Luisa and the Witcher

Everyone left the two of them in puzzle.

"You shall continue to hit yours until you break down even before the stone does," he continued, mercilessly at her.

She clenched her teeth helplessly and angrily. She continued to hit hers, she hit hers until the pain turned into tears, silent tears that rolled down her cheeks.

She grunted as she hit the stone, with every hit a memory flashed across her mind both the sweet and painful memories until it was only the painful memories she could see and the pain turned into anger and the underlying rage she felt within.

"Enough!" Zeke said but she continued.

"I said enough, do you think the stone will break even with that anger?!" he yelled.

"You think I don't know that!" she yelled back. She stopped hitting the stone, her knuckles was covered in blood, the silent tears continued to flow and so as the silence between them.

"Why won't this stupid rock break even with my strength?" she vented her anger on the stone. Zeke sighed, he walked towards her and held her wrists. He studied how split the knuckles were.

"There's a spell in the stone, it won't break even if you are as strong as a vampire. The essence of this is not to punish you guys but to strengthen you. Every witcher went through this and the pain only makes you stronger," Zeke explained calmly.

His hands went to her face and he wiped the tears away. Their eyes stared at each other for a long time, "Let's go," Zeke uttered. He held her hand and led her away.

They left to a building that was allocated to only senior witchers in kimoira. Ignoring the stares of the witchers, they took the stairs. When they got to a particular room, he opened the two sided door and they entered before he shut it.

"Welcome to my humble suite," he welcomed.

This was the room given to him, he has his own house in the city but he usually stays here overnight especially now that he was in charge of Luisa's crew.

It was the first time he took her up here, there was a balcony and the room was decorated with various artifacts. He sat her down on his bed and went to open his drawer.

"Why did you bring me to your room?" she asked, even the other witchers might get it wrong.

"So that I can attend to you personally?" he replied, bringing out a first aid kit, this really shocked her, he has always treated her with indifference like the other boys, no difference, no partiality, even the last horsewhip was given to her by him, what came over him all of a sudden.

"I'm fine. What about that boy?" she asked.

"Do you want the special treatment or not, shortie?" he called her with his favorite nickname for her.

She wanted to say no but yet deep inside she also wanted to say yes. She was worried about that human boy even Heron was hurt, accepting his treatment was selfish. She remained silent for some while.

He squatted in front of her and held her wrist gently. "They will be fine, it's not the first time they got whipped," he assured and started treating her knuckles with cotton and disinfectant.

"You are not being fair, l'm not hurt, they are." She continued, but he continued to treat the wounds on her knuckles.

"They are men...You are my little shortie, you don't expect me to treat you guys equally," he responded.

'Your little shortie?' Luisa thought, remembering the pain she felt from the horsewhip. As if he read her thoughts, he glanced at her eyes with a devilish smirk on his lips.

"They are boys and I'm as capable as them," She frowned.

"(Sighs)...Fine, they will be taken to the infirmary first thing tomorrow morning, are you happy?" he asked and she nodded.

"You promise?" she questioned.

"Promise!" He replied.

"Should I also release Gideon and take him to the infirmary?" he teased her knowing how much they didn't get along.

"Yes please," she replied sarcastically and Zeke chuckled. His stare lingered at her eyes.

"What?" She asked

"You have beautiful eyes," he answered

"?!

She didn't expect what he said next, he tilted his head to the side as he stared intently at her eyes. Luisa's young heart skipped a beat, he heard it clearly due to his perfect hearing abilities and he smirked. She wanted to look away but it was as if he had just casted a spell on her.

"Who did you get it from, your mother?" he asked and she nodded slowly.

"Hmm, too bad you're going to lose them in a matter of time," he continued. It was true, once she becomes a witcher, her jade green eyes will turn golden due to the mutation process.

"But maybe you'll become less ugly if it turns golden," he grinned and her face almost dropped. Less ugly? And he just said she had beautiful eyes, so only her eyes were beautiful.

She knew he was trying to tease her, she wasn't bad looking at all. He stood up as he was done and when he backed her to keep the first aid kit, she shook her head vigorously to get the strange ideas from her mind.

She almost got it wrong there, why would her heart skip like that, she questioned herself not understanding what just happened, it wasn't the first time her heart skipped to something but this time felt strange.

