“Because if a simple word or even a more meaningful insult could truly offend you, it is very easy to control you. A simple word can arouse anger, upset, rage, or hate in you and it would take a simple word to make you do almost anything another person could want against you.”
Kilniara’s eye’s widened at that thought before she began nodding her head slowly, agreement taking a moment to settle in her thoughts before she accepted, “Like… forcing you into a duel that may kill you!”
“Ah… that seems a bit extreme to be… well… never mind. That would be extreme on my plane today, but it did happen in the past and I could see how it would happen easily here, so, yeah… I guess. Oh, hey… is it OK if I begin expressing mana again? I don’t mind talking, but I want to keep practicing.”
Kilniara’s face flushed a bright red at that last statement and Joe quickly shook his head, smiling as he said, “Up! I’ll express up! Don’t worry.”
Kilniara’s blush turned nuclear at that and she turned away before she nodded and replied very quietly, “Yes.”
Joe didn’t laugh, offering Kilniara a moment to regain her equilibrium and he simply began expressing mana directly upwards easily even as he continued the conversation, “So… yeah… for me, words shouldn’t have control over you. For a word to have control over you gives control to every hum… sapient in the world who can use and speak that world with you. It would be foolish to give that kind of control to others, in my opinion.”
Kilniara, by the time Joe finished his longer statement, was nodding her head in understanding even as she began expressing her own mana upwards as well, although at a bit of an angle away from Joe as her head rested on his shoulder and expressing upwards through her head might clip Joe’s head a few times as well. Hers shot out from behind her shoulder blades and up into the ceiling.
“You are wise, Joe.”
Joe chuckled and shook his head, “Don’t think so… just seems obvious, but… there are people who struggle with this on my plane, and I can only assume it is so here as well.”
Kilniara offered a quiet hum in response but didn’t say anything and the two soon fell into a quiet eternal moment of emitting mana and recovering. Joe did so easily enough, lasting for quite some time. Kilniara, however, soon began to struggle as time passed, sweat forming as she pushed herself more and more. Joe smiled and brushed a hand down her back and whispered that she should rest for a moment and she gladly accepted, collapsing against his chest.
Joe retreated back into his thoughts once more, keeping a careful focus on his mana and the strange mana organ that seemed to be a literal point at the center of his chest. Kilniara rejoined him at some indeterminate point later and the two continued until stirring from the boy’s bed brought them out of their training fugue and Kilniara quickly stole another heartfelt and deep kiss from Joe before escaping out into the common area to allow the others time to prepare for the day. The two boys woke, Zilnek much faster and in a better mood this morning as he unwrapped himself from a rather large stone that look very much like a body pillow. They prepared themselves for the day as Joe continued his practice a bit more until the two were ready to begin. Joe noticed their readiness and stood up.
“Right. Ready for the day?”
They nodded in agreement, although Zilnek was the only one who seemed chipper and excited, Garnedell still groggy and grumbling. They walked down the stairs, picking up Kilniara in the common area before continuing on into the small courtyard where they practiced their forms, although Joe threw in a kink at this point.
“Right. Kilniara, Zilnek. Transform to full base form. Let’s practice the forms in full base form.”
Zilnek took the news poorly, groaning and moaning before grunting and taking on full base form. A form which proved even more barrel chested than Kilniara’s, an obvious strength in his upper chest, but also included quite thick and steady legs. Kilniara transformed quickly and willingly enough, although shot a look of surprise at Joe when he suggested this. Too soon?
“Right, so you two will practice your forms for half the time in your base form and half the time in your rested form. I’m really not sure I could help you in your original form… I’ll have to think about that.”
Joe spent about half the time helping Zilnek and Kilniara on their katas in their base form before spending the last half of the time on their rest form. Joe spent some time thinking about if he could offer help in their full form but found himself unable to really think of anything while he was busy training the other three.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
After he set the three of them up, Joe turned to his own training and found himself too focused on his training to be able to spend the necessary time on trying to develop a meaningful curriculum for the two Acokzau. Besides, I’ll need to see how they move and how their body works. I’m not going to be able to do anything till I see that! He did, however, make sure they continued to push themselves after draining their SP.
Joe lost himself in his training with that thought, freed to be able to leave that for another time. Their training proved normal and the four returned to prepare for the day, wiping down quickly before enjoying a lengthy conversation during breakfast. Joe called an end to their meal as they were soon in danger of procrastinating for the entire day. Although, how long from the last weekend? Hmm… should… hey, tomorrow’s the weekend! Nice… although this ten day week is throwing me for a loop.
