I raised the sword upright in front of me, to get a feel for it's weight.

"Whoa, careful", Valen said and walked over to me.

"Here", he said and took the weapon from my hand, then replaced it there in a slightly different position, gently squuezed my fingers back around the handle and turned my wrist a little, so that the blade was a bit diagonally in front of me, rather than pointing straight up. Then he took a few steps backwards and looked at me like an artist taking a look at what their latest change did to the general look of their work.

"That's how you wield a weapon like this in a basic defensive position. You wanna hold it in a way that lets you parry incoming attacks with as little time and movement required."

"Okay...but how is standing around like this going to help me fight the cold?", I asked through clattering teeth.

"Haha, it isn't. But you have to start somewhere. Now then, let's see what you can do", he said, took a few more steps back and drew his other sword. "Attack whenever you're ready."

"What?"

"I said attack."

There he was, idly standing around, his weapon pointing at the ground like he wasn't going to use it at all.

"Let me get this straight. You want me to hit you with a lethal weapon when you're not even defending yourself?"

"No, I want you to try and hit me. Or do you think you can actually hurt me on your first try?"

Not really sure of what I was doing, I made a simple, slow swing with the sword. He barely had to move to avoid it.

"You call that an attack?"

"Well, um..."

"You have to attack with determination. Stop thinking that you might hurt me. That won't happen, trust me."

"But...what am I supposed to be thinking then? About what I plan to do when I go home after the fight?"

"Heh, not really. I've been taught that there are two ways to arrange your mind when doing battle. One is to clear it out completely, focusing only on your physical actions. The idea is that you won't be as susceptible to fear or overconfidence when you just keep your mind clear. But...that way of doing it takes a lot of practice. It's one of those things even the masters continue to train themselves in."

"Alright...so I guess I won't really have time to learn that method on this trip, right? So...what's the other way?"

"The other way? Well...quite frankly, I can't really imagine you doing that. It's..."

"How would you already know what I can do?" I said and put my hands on my waist. "Try me."

"Well, in short, you might call it enraging. It means you tap into whatever grudges and hatred you hold against your opponent to fill your mind with fury, replacing any doubts and fears with a single-minded desire to defeat the enemy, to kill or be killed, as they say. It is said that only certain... more bestial species, orcs and trolls for example, have it in their blood to simply kick up a bloodlust from nothing but their own will, regardless of who they are fighting. For others, it takes...history... and emotions."

I noticed he put a surprisingly high amount of weight and seriousness to the last few words he said, considering the playful nature he had displayed so far, with the exception of our little reminiscing about our enemies back in Moonglade.

"Anyway", he started in his normal tone, as if he had awoken from a little bit of a trance. "We don't really need to go in-depth with that just to get you taking a few serious swings at me, do we?"

I took the ready pose he had shown me, this time without needing him to correct it.

"Okay. Now then, remember what I said about worrying for my safety?"

I guess, I thought to myself.

Then I made a much sharper swing at him, which he seemed to dodge just as easily as the first one.

"Again", he said as if nothing worth nothing had happened.

I made another attempt at it, a lunge this time. He swat my blade aside with his and returned it to the hanging position it started at in no more than one second.

"Keep going."

The same happened for about twenty more tries. With every attack I gained some confidence that I wouldn't hurt him, so I grew a little more aggressive after each try.

"Good!", he finally congratulated me for my latest attack and motioned for me to stop.

"Next, let's add some motion into this. A real enemy isn't going to be just standing around, either. I'll be moving around a little, so you have to use your legs and modify your moves to different directions. Ready?"

"Ready."

And so we began the continuous attacking again, with him taking steps back and sideways every other second. As I kept going, I hastened my motions with every attack, like before. But now there was something else to it, too. My heart rate went up and my muscles did begin to warm up from the exercise, but I also started to feel this strange new sensation, a fervor originating somewhere deep inside me, granting me greater speed and strength, than anything I had experienced before while in my elven form.

The training continued with renewed energy, and I watched how his expression slowly changed from the relaxed smile to a more occupied, and eventually an almost concerned look. It started to seem like he had to put a good bit of effort into parrying and evading my attacks.

Then, instead of simply defending himself, he made a very fast dashing attack towards me, which instantly knocked my weapon out of my hands. Before I knew what happened, he was standing right behind me, his left arm firmly wrapped around my midsection and the blade of his weapon hovering an inch or two away from my throat.

For a couple of seconds I stood absolutely still, listening to my beating heart and watching my chest move back and forth, in rhythm with the small clouds of vapor coming from my mouth with every breath.

Then he let go of me while saying: "Slow down, kitten."

"Where did that come from?", he continued while I went to pick up the weapon I had dropped, trying to ignore the fact hat he had called me 'kitten' again. Then I turned around to face him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're showing some real promise here. I don't think I've ever witnessed anyone doing that well on their first session."

"Thrill of the fight, I guess."

In my mind, I knew I was more or less lying. What I had experienced was not just an adrenaline rush. It had been almost as if the wildcat within had been somehow partially awoken, but not fully manifest to cause the metamorphosis. But I had no intention of trying to explain that to him. Not when I didn't even fully understand it myself.

The expression on his face was enough to tell me that he didn't take my response seriously, either.

"In any case, it looks like Thoraim has got us a nice fire started", he said while looking to the distance somewhere behind me.

I turned around to realize that our training fight had moved us a good hundred meters away from our previously chosen campsite where the dwarf was now cooking something on a fire.

I handed Valen's weapon back to him and watched as he started to head back towards the camp, but then, out of a sudden impulse, I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him for a moment. He aimed a questioning look at me.

"Thanks for warming me up."

A pleased smile visited his face as he turned away to head back for the camp, with me following in his wake. I was a little surprised about his subtle reaction.