Winterfall

The training area was dimly lit as per usual. Most lighting around here was dim unless it was in the main parts of the castle or shop owners and homeowners requested it.

The training area had a few extra props: a wrench, a giant hammer, a wooden chair, planks of wood, and a few choices of swords. This was different than regular training as we had just been using our bodies.

"Props today?" I asked as I struggled to pick up the enormous hammer. It was heavier than I had expected it to be.

Theo laughed at my struggle, "I thought we could bring a twist to our training session."

"Are there rules?" I asked as I moved to pick up one of the swords. The sword I picked up was a well-crafted metallic silver blade with an impressive hilt. I could tell it was crafted with fine leather.

"You know I have rules for pretty much everything."

He smiled at me as he moved close, unsheathed his draconic blade, and hummed softly—a tune that mimicked his heartbeat. He had the sword selected so that it showed a silver blade, matching his own draconic heritage.

My breathing quickened as I was frightened by that sword's power. Marked with what happened the other day, who knew what the sword or he could do.

"What are the rules?"

I just stared at his blade. As his blade always amazed me. It was a well-crafted longsword with a circular dial on the hilt. The dial allowed him to switch the additional damage type dealt by the blade. Each damage type was associated with every kind of metallic dragon. The hilt was crafted with fine black leather, mixed bits of each metallic dragon scale. I noted a change in one of the copper, brass, silver, bronze, and gold. The sword had a new scale—one of that of Platinum. The scale was hidden well, but when the light caught it just right, one could glimpse it.

"Gift from my mentor," Theo said as he followed my eyeline to the scale.

I reached for the blade and wrapped my hand around the hilt. I felt its power—immense and unique. The blade, with the platinum dragon's scale, felt complete.

I looked at Theo's eyes as he stared down at me, "I'm not afraid of you. I never was. I'm impressed by you."

He sighed in relief as I knew he was watching my thoughts. My emotions. My overall body language. I'll admit, I was nervous at first but I hadn't felt that much power before. And I know that he would never hurt me. He would only protect me.

"Rules?" He questioned as I nodded, still holding onto his sword's hilt. "We will use weapons, improvised or actual weapons—nothing above the chest. I do not want to risk one of us accidentally stabbing the other in the heart. Try to keep it nonlethal. Don't stab into each other. Just touch each other with the tips of the swords. The first person to draw blood loses."

His rules were always simple and in place to keep us both as safe as possible. I removed my hand from his hilt and firmly grasped the weapon I had in hand. He looked at me with a smile and said, "What?"

"The way you hold a sword. Perhaps I should have trained you with weapons from the beginning." I glared at him; what was wrong with how I was holding a sword? "Just how you have your hands placed." He placed his back on his belt and helped with my hand placements. "There."

He drew his weapon and took his stance. He motioned for me to come at him, which I did. I lunged my sword at his leg and missed as he gracefully sidestepped me. He took his sword and gracefully poked my back gently with the sword.

"Watch your exposure spots when coming back up from a lunge."

I sighed and darted towards him again, locking the sword I was using with him. The swords clashed for a minute before he could knock the weapon out of my hand.

"Good, but try to keep a hold of your weapon."

I rolled my eyes as I moved to try to get my weapon. To my surprise, he lunged at me and attacked with his sword. I dodged the attack to my left and right sides as he was getting more aggressive with each sword attack.

Strike to the left. Strike to the right. Strike to my abdomen. All I dodged. Strike to my waist. Dodged. His strikes were on point. Thankfully, I was just as skilled at dodging as I had yet to grab my weapon. His advances pushed me further away from the sword. I glanced around the arena and found a dagger five feet to my right.

"A dagger to a sword fight," Theo spoke as he saw where my eyes darted to.

I was quick to move, and he was just as quick. Our bodies collided, and they collided hard, causing both of us to fall to the ground with a loud thud. I was on top of him, and the dagger was just within my arms' reach. But he was quick to hold my hands back.

"Theo I…"

I struggled in his grasp as his muscled frame seemed to have grown since the incident. I felt him loosen up his grasp a bit as he could sense that his grasp on my wrists was a bit much.

"Sorry. I should have known my overall abilities would have improved along with what was given to me."

He helped me up to my feet. "What was given to you?"

I could sense that he was thinking for a moment. Unaware of how to answer the question. He flicked his wrist, and I watched as the sword I had been using flung into his hand. “Telekinesis for one.” He then flicked his wrist and hoovered the dagger close to me. "I'm still trying to get used to this. Wizards use telekinesis more, but I'm not a wizard."

I took the dagger and motioned for the sword, which he handed to me. "I'm sure we could find some fun uses for that." I teased.

He grinned at me, "I'm sure we could. It's just a matter of getting the hang of it before we utilize it for that."

I felt my body begin to lift as he moved me close to him. I was able to look him directly in the eyes without looking up. He pulled me closer to him and kissed my lips.

Just as soon as we kissed, he lowered me back to the floor of the training area. "That wasn't that bad," I said.

"Surprisingly, it went well. But before we utilize it for other sources of fun, I would like to test it more first."

"Fair enough."

"Should we get back to training?"

I nodded. We trained with the swords and improvised weapons for thirty more minutes. I allowed him to use his telekinesis ability during training. He still managed to land several hits on me as he used this new ability to move his sword around the arena. I was able to hit him a few times, too, and we were both impressed with that.

"Breakfast?" I questioned as we picked up the weapons and items that were laid about.

"Definitely."

Once the last item was placed back in the storage area of the training area, we headed back to the castle separately, as we did not want to draw attention to ourselves.