Altair's studies continued under Donel. As time went by she noticed that she could hold a conversation with only herself and maybe an child who had just started learning how to speak. Learning a language in the way she was learning it was very boring, tiresome and tedious. Every single day for almost the entire day she was learning a word for this and that and sometimes she would have to guess at the meaning of conjunctions and adjectives that Donel would say. Yet even after all this time she still hadn't spoken to anyone other than Donel.

Learning their language wasn't all that Donel instructed her on. He also supervised her when it was time to use the bathroom and to bathe. He also made sure that she maintained proper hygiene practices. He even went as far as instructing her on the proper way to wash her face. Lastly, he taught her how to use chopsticks and how to not just shovel food into her face when it came time to eat.

That was the lesson that Donel struggled with drilling into her head the most...

She also had almost no time to strengthen her body.

She was actually getting fed up with the rate that she was improving her mobility as well. The drugs had done a number on her system. She still had times when she couldn't put any power into her movements. She had even dropped her food and cups at times when that happened without warning. The first time it happened frightened her. She wasn't sure if there was something wrong with her body. If she could never recover her power then wouldn't that mean she would just be a fragile girl that would never be able to return to her home and get rid of that eyesore? She detested the very idea of it.

She devoted a lot of her free time to training her body back into shape.

She had once thought it would be nice to live in peace and quiet with nothing to do but those thoughts were dead to her now. With the constant feeling of emptiness inside her she only felt incomplete where she was. The added insult of her being so weak and useless made her overall mood gloomy. The only break she had was when she was learning their language with Donel. That was mostly because of how boring it was otherwise though.

Due to the window she was actually able to keep proper track of time finally. The scenery wasn't much to look at, however...

She never left her room. Not because she didn't want to but because there were two people outside her room that stopped her from leaving every time she opened the door. She considered trying to get out through the window but the window couldn't be opened. Even if she could break the window the noise would draw the two people outside so she wouldn't be able to get out anyway. Besides, all she could see as far as she could see was grass. There were no trees, hills, bushes, or anything to hide behind. So, even if she fled out there, she had no idea where she would go or what to do about food and she wouldn't be able to hide from any pursuers. This resulted in Altair giving up the idea of escaping at this time.

She had gotten free from the shackles on that bed before but her movements were still limited. The only real thing that changed was that she was able to move on her own now.

'It's still a lot better than before though.'

It wasn't all bad. The food was so good she always wanted more even though her portions never changed. The bath was amazing and she could take them whenever she wanted. The bed was so comfortable she struggled to wake up in the mornings now. She had plenty of time to exercise. She was able to freely watch grass grow...

Alright, it was seriously dull. Donel wasn't a good conversation partner because he was teaching her their language. She couldn't have a decent chat because of that cursed language barrier!

About a month after she arrived here she noticed that child she saw when she first came here watching her. He would peak in from the door occasionally during her lessons. He would only ever show up later in the afternoon or at night. He never had a set day when he would come either. It was always a sporadic spying by him. She was sure that the people outside the door had noticed him but chosen to ignore him. That wouldn't surprise Altair. He appeared to be the son of the man she had only seen once.

His attempts at staying hidden were laughable in Altair's eyes. She had probably been as terrible as him long ago. It was slightly amusing that he kept showing up but also a bit concerning to her.

What concerned her were the thoughts on why he kept coming to see her. She had toyed with the idea several times over a couple of weeks and always came to two possibilities.

The first was an idea that she abhorred. She couldn't avoid making the connection though considering what she knew about nobles from where she was from. She thought that he kept coming because that man she had met was planning to use her to give his son experience with the opposite sex.

The very thought of it caused her skin to crawl. The boy looked like a Human, even if he was a God. She couldn't get around that fact. Since that was the case then that man couldn't blame her for being rude when the time came..

The second idea was that he was just curious. He was a child after all, so it wouldn't have been so strange. He only ever dropped by briefly and would leave without saying a word. This put this idea closer to the truth in Altair's mind.

