Captain Lark’s Training Arc

The next few days were agony as the pain worsened, and the urge to scratch the growing scabs intensified. Worst of all, I was practically bedridden. I felt so useless. As the dwarven family tended to me, I couldn’t do anything in return.

It sucked.

Pippa would occasionally wander off with Unnr. It seemed she had taken a liking to her. I don’t know what they got up to, but I knew Pippa long enough not to question whatever mischief she was causing.

Most of my time was divided between medical checkups with Túta and occasional visits to watch the goings-on of the forge. As I sat in the corner of the forge, I noticed Bjørn slowly approaching.

“Boy, I wanted to discuss something with you.”

“Yeah? What is it? If it is about marrying Túta, you already know Unnr will kill you.”

“It’s not about that. Although if you are interested, the offer is there. But the matter I wanted to discuss was regarding this.”

He had an item wrapped in a cloth. He began to unwrap it to reveal the Tetanus blade.

“May I ask where you got that blade?”

“Why is it rare? Is it a legendary weapon?”

“Hohoho~ God No! It’s rusty beyond all imagination and is in a generally poor condition. It may be the worst blade I've ever seen. My boy, I feel bad for you. If that’s your main weapon, it is hardly surprising you wound up in such an awful state.”

His comments caused me psychic damage. Not because of the reference to my injuries, and sure, I knew that the blade was bad. But after all we went through together, this blade was special. It was like a part of me. So when he attacked the blade, it felt like an attack against me.

“Surely it’s not all that bad,” I tried to protest.

“Oh, are you doubting my dwarven eyes?”

“No! Of course not.”

“Hohoho~ I’m just messing with you, boy.”

I sighed in relief.

“So, it’s not actually a bad knife?”

“No, it still is the worst blade I’ve seen,” he stated so definitively that it once again hurt me on a spiritual level. “I was teasing about the dwarven eyes bit. Anyway, the reason I wanted to discuss this with you was because I wanted to see if you would let me toss that blade away and make you a brand new one?”

Wait! How could I even consider chucking the Tetanus Blade?

“I couldn’t ask you to do something like that. Besides, that blade has a sort of sentimental value now.”

He stroked his beard a few times.

“Ah, I see. Well, if it is sentimental, I could certainly try to reinforce it a bit so it lasts.”

“Is that possible?”

“It’ll be difficult, but I should be able to.”

“Thank you. That would mean the world to me.”

“I’ll do that on one condition.”

“I’m not agreeing to marry your daughter. She should be allowed to love whomever she wants.”

“Although I am disappointed to hear you won’t marry her, it wasn’t the condition I was going to impose.”

“Then what is your condition?”

“I still want to make a brand new blade for you.”

“I don’t have a problem with that, but are you sure?”

“A dwarf doesn’t go back on his offer.”

“Honestly, your family does too much for me.”

He didn’t say anything as he began to work the forge, but he smiled the entire time.

The forge began to heat up. It could have been the flames, or it could have been the burning passion of Bjørn. Either way, it was starting to get a little too warm for me. So I decided to drop by and see Túta.

As I entered her room, I saw her standing on her tippy toes, hands stretched upwards, trying to reach a book on a higher shelf. I wandered over and just as I reached her, she fell backward, and I caught her.

She looked up at me, her face was beetroot red. Perhaps she didn’t know I was there and felt embarrassed.

“Here, let me help. Is it this book?” I asked as I reached up over her and grabbed the book.

“Y-Y-Yes… T-thank you…” she looked to the ground. Her face was still bright red. Perhaps she was embarrassed by the fact that I helped her out.

“That’s alright.”

“Hey, wait a minute?! You’re meant to be resting,” she looked back at me, scolding me.

“But it’s so boring. Besides, I want to help out your family any way I can.”

She sighed.

“Fine, I suppose I should check how your injuries are healing up.”

She forced me to sit down and began inspecting my eye and hand.

“It’s looking quite good actually. A few more days and you’ll be good to go.”

I instinctively reached towards her to pat her head, but moved the hand that was no longer there.

“You’ve been doing that a few times lately.”

“Of course, I want to pat your head because you are so cute.”

“N-Not that you d-dummy,” She stammered. “I meant reaching forward with your missing hand.”

“Oh yeah, I guess it is a force of habit. It was my dominant hand.”

“Well, I guess we will have to retrain you.”

“I don’t need retraining.”

“Oh yeah?” she wandered over to her desk and retrieved some parchment. Slamming it on the desk. “Write your name.”

“I’m not a fool, I can do that.”

It turns out I could not do that. My handwriting was worse than a kindergartener's.

“Looks like you are going to have to train up your writing skills once more.”

The next few days, I did not see Unnr or Bjørn at all. I only saw Pippa when it was time to sleep. It was just me and the brutal hand training Túta subjected me to.

My day would begin at the stroke of light. She had me go outside and cut firewood. After I had cut all the firewood, I had to carry it over to the house. I would do this for a few hours before coming inside and beginning writing practice. Then I would end my day swinging around a wooden sword. Túta would occasionally spar with me. Although she was a healer, she was surprisingly good at swinging the wooden sword.

I had bruises on bruises. When I developed blisters, I thought she would ease off, but she said it was just proof that I needed more training and applied some ointment before getting me to repeat the exercises.

For a healer, she had no sympathy at all. However, I suppose I was also grateful for her guidance and training. Because in just a week, I had improved significantly. Sure, I still had a long way to go, but at least now it only looked like messy handwriting, not like a child had written it. I also wasn’t reaching forward with my missing hand to anyone anymore.

“I’m finally getting the hang of things now,” I said as I blocked her strike.

“Great!” She pulled back and wandered over to the pile of wooden swords. She picked up a second one. “It means we can finally step up your training.”

“This isn’t normally the role of a healer, is it?”

“I take a holistic approach.”

“That’s not what they normally mean when referring to a holistic approach.”

“Would you prefer I call it rehab?”

“I would prefer to rest, to be honest.”

“You can rest once you get the hang of things.”

“I’m pretty sure only a few days ago you were telling me I needed to rest.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Was this all to teach me a lesson?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Túta?”

She looked away before finally mumbling a reply, “I just wanted to help you.”

▪──── X ────▪

End of chapter 11