Their magical struggle didn’t go unnoticed. Elijah and four guards were watching in the distance, seemingly eager to step in though they were very interested in how this would end. The news of a female wolf was already widespread and Elijah was not happy that he didn’t have Akascha under his control. Akascha had, in the mean time, thrown Alec from her back and she jumped up. She made a sweeping move with her hand and Alec was thrown a few meters away from her. She looked at Lestat and was kind of expecting an attack from him too, but he just stood there watching her. She quickly looked at Alec who had stood up already, dusting himself off and muttering that he was way too old for this. He looked at Akascha who was preparing herself to change herself and run away. ‘Just listen to me before you take off. We don’t want to hurt you, we just want you to come with us okay? You feel that your magic is going to spin out of control and we want that to be in a safe place and not in the middle of the town, before you hurt anyone.’ He took another breath, his hands glowing with magic if she ran away. ‘So just please… walk along will you.’ That was the best he could do without magic, this situation had gotten completely out of control. Akascha knew he was right, but she didn’t want to be just ordered and dragged around like that. If they had said it in the living room that they were planning to let her vent she would have walked calmly with them since she wanted it to be vent. ‘Akascha?’ Lestat said pleading. She made a motion with her hand, indicating that he should lead the way and he looked relieved. He quickly turned around and started to walk fast to a small building which lay a bit away from the houses. They arrived there in less than a minute and they entered the building. Lestat went down a few stairs as Akascha followed him. Eventually they entered a huge room. There were giant pillars, keeping the ceiling up and for the rest there was only space, bigger than any room she had ever seen. ‘This is one of the many training grounds we have here. There are dozens of these rooms though some look different. If you’re interested, I can explain them later to you or show them.’ Alec told her while Lestat stood behind Akascha without her noticing it. He pushed her softly though he had magic laid into the push and she tumbled over. She stood up quickly while she looked at him. ‘Thought I should get this thing going, or do you need a little bit of time little girl?’ Lestat asked challenging. He fired a series of fireballs to her, hoping that it would make her run around for a bit. She smirked, did he really think that would keep her busy? Come on… She didn’t step away or run from it, she stayed put. One after another fire ball crashed against her hand but all of them were reduced to nothing more than ashes. ‘Come on Lestat, at least be serious about this.’ She said, a little bit annoyed. He smirked. ‘Thought I would begin slow, since I’m battling such a little girl.’ He said provokingly. ‘Your turn.’ He said, serious this time as he made a shield of magic. ‘I’ll show you then how a fireball should be like.’ She focused magic into her hand, it wasn’t bigger than the ones he had made but it was much, much more concentrated. She threw it at him and when it collided with his shield the ball exploded. Lestat’s shield snapped and he was thrown back against one of the walls with a loud thud. She sent one to Alec shortly after that, but he was a bit more prepared than Lestat. He had a shield too, but his one was a lot stronger. The ball exploded against the shield but it didn’t crack, Alec was still standing with a smile around his mouth. Akascha waited when Lestat stood up and dusted himself off before he moved his shoulders a bit. A glow surrounded Akascha’s whole body, letting her magic out quietly. Naturally it was a defense mechanism but it wasn’t the reason why Akascha was using it. This way, she could let her magic out calmly without immediately harming anyone. ‘Don’t tell me that was just warming-up?’ Lestat said a little bit impressed. ‘It’s close to the real deal, though I held back.’ Akascha answered. A fireball has a limited amount of damage it could do before you had to turn to something else, there’s just so much a ball of fire can do. Her anger had slipped away a bit, at least enough so that she could think clear again. Energy still rushed through her veins, telling her to attack and attack until they couldn’t stand up anymore. She decided to turn into her wolf-form since that was the one who screamed for more blood, her human side was still insulted but calm now. I have given him enough time, she thought. She took a deep breath and jumped forward, changing in a wolf. She walked slowly to him so that he could have a chance to change. When he was transforming, Akascha jumped to him and went for his back, his throat was just too obvious. She jumped over him and grabbed his neck, trying to control him though he was a size bigger than her. Lestat tried to turn his head so that he could go for her throat but that didn’t work well so he grabbed a paw of hers which had slipped over his shoulder. He grabbed it tightly and threw Akascha off of his back. But he didn’t expected one thing. He had thrown her off, but he burned his mouth, bad enough to leave him whining softly. She had focused her magic to her paws so that she could do more damage. She could move it throughout her body, but she didn’t want to do that… yet. He shook his head like he wanted to get rid of the pain. Instead of attacking her, he changed back into his human-form. He coughed and blood dripped on his hand. She changed back to her human form too, it was not fair to fight like that. She took a few steps to him, half expecting another attack but he didn’t look like he would do that, his hand was at his jaw that was slowly healing. Alec stepped forward to Lestat too, though he didn’t make a move against her either. He just looked at her curious. ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ She wondered what he was talking about. ‘If you mean I focused energy to my paws then yes.’ He shook his head. ‘No I mean, use your energy like an armor you just did. Did you do that purposely? It is a difficult spell that you shouldn’t know of and I didn’t hear you say something. Though you seem to use it instinctively. How curious..’ He muttered. She shrugged her shoulders, it looked easy to her. She looked at Lestat again. He looked pale but he stopped coughing blood. ‘You need a hand or something?’ She asked a little bit worried. He shook his head. ‘No, the bleeding has already stopped. Surprised me though, that you were able to do it, wasn’t expecting it or else I would have defended myself against it. Even I have difficulty using it in battle since it requires a lot of concentration.’ She smiled. ‘I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve. But I didn’t use the spell, I just focused my energy..’ He looked worried and when Akascha looked at him with piercing eyes he sighed. ‘You are already interesting since you are a female… If they know how powerful you are.. and with a strong free will, you will be even more interesting,’ he swallowed, ‘and more of a treat.’ Alec and Lestat glanced at each other but Akascha didn’t really worry about it. She could protect herself if she needed to and she had Lestat by her side. Though she doubted if he would be a real help since he didn’t seem very strong in this fight… maybe he’s going easy on me or something, she thought to herself a bit annoyed by the thought of it. She shrugged her shoulders. ‘We’ll see how things work out, no reason to worry about that now.’ ‘But do you want to continue or…?’ She asked. She wanted to continue training, she still got loads of energy waiting eagerly to be used. Lestat smiled. ‘It’s your turn old man.’ He said, he looked happy that he could step out of it. Alec sighed deeply. ‘I won’t go easy on you little brat.’ He rolled up his sleeves as Akascha took a few steps back so that she had enough room to counterattack. ‘Bring it on oldie.’ She said grinning. He closed his eyes and started to mutter something, a spell probably. She readied her energy to jump out and protect, since his first attack would be a strong one and she was right. The floor began to shake first before it cracked open. Akascha quickly took a few steps back again so she wouldn’t fell into it. Red flames where licking at the sides of the crack. ‘Don’t you think that will be a bit too much?’ Lestat asked worried while he looked at Alec. ‘I’ll use just one hellhound, if she wants to stop she just has to say it… Beside, let her sweat a bit. Temper that self-confidence a bit.’ She wasn’t looking at them anymore though she was still listening. Her eyes were fixed on the crack. There was something coming out of it, the flames licked eagerly at the beast. It looked like a dog, a hellhound was what Alec said. She swallowed, that’s one nasty beast. It looked like a wolf actually, if you didn’t count the flames coming from the wolf or hound or whatever it was and its skin wasn’t normal either, the bones and muscles where covered by a black skin though she doubted you could call it a skin. It didn’t look very inviting and somewhere deep inside of her through some instinct she knew that the skin of the hellhound would be blazing hot, burning through skin and bones at first touch. When the hellhound stepped out of the crack he shook his body before it roared loudly in a challenge. His sharp teeth were clearly visible and would even crack her bones with ease if she didn’t watch out. After having stared at the hellhound for a moment she shook her head and changed into her wolf form, jumping lightly on her paws to collect more energy. While she was doing that, the hellhound seemed to stretch for a moment before it started to move its heavy body towards her. Akascha moved her ears against her neck, a bit unsure about her own power. But she wasn’t alone in this if she would just listen. