Long Island

Chapter 6: Rabbit and.....

Lady Altia simply accepted the situation. "The Goddess does what the Goddess wants!" she simply nodded.

Lady Altia thought for a bit.

"Well if that is your situation, it cannot be helped. However the training will now take much longer than I anticipated. I cannot be away from the school that long. The days you do not show, I will go back to the village. I will try to come every third day, but I cannot be sure. So lets do things like this.

I will make you a training plan to follow. The days we do meet, we can continue our lessons. On the other days, you will train according to this plan. Agreed?"

"Yes, Master."

Lady Altia, waved her hand and soon got a piece of paper and a pen with a long feather. Later, he would find out the pen was called a quill. She started writing a list of things to do and gave it to Raka to read.

"Can you understand what is written? If yes, could you please read it aloud so that I know."

"Um...okay. Uh..One, climb up and down the mountain 5 times. Two, uh...practice forms for 5 hours. Three, try striking the dummy with full force following the forms."

"Master, what dummy?"

"He he he the training dummy we will make and put here. There is a lot of wood around and with a bit of rope, I think we can make you a very nice training partner!" Lady Altia smiled.

"Alright so do you understand the instructions? do you have any questions or doubts?"

"Um...master, this isn't related to this list but I have a question. May I ask?"

"Go ahead, but better make it snappy."

"Yes master! I would like to know how do you make things appear just by waving your hand?"

"So that's your question? I thought it was a bit more important. Anyways the answer is magic. I use magic to connect to my house. All things I bring out are things which are already at my place."

'Magic sure is convenient.' If he could learn this, travelling would become a lot simpler. He asked,

"Master, could you teach me this magic also?"

"Ah! I am sorry. But I think that you rather learn this from Verina. She's the expert. But even if you learn, I don't think it would be of much use to you. After all, this magic is very limited in range. You would need a place to store things, like a house, which is expensive in the village. And then you could only connect to it from close by. This hill is still within range. Once you go far away or leave the island this would not work for you. Well you better ask Verina. I only learned a few magics, but mostly because I could instinctively use it. I wouldn't be able to explain properly anyway."

'So that's how it is.' Raka could still think of a few uses for it but as Lady Altia said, Lady Verina would be the one to answer his questions.

"Well thats that. So shall we begin your training now! He he he, I wonder how fast you have become."

After which he was politely asked to climb the hill 5 times.

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Next day, Swamy could stay attentive in his classes. Well, he had decided that he didn't have a choice in his playing time. He could only try his hardest within the time he could play. The only things which suffered were his cooking and flute playing skills. Without Lady Altia teaching him, and he unable to hunt, he did not know how to proceed. After all you do not find a one horned rabbit the size of a dog, in the convenience store.