“Here,” Christof sighed, handing me a long shaft of wood with a handle, “you are untrained, essentially.


    It is not proper for you to hold a sharpened weapon in this arena.”


    I cocked my head at him and Damien just shrugged.


    “This ce,” he gestured, “has certain rules. We feel inclined to follow them when we are here. It was


    easier to just train you with your own sword, but here that is not how it is done.”


    “We had to earn the right to sharpen our des,” Kein said wistfully. The men all chuckled at the


    memories. Training had been hard work. They reminisced about bonding and learning together. It had


    been something they enjoyed.


    ninjanovel


    “You will respect the de more when you have earned the right to use it,” Evan informed me as he


    gestured to the center of the field.


    The “training” we had done in the past was markedly different from what we did now. The men had


    found giving me a de fun and treated it Like a game before. In this ce, sword work was taken


    seriously and there were rules we had to follow.


    The first night I learned how to hold a sword and how to stand with one. There were standardized


    positions the men moved me through. The slow motion exercises were excruciating.


    Text ? 2024 N?velDrama.Org.


    Over and over again we moved through the prearranged pattern. Bane told me the movements would


    eventually be rote. My muscles would move me through them in fluid synchrony.


    “When you have Learned them well, we will go faster,“ Bane promised as we did a slow step-turn


    combination. “They will be so ingrained you will not falter when you must strike.”


    It felt like I was doing the Tai-chi movements I’d seen my grandmother do at the gym. I did understand


    the motions grandmother did were for fitness only, but I was learning to fight. Still the memory of my


    grandmother made me smile as I worked.


    Boys from inside the Child Keepers wandered out to watch us. They sat in front of us in the stands and


    I dropped my eyes to avoid looking at them. Damien noticed the second I did it and expressed his


    displeasure. He got right in my face to exin.


    “You are family,” he said sternly. “We do not stare at the ground in the presence of others. You can’t


    fight staring at the ground and you will not train doing that. Keep your eyes where Bane instructs them


    to be.”


    I shook my head and pleaded with him. “The boys will not understand. They will be confused. They are


    just children.”


    Damien didn’t care. My argument fell on deaf ears. I would act honorably.


    Several groups of boys sat in the stands watching us as the sun fell in the sky. At first they seemed


    confused. As they watched my little disy, I heard them snicker and Laugh. I had to agree, this


    probably looked silly to them.


    One group finally got bold enough toe down into the arena with us. I heard their friends cing


    bets on how long they’d Last. The boys all thought Damien was going to beat this young family down


    for watching and now approaching his ve.


    The five youngsters drew closer to us and I judged them to be in their older teen years. It still wasn’t


    clear to me how the beings on this aged, but that’s how they appeared to me.


    The young men walked with confidence, so I assumed they must be a more powerful family. Bane had


    me upied so I wasn’t able to pay too much attention to them. I did notice how familiar one of them


    seemed, though.


    “Damien,” the lead boy said seriously, “it is an honor to have Warriors on our training grounds. We wish


    you a good day.”


    The little family stood and stared at Bane and I as we trained.


    “It is no Longer day, Tyle,” Damien told the boy while motioning to the darkening sky.


    The kid took Damien in stride and thanked him for the rebuke. They stood silently watching as Bane


    moved me through the poses.