The Lone Wolf's Bride

[17] Training

"You haven't told me anything about what I want to know."

Eli glanced at Astra. They were resting after training for a whole 3 hours. It was their second session and Astra was getting impatient with just physical training.

"All right. First tell me what you do know," said Eli as she stretched her legs.

"Uncle Nyx didn't tell me much, but he did tell me a story when the Moon Goddess created werewolves and vampires," Astra said.

"Go on," encouraged Eli.

"He said because the corrupted men on earth, the Goddess put vampires and werewolves to protect mother earth. Then the werewolves became greedy and invaded the vampires' land. That event is the start of the feud between them," Astra explained.

"That is... So not what happen," told Eli with a little chuckle. "The first part is true. The Moon Goddess created those two species. But after the problem with human was settled, it was the vampires who attacked the wolf. That's the truth. I read it on a really ancient history book, so it's totally legit."

"I knew it. Everything my uncle told me probably all lies."

"Well, we can judge that asshole later. Now, you have to get up and start again," Eli suggested.

"You mean start a new open relationship with my family?" the girl innocently asked.

Eli on the other hand just smirked. "Yeah right. Get up and run 70 laps before my magic hits you."

The young vampire groaned, "can we do something else other than that?"

Despite what she said, Astra still obeyed Eli. She ran as Eli's magic blast followed on her tail like a missile. This was something she agreed to do before, but she didn't realize Eli would be relentless on her.

"We still need to strengthen your basic. Maybe after that we can move to something more advance," explained Eli.

"How about magic?" suggested Astra. "I saw my uncle frequently use it and I remember you canceled his last attack that day."

"No," Eli said firmly.

"Why not?"

"I don't teach magic to vampires," the witch uttered with disgust.

Astra slowed her pace and glaced at Eli. She about to say something but the witch's magic caught up to her and blasted her on spot. Astra was tossed away for several meters because of the blast.

"Ugh," the girl groaned painfully.

"You want to hear a story? Fine. Let me tell you an ancient story from our perspective."

Using her staff, Eli filled the room with magic circles. Each of the circles materialized and soon a complete scenery emerged. It was the dark age, the time of despair.

"Humans are greedy in nature, yes. Some humans from the past were too over themselves. They would do anything to satisfy their needs.

"Until one day, mystic creatures terrorized their land. Many were killed and the rest was forced to live in fear. Nowhere is safe. No-one to trust because those creatures can look exactly like us.

"In those dark times, my ancestor found something that can only be called magic. With it they found a way to fight back their home. They succeeded, they pushed back the creatures from their land. Finally peace was restored.

"Centuries passed and an unlikely cooperation was made. Some vampires visited a village where magic was found. They claimed to want to help humans do better. The kind humans accepted them and let them stay around. Over the vampires astonishment of magic, the village witch taught them with basics.

"In only short term, the vampires were already proceeding past their master. After they got what they wanted from humans, they killed the witch and all of her disciples. Soon it was clear as to why the vampires want to learn magic. Those blood sucking creatures used it to overthrown the werewolves. They did it. They ruled the earth.

"Humans lost their trust for witches because of the vampires. Many witches were hunted down, hanged, burned, killed. But we refused to go down. We cannot hurt the stupid humans and we were too weak against vampires. There was only one option left. We decided to serve the werewolves in return for their aid.

"It turned out working with the wolves is not bad at all. Most of the werewolf packs that the witches worked with was kind enough to consider them their own. One of them is my ancestor in Freya's pack. As you can see, the werewolves stay true to us."

When Eli finished her story, the scenery turned back to normal. It felt like they live through the story and turn back to real life the next. Astra was quite devastated after hearing the story. She knew what her uncle told her is a lie, but she never predicted the truth to be so cold.

"I hope you understand why I can't make myself teach magic to a vampire," Eli pleaded.

"Eli... I-I," Astra was unable to open her mouth even when her heart screamed forgiveness upon her kind.

The young witch wiped the tears that threatening to fall. "I'm sorry, Astra. I told myself to see you as a person when I decided to tell Freya. And I like you, I really do. I guess somewhere in my heart I'm afraid you will turn down on us like the vampires in my story," Eli confessed.

"No. You have every right to doubt me. Heck I'm even going to doubt myself if I'm in your shoe," Astra said meaningfully. "You do what's best to protect your master, your friend. And I'm going to proof myself to both of you that I'm not like those other vampires."

Eli smiled hearing Astra's answer. She knew Astra is different. She was not your typical vampire-human hybrid. She was her own choice.

"Actually if I'm being honest, you're the first vampire that I had ever met," admitted Eli.

"You mean you're first vampire friend?" asked Astra playfully.

"My first vampire best friend," corrected Eli.

Astra opened her arms wide. "Hug?"

"Why not," Eli closed in and completed the hug. "Just remember you still haven't finished your training for today."

Astra loosened the hug so she could look at Eli whose a little bit taller than her. "Do you really have to be so cold hearted after this moment?"

"You know me, Astra. You know how hard I can be," joked Eli letting go of their hugging session. "Come on! I want to see achievement not burnt vampire!"

And so the hellish training began again. After all, it was only a matter of time until the real danger arrives to greet them.

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A/N: I want to thank all of you, for the 4k+ reads, almost 300 votes, your comments, everyone who add LWB to their reading list, and everyone who patient enough to wait for update. If you want to check out unrelated shorts of LWB, check in to BTS.

Love,
J