Chapter 3

The day went by pretty quickly after Zephyr went to his room, Thaddeus had woken him up for lunch which was a completely novel experience for him since he only ate two meals a day, one in the morning and the other in the evening.

After the meal, Zephyr got curious about the book he had picked up in Thaddeus's room and asked what it was even though he was a little scared that Thaddeus would be angry at him for entering the room without permission.

He didn't need to worry about that since Thaddeus didn't seem to mind and instead explained what it was to Zephyr, he also asked if he was able to read it and wasn't particularly surprised when Zephyr said he wasn't able to, since only a small number of commoners were literate.

Thaddeus told Zephyr to come back to the table after he had washed his hands so that he could teach him the basics of the language they used in the empire.

Zephyr wasn't particularly a quick learner but he wasn't slow either, he memorized the first five letters of the alphabet on the first day which might seem a little slow for a thirteen-year-old child but considering he had no exposure to them before this proved that he was doing pretty well.

But it seemed like he did find mundane tasks like studying a bit tiring since he was yawning by the time he had finished memorizing the fifth alphabet.

By that time, the sun had set and they were using the light from the multiple candelabra placed around the hall to see what they were reading.

Thaddeus saw the bored look on Zephyr's face and decided to end the lesson there since he didn't think it would be productive to teach an uninterested person.

"Zephyr, I am ending the lesson here, you can find something to do while I prepare dinner and I suggest you get used to the swords on that sword rack there since you will be using them pretty soon", said Thaddeus while pointing at the sword rack and then proceeded to enter the kitchen to cook dinner.

Zephyr didn't have anything else to do so he decided to listen to Thaddeus's advice and look at the swords.

As he was about to take one of the swords from the rack, he heard Thaddeus say "And take only the wooden swords, not the steel ones", from inside the kitchen, he looked around and saw a worn-out wooden sword on the corner of the rack.

He took the sword but didn't know what to do with it, so he started swinging it.

His movements brought back a wealth of memories with them, he remembered how he used to peek at the training of the knights in the local lord's militia while on his begging rounds and tried to imitate their movements.

The sensation of swinging a sword was not new to him since he had already used one in the battle with the wolves but for some reason, he felt like he was seeing a whole different world as he swung the sword down the paths he remembered, he felt like he could see the paths he needed to take for the sword to continue flowing fluidly and instinctively took it.

...…

Thaddeus came back an hour later with dinner and was given a shock as he saw Zephyr still swinging the sword.

Even though Zephyr's form was crude and the sword paths he took led to a lot of energy wastage, sometimes he took the perfect paths that led to a minimal amount of waste like a beginner musician hitting the most ideal notes while playing a piece that he had just heard for the first time.

But what Thaddeus was astonished about was not that, because a beginner swordsman does get lucky enough to find a perfect sword path from time to time, even though they would probably be more experienced at swordsmanship than Zephyr but it wasn't an unheard of occurrence.

But what Thaddeus was surprised by was Zephyr's monstrous stamina, swinging a sword for one hour with all that energy wastage was already a hard thing to do, but add on to that the fact that Zephyr was injured very seriously just two days before, and consider the fact that his body would probably use up a lot of stamina to heal at the rate he was healing and you could see just how much stamina Zephyr had.

Thaddeus sat down at the table and waited for Zephyr to finish, Zephyr was completely immersed in the practice he was doing so he did not even hear his master entering the hall and he continued in his trance for half an hour more.

After half an hour, he stopped while panting.

Thaddeus told Zephyr to take a seat at the table and have some dinner, he didn't show the surprise on his face.

They ate the food in silence.

"Go to sleep after dinner, we will start your training early in the morning", said Thaddeus as he finished his food and got up to leave

"Yes master", was the only thing Zephyr replied with like he always does

Zephyr finished his food and went to the room he had been given in the house, where he lay down on the bed which to his surprise wasn't made of straw, unlike what he had always thought all beds were made of.

He thought about what had happened when he swung that sword, it felt like he was in a completely different world, a world that belonged only to him and no one else.

It was the first time he had felt something like that, his entire life had been dictated by adults who wanted to use him for their profits up until he left the orphanage which was the first and only decision he had made till then.

Now this feeling of freedom that swinging a sword had given him helped him discover the joy of being able to do something you enjoyed.

