Chapter 2: Her Past

I remember the time when I was still too young and innocent to know the dark secrets of my existence. I was obviously with my parents; I had always admired their skills of combat. Usually I would watch my father from afar whenever he went outside to practice his techniques with his swords; he moved gracefully like the wind.

 

As an optimistic three year old at the time, I wanted him to train me. All I could ever think of was being just like my daddy. After he was done training that day, I went up to him and begged him to train me. "Please daddy? Pretty pleaseeeee? I want to be strong and cool like you!"

 

With a loud chuckle, he patted my small head and replied, "Alright Yuki, I'll train you...but in two years."

 

"Whyyyyyy?" I whined, puffing up my cheeks.

 

Rolling his eyes, he let out a small sigh before bending his knees to be the same exact height as me. "Tell you what, I'll give you a wooden sword that daddy made and you can play with it until you turn five years old."

 

"Pinky swear?" I said, sticking out my pinky in front of his face.

 

His big pinky wrapped around my tiny one and said, "Pinky swear."

 

I gave my dad a big hug before going back to the house. Who knew that two years could pass by so quickly?

 

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2 years later; 1:00 A.M.

I was sleeping soundly in my bed dreaming about whatever a five year old would dream of. I heard a creaking sound in the corner of the room, but I ignored it thinking that it was just a spider or something. Suddenly, inside my ear I heard someone whisper "Boo!"

 

My eyes snapped open and I grabbed the sword my father gave me. I unsheathed it, and took a swing at the intruder. With a smirk on his face, he blocked it easily with his forearm and grabbed the it from me like taking a lollipop from a baby. The lights were turned on and I saw my father in front of me, shaking his head in disappointment. "You're going to need a LOT of work," he muttered.

 

I tilted my head to the side, confused by his words. I looked outside and it was still dark, but light enough to go outside. My father took my hand and dragged me outside, "Yuki, you're training starts now. I want you to run five miles, but don't worry your old man will be running with you."

 

My eyes gleamed in joy as I clapped my hands excitedly. 'I can finally be like daddy!'

 

"Be here in ten minutes pronto, understand?"

 

"Yes sir!"

 

With a blink of an eye, he disappeared and all there was left was the room of my door slightly hanging off. I quickly grabbed a rubber band and tied my hair into a pony tail. I stripped off my pajamas and got into a pair of shorts and a comfortable t-shirt.

 

As soon as I got outside, my father was standing in the middle of the field with his hands behind his back and his feet apart shoulder length. He motioned me to come near him. I ran up to him and mimicked his stance.

 

"Alright Yuki, today is the day where we can start your training after two long years of waiting." he began. "Now, we are going to warm up with a jog towards the mountains. I'll be following you from behind and there will be no breaks at all."

 

"Yes sir." I yelled, the excitement inside was overwhelming.

 

"Let's go!"

 

The warm up wasn't that difficult. I was able to go fast enough to satisfy my father, but slow enough to preserve energy. As the sun began to rise, it got harder to breath.

 

My dad had a fan made from parchment paper and whenever I was slowing down, he would whack my head. "Come on Yuki! Two more miles to go!" he said what felt like centuries later. A groan escaped my lips; I was hot, sweaty, tired, and my mouth was dry as the deserts near the Elf Kingdom. After those two dreadful miles were over, I thought my father was going to give me a water break, but I was wrong.

 

As soon as we got home, I was already lying down on the ground breathless. My father forced me to stand up and yelled, "One hundred pushups, NOW! "

 

"But daddy, I'm really twersity." I replied, trying to hold back the tears that were ready to fall down.

 

"You'll be able to drink water once your mother calls us for breakfast."

 

"B-but..."

 

"No buts! Now do those pushups or else no break for you!"

 

My face scrunched up as I did the pushups. He would always be counting each one I did; if it was improperly done then he wouldn't count it. When I was finally done with the pushups, he literally flipped my small body over and forced me to do 100 crunches.

 

The sound of my mother's call for breakfast brought tears of joy. 'Water....'

 

My father picked me up and lead the way to our cottage. The delicious aroma of food brought a waterfall in my mouth and a huge growl from my empty stomach. "Easy there girl, your daddy doesn't want any drool all over his clothes."

 

I giggled at his comment and sat down on the chair. On the table it was full of my mother's famous chocolate pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, home cooked French fries, and lastly a huge bottle of water. When my parents gave me their permission to eat, I stuffed as much as I could in my mouth. My plate was full of mostly pancakes and I washed everything down with water. Finally when my hunger was satisfied, my father told me that I can have an hour break before we have to train again.

 

I groaned at the thought of training. Who knew it would be this hard? I thought the first day would be easier, but then again he did train with the top imperial guard AND commander for the military in his kingdom.

 

As I was sitting down in the living room, my mother came in with an ancient book in her hand. She sat down next to me and opened it. "Yuki my dear." she began. "During your breaks I will be teaching you all kinds of spells that your mother learned."

 

'Spells...'

 

"First, you must learn the language of the Dragons. Our language is very ancient and sacred; no other creature can ever recognize it or hear it if they have never studied it before."

 

"Woooow." I said in amazement.

 

My mother got out a piece of paper with a jar of ink and a feather pen. She started to scribble down weird symbols and words. 

 

"Now Yuki, these words have special meanings in them. You can actually make up a spell on your own, but I was personally taught this when I was around your age." she said.

 

Closing her eyes, she relaxed her entire body from head to toe.

 

"Secaras." she chanted. Her hands opened up as if she were to receive something. Inside her hand was water slowly rising up. My eyes widen in amazement as the water started to float upwards on its own from her hand.

 

"And that is the power of spells." she said, smiling at my reaction. "You may use them for good or evil. To kill or save, to hide or use. We will be going over the spells in this book and slowly make up your own spells."

 

I was jumping up and down from this; everything was too overwhelming. The joys of heaven slowly came to an end when my father came in the room and said, "Let's continue our training."

 

Minutes went to hours to days to months to years.

 

My training consisted of intense conditioning my body to become stronger and faster. When I finally got used to the running, core work, and more running things got serious. My father began to shape up my swordsmanship by showing me different techniques, stances, and ways of putting away my sword. Once he has taught everything I needed to know for now, we test my abilities with a light spar.

 

My father would obviously win in every match. When he got the chance to, he would somehow manage to get my sword out of my grasp and into the air. His sword would be pointed directly at my nose and I was already defenseless by then. However, one day he pierced his sword on the ground and said, "Now I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself barehanded."

He taught me all the strikes you could do without any weapons. It ranged to hand techniques, to kicks, to deadly blows, submissions, chokes, and joint manipulation. As the years passed by, my training started to change and I improved a lot.

 

One time my father made me stand in a stance with my arms forward and bent, the palm of my hand was facing towards the sky, legs were shoulder length apart and bent. What was coming up next was pure torture.

 

My father got out my wooden sword and started to strike all parts of my body with it. He told me to suck up the pain and don't stop tensing my muscles. When I couldn't feel the sword anymore, he started to hit me with harder things. My body was full of scars and bruises during that training.

 

At the age of 13, I was finally done training. Both of my parents taught me everything that they know and could in a span of eight years. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Despite how brutal the training was from my father and the mental torture from learning the spells from my mother, I still loved them either way.

 

The day I turned sixteen was one of the best and worst day of my life. I honestly wish it never came.