Chapter 109 (2/2)

He had just taken a quality breastplate and practically scratched the word poor onto it.

Adding to his foul mood, there was a knock at the door.

“What?” Sam spat.

One of his assistants poked his head through the door. “Someone is here to see you.”

“Oh. Mrs. Northwind?” Sam said, his expression brightening. They had taken to having a morning walk every day, or at least they had before this most recent trouble in the village. So perhaps she wanted to start that tradition up again…

“Uh, no.” The assistant seemed to squirm. “It’s uh…. A talking rabbit.”

“Hahaha,” Sam laughed, slapping his knee. Who knew that this guy was such a jokester…? Normally he would hit him with a wooden 2 x 4 for such a flippant comment, but violence in front of Regina was a bit… “Well, let’s not keep her waiting then-”

“No, I think the rabbit is male.” The assistant interjected anxiously.

Sam froze, and then turned slowly to look at the man.

******

“Setting aside magic for now,” Mrs. Hamilton said, glancing at Lyra. “The training will be split into 4 areas: Physical Fitness, Attack Accuracy, Footwork, and Perception. Randidly, you already have skills for all 4 of these, correct?”

Randidly nodded.

“Then we will begin immediately. You have taken a sip of the potion?”

Randidly nodded again.

“The goal is to always be working two of the 4 areas at once. We shall start with Physical Fitness and Footwork. Please put on the jacket.”

As well as her notes, Mrs. Hamilton had brought over a wagon pulled by a very large, and very well behaved wolverine. Even as she was speaking to Randidly, the wolverine was nosing towards Mrs. Hamilton’s pockets, looking for treats. Exasperated, she removed a banana from her spatial ring, which the wolverine lumbered over to and began to eat with gusto.

On the wagon was a sizable looking vest. Randidly picked it up, and his eyebrows rose. This vest… was likely around 200 pounds. Although he probably wouldn’t notice the extra weight initially, especially after carrying around a spear for so long that was just over 250, it would still begin to drag on him as the exercises dragged on for a while.

Putting on the jacket, Randidly turned back to Mrs. Hamilton, who was now looking at Lyra. “Although we eventually plan on setting up a mechanical apparatus, the details are still being hammered out. As it is, Miss Silver will be handling the… footwork portion of this activity.”

With a snap of her fingers, 12 glowing blue birds came into being. They began to fly in lazy circles, criss crossing one another, the group of them slowly drifting towards Randidly.

“I didn’t hold back, you know.” Lyra added. “With how low your resistance is… I wouldn’t recommend letting them touch you. It would be so tragic to have to patch up that nice vest that everyone worked so hard to make for you, now wouldn’t it?”

*****

Depressed, and thoroughly shaken, Razor Fleetfoot stumbled away from the incredibly loud building run by the incredibly loud and angry hairless male. Sighing, Razor ignored the weird looks that everyone kept giving him and walked over to a strange tree with burning leaves next to a watchtower.

Feeling profoundly tired, he sat under it, and leaned back against it. Why were things so different than what the elders had anticipated…? It was all just so…

So….

Abruptly, Razor felt like the world was swaying softly around him. He shifted, enjoying the leisurely movements, a smile coming to his face.

Perhaps he had just become too obsessed. It might be good to take a small break here….

All at once, the stress of being yelled at faded away, and Razor relaxed, falling asleep against the tree that moved evenly, slowly rocking him to sleep.