Since children were mostly easy to read and often guileless, Altair was hoping this was the case.

Because the alternative meant they were teaching her their language just to use her body.

She didn't want to think that Donel would be serving such people. She had higher hopes for him than the rest. It was probably because of his elderly face and how he carried himself. He just seemed like a respectable person, for a God at least. She didn't want her image of him in her mind to be shattered so she avoided trying to think too deeply about it.

It didn't bother Altair that he kept spying on her after a while. It didn't even annoy her. The most it was to her was a minor, 'oh you're here again?' and that was it. She didn't put any more weight to her mind about his visits.

That changed one a certain day though...

On that day her studies had ended unexpectedly. Donel had something or other he had to, or so Altair assumed. He seemed to rocket out of the room with a few words after some beeping noise came from him. She had no idea what to make of it.

'Are Gods supposed to beep randomly? Such a strange race of creatures they are..'

This gave Altair a large chance to get some decent exercise. Her progress on getting her body back into her control had been slow enough already. So she immediately jumped to start working out following the same pattern she was used to using.

After not moving her body in the ways she was used to in so long it hurt quite a bit when she was just stretching her limbs to warm up. However, the pain wasn't the kind that would cause any aches or damage to her body. It was the kind that told her that her muscles were horribly out of condition. This only strengthened her determination to return to her top shape as soon as possible. She also slightly enjoyed that familiar, yet rare, type of pain she was feeling.

In the middle of her doing some odd stretches that really shouldn't be possible, the boy had appeared at the door. Unlike previous times, he wasn't just peeking in. He was actually standing in the doorway. The two people standing watch over the room didn't pay him any attention or Altair any attention either. It was like they weren't even there.

The boy strode into the room with bold steps and his head held high. It was like he was trying to appear imposing and formidable. Altair thought he looked like a child acting like an adult. It would be cute, if he didn't look so Human to her.

He walked right up to Altair and put his hands on his hips. He then cockily said, "Kneel before me, servant!"

Altair stared blankly at him before continuing to stretch. She understood that he was telling her to kneel and calling her a servant, the rest of what he said could be inferred from there with his tone of voice and actions. But she was currently learning their language and she didn't want to give this child any real attention. She also wanted to resist the notion of what it implied: that her destiny was to be his bed warmer and personal toy as he grew up. So she acted like she didn't understand.

'Expect me to kneel to a child? You think too highly of yourself, God. As long as there's no adults who could actually harm me around there is no chance I will ever do what you say.'

After not having any problems in a while, Altair had forgotten that her current strength was about equal to a child herself.

Seeing Altair not give him the respect he believed he deserved, the boy huffed loudly before complaining, "You stupid girl! I'll tell my dad to have you beaten to death!" He attempted to stand taller and make himself more intimidating while doing so.

Altair continued to stretch in a different way. This time she didn't know what he meant. She just chalked it up to the child being an arrogant noble child and ended her thoughts on him.

This infuriated the boy as he glared daggers at her. He had never been ignored before. Everything he wanted was handed to him so long as he listened to his father. However, this girl was the one thing he couldn't have any say in.

Ever since this girl had come to his home he had asked his father several times why she was here. He had never given him an answer, only telling him that he will know when he's old enough. This only caused him to get more and more curious as time went on. He eventually started to sneak peeks at her while she was being taught the most basic of things. He didn't understand why a child who appeared as old as him didn't know as much as he did. He had even told his friends at school about her and the strangeness of the situation. They had all agreed that she would eventually be his personal servant girl and that he should hurry up and show her the place she was destined to be at. It wouldn't be good to let the servant girl get too used to living comfortably without following his commands. He had to quickly instill her rightful place into her before it got out of hand.

He would have asked his mother but his mother was busy often. So he waited for his chance to confront the servant girl and teach her that he would be her Master in the future. Now she was ignoring him. A stupid servant girl ignoring him, the Master, caused him to be outraged. He couldn't stand it as his blood rushed to his head.