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Chapter 9: Training

It has been three days since Raven had seen Whisper and he was worried about his dear friend. The guards wouldn’t let him near the part of the palace sized town hall where Whisper was held. Every time he tried to get through he could hear her screams and moans from a distance, but the Elder kept assuring him that she was fine, and that it would be too dangerous for him to go near the room. The palace was filled with an electric atmosphere, making everyone’s hackles rise when they enter the large building.
Raven stayed with Hazel at her tree fort while they waited for Whisper to be released and for their training to start. Hazel was annoyed at Raven’s unnerving attitude as he paced around; worrying about Whisper, but Hazel tried to put her jealousy aside and tried to understand his burden.
“Raven you have to relax for a bit, come eat something”
“I’m not hungry Hazel” He said bluntly.
“I found you some meat, I thought you’d be dying for some by now” Hazel said. Raven noticed the meat before she even brought it into the room. The delicate scent flared in his nostrils for a while now, but being as stubborn as he was, he tried to ignore it. Hazel pushed the plate ahead until it blocked the path he was pacing in. He stopped and stared down and the plate, growling at the power it had over his senses.
“Oh my word just eat it already, you’re not proving anything” Hazel snapped. Raven snorted and started ripping away at the meat. His stomach growled as the nutrition went in with large savage gulps. When there was nothing left but a large bone, he sat down and gave a long delighted moan.
“That was the most nauseating thing I have ever seen, but strangely hot” Hazel teased.
“Oh sorry, you wanted some?”
“I don’t eat meat” she replied dryly.
“You don’t know what you’re missing. Thanx for the meal” Raven said and fell flat to his stomach and handled the bone between his paws and started biting at it. Hazel stared blankly at him, with a sudden curiosity in her eyes.
“Even the bone? Really?”
“The bone is the most nutritional part, and it sharpens your teeth” Raven mumbled while chewing the bone, forgetting his manners.

“Hello, may I come in?”
“Grandfather! Please do” Hazel said surprised.
“Is Whisper okay?!” Raven barked out worriedly.
“Yes. Yes. I actually came here to fetch you Raven, your training starts today. And Whisper will be joining us”
“That’s great news! You had me worried for a second. Why didn’t you just send out somebody to tell me?”
“Yes, why didn’t you? You have a lot of work to do, rather than these trivial matters” Hazel said.
“Honestly, I snuck out because I don’t want to do any more work today. I need a break. Hazel go take over for me” The Elder said with a mischievous smile on his old face.
“I can’t do that, it’s your job as the Elder” Hazel snapped.
“And you are my successor; you are capable to do what I do already, if not better. Think of this as your first theory” The Elder tried to say with a straight face, Raven chuckling in the background. Hazel gave them both a dark look and walked to the door.
“Fine. Whatever. Foolish old goat” She hissed.
“Oh and sneak in by the window, I locked the door so nobody knows I’m not there” The Elder laughed. Hazel growled under her breath and disappeared out of view.
“As for you and me, we should make our way to the training area and get started right away. We wasted enough time already” The Elder said suddenly serious.
“Right”

They headed out and made their way to a steep mountain slope on the edge of the village, further down the path from the arena.
“So when can I see this ultimate form that you apparently have?” Raven asked
“You really want to see it that bad?”
“Yes sir”
“Hmmm… I tell you what, when you are strong enough to fight on par with me then I will show you in battle”
“We are going to fight?”
“Yes of course. I train all my students with everything I got, I don’t take training lightly. Especially not in these times”
“You are kind of old, is everything you ‘got’ enough to take me on?” Raven taunted.
“Keep that attitude, Raven, believe in yourself” The Elder chuckled but Raven felt like he fell right into the Elder’s pep talk trap and snorted.
“So when I fight you on par, that’s when I may see your final form. When can we fight?” Raven asked enthusiastically.
“In a few months”
“A few months?? That’s absurd!” He barked surprised.
