Rated T for Violence: Read at your own discretion

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Chapter 6

Leona winced and rubbed her arm when she looked at Pantheon. He looked beaten up, worse than her, she would argue. But she knew he would probably deny it.

She panted and grimaced but she put up her fists despite the stinging pain in her side. Pantheon was trying to teach her how to push pain away, so he said. It wasn't working as great as he was hoping.

"You're not focusing anymore." he said. "You're letting it get to you."

Leona hissed, "Because that really hurt!"

"Try to ignore it."

There was a scowl from her as she rubbed her arm, a nasty bruise already forming. It could join its family when it formed. Leona took in a deep breath and gritted her teeth. It was so hard to ignore when it was everything she could focus on. But she needed to learn, it would help her in her next fight.

"Were it so easy." She mumbled. Pantheon ignored her and motioned for her to prepare for the next spar.

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Astraia

Astraia was leaned against the walls of the cave and was about the close her eyes when she saw Kharon walking casually towards her. He stopped a few times to greet some of the other trainers and to encourage the trainees, but eventually he was sitting next to her.

"Napping on the trainee, are you?"

"I could really say the same about you." She eyed him and the crossed her arms. "I can't believe you agreed to Pantheon training with Leona." Astria was hardly pleased when she caught them one afternoon when they usually took their break. Leona would often slip away, it was rather suspicious. But there was no denying her improvement so she, very reluctantly, let them be.

Kharon shrugged a little too casually for her liking. "It's not so bad to teach them team work. They're going to have to learn one day anyways. We might as well start early."

"If they don't die first," Astraia said with an arched brow. Kharon was always optimistic about everything and she had to admit it got on her nerves sometimes.

Her friend laughed, "Come on, Leona? Pantheon? They're not going to lose. If we train them right, they're not going to lose."

Astraia rolled her eyes and then looked around the cave where some of the trainers were already begun sparing with their trainees. After lunch too. It wasn't hard to predict that something was going to go wrong; the smell of vomit was going to be inevitable. She scrunched up her nose.

"You could well say that about any one of those kids."

Kharon patted her shoulder. "There's something about Leona and Pantheon, they have a lot of potential." That, she couldn't argue with. "Besides, Pantheon is getting faster. He used to be so… sluggish. It's good to see Leona keeping on his toes."

She frowned. That was really something she would rather not hear. It was good that Leona was learning a few things from Pantheon. It was the only reason why she had turned a blind eye to these extra 'training' sessions.

There was nothing to like about it. It spelled trouble like the vomit that was about to happen in the cave. It was going to be inevitable. What if they get pitted against each other in the weekly fights? Or worse, in the Rite Arena, what then? Leona wasn't here to make friends, she was here to train.

This was all for her good.

"So how is training?" Kharon asked and all Astraia did was make her face fall into her hands as she audibly let her frustration known to the cave around her.

It had been a tough three weeks for her and especially for Leona as well. Losing three battles back to back to back was hard and it affected Leona a lot. She couldn't let this go on, she had to end the losing streak and she had to end it fast.

"Difficult?" Kharon supplied the word but all she did was groan again. Her friend laughed and she moved her hands from her face to her temples, massaging them gently.

There was nothing more she wanted than to see Leona win and break out of this streak. "We're going to win the next one. She's going to come back." Astraia said, though her words felt like they were more convincing to herself than anyone else. She believed in Leona but it was hard not to worry about her and who Jagen had chosen for her to fight next.

"How's the stiff?" She stood, opting to fetch some water to drink. She needed to get up, walk around and forget about the damn fight which was taking place day after tomorrow.

Kharon nodded approvingly. "He's doing alright. He's lost a few as well but he's always come back swinging harder. Don't worry, Leona will win the next one."

She wished she was as sure as he was.

"But boy can he punch. He gave me this the other day." She looked over at him as he lifted his arm to point to a certain purple bruise with pride. "It was a good hit."

Astraia stopped, arched her eyebrows and then turned her leg to show him a large scrape on her calf. "Leona." She pointed.

"Oh, well look at this one." Kharon lifted his opposite arm and pushed down the shirt and showed her another bruise, this one larger than the first one he showed her. "From a throw you taught Leona."

Astraia quickly pulled down the collar of her shirt to show off another injury. "From a punch that you taught the stiff."

"Well if you-"

"Are you serious?"

The two straightened up considerably when they heard Dido. The woman had an arched brow and her arms were crossed. She still looked amused, however. Astraia knew the Matron long enough to decipher her tells, though she would argue that she had none.

"Matron," they both greeted with a small bow. Dido returned the gesture and turned to Astraia.

"How's training? And I don't mean for Leona. I mean you."

