I was accustomed to waking myself up hours before dawn. I had been doing it for over a year now. It was easy for me, but I doubted that it would be easy for Arial. She said she would be at my door when I walked out in the morning, but I was sure that I would meet her at hers.
My normal routine was to get dressed, break my fast, and then head out to the forest with my sword on my back and my ax in my hand. I would amend that today, so that I could pick up Arial before heading to the forest. It wouldn't delay me that long.
I finished eating, and strode over to my ax. I heard a creak on the floorboards outside the door. My father was still sleeping, and no one else would be walking around the village at this time of the morning. I opened the door, to find Arial standing with her back to me.
"You're here."
"Of course I am. I said I would be."
"I thought I would have to go get you. How were you able to rise before the sun?"
"The aether. When you can control it, you can make it do all sorts of things including, helping you to rise before dawn."
"How does it work?"
"We will get to that in due time. Don't you have some chores to do, as well as your training?"
"Don't you mean, that you have chores to do as well as training?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You said that you wanted to learn the way I did. Chopping down the trees is all part of it. That was the first lesson my father taught me. It was to build up my strength so that I could wield the sword."
"I am going to make you read every last word of every last scroll that I can find."
"Don't worry, I'm not really going to make you chop the trees down. I just wanted you to worry for a change."
"Pitre, you try me sometimes."
"Come on. I usually run to the forest, but since this is your first day of training, we'd better walk."
With that, we followed the path from the village to the edge of the tree line. We entered the wood and Arial's first day of training. I cut a branch that was nearly the size of a sword, and taught her the proper way to hold it. I then showed her a few exercises for stabbing, blocking, and slashing. She practiced that while I cut down the trees for the forge and the village. Once that was done, I began my own regiment. I went through all the movements I knew, which was 8. I didn't stop until I had done each one 100 times. I was growing proficient at them, so it didn't take me nearly as long as it once did. I was finishing the last movement when the sun began to peak above the horizon. I looked around for Arial, and found her at the edge of the clearing watching me.
"You were supposed to be practicing those exercises that I showed you."
"I finished long before you even started cutting the second tree."
"You did each exercise 20 times?" I limited her to 20 because I didn't her to get afraid of the work that she would have to put in.
"I did? Would you like to see my progress?"
"Yes, show me."
Arial began in the way I had showed her, standing straight with her hand and sword pointing down at her side. She snapped the blade straight up in front of her, and began a series of thrusts that simulated stabbing. She then began whipping the sword from side to side, with the point up, then down. These were the blocks I had shown her. She finished up with a flurry of crisscross arcs of the stick slashing her way through a horde of adversaries. She looked good, but she was lacking the footwork. I hadn't shown her that yet. I wanted her to learn the difference between a poor stance and a good one. She would learn footwork tomorrow.
"Not bad. You did practice."
"I didn't come here to watch you the entire time. I want to learn how you get to the Swordsman's Euphoria, and I'm not going to do that by standing around, am I?"
"No, you won't. Since you don't want to stand around staring at me, why were you doing just that?"
"When I came to the clearing I noticed that you were in the Swordsman's Euphoria, so I slipped into the aether to see what it looked like. Do you want to know?"
I hadn't thought that there would be anything different, but since she was asking me, I guess, something was different. "Yes."
"When I slipped into the aether I noticed a glow around you, like the one you said was around me, except yours isn't blue."
"What color is it?"
"It's gold, like a ray of the sun was enveloping you. I've seen a few different colors in the aether, but never gold. It's always purples, blues, and reds. When you would finish an attack, the glow would pulse, and reach out, and when you would block, it would retreat inward. It would draw closer to you and intensify in brightness."
"What does that mean?"
"I think it was helping you. I can't be sure about this, but I think it would pulse out, to aid you in your attack, and when you would block, it would draw in, to help strengthen your defense. I don't think I will know for sure, until I'm able to do it myself. If this is the case, that is one more thing the aether can do. The gold glow is even more of a mystery though."
"Wait, let me go into the Swordsman's Euphoria, and take a look at you when you go through the exercises."
Arial admitted begrudgingly that that was a good idea. I closed my eyes, relaxed and took deep breath, I could feel the Swordsman's Euphoria fall over me. I opened my eyes, and the light blue glow was surrounding Arial again. I nodded to her, and she began. As she snapped her sword to attention, I noticed the hue change slightly. The blue had lightened, but not much. She went through her thrusts, and as she said, her glow pulsed outwards, and when she blocked it shrunk in around her. It pulsed back out again when she began the slashes. When she stood still, the glow returned to it's original color. I pulled myself from the Swordsman's Euphoria, and told her what I had seen.
"So, it changed color, but it wasn't gold?"
"Yes, but maybe it's not gold yet, because you can't get to the aether that way yet."
"That could be what it is, but we won't know until I can get there. Is there any other exercise you can teach me today?"
"No, not today, but tomorrow I will have something new for you. I want you to practice those exercises before you go to sleep tonight. Do them 20 times just like you did now."
"I will, do you need any help carrying the trees up to the forge."
"No, I can get them up there just fine. How about you see if you can keep up with me though."
I grabbed the fallen trees and took off in a run. Arial managed to keep up with me. She was very much winded, but she kept up.
"This is what you do every morning?"
"Kind of."
"What do you mean, 'kind of'?"
"Well, I normally run all the way to the river and practice there, before I cut the trees down, then I run the trees directly to the forge and the village commons."
"Why didn't you take me to the river then."
"I didn't want to overwhelm you."
"Overwhelm me? I said I wanted to learn the same way you did."
"And you are. My father didn't take me to the river for months, and months. I have to get the furnace going in the forge. I'll see you tomorrow, now go off and spend childhood being a child." My fathers old words were now coming out of my mouth, and Arial didn't look to happy about it.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"It's just something my father would say to me, when I was done with my chores and practice. He thought it was important that I do kid things, instead of trying to learn how to fight all the time."
"Fair enough, I won't do it, but I understand it now. I'll see you as soon as you walk out that door tomorrow, Pitre."
"Maybe you'll see me when you walk out your door." I was going to rise before her tomorrow.
"Saying it, isn't the same as doing it." Arial said this as she walked off.
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