Sancha: A Spirit Animals Story

Sickness

A/N: There's some dark themes in this chapter (death, mental illness, poverty, childhood trauma, torture, etc...)

Also, while there's some backstory discussed here of some canon characters, most of the details I give here are from my own imagination, as we hear only a little in the actual books on the topic. So, in other words, don't freak out if you don't remember hearing about this in the books because you didn't. I just felt more detail was necessary and filled in the blanks with what I assumed may have happened. Don't take it as canon though. It's not canon except in this fanfic's universe. 

Now, with that out of the way, enjoy this new chapter. And happy holidays everyone. 

Three months passed. Sancha's training became more and more intense, but whenever she made a little ounce of progress with Spesamari, the struggle felt more than worth it. 

Along with training her to use certain weapons, Tarik continued to help Sancha strengthen and develop her bond with Spesamari. It evolved from being able to blindly locate the harbor seal to discovering abilities Sancha otherwise lacked.

The first of these was somewhat minor, though it was a start. Tarik drilled her in an exercise where she would have to run to one wall, run back, and then hit a sandbag. At first, Sancha felt as though she were going nowhere, but having managed to conquer the first exercise Tarik conducted with her, she decided to persist. Eventually, not only was she able to increase her running speed and how high she hit the wall, but she could make the bag tremble a little bit, where previously it had refused to budge. The first time she made it quiver, she found that the usual searing ache in whatever limb she tried to hit the bag with was not nearly as bad as it had been before. It was as if the pain were largely absorbed. 

When she brought it up to Tarik, he reasoned it might have something to do with Spesamari being a seal, meaning she had a robust layer of blubber, that might cushion certain blunt force blows. Perhaps Sancha had managed to replicate this by drawing from Spes whilst hitting the bag. 

After this discovery, Tarik experimented with a new form of training: water training. Seeing as Spes was a creature built best for the sea, it would make sense that Sancha might have better luck honing stronger abilities in water.  Spes certainly seemed to enjoy these sessions, splashing about and gracefully navigating beneath the water's surface. Sancha did discover she could now move more quickly and for longer in the water than on land. Soon, it wasn't uncommon for Sancha to be found walking to her room in the middle of the night, sopping wet, after going for a midnight swim alone with only her spirit animal for company.

...

When Alec didn't show up to their usual table for lunch, Sancha grew perplexed. She asked around, but few people seemed to know where he was. She eventually ran into a girl called Kirsi (who she had learned was Olvan's niece) who was a little older than Sancha, and when the latter asked after Alec, Kirsi told her that he'd gone up to his brother's quarters around an hour ago, but she hadn't seen him since. As Finn was the only other Cooley brother currently in Greenhaven, Sancha figured that Kirsi was refering to him. After getting directions, Sancha headed to a tall wooden door on the ground floor of the quarters. Spes waited patiently behind her. Just as she was about to knock, she heard a loud crash come from inside the room beyond. Then came a cry of alarm, shuffling feet, and hushed whispers. Sancha hesitated. She was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread. Deja vu seemed to flood back and she thought of Drina and the episodes Sancha had overheard and witnessed. Her fist hung in the air near the door, not knocking, as if time had paused.

A cry of pain, something falling over and heavy breathing sounded from behind the door. Then she heard Alec's voice, clearly this time.