Beastmen Love-Chapter 144: Apprentice

The guards and Astri’s spouses are training with her in the backyard, she’s watching them keep the staff circling. She walks in front of each of them, she stops in front of a guard and asks him to stop.

She takes his staff, then finds the balance center of it by putting her finger under it and seeing if the staff is balanced, not falling to any side.

"See the balance point? If you hold it here it will be easier and you will force your arm much less. If you’re forcing too much your mind will be concentrated on keeping the balance. Your movements need a natural flow to concentrate on what is around you and not on the staff." She explains, balancing the staff on her finger.

He nods, looking at the balance point and then trying himself. The others stopped and started doing the same with their staff.

"When you know how to use the balance you will do things that you believe it is impossible to do." She says, walking to the front.

She leans her staff, then steps in the middle of it and quickly jumps putting her foot under the staff, leaning her body back, and keeping her body and staff balanced.

They were amazed when they saw that, so they started to try doing what she did. She chuckles watching this child side of them, and let them do it.

Wayde and Tyr being cats make them have a strong sense of balance and this challenge was something easy for them to accomplish. It was easy for Lee too, and Xzan, but for some other spouses and guards, it wasn’t as easy and they took longer to accomplish.

"Shung! Good morning!" Astri says to Shung.

"Good morning, dear. I can see everyone started training early." Shung answers. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Atlas asks for his mother, so Astri carries him answering Shung:

"Best time for training. Early in the morning. You can join if you want." She looks at Yank and he loses his voice at first. "Good morning. You must be Yank."

"G-good morning, Lady Astri." He answers.

"We’re done for today, guys. See you tomorrow." She says to the others, who whine wanting more. "What did I create here?" She giggles.

Zin walks to Astri and calls Atlas to take a bath, the word ’bath’ is enough for him to get excited and jump into Zin’s arms, making them laugh.

"Come, you two." Astri motions to Shung and Yank to follow her.

They walk to the front yard again and they sit on the bench under the big tree with pink flowers. Kangki is watching from a distance, and then Claud approaches him.

"Why do you keep letting unmated males get near her?" Kangki asks.

"Shung is like a father to her, and he asked her a favor that will be good in the long term." Claud answers.

"That cub wants her as a spouse, thinking he will get more powerful with powerful males with him."

"All unmated males will think that in the beginning, Kangki. Astri is beautiful, her energy itself is enough to make someone in love with her, but Astri is not a needy female. If you check her mind, she’s not even thinking about having him as her spouse."

"I know..."

Claud chuckles.

"Even if Astri finds new spouses, she won’t stop loving you. I know you worry, all of us did in the beginning. Her love is so good that we fear losing it." Claud hits right in the spot, making Kangki lose his voice for a moment.

"...Stop reading my mind. I don’t read yours. I only read from outsiders for safety reasons."

"I didn’t. It’s obvious on your face." Claud giggles.

Kangki clicks his tongue and goes back watching Astri. He can’t deny he fears losing her love and going back to being a Monster, it’s so good that it feels wrong even though he knows it’s a normal feeling for any spouse.

——

"So, tell me, what do you want him to learn from me, Shung?" Astri asks.

"You opened my mind to many things. You made me see things that made me stronger, smarter, and think way better solutions for our tribe. I would like him to open his mind too. You know how to read, and write. You know medicine, harvesting. You know how to fight. You’re good at projecting homes and castles. Well.. You’re good at everything." Shung answers.

She chuckles.

"I see. I’m not that good at everything. I have so much to learn."

"Stop thinking less of you. Accept when others say you’re amazing. It’s because you are."

"Thank you.. But I think you’re more amazing. Both of you." She says and they get confused. "I was raised to be this way. Being alone all my life made me need to be curious and learn things by myself. You, on the other hand, don’t have to do this. You could just simply live day by day, repeating the same things and living the way you always knew, but you decided to leave that comfort zone to improve. If that was an easy task, there would be way more tribes like ours."

They smile, and nod.

"And what do you expect to learn from me, Yank?" She asks.

"I didn’t know what you could teach me before. I thought that my father was talking about medicine because I saw you working several times in the tribe, but after watching you training the guards, and hearing my father now.. I don’t even know what to ask. I understand my father’s worry. I can see that the tribes are growing fast, we are already a city and our tribe is just part of it. If we don’t keep up with this growth our tribe will be weak and will end up dying." He answers.

"I see. So you don’t know who I really am yet?"

"Who you really are?"

"He doesn’t know yet, Astri." Shung says.

"All right. First, Shung: You’re not old. Even if Fraz gets pregnant again, she won’t die easily. So, stop thinking you can’t learn more just because your time here is counted." She says.

Shungs nods and smiles in response.

"Second: Not everything we learn has a clear meaning. How you can use what you’re learning depends entirely on you. Galion learned how to read and write, but I never saw him writing anything, but he observes and listens. It wasn’t something useless to learn, what matters is the curiosity he developed by learning something new. Third: You will learn things that won’t look real, but it is."

Yank nods slowly, a bit confused.

"How I will know if it’s useful for me?" He asks.

"By trying. There are no shortcuts for this. You need to taste something before you can say if it’s something tasty or not." She answers.

She looks at her spouses, and guards, looking from a distance from the side of the castle, their curiosity to know what she will teach Yank is tangible, making her giggle.

"I developed the curiosity of those over there a bit too much." She points at them.

Shung chuckles and Yank smiles.

"So you accepted Yank as your apprentice? If they know why you’re here, it’s because you told them." Shung asks her.

"How could I deny? You’re my father too. Besides, this is something positive. Your intentions are positive. However, I don’t think that apprentice is the best word to call him." She answers.

"Oh.. I’m getting old and getting too emotional." Shung chuckles, trying to hide he feels thrilled to hear that.

"That’s good. I’m an emotional wreck too." She says, then calls the others to come closer. "What are you doing over there?"

They don’t answer, feeling a little shy to say the reason.

"They want to know why you’re taking him as an apprentice and not them." Galion says the reason right away, because he doesn’t care if they’re shy or not.

"I see. What do you think I’m going to teach him?" She asks.

"If he’s going to be your apprentice, that means you will teach him to become like you?" Wayde asks.

"No. I’m going to teach him how to be him. A better him. Maybe apprentice is not the right word for this. If you all want to learn what I’m going to tell him, you’re welcome to be here." She answers.

Then all of them sit around like very good students, and she giggles. She’s happy that they have this curiosity and eagerness to learn new things. This is something they didn’t have.

"Guys, welcome Yank. He’s Dieg’s youngest brother." She points at Yank to the others. "Yank, that is Galion. If you want to train like the others, ask him."

"But you were training them." Yank says confused.

"Not on body strength. You might believe they’re training strength, but that’s not the objective."

"What is the objective?"

"That’s a great question. They’re making their minds stronger. The mind is the real strength of someone. I have no experience marks, because I’m a female, but I can defeat males with several marks. Why? Because in my mind I don’t see weakness in me. I see the weakness on them and turn that against them. How can I find someone’s weakness? I improved my perception of things. And that’s what all of them are looking after. There’s something I wanted to tell you." She explains and then she pulls out her notebook and a charcoal pencil.

She draws four circles, one interconnecting the other, then shows them. All of them are watching with attention, showing how much they desire to learn.