Four days training without food

Several weeks later, Larten and Wester were fishing. They stood in the
middle of a fast-flowing stream, thigh-deep in cold water, hunched over.
The test was to spear a fish with their little finger. It should have been a
simple task, except Seba had tied a strip of cloth around their eyes so that
neither could see.

“Listen closely, gentlemen,” he called from the bank, where he was
tucking into a pheasant that they had caught and roasted for him earlier.

“No creature moves in complete silence. Focus. Train your ears. Ignore the
sounds of the stream and the rumblings of your stomachs.”

“Easy for him to say,” Larten huffed, the delicious smell of the pheasant
thick in his nostrils. He hadn’t eaten since they’d arrived here four nights
ago. Wester hadn’t either. Seba had told them they could eat nothing until
they caught a fish.

Wester bent close to the water and strained, but he could hear nothing
moving beneath the surface, even with his advanced senses. After a few
minutes he stabbed directionlessly, figuring if he did that often enough, he
had to catch something eventually. But he came up empty-handed.

Beside him, Larten was struggling to control his rage. He was starving,
wet, and freezing. But worst of all, he felt like a fool. There was no way
they could do this. If it was a still pond, perhaps, but there were limits to
what even a vampire could do. Besides, when he’d studied the stream from
the bank before getting in, he hadn’t seen any fish.

Something bumped lightly against Larten’s leg and he thrust at it. His
nail struck true and he yelled with triumph. But when he ripped his
blindfold away he saw that he’d only speared a piece of wood.

“You will not get fat on that,” Seba chuckled, juices from the pheasant
dripping down his chin.

“Charna’s guts!” Larten roared and threw the stick at Seba. It struck the
vampire’s shoulder and bounced harmlessly to the ground. Seba stared at it,
then at Larten, his expression unreadable.

***

The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer, Chapter 19