Chapter 6
Another week later after Anna's birthday, Anna's tutors were now teaching her Latin, basic mathematics, and strangely, at Anna's request, Old Norse and history. Pyra helped with teaching her French and Latin, but didn't help in mathematics, and only helped slightly when it came to her Old Norse lessons with the chaplain, if she got off training early enough. However, in the meantime, apart from teaching Anna manners, etiquette, singing and dancing, Pyra sometimes took Elsa and Anna out to teach them some horse riding skills on her own horse, a beautiful chestnut brown and white draft mare called Elena, who was very gentle to the two girls. Elsa was a bit uptight in the first few lessons, but Anna was a natural rider, and didn't even need a saddle or bridle to ride Elena flawlessly.
Also, Pyra started teaching Anna grappling and fist fighting techniques, but started off with teaching her break falls and defensive manoeuvres. Eventually, she'll teach her attacking moves, but not quite yet, as Anna needed to master the basics in defence and breaking her fall first. Fortunately, Anna was a quick learner, and was starting to really get her basics down.
However, right now, Anna was sitting cross-legged before her in the garden near the pond, listening to Pyra's lecture of how to control her new powers.
"Anna," she began, "you are now ready to learn to control your bloodline's powers. There are two things you must achieve in order to gain full control of both of your powers: love, and discipline. Now, you are already a very loving person, but love can blind someone's action to the point where it clouds your judgement, and let your powers get out of hand. Fire is a dangerous element, like the shadows, as it easily can go out of control and burn anything that stands in its way, just like a soldier guided by passion without proper discipline."
"Now," she stated, "to gain discipline, you must strengthen three things: your body, your mind, and your heart. To do so, you must do this: you must push each of them to their limits, never giving up, and never letting frustrated or negative emotions get to yourself personally. For example, say that to are to run a long distance every day, without stopping, and without slowing down. Then, you push your limits the next day by going faster, and going at a longer distance. You do this without complaining, without letting frustration take over you, and instead, see it as a way to make yourself better, and stronger. Do you get me so far?"
Anna nodded and replied "I guess so, what about the mind and the heart?"
Pyra then explained "You must become strong in the mind by gaining intelligence, creativity, logicality, and wisdom through experience. Doing difficult puzzles without giving up, doing academic problems until you finally know how the problem works and how to solve it, that's how you strengthen the mind. The heart is tricky, but you turn your emotions into your drive. An example: if a man is hurt or killed in battle, don't panic and let your emotions freeze you in place, turn that emotion into a burning will, fighting for your comrade's honour, so that the man wasn't hurt or killed in vain. That is what you do."
"So, each day for one week, you are going to do an activity that'll push you to the limits. Tomorrow on Monday, you are going to run five laps around the outside on the castle without stopping, then, the next day, you'll do six laps, then the next day, you'll do seven laps etcetera, etcetera, until you finish on Sunday by doing twelve laps around the castle. And remember, strive harder, run harder and faster, and run that extra distance."
"Then, the next week, you'll do three different types of puzzles: a sudoku puzzle, a crossword puzzle, and a tetravex puzzle. You are to do all of these puzzles, without help, in a row, and they must be done right, or you'll have to do all three puzzles all over again, so not a single mistake on any of them. They'll get harder each day, and your last session will also be on Sunday."
"And finally, the next day on Monday, you're going to wrestle me everyday, until you literally collapse in exhaustion. Each day that goes by will get harder, and you will fight me longer. I won't let you win, so you will feel frustrated, but you are not allowed to show it, and you need to turn it into your drive. Then, we'll repeat these three weeks until your get the point and do it for yourself. You get it?"
Anna nodded and Pyra smiled, stating "Good. Also, you will still have lessons in between each task, no matter how drained you are. I'm sorry, but this is knighthood."
Anna frowned in determination and declared loudly "I will not fail! You'll see, Pyra!"
Pyra smirked and replied "Good! I'd better. Now come on, you have Latin to go to now."
They went off to Latin without another word, and Pyra, for all of her great observational skills, did not notice the fire in the young princess' eyes.
They were determined.
They were strong.
They were the look of a Kageran knight.
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Anna was into her first week of physical training when she really became determined to control her powers, so from now on after dinner, when she was sent to bed, she would stay up for an hour or two and wield her powers, letting shadows grow, shrink, stay still, and shape into different shapes. She would also pull out a small ball out of the shadows, and manipulate the shadow ball by turning it into different three-dimensional shapes, like cubes, prisms and domes. Anna was actually doing a good amount of mental training by doing so, as it was like she was making and solving a puzzle when she did so, due to her level of concentration. She got the idea from Elsa, when Elsa kept making shapes and figurines like her crystal ball for Anna's entertainment, and thought that it would be a good thing to practise.
Then, Anna got creative and pushed her limits slightly and made three-dimensional objects like a book, an ice-cream cone, and a pencil, and made them solid. She could now stop moving her shadows around by snapping her fingers and letting her shadow creations fall into the palm of her hands, and she grinned at that notion.
She couldn't wait to show Pyra her progress the next time she had the chance.
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When Anna showed Pyra the next day, she was heavily impressed and decided to teach Anna a few attacking techniques in a fist fight. She nearly got the defensive manoeuvres down, and whenever Anna's clumsiness got in the way, she would instinctively break her fall like she was taught,and go on her merry way. Her family were present at the time when Anna first did that and were impressed by how Anna recovered from her fall immediately. So now, Pyra was in front of a punching bag, showing Anna how to properly do a perfect punch.
"Okay, so keep light on your toes," she instructed, her left handed boxing stance being absolutely perfect, "and do two quick jabs like this in succession. Hup-hup!" She threw two perfect and lightning fast jabs at the bag, sending it swinging back a fair bit, before stilling it and gesturing for Anna to come and take her place.
Pyra noticed that Anna also went into a left handed position and she asked "What hand do you use to write with, Anna?"
Anna turned to her and said "I write with my left hand, but I can write with my right hand if I have to."
Pyra nodded and stated "Good, I'm left handed to and so you'll be easier to teach. So, copy my stance, bounce slightly on your toes, and give the bag two jabs."
Anna nodded in determination and did as she asked, with Pyra making some slight adjustment to her stance. Anna bounced slightly on her toes, her eyes dead ahead of the target and jabbed twice, calling out "Hah, hah!" as she did so. Pyra nodded in approval at the attack and critiqued "Good work, just don't tense so much in the legs though. Okay, repeat."
The day went on as so, with Pyra calling out "Repeat" after each successive attack. This continued for a couple of hours until Anna nearly collapsed from exhaustion, even though she still tried to keep on going after each draining attack. Pyra patted Anna on the back gently and told her "You did great, kiddo. You're gonna go far out there."
Despite her weariness, Anna could not help but beam at the praise.
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The figure sighed and rubbed his or her eyes, yawning out "Okay, time for a little nap then" before pushing the huge journal over and resting his or her arms on the desk, resting his or her head on his or her arms before lulling off into a medium slumber.