Makiya

3. The basic training

It was morning and Philius was shining with the blue-white light high in the sky, and Andrey was making yet another set of crunches. Under the close watch of Nyadzel for already a month they had trained together every morning, every evening and the rest of the time Nyadzel would teach Andrey this and that.

This practically was pretty similar to the life Andrey had lived until not long ago. He used to go to school every morning. Though this time it was a bit more complicated–there were harsh training schedules, which were transforming him into one of the heroes, who he had read about in the books, saw in the movies and watched in anime.

At start Nyadzel wasn't very kind to his partner, but over time with everyday training and time spent together they became friends. From the moment Andrey started to actually last throughout the entire training schedule, his trainer raised his opinion about him and that led to an enormous improvement in their relationship.

Nyadzel's house wasn't too big and wasn't far from the castle. It had a big yard which was transformed into his personal training grounds. Still, it was a big place. First floor seemed pretty basic, but the second floor was like a colossal museum. Rooms filled with medals and trophies, and some rooms were actual libraries.

Most of the time when the two weren't training they were at that second floor and read books or just played chess. This too was part of Andrey's training schedule. He would study their history, science and their world, or at least what was explored and known of it. Andrey's intellect was impressive, and he was pretty sharp. To such an extension that Nyadzel loved that part about him.

"Come on, do it! A few more and you're ready with the morning workout!" The trainer encouraged. "3...2...1... That's it!" counted down the youngster with huge satisfaction. Every day after finishing the workout, Andrey had to spar with Nyadzel to improve his skills. With the two-handed sword still being too much of a challenge to the youngster, he still managed to kind-of guard and attack.

"Are you ready?" Asked Nyadzel with a smile, followed by a leap towards the boy. They exchanged a few clashes with a satisfactory smile of the fight, which, of course, wasn't very long. Nyadzel was just too good and quickly managed to disarm him.

"Sometimes I really wonder if there's any point trying..." joked Andrey with a sigh. 

"There is, there is." The master replied as he laughed a bit and continued, "you already last more than 5 seconds, so there's some progress". 

After somewhat 30 minutes of sparring, Nyadzel left the wooden swords at their weapon stands and invited the boy in the house to play a few rounds of chess.

There was a table in the center between the extensive libraries filled with many books.  As if all the knowledge was stored in this not too big house. And two chairs were already prepared and waiting for the two duelists to battle their intellects in this wonderful strategy game. On purpose, Nyadzel had the chairs painted black and white. Perfect for chess.

"Which do you choose today? Black or white?"

"You attacked me more today, so I'll be with the black ones today. It's your move"–replied Andrey, placing his tired self on the black-painted chair.

It was a tremendous pleasure for both of them to play chess. Andrey was very smart and had the potential to be an excellent strategist. Nyadzel had confirmed his mind to be a more worthy opponent than his body. If in the actual fight he would ultimately fail, then in chess he would at least sometimes win.

The game went out for about an hour. Nyadzel lost. He really loved the challenge, and this game was really hard.

"You know why you have a bigger chance of winning at chess?"

Andrey didn't reply to the question, but just lifted a brow, looking into the deep eyes, which as if were spilling wisdom like a waterfall.

"Because you have time to act. If you could make your body fast as your brain, then you would have a chance fighting me." Tutored Nyadzel.

The smile was all over his face. He really loved hardships, and that gave him extreme pleasure. On the other side of the table, Andrey felt this like sweet revenge.

Night had fallen and with it had come the time for the second workout of the day.

The city had a circular shape. Big mountains behind it and huge beautiful waterfalls were falling right behind the castle. From there along the entire walls were lakes which transformed the city into a marvelous sight.

Nearby the lakes you could find training accessories. It had a wider choice of tools in comparison to Nyadzel's home-made ones. There also were huge runways where the youngster along with his teacher were to jog every night. 15 laps after which a complete body workout.

There wasn't too much of a difference between night and day. Well, it wasn't like in Andrey's world. Truth be told, the star–Philius–would just stop shining so strong and just dimmers down. That would be night. Something like the moon, but bigger and more beautiful.

They trained until the star barely shined. Then they went home, bathed, then they ate, and just rested. Reading books, playing more chess, gossiping or just sleeping.

Even through all this training, it was weird that Nyadzel didn't really teach Andrey any fighting techniques. They sparred without learning any moves, grabs, throws or whatever. This kind of got Andrey pissed off all the time.

Sometimes during the day Nyadzel would go somewhere without saying where, but ‘I'm not sure if I should care, it's not my business anyway, I guess’ Andrey though.

During these times he would always find something to fill his time. Read books, just reminiscence about his world, the Earth. At those times he realized the bad and weird parts about the world he's in. There still wasn't much geographical data about the world. There were lands which weren't discovered, and the brave people who tried to reach out to the "undiscovered" never came back. That's why good king Goodlie forced a law which banned all expeditions to the "undiscovered". He just didn't want to lose anymore people.

Throughout the history books, what Andrey was certain of is that this line of kings really cared about the people. No unnecessary sacrifices. "I guess they should really treasure and love him" thought Andrey, remembering all the political intrigues back on Earth.

Andrey also learned about the other continent–a united kingdom, just like Wartair–but these lands, nobody had ever written anything about. Another no–go, another unexplored territory.

In a book with the title of "Wartair" there were tales and stories which represented historic events. It was like a weird encyclopedia. He was more curious about finding out more about it as he lived there, after all.

"Why does this country have two names?" the boy laughed in slight confusion. After reading a little more about it, he realized that Wartair was actually the name of the continent and Batua Lurrak was the name of the country. But no matter which name you call it would mean the same, as he later on found out.

Never to understand, though, the youngster was enraged yet again with the history of this world. The two neighboring continents had been in war since the rise of man. Neither has stepped on each other's lands. As if by traditions these two nations would fight forever. 

"Like yin-yang. Two continents in an endless struggle in between their territories. It's like good and evil. But which one is good and which one is evil?" Andrey fantasized out loud as he heard Nyadzel returning home. 

"What? You're speaking to yourself now?" joked the warrior.

"It seems so. There wasn't a fine enough companion to talk with until now"

"Why, thank you. It's time to go, you know."

"Go where?"

"To train, where did you expect!" Nyadzel yelled with big enthusiasm, dropping the few bags he carried from the shop.