He lay there, looking at the solid wooden ceiling, so different from the weathered one he knew from his time in the orphanage, he remembered how he would look at the night sky through the holes present in it.

He was under an unfamiliar roof, he was eating unfamiliar food, he was lying on an unfamiliar bed and he had also experienced an unfamiliar joy today.

Things were so different from the mundane life that he had lived before, so much so that for the first time in his life, he was looking forward to the dawn of a new day.

...…

The next day,

Zephyr didn't wake up early like yesterday because he was tired out from the sword practice he had done yesterday, but Thaddeus still woke him up before dawn since he believed training earlier gave more benefits.

It still felt very cold outside even though he was wearing three layers of clothing, Thaddeus did not seem to be affected but that was to be expected since he had been living here for a long time.

The cottage was located on a mountain and the view from the top of it was something Zephyr would be witnessing for the first time.

Snow filled the fields below the mountain like a white carpet covering a floor, the view was so beautiful that it made Zephyr forget about the cold for a moment.

Thaddeus called Zephyr to the eastern side of the unnaturally flat peak breaking him out of his reverie, where another breathtaking view awaited him, a forest highlighted by the rising sun in the background.

"Do you see that forest there", asked Thaddeus, Zephyr could only nod because he was too stunned to speak, Thaddeus saw the nod and continued "Its edge is about five kilometers from the foot of this mountain, I want you to run there and back every morning before we start the training"

This broke Zephyr out of his trance, yes, he did go on walks that long to fetch firewood from the forest but by the time he came back, the hot afternoon sun would be right above his head and he would not have to do anything else that day but now he had to run till there and back before engaging in training, it was more than a little surprising to the child.

"Also, carry this sword, you might get attacked on the way like before", said Thaddeus before Zephyr could even voice a complaint about the task he was given, not that he intended to since he didn't want to lose all the new sensations he felt after coming here by defying him.

There were stairs cut out into the mountain that led up to the peak, the summit wasn't very far away so there weren't a lot of steps to descend.

He went to the bottom of the stairs and Thaddeus joined him, he told him that he would be waiting for him at the same spot when he came back.

He started running, it wasn't anything eventful, it was just a monotonous process of watching white snow pass as blurs from in front of him to behind him, the weight of the sword did bother him at first but then he got used to it.

...

He didn't know how long he had run, he could see the forest getting closer but then again, it was still pretty far away and he was very thirsty, he had some water in a cask but he decided to save it for later since there was only a little bit of it.

He looked up, the sun was higher than it was earlier, it seemed like two hours had passed since he started running.

His legs hadn't stopped at all, he was still running as hard as he could since he wanted to get back and swing his sword like he had done yesterday.

.....

He got to the edge of the forest around one hour later, he was very tired and decided to drink some of the water in his cask, just as he finished, he heard a low growl from behind the tree he was standing in front of.

It was a wolf that for some reason was very ferocious despite its injuries.

Zephyr unsheathed the sword his master had given him and confronted the wolf but it didn't seem to want to engage, it was prowling but didn't take a step forward.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar from inside the forest, the wolf immediately turned around to face the source of the sound.

A tiger lumbered out of the undergrowth, Zephyr had heard about them but never seen them, it had green stripes on orange fur but some parts of the fur were changing into a soft silverish color that didn't mix at all with the orange color.

The tiger seemed to be looking at something below the tree, it walked forward with a slow, calm, and confident gait, and the wolf jumped in front of it to stop it even though it was completely outmatched since it was riddled with injuries and completely alone.

Well, it had nothing to do with Zephyr so he started walking away but then he heard the sound of something sharp slicing through the wind and coming closer to him, he instinctively put the sword in between him and the object. The sword shook while giving off a *clang* sound like a ringing metal bell.

He saw a greenish blade made of something dissipate as he turned around to check what he had heard earlier.

The tiger was staring at him with caution, none of the earlier calmness visible in its pose, and since Zephyr had gotten involved now, he doubted he could just walk away from the scene so he decided to fight.

The moments he and the wolf spent staring at each other had helped him regain some of his energy and there was now adrenaline coursing through his body as he considered the prospect of this upcoming fight.

He walked closer to the scene of the fight, the wolf changed to a stance that could let it observe both the threats in its territory which was brave of it considering that either of them could easily finish it off in its weakened state.

