Chapter 2 – A session of relations
As Hollow and Rage followed gubiak down lit, bustling corridors Rage asked, "You didn't mean any of that stuff, did you?"
"What? No, of course not, I was just messing with you." Rage, reassured with himself, smiled.
After a time that seemed everlasting, they finally reached their destination. Gubiak brought them up to a set of matching , gilded doors set 2 meters apart. "Choose your rooms between yourself," he said, unknowing what he could have caused between the two, and left. They both opened the doors simultaneously. The rooms were a perfect match. The room on their left was painted a dark blue with a bed with multi-coloured fish appliquéd onto the duvet. In the wall was meter wide fish tank with a live coral reef on the back wall with eels, clown and parrot fish darting in, out and around the variety of plant and rock life.
The room on their right was painted crimson red and the bed was embroidered with pictures of burning landscapes and volcanoes. A giant lava lamp, glowing an array of greens, reds and yellows, was set in the middle of the room.
Our two adventurers fist bumped and sauntered into their respective rooms with mock cockiness.
"This is great. If we weren't facing almost certain annihilation, I'd live in here forever." Hollow exclaimed with sudden joy that shocked Rage.
"One problem though,"
"Aye?
"No computer." Rage reminded Hollow trying to reinstall the seriousness that he'd become so fond of.
"Don't be so glum. There's plenty enough for you two to do in the meantime." A sudden voice chided joyfully. Rage and Hollow both jumped in unison and turned around to face the source of the voice. A young, happy woman was leaning on the opposite wall of the corridor. She had unusually pointed ears, blonde hair with flecks of red in all the right places and the most familiarly beautiful face Hollow had ever seen.
"H- He- Hey," He said dumbly. It was the first time he'd stuttered in his life. And that was a very long time for him. "W- Wh- What's your name?" He asked, unable to avert his gaze from the distracting green orbs set in her angular face.
she liked hollow, right away. Not too bad to look at either, she thought to herself, casually. She replied with,"the name's Pocket. Come now, surely you've seen an elf before."
"Actually, yes. I have." Hollow replied in a strangely quiet voice for his bold character. This statement surprising, even scaring Pocket, more than before. There'd never been someone with more an interest in her since. Since Arun'dzeil.
"Hello? I'm here too. Hollow, we have work to do. Snap out of it." Rage snapped, worried.
"Right we do. Come one. We need to check your abilities in combat. We understand that they haven't been tested in a very long time." Pocket said, "And also, you Rage. We need to check your memory with the arts hasn't failed you." She left them, expecting them to follow, with inhuman grace and agility.
Rage, biting his nails anxiously, tried to recite as many spells as he could in preparation for the event to come as he remembered how elves were known as the finest fighters, both in mortal form and in magic, was the first to follow along followed close behind by a jaw-dropped Hollow.
"Close your mouth, you damned fool," Rage whispered so just Hollow could hear. This is going to be a long evening, Rage thought to himself.
Hollow couldn't help but stare at the perfectly defined muscles of Pocket's back and notice that she always stood straight as an arrow. Rage rolled his eyes, irritated and gave Hollow a swift jab in the ribs. Not enough for him to keel over but enough to remind him that staring was, surprisingly enough, considered rude in most cultures. Pocket turned a sudden corner that caused Hollow to nearly fall. She opened a door into a giant meadow full of obstacle courses, shooting targets set at different ranges, formation drills and tents all bustling with busy pages and couriers racing around sending letters and messages to different parts of the training field.
"Firstly, we need to test your skills with a bow, hollow. You need not be an expert marksman but it is a useful skill to have at the side-lines, if needs arise." Pocket interrupted the quiet of the three, whilst ignoring the continual stare of Hollow. "Rage, while Hollow finishes his targets, will be tested by me his skills at melee for when his strength can no longer support the weight of magical combat. Then I will test both your teamwork skills by pitting you both against me at a time. And then Hollow it will be your turn to train with the sword."
Hollow lined himself up with the first target and raised the bow to eye-level. The first was set 10 meters away. He checked the wind by method of the "moist seagull" which involved sucking on a rock to get the saliva flowing, sticking your finger in your mouth and then in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. He sucked in a breath, pulled back the string and fired… direct hit. He moved onto the next target which was set 15 meters away only to be interrupted by a girlish scream. Expecting to turn and see Rage bent over an injured Pocket he ran over to the area, reaching for his Estus Flask and arrived only to find Rage sitting on the floor, clutching his leg. He paused for a moment, confused, and suddenly burst into histerics.
"It's not funny, man." Rage protested.
Hollow, still laughing uncontrollably tossed the flask to Rage. He only just caught it which caused Pocket to join in with the laughter. Rage took one short draft while muttering something about Pocket cheating. Pocket, the first to recover, said, with tears still in her eyes, "We'll have to start again tomorrow on account of Rage's injury", this caused only more laughter from Hollow. Rage then proceeded to blush profusely, push hollow to the floor and start limping back to the complex. This did nothing to help Hollow's predicament.
