable with your presence in the pack, and that perhaps their thoughts will end up influencing you. You also know why your siblings have something you don't. Am I wrong?"

Rey shook his head at the last question.

Returning to his jocular nature, Heroclades continued:

"In conclusion, we will "train" for the day each time you return and each night you will have the opportunity to measure your strength by trying to be free, to learn what you please and find escape from your weakness, from Katherine, from Mijan, from your parents and, hopefully, from the initiation process."

"Heroclades..." He was interrupted by his master.

Heroclades, cutting off his disciple's words, with a raised finger, gave a clarification:

"You may call me Hero, just as the others do... I hear you."

Rey, after rectifying himself, said:

"Hero" he continued, "do you really think I won't be able to attain enough strength to be able to deal with any situation?" he said with distrust, arrogance and haughtiness, as one who still didn't trust the reasons why he was given the opportunity to escape if it was obviously what his mother least wanted to happen.

Heroclades stopped his breathing for a moment. He realized that Rey, by the way she had used her words, knew something that perhaps he did not. Too small and too naive was his disciple to speak so confidently that he was bluffing. He, with a smile on his face, caught his breath and said:

"That attitude. You remind me of the great heroes who have lived throughout history. They were guys who feared nothing. They looked death in the eye. They were used to fighting and always standing their ground without giving in. Although they all had something in common: to be what they were, they had gone through countless ordeals and odysseys that were not thought possible. If I were to say that such a miracle was impossible, I'm sure tears of woe would flow."

"It gives me more peace of mind to know that I can count on you" he replied with a smile.

"I like your motivation and I tell you that you will be an achiever like those heroes. With the color of your eyes and after the first impression you made on all of us when you fell, it makes it a real miracle that you are still alive!"

Placing one knee on the ground and his right arm on his disciple's left shoulder he continued.

"Back to the subject. Pay attention... Rey, what separates the winners from the losers is that the winner takes everything as a challenge and the loser only finds excuses to try to escape from his position. I know and trust that every time you come back from inside that forest you will have a better sense of what your path is, an additional layer of experience and more knowledge. Now it may seem like a crazy idea, but what better teachers are there in this place than the trees that make up the Ever-Changing Forest?"

Rey looked at the old man with doubtful eyes. Trees didn't talk, how could they be the best teachers, if they couldn't teach through words, much less explain anything.

Heroclades continued:

"They didn't get to that size or become what they are without first resisting the bites of time, fighting the wind, the rain and the earth."

Pausing, he began to laugh out loud. Despite all that he had spoken and despite the fact that they were clearly meaningless ramblings, the little boy was paying attention to him. As if those white eyes were vortexes that absolved everything. After slapping his forehead and standing up, he decided to stop rambling and continued:

"To be honest with you, I feel willingly and I'll also take a little time to build the place we're going to live in. You can go away and test my theory; I'll leave it to you as your first assignment. While you reason and formulate your own conclusions, try to learn from the trees and nature, which is much wiser than me. Don't forget to take some food with you for the road and fit into your mind the latest advice of this old master of yours."

Rey nodded.

Heroclades continued:

"May pain, sweat, blood and victory keep you alive!!! Fighting is taking life and death by the hand while dancing in a field full of possibilities!!!!! If you want to learn to dance within such a tempest, don't focus on the possibilities, focus on your body and don't be afraid to improvise!!!!...."

Rey took a deep breath at the energetic words of his teacher, turned around and continued walking through the undergrowth in the direction of the forest.

The little boy walked until he was sure that Heroclades could no longer see him, he walked like a cat stealing food, ready to run and escape from any blow. But no, he was not reprimanded and walked far enough away to end up in a whole new open world. The bright sky in the distance felt as close as the grass. Yet even if he reached out his hand, he could not grasp it, unlike the grass. Rey looked up at the black trees that stood large and sovereign, the same ones he could now reach, and behind them, perhaps a distant desire smelling of freedom.