“Don’t take too much offence but you are too weak to fight me now, even though I am not in my prime” The elder smiled and Raven looked at him with an annoyed expression. Raven saw a yellow spec in the shade of a tree ahead of them.
“Is that…?” he said and ran to it.
“Whisper!” he cried out and jumped on her. She woke up with a scare and accidentally shocked Raven off her.
“Gheez Raven, don’t do that. Unless you actually want to die!” she exclaimed “Not a threat, just a warning. You are always so noisy” she added.
“Wow that hurt” he said lying on his back still dazed at the shock “Wait, since when am I noisy?” he asked bluntly. He looked up and saw Whisper charging at him and then jumped onto him, knocking his wind out.
“Is it just me or is jumping on each other becoming a habit, though I’m not complaining” She said looking into Ravens blue eyes and smiled “What Raven?” she asked confused as she saw the serious look on Ravens face.
“My arm is uncomfortably pinned between our bellies” He said awkwardly and a thought came to mind that surprised him. With that very paw he felt around and fondled Whisper’s belly.
“Raven, what are you doing?” Whisper blushed.
“You’re all healed!” Raven barked happily and rolled over making Whisper fall onto her back and him standing over her. He scoped her chest and belly and whiffed at it while Whisper shyly giggled like an idiot.
“But how?” He asked surprised.
“The experimental lightning therapy worked, even I was surprised” The Elder said.
“But it isn’t something I would want to do again” Whisper said blankly and got to her feet.
“I’m glad it all worked out for you Whisper” Raven said and playfully pushed her muzzle away with his paw.
“When did you become so affectionate Raven? You always used to be this cold mellow blue furball. I like this part of you” She smiled.
“Furball…?” Raven asked but Whisper suddenly pounced at him and they rolled happily on the cool grass laughing.
The Elder cleared his throat to get their attention but it didn’t work “Training? Today?” he asked dryly.
“Oh right. Sorry ‘bout that, guess we got caught up into in the moment”
“It okay, I was also young and in love once” the Elder teased and winked at them.
Raven stared blankly at the Elder “Don’t do that” he said dryly. While Whisper couldn’t stop laughing.
“Raven, look around. Notice anything?” The elder asked.
“Uhm… Obstacles and a number of moats with running water, this is the training area?” He asked as he looked around.
“Indeed. I had these moats installed so it would be easier for a waterwolf like you to train; training a waterwolf without ‘water’ would be rather pointless. Especially if he can’t pull water from the air, but we will get there soon, I believe in you”
“Again… Thank you, I think?” Raven asked confused.

“Come. Do you see those bag-like things hanging from that tree branch?” The Elder said and indicated to it with his faded green muzzle, Raven and Whisper nodded. “If you can tackle that so it snaps off the vine and falls to the ground, we will go to the next part of your training” he continued.
“I don’t see how this is part of the training, it looks too easy” Raven said dryly.
“Then show us how it’s done”
Raven ran to the bag and gained more and more speed as he got closer. Confident, he jumped up with all the force he could focus into his hind legs. He slammed into the bag and wanted to bark out happily at his victory but before the bag even budged, Raven’s wind was knocked out and he fell to the ground. He opened his eyes and saw the bag swaying gently above him.
“What the hell??” he cried out surprised.
“Looks may be deceiving Raven, it wasn’t as easy as it looks, right?” The Elder joked.
“Yeah, whatever. I will get it in my next try” Raven growled. He walked to them and turned around, ready to tackle the bag again. Whisper sat down under the shade of a tree greatly amused at Raven’s burning ambition. He tried again and again but the bag hardly budged.
“What’s with this bag?” he barked out in frustration.
“It’s a rare material that is found in the rock formations in these mountains. It’s a very heavy kind of rock, covered by a soft layer of pillow” The Elder replied.
“How is it hanging from such a thin vine?”
“I grew it myself, but without a strong tree like this the branch would have snapped long ago with three tons hanging from it”
“Wow impressive trees” Raven said awed staring at the tree.
