FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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CHAPTER 24

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"Ow..." I groaned, laying on my stomach, my body racked with pain.

A pair of white furred paws stepped into view, and with some pain I turned my head to look up at Aceh. He looked down on my with his stoic yet stern glare. If I thought training with Aceh had been painful before, his blows enhanced with his 'kii', felt like sledgehammers when they struck.

Aceh could manipulate his nen with shocking speed and efficiency. Try as I might I could not match him, even when I could sense the movement of his nen round his body. Aceh would channel his nen at the last possible second, meaning that even when I knew which paw he was going to strike me with, more often than not I was too slow to block or dodge it.

"Get up!" Aceh commanded.

I groaned and immediately complied. Pushing myself off the ground and staggering to my foot-paws. I clutched my right side as a sharp pain nearly knocked me back to the floor. I caught my balance and looked at Aceh.

"You are strong, but have no control."

"Tell me about it."

"This is good."

"What? How is this good?" I asked.

"Control takes practise, strength takes time to make." He explained in an over simplified way. "If you had no strength, you would still need to practise."

"Okay... I think I understand." I said moving over to a nearby wall to lean against while I recovered from my most recent beating. "So how are you able to use nen?" I asked him.

"Many are able to use, many never realise."

"Stop talking in riddles!"

"Most have the ability to use nen, most simply don't have the strength required to use it effectively." with his explanation I remembered that many dragons here could use nen although they could bend any elements with it.

"But I've never known any wolves to use nen."

"Dragons are able to use... 'nen'," he said, obviously getting used to using the term, "more than wolves, this is how they survived against the superior numbers the wolves have." Aceh said bluntly. "But some wolves are able to use nen, nen was gift of Asurmen. Spirit of life, the strength to fight and survive against demons."

I remembered the stories Eric had told me about the great demon wars. Asurmen gave his strength to the chosen warriors, creating the K'tan, giving them the ability to preform feats beyond that of any mortal and to fight the demons on equal footing. It made sense that nen was that power, and if it was passed down through blood it also made sense why there were clans and houses like the Anaris line that were renowned for their abilities and strength.

Aceh was from a famous tiger clan, the Amur clan, he had told me about his grandfather before but never about his ability to use nen. It made me wonder just how many out there in the world could use nen. If I was to come across someone like Aceh I wouldn't stand a chance. If I was to become truly strong enough to defend everyone I would need to wield that strength like a sword; and Aceh could teach me how.

"Are you ready to move on to the next step?" Aceh asked.

"Yes!" I said with determination, pushing away from the wall and standing tall, ignoring the pain shooting throughout my body.

"Very well... we shall begin."

************

"You sure you're okay?" My father asked.

"I'll live." I replied, lifting the spoon of stew to my maw, the action slow and awkward.

My training session with Aceh had been rough, the roughest I've ever had with him, and that's saying something! My whole body ached and yet felt numb at the same time. I tingled slightly like the time I had arm wrestled Malnark, but not as bad. At this point I think that numbness was helping.

"If you say so." Kaldor sighed. "That tiger is some piece of work. You look like you just had your ass kicked by a mob!"

"I've had worse." And it was true, I'd had enough beatings in my life to know that this was nothing. "And just so you know, Aceh would kick that mobs ass!" I laughed, regretting doing so as pain racked y body.

"I'd believe it." Kaldor smirked. "How is your training with Xavier going?"

"All right... I'm not making any pillars of fire any more when I try and bend. But the fire keeps snuffing out almost straight away."

"Ah, you're choking the fire." Kaldor mused.

"Choking?"

"Well I suppose Xavier's not a fire bender so I suppose it stands to reason he doesn't fully understand it himself. But your nen can be used to feed a fire as well as control it." He explained. "It's not something you can really teach, it's something that you have to feel and learn for yourself. Everyone is different."

"Xavier said that every ones nen is different."

"Yes, so even two fire benders will have different skills. One will be able to use different skills more easily than others depending on the nature and strength of their nen." He explained. "Your previous incident was caused by you 'over' feeding the flames, while now you are probably trying so hard to stop that and are choking them. You need to find that delicate balance between the two, and let me tell you for me that learning that balance is the hardest part!" He chuckled. "Once I learned that, everything else came pretty easily." He said, sounding a little boastful but I knew he meant it to be reassuring.

"Thanks... I think that helps..." I smiled as I thought about it. "Dad..."

