Furion's Trials (Book Two of the Items Trilogy)

by H. Lee Morgan, Jr

  Gerieg pulled Alex’s thoughts to the present by standing up and brushing himself off. He asked “What are you doing?”

  Gerieg stopped to smile happily at him. “These matters are better left to worry about some other time. For now we have something else to do.” Then he began stretching his arms, like he was preparing himself for a strenuous exercise.

  “What is it we must do?”

  He motioned for Alex to stand and he did. Gerieg’s sudden energy and the tone he used seemed to help the lad out of the dreaded fog of his thoughts.

  Alex stood up, feeling less fatigued and stretched his own muscles like he was doing. It actually felt good to move in such a way.

  “Why it is time to begin your training as a Furion.”

  Chapter 3

  Alex stopped mid-stretch, both hands held together and straight out towards Gerieg. Although he heard him clearly, his mind couldn’t understand what was said. His stance melted as Gerieg said “As Shade’s training for the day began, so shall yours start in the evening.”

  “W…what am I to do?” Alex asked in hesitation.

  Apparently Gerieg was easily amused because he began to laugh. He slapped his palm to his leg. “Take it easy, for the beginning of your lesson we shall start each morning by stretching and increasing your flexibility. And before each nightly lesson we will do another bout of loosening your limbs.” Then he had a sudden thought and asked “Alex, what is the key to surviving a deadly battle that lasts over a few minutes?”

  Alex blurted out “Endurance,”

  He grinned again and shook his head. “It is actually flexibility with both mind and body. You can have an unlimited supply of endurance, speed and strength, but if you cannot conform to a wide variety of situations you’ll lose your head from rigidness. Take the grass here for example.” He pinched some between his toes and brought them up for his fingers to grasp. He held the blades out for a demonstration. “If you are like the grass then you can bend when a force attacks you and will be able to survive after it leaves.” He then pinched the ends of a few tips and bent them around his finger. When they were released they went back to their original state. “But if you’re strong and as rigid as a dry stick, you’d snap if that kind of force was applied to your structure.” He dropped the green blades and brushed the dirt from his fingers. “Now I want to see just how flexible you are. Follow my routine as best you can.” But before Gerieg began he looked at Shade. “Shade, you must rest for the entirety of the night. You must recover for tomorrow for you will do this again as you did today. We will do your training like this until we reach a certain point.”

  Gerieg started his stretch by putting his feet together. Keeping his legs completely straight, he placed both of his palms flat on the ground. He had folded himself in half and seemed to be in complete ease.

  Alex soon found out he needed much work to accomplish such things. He could barely touch the tips of his fingers to his toes before losing his balance and stumbling forward to catch himself.

  To his astonishment Gerieg did poses that seemed impossible for a man of his size and age. At certain points of the routine Alex wondered if Gerieg actually dislocated his joints to achieve such a bend. Though he did his upmost, Alex was similar to a dry stick compared to the master. He didn’t even have a single success in mirroring a single one of the movements. By the time they stopped Alex felt more like a wet noodle.

  “Not bad.” Gerieg said and all Alex could do was blink at his praise. “Though you still have muscle to gain, your already advance enough to fight a small scale battle alone, but to fight a large scale war you will need to be more limber and graceful.”

  He suddenly turned around and picked up his sheathed sword. A feeling of dread came over the younger Furion again as Gerieg smiled triumphantly in his direction. “Next you will have a friendly match with me. I will keep my blade blocked in its sheath and you will use that staff of yours, to the best of your abilities. Once we have finished, you will learn even more. When we are completely finished with your lessons tonight, you will be glad for a reprieve.”

  “But I cannot hope to best you, Master.” He said, feeling danger creep deeper through his very veins.

  “I shall not use my abilities upon you quite yet.” He said airily.

