Dragon Deep

Chapter 15 - Market Day

Janice greeted me, reading my face for any signs of unhappiness. She dragged me out from my room out for the daily morning jog. I didn’t even want to see Bain. I couldn’t face him right now.

Still, Janice persuaded me to actually start jogging. I finally agreed after Raphael suggested I do so to distract my mind from things. Ren was away with the other familiars for morning exercise. It was one of the times when I wished Ren was around, with me.

I felt the wind against my face. I felt the chilling combination of sweat and the cool air. I felt my lungs expand to take in air. All those feelings felt so distant from me. I was more occupied with moping and wallowing in self-pity, as Ren called it. The jog was over before I knew it, which surprised me.

“Market day’s coming up soon! Something to look forward to. One week of holiday.” Janice attempted to cheer me up.

“Huh.” Disinterested, I looked away.

Janice cast a worried glance at Raphael, whose lips tightened slightly. Bain was being himself, terrorizing everyone with his actions. I only caught a glimpse of his black hair before I quickly turned away.

At least today’s timetable was slightly relaxing, mostly theory rather than practical. Survival skills zoomed past, with me dozing off. So did horse training. Lunch was fairly peaceful, without Bain doing anything while I quietly ate.

“Why do you even want to show him how much he had affected you?” Ren was slightly agitated.

“I am?” I was unaware of my behaviour and looked down at Ren. He flicked his tail to the side.

“Yes.”

Next was theory lesson on combat techniques. Theory was much different than practical. In theory, everything seemed easy. A step, a punch, a kick. Simple as one two three. In reality, it was hard enough remembering the technique in the split second the opponent throws a punch at you.

“There is no best combat technique. Memorizing all and perfecting them will get you nowhere. You will be very predictable.”

My ears perked up at the sound of something remotely interesting.

“The best combat technique is to have mixed styles and tactics. Of course, having a weapon would also help. This was a valuable lesson learnt from Caden Diablo.” The instructor said the name uneasily.

Who was that? Everyone automatically shuddered at the sound of his name. Even Bain was silent, which was rare.

“Hey Ren. Who’s Caden Diablo?” I looked down at the fluffy chinchilla, close to dozing off.

Ren’s tail dropped, the chinchilla version of jaws dropping.

“Did you seriously just ask that? Or are you joking?”

My silence assured him that I was not joking.

“He’s…a psychopath.”

“I do know a particular psychopath, but I’m not even that scared of him.”

“He’s different… He plays games with people. If you’re unlucky enough to be chosen as his next ‘lucky’ one, you’re doomed. He makes you kill people in order to save the people you love. He toys with your brain inside out until he’s had his fun. Then, he will torture you slowly till death. Not very nice, trust me.”

“That’s just the first part. If he can’t outsmart you, he will defeat you in any form of battle, whether hand-to-hand, weapon or powers. To add on to that, his familiar is a Devil Dragon. The worst of all evil. He’s just psycho, inside and out.”