“How long are you going to sleep for?” Volgan pounded on Tsugi’s bedroom door and startled him awake. “Come on! The day has started, let’s go!” His footsteps retreated back down the stairs.
Tsugi quickly got ready and went to meet Volgan down stairs. “Hey! You’re finally awake! Let’s go, time's wastin.” He led Tsugi out to the back yard. “Alright, show me what you got!” Volgan stood with his arms crossed on his chest and waited.
“Show you what?” Tsugi shrugged his shoulders. He was getting slightly annoyed that they don’t tell him what they want from him and just expected him to know.
“Attack me. No weapons, I just want to see what you can do with just your body.”
Tsugi darted toward Volgan and dodged at the last second to attack from a different angle, which achieved a look of surprise from Volgan. A kick went straight for Volgan’s head, but he was able to block it easily. Volgan didn’t dodge and only blocked, he wanted to test the strength and power behind Tsugi’s attacks.
After a while of blocking, Volgan started to swing back and test Tsugi’s reactions. He was able to dodge and block a few of them. Volgan didn’t use his full strength, but the attacks were still strong enough to throw Tsugi back a few meters.
Tsugi’s arms and legs were hurting from constantly making contact with Volgan, whether it was attacking or blocking. As Tsugi caught on to Volgan’s fighting pattern, he changed it up, forcing Tsugi to work his brain again and again.
“Alright.” Volgan held up a hand and Tsugi stopped in the middle of charging, coming to a sliding halt in front of Volgan. “Let’s work on form.”
Volgan’s specialty was hand to hand combat. He taught Tsugi the basics of throwing a proper punch versus just randomly swinging, which apparently was all Tsugi was doing before. As the morning went on, they moved into grappling and holding, but Tsugi was so tiny, there was no way he could get his arms around Volgan’s thick muscular neck.
“Well…” Volgan scratched at his head. “Looks like we will have to get Fay involved in this too. It’s alright, let’s just do what we can for now. You’re very tiny, so chances of you fighting someone much bigger than you is a very big possibility. In those cases, if your arms can’t reach, what else can you use?”
Tsugi tapped his chin with his fingers and pondered for a moment before answering. “My legs?”
“Very good. Your legs are longer and more powerful so you can use them. Now the trick isn’t to choke them.” Volgan got low and wrapped his giant hand around the back of Tsugi’s neck, it was so big, he could completely encircle his neck. “Do you remember where the carotid artery is?” Tsugi nodded slightly. “You want to put pressure against those to cut circulation to the brain. You do it right and the person will pass out in a matter of seconds. Give it a try.”
Volgan got on the ground and let Tsugi maneuver into position with his legs. Tsugi squeezed his legs as hard as he could but it didn’t work.
“You see how I still have room to tuck my chin?” He moved his head up and down. “Remember, it’s not about choking, but the carotid artery comes near the front, so if I can tuck my chin, my jaw will also prevent you from getting a good hold. So what are you going to do to prevent me from tucking my chin?”
Tsugi finally figured it out after a long thought and was able to tap Volgan out. He now understood how the female elf wasn’t harmed from his previous hold.
Volgan continued to teach Tsugi maneuvers how to escape from holds and move himself into a better position, and to watch for blind-spots on his opponent and himself.
“Alright. That’s enough of that.” Volgan dusted off his clothes and hands. “Come, we have another job we need to do.” He led Tsugi down to the enclosures and entered the one with the phythin’s.
“What are we doing here?” Tsugi walked in and closed the gate behind him.
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“It’s my job to check the health of the creatures and release them when they are able to go on their own.”
“So you guys don’t keep them?”
“No. We still train them, just to keep them busy, but once they are better, we release them.” Volgan and Tsugi walked through the giant enclosure to look for Gino and Shu, but they didn’t have to go far. Volgan stopped in the middle of the grassland and made a loud animal call that sounded kind of like the growls Gino and Shu made.
Not a moment later, the ground shook violently and the two creatures came charging toward them. They already looked intimidating enough, let alone charging at them, it made Tsugi take a step back. It didn’t look like Ruzo’s gleeful face to see Tsugi, theirs looked more like they were there to tear them to pieces. Although, looks can be deceiving, because their aura was very happy and light, not a single sense of malice to them.