Kaldor looked at me wide eyed before smiling. He obvious liked being called that. But more and more I was beginning to feel what I felt with my mother, what it was like to have a parent that you could rely on.

************

"Impressive." Xavier commented as he watched me.

After an hour of trying to control the flames I had managed to hold a flame between my paws for about a minute before it snuffed out. My father had been right, I had been literally been choking the flames.

I reached out again towards the flame, my nen grabbing a portion of it before I pulled it out. Like before I focus on the flames, keeping them alive, the only thing sustaining them was my nen. It was exhilarating to think that I was doing this, keeping something that was so delicate and yet so dangerous alive because I was willing it to be so.

"You learn quickly." Xavier smiled.

"A few words of advice from my father." I said.

"Well I would expect nothing less from the son of a grandmaster of fire." He grinned. "I am sorry I can't help you more with you're fire bending, but I think you're about ready to return to Kassius and learn from a true master of fire."

"What about our lessons?" I asked. "I still want to learn wind bending."

"Well, you said that you would be learning to read and write from Callidus did you not?"

"His son actually." I corrected him.

"Beg your pardon. Between that, your lessons with the tiger, and fire bending lessons I really don't see how you have time."

"I do the writing lessons with Vizimaar three days a week. Could we do it the other days?" I suggested.

"I suppose we could yes. We will do three days a week as well."

"What about the other day?"

"You need time to rest and have some fun." Xavier smiled. "If possible I would recommend you take an entire day to relax and enjoy life Malakye. You are pushing yourself too hard and you won't be any use to anyone if you make yourself sick." He insisted.

"If you insist." I smiled.

"Now, if you don't mind I think it's time we focus on wind bending since our time together will be lessened considerably."

I let the flame suspended between my paws die and turned to face him.

"Then lets get to it!"

Xavier ran me through the usual routine, learning to throw my nen as an attack. After our previous lessons I had gotten pretty good at it and was pretty quick at gathering the nen as well. But as Xavier liked to remind me, practise makes perfect. I didn't argue, he was being kind enough to teach me in the first place, and I also knew that it would probably help with other aspects of using nen as well.

After that we sparred, Xavier showing how I could use the wind bending to improve my fighting ability beyond just ranged attacks. It was similar to how I had felt others use nen to increase their offence and defence, but this was something only wind benders could do apparently. Using my nen I could extend my attacks, hit an opponent even if they would normally have managed to narrowly dodge a blow.

While practising I found that I could manipulate my nen the way he told me to, but during a spar I found doing it on the fly difficult. It required so much focus for me to manipulate my nen that even if I summoned the nen in time, it lacked any real power behind it, ending up as little more than a light breeze rushing across Xavier's scales.

I got a little frustrated and down heartened by the end of our lesson, but Xavier assured me it would come with time. And recited his favourite phrase to me once again, that practise makes perfect! By Asurmen he loved saying that! It was getting a little annoying... although it was good advice. My only problem was my time was practically not my own. I had no time to practise outside of our lessons.

When Xavier and I said our goodbyes, as of tomorrow I would be going back to lessons with Kassius, I had to make haste to the Valelor house for my lessons there.

I was almost dreading these lessons, I'll give Vizimaar his due, the kid was patient and he definitely sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and I probably wasn't the best student. I had no experience with letters or numbers and he was expected to teach me. Even though I had only had one lesson, I felt the kid would have an easier time trying to teach a fooshnar* how to read and write.

************

My lesson with Vizimaar had dragged... but after several hours I was free of the mind numbing lessons. I made my way into the center of Zangar, hoping to find some way to unwind while I still had some time before my lesson with Aceh.

The market place was full of bodies, much more than normal. As I wandered round I over heard several dragons talking and found out what all the fuss was about. Apparently one of the trade caravans had returned with some fresh goods. I didn't have any coin to buy anything but I figured browsing would take my mind off things.

I narrowly dodged a couple of females who were arguing over a piece of cloth of some description. They were surprisingly vicious! They were one step short of brawling before a few other dragons intervened. I don't know what it was they were fighting over but I certainly didn't want to get involved.

"Malakye!" I heard a familiar voice call out my name. "Malakye over here!"

I looked behind me trying to find the source of the voice through the throngs of bodies. I could make out an arm waving, but couldn't see out who it belonged to, eventually I saw that it belonged to Laguna. I hadn't seen him since our sex session in the caves. I really hoped that this wasn't going to be awkward.

"Hey Laguna!" I greeted him with a smile, trying to act naturally.

