Zenora
68. Hunter Training

I was able to create forcefields of the right size now, and managed to create three at the same time. As I had figured out, that if I put enough energy into the first one, the other forcefields would share the initial amount of energy. But, I still had to maintain the image of the fields in my mind as well, so for now three is the limit to create. Albeit they still exploded, when I couldn’t keep my mind clear enough. So, I kept practicing that, all night and the morning after, everywhere I went.

The vases that stood on the dresser in my room, the bars of soap in the bathroom, the pieces of food at the dinner table, and so on. They all became victim of my experiments. The servants, that had to clean up the mess I made, when I let something explode again, laughed actually, instead of being annoyed. Each time that it occurred, I apologized deeply, and helped them clean up. I think, that they even kept one of the servants close to me the entire morning, to be at the ready, in case I exploded more things. The other times I got cheered on by them, and even my dad helped me to stay focused, by saying some soothing words.

Brock got mad at me once though, as I tried to create fields on several buckets of cold water. Of course, they had to explode when he came into the room, and he got soaked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training with Arch now?” He said to me angrily, when he walked to the closet to get some dry clothes. I chuckled and tried to hold my breath, but eventually a loud laugh burst out.

Brock rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. I gave him a quick kiss, and went to the training fields with my bow.

Archeops was already there, talking to Axel and two other, young people. The moment they saw me, the two young people, bowed to me.

“Good morning Princess!” They both yelled, and Archeops and Axel smiled at me. The men knew I hate people bowing to me, as I have said that countless times, when they themselves did that too.

“Get up please, I hate it when people bow.” I said to the youngsters, smiling.

“Archeops, inform your army please, that they shouldn’t do that to me.” I said to him, but he replied to me that he already had done that, but as these two weren’t in his army, they didn’t know that rule yet. Oh! Now I know who these persons were.

“Melina and Jock, I suppose?” I asked them, and they nodded their heads simultaneously.

Axel told me that they arrived an hour ago, and were going to settle in, in the army’s quarters soon. I welcomed them, and told them to ask for supplies from Archeops, if they needed anything.

I had given Axel some books, after I explained my job-proposal to them, a few nights ago, and asked them to share the books with Melina and Jock.

“About that Princess, they can’t read.” Axel said, while scratching the back of his head.

“Excuse me? You can read, so why can’t they?” I asked him and pointed at Melina and Jock.

“I had the privilege to come from a good house, Princess, but they weren’t so fortunate to be taught reading.” Axel said softly, shamed about his own heritage, and from the fact that it’s not in the basics of learning. I was somewhat afraid, that this was going on in my father’s Kingdom already. That only wealthy people get the chance of reading. I pinched my nose, thinking about all the things that had to be changed, in my opinion. But for now, I had to settle this for these two, as I can’t change the whole Kingdom in one day.

“Just a moment.” I said to them and they all frowned to me.

“Natalya?”

“Yes, big sis?” She said with a smile, as I could hear the joy in it.

I had asked her, if she could teach Melina and Jock how to read. I knew she was busy, but I was kind of hoping that she could still teach them. I know that she is from a poor heritage, but she had told me, that Tom had started to teach her how to read, when I had appointed her to be the supervisor.

Natalya told me, that Tom’s father had returned, and had taken over the financial tasks again. So, Tom had some spare time right now.

“Good, tell him, that two young hunters will visit him today. I want them to be able to read, when I get back.”

“Certainly, will do so.”

I told Melina and Jock, that when they were settled, to go inside the castle, and ask for Financial Counsellor Tom. That he will teach them how to read.

They looked with open mouths, and big eyes to me.

“You had slight, red glimpse in your eyes, just now Princess. I guess that your mages abilities are getting stronger?” Archeops asked me.

“Yes, apparently. You don’t know, what I can do as a warrior as well.” I said to him.

“Oh, but I do. Those freaking warriors, won’t shut up about it.” He smiled widely when he said that.

I saw the young hunters watch me, asking me silently to tell about what I just said. But before I got all these questions fired towards me, I interrupted them, and told Axel to get them settled in. This was not the time to elaborate on my abilities. I had to get training, as I hadn’t been shooting any arrow lately.

Archeops and I did fifty push-ups, and sparred in melee combat, for about fifteen minutes, to get our arm muscles warmed up. This wasn’t a test of showing how much power I had, or how fast I could hit him. So, I didn’t show him any of the agility, that I have as a warrior.

We trained with long sticks, acting as if they were spears. As a hunter your main weapon would be the bow, but if your target got too close, then you’d have to be able to take down enemies as well. Most hunters, have enough close-combat skills where they use their bows as melee weapon, but some hunters also have a spear with them. Archeops gave me some pointers in using a spear, as I haven’t been training with them much. Dennis had given me training with spears, but not to the extend, for me to use them with much ease. This is because Dennis is a warrior, not a hunter. So, he couldn’t teach me every weapon available.

“See, Archeops, you can still teach me things. And just like I said at dinner the other night, I’d like to keep sparring with you regularly.” He smiled to me, happy that he could still teach me something.

After that, we started to shoot arrows into targets. At first we shot at some targets close by, but we both aced them easily. So, we took some steps backwards, and shot at the target again. This kept on going, and at a certain moment, we had to inform other people to not walk through our line of sight. As now we stood pretty far away from our targets. Archeops had a hard time to focus, each step we took further away. I guess his age would be against him now. His eyes squinted, each time he released an arrow. But still he got to shoot in the centre of the target, so chapeau for that.

I didn’t have any trouble though, my eyesight appeared to be flawless. If it were up to my eyes, I could walk twice as far as Archeops, and still hit the target spot on. But I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of the other hunters on the field. So, we went on to the next part.

Moving targets. Yes, I like this part. Archeops had arranged, for a part of the forest, to be used by hunters for their training. There was a path, about a fifty yards long, which you had to follow. Then, from several trees and bushes, targets would appear or swung by, to be hit by arrows.

It was fun, for a while, but after walking on the path for a few times, I knew where the targets were popping up, so it wasn’t a surprise anymore.

“Why don’t you train with some mages?” I asked Archeops and he asked me why we should.

“Well, some of them have telekinetic powers, right? So, why don’t you let them launch targets into the air, for hunters to shoot? The hunters won’t know, where the targets would come from, so it’s a better training for them. Don’t you ever spar in between powered people? You have to know the others’ weaknesses as well right?”

“Well, no actually. We do inform them of the other abilities but we don’t cross-train them. It is a good idea actually.” Archeops said, and I could see that the cogs in his mind were starting to turn. He was thinking about a good idea, but I could tell that he was reluctant to tell me about it. He was wondering what I would think of it. So, I helped him with it.

“Archeops, why don’t we quit our training for now, as I’m done for today. Then, you have enough time for that idea of yours.” I said to him and his eyes started to twinkle.

“Do you really think we should do that?” He asked me doubtfully.

“Yes, we still have two days, before we are going towards the mountains. So, tomorrow would be a good day for a small competition. It would be good for the men to have some fun, and after that, we still have one day to rest, before we leave. I’ll inform Brock, Cirilya and my father, you go ask Dennis and Anna for help.”

“Yes, you are right! Let’s have some fun!” He said smiling.

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