There was a knock on the door, Zeke walked over and opened it. Luisa raised her head when she heard the door being shut again, Zeke rolled in a food trail in, he sat on a chair in the room, and place the food on the table.

"Hmm, what do we have here?" he closed his eyes and began to inhale the appetizing food in a dramatic way. He opened his eyes with a small grin on his lips.

Luisa just stared at him trying to hide the hunger she felt. She hasn't eaten for the past two days now, she wanted to look away but she was really hungry. He began eating without bothering to invite her over and just let her watch him and he ate the meal incredibly slow.

Fine, she gives up;

"You are seriously just going to let me watch you when you know how hungry I am," she frowned knowing he wants her to swallow her pride and ask, which she just did as she was very hungry.

"I thought you were only good at watching and didn't want to eat" He replied, the next thing that was heard was her stomach growling.

"You may join me," he added and she rushed towards him, she sat on the floor facing him as she dug in hungrily.

Zeke just stared at her as she devoured the food, she stopped when she noticed his gaze.

"Uhm...thank you," she appreciated and he nodded.

"Then why aren't you eating anymore, sorry about my eating manners, I'm just really hungry," she continued.

"No it's not that. I'm not really hungry, you may eat while I take up your watching duty. Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked and she shook her head before she resumed eating but a little slower now.

Once she was done, Zeke had a young witcher escort her to the recruits quarters. As soon as they passed the age quota of 8-12, they were taken out to a new quarter for 12-16years, so that the new set of recruits handled by another person, could move in.

She opened the door to their room and walked in. Everyone stared at her wondering how it went with her and the senior witcher. She ignored them and walked to her cot which was in the middle of Heron's cot on the right and his human friend, Davis on the left.

"What happened?" Heron asked her.

"(Sighs)...Let's not talk about it. How are you?" she asked sitting down on her cot.

"I'm fine, no need to worry," he replied, Davis who was lying down leaned forward to Luisa; "You didn't ask about me?" he told and Luisa flicked his head with her finger.

"You are fine!" she replied and stood up. She went to the human boy that collapsed earlier, his name was Thomas.

He was lying down as well, with his eyes shut in a terrifying way, she couldn't tell how much pain he was in right now. She squatted close to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked, of course he wasn't alright.

'What sort of a stupid question was that Luisa?' she scolded herself in her mind.

"I'm fine," he struggled to say, his eyes still closed.

"I know you are not. But don't worry, Senior Witcher Zeke promised me to take you to the infirmary tomorrow morning, okay?" she tried to comfort him and he nodded.

She smiled, she wasn't really that close to him but they had talked one or two times and he wasn't a bad person at all. She stood up and went to her cot, she laid down and doze off immediately due to the amount of fatigue she has lost today.

The next day, they were woken up by a witcher as usual and they started to troop out except Thomas who remained in his cot unmoving. "Are you deaf boy?I said get up!" the witcher yelled at him but he didn't move. All of them stopped moving as well, Luisa rushed towards him.

"Thomas?" she tapped him gently but he didn't respond.

"Thomas? Thomas!" she called fearfully but no respond. Heron moved to where they were and made Thomas to lie flat on his back, he placed his head on Thomas's chest to check his heartbeats and Luisa also took hold of his wrist to check his pulses and she noticed how cold and stiff he was. There were no heartbeats, no pulses. He was...gone!

...

After receiving treatments for those that were injured. They finally gave them food. It was a sad breakfast indeed. After that, they were gathered in the yard and Zeke addressed them.

"...In a matter of time you all will be moving to the next stage but not all might be able to make it to the next as-"

"He died," Luisa cuts in and everyone looked at her. "Just like the way that boy died in the first stage, you let him die!" she continued and Zeke creased his brows at her.

"Are you accusing me of something?" he inquired, making the air even more tensed.

"Is that how all of us are going to end up?!" she replied, tears already clouding her vision, as she gritted her beautiful pearly white set of teeth.

There was silence.

"It's not the first time a person dies, people die everyday. Witchery is like a game of the survival of the fittest and if you are not competent enough, then maybe you might die as well," Zeke finally replied and she bit her lower lip in angst.

"Now wipe those meaningless tears of yours and get over yourself," he added.

...