Joe sighed and brought their conversation to a close, “Alright. Let’s head out to the dungeon. We got the weekend tomorrow, so we’ll have a lot of time off then.”
The other three looked at Joe with some confusion before the spherical blast of magic signaling a translation event erupted through the room and the other three smiled brightly in excitement.
Garnedell was the fastest, brightly pumping a fist, “Yes!”
Kilniara replied next with a shy smile and a blush aimed at Joe.
Although Zilnek’s was the slowest, due to his low intelligence, it was the most obvious, as he leapt from his seat and danced through the room a bit while humming happily.
Joe and Garnedell chuckled at Zilnek’s exuberance while Kilniara leapt up to slap him and pushed him back to the seat, “Enough! You’re making a scene!”
This caused Joe to laugh even more, and Garnedell offered a quiet giggle of his own. Joe stood up before Kilniara was able to shuffle Zilnek back to his seat, so she stopped and simply left her brother behind while following Joe and Garnedell out of the inn. Zilnek quickly saw his sister and the other two escaping the inn and followed after.
They were already out of the inn and a good twenty meters down the road before Zilnek’s intelligence allowed him to respond, his shout coming out quite a bit later than Joe normally expected such things to happen, “Hey! You guys… don’t leave me behind!”
The stark time between leaving and Zilnek’s cry of indignant faux anger proved to be a moment that one again impressed upon Joe the absolute alien nature and place he was currently living in. He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, the other two coming to a stop as well as they looked up at him in surprise. He didn’t say anything to them and simply closed his eyes to deal with the sudden onslaught of mental dysphoria that assaulted him physically as vertigo. He took a few deep breaths before returning to the moment.
The other three were looking at him with worry while Zilnek seemed a bit afraid. Seeing Zilnek’s fear, Joe smiled brightly and shook his head dismissively as he clapped a hand down on Zilnek’s shoulder and spoke quickly.
"Hey, hey, hey! Everything’s good. Really. I was just surprised by … the delay in your speech,” Joe ended on a whisper, “I’m just… this doesn’t… I’m just not used to this, OK?”
Garnedell and Kilniara both relaxed immediately, and Zilnek subtly relaxed in reaction to seeing his sister’s calm although he didn’t completely relax and smile until the requisite two or three seconds passed to allow his intelligence to respond. The smile was bright relief. Joe clapped him on the shoulder once again while Zilnek nodded and he turned to walk away.
The other three scrambled to follow after Joe, all three beginning the strange asychronic conversation where Kilniara and Garnedell conversed in real time with each other while pausing to interject and carry on a third delayed conversation with Zilnek. As they moved through the streets, Joe came to an intersection and waved the other three on towards the beginner’s dungeon.
“Head on to the dungeon. I’ll meet you there, OK?”
All three nodded, Zilnek delayed, and continued on to the dungeon without much concern as they had long become used to Joe heading out on his own on each morning. Joe saw them off with a wave and a goodbye before heading to the temple, pulling out the next colored cloak and heading into the next temple in line. He made sure that it wasn’t a temple of Saga before he went in. He ended up against the same suspicion as he’d received at the other temples when he joined the temple of Mimir, but was able to change easily enough before slipping out of the temple. With his exit, relief settled on him and he set off with purpose towards the beginner dungeon, making it with plenty of time to spare.
The line was still long when he arrived, and they soon found themselves passing the twenty minute long line with idle conversation. Joe was invited to the conversation for a bit and he did join in before finding the conversation a bit shallow and uninteresting. He politely followed along for another few moments before finding himself distracted with trying to develop human martial arts for a velociraptor’s body. He found the thought exercise interesting but ultimately pointless as from just the small glimpse he had seen, Acokzau arms were too short and meaningless for a fight, and the legs were mostly… Hmm… Taekwondo maybe! Drop all the punches, and focus on kicks… and dodging and weaving. They won’t be able to protect or block anything with their arms, except for protecting their chest. They’ll have to protect their face with kick blocks, which would be terrifying if they can claw… wait, did Kilniara have good claws on her feet?
That final thought had Joe turning to look at Kilniara and Zilnek, about to ask the question when their group was interrupted by the lazy wave of a guard.
“On in. On in. It’s your turn. Move it. Move it.”
Joe curtailed his question and turned to walk in, the other three following after absentmindedly and they soon found themselves spiraling down the entrance staircase. After they’d made it in and traveled a couple spirals down, Joe turned his head to look over his shoulder.
“Uh… just a quick question. How big are the claws on your feet as Acokzau, Zilnek, Kilniara?