As soon as theoretical education was done, boys and girls were split again. For us, it was time for combat training, another part I feared greatly. Warrior Kalam was back, full of spirit to mold us to his desire. Just before we began, I inserted a critical question.
“Warrior, when do we train to be a shaman?”
He raised his fist automatically as if punishing a troublemaker, but then realized my question made sense.
“Combat training includes how to use magical energy to reinforce the body. For shaman magic, you can learn it after combat training.”
“…After?”
We were already in the evening, after that was only the night. We cavemen slept and woke up early to follow the sun rising and setting. There was normally only dinner and bedtime at that time of the day.
He ignored my query, and the training started. We were given stone spears, the cutting-edge weapon of our tribe, and told to follow his movements. Overall, it was pretty simple, except that this mountain of muscle of a human didn’t move in a human-like manner at all. He reinforced his body with magical energy and jumped several meters high, throwing his spear faster than the eye could see, which ended up exploding into pieces against one of the cave’s walls.
We, the newer children, were stunned by his display, our mouths hanging down stupidly in front of such impossible moves.
“That’s what you can do when you use magical energy. Your turn now. Focus on feeling it and fill your body with it.”
And that was the end of the explanation. While the older kids managed to do it without trouble, the newbies suffered for the whole training. At least, I was a little better than the rest since I could feel the magical energy inside me. Instead of redirecting it outside, I kept it inside, sending it to different parts of my body. For the two other boys, they ended the training the same as they started, with nothing to show for it.
Warrior Kalam scolded them harshly while they looked at me, who was jumping higher than I normally should, especially given my terrible physical condition, like I were a traitor. Soon enough, they regrouped with other older kids, and I was somehow excluded from the groups.
“He’s the one who follows a girl all the time.”
“Better stay away from him or we’ll stay weak like a girl.”
“No way, I want to become a strong warrior!”
They whispered like so, making it clear they knew about how close I was to Dyla. I didn’t mind their childishness too much. I obviously couldn’t care about hanging out with dirty boys when I had a soft girl available.
By the end of the training, they were mocking me openly whenever I failed something. Of course, I was the mature person and didn’t take any notice of it.
“Hahaha! Loser! You can’t even use magical energy! Pitiful!”
The kid I was mocking like there was no tomorrow got all red and rushed toward me, his fist raised to beat me. I created a small bump in the ground with magic, and he stumbled on it, crashing face-first to the ground. This made me laugh even harder.
“Hahahaha! You can’t even run correctly! You’ll never be a proper warrior! Go back to the cradle and suck on your mother’s boobs!”
The kids who were part of his group didn’t accept my insults toward their very recent member and dashed toward me all together. I was beaten to a pulp by the enraged children, with warrior Kalam not caring in the least to stop the fight.
Just like that, I made most of the boys in the clan my enemies right from the very first day. The future was bleak.
Once combat training ended, I went to eat together with Dyla. The boys looked at us being together with ridicule, which we ignored.
“Keon! You look all beaten up!”
“Yeah, training was very “intense”. I’m fine, it’s nothing big. How was it for you?”
“It was the same as in the morning.”
“I see. Did you manage to do well?”
Her eyes instantly filled with tears.
“No… The elder scolded me again.”
“Oh no. I want to comfort you, but I heard shaman training starts right after dinner.”
“Hmm. The elder said that, too.”
“Let’s participate together.”
“Okay.”
I had long since shared my learnings about magic with her. Plus, her mother was an active shaman in the clan, specializing in water magic. Just like her parent, she was proficient with the same element, and her magical energy reserves were large, even though not as large as mine, since I could only teach her from when she could understand me, which was a few years after I began learning magic.
When everyone was done eating, another elder woman came to the common cave.
“I’m elder Ducat. Children, it’s time for shamanic training. Newer children are welcome too.”
She seemed a lot gentler than warrior Kalam and elder Fevalto. Most of the kids weren’t interested in magic and left for other activities or just to go to sleep. This felt weird to me since magic was such an impressive power, but I guessed that, from their point of view, it was just something normal that was part of the world.
Most of the remaining children were girls, which also made sense. Boys here wanted to become strong warriors, who internalized their usage of magical energy. As for girls, becoming a shaman increased their status within the tribe.
As we learned during the afternoon, the clan hierarchy was simple. At the top were the warriors. Then came the shamans. Elders were third, and last were the women. This classification considered how much every person could contribute to the tribe’s survival. Warriors were first because they risked their lives to provide everyone with food. Shamans were second because their power was so useful. Elders provided their knowledge and wisdom to others. Women were last since they only did “menial tasks” inside the safety of the cave or its surroundings.