“I grew these trees myself, but it would never have been this strong if your grandfather didn’t help me. We grew these trees together, me with my nature element and him with his water, when we found this village together many years ago”
“My grandfather was one of the finders of this veiled village? Why haven’t you mentioned this before?” Raven asked annoyed.
“I guess it slipped my mind” The Elder replied foolishly “But hey, now you know why the villagers accept you here, you are one of our very own legacies” he continued.
“That explains why they stare at me funny, and I always thought it was because my colour stood out here” Raven said deep in thought, he couldn’t believe his grandfather was such a great wolf, he couldn’t tell from the times he saw his grandfather in the past.
“Your blue fur and crescent moon markings might play a small role in it as well” The Elder mocked.
“But what role did he play in making the trees stronger?”
“He reinforced it with his water; since plants accept the nutrients of water it made a great combination. You know in your battle with Nayate when you created a water armor to protect yourself from damage? It’s similar to that, but the trees absorb it reinforcing it from the inside” The Elder explained.
“The water armor didn’t protect me from any damage. All it does is nullify the force of some projectiles and it lets me travel with water I can manipulate” Raven said dryly.
“You need so much training” The Elder said blankly “But at least you have a good master, I might not be the same element as you but I know all of your grandfathers’ abilities. So can you please just break the bag already, I would like to move to the second step”
“Very well” Raven said.
He tried again and again until nightfall, and failed every time without any sign of improvement. Whisper soon got bored and wandered off exploring the area, sniffing all the different scented plants and chased whatever moved. When she got back to the training area she saw Raven fall to the ground once again and got up as he panted heavily. He was at the tip of frustration.
“Any day now, Raven” Whisper mocked. Raven swung his head to her and snarled.
“Don’t start with me Whisper, not now” he growled. Whisper was appalled at his sudden spurt of anger and recoiled away.
“I was just kidding, give me a break” She said.
“I would LOVE to see you get this right” he snapped.
“Get out of the way” She growled.
She ran as fast as she could while jolts of lightning formed on her yellow fur as it left a trail of light behind her in the early night darkness. She jumped up and spun around, and then planted onto the bag with all four of her paws and as she jumped away using the bags weight, it exploded in a blinding light of electricity and the metallic rock from within the bag dropped to the floor. Raven stared awestricken as she passed with her first try.
“I wonder why you make it look so hard, Raven” she said proudly.
“That doesn’t count; I loosened it up for you!” He barked.
“Whatever, you hardly made it budge. I’m going back to the house” she said utterly peeved off and walked away with her head and tail held high.
“I don’t know if it’s the right time to say this, but that was amazing! To see a lightning wolf in action is truly a blessing, I can now say I have lived a full life” The Elder barked out excitedly.
“Are you mocking me?”
“A bit…”
“Are you done?”
“Depends. But we should retire for the day, Raven. We both need our rest, I’m not as young and energetic as I was when I was younger. And I’m sure you are at your limit as well” The elder said.
“You go. I will not rest until I have succeeded the first part of the training; I will prove to you I can be as great as my grandfather was” Raven hissed.
“I got to say I admire this willpower you and your grandfather share. But very well, do what you must. I will see you in the morning”
“Sleep well” Raven said feeling proud of the compliment as the Elder walked away. The training area fell in silence and Raven suddenly felt peeved.
“Can I get another bag?!” he yelled out annoyed.
“Look behind you!” The Elder yelled back from a distance. Raven turned around and saw another bag hanging from a tree and he felt like a moron.
He continued for many more hours until the moonlight was obstructed by the mountain, he could barely see beyond a five meter radius from himself and decided to retire for the night as well.
He got to Hazel’s tree and looked up confused; there were nobody around to help him up. He sat against to tree, frustrated and tired. Suddenly he had an idea. He went to the nearest water source and manipulated as much water as he could. He carried the mass of water above him as he steadily paced back to the tree. When he got there, he spread out his paws further apart and shifted into a more stable stance. His hackles rose and he swung his muzzle around in a rhythmic motion and then suddenly shot his muzzle upwards. The water flew up leaving a tube like stream flowing up towards the deck.
