Once my laughter finally faded and I wiped the tears from my eyes, I went up to my room to get changed. I switched the pyjamas for jogging pants and an oversized shirt and exchanged the slippers for running shoes. I looked like a normal teenager, ready to go for a jog, minus the new sword I dragged behind me.

       As promised, Nathaniel was waiting for me outside, and he for once also looked like a normal teenager. Sitting atop the fence, he stared into the distance like a typical brooding, overthinking teen. Except, while most teens' racing thoughts flickered from grades to aching crushes, Nathaniel was likely planning the ways he could save his aunt from suffering the same consequences of my inevitable defeat.

      His thoughts had surely drifted far away for he didn't notice me until I was a few steps behind and spoke up.

      "I'm ready," I declared. "Show me how to swing this thing around so that the Burkhard clan doesn't go extinct."

      It was a very mild reaction, but he flinched before turning my way. Even the mildest jump scare was surprising for his character. What was not surprising was his immediate exasperation with my humor.

      "Is there any chance you would consider training in silence?"

      I puckered my lips in feigned ponderation of his request. "I'm more of an active listener," I said. "How am I going to learn without asking questions?"

      "I could give a go at answering your unvoiced questions."

      "I think we've already established that you're not good at that."

      "I think we've already established that I tend to do so on purpose." He spun on his feet and began walking away.

      I watched him walk for a few seconds, before following him into the field. "Am I right to assume that I'm supposed to be following you?"

       "Yes," he sighed.

      I continued to trail behind him, slashing my blade through the overgrow grass. While in motion the blade felt surprisingly lighter. Maybe I would in fact get used to its weight. The further out we went, the higher I dared to swing the sword, arms already growing a little tired. Sword fighting wasn't for the weak. I only realized the slashing sound effects that I was making with my mouth when Nathaniel turned around to look at me. He didn't say anything. The way he blinked at me was enough to know exactly what he was thinking.

       "Have you never made slashing noises?" I asked genuinely. "Surely, you've had fake fights with your friends. Who could hold a sword and not swing it like a lightsaber?"

       "I don't know what that is."

      "A lightsaber?" I asked ridiculously.

      He nodded.

      "Have you not heard of Star Wars?" My blade dropped weakly at my side, as the entirety of my focus went to Nathaniel apparently living under a rock.

       "I don't have time for whatever kind of game that is," he said plainly.

       I grunted. A game? I didn't even bother correcting him. I didn't know much about the movies; only having watched clips with my brothers, but how disconnected from my world was he? It was becoming abundantly clear, that the Legion had taken up his entire life. I wondered if he had hobbies... Passions. Interests that went beyond his duty as a Burkhard.

       "What just happened?" he grimaced. "You look...sad."

      I snorted. Of course, I was sad. My life had turn to shit, and possibly the worst part of it all, is that Nathaniel, and other Legion members, had always lived like this.

       I tried to brush off his comment and refocused on the task at hand: training.

       We had walked far out into the field and stopped suspiciously close to the forest. Only the crooked fence separated us from the dark trails. I crinkled in my nose in dismay.

      "Are we training in the woods?"

       Nathaniel nodded. "They tend to prefer hiding in somber places."

      "How peachy," I grumbled. Of course, they wouldn't walk around in broad daylight and make our duty easier.

      Nathaniel held my blade as I jumped over the fence, and then he led the way into the forest. We didn't go too far in, stopping once he found an area that had enough clear space. He likely desired ample space if I was going to be wielding a sharp weapon. My clumsiness and lack of experience was a recipe for disaster.

       "How do you usually do this?" I asked him. "Do you have to hunt them?"

       "They usually seek us out. Sometimes we'll be called to areas that they've been noticed to herd, otherwise we take them out as they come."

       "And it always goes well?" I asked naively. I mean it certainly looked like a breeze when I saw Arianna slay the helpless creature that first day. The duhovi had no weapons. I was sure it came easily to the trained children on the Legion. "You probably think it's easy."