"It's so good to see you again! It feels like forever!"

"Yeah." I said simply, not sure if he was going to make a big deal about our little sex session.

"I saw your fight the other day! You were awesome! I was sure you were going to win!"

"Yeah, well..."

"Baroc was a real ass-hole about the whole thing."

"I get the impression your brother doesn't like me very much." I said bluntly.

"He's just a bit riled after you showed him up."

"How?"

"He was kind of the best fighter in our class until you turned up, excluding Kassandra of course." He explained. "He calmed down a bit after you went to train with Xavier, but he was a bit jealous..."

"Really?"

"Yeah I know..."

"Then I guess I'm going to upset him again when I come back tomorrow."

Mentioning my return to the class made Laguna light up, his smile couldn't have gotten any larger and it looked like he was barely able to restrain himself from leaping around like an idiot. But he settled for an over enthusiastic hug.

"You're really coming back!?"

"Yeah, Xavier says I've improved enough to join you guys."

"Oh man I can't wait!" He giggled. "I can just imagine his expression when he sees you walk in!"

I was silently glad that there was no awkwardness between us, Laguna was one of the few Zangarians I was able to call a friend. I had been so worried that sleeping with him would have ruined that, especially since he was a bit younger than me. I really needed to spend more time with him, even if it was just hanging out. But if I wanted to have something to eat before training with Aceh I wouldn't have much time, unless...

"Hey, fancy getting something to eat?"

"Sure!" He grinned. "Anywhere in mind?"

"Uh..." Come to think of it I didn't have much coin on me. "Why don't we just go round to mine? I'm sure Harold would have no problem having an extra maw to feed."

"Round to yours? Like... the Anaris household?!?" He said nervously.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just... ah... it's the Anaris house!"

"Oh!" I suddenly realised that it was probably a bit of a big deal for him. The Anaris clan were the leaders of Zangar, essentially royalty. "You don't want to?"

"No! I mean yes! I mean..." He paused to take a breath. I stopped myself from laughing at how flustered he had gotten. "I would love to! But are you sure it's okay?"

"Sure I'm sure!" I grinned. "Now come on, I'm getting hungry!"

************

As we made our way through the halls of the Anaris house I watched Laguna out of the corner of my eye. He had gone quiet, strangely quiet, and was looking round with a mixture of awe, nervousness and excitement. As we approached the kitchen I caught the scent of something delicious, my maw began to water and my stomach growled in anticipation.

"Wait until you taste Harold's cooking!" I grinned.

""Who's Harold?" Laguna asked.

"You don't know?" My surprise quickly fading as I realised that Harold didn't actually go out much. "He's a little yellow dragon, best cook I've ever met!"

As we rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen Laguna stopped in the door way. He looked round the large room with curiosity. I think he was surprised at the amount of food in the place, I know I was the first time I saw it. Harold was busy stirring a pot and didn't notice us come in. I walked over to him and chuckled when he jumped slightly when he finally noticed me. He shook his head, his paw on his chest as he took a deep breath.

"Sorry Harold." I chuckled, he waved his paw as if to discard the subject altogether. I guessed he forgave me. "I've brought someone round for dinner. I told him you're the best cook in all of Zangar." I saw Harold look over at Laguna and smile broadly.

"Nice to meet you Harold." Laguna said with a little wave.

Harold waved back and stared at him with his head cocked to the side slightly. Laguna seemed to get nervous under Harold's continuous stare. I chuckled realising that Laguna had no idea that Harold didn't talk.

"He's asking if you're hungry." I explained.

"Oh... uh... yeah!" Laguna smiled.

Harold nodded eagerly and with his usual brisk pace began assembling something for us to eat. I lead Laguna over to the table at the side of the room where I usually ate. As we watched Harold and waited I noticed someone enter the room.

"I didn't know we were having guests tonight!" I saw Laguna's scales visibly whiten as he looked round to see my father approaching. He sat stock still, as if he was little more than a statue as gazed upon my father. "And who might you be?"

"L... La... Laguna.... Lord Anaris."

"Come now, no need to scared, I don't bite." Kaldor chuckled.

"Sorry..." Laguna seemed to relax slightly but was still incredibly nervous.

"Are you Cid's boy?"

"Yes sir!"

"Ah, good dragon your father. Hard worker!"

"Thank you sir."

"Enough of that sir crap! This is my home and you are our guest. Call me Kaldor." My father insisted.

