Chapter 217

Dad had scaled a small portion of the Jagged Mountain within seconds. A mountain that could not usually be climbed, but only those with talismans, flying and insect type Animalia could do such a climb, but here dad was proven that to be untrue.

I remembered climbing when I needed to reach the chamber where they took Queen Daz’s power away from her, but that had not been straight up like this.

“We don’t have all day Alex,” said dad.

“Alright, I can do this.” I ran at the mountain, getting my claws out. I jumped trying to follow in dad’s example by running up it, but it was not that easy. I quickly lost momentum and slid back down, my claws scraping on the rock.

“Try again.” He held a commanding tone in his voice, so I went again, with the same outcome.

“How is that even possible,” I said panting a little.

Dad sat down, his legs dangling over the edge. “Harder than it looks.” He grinned.

“Surely you used Zekon,” I responded.

“Nope.” Larana appeared, shaking her head. “Skill alone.” She flew up to him. “As strong as ever.”

“Thank you Larana. I did have a good teacher,” he smiled. “Huh…” He seemed to go absent for a moment. “It was your idea.”

Who did he answer, it wasn’t Larana, and I would have heard Zekon. Wait. “You’re talking to Fang.”

“Well deducted,” acknowledged dad. “He has always been in my ear since my awakening, kind of a pain really.”

“But I can talk to him too,” I said.

“Yes, being a Warrior of Fang connects you with him, how I am uncertain, but I’ve always thought is he really dead, or perhaps his soul remains trapped in some form.” Dad shrugged. “As it is far rarer to hear the voice of the goddess, than his.”

“Does he tell you why?” I asked.

“Perhaps he is lonely, I don’t really know, but he is a guide none the less, thousands of years of knowledge from every Warrior of Fang who came between us and him,” informed dad. “Did you know before I became a Warrior of Fang, there had not been one for a few generations, something kept happening to them, perhaps even I if my parents had not sacrificed themselves to save me.” I’d never heard that before. “But I will tell you more later, only once we have reached our location, now climb Alex.”

“I…” I hesitated.

“Push passed your limits Alex,” said dad. “More speed, no hesitation and don’t stop.” He believed I could do it.

I ran forward, jumping, kicking off the first bit and then dashing like dad, a few meters before I lost it and slid back down. “Again.” I said to myself, running again at the rocks, getting a little further again.

“Come on master,” cheered Larana. “You can do it.”

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“Remember no helping, not even a tiny bit,” said dad, glancing at her.

“I wasn’t going to,” she huffed.

“I know you Larana, you helped me when I first started scaling bigger things than trees,” smiled dad.

“You were a special case and there was a twenty-foot drop,” mentioned Larana. I had no idea what they were talking about. Ignoring them I tried again, failing at the first bit, sliding down on my face.

“Relax Alex, you already know how to climb,” said dad.

“I’m trying!” I raised my voice.

“You can reach him.” I heard Fang. “I set this up for you to learn more about our clan, about your father and train the body further to become stronger for the battles that our yet to come.”

“Alright.” I went for it again, remembering what I had done wrong before, feeling more like a wild animal than Animalia trying to scale mountains.

I failed multiple times after that but still determined to make it up to dad, still sat there gazing down at me, with an expression of pride, which only encouraged me further to keep trying, until eventually after hours of attempts I made it, reaching the ledge dad was sat before, almost sliding back down, but dad grabbed hold of my arm.

“Got there eventually, a real trick to it,” smiled dad, pulling me up.

I sat down panting; it had taken a lot of my stamina just to scale that small portion and dad wanted us to reach the top before nightfall. “I’m sure Animalia don’t usually climb mountains for training.”

“No, they don’t, unless they do it for survival,” answered dad. “Which I had to do on a daily basis, when I was younger.” He looked up. “A short break then we’ll keep going. I still want to reach the top before nightfall. I’ve already prepared camp.”

“Excuse me,” I said. “When did you do that?”

“Yesterday,” he answered. “This time, watch carefully, my movement, each step.” I nodded. “Longer distance to do, but I am sure you can do it.” Without another word dad jumped to it, not much build up for speed, but still managed to scale up the mountain with no problem. “Your turn.”

“Okay.” I went for it following after dad but faced the same problems as the first.

It took another hour before I actually figured out how to climb on this rock material, relying less on my claws and the grip my pads provided. Climbing up after dad, determined to prove I could do this.

It took until the sun was sinking into the horizon before we reached the top, exhausted and barely able to reach the last inch, panting I made it, crawling over the last run up the mountain. It had been the craziest training I had ever done.

“I made it.” I rolled on to the ground, dad looking down at me with a smile.

“Simple, right,” he joked.

“Yeah, simple,” I chuckled. “You are crazy dad.”

“Crazy,” he chuckled. “You haven’t seen anything yet.” What the heck did that mean? “We’ll be settling here tonight.” Dad walked over to our camp, taking hold of Zekon, hovering it above the ground where he let go and the sword floated there; a red flash of light spreading around the camp.

I crawled to my feet and joined him. “Is Fang really the reason you decided to do this training with me.”

“Yes and no,” answered dad. “Never got to complete your training as I was sent away, so what better way than a little trip.” Dad had me sit down while he cooked the food, he had already brought here the day before, allowing me to recover from the climb up. “Thought it wouldn’t hurt if you had some wild training.”

“Wild training?” I stared at him.

“I will explain everything as soon as we arrive at our destination, tomorrow is going to be tricky for you,” said dad.

We ate and were soon settling to sleep, knowing dad he would have me up early, just like the training I used to have when I was younger. In the shared little tent, dad laid beside me, who was already fast asleep, it was nice to spend time with him. I hadn’t really done so since he came back from all those years trapped in that village and becoming Tigra’s Guardian had made me very busy.

“Night dad.” I smiled, even if tomorrow was tough, I would enjoy every second of it.