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the trembling ground underneath her and the heavy breathing of the beast. She listened to the wolf inside of her, her own instinct. And like a bolt of lightning, the idea struck her. She stopped hopping around for a moment, taking a few deep breaths while she waited for the beast to come closer. She had made her decision, she knew what she had to do now. Her skin seemed to glow when she jolted forward to face the hellhound head on. They collided with a loud blow in the middle of the room, teeth clashing and nails scratching. For a very long time you couldn’t see what happened, Akascha herself didn’t really grasped what happened. She just acted on an instinct bigger than her own. She bit, she scratched, she howled out of pain when the beast bit her back but she wouldn’t give up like that. It wouldn’t even be possible without losing her life. Even though she felt so strong at the moment and her skin seemed strangely impenetrable, she began to grow tired. Her muscles were aching like she had run for miles and miles on an end and her concentration was becoming difficult to maintain. The battle continued for about half an hour, until the hellhound was able to grab Akascha by her neck and it threw her across the room. She hit the wall with a thud and she had to shake her head a few times to get her vision straight again. She had expected that the hellhound would come running towards her, but she didn’t hear anything. When she looked up she saw the reason; Alec was softly muttering something which caused the hellhound to slowly disappear. Apparently this part of the training was over and she didn’t mind it at all. She sneezed for a moment, dust surrounding her because there was a small crack in the wall. Didn’t think I was that heavy, Akascha thought to herself. ‘You still alive over there?’ She suddenly heard Alec saying, half amused. Akascha snorted, getting up and shaking herself out. She started to walk to the two men, who had watched the whole show though it had been rather confusing for them and only when she started walking she noticed the pain in her leg. She was limping a bit too. The hellhound had gotten a better shot than she had felt or had expected. She shook herself out for a moment before changing into her human form so she could assess the damage better. ‘Yeah… think so.’ Akascha said dryly as she studied her leg. Puncture holes of the hellhound’s teeth where embedded in her leg and there was blood coming out of it. ‘That hellhound had a smelly breath though.’ Akascha complained to Alec while Lestat finally moved out of his worried position. He kneeled in front of Akascha, muttering some dark things Akascha couldn’t hear, but it sounded like he thought that the two of them were just a bunch of fools. He moved his hands over her leg and closed his eyes, concentration showing on his face. ‘You should really teach me some of these things you know.’ Akascha commented when her leg slowly started to heal. ‘Seems really handy and…’Akascha started. ‘No, that’s too difficult for you.’ Alec interjected. ‘Oh come on, I did better here than you thought, don’t deny it.’ Akascha said with a smirk. Lestat stood up again after poking Akascha in the side . ‘Don’t get so cocky.’ He told her when she wanted to complain. ‘Just saying…’Akascha said, a little bit insulted. Party pooper, she thought. ‘Anyway, a break first?’ Alec suggested. ‘A drink would be nice.’ Akascha agreed. ‘And, we can talk then’ Alec continued undisturbed, Akascha wondered sometimes if he heard her at all. ‘Talk about what?’ Akascha asked. ‘Not another cross hearing right?’ Akascha said, squeezing her eyes a bit. ‘Just a little one.’ Alec said with a smile. ‘Have you looked at yourself, at your skin?’ Akascha shrugged and looked at her bare arms, not seeing anything special. ‘I don’t see anything?’ Akascha said, half unsure half thinking that Alec was pulling a trick on her. ‘Akascha, that’s the problem.’ Alec started. ‘You don’t have any biting wounds, only a few burns. You know you should be a lot more injured right?’ Alec told her. ‘Well, sorry I’m not dying?’ Akascha snorted. Alec shook his head. ‘You don’t understand me Akascha and you’re not even trying.’ Lestat jumped in. ‘The first time I trained with a hellhound, I spend a week in the hospital and couldn’t walk straight for a month or so. What Alec is trying to say is that you should have more injuries, since you didn’t use any magic to protect yourself, you probably don’t even know one.’ Lestat said a bit more tactful then Alec did. ‘So our question is, how did you get so little injury.’ Alec finished. Akascha shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t know really…I was nervous at first, I mean… that is one hell of a monster’ Akascha said honestly. ‘But then I listened to my instinct and it told me to just attack and I did.’ Akascha explained, though probably not really useful for them. Alec nodded while Akascha had been talking. ‘You really seem to know everything by instinct, you’re one of a kind indeed.’ He muttered more to himself then to Akascha. Akascha smiled when something popped up in her mind. ‘If I’m such a natural talent,’ Akascha said while letting a silence fall in for a few seconds, ‘ why not learn me things like healing?’ Akascha suggested. ‘Or, I don’t know, summoning creatures like that hellhound.’ Akascha said, not even knowing what was possible and where the limits of magic lay. Lestat looked at Alec and Alec returned the look. ‘Well, she is stronger than we thought.’ Alec said to Lestat, starting a conversation without her. ‘You’re right about that but still, do you think she should skip all the basic training and just learn something powerful? Doubt that’s a good idea.’ Lestat interjected. ‘You’re right about that, but we could always teach her the basic stuff. You know the request I filled in with the council of the city about you and your team, you could take her along too.’ Alec suggested. Akascha listened interested, knowing when she should stay quiet and hopefully pitch in on the right moment though she didn’t really know what they were talking about completely, what team? She thought to herself. Lestat nodded for a moment. ‘Yes about that, ‘Lestat said, thinking for a moment, ‘I only heard you filled in a request to use our strength, but I haven’t heard anything about it other than that.’ Lestat said. Alec smiled. ‘Well, that’s a part of my visit as well. You know I do a lot of research right?’ Alec asked. Lestat smirked. ‘Of course I know that, you and your precious research.’ Lestat said a bit teasingly. Alec gave him a look but ignored the remark, Akascha still looked puzzled but they weren’t giving her much of an explanation yet, the meanies she thought. ‘I am planning to go to Sinta this month and I thought it would be nice to have you and your team to guide us.’ Alec told them. Finally, Akascha couldn’t hold her tongue anymore. ‘What’s Sinta?’ She asked, the last thing she heard. Lestat smiled. ‘You are really not from around here are you?’ He said good-natured. ‘Have you seen the mountain, only a dot from here?’ Lestat asked her. ‘Was that a mountain?’ Akascha asked with a raised eyebrow. Lestat chuckled. ‘Yes, that’s the mountain we call Sinta. And if I’m not mistaken, there is an old temple up there isn’t it?’ Lestat asked Alec who nodded. ‘Yes, my plan was to go to that temple to see if there are any books regarding our history.’ Alec said in agreement. He suddenly got a too innocent smile on his face. ‘And then I thought, my little apprentice has a team of his own, wouldn’t it be wonderful to see him in action for once.’ Alec said, his voice sounding… well to Akascha it was just plain scary how high his voice sounded. Lestat chuckled while shaking his head. ‘Old fool.’ He said, those two always seemed to tease each other when they have the chance. Some jokes went over and across, Akascha kind of zoning out because even though it was funny it wasn’t really enough to keep her attention. ‘But anyway,’ Alec said a little bit more serious, ‘I thought it was a good idea and I don’t expect any danger, so you can train Akascha along the way. Besides, this way she can meet more people of her kind.’ Alec said. And he was right too, there wasn’t anything Lestat could complain about and he knew it. He sighed. ‘Fine fine, I’ll go and talk to the council about accepting it, it’s not like we are really busy here. They will like the idea too, finally on the road again even though it’s not that long.’ Lestat said, talking about his team. Akascha was curious, Alex was right she hadn’t seen any of her kind except for Lestat. And Alec of course but he didn’t count in her mind somehow. Maybe because she hadn’t seen him change yet. Lestat stretched himself out for a moment. ‘Well anyway, let’s go shall we? I’ll get you something to drink and after that I will go bother the council a bit.’ Lestat said, moving one arm around Akascha’s waist while he started to walk back home.