The tiger didn't even consider the wolf a threat and gave its undivided attention to the boy before it. Zephyr did the same because he didn't think the wolf would enter their fight.

A sword flashed and the fight began, the tiger blocked the sword with its claws which were as hard as steel for some reason, Zephyr used the momentum of the block to try and arc the sword into cutting into the neck of the tiger but it jumped backward and dodged the sword.

The battle devolved into a staring contest after that as both of them looked for weaknesses in each other while circling around.

The tiger opened his mouth like it was about to lunge at Zephyr and bite him but it just continued circling, Zephyr saw something green get condensed in its mouth and prepared his sword to block as he realized what it was.

But he was still too late, the blade couldn't be blocked completely, he could only deflect it but it still grazed his head right above the temples, it was a hair's breadth away from blowing his brain out.

That side of his head felt warm as blood kept trickling down from the side of his head and then came a searing pain as the wound finally registered.

Zephyr had to fight hard to not lose consciousness with the amount of pain he was experiencing, he started panicking, he had never seen something like that before and had no idea how to deal with it.

He wanted to run away but he knew he couldn't outrun the tiger, he was thinking about so many things that he hadn't been focusing on the tiger and left himself open.

The tiger jumped at the chance and rushed forward to finish off his opponent but the wolf that had been staying on the sidelines till now took the opportunity and gave the tiger a deep wound on its side, the tiger retaliated by biting into its back and taking out a chunk of the wolf's back with a bite.

Seeing this, Zephyr got back in stance and gave the tiger his full attention, he understood that even a moment of hesitation would lead to his death.

The tiger started prowling again, eyes fixed on the boy, it opened its mouth once again but this time Zephyr didn't let it finish, he rushed at the tiger and tried to thrust his sword down its throat but it dodged the attack and continued preparing the wind blade.

Zephyr followed up with a cut to the lower jaw, the tiger couldn't dodge this attack in time and got wounded.

But it still did not stop it from condensing the wind blade and hurling it at him, he brought the blade back up in the nick of time to barely block it.

The force of the wind made his hand shake, he steadied it and started attacking again, but they were stuck in a stalemate, his head was spinning due to the blood loss but he concentrated on the task at hand.

And then it happened, a small string that he couldn't see before appeared, he didn't think about it, he just thrust his sword along the path that had opened up and it landed on the tiger and pierced its heart.

It thrashed out for the final time as it tried to bring its claw down on the boy but then it fell limp as the blood flow in its body stopped.

Zephyr also collapsed immediately after the fight as all the fatigue, stress, and blood loss got to him.

The wolf that had been badly injured earlier dragged the boy under a tree with its last dying breath, next to where it laid the boy down was a small wolf pup with grey fur.

The boy woke up a while later, his wound had already clotted but he felt very lightheaded due to all the blood he had lost, as he opened his eyes, he saw something gray staring at him, it was a wolf pup.

Zephyr looked around for any other wolves when he saw this since Zephyr had been taught they would never let their young ones wander around alone.

But for some reason, this particular cub was alone and then he remembered the wolf that had been very injured but then he wasn't able to find it anywhere, he could see the tiger's corpse still there, he went up to inspect it but there was really nothing of value there, but he did seem to find some kind of crystal bead, and he decided to take it with him.

He decided to head back quickly since it had long gone past afternoon and there were only three hours left before sunset and it was never a good idea to be near a forest during the dark.

For some reason, the wolf pup decided to follow him as well but he didn't mind at all since he knew what it was like to not have anyone to rely on in this harsh world.

...…

Thaddeus was worried about Zephyr, the afternoon had gone past but it was normal for it to take at least that much time to go to the forest's edge and come back, but now it was nearing evening and he was nowhere to be seen.

He just wanted the boy to build up his stamina and leg muscles more since they would be important in a battle, and also to put him at his limits before they started training since that would give more benefits than the normal training.

But he didn't think it would take this much time for him to come back, Thaddeus prepared to go out and search for him.

He was halfway to the forest when he found him, he was walking in his direction while limping because he had twisted his leg when he fainted due to exhaustion and there was a small gray figure following him.

He walked up to Thaddeus and fell in front of him, he could see traces of the blood that had streaked across his face.

Thaddeus hoisted him onto his shoulder and carried him home.