20 A Nice Surprise (2/2)

”Well, what?” I replied in puzzlement.

The cat girl rolled her eyes and bent her ears.She sighed as she muttered, ”smart human,” under her breath.”You should be greeting your teacher,” she answered.

Ah!”Good morning, Kalistra!” I said.

”I see you remembered the lemon,” she commented while glancing at the lemon on the table next to my empty bowl.

I made a face.”I may be old but I'm not senile,” I retorted.

Kalistra did not reply but her tail twitched in the air.

If I read this evil minx right, she was laughing at me!”Aren't you going to apologize?” I asked.

”For what?” Kalistra asked.

”For making me run 'til I incurred the exhausted condition yesterday,” I said.

”Oh, dear me!Did I do that?” she asked innocently as she put a paw to her left cheek.Her whiskers started twitching, too.

My eyes bored deeply into hers.The damn minx was DEFINITELY mocking me.”Yes, you did,” I growled.

My teacher held up her left paw.”Look, Lawrence, I gave you the opportunity to back out of enrolling in my dojo yesterday and you refused.You made a decision to accept my tutelage and train under me until you meet our prerequisites.Therefore, you are now Honor-bound to follow through no matter how hard that training becomes for your body.Yes, it's hard training especially for humans, but in the end, you will agree that it's worth the effort.Also, the training that I put you through is recoverable with a good night's sleep and a good meal,” she explained.

I crossed my arms and stared at her.

She stared right back at me.

After a few minutes into the staring contest, I finally broke off eye contact.God, Kalistra was so infuriating!She was definitely the replacement for my editor-from-hell!But, she was also correct.I didn't want to back out now.

I decided to change the topic.I pointed at the pile of coins in front of me on the table.”Is there a bank in this town?I need to deposit some of these coins,” I said as I gestured at the stack.

Kalistra grinned and showed her sharp teeth.”As a matter of fact, there is a bank just a block away from here. It's located between The Noble Lady and Watch Headquarters.We can make a slight detour on our way to the dojo.”My teacher pulled a brown sack from her belt.She took the contents out of the sack and put the items into another pouch.Then she placed the empty sack on the table.”You can borrow this sack to hold your coins,” she offered.

”Thank you,” I said as I started putting the coins into the sack.I set aside fifteen each in copper and silver coins and put them in my waist pocket.The remaining coins went into the sack.

Once the task was accomplished, Kalistra asked, ”Are you ready to leave?”

”Yes,” I nodded.

My teacher left a silver coin on the table next to her two empty bowls, and the two of us left the tavern together.