The soft winds blew over the forest, and the grass on the field rustled.
As the winds caressed his face, Sundrin stood there like a statue, looking at the old woman, gently smiling in his direction,
"Hello there, child."
The old woman spoke in a soft gentle tone with the same motherly smile on her face.
Sundrin was shaken out of his reverie and blushed a bit,
"Umm, hello there ma'am. Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."
He said with a shy smile, he didn't know why, but the woman in front of him gave off the same gentle feeling that his mother did.
The old woman let out a soft giggle at Sundrin's cute reaction, which only caused the shade of red on Sundrin's face to deepen,
"Don't worry, you didn't disturb me in the least. Leaving that aside, why is a kid like you here in the forest in the middle of the night?"
The lady talked with a very composed and dignified tone, which only enhanced her beauty.
All the embarrassment on Sundrin's face disappeared as he panicked. He had sneaked out of the cottage even though Survath had told him to rest, if he found out about it, he would be in for a beating,
"Hahaha, your reaction tells me you were doing something you shouldn't have been."
The woman's laughter rang out through the clearing as Sundrin could only scratch the back of his head and smile wryly after having been found out,
"Can I ask what your name is, ma'am?"
He asked, wanting to change the subject. The old woman just smiled and opened her mouth to speak,
"My name's Ignessa, but you can just call me granny."
Sundrin nodded and said with a smile,
"Then I will just call you granny. My name's Sundrin, nice to meet your granny Ignessa."
Ignessa also smiled brightly as she said,
"Nice to meet you too, Sundrin. Well then, how about you come accompany your granny for a bit."
Sundrin was surprised by her request but quickly nodded. He was also curious about this old woman, and right now, he was in dire need of a distraction, or else he would go crazy from the frustration he felt.
Stepping a bit forward, he sat down before the boulder and looked up at Ignessa, who was still smiling,
"Well then, Sundrin, how are your days going after coming here?"
The woman asked as she put the veena beside her,
"Not bad, I made a friend at the awakening ceremony, and right now I am training hard to further strengthen myself."
"Oh? That is nice. Is there some kind of goal you want to achieve that can only be done through power?"
Sundrin was caught off guard by this question as he had not put much thought into this before, but after thinking for a while, a smile crept onto his face as he replied,
"Goal? Not really, I just enjoy training, and if our tribe wants to survive, they need powerful warriors to hunt. My mother and father always tell me to put the tribe before anything else, so I wanna play my part for the tribe."
This time, it was Ignessa's turn to be caught off guard, and suddenly she began to laugh softly,
"Huh? Did I say something wrong?"
Sundrin asked embarrassed,
"No no, what you said is indeed true. I was just thinking that Sundrin is a good kid."
Ignessa said with a soft and gentle smile, her impression of Sundrin further improved as the kid in question blushed after being complimented for the first time from someone other than his parents.
But then, as he was going to smile joyfully, he remembered he could not even form a basic fire arrow, and his expression flattened.
The old woman noticed the change in the kid's expression, and her smile vanished as she asked seriously,
"Is something wrong? Is someone bullying you?"
She asked with a stern tone similar to his mother,
"Huh? No no, it's just that…. I have been trying to perform a move, but no matter how many times I try, I just can't do it. Master said I have the ability, but my mind isn't calm enough."
He said with a depressed tone as he wondered what he was doing wrong
Ignessa, upon hearing Sundrin's response, smiled again and said with a gentle expression,"Sometimes the mind just isn't calm because you don't let it rest. How about taking a break and then going back to the problem?"
"Master said the same thing, but it's just that…. I just don't know what to do when I take a break. I mean, I have always trained and trained as that was the only thing I enjoyed, so I don't know anything other than that."
Ignessa's eyes widened at Sundrin's response before she finally broke into another fit of laughter.
Sudnrin grew embarrassed as he wished he could just dig a hole and hide in it.
Finally, after a while Ignessa stopped laughing and looked at him with a smile,
"Then, how about you learn to play the veena with me?"
Sundrin was stunned by her response, but after thinking about it a bit, he nodded in response as he might as well do something rather than sit idly all the time,
"Umm, I don't know anything about the veena, can you teach me, Granny Ignessa?"
He asked softly as anticipation filled his eyes. he had just chosen on a whim but now that he thought about learning something new, he found it quite exciting,
"Sure, why not?"
Ignessa said with the same gentle smile as she got up and jumped from the boulder and landed softly on the floor with her veena.
What was more surprising was that she made no sound as she landed.
Sundrin had a sharp mind, so it was no surprise that he quickly deduced that this granny of his must have a special status, otherwise she wouldn't be here this late.
And after Ignessa landed on the ground softly, he was also sure that she had tremendous power hidden in that delicate old body.
But he didn't care much about who she was, so he quickly stood up and bowed towards her,
"Thanks for guiding me."
He said to the smiling Ignessa just as his parents had taught him.
Soon his classes began, and he started by remembering the position frets and how each cord sounded.
It might seem easy, but even Sundrin with his near-perfect memory, was having difficulty in moving his fingers across the strings without looking at them.
Ignessa told him that this was because he hadn't formed the correct muscle memory yet, and it would come with due practice.
As he practised more and more, he found that he was enjoying the process just like how he enjoyed training.
And just like that, time passed as an old woman taught a boy how to play the veena in the middle of the forest, sometimes joking and sometimes poking fun at each other.
.
.
.
.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed, and once again Sundrin stood on the training grounds.
The afternoon sun was burning intensely, and the kids sweated buckets training beneath it. Summer was just around the corner, which meant that the hunter squadrons would go on a longer hunt due to the increasing activity of beasts.
But the kids here had nothing to do with that, their lives would go on the same way it has been.
*phew~*
Sundrin exhaled sharply as he closed his eyes and raised his bow, stretching the string back.
The fire inside him rumbled and soon made its way towards his right hand, with which he was holding the string.
Soon, fire started pouring out of his right hand and quickly formed into the shape of an arrow without any delay.
Suddenly, his eyes jolted open as he let go of the arrow, and it flew across the field.
*boom!*
The arrow exploded as the huge boulder it hit was blown to pieces.
Sundrin looked on, and slowly a smile crept up on his face,
"Hell yeah!"
He said as he jumped up in excitement, nothing could beat the feeling of accomplishing a hard task and the feeling of progress.
Turning around, he looked at Survath, who stood there without any expression on his face.
Finally, he nodded towards him and left to guide the other children.
Sundrin's smile deepened as it threatened to tear apart his face. He was the first one amongst the archers to learn the fire arrow and also the first among all the students to learn the skill taught by the third elder.
Soon, evening approached, and the elder gave everyone permission to leave,
"Sundrin, you stay behind. As you have already mastered the first astra that I gave you, I will explain them and teach you the next ones."
Survath said sternly as he stood beneath the tree.
Some of the students were dissatisfied, but they knew that Sundrin's hard work had earned him this special favour, so most of them chose to work harder.
But some didn't share the same sentiment as they glared at him.
The person in question didn't care much about the glares, right now he was smiling like a dumb fool as he stood in his place.
'I must thank Granny Ignessa later, because of her lessons on veena and music, my mind has calmed down a lot. I will bring her some meat from my next hunting trip.
He made a mental note as he stopped smiling and put on a serious face when he saw that Survath was approaching.
The time had come for him to learn the next skills of an archer of the Ignisar tribe.