41 - Fjörutíu og Einn

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Bayo's sudden protective demeanor, ever since we entered Fala, did not go unnoticed. I couldn't tell if he was playing 'mates' or he was seriously on edge. I knew I could take care of myself, but apparently he didn't think so.

He offered the bed to me to sleep in, but I said I'd fit in the loveseat better than he would, so we had a good night's sleep without incident.

I woke up to hear the shower running, and decided to get my clothes out for the day before Bayo came out.

I placed my bag on the bed and decided to wear my racerback sports bra with thick straps that'd hopefully cover my mark along with a pair of yoga pants. As I was rummaging the bag for my collared shirt, I noticed something catch the sunlight on the bed side-table.

I went close to it and saw that it was the cloveroot pendant.

"You're kidding me. Right?" said Ima.

I reached out to Bayo to see if I could reach him, but he wasn't there. This was his pendant, and he wasn't wearing it.

I kept the pendant back and took out the clothes I had planned for the day. I sat on the edge of the bed waiting for Bayo to come out.

Soon enough, the washroom door opened and Bayo came out in just a towel.

"Waiting for me?" he asked, smirking.

"Your pendant, you don't have it on," I said.

I noticed the tiniest glimmer of panic on his face before he instantly regained composure.

"So? I went to take a shower, didn't want it to get wet," he said, turning away from me and getting some clothes from his bag.

"Bayo. You told me specifically to never remove it. How come yours is off," he said.

"Rayne it isn't such a big deal. You were asleep and I just got it off for a minute. Why the fuss?" he said.

"He willingly removed the necklace. His excuse is that he didn't want it to get wet?" asked Ima, clearly annoyed. "I don't like this Rayne."

Bayo put on a black tshirt and then put the necklace on again.

"See. Happy now?" he asked through the link.

I just rolled my eyes and took my turn to freshen up for the day.

...

We'd had a light breakfast at the mess in the pack house and then found our way to the training field where Gamma Fraser was waiting for us.

A group of near 30 warriors stood behind him, awaiting instructions for the day.

"As requested, I have assembled the least disciplined warriors. They're still pretty adept and strong, not complete idiots. What are you on about?" he asked.

"May I begin?" I asked him.

He nodded to me and stood at a distance with Bayo and a few more warriors who seemed intrigued about what was going on.

"All right people, Liet Combat 101," I could feel the power radiate from my voice. This is something I always dreamt of doing at my own pack, training warriors, before I had to leave so suddenly.

"I'm Rayne, and I'll be taking you through some basics of how to handle Liet members like us, that may be hostile towards you in a real fight scenario," I told them.

I noticed that most of the warriors here were teenagers, in the starting phase of their training. They did not seem like warriors to me at all.

I looked at Fraser and noticed a small group of more experienced warriors standing behind him like wooden planks.

"Oftentimes it is possible for a highly experienced warrior to feel overwhelmed in a fight with Liet band members. It's not because they aren't good enough, or skilled enough, or capable. It's because of their extremely high standards of discipline," I said, addressing Fraser at the end.

"To win against a Liet band, you are dependent on your wolves, and you are forced to become wild and aggressive to match them.

"Abandoning years of instilled discipline for the sake of being able to fight against them is near impossible. And since the more experienced of you are capable enough to take them on anyway, I thought it would be better to start Liet combat with a blank canvas. And that's all of you," I said, my arms wide in welcome to the young boys and girls in front of me.

"I leave the technicalities to you Gamma Fraser, but I suggest you work on a group of warriors to make a specialized unit as well," I said to him, to which he nodded.

I now walked between the rows of warriors to assess the students Fraser had assembled for me. Most of them seemed confident in their stance, but some were still a little timid as I walked by.

"Discipline is necessary in any form of combat. But Liet combat probably has the least of it. You need to be able to use your own body against the Liet, in a condition where you're caught without a weapon, and the person in front of you is armed.

"The aim of Liet combat is to get out of the fight as quickly as possible. A Liet member's inherent tendency is to run, they do not wait and savor the feel of a gruesome fight like real pack warriors do. The Liet will try their best to get you off your feet and get away from the scene of action.

"In the next 3 days, I will get you started on how to actually achieve this, we'll be working individually, in pairs, and in one-on-n groups, both with and without your wolf. You will find, Liet combat is very different from what you must have learned till now so try and retain as much as you can for the next three days," I said.

I instructed the warriors to start with their warm ups when Fraser came up to me.

"I see you have everything sorted," he told me.

"Well yeah, I guess," I replied.

"Anyway, our first guests for the meeting are here, so I'm needed at the border to show them in. I'm leaving Diem to supervise," he said, pointing towards a very large man standing where Fraser just was, looking back at me.

"Okay. No problem," I said.

As Fraser went away, I noticed Bayo wasn't where I last saw him.

"Bayo?"

No response.

"He's taken it off again hasn't he?" said Ima.

"I don't know. You think he'd do that?" I asked her, a little worried.

"He wasn't wearing it this morning. What do you think I think?" she replied.

I sighed and turned my attention to the now slightly sweaty students in front of me.

"We'll deal with him later then," I told Imadis and began the first day of Liet combat training.

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