  Hesitation is a sign of weakness and Alex didn’t want to be seen in such a light. Like Shade, they needed to show their best. He picked his staff, already wishing for the match to be over before it began. Knowing that the tunic was still clean he took it off, so it would remain that way.

  When Alex turned around Gerieg also had the same idea because he removed his blue tunic and it lay atop his folded cape. Alex was correct earlier in knowing that Gerieg was larger than he appeared. This man had the muscles of a person in his mid-twenties and seemingly even more. He carried almost no fat on his torso and his figure was frightening to behold, but it was impossible to look away. Upon the study of him, he was covered in faint, sometimes ragged scars that healed a very long time ago. But one seemed intentional and placed in the center of his sternum. The largest though was a white scar that ran from just above his right nipple and arched diagonally to his left hip. It looked to have been done with a large blade. These scars were a testament to the life he struggled through. Nevertheless they were a display that warned all that although he was aged and scarred, he never lost his life like others undoubtedly had.

  It reminded Alex of Lily’s arms.

  Gerieg tossed his blonde and graying mane behind his shoulder and Alex was thankful for the interruption to move his sights. Gerieg then firmly grasped the single-handed, silver and gold wrapped hilt of his sword. The circular red ruby on the pommel looked darker than usual and the belt of the hardened leather sheathe still secured the golden guard to the blade’s home.

  When he pointed the leather tip Alex grasped his body-length staff with both hands and widened his stance. The moment he stopped Gerieg initiated the attack without another warning. His lunge was that of a polished veteran warrior, skilled in the art of killing without mercy or emotion.

  Gerieg was keeping his promise in that Alex could still see him, but he barely managed to lift the staff in time to deflect the initial blow. Before he could do anything else he tagged the outside of his pupil’s right thigh, sending the shock of pain through his body. Fighting the falling instinct, Alex stepped back to avoid toppling over. Gerieg didn’t stop though, for each successful parry he made with the ends of the staff Gerieg dealt another series of painful blows. Soon both sides of Alex’s body were shrieking in agony from the unforgiving strikes. Every hit made Alex angrier and pushed him further towards desperation. The strikes were so quick that he didn’t have time to register where each blow landed.

  When Alex couldn’t handle another blow his anger exploded.

  “STOP!” he demanded, focusing on his attacker as that odd sensation of authority erupted through Alex again. The sensation dulled his throbbing pains and the feeling was empowering, like none could disobey his orders.

  The attacks came to an abrupt halt. Gerieg’s eyes widened in surprise and the tip of his sword dropped. “Impossible!” he said in the rush of his breath.

  Then the feeling vanished as quickly as it appeared, pain surged back again and the suddenness of the reactions made Alex’s knees go weak. He fell backwards, landing heavily on his rear. The pain of his body screamed out again from the angry and unforgiving landing.

  Hoping the spar ended so that the pain would ease, Alex chanced looking up into Gerieg’s expression. He hadn’t moved an inch. “Master, what’s wrong?” He asked, already feeling the swelling rising upon his limbs.

  Gerieg dropped his sword on the ground, rushed himself upon his student, grasped his shoulders and forcibly stood him up to look him in the eye. His blue eyes blazed in anger and outrage, but his tone barely scratched upon a low yell. “Alex, how did you do that!?”

  “What did I do?” He felt weak under the icy staring barrage.

&nbs
p; “By all that is good, How. Did. You. Do. That?!” He enunciated each word with careful punctuation.

  “I haven’t a clue what you mean!”

  Gerieg realized he was speaking the truth. He released his grasp, but Alex managed to stand though it was difficult. He pivoted around and began pacing back and forth in the grass, speaking incoherently to himself. After a minute of this he stopped and settled his gaze on the boy with uncertainty. Gerieg then cleared his throat, looking away from him. He walked forward and picked up his sword. He then used the tip to point towards Shade, who was accessing the situation to see if he should intervene. “Alex, sit by Shade right now.” He demanded in a tight voice.

