The Haven High Book Series (Wattys2017)

Chapter 6

Travis sat on the bus on his way to Lauren's while the muscles of his legs vibrated. He stunk to high heaven from the gallons of sweat that he'd shed like tears when le Fay had put him through his paces.

He had gone through his hand to hand training class with Steinman a dwarf and the school smithy just fine; he'd even gotten the upper hand with her once, just once. But that was enough to make this, one of his all time favorite days. Well at least it was certainly in his top ten, he was smiling like a big stupid jerk when they went into weapons training.

And that's what probably drew her attention to him.

He went to do what he normally did which was help the instructors move targets and obstacles around, and set up mock battle stations. Today when he went to lift a bale of hay to move it to the archery range, he caught the ancient druid's eye. le Fay called him over to her with a crook of her finger, and a sneer already on her face.

Really, the woman could be the most unpleasant person to deal with, just ask anyone, especially poor Lauren who was unfortunate enough to have her as her mentor.

"You there," she intoned in her creepy British accent," come here." She pointed to the ground nearest to her, to indicate the spot she wanted him to occupy.

Wow! Rude much! He'd thought.

Faith Morgan is her human name, but everyone knows who she really is: the ancient apprentice of Merlin himself. The one, the only, Morgan le Fay the supposed evil sorceress who'd caused so much trouble for the Knights of the Round Table.

And it must be true because there are times you can just taste the bad blood between her and Knight.

Now she teaches two classes at his school -- Math and teleportation. But he doesn't have any with her and it's the one time he's really glad of his remedial classes, because it means he doesn't have to sit in a room and have her look at him the way she looked at him then.

Like he was a worm who'd crawled into her shoe, seriously why is she even a teacher if she hates kids that much? He thought while he wiped the condensation off of the bus window.

Now he was on the bus reliving the awful hours with her and it was like he was there all over again.

Of course, he'd gone over to her what other choice did he have? When he reached her she looked him up and down with distain and commanded, "Grab that quiver and bow; you train with me today."

She turned and walked away from him without another word totally expecting him to follow, but he stood his ground. When she realized he wasn't behind her she turned around with an ugly sneer and bit out, "What are you doing? I told you to follow me."

Travis didn't know what to do he'd had this argument years ago when he became enlightened. It had taken a lot of head butting with the teachers of the school to finally get them to understand, but he'd never picked up a weapon and he was proud of that.

He wasn't about to start now, but he didn't have the words to explain again. He had thought the argument was over, yet strangely, she was dredging it back up.

"I don't . . . "he started, "I can't . . ." he continued, "I won't . . ." everyone was looking at him now and he turned beet red with embarrassment. He didn't like to draw attention to himself especially during a confrontation it reminded him too much of the days he'd spent being bullied -- the crowds that used to gather to watch and jeer were cemented in his mind.

"Now listen here you cur. I will have none of your misguided ideologies. Now pick it up or there will be consequences." She demanded all the while pointing at him menacingly.

He knew with just a thought or a twitch she could do just about anything, but he wouldn't be bullied or cowed -- not ever again.

So he said in a clear resolute voice, "I'll take the consequences."

He never lost eye contact with her, not for a second, and he was totally surprised when she smiled back at him after his defiance like she'd won the battle.

"Well then you give me no choice, as you are in direct violation of a trainer's orders, you must run the track until you pick up a weapon."

He could see from the corner of his eye that Knight started to come over to address the issue and possibly to help him out.

But she threw up her hand to halt him in his tracks, saying, "These are dangerous times Timothy. The ill prepared warrior is a dead warrior, and you know it. We haven't any time for this nonsense." She finished.

The fact that she referred to Galahad, her old adversary, by his human first name was not lost on Travis. It sounded more like an insult to him, but apparently she said something right because Knight just nodded to her and went back to teaching sword thrusts to his group.

He was on his own.

"WELL?" she leered.

Travis squared his shoulders and stood at his full height, "I choose run," he said.

"So be it."

Mountain trolls aren't made for running. Climbing yes, running no. Their joints carry a lot of extra weight around. He has thick strong thighs, but that wasn't going to help him get through this ordeal.

The track circled the entire practice field and was maybe 5 miles round. He just walked over to it and began to run. There was a little less than an hour and a half left maybe if he paced himself he could make it.

He started in at a slow jog, but before he had even gone a quarter of a mile he heard le Fay's amplified voice.

"Did I say fast walk Mr. Stone? No, I said run!"

A lightning bolt hit the ground at his feet.

Her booming voice could be heard by everyone in the gym.

"If you slow down once again that will be aimed slightly higher."

What the fuck, Trav thought, can she do that?

But apparently she could because no one came to stop her.

So yeah that was his lovely school, where torturing students was part of the curriculum.

He started to fast jog then.

But she yelled, "FASTER Mr. Stone!"

So he just tore it up. He was so angry for being humiliated once again. He thought those days were behind him, yet here he was.

He made it once around the 5 mile track breathing heavy and feeling more tired than he should really.

Then she amplified her voice again to ask, "Ready to pick up a weapon Mr. Stone?"

He just shook his head no and kept running, but that wasn't good enough.

"I can't hear you Mr. Stone."

"No!" He bellowed.

And he made another loop. She asked him the same question every time and he answered the same way -- around and around he went. He'd lost track of the number of times around the track, but he'd gotten zapped once when he slowed down near the end. He had a huge charred blister where the bolt had burned him, but the troll bile had cured that. What it couldn't cure was the memory of it. The scar was gone on the surface, but it still remained underneath.

Travis let out a huge sigh as he drew his finger around on the renewed condensation sadly. He'd gotten through today by the skin of his teeth. He just prayed to God that by tomorrow she would move on to torturing someone else. 

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This chapter is a longish one; so I've decided to upload it in two chapters. Enjoy!

The next chapter dishes on all the bad guys. So you'll want to read on. *Hugs*

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