They slid, turning in circles and finally came to a halt right in front of Volgan. They immediately dropped to the floor, exhaling loudly as they blew puffs of air at Volgan, fluttering his clothes. Volgan slowly petted them and felt them all over their bodies. A warm glow emitted from his hands and went through each of the creatures.
“Looks like you two are all better.” Volgan smiled and patted them on their tough skin, making a loud slapping noise.
“What was wrong with them?”
“They had some intestinal parasites and were on the verge of dying from malnutrition. It took a while to get them to where they are now.” He walked further into the enclosure before putting his hands on the ground, just like Fay did, and a giant door appeared. They stepped through the door and this time they had appeared at the base of an active volcano. It was very hot and Tsugi felt like his skin was already burning just by being there.
Gino and Shu were elated, they hopped and darted through the field like the happiest they can be. Volgan and Tsugi smiled wistfully watching the two creatures run free, before turning back around. The ground shook thunderously and the two creatures came running back to rub their faces against them. Tsugi was startled but he was happy. He turned around and petted their faces, giving them a firm hug.
One last big sniff from the creatures to remember Tsugi and Volgan, and they took off back into their homeland. Tsugi could feel a ripple of sadness from Volgan when the giant door disappeared behind them.
They approached the enclosure with the Eathero. “When you went with Fay to get her, she already bonded with you right?”
“I…I don’t know. I mean, she sniffed me…like a lot, but I didn’t touch her or anything.”
“So she must really like you then. The more they sniff you, the more they like you.” He happily opened the gate and entered.
“What about you? Wouldn’t it be dangerous for you to enter right now?”
“No, when I initially came to check up on her yesterday, I already bonded with her.” Volgan strolled through the enclosure and once again, he stopped in the middle of the grassland before making a rattling high pitch howl.
Loud, powerful flapping came from above. Tsugi looked up, and he just now noticed, it almost seemed like the enclosure was also a world of its own. Like an enchantment, it was complete with a sky. The creature flew in magnificently and landed in front of them, throwing gusts of wind and dirt into their faces.
“Ah, I can see you are able to fly today.” Volgan smiled as it approached and nudged its head into Volgan. “You shouldn’t strain yourself, or you’ll get hurt again.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Fay told me that she got into a fight with a Tarkin. Tarkin’s carry a nasty bacteria that consumes the calcium in bones, which will slowly kill them and turn their bones into powder.” Volgan felt around her body, palpating the muscles and her belly, before moving her legs and joints. “I was able to heal some of the damaged bones yesterday, and gave her some meds to help kill the bacteria, but this one will also be here for a while. Some of the damage to the bones are pretty extensive.”
Volgan placed his hands on the creature and closed his eyes.
“Can you show me how to heal her? I have little earth affinity.”
Volgan’s eyes widened in surprise. “Well, you never cease to surprise us. Just like Yamo said.” He smiled. “Come on then. Place one hand on my shoulder and the other on her.” Tsugi did as he was told. “Now, you’ll feel me pull your energy with mine, so just relax and don’t resist me.”
Almost like Tsugi shrunk into the size of an atom, he flowed through the creature's body, flowing and tumbling through the vessels, and entered the bones. There were millions of spiraled worm-like things that were drilling into the bones, burrowing into them and making millions of holes. The energy went and pulled whatever material it could find and increased the rate of production to heal some of the bones, but they were lacking severely in calcium.
Tsugi came to, and stumbled a little. His energy was nearly expended just from that little trip, and caused him to be a little light headed.
“You see what I mean?” Volgan petted the creature softly.
“Why don’t we just give it some calcium in its diet?”
“Yeah, I gave it calcium, but the bacteria took it just as fast and multiplied even more. I’ve even tried timing it and going in to heal, using as much calcium as I could before the bacteria were able to take it, but it’s also hard to try and beat the millions of bacteria in there. That’s what I did yesterday, that’s how she was able to fly today, but it looks like we will have to constantly do that along with the antibiotics. Hopefully, we don’t feed the bacteria too much to the point where they become resistant to antibiotics.” He patted her shoulder and she got to her feet and walked away.
“I’ve gotta get ready to go to the orphanage.” Volgan stood up and folded his arms across his chest and let out a long frustrated sigh. “Yamo wants to see you in the operating room.”