       "It can be," he admitted. "But it can be more challenging when there's a lot of them, especially considering its usually just my aunt and I, or me and Arianna. They're not so easily managed in large numbers."

       "Just like the herds in Walking Dead."

      Nathaniel frowned. "I don't know what that is either."

      "Do you not watch any TV?"

       He shook his head and then groaned. "Please don't get teary eyed, again. I'm not as miserable as you think I ought to be," he said. "It's more a lack of interest in TV."

      I puckered my lips in disbelief. I thought it was more that he didn't have time to develop the interest. Why watch tv when he could do research that would save his family's name in the brewing war? "So, what do you do for fun?"

      "Fun?" he asked dumbly.

      My jaw cracked open and the blade in my hand fell limp in my grasp. He had to be joking.

      His lips twitched into a crooked grinned, confirming that he was indeed joking, but my mouth remained cracked open. Nathaniel joking? What was happening?

       "Despite your surprise, we have established that I have a few friends," he smiled softly. "The Legion isn't my entire life."

       I grinned; I was so winning him over. Perhaps, he decided to make the best of the situation. I had to be a Burkhard whether he liked it or not. Before I could comment on how pleasant his playful side was, he nudged his head towards my sword. Back to work. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

      "Fine," I sighed. "I'm ready... Go easy on me." I raised my sword hesitantly.

      "We're not sword fighting." He blinked. "The duhovi don't tend to grab weapons."

       I was choosing to ignore the way his words lead to the faint possibility of a sword holding ghost.

       "What if there is a war, though?" I challenged. "Won't the clans turn on each other?"

       "We'll get there when the time comes. Let's start with teaching you how to hold a sword in a remotely effective way."

       "This isn't good, is it?" I asked, referencing my likely poor stance. It certainly felt unnatural, and I could only imagine that it didn't resemble a person's stance that knew anything about swords.

        I tried to mimic the way Nathaniel held his, but I kept shifting the blade closer to my shoulders, holding it like a baseball bat. My family was big on softball, we played most Thursday nights, and I wasn't half bad. It almost felt more natural this way.

       "You know what, do what feels right." Despite his words, his face contracted like he was trying not to grimace at my stance. "There's no time for perfect sword training; do what you must to protect yourself."

      How's that for a vote of confidence?

      "You can put it down for a minute," he said and placed his own blade on the grass. "We'll warm up quickly and then I'll show you different strikes and slashes."

      "You warm up for this?"

      "Do you fancy trying to prove yourself with a pulled back?"

       Enough said. I followed his lead, no matter how silly it felt to jog in place. I tried not to giggle at the way Nathaniel bounced on his feet, actions seemingly mundane for his character. I copied his every move, from jogging in place to the arm circles and then the footwork.

       "Any technique you learn would be useless if you're tripping on your own feet," he said, as he we practiced taking backward and side steps, and finally lunging forward. One really had to learn not to take things personally when Nathaniel spoke. I don't even think he recognized the lack of faith he kept voicing. I was indeed likely to trip on my own feet, but I didn't need the constant reminder.

        By the time we picked up our blades, my body was already growing tired. Nathaniel taught me various words and techniques, that I was sure would mostly slip my mind tomorrow. From deception work with feigned overhead strikes and sudden forward thrusts, my skin was damp with sweat. He had me practice uppercut and undercut swings, and middle level slashes, repeatedly, until I was huffing and puffing with arms on fire.

       Granting me a few minutes to catch my breath and take a sip of water, I sat in front of a tree so that I could lean against the bark. I jumped up when something cracked behind me. I searched the area that I surmised the noise came from, suddenly itching to grab hold of my blade once more.

       Nathaniel had said that they the duhovi usually seek us out... "Are they going to come for us here?" I asked him. I inched closer to him for protection.

       "The duhovi?" he clarified after swallowing his swig of water. "Hopefully."

