A plethora of colorful flora covered the edges of the winding paths of the castle. Some flowers were turning their petals toward him as if welcoming him to the castle; others shied away from him. Christopher thought he was losing his mind. He kept walking in silence between the guards contemplating the  events of the past few hours. He still couldn't wrap his head around it.

Exhausted both physically and mentally; he entered his room and went straight to bed.

A siren startled him from his sleep. He got up and ran straight to the door. He tried the handle, it was locked. Hastily he reached the wooden desk at the right hand corner of the room and searched for the key. He found nothing. The siren was getting louder. Desperately, he pushed the door. It didn't budge. He was not going to stay locked in this room while clearly something bad was going on outside.

He pushed harder and the door flew off its mantles, as if it were made of paper. He rushed out of the room and before he could make it down the path, he was knocked on the floor. His cheek was kissing the ground, his eyes shone. Through the fog that surrounded his vision he saw one of his guards kneeing him down.

"Let me go," he struggled against them.

"Be quiet and don't move," they ordered him.

"Let me go!"

"No. Don't move."

"Are you two deaf? Can't you hear the war sirens?" Christopher exclaimed.

They both started laughing so hard, that they fell over to their sides.

"War sirens! He thinks it's a war siren. That's the breakfast call," the tallest of the guards informed him.

Christopher got up and dusted himself off. He turned around and looked at his guards. "So, let's go fight for our food and maybe later you can teach me how to fly." He said trying to disguise his embarrassment.

"Don't worry, you have a busy schedule today Sir," the guard informed him.

"Sir? Don't call me Sir. Call me Christopher. What are your names?"

"I'm Leo and he's Elijah," he offered, pointing at the other guard who looked as if he had swallowed a closet - his shoulders wide and buff.

"Nice to meet you. Shall we?" Christopher said, gesturing with his hands towards the path.

"Yes, only it's that way." Elijah corrected him with a grin on his face.

They followed the pathway, a shallow crystal clear stream run along it. The gargling water was skipping effortlessly over the bedrock of off-white colored stones. On their way to breakfast, Joas joined them. After a short briefing with the guards, where they informed him what had happened this morning, he went up to Christopher.

"You will be training with me today," he informed him dryly. He nodded his head in agreement. They had breakfast, were Christopher felt everyone glare at him, and then he followed Joas in a huge room in the middle of the castle.

All were dressed as he was; black pants, crimson t-shirt, and black combat boots. Only a handful had black vests on, like Joas. He could see that they was divided into groups, like platoons in the army, and were following the commands of their group leader. As Christopher and Joas walked through the room, everybody greeted the latter respectfully. They ended up at the far corner of the room. Joas handed him a wooden sword. Christopher looked once at the sword and once at Joas.

"Let's begin." Joas grabbed a wooden sword himself and aimed it at him. He held the sword with both hands and stood waiting for Joas attack. Christopher was not very good at this. He had never held a sword in his hands, excluding the times they pretended to be knights with his older brother as children.

Maybe flight training would have been a better option - not to mention a much cooler one, he thought.

Joas managed to disarm him within the first minute of every attack. Damn it!  He did not like losing.

He grabbed his sword firmly this time and got ready. When Joas attacked him the sword started growing and wrapped tightly around Joas waist, like a snake. Christopher froze and just stood there watching as everyone was running to Joas aid. He could not believe what he was seeing with his own two eyes. The others were pulling at the wood from all directions trying to break Joas out of its hold.

"Ok. That's enough sword fighting for today, let's move on to body combat," Joas said when he finally got free of the sword.

"Wait. Aren't you going to explain to me why the sword wrapped around you?"

"As was explained to you, you have both the power of the cloudsoldier and the mage."

"No, nobody explained. Please do go on and tell me more."

"Hmmmm," Joas said as he raised his left eyebrow.

"Yup," he said popping the p.

"Ok then, come with me." They walked through a white door and followed a maze of corridors that Christopher was sure that he couldn't find his way out of by himself. They stopped in front of a yellow door, Joas knocked twice. A muffled enter was heard from behind the yellow door. Joas opened the door and they stepped into a great chamber. It was covered with books wall to wall. There was a desk near the window at the end of the room but Christopher could not see past the stack of books who was sitting in the chair.

"Maister, I've brought Christopher here for you to teach." Christopher looked at Joas as if he was speaking in tongues foreign to him.

What did he mean by teach? He was never the most attentive student throughout his years.

He glanced once more at the books surrounding him and a wave of despair washed over him.

The old man rose from behind the desk and approached them. "This young soul has a lot to learn, Joas, I don't believe it will be possible to teach him everything until the winter solstice," he said in a certainty that irritated but at the same time relieved Christopher. "Nonetheless, we must try. He unwittingly managed to constrain me with his sword five minutes ago."

The old man raised his eyebrows in surprise and scanned Christopher with his eyes from top to bottom. "Did he now?"

-------
Hey Guys,

If you liked the story please comment and vote
♡♡♡