  Still in pain and hoping for a chance to take a break Alex walked over to Shade’s side and sat. Once he could sit as comfortably as the welts would allow, he chanced a glance across the camp.

  Gerieg returned to pacing again while Elo and Sheer watched Alex with wary expressions. Once Gerieg’s pace slowed, he had calmed to an extent. He sat between his partners and set another unwavering stare on the two siblings. In a calmer tone, but no less intense, he said “Alex, you should not be able to do that.” before he could ask what he meant by that Gerieg elaborated. “What you did shouldn’t be possible at your age, let alone overpowering my will so easily. What you did is what we Furions call Dominance. I was foolish to believe that your successful adventures were merely due to having the greatest of luck.” He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he looked up again he was slightly calmer. “Dominance is the greatest power a Furion can ever hope to possess and I have never heard of someone so young using it the way you just did. Two-and-thirty years is the youngest I know of. Nineteen is preposterous. What Dominance does is force your will upon another to do as you want them to do. It’s a trait similar to a hierarchy among wolves. Those with the greatest will, dominates the pack as the Alpha. Those with a will weaker than yours will obey you without question, but a strong will can resist to a certain degree. You cannot force them to do certain things like having them fall in love with you, but you can always persuade them to listen to you. It took me to my fortieth year to obtain that skill you used by instinct alone. Some Furions couldn’t achieve the skill and died in regret for the power that eluded them. I was caught unprepared and your Dominance forced me to stop. If I had of known you possessed such power then we wouldn’t have been so reluctant to alter the old traditions.” He looked between Elo and Sheer for only a moment. “It seems as if we can increase your skills faster than our original assessment.”

  Alex shuddered at the thought about something new to learn. It would most certainly turn out to be more difficult than what they’ve done this day. Hoping to ease those thoughts away he asked in a strained voice “What causes Dominance?”

  Gerieg became even more serious than before and his exposed torso rippled as he strained to remain calm. “Certain triggers will activate your abilities, but what those are we shall figure out together. I must caution you though, if you ever force your dominance on my teachings again there will be consequences you will undoubtedly dread.” Alex didn’t want to tempt what those punishments would be. He leaned forward and said “Since this is unheard of, we will immediately begin trying to find your trigger in harnessing your physical abilities.”

  “Trigger? You’ve said that twice now. What do you mean?”

  He nodded. “It is as the word sounds. In the beginning for each of us, a Furion’s abilities are activated by certain exterior triggers that differ between the individual. Usually the trigger of inducing an episode is aggression or anger, but yours isn’t. If it was then instead of activating your Dominance you would have fought me like no other mortal. Tell me, what do you feel physically when your powers awaken.”

  Alex explained and his master listened, nodding periodically because Gerieg knew the feeling like none Alex has ever met or could understand. And he ended what it all felt like by saying “and my body gets extremely hot. One time Lily tried touching me and she almost burnt her hand.” After saying that, Gerieg’s eyebrows almost imbedded themselves in his hairline. “Did I say something wrong?”

  He sighed in what sounded like relief. “Nay, but I am glad to have arrived as quickly as I did. It is now apparent that your abilities are quite powerful. If we hadn’t have arrived so soon we could have been too late. If three or four more episodes had happened and you didn’t release the energy, your abilities would have most certainly have killed you.” He took another deep breath to say “What you speak of is Fire Touch. That is the most dangerous physical ability in our arsenal. I’m surprised your clothes didn’t ignite, truthfully. You know heat is power.” Alex nodded. “Well the heat we give off is a product of our power. In time, we learn to control it so as to not make the clothes burn off from our flesh.” He tilted his head questioningly. “When you were a child, did you always run a temperature?” he nodded. “As a boy did you faint much?”

  “Aye, but why are you asking me this? I’ve always been told I ran feverish. You cannot mean it was actually…” Alex trailed off in thought.