Rey knew he had to fend for himself in that place. It was good to fantasize, but reality could become incompatible with life at any moment. "I've never seen someone die, I don't know how it feels to kill either," he said to himself. He had to be strong, as strong as he could be, too, he had to learn, as much as experiences could teach him and keep going until nothing was beyond his reach.

Even with the Paradise guardian cub on his head, Rey noticed a huge white lump walking on all fours around the place. The animal was almost three times the size of a liger and appeared to be eating grass. It looked harmless and calm, even though a gigantic feline was watching it crouched down.

"Do you know him?" asked Rey to the little feline, who only gave him a bellow in reply. "I think that was a "no". Anyway, it'll be interesting to watch, don't you think?" asked Rey, to which this time the cub didn't respond. "By the way, maybe I should call you something - Hmmmm! I'll come up with a name for you later, now I don't think it's important....."

...

At that same moment, but elsewhere, Maryam was manifesting her fury through a discreet smile on the verge of breaking. Even if she kept her face smiling, the mother could not understand how it was possible that she had to be separated from her children when they were literally only one day old. Wulfgang, in an attempt to calm her down, tried to explain:

"So far we managed to confirm that Jhades is intelligent, Dante is strong and Rey is adaptable enough for them to die on their own. Regardless of their flaws, it is not enough for them to belong to the group. We live in permanent war, we are not safe even when we sleep and at any moment we could die under the consequences of our past actions. We cannot give them love and make them vulnerable, not now."

"I know that if we give them love and security they will become dependent on us," Maryam said, "and they will be helpless in the face of problems they can't solve because they didn't need to learn. Still, I am afraid."

"Afraid of what? They won't have lived long, but their bodies have the conditions necessary to begin the life of a fighter and form a tough character."

"It's not that I can't disguise it, but I'm still afraid."

"Maryam, they are not human," said Wulfgang. "They will not live for a hundred years, that they do not suffer, that they are with us or grow up under a circle of love and affection, will result in mental weakness and inconvenient feelings when it comes to survival."

"I know they are not human. But that's not the case...."

"What makes you feel afraid?"

"If one is so extraordinary that one were to escape... Heroclades can betray us, he is not trustworthy to me when he is away, he is famous for having the ability to "corrupt the youth". Or if Katherine manages to kill Rey behind our backs. If they end up hating each other...."

"Love, you know that before my nose there is no one who can escape, as long as I can recognize the essence of their scent. With my smell I can reveal an indeterminate amount of time in the past and know everything someone did or didn't do... They stay in separate places most of the time, they will be fighting, training, learning, sleeping or exposed to extreme situations, like feeling pain, walking without clothes, bathing with freezing water, looking for their own food, getting shelter, learning to treat wounds, going hungry, cold and sleep...."

Maryam tried to speak:

"Yes, but it's just that..." She was interrupted by her husband as he grabbed her shoulders.

"Because of Hero you don't have to worry. He offered from the beginning to take my place in the training of my most troubled son. It is true that Rey might discover certain truths and at night perhaps try to go into the Ever-Changing Forest to escape; however, that forest is a whole gigantic world of its own. A world which is not designed for anyone to traverse once they enter, unless it is the elder or the guardians of the site.

Knowing that was the part Maryam disagreed with, the wolf understood that, if one of her children found the way out, thanks to the scent, he could do so as well and pursue the return to freedom.

"Maryam, right now I have no need to seek freedom. Not when I have you and I have problems for which I must take responsibility. As you said, "Because I am in a safe place does not mean my responsibilities as a parent are over; who assures you that your future will not be in jeopardy once they are grown and I am gone?" I am fulfilling my purpose. Since they were not born physically deformed, only the stress of rigorous training and facing adversity are the only ways they will be able to awaken and control their bodies, minds and killer instincts. After they have a foolproof character and can fend for themselves, we will see who maintains their values of obedience, friendship and honor. Then we will be able to see who is able to control their instincts and who will have the acceptance of the other members of the pack. But, if they are not subjected to constant stress now, in the future they will become time bombs and we will have no idea who will explode first or how to control them. Besides, there are still the bounty hunters who followed them to this site.