Chapter 10: A Complicated Training Session

Lyra (2022)

The clouds hung low in the sky as the thunder rippled through the earth. Lightning was continuously striking the ground with a shattering force. Lyra's hair clung to her face in massive wet clumps, her eyes squinted trying to see through the thick raindrops pelting her at all angles. There was nothing she could completely make out in the darkness, and anything revealed by the flashing lightning was blurred by the rain. "Lyra" The whisper came through the storm with force, and Lyra whipped her head in multiple directions trying to locate it. "Who are you!" Her voice was drowned by the storm, but she heard a loud laugh immediately after. "You know me child." The same woman's voice she'd been hearing rang through the storm with a powerful force. "NO, I DON'T" She called out to the woman. "I Just want answers! I'm scared, I'm confused!" Lyra's desperation cut through the sky, and her sadness weighed heavy in the center of her chest. The storm came to a sudden stop, raindrops frozen, suspended in the air around her. Lightning strikes in the same position, as if time stopped, and a figure appeared directly in front of Lyra. The same woman she had seen when her power first appeared at her cottage. "What is happening to me?" Lyra spoke, her body trembling. The woman smiled at her warmly. "Darling, you have woken up, your powers are alive now. You need to build your strength in order to use it. You are not human, but you have the strength of one right now. It's why you passed out the first time." Her voice felt assuring, like a mother teaching a child how to walk. "What if I don't want these powers? I want my old life back!" Lyra shouted, and much to her dismay, the woman only chuckled. "You are destined for greatness Lyra, your old life is what you are returning to." The woman backed away from her with agonizingly slow steps, and the storm was riled up again. Lyra closed her eyes at the ferocity of the rain, and when she opened them again, the woman was gone.

Lyra shot up in the elegant, king sized purple bed, sweat beaded onto her face in a not so elegant way. She swiped down at her face and looked out the now fully opened curtains. She wasn't surprised when she saw that each of the four windows were wall height, and held intricate designs along the wooded frame. What did the woman mean that she was returning to her old life? She's not human? Well, she could have gathered that from the light beam at the cottage, but it wasn't something that she wanted to accept just yet. She looked over to the other side of the bed, and saw it was completely made up, and she was sure that a quarter could bounce off of it. It took most of her strength, mentally, to get out of the bed, and make her way to the bathroom. When she flicked the light switch on she saw a pile of neatly folded clothes, along with a note on top of it.

Lyra,

Eleni picked these out so they should be your size. Put them on, get some breakfast, and have Eleni take you to the training grounds. I have some business to attend to first, and I will meet with you there,

Thyrius

She had forgotten that they were going to train her today, and a wave of dread crashed over her. She did yoga occasionally, but for the most part, she never really worked out. Her mind instantly drifted to her dream. She needed to gather as much strength as she could, because there was no doubt in her mind that she would eventually have to use her powers. The thought made her body tremble, but at the same time, there was a whisper of confidence that weasled its way through at the mention of her powers. She had them, and with the creatures that she had already encountered, why shouldn't she learn how to use them for protection?

When she stepped out of the bathroom, dawned in black leggings and a black sports bra, she made her way through the exceedingly large home and into the familiar comfort of the kitchen. What she wasn't expecting were the few stragglers that remained in the kitchen eating. Her heart stopped beating for a moment before she pulled herself together, and plastered a small smile onto her face. Lyra was greeted with a few smiles back, when she met the eyes of Eleni. She was sitting at the end of the table furthest from her, eating what Lyra thought looked to be the remains of probably a textbook omelet made by Alana. "Lyra, goodmorning, do you want some breakfast before we go? We have a lot to do today, and I am so excited to see you train." Eleni spoke, some of the words fumbled by the food in her mouth, and Lyra gave a soft giggle at that. "Yes, actually, I'm kind of excited too, though I don't know the first thing about training" She replied, walking over to her, taking the empty seat across from her. "Oh, this is gonna be fun, Gus takes no prisoners when he trains, even me." Her eyes lit up with what Lyra could only describe as pure adoration when she spoke about Gus. It made her heart yearn for what they had, and she was afraid that it wouldn't happen with the complicated bond that her and Thyrius had.

Alana had come by with a steaming plate of eggs and bacon, and placed it neatly in front of her. "Here you go dear, Good morning, and good luck." She chuckled as she made her way back to the stove, clearing old pots and pans from it. The food smelled heavenly, and she gobbled it up as fast as she could, draining the water next to the plate with record speed. She wanted to get this over with, and fast.

