(Not) a clichéd fairy tale

Chapter 13

Liarya

"No. Try again. You must concentrate more."

Since we now know that information of me leaving Nularis came out, Tirian has taken the whole training me to defend myself very seriously.

And what could I say, he's a merciless teacher.

"Don't let your thoughts drift away. You must stay focused. Now try again. Feel the presence of the wings. And then close your eyes and picture them appearing" , he instructed me and I did what he said.

I pictured my beautiful white wings as they made their way out of my back, but shortly after I felt some movement there, I stopped and my eyes shot open.

Tirian gave me a defeated sigh. "It doesn't work. Why not? If you actually focus it works. But always shortly before the wings appear, you stop. Why?"

I thought for a second. If I was being honest, I didn't even want the wings to appear again. The torn skin healed pretty fast last time, but the pain was still very present in my head and I wasn't ready to feel that again.

"I... I don't want it to hurt again. It felt terrible", I explained, looking away in case he was now disappointed.

Tirian just sighed, but it sounded not disapointed, more like understanding.

"Don't worry. Your skin won't tear again. And it won't hurt. Try it once more", he instructed me and with new found courage, I closed my eyes again, and the same picture as before appeared in my head.

After a short while of only focusing on that, I felt some movement again. This time though, I didn't stop and continued picturing my wings.

My skin on my back tingled a bit and soon after, I heard a snort from Tirian, which sounded like he had to suppress his laughter.

Annoyed, I opened my eyes and turned to him. "What's wrong this time?"

"Nothing. It... half worked", Tirian answered, clearly still trying very hard not to laugh.

I just looked at him, confused. "What do you mean it half worked? Are my wings there or aren't they?", I asked again, staring at him with a confused look.

Tirian chuckles again, before slowly walking behind me and grabbing my left wing, before pulling it slightly forward.

"There. It half worked", he said and I could see he really tried not to laugh.

I looked confused at first, but after a while a thought came to my mind.

Oh...

"Wait. You said it half worked. Do you mean that there's only one?", I asked carefully, but Tirian nodded before finally starting to laugh.

He was laughing so hard, he had to sit down in the grass. I didn't necessarily find it that funny, but still chuckled a bit.

After a few more minutes of Tirian just laughing I got a bit disappointed.

"It's not that funny. I bet not even you were able to get your wings at the first try!"

He stopped laughing and stood up again, clearing his throat.

"Of course not. I have just never seen someone getting only one wing to appear. I wasn't laughing at you, It just looks so funny", he explained and grinned slightly.

I couldn't help but stare at him at that moment. It just looked so... pretty. The strange feeling in my stomach also came back and I smiled too.

For a while we just stood there, looking into each others eyes. I felt like the world stopped for me, but the moment was ruined when Tirian cleared his throat and turned around, his back now facing me.

"Do you want to try and get the other wing out too?", he asked, still looking away. I thought for a second.

I was pretty exhausted since we had been here since shortly after sunrise and we hadn't taken a break until now.

"I'm very exhausted. How about a short break and I will try again later?", I suggested with a small smile, hoping he would agree.

Tirian turned around again and slowly nodded his head. "We can take a break from training. I will tell you some important things you should know and keep in mind if you want to continue living outside a castle", he said and sat down in the grass.

I nodded quickly before sitting down next to him. I thought the idea of learning more about how the world works to be quite interesting.

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"Have you ever heard of contracts signed with blood?", he asked, as soon as I sat down.

I thought for a second, because I have heard that this was something people did, but that was all the information I had, which was exactly what I ended up telling Tirian.

"Okay, listen carefully then. Because this information is very important if you want to survive outside the castle", he said calmly and I nodded, giving him my full attention.

"As you now know, hopefully, goblins aren't the most honest creatures. They would often break contracts to get more gems than they gave away gold coins. To prevent this from happening, someone developet the concept of signing contracts with blood.

This works similar to a normal curse, where the contract can't be broken, not even if one wanted to do that. The contract simply forces you to follow what is written in it. However, you must only do exactly what is written on the paper.

So if you ever were to agree to such a contract, make sure there are either no loopholes at all, or there are ones only you can use. I would strongly advise you to not ever make such a contract, because most of the time it doesn't end well. Believe me, I'm talking out of personal experience."

His words got quiet at the end, as if he would strongly regret that he ever agreed to such a contract, which is only logical, judging by what he just told me.

I simply nodded, one hundred percent sure I would never make that mistake, but strangely, Tirian didn't seem satisfied with only a nod, and made me swear I would never do it.

"The simple nod and promise wasn't enaugh for that incident with the merchant goblin. So I'd rather make you swear you won't do it."

Were his exact words and I slowly got a feeling he was just looking for opportunities to bring that situation up over and over again.

So I swore that I would never agree to such a contract, but with the most bored sounding voice I could get. Tirian rolled his eyes but seemed at least satisfied with my answer.

After that I spontaneously decided that I didn't want to continue training that day, and after glaring at me for a moment before sighing very annoyed, Tirian and I walked back to the tavern.