"Okay... thank you... Kaldor."

"There you go! That wasn't too hard now was it?" He chuckled. "Now then, I'm starved, I assume you don't have a problem if I join you for a bite to eat?"

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During our meal Laguna began to relax around Kaldor. Eventually we were all laughing and joking with each other. Laguna was still a little wary around my father, but at least the very sound of his voice didn't turn him into a rigid statue any more. But all too soon I realised that time had passed and if I didn't hurry I was going to be late for my training with Aceh, if I wasn't already.

"I've got to go train with Aceh now..." I said, feeling bad about just abandoning Laguna like this.

"Oh... okay." Laguna smiled glumly.

"Why don't... you can come along and watch if you want." I said, feeling bad about having to leave so suddenly.

"Great!" He beamed.

"Well then I'll catch you boys later." Kaldor said as he got up. "It was nice to meet you Laguna. Give my regards to your father will you?"

"I will!"

"Come on we'd better go. If I'm late Aceh will beat my ass... worse than normal." I said with a nervous smile. We got up and I began to lead Laguna through the house to the room where I trained with Aceh.

"So Aceh is that... tiger that you arrived with?" Laguna asked,

"Yeah. He's been training me for a while now, before I even got to Zangar."

"He won't mind me being there will he?"

"Probably not, and you'll probably just see me get my ass kicked."

"Come on, you're an awesome fighter!" He praised.

"Yeah well... lets just say as good as you may think I am Aceh is waaaaay better!"

I pushed open the doors to the room and as usual Aceh was sitting cross legged in the center of the room in meditation. I motioned for Laguna to be quiet and closed the doors behind us. When I turned back round Aceh was already standing and was staring at us in silence.

"Who is this?" He asked bluntly.

"This is Laguna." I replied. "He's just gonna watch."

"Fine." He snorted.

Laguna shot me a look that needed no words. He was a little nervous and shocked at Aceh's bluntness. He smiled and then moved to the side of the room to watch while I approached Aceh.

"Attack!" Aceh commanded and I immediately complied.

As I slipped into my fighting stance I drew on my nen, letting the power flow through me and out of me, engulfing the surrounding area with it. I waited a moment for Aceh to ready himself, he wasn't even using his nen, but he just stood there with his arms at his sides. I didn't hesitate, I immediately dashed forward and threw a punch.

As expected Aceh easily evaded my attack by side stepping to my right, but I had expected that from him. I planted my right foot-paw firmly on the ground and spun to the left, bring my leg leg up and aimed for Aceh's mid section. Again he evaded it easily by back stepping. I used the momentum from my kick to spin me back round to face him.

I paused for a second, it was unusual for Aceh to be so restrained. He was just standing there regarding me with such a relaxed composure. It annoyed me slightly. I know that he was stronger than me but the fact that he wasn't even trying really rubbed me the wrong way.

I forced myself to stay calm, there was always a hidden lesson with Aceh, so I needed find away to impress him. I didn't attack immediately, I thought about what Aceh had taught me in our last lesson, some subtle fact he had tried to teach me. It was difficult to remember anything but the beat down he gave me.

He had talked about how to use 'kii', how it could be used to increase your strength and defence, but I had already known that. So what else had he tried to tell me? Speed. Strength meant nothing if I couldn't land my blow, he was wanting me to increase my speed! How could I do that?

I went back on the attack, focusing on how I could land a blow while not leaving myself open. Aceh would punish me if I left myself open to an easy counter. I switched between stances, but no matter what I did I couldn't even graze the burly tiger. It felt like he was dancing round me. I growled in frustration and lunged headlong at him. I realised my mistake too late. The moment I lunged at him I felt the change in Aceh, he batted my arm aside and then thrust his palm into my snout.

I fell to the ground, hard, my vision blurred as I stared up at the ceiling. I rubbed my snout, mercifully Aceh had not struck me with a nen enhanced blow, my snout tingled from impact but I felt little pain. I shook my head and quickly got back up. Aceh stood waiting for me, he had just sent me a message.

I closed my eyes and focused, I had done what I knew I shouldn't have. I had lunged headlong at Aceh and left myself open, rushing Aceh would not work, he wouldn't panic or get flustered. I had let my frustration get the better of me.

Aceh didn't move, he just stood there staring at me. Other than that last attack he hadn't done anything other than dodge my attacks. Aceh was so fast! He also knew my every move, I would have to be like a flash of lightning if I wanted to fluster him. That's when I realised I wasn't using my nen. I was just letting it pour out of me, I wasn't manipulating it! Aceh could focus his nen in an instant, shift from attack and defence as easily as breathing.