       "Hopefully?!"

      "What better way to practice?" he shrugged a shoulder.

      I huffed. I supposed I had no time to ease my way into this.

      "You'll be fine," he said simply. "I'm here if things go wrong."

       That was reassuring. Rather than die at the hand of the duhovi, I would die from embarrassment as Nathaniel had to save me.

       I jumped again as something creaked closer. I scanned the lines of trees, but still couldn't see anything.

       "Take a deep breath," Nathaniel advised. "You've got this. Stand ready."

      I did as he instructed and faced the direction of the noise with my blade ready.

      "Try to relax your shoulders," he added, tapping said very tense shoulders. I flinched, not realizing how close he was suddenly standing behind me. "You're more likely to injure yourself when you're tense. Keep the tension in your core, instead."

       I pushed air through my lips and shimmied my shoulders to ease some of the stiffness. The advice for the tension in my core didn't feel right. Did he mean the stress?

       "Your core holds a lot of your strength," he explained, surely reading the confusion on my face. "Use it when you're wielding the blade, let your stomach guide your movement." He placed one of his palms against my stomach and used the other to guide the movement of my sword. He moved the two in sync, coaxing me into what I was meant to be feeling.

       A loud crack rang behind us and I bumped into Nathaniel. I whirled around on my feet, to search the trees around us. The noise seemed to come from a different area now... Or maybe my head was just spinning. If I was sweating before, it was nothing compared to the sudden heat coursing on my skin. I fanned myself fervently. Was this a stress response? I was way overworked.

       I took a few steps away from Nathaniel to catch my breath and pulled my shirt away from my skin. The oversized shirt hadn't been a good idea. I was going for loose and flowy, but the material was suddenly too warm, and it had been getting caught everywhere when we were practicing. In my jumbled, heated mess of a mind, I thought it better to simply get rid of it. I was wearing a black sports bra underneath, anyhow. I yanked the shirt off and grabbed another sip of water.

       When I regained some of my bearings, cheeks cooling, I noticed that Nathaniel was standing much further away. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet and toyed with the hilt of his sword like he was dusting something off. Was he blushing? The tips of ears had turned rosy. Arianna had been training in her sports bra, and he hadn't blinked an eye. To be fair, he was consumed by anger at the time. Was this inappropriate? People worked out in sports bras all the time.

       "It's warm and it was getting caught in everything," I defended sheepishly. "Next time I'll know to wear something tight fitting."

       "Right." He swallowed, still brushing off imaginary particles of dirt from his blade.

       "If you prefer to keep yours off too," I started stupidly, trying to appease the awkwardness. "Don't let me stop you." Yep... That'll certainly do it. I resisted the urge to slap my forehead.

      He turned his head away from me, looking into the woods as though something caught his attention. I was starting to recognize the action as his attempt to hide his smile. I didn't know why he insisted on hiding that side of himself. It was almost as if he was afraid to let himself be happy. That kind of shielding came from a past of pain and grief. Since he had already helped me so much, I vowed then that I would work on his tendency to isolate. With the kind of life he lived, it was even more important to enjoy the little things, no matter how much he might be unconsciously trying to protect himself.

       This time when I heard the crack, I didn't have time to jump. I yelped as something brushed my abdomen. In my horrified surprise, I fell backwards. I inhaled sharply as I came face to face with one of the duhovi and shrank as the creature loomed over me. While I had seen Arianna slay one and seen the Slon in the Burkhard's yard, the shock of seeing one up-close was paralysing.

      Before I could further shrink under ashy gray skin and tantalizing claws, Nathaniel slashed his blade through the creature. In a cloud of dust, it disappeared. It hadn't even occurred to me to reach for my weapon.

       I expected Nathaniel to berate me for my lack of defense, but instead he offered me his hand and helped me stand.