Eleni led her through the house and to a beautiful oak wood double door, presumably the front door. When she opened the doors Lyra looked out into a beautiful scene. There were even more trees abundant than back at her cabin, and the property overlooked a glittering, almost crystal like lake. There were houses scattered across its borders and when she finally looked to her right, she saw what looked like a jungle gym for adults. Punching bags, targets, and obstacles that would put Ninja Warrior to shame, roughly 100 meters away from where they stood. Lyra wanted to run back into the comfort of the room, when Eleni grabbed her wrist and skipped over to the intimidating training grounds. "C'mon, He's over here." She said as they made their way through a dozen large men wearing only gym shorts, muscles and testosterone flooded their path, and it made Lyra's nerves spike to near panic-inducing heights. She managed to keep her head leveled and stared straight ahead where a large man stood on what looked like a small wood stage. The stage stood about 5 feet off the ground with a set of stairs on either side.

The man was looking on into the crowd of actively training men, scanning each one for flaws in their techniques. His dark brown hair clung to his face from sweat, and it looked like he himself had just finished a workout. When they made it to the stage he looked down at Eleni, and his eyes softened. This was Gus, and he looked like he was made perfectly for Eleni. The two had chemistry without even having to speak to one another. "Gus, this is Lyra, Thyrius said to bring her to you after she had breakfast." Her voice sounded like chimes in the wind to Lyra, and she couldn't help the smile that came to her face. Eleni was honestly just an incredibly likeable person and Lyra felt immediate comfort with her presence.

Gus, on the other hand, was intimidating, fit to be the best warrior in the pack for sure. Athletic, observant, and cautious came to mind when she took in the appearance of Gus. "I see, Hello Lyra, I'm Augustus Jericho, you can call me Gus. I'm sure Eleni has spoken about me." When he looked back at Eleni, she saw that a pink blush set onto her cheeks, and in turn Gus smiled warmly. "Now, I take my training very seriously, but I also don't like to push my students past their limits. What kind of exercise, if any, have you done in the last 6 months?" His question was direct and to the point, and Lyra was thankful for that, and that she may not die today either. "Well, I have a semi-regular yoga routine, but outside of that, I don't usually work out, just meditate." She was honest, meditation helped her focus on her tarot readings and was a big part in her grounding ritual. It was the key to harnessing her energy. "I see, well, in all honesty mental strength does play into physical strength, so the fact that you have these skills will be helpful in our session today. I wanna start you off running a few laps around that field behind us, take your time, I want to assess your natural cardio skills. When you've finished three laps, I want you to start walking, and cool down. That should give me enough time to figure out a training schedule to best fit you." Lyra appreciated that he was professional with how he went about teaching, and it made her feel at ease to know that this man knew what he was doing. She nodded at him and began running over to the field behind the stage, and started a light jog.

She was surprised to find Eleni catching up to her in her jog. "You thought you'd do this alone? Hell no girl! This is my warm up too, and we still gotta talk about some things." How she sounded absolutely perfect, while Lyra was having trouble keeping her breathing steady, was beyond her. "I, well, thank you. What was it we needed to talk about, Eleni?" Lyra's voice was breathless, and it showed how out of shape she really was. They had just barely made it halfway through the first lap, and Lyra already wanted to quit. "Well, I know some of what happened before you came here. I was talking to Gus, and he told me that you had a book with a prophecy. Don't worry, only Gus, Thy, and you know about the prophecy. I haven't seen or read it. But, I want to hear from you, I want to know where your head is in all of this. It can't be easy for you right now, and if there's anything I've learned from bottling things up, it'll come out whether you want it to or not." She was right, and Lyra knew that if anything, Eleni would be the one person that could give her answers that Thyrius wouldn't. She seemed to not be affected or intimidated by him, and that would be a plus when getting information. They ran a little further in silence, when Lyra had to stop and put her hands on her knees. It took her a few minutes to catch what little breath she could. "I feel so confused and conflicted about this to be honest. There's so much happening at once that I swear my heads gonna spin off. There's a woman's voice coming to me often, and I don't know who she is but she's telling me I've woken up. Yet, this has to be a dream at this point, or I've died. This makes no sense to me otherwise." Maybe Eleni could give her some clues as to who this woman is.

She didn't want to bring up Thyrius just yet, because that was something she felt she needed to figure out herself, but she wanted to tell Eleni the prophecy, or what she could remember from it. "The prophecy you mentioned, it's about a constellation and the creation of Leto I think, something to save a guiding light, I have to see it again to remember it. It made no sense to me when I first read it, and it still makes no sense to me now." When Lyra mentioned Leto, Eleni's ears perked up and she gasped, eyes widened with recognition. "Lyra, Thyrius is the eldest son of the first two Lycans created by Leto, he has to be a part of the prophecy. It makes sense, his parents had already died when the oracle disappeared with that book. The supernatural world has been on edge ever since. Witches have had beef with werewolves for centuries now and no one can place it to any specific incident, and it makes sense. Someone in that coven knows what the prophecy that the oracle wrote means. We need to find Hekate's coven." Eleni, began to run again, leaving Lyra trailing behind, there was only one more lap to go, and her head was spinning even faster than it was before, but not because of the lethal amount of exercise, but the fact that Eleni had given her more hope than any of the conversations with Thyrius had. He was holding something back from her, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.