Chapter 15: Training days
Vaughn was awoken early the next morning by a young Yautja, who seemed like he had never seen a human before, then led him to Ka'jeal in the training room. It was more of a series of rooms actually, a weight room, a couple of sparring rooms. Even one that resembled a small arena. The training wasn't really anything spectacular. Vaughn was trained on the basics of Yautja weaponry, and general basics of combat. But at the end of every day Ka'jeal would ask Vaughn about the acceleration. And every day Vaughn would dodge the subject. Day after day Vaughn learned more about combat, and slowly he was becoming a warrior. At first he felt lost without the use of the acceleration, but as time went on he thought about it less as his abilities increased. Ka'jeal stopped asking as well. Vaughn trained with the Yautja for three long weeks, raising early in the morning, training for most of the day, then going to sleep equally early. Never was he permitted into the other sections of the ship, just the same long corridors every day. It was a laborious and boring existence at first, but slowly he began to enjoy his lessons, and he regarded Ka'jeal as his friend, his mentor.
In between training sessions they would rest in a small room full of tables and chairs, and Vaughn would tell Ka'jeal and the apprentices of human stories and legends. Ka'jeal returned the favor with Yautja stories as well sometimes. Vaughn couldn't understand the Yautja language, and the apprentices couldn't understand him. But Ka'jeal would translate between the two parties. Vaughn could feel what they were saying, he wasn't sure how, but he thought it might have something to do with why he could breathe their air. Eventually he began to understand them. Little by little he picked up on their language, and then he learned to speak it. It was a happy day the time he uttered his first Yautja words. They were stunned to say the least. A roar of laughter and cheers erupted from the small group as Vaughn replied "thank you" when one of the apprentices asked Ka'jeal to praise Vaughn for telling them the story of Hercules. As strange as it seems, Vaughn began to view these aliens as his friends. He seemed to forget his hatred for them, now focused into a single being, the crimson beast. Vaughn didn't know his real name, so he called it that. He had heard little about him, only what the apprentices could tell him. He knew from them that he was a minion of the greatest bad blood of all time, a Yautja that they only referred to as "crescent". Apparently Vaughn had cut short a celebration for the crimson beast, a slaughter that the bad bloods take part in to fulfill some kind of sick blood lust. Vaughn had begun to have doubts about his plan to leave after he won the games also. He wondered were he would go, his home was long gone before this whole thing had even started, and the planet were they had picked him up was deserted now. He had no place to go but here. The crimson beast influenced his thoughts too, because he desperately wanted revenge...