Maybe I could use it to make me faster? I felt my nen, it flowed out of me like a gentle breeze, I tried to remember the time I had arm wrestled Malnark, tried to remember every little detail about that. I had focused my nen and beaten him. I had imagined a storm, the biggest storm I could remember and used that image to focus my nen. Maybe that's all I needed, I just needed to imagine.

Before I had imaged the strongest thing I could remember, but now I needed speed. I imagined a leaf flying through the air as the wind caught it. I needed to be that leaf. I took a deep breath, imagining the gust of wind flowing through my body, and then exhaled slowly. I opened my eyes and moved it to attack.

I wasn't sure if I imagined it, but I swear I saw Aceh flinch the split second before I attacked, he narrowly avoided my punch; I felt his whiskers brush the back of my fist. Encouraged by that I lashed out with another couple of fast jabs, Aceh narrowly dodging them by back stepping. He tried to step to my left and I moved to grab him. He batted my paw away before I could grab his shoulder and stepped round behind me.

Even though I could no longer see him I still could, he was still within the range of my nen bubble so I could see him in my minds eye. He was coming back round to my right, I spun round with my right fist extended, he ducked below the attack and rolled away from me. I was quick to pursue him, he had barely gotten back up before I was upon him. I lashed out with another punch and this time he blocked it.

I back stepped away and I just stood there in shock. He had blocked not dodged! Had I forced him to block? I looked him in the eye and saw him smirk. He shook off the blow to his forearm and then for the first time slipped into a fighting stance. I felt myself grin and readied myself. Even if I got my ass handed to me now, I had forced him to block and he acknowledged it! That feeling was worth any beating.

************

I leant against the wall and rubbed my bloodied snout. Aceh had landed a pretty heavy blow in the last round of our sparring match before he made me finish off our time with some physical exercise. If my body was going to hurt after our sparring, I know that I was going to be sore after the exercise regime he made me do, I was definitely going to be sore in the morning.

"Man... he's rough." Laguna whispered, careful not to let Aceh hear, although I'm pretty sure that Aceh could hear.

"It's not so bad." I assured him, straining to smile.

"You did well." Aceh grumbled as he stood with his arms crossed. "Now go and rest."

I nodded and took a deep breath, groaning as I stood up straight, my body complaining about the motion. I was going to head straight to bed, but Laguna was still here, I felt obligated to at least walk him part way home. The door to the room opened and Jovani walked in.

"Young Master, it is getting late. Is your guest going to be staying with us tonight?" Jovani asked curtly, one arm behind his back.

"Oh... um..."

"I guess it is kinda late..." Laguna said nervously. "I should really get home, my parents will worry if I stayed."

"I can send a messenger over to let them know where you are." Jovani assured him. "I do believe the farm is a decent walk from here."

"Yeah... but it's okay. I wouldn't want to put you out."

"It is not an issue at all, I assure you." Jovani smiled. "Would you like to stay the night?"

"Uh... I guess I'd like that."

"I shall prepare a room for you then." Jovani said.

I didn't fail to notice the look of disappointment at Jovani's words when Laguna looked at me. I knew immediately what he had hoped for, he wanted to stay the night with me. I knew that our time together at the festival wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. I still felt a little guilty about that night, but I don't know why. Sure he was bit younger than myself but was old enough to be married and have kids, and it's not like I forced him.

The look in his eyes made me feel bad for the kid. I looked at Aceh and saw him give me a stern glare, not his usual stern glare, one that implied that I was being an idiot. Jovani was already heading out of the doorway when I looked back.

"Jovani!" I called, catching his attention just before he went out of sight. "Don't worry about preparing a bed, Laguna will..." I cleared my throat and felt myself blush slightly. "He will be staying in my room tonight."

Jovani paused for a second before nodding his head a sly grin gracing his muzzle.

"Very well young master. I shall send a messenger to inform his family of his where abouts."

Once Jovani left I was assaulted by two scaly arms wrapping themselves round my ribs as Laguna hugged me from behind. He quickly stopped when he realised that Aceh was still in the room. Aceh nodded to us and then left, leaving the two of us alone.

"Thank you so much!" Laguna practically squealed excitedly.

"Don't worry about it." I grinned. "A beds always better when you have company." I grinned, quoting one of Cody's favourite phrases.