She reminded Ram about his promise to take a nap. He said the three of them had a meeting with Sol first, but it was sure to be a short one since he, and therefore his team, were going to be off the duty roster for another six weeks. Storm asked Elora how she was spending the rest of the day. Excusing herself, she said she had a session with Monq and was also trying to find some time for personal interests.
Back inside her apartment, she took a quick shower, changed clothes, and donned a long knit vest with deep pockets. The Black Swan Training Manual went into one of the pockets. A few chicken treats went into the other.
At sublevel two she exited the elevator without being noticed. There was no one near the part of the building where the dog was kept. People stayed far, far away from him which made Elora’s heart hurt all the more. Canines are the very definition of social animals. Forcing them to live a solitary existence is a cruelty that far exceeds heat, cold, hunger, or thirst.
At home the stable master had been a man who was equally good with dogs and horses, if not people. His reputation had grown and, even though he was gruff and unfriendly, people came around with problem dogs, asking for his help. Elora had spent so much time observing that eventually the old man invited her to assist and apprentice his technique.
For today, her plan was simply to introduce herself to the unhappy dog and she did not expect to get further than that. When she turned the corner that brought her within sight of the cage, the animal leapt to all fours in one sleek movement, crouched, lowered his head, and began to growl. She responded by moving very slowly and offering verbal assurances that she meant no harm.
When she came within six feet he began to snarl in earnest and leap against the cage. She simply sat down cross legged in front of the cage, pulled out the training manual, and began to read out loud.
For the next half hour, she read while the dog snarled, growled, barked, and charged the cage. The noise he made echoed against walls and ceiling and was deafening. She couldn’t hear her voice above the noise and doubted he did.
Finally, his great chest heaving, head hanging, tongue lolling, he grew quiet for eight seconds which she carefully counted off. At the end of that respite she looked up into his eyes. Most dogs will not meet a human’s gaze for more than a second, but there are a few exceptions. This dog was one of them.
Holding his stare she whispered, “Good boy.”
He closed his mouth, picked up his head, and pricked his ears forward. And in that moment she saw all the potential this dog held in his great heart: the character, the courage, the intelligence. She tossed a chicken bit through the chain link so that it landed at his feet. For a second, he took his attention away from her and allowed himself to be distracted by the treat. She smiled and said to herself, "Yes, indeed, you magnificent creature. You and I are going to work this out." She put the book away and started to rise, being careful to go ever so slowly. He growled a warning deep in his throat. She backed all the way around the corner.
October 6 entry, Monq’s file on Elora Laiken: The subject’s emotional and psychological adjustment seems to be almost as remarkable as was her physical recovery. This is due, in part, to the fact that she has social interaction with Engel Storm and the other members of B Team with whom she seems comfortable. But, even so, she demonstrates an extraordinary degree of resiliency and buoyancy considering the body of traumatic experience.
She has agreed to work with the knights and trainees, teaching a style of weaponless martial art that is clearly more sophisticated than that currently endorsed. Her contribution will undoubtedly be advantageous to the organization. Moreover, there is no doubt that she will benefit emotionally from a sense of purpose and belonging.
As predicted, the meeting with Sol was short. Since B Team’s reintroduction to duty had been postponed, so had the immediate necessity for making a decision about Lan’s replacement. Sol said he was temporarily relieving the extra duty stress by bringing a team up from Brazil, but urged the three to settle on their selection of a fourth so that the replacement would be ready to go in six weeks.
As soon as Ram got back to his apartment he called the media center and told them to send someone up with a copy of the recording of Elora’s hearing. They asked, “Which one?”
“There was more than one?”
“Yeah. A short one on October 1st, long one on October 2nd.”
“Bring them both.”
The recordings arrived twenty minutes later. Ram popped the first in and sat down to watch. The airbot, programmed by one of the media geeks, hovered chest high, recording Elora’s entrance into the Chamber with Storm on one side and a big, no neck bruiser of an orderly on the other. Ram thought, "Yeah. Like that would have slowed her down if she had decided to run."
Within seconds she was holding Monq by the front of his shirt, keening pain and betrayal. Ram felt adrenaline shoot into his body as he sat helplessly watching the reenactment of his mate in anguish. His fists clenched so hard he drove the ends of his short, blunt nails into the flesh and felt his stomach roil. He let the recording play through the discussion that took place after Elora left the Chamber.
The video record of the second day was a treasure trove of information. Certainly he wished he had known that she had a lifetime of martial arts training before he'd agreed to spar with her. Like all those who had been present that day, he was captivated by the story: her background, her relationship with Monq’s counterpart, the tragedy that had befallen her family, and the circumstances of her transportation to this reality.
One thing he brought away from seeing the hearings was that Elora Laiken deserved a mate who would treat her as gently as a piece of fragile art glass and never deny her anything she needed to be happy.
They tested Elora for speed late on a cool Autumn night with a bright moon. She was clocked at just under thirty miles per hour which exceeded the record by nearly four mph.
***
CHAPTER 10
The days began to shape into a routine. In the mornings she visited Blackie, her pet name for the big Alsatian in the basement, and made progress with him daily. After lunch, she spent the early part of the afternoon working with the knights and trainees. Sol told them that participation in the program was entirely by choice, but that they opted out at their own peril. Only one knight refused.
Two or three days a week she spent some time practicing in the archaic weaponry wing. Not because she anticipated a need to fight by sword or archery, but because she had devoted too much of her life to these accomplishments to let them go rusty.
Of course everything had to be relearned to some extent. All the skills that had long ago been committed to “muscle memory” had to be recalibrated to match the amount of pressure her new strength brought to each activity. When she was recovering she had thought it was a natural part of being rehabilitated to such a drastic extent and didn't realize the implications. Everything from holding a fork to opening a door required adjustment. The first time she played guitar, she popped a string so hard that it flew up and split her top lip.
In the archaic weapons section, the knights also trained with modified wooden stakes since it turned out that vampire really do succumb, permanently, to wood driven directly into the heart.
One day, when no one else was around, she picked up a stake and twirled it around a couple of times to get the feel of the weight and shape. For grins, she threw it at a straw target. Although she didn’t pierce the heart the first time, she did propel the stake clear through the dummy, exploding out the other side. After a few tries she came closer to the target area and discovered that, if she eased back on force, she could embed the stake rather than turning it into a missile. But, of course, the target was stationary. She made up her mind to try again with the simulator whenever she found herself alone and unobserved.
She had fallen into the habit of spending the late afternoons watching movies with Ram which proved to be an accelerated course in the culture of this world. He had little else to do these days and she felt entirely responsible for that. Not that his company was hard to endure.