      "I'm sorry. I should have seen it coming," he criticized himself. "The duhovi are easily managed when you're not distracted... We're supposed to be alert at all times."

       I nodded feebly at his words and picked up my blade. No more messing around. I wanted to see those suckers coming from miles away, not mere inches away.

       "Let's try again," Nathaniel urged, moving to stand behind me, with his back towards mine. "Where there's one, there's usually more. On group missions, we like to stand back-to-back when we know they're coming, so we can see them in advance."

       We stood back-to-back as he suggested, and some of my apprehension melted away. With Nathaniel there, I trusted that they wouldn't sneak up on me again.

       We stood still for many minutes, with no sign of the duhovi. This was possibly the longest I had ever been quiet. Just as I was about to question Nathaniel about the tune he had been whistling when I thought he was a hallucination, somewhere to my far right, leaves rustled.

       Nathaniel nudged his head towards the approaching corpse. "This one is yours."

       I nodded and turned to face the direction it was coming. I could do this. At the pace it was moving, one would almost take for granted that they could be harmful, but I had watched one too many Zombie movies to underestimate the duhovi.

       "I'll be right here," Nathaniel reminded. "Keep your feet a little further apart, you're less likely to lose your footing that way."

       I did as he suggested and slowly approached the creature. I frowned the entire time I approached it. There was no sense of danger, it simply kept moving forward leisurely. It could not be this easy...

       When the duhovi was finally within reach, I swung my blade with no hesitation. There would be no freezing this time. I inhaled sharply when it moved faster than I anticipated. Easily dodging the arc of my slash, it took advantage of my surprise and unshielded bottom half of my body, to claw at my leg. I barely moved my leg away in time, claws tearing into my pants, but just brushing my skin. So focused on the leg, I didn't see the other claw slashing towards neck. I stumbled backwards, grunting as I brought the sword upward.

       Nathaniel inhaled sharply and moved forward to help just as my blade cut through the grey corpse. The claw had been inches from tearing at my jugular before it disintegrated.

       "Good job..." He clearly didn't mean that, if the startled expression on his face was anything to go by. He was trying to make me feel better.

       "You think I'm completely hopeless." I pouted. That was a much closer call than it needed to be. I was suddenly reconsidering my likelihood of surviving a zombie apocalypse. I had been delusional... I would be one of the first to go. I would be just another mindless creature, limping in the herd.

       "It was far from graceful," he admitted, face still disgruntled. "But it was your first time, and you got the job done. That's all that matters."

        "We really need to work on the delivery of your feedback." I puckered my lips distastefully. "Your complimentary insults are giving me whiplash."

        "You said you found my brutal honesty refreshing."

       I sighed. For someone who pretended to barely pay me attention, he seemed to have memorized everything I had done or said in our time together. Perhaps it was a Legion thing. They were probably used to using people's words against them. That's why he was so careful with his own choice of words.

        When we returned to the house a few minutes later, Aadya was waiting for us in the living room. She flicked a curious brow at my dishevelled attire but voiced no questions. I was probably in a better condition than she would have expected. We had been lucky to only stumble on two duhovi.

       I had planned on teasing her about the call that she likely received from Nathaniel that morning, but something told me it wasn't the right time. By the gloominess that trailed her, I presumed that she didn't come bearing good news. Aadya's thoughts were particularly easy to read, and I knew that whatever she had to share would leave be displeased.

       I slumped down on one of the couch cushions and awaited my verdict. "What now?" I sighed.

       Nathaniel lingered in the doorway with furrowed brows.

       "Something happened," Aadya announced. "They moved the meeting forward."

      "The meeting about my task?" I asked naively. Of course, that's what it was.

       "When?" Nathaniel asked.

      "Tomorrow."

       "Tomorrow?!" I demanded.

       "Do you know what happened?" Nathaniel questioned.

        Aadya shook her head. "Ubel wouldn't elaborate on the sudden emergency, but I heard rumors that the Gladstone stone went missing."