  He raised a single finger towards the sky and stars. “Because that was your inherent item,” Alex went silent and was glad Gerieg elaborated. “As what happens to all young Furions, you were easily overheated. Your body became so hot that you couldn’t handle it anymore and passed out. Most likely you were submerged in water to cool you off before you had heatstroke.” This realization brought back the memories of waking up in the spring pond back at his home. Uncle Gambit would always be there when he awoke, floating in the water too. Alex always ask him what happened, but Gambit would shrug and say he fainted from the heat. “The body of children cannot regulate itself like that of an adult’s. One benefit we have over other humans is that because we run hotter, we do not get sick nearly as often and it only lasts half the usual time. Another would be we rarely get cold, especially after our training is complete.” Then he clasped his hands together. “Alex, you realize that when we find that trigger that you will need my help, don’t you?” he nodded. “Good, until we find it I will tell stories and see what angers you to no end. Tell me immediately when you start feeling your heart pound like it does when your strength heightens. We will then begin to control it together.”

  He first put his tunic back on before telling a sad story between two young lovers. Alex wondered why he was telling stories, but remained silent and listened for this must be part of his plans in teaching him how to save himself. The lovers met only once as kids, but their love was sealed by fate. The story continued as they went their separate ways, but found each other again. When they met again a jealous king killed the young woman’s beloved before her very eyes and in turn she killed the king in a rage. She then took her own life for what she had done and hoped to find her love in the next life. When Gerieg went silent he realized the words meant little to Alex. Sadness and suicide wasn’t a trigger apparently.

  In the middle of the third story, Shade couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer and rolled upon his side and drifted off into sleep. Alex took the moment of opportunity to put his tunic back on, as the master had a drink.

  By the time midnight had come, Gerieg told seven stories. It became apparent that he was telling stories in an order to find what caused his abilities to bloom. First it was sadness, followed by fear, jealousy, betrayal, murder, horror and lastly loss. His stories were so vivid and detailed that Alex could swear that he was there and apart of the story, knew the people he spoke of and his senses could smell what he spoke of and his mind’s eye saw each story played out with clarity. Gerieg was the best storyteller he’s ever heard. Unfortunately he was too good at telling because Alex almost lost his meal on several occasions.

  As the last story ended he sighed. “It seems like we must continue this tomorrow.” He seemed uncertain in what he said, but didn’t rely on the thought for long. They were all exhausted and required sleep. Alex leaned back, feeling that Shade’s coat was finally dry
and he breathed slow and deeply.

  Before Alex thought to close his eyes, Gerieg stretched his legs out and a thought entered his mind. Before Gerieg leaned back to sleep upon Elo’s outstretched foreleg for a pillow Alex asked “Master,” he stopped to look in his direction. “why is it that neither of us wear shoes?”

  He smiled like he’s told this a thousand times. “Because it goes against our instincts.” He said obviously. “It isn’t natural for animals to wear protective footings because it is a survival instinct. Ever try to put cloth on a dog’s feet? They cannot walk right.” He chuckled dryly. “Should there be danger on the ground that could harm our sensitive feet we must avoid it. We Furions are closer to animals than any other human and to deprive one of your greatest senses will only lead to your death. For instance, a snake could feel you coming from the vibrations in the ground, but to separate it from the vibrations wouldn’t give it any time to avoid your approach and you could step on the snake who was unprepared.” When he said it, it made more sense. When he saw Alex’s smile he said “Sleep well.” With that he lowered his head and was soon asleep.

  Exhaustion won out and Alex dropped his head on Shade’s ribs and was soon asleep. The only thing that didn’t hurt was his back, sleeping on his sides were out of the question. Because of the current physical and mental state, Alex didn’t have a dream that could be remembered or recounted.

  Alex awoke again, around the same time as yesterday, before the sun rose, but this time everyone remained in the clearing and were all still sleeping. The morning air still held a hint of warmth, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The more he became aware of his surroundings so too did the senses of his body announce its painful state.