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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:49 pm
The sun dappled his skin and the cool bite of the morning breeze was refreshing. Today was a great day to read. Padparadscha sat in the shade of a large tree with a stack of reading material, mostly about water and the life found there. He was having a marvelous time learning and the hours just slipped away.
Every now and then he would look up from his book, reading something that reminded him of his time spent with Kanja. The dragon boy was a great teacher of this subject because he lived in the element, but he wanted to learn more. He wanted to be able to share things he had learned and hopefully help Kanja learn new things too.
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Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:38 pm
Argent had his routines, but sometimes he would do something different. Normally, the one-eyed man would spend time in the training rooms practicing, but today? He felt it would be nice to train outside. He couldn't bring a beam weapon out, so he grabbed the wooden quarter staff he used often, and headed outside. Argent knew kids hung around the lake a lot, probably thanks to the boy that lived there, so he wandered elsewhere. Perhaps by the trees? He remembered watching another train there before, using the falling leaves as target practice. That would suffice for a warm up.
However, it seemed he was not the only one to decide the tree was a desirable place today. He saw a boy with a pile of books. Oh, he knew him. "Doing some light reading, are we, Dash?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:43 am
Dash found a section on bioluminescence. He could barely pronounce the word, but what he could comprehend was fascinating. Fish who lived without sunlight could glow and flash lights along their bodies in different patterns. At first he did not realize he had company. He neither heard nor saw Argent approach. When he spoke, lights were going off in Dash's head as he imagined what it must look like in person. "Ah?" He looked up to see Argent waiting for a coherent reply. The boy's smile was radiant as he explained what he was reading. "Bio...lumin...essence," he crawled over the word. "Fish that can glow." He was not surprised to see the quarter staff in Argent's hand. "Practicing," he observed. He marked his place in the book and asked, "Mind if I watch?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 12:37 pm
It was almost comical watching the boy realize he wasn't alone and tried to respond. "Glowing fish?" He hadn't seen anything like that, but he figured the boy in the lake said something. "Bioluminescence." He knew the word. "I think I read some bugs on a distant planet did that too." It was a fascinating subject for sure.
"Yeah. Training every day." He stretched his arms and shifted his grip on the staff. "You're welcome to watch, sure." He looked around. If the kid was here, he didn't really want to swing the weapon around. He walked over to the tree and leaned the staff against it. "Don't want to hit you with this." He explained, and walked a few steps away. Argent figured he could just work on hand to hand drills. He took a breath and closed his eye, focusing. In the next moment, his hands were darting about, catching or even punching the falling leaves as they drifted through the air. After a moment, he threw in some kicks, even jumping to kick leaves out of the air. The movements were fast and graceful.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:47 pm
Dash's eyes widened when he said that some bugs could glow too. Granted that was on another planet but that did not mean they could not exist here. He watched Argent approach with the staff and leave it leaning against the tree beside him. Just his luck it would be if it fell and hit him anyway.
Training every day? That reminded him to ask. "Argent, should I also learn to fight and practice every day?" He felt silly to ask it, but children were pretty much left to their own devices. They could learn or train however they liked. However, he felt that somehow this might be very important. When he went through the motions of the fighting without weaponry, Argent was abstractly hitting and perhaps killing an opponent. Fighting meant to harm or kill, whatever the reason. In this case though, he thought that he would be different and only use such knowledge to protect; the ship, the other genomes, or Kanja.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:19 pm
Argent paused, a leaf between each of his fingers. He looked at Dash. "Learning how to defend yourself isn't a bad thing." He stood back upright. He wondered what made Dash ask so suddenly. "Do you have something you want to fight for? Or something you want to defend?" He couldn't believe that he of all people was saying this. "Because fighting isn't just about attacking and hurting your opponent."
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:14 pm
"I want to protect..." Dash stopped, thinking about Kanja and their great plans for adventure out in the wild. He wasn't sure how to make a concise yet understandable explanation. So he blurted it all out in one breath: "Kanja and I want to explore the water, first the lake, and then when we grow up we want to explore the Outside with all the rivers and the ocean but I'm worried, and I don't want Kanja to get hurt." It never occurred to him that Kanja might want to fight or have similar worries. He did not want Kanja to worry at all, only think about all the great things they would discover out there.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:33 pm
Argent waited as Dash thought about what he wanted to protect. Though the string of words that came out of the child were not what he expected, but at the same time, he absolutely understood. Kanja... that was the kid in the lake. He was a curious little thing.
"Alright." Argent smiled at Dash. "With a reason like that, I can't say no. Come on, come over here. No time like the present."
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 10:41 pm
Dash's eyes bugged out for a second. Argent was going to teach him to fight! He jumped to his feet (miraculously not knocking over the quarter staff) and sprang to his side. It was a long couple of steps, in which he questioned doing this at all. He could not picture himself holding leaves that he had plucked from the air, or kicked (at all, except for in the lake to swim), or punched in quick jabs. What even was that lightning movement? But by the time he got there he was feeling a little loose and confident that this was the right choice. Because adventure and defense and Kanja, his first friend.
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Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:37 pm
He was a cute kid. Argent ruffled the boy's hair when he looked so eagerly at him. It was for kids like Dash, and the lake boy, and Amy that Argent faught. He wanted them to be safe and happy.
"Let's hope you never have to use this." And he struck an easy, balanced pose, explaining that it was a defensive starting pose for unarmed combat, and would be the basics of today's training. "Copy my stance." He watched Dash, correcting him as needed.
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:45 am
Getting his hair ruffled felt weird! But not in a bad way. He grinned. The smile quickly faded as he became immersed in studying Argent's stance. He tried it to, got a little more instruction, but eventually got it right. It gave him a balanced, almost strong feeling. It felt good. He had never felt like that just standing. "I don't want to use it either. But I want to be ready for anything. Thank you for teaching me," he added softly.
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:46 am
"Don't thank me yet. I'm not going to go easy on you just because I like you, kid." He teased. "I expect at least 30 minutes with you every day for training." 30 was much less then what he did daily, surely Dash could handle that.
"You should feel very stable this way. It will be hard to knock you off your feet." He said, giving Dash a nudge.
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:08 pm
"Thirty minutes? But you train longer than that," he observed. Oh, but maybe he wanted the time to himself. "But thirty is okay." When Argent nudged him, Dash hardly moved. He looked up with a surprised and very pleased, "Oh!" He had had no time to brace for that, but his stance had been enough to keep him standing strong. The question was, would he be able to get into that stance next time?
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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:36 pm
"You're right. I train much longer then that. You are welcome to as well, of course. But I'm training to be a soldier. I will fight so others, like you, or that Kanja boy, won't have to." He really hoped that the kids wouldn't have to fight.
"Now, from this pose, you can make a quick jab with either fist." He guided Dash's arms through the motion, first one, then the other. He let the child practice it a few times to get a feel for the movement before he stood in front of him and held his palms up. "Alright. Punch my hands."
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Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 3:13 am
"You can't fight all the time, Argent. Who else fights so you don't always have to?" He was not trying to argue, just ask out of concern.
If Dash could fight so that others wouldn't have to, then when he and Kanja went on adventures, everyone else would be safe. There would be no one to protect him, though, unless Argent came too. "I think I need to become a good fighter like you. I will practice longer than 30 minutes, if I can."
He followed Argent's directions, watching and mimicking. It was strange doing it in a slowed motion, but he could feel how it would move when he sped up. His first two punches were slow like Argent had shown him. Then the next two were fast. When they made contact the sound it produced it startled him a little. But then he smiled because he had done something completely new.
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