The Warrior

Hide and Seek

"I'm dying! I'm dying!" Stefan yelled. I couldn't help but laugh at the idiot. It was barley nine in the morning and we had been up for the last four hours training. At the moment Stefan laid on the grass clutching his legs. He was currently riding out a cramp. "Stop laughing! It's not funny." He pouted. I could help but laugh even harder.

"I told you to stretch before we started and what did you say?" I asked. He mumbled something under his breath. "What was that? I couldn't hear you." I teased.

"I said stretching is for sissies!" He cried. You would think after not stretching before every training session he would learn his lesson as he battled the daily muscle crams, guess not. "Please, Julian! Help me!" I laughed but went over and began to help stretch his legs out. "Maybe Annie was right, maybe our plan wasn't thought out well enough. I don't think I'm the right person for this." I pushed his leg forward to stretch it. I sighed. Every time he struggles he says the same thing. His doubts and insecurities begin to rise to the surface.

"Okay, first of all Annie thinks it's a great plan, she was just scared at first. Secondly, both Annie and I think you're the perfect one for this job, and last but not least it's too late to back out now. We can't reverse what has already been done." If plan A doesn't save us we are counting on plan B. If we want plan B to work we had to do some prep work that's irreversible.

"What if I fail?" He asked wincing and holding his cramping leg.

"Stefan, you won't fail. You're already doing ten times better than me when I started my training, but I'm here to help you get even better than me. Stop doubting yourself." Stefan sighed as I released his leg.

"Sweet relief! I'm not dying." He laughed as he got to his feet. The truth was Stefan was also reaching my level in strength, speed, and agility. He's a far better tracker than me too, but the kid was so messed up by the lies Don had put in his head that he lost his self-confidence.

"What do you mean, this was just the warm up, the real training hasn't even started yet!" I chuckled and started my next lap around the property. Stefan whined and ran to catch up with me.

"So, how are things going with the doctor?" He asked now running by my side. The past four months had been terrible. Everyday the doc and I would go through a routine of injecting the toxins, letting them take their course in my body, then flushing them out. At first I could only handle one round a day then slowly we increased it two rounds of injections with a small recovery time in between each set. Every week we would increase my intake of more poison.

"Instead of it feeling as if a flamethrower is flowing through my veins it feels like boiling water. Still painful but not as terrible. I'm handling the pain a lot better and I'm recovering faster now. We've now reached a point where it takes about three minutes for me to fully recover, and that's with the triple the amount of poison than we started out with."

"Are your sure you should be doing this Julian? What if one day you do too much? How is Annie taking it?" Stefan asked now taking the lead.

"Annie hates my daily appointments and hasn't been going with me for the last two months. I think it bothers her more than she lets on. I haven't told her that I'm doing better yet, so maybe once she knows she'll feel better about it all."

"Yeah maybe. I have noticed she's quite moody lately. Have y'all been arguing?" He asked sneaking a peak back at me.

"No, not at all. Actually everything's been really good, love life and all, but I did notice the mood swings the other day. I think it's the pressures of making sure everything and everyone is prepared for when Don makes his move. I think she's super stressed out. I was planning on doing something for her tonight. Maybe a romantic dinner date?" I asked. Stefan laughed.