Lament of the Slave

Chapter 82: Learning to Crawl

Seriously, Deckard's storage must have been massive. He had a ton of food with him, who knows what else, and now this. On one side of the hilltop, he drove two standards into the ground and placed a bar between them. The only thing missing was a crash mat, and I'd say I'm looking at high jump equipment.

Turning my head to the other side, I looked at a set of hoops on poles, stuck in the ground at different heights and with different diameters. It wasn't hard to guess what Deckard would want me to do, but some of them were so narrow I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to get through them, let alone leap through.

None of these were the magic tools I was kind of expecting and looking forward to. Just sort of standard exercise equipment.

"I have more than one," he said in response to my inquiry about the size of his storage space, his eyes wandering to my hand. "...and much better ones than the ring you got at the barracks, girl. A lot more expensive too."

Yeah, no kidding. I've already been told the ring was a piece of crap and that its enchantment won't last long. Hence my piqued curiosity.

"Come on, tell me," I said and raised my hand, tapping the ring. "Sooner or later, I'm going to have to buy a new one."

He smirked. "I would say sooner than later. Anyway, when you're solo, you need more space than a company seeker. I'd say two cubic meters is the baseline if you're not going to haul anything out of the labyrinth to sell."

Bloody hell! That was a lot of space just for supplies. Not hard to imagine, though. With my current level of appetite, it looked like a full cubic meter would be taken up just by cheap food. Then there were spare clothes, potions, Thread, and other stuff.

He didn't answer my question, though. I wasn't stupid enough not to notice. Yet, I've given up all thoughts of pushing the issue any further. He must have had a reason for not telling me. That's what it felt like.

Instead, I looked around. "So this..."

"...is not all," he cut me off, smirking. I frowned but didn't ask. There was no reason when I saw him taking out what looked like a hurdle, sticking it in the ground on the track the next moment. Then he walked around the course and placed more of them for me to jump over while extending it by quite a bit.

"I don't think I need to explain much," Deckard said as he walked back to the top of the hill. "You're learning how to run. Now you should also learn how to jump and land."

That's what I gathered from what I saw. "I thought you were going to teach me your fighting style?"

"Defense first and foremost," he said. "If your attack fails, you have no choice but to defend yourself."

"Running away is not a defense," I argued.

He gestured to the track. "If the defense fails, you run."

"And these?" I glanced around.

"It's nice if you can dodge an attack, but if you break your arm on landing, it doesn't do you much good, does it?" He raised an eyebrow, taunting me to answer.

If he thought I would argue with him, he was wrong. I understood where he was going with this, and I had to admire his patience. "You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, huh?"

"What?" He paused. "I want to teach you how to land, how to make a roll. Not crawl."

"Oh, I get that. It's just saying where I come from. Meaning I have to learn the basics first."

Deckard gave me a slight nod and gestured around. "Then learn them!"

"Where do I start?" There was no point in hesitating.