Astraia shrugged at her previous instructor. "Skills are still sharp. I haven't gone on a hunting party in a while, but I've still be sparing and practicing."

Kharon snorted and laughed, "On other trainers, mind you. She's rather protective of Leona."

Dido smiled and Astraia looked on proudly. There was nothing to be ashamed of. If anybody was to punish Leona it should be her, and no one else. If other trainers disciplined Leona then she wouldn't be needed. And besides when she trained with Dido, she was just as protective if not more.

"So why are you up here?" Kharon asked and then quickly added, "With all due respect. Aren't you supposed to be down the mountain taking care of the injured?"

It was strange to see Dido up here, in the cave. Since she had gotten a little older she tried not to come up as often. She never liked having people assist her up the mountain, but that was Astraia's theory.

Dido waved the question away and huffed, "it's boring down there. No one's gotten too seriously hurt. The only one down there is the boy with a broken arm and he's sleeping so I have more than a little free time to burn," she told them.

Astraia stifled a laugh. Ever since Dido had started training to become an herbalist and a healer, she did her best to make her patients sleep – though the last thing any Rakkor patient wanted to do was sleep Training always came first and that always resulted in ripped stitches, re-broken bones and all around more work for the Matron. So Dido always put a little something in their drinks to make them sleep.

Dido shot her a look that made Astraia shut up pretty quickly. "Have you seen Solari warriors around? They came over to my healer's cabin to see if I came across any patients that had visions. I told Jagen about it but he said they knew nothing of why they kept coming down the mountain."

She paused and then added with a furrowed brow, "They're so damn annoying."

The Solari coming down was not uncommon, what was uncommon was the frequency of these visits. They usually came down a few times during the year but Astraia had at least seen them, no less than, at least five times this past month.

"What are they doing?" Astraia asked, scanning the cave to see if there was a Solari warrior walking in the cave. But there was nothing. Leona had seen one a few years ago, it distracted her and Astraia had punched her in the face, both by accident and on purpose.

She had taught Leona not to get too distracted, it was a perfect lesson. Though, she hadn't meant to totally knock her out.

"Looking for somebody, I think." Dido answered. "But they don't know who but they say that the Sun is calling to somebody down the mountain."

Kharon wiggled his fingers out in front of him. "Spooky." Dido quickly slapped his fingers down.

"It's suspicious I'll give you that much. Anyway, I don't believe in that kind of stuff but on the off chance that they might be, looking for somebody that is. Have you heard of any talks of trainers of trainees having bad dreams? Hearing voice?" she asked rather wearily.

The two trainers exchanged glances. "No, no one. Not even the trainees have said anything. To my knowledge everything is normal," Astraia said.

Dido thought carefully and then waved them off. "Alright, well off you-"

"How dare you?" The voice echoed loudly around the cave and it made people pause their work to look. Astraia looked over and it only took a glimpse for her to recognize Leona's red hair. A man stood over her, his fist backed up, ready to punch.

Astraia's brows knitted together and ran over as fast as she could. She could see Pantheon slightly panicking at the side, his feet anchored to the ground.

"Hey!" she shouted but the trainer didn't stop and she wasn't fast enough. His fist came down, hard, onto Leona's face. The small girl grunted, skidded a few paces before she fell onto the ground, immobile.

"Hey!" Her voice reverberated through the cave. The trainer strode over and raised his leg this time, and this time Astraia was there. She shoved the man away and as he staggered back she caught his arm, pulling him forward. The man stumbled and Astraia took the chance to reel her fist back and snap it forward into the man's face.

He grunted but recovered quickly. "What the hell, Astraia?" he snapped.

"She is my responsibility, I will punish her as I see fit." Astraia hissed. "You don't get that privilege. If you lay a hand on her again, I'll break your face."

"Then you get her under control, or somebody else will." He snarled, wiping some blood from his face before shoving his own trainee away from the fight. Astraia watched his retreating back for a moment and then picked up Leona from the ground.

Pantheon rushed over, trying to get a clear look at Leona but Astraia only narrowed down her eyes at him.

"Is she alright?" he asked, a little panicked. When she didn't answer the boy trailed close behind her, concern clear on his face.

"Astraia?" Pantheon looked intently at her.

"She'll be fine." Astraia answered shortly as they approached their usual training spot. Dido would have seen what had happened. And as if on cue, the Matron appeared in her peripherals and motioned to place her onto the ground. Kharon quickly joined them pulling Pantheon aside, but at the same time hovering over Leona as Astraia placed her onto the ground.

"What happened?" Kharon asked. She had no idea what had happened she had just turned and saw that trainer punching her. Leona was not one to start fights she was more likely to…

"She saw a boy getting his ass handed to him and she ran over to stop it, I tried to stop her but she didn't listen." Pantheon grunted, and looked at Astraia his brow furrowed slightly. "I didn't think he would hit her."