“I hope this works” Raven said enthusiastically and jumped into the stream and swam up. He quickly made his way to the deck and jumped out of the water. He shook his fur dry and looked at the stream as it splashed to the ground.
“I can’t believe that actually worked” He said awed and headed in. He walked to his room but suddenly stopped at Whisper’s room; he hesitated and went in, closing the screen door as he did. He saw Whisper sleeping peacefully and he felt bad at their fallout earlier. Raven walked to her and moved her fringe away with his paw to expose her sleeping eyes. He smiled and lay down next to her, quickly falling asleep. He felt Whisper’s tail resting on his thigh and opened his eyes.
“It’s okay Raven, I forgive you” She whispered softly in her sleep state. He smiled and immediately passed out.

The next morning after breakfast and an awkward explanation with Hazel to why they were sleeping in the same room again, they headed for the training area where the Elder was already waiting for them.
“Oh not again” Hazel hissed and walked away.
“Don’t forget to solve the case between the rival cart owners; they have been nagging up a storm the past week” The Elder yelled to Hazel as she was walking away, trying to hold back his chuckles.
“Go die” Hazel said scornfully.
“She is a good girl. So Raven, did you make any progress last night?”
“You can say that” he said dryly.
“Right. You get to the bag and I will go forth with Whisper”
“Awesome! I can’t wait” Whisper said excitedly then saw Raven’s displeased face “I mean uhm… I can’t go on without Raven”
“No Whisper, go on. Don’t let me hold you back” He said and managed a smile.
“You sure Raven? I bet you will catch up to me very soon, I know you won’t give up so easily, even though you kinda’ suck at the bag thing. You are awesome like that” she said and Raven stared blankly at her while the Elder laughed.
“You two are doing that insult compliment thing on purpose hey? Stop mocking me” He hissed and walked to the bag.
“The bag’s the other way” the Elder said.
“It was dark last night okay!” Raven barked foolishly and dropped his head. When the Elder and Whisper stopped laughing and Raven started with the bag training again, the Elder lead Whisper to an obstacle course.
“This is the second part of the training; every time I see you can complete the course efficiently I will make it a bit harder. Start by that tree and follow the gravel road”
“This will be fun” Whisper said with her tail wagging excitedly behind her.
While she did the course Raven was training intensely, the bag swayed more and more after each hit. He even tried using his water abilities but couldn’t think of a way to make it work to his advantage. He heard Whisper cursing from a distance and he was curious at how she was doing. He walked to the Elder and sat down next to him, taking a short break. Whisper walked to the starting tree, soaked to the bone. She saw Raven and snorted that he had to see her in that agitated state.
“Holy shit Whisper what happened to you?” Raven laughed.
“Oh shut up, Raven. I would like you to see you try this, oh wait, I see your bag still hanging there” She mocked.
“Touché” Raven laughed.
“Reversed role, better outcome” The elder said.
“What?”
“Nothing”
Whisper jumped off and tackled the first obstacle. She swiftly jumped onto an elevated log and ran forward jumping to the next that was further away. She landed the jumped and sprung for the next log, but her footing slipped.
“Piece of shit” She growled as she plummeted to the ground.
“What was that Whisper?” Raven asked, trying to get her more worked up.
“No, nothing” she yelled, got up and ran for the next part of the course. She got onto another log platform and ran forward, dodging swinging vines.
“Isn’t that a bit too much?” Raven asked the Elder.
“Not at all. She mastered that part a while ago. But I told her I would make the course harder if she shows improvement. Watch this” The Elder said with a dark look on his face, Raven didn’t like his intention and when the Elder swung his muzzle up, Raven quickly looked at Whisper. She was running on the log and smoothly dodging the vines with efficient movement when suddenly a wooden fence covered with razor thorns swung down in front of her, catching her off guard.
