Hide and Seek [Training/solo]

A couple of weeks after returning to Remano from training with her father, Ari ran into Sleuthy at the old hide out, his feet kicked up on the table like he was waiting for her, which he probably was. He had a tendency to show up at the oddest time, his way of showing that as much as she knew about stealth, he still had much more experience with the art of appearing and disappearing at will and being able to follow almost anyone just about anywhere. She sincerely hoped none of Azix’ enemies had the skills the thief had, because he was ridiculously good.

“Alright, Miss Ari. You have had enough time to get comfortable with your new skills and we took care of my problem with Johnny. I think it is about time you got a bit more experience with stealth. Especially with your ability to move around without noise and not being spotted. This is probably not going to be a pleasant experience for you, but it will help. You make entirely too much noise when you move around. Even if people cannot see you, they can still hear you!”

Ari sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. What was this, “Make-Ari-Feel-Inept” month? Regardless, she knew he was right. She needed to be as good at being sneaky as possible, especially if she wanted to protect the children. Every time she came or went from Kios, she took long, convoluted side paths and winding roads, just in case anyone was following her.

“Alright, Sleuthy. What am I going to have to do?”

“You are going to have to learn to live in the dark!”

Ari’s entire body froze and her throat closed for a moment but she gave a shaky nod of agreement. This was going to be hell.

---

She had allowed Sleuthy to blindfold her and take her to a hidden location, her panic only held at bay by the small sliver of light that showed at the bottom edge of her blindfold. When the blindfold was removed, she was in a dark room with slivers of light around the top edges of the room. Her breath caught and she started to shake. She reached for her wand, hoping to stave off a panic attack with a quick spark of lightning but then remembered the thief had taken it from her.

“The entire idea of this exercise is for you to get comfortable with moving around in the dark. Do not worry, I am not going to just leave you in pitch black darkness, but it will not be easy to see. I will let you out every couple of hours. When you can move around without bumping into things, we will go from there!”

Ari took a deep breath, reminding herself there was nothing in the darkness that could hurt her, but the thought did not help much. She still wanted to curl in a ball and start crying. Refusing to succumb to one of her deepest phobias, she kept her eyes on the slit of light at the top of the room. It helped calm her a bit and she was grateful the thief had not simply dumped her into pitch black. It took quite a bit of time, but her eyes began to adjust to the lack of light. Very faintly, she could make out barely visible forms in the darkness and she shuffled her feet forward until her toes touched against something wooden. She reached out to feel it with her hands and it seemed to be a crate. Moving to the next shadow, she panted anxiously until she touched something smooth. One after the other, she found each item in the room and tried to judge their distance from the wall, her feet shuffling.

After some time, Sleuthy opened the door and the light outside nearly blinded her. She ran for the exit with a sigh of relief, taking in the blinding light with a grateful gasp. As she enjoyed the cup of tea the thief had left for her, she heard him enter the room and seemed to be rearranging. Cursing under her breath, she realized what he was doing. He did not want her memorizing the location of the objects, he wanted her to be able to find them in the darkness and move around them.

He came back out, covered her eyes and led her into the rearranged room, not letting her peek until she was deep into the room. She had already figured out the door was covered with a cloth so he could leave without letting extra light in until he pulled the cloth to the side. This time, when she was left in darkness, she first worked on settling her fear into a box deep in her mind, staring at the floor instead of the crack of light at the top of the room. As she focused on the floor and her eyes adjusted, she realized the furniture and boxes in the room were easier to detect. This time, as she moved around, she kept from shuffling her feet, more certain of where the obstacles were placed. Again, she moved around, locating each item, this time making sure to keep her feet from shuffling. After another chunk of time passed, Sleuthy came and rescued her from the pit of darkness just as her fear was about to overtake her. It seemed like he knew exactly when she was about to lose her cool.

“We are done for today. We will keep doing this, all week. When I think you are ready, I will start attacking you in the dark. This will help you to use more than just your eyes. It makes it easier to detect people in the dark places you might find yourself in, so you are less likely to be ambushed.”

She nodded before he led her to a room with a bed and a lantern. As she drifted to sleep with the lantern on low, she wished Azix or even just Nilexa were here to make things less lonely and frightening. She had grown used to her winged serpent keeping watch over her at night.

---

The next two days were more of the same, Sleuthy dumping her into the dark room and then rescuing her a few hours later. The more time she spent in the dimly lit atmosphere, the more comfortable she became with moving around until she was jumping from one obstacle to the next without making it scrape across the ground. On the fourth day, Sleuthy began stalking her in the darkness. Her panic levels increased, but she found this also made her more attentive. After a few false starts at imagined sounds, she began to focus more on trying to spot him in the darkness or to hear his movements. At first, his movements were more obvious, but each session in the dark room made him quieter and quieter. By the last day, he made practically no sound and she had to rely solely on her ability to spot his minor movements in the dark. Finally, it seemed as though their training was done and he released her from the room for the final time.

“Very good. You fought down your fear and focused on what was important. Your movements became almost silent! Now, we are going to visit a slightly larger playground to test you on. Follow me as quietly as you can to the warehouse and then we will play hide and seek!”

She chuckled and shook her head but agreed. In moments, he was off and she followed him as quietly as she could. When they arrived at the warehouse, he moved to the middle of the massive room cluttered with crates, abandoned furniture and hanging ropes. He covered his eyes and began counting backward from 50 loudly and she took off to find a hiding spot. She found herself crouched in darkness behind a crate, one eye carefully trained on the thief as he uncovered his eyes and scanned the room for her. When his search brought him within 50 feet of her, she silently moved to find a new hiding spot. Over and over again, he would start to get close and she would move, staying out of sight. The random beams of light from the moon that filtered through the broken rooftops gave her a much harder obstacle to avoid than the crates and furniture and a few times, she found herself forced to use the ropes to move. The ropes always seemed to creak, though, and would normally point the thief in the correct direction, forcing her to move once again. For almost an hour, this went on, her hiding, him seeking. When she began to tire, she made her way to the middle of the room, what he had denoted as ‘base’ and dropped silently on top of the crate. Just after she landed, his hand grabbed her ankle and she squawked in indignation.

“Well, you were good, but I will always be better, Miss Ari. But well done! Gave me quite the chase.”

[1000+/1000 Training Stealth from C -> B]