"No. Of course you didn't." Her tone was acidic as she shot him a glare. Pantheon gripped his fists tightly together, looking back at Dido treating Leona.

"C'mon Astra. That's unfair. You can't blame him for something he didn't expect." Kharon interjected, defensively.

Astraia's jaw tightened. She never quite liked the idea of Leona training with Pantheon to begin with because she was scared Leona would do something like this. She had been dancing around the action of defending some useless helpless boy or girl and the only person that had been there to stop it was her.

After a short silence she finally managed, "Don't swear." she said and pointed at the boy and narrowed her eyes at Kharon, "Doubly so for you. I don't want Leona picking up your piss poor habits from the stiff."

"My name is Pantheon," the stiff growled.

Kharon's ready smile was back on his face as he pointed to himself and barked a laugh. "My habits are 'piss poor'? If anybody's habits are 'piss poor' it's yours."

She snarled her response and let Kharon chuckle. Her eyes turned back to Leona who was still laying there. Her fingers went to her forehead directly, rubbing her temples in soft circles.

"So, what are you going to do about Leona?" Kharon asked her.

Astraia took in a deep breath. She didn't like this part of being a trainer. She didn't like watching beating and she, sure as hell, hated to be the being beaten. But she, herself, wouldn't have learned a damn thing if Dido hadn't beaten half of them into her.

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Astraia glowered and took in another heavy breath. She paced a few times and her eyes flickered from Dido to the young girl. She was familiar with the times Leona wanted to stop fights or she when felt too much sympathy for the other trainees.

It all boiled down to the point that Leona was too kind. The Rakkor hadn't survived this long because of kindness. Their tribe was carved from Mount Targon. They were shaped from the bitter cold, the lack of resources. They had no time for the weak. They couldn't support liabilities and it was time for Leona to learn this lesson. She had to learn that if she kept this up she could very well destroy her peers and her village.

Dido stood, bringing Astraia out of her thoughts. "How is she?" Astraia looked at Leona.

"She's tough, nothing serious. Maybe some swelling but that will go away if we ice it."

Leona groaned and slowly opened her eyes. Astraia looked at Kharon and motioned for him to leave. Her friend eyed her and then nodded, motioning Pantheon to follow. Pantheon didn't move, for a moment he stood, just staring at Leona.

"Are you going to beat her?"

"What do you think?" she asked bitterly and then turned to Leona. "Get up," she ordered and she the trainee moved too slow Astraia hauled her up by the forearm.

"That hurts!" Leona groaned again and pressed her hands onto her face. Astaia looked at Matron whose eyes were steeled. Leona would need to be seen by Dido after so it was convenient that she was here.

"Let's go." She gripped onto Leona's arm and practically dragged her to the post. Matron Dido followed closely behind.

"My face feels like it's going to split. Where are we going?"

"It's time you learnt a lesson, Leona."

"What lesson is that?"

Astraia stopped abruptly and looked at her coldly, frustration bubbling in her stomach. "You are not to intervene in a fight no matter what. Do you understand?"

"But he was going to die!" she protested. "I can't-"

"Why does that matter so much to you?" Astraia practically shouted. Leona winced. "In a few years he could be dead and the only thing you would have done for him is secure his death. You need to focus on your own training."

"I thought he was going to-"

"I know what you thought, trainee. If I ever see you helping another trainee again, so help me, I will make sure you don't feel your ass for a week." she hissed and then continued to pull Leona to the post. When they arrived, Astraia could feel her slightly squirming. Leona had been beaten a few times, by Dido, by Jagen and even by her. She knew the drill.

Astraia tightly tied Leona to the post. "Five lashes."

Since Leona had started training with her, the small girl always took pity on those who was smaller than her. For those who were weaker than her, but it was going to cost the tribe good warriors. And with their lack of resources, this was something they could not risk.

She slowly paced around the post. "Do you know why you're being beaten, Leona?"

"I helped the boy." Leona answered slowly.

"Helped him do what?" Astraia pressed, holding the lashing stick in her hand. She tapped it against her hand. She still remembered when Dido used to beat her for not doing well in the fights. If Dido saw how she was training Leona, she would say that she was being too easy on her.

"Helped him fight his battle."

"And why is that bad?"

"Because he is never going to learn how to defend himself." Leona answered after a small pause. Astraia nodded and then raised her hand for the first strike.


Author's Note

I thought it would be interesting to write in a new point of view :) I thought you enjoyed reading! Sorry for such a late update, Exams and papers are killer! Anyways, Happy Winter Holidays! I hope it is restful and amazing!

With love and Happy Holidays!

xxxSC