“The f…” She said and without putting a thought into it she teleported through the swinging fence in a flash of lightning. She kept running forward and looked behind her at the fence.
“I did not expect that. How awesome am I! She barked happily then slipped off the log and fell into the moat below.
“That was pretty impressive, even though her attention got swayed” The Elder said amazed.
“You think” Raven said and walked back to the bag.

A week passed and Raven was really annoyed at the bag training, he made great progress through the week, he could make the bag swing far back but it still never broke. He knew he wouldn’t break the training with just force alone, so he tried to think of a better plan.
What the Elder told him in Whisper’s recovery room a week before came to mind, that he only use force attacks that are dull, to avoid giving someone a lethal blow. And he knew that was the problem that he should overcome in the bag training. He gathered water from the moat and started playing around with the form, for that whole day he tried to make a sharp edge until he finally managed. He walked towards a tree and shot the blade to it, giving it a clean cut onto its bark. He got excited and called the Elder to watch him break down the bag; Whisper heard and joined the Elder. Raven got more water and it hovered on top of him as he charged for the bag. He stopped in front of the bag and shot the water ahead with as much force as he could concentrate into it, at least six blades shot from the pool and strike the vine that held the bag. The bag dropped to the ground with the vine fluttering down in pieces.
“Well done Raven. It only took you a week to figure out to go for the vine” The Elder said happily.
“Stop that” Raven said bluntly.
“But I’m very proud of you, you thought out of the box and improved your physical strength and you mastered sharpening your water. We wouldn’t have come to that until a later stage of training”
“So this training wasn’t so that I could improve my strength and elemental abilities?” Raven asked confused.
“No. This training was to test your patience” The Elder laughed.
“Oh you got to be kidding me!” Raven barked as he was frustrated.

The next day it was his turn to try the obstacle course, he was annoyed that he wasted too much time and asked the Elder to make the course the same level of difficulty Whisper was training in. Against his better judgment the Elder agreed. Raven jumped off and swiftly jumped from log to log without any mistakes. He got to the log runway and ran as fast as he could, dodging the large boulders that was swinging at him from the sides. He saw the thorn covered fence starting to fall down and in a short burst of speed he slid under it on his side. He quickly jumped up and suddenly another fence fell down, he didn’t expect a second one and jumped up without thinking. Raven splashed through it and ran ahead; he didn’t quite fathom what had just happened as the Elder’s mouth hung open from the sidelines. Raven kept running and climbed up a large wooden wall. He got to the top and jumped down, then he saw another higher wall. He knew he wouldn’t have the stamina to climb that one so he kept running and scooped up a small amount of water from the moat and slashed a door sized opening into the wall. He went through and ran ahead to a large pit with spikes that he knew would be impossible to jump. He ran to a tree and jumped into it, forcing him over the pit and into the next tree where he did the same. Suddenly he gathered a large amount of water and quickly dove through it to the end of the pit. He felt more confident than ever and kept running without taking a breather. He ran uphill and saw a bunch of boulders rolling down towards him. He gathered more water and levitated it above him as he ran. He dodged the first five boulders with quick footing and noticed the path was getting thinner. She slashed the water into the boulders knocking them out off his way and off the path. Finally he could see the last boulder up ahead, it was twice the size of the others and he had a reasonable amount of water left. He charged at the boulder and jumped into it, slashing it in a perfect half as he gliding through the middle.
Whisper and the Elder watched awestricken at Ravens amazing skill, neither of them expected him to act so swiftly under such hard situations.
Raven walked to them panting with his tongue lolling from his muzzle.
“That was fun” He barked happily still out of breath.
“Well I guess I can pass you both in this training. How about we start with stage three?”
“Okay, sure” Raven said.
“And by now I mean tomorrow. I have to make preparations” the Elder said and Raven and Whisper stared displeased at him.