Light of Dawn

Chapter 16 - Twisted Traditions

~*~*~*~Several Hours Ago~*~*~*~

"Okay bear with me Ken, this is going to-" Crack. "Hurt."

Jake's entire body twisted along with his face after the sharp pain that shot through it when the medic turned his head to the side. His name was Gen and he was testing Jake's neck for mobility after taking a mule kick right to the jaw which apparently had given him a bad concussion and severe whiplash. They had their own witch take care of those but Jake was still feeling the brunt of those injuries as it turned out, so did the other Novices who unlike him were quite a bit younger. Their morning sparring session had gone by with over a dozen more severe injuries to his classmates, all of which their single witch attended to.

Jake had told them that Eve would likely be happy to help but he'd received a cuff to the back of the head for his troubles. One outsider learning their ways was already one too many it seemed to Jake. But now that he thought about it, he didn't think that Eve would really want to be around this kind of thing considering that it was happening to kids. Jake didn't even want to be around this but since he'd sworn himself to this he didn't have a lot of say in the matter. Not to mention the fact that he was being cuffed upside the head again, that was certainly a strange feeling especially after all that had happened to him the past few months.

He was rubbing the back of his neck and looked over at his now permanent training partner—or at least until he earned his first mark of mastery—in Sojiro. The two of them had been informed of this by Lady Yuki who had come to see them while they were being attended to. Sojiro wasn't happy about it at all but when Yuki said something to him in Japanese he ceased his arguments. Jake wasn't sure what it was that had been said, but he definitely caught the word Ronin in there and it made him wonder just what that actually meant to these people. His time watching bad action movies told him that it was a name that failed samurai took, but who knows what it meant to the Shinobi.

Back to Sojiro who had worse injuries than Jake did but unsurprisingly he won their little sparring match and as such he got priority treatment. He was lying back on his mat with his ankle elevated as were the witch's orders, he'd keep it elevated for at least 20 minutes. Setting bones weren't an issue for witches but seeing as their power didn't work quite so well on dark elves as they would anything else Sojiro had to wait a few extra minutes before testing his ankle. As Jake didn't have any broken bones—this time—he only needed a brief session of physical therapy to test his neck, after that he was told to go rejoin his classmates.

Jake lingered a moment to look at Sojiro who kept his eyes closed as he rested and he couldn't help but wonder to himself how he managed to do as well as he did against him. Sojiro was good friends with Rex it seemed to him, and not only that he managed to defeat Rex in their own little private match the night before. Rex may have been injured sure, but if there was anything that Jake was learning about the dark elves it was that they didn't let their injuries slow them down if they could help it. Hell Sojiro managed to win their match even though Jake broke his ankle, if that wasn't a sign of dedication then he didn't know what was. He must've lingered too long because now the medic was beginning to shoo him away, and when Jake didn't move right away they raised a thin bamboo shaft much like the one that Sano had been using. That was enough of a reason for Jake to turn tail and run back out into the training yard where he came upon a strange sight.

All of his classmates that had survived the sparring matches were all standing on small mats that looked to Jake like yoga mats. The boys had removed their shirts, as did the girls but they had a sash of sorts that hid their chests but both sexes were already soaking with sweat. Their feet were parted to shoulder width and their arms were outstretched to the sides where he saw they had dumbbells hanging from their wrists as well as draped over their shoulders. On top of that they had three bowls which Jake could see were filled to the brim with water. One rested atop their head, and one on the back of their hand or on the palm of their hand which ever they felt more comfortable doing.