Rakon's face was going to explode. No, that’s not right. It was throbbing terribly though, his head felt as if it had its own heartbeat. He opened his eyes then quickly shut them because the light made everything so much worse. And what was that sound? He grimaced in annoyance, and then in pain as moving his facial features made everything hurt even more.
The sound he heard was chuckling. “Oh you really messed yourself up, didn’t you?” Loch said. “You know, when somebody tries to punch you, you should really get out of the way next time. It will save you a load of pain.”
Rakon started to sit up, then slowly laid back down. Sitting up was not a good idea. The last thing he remembered was fighting that boy. He didn’t really have a chance, being so new to his human body and all. Still, he considered, things could have gone worse. Next time he would just turn into a dragon and eat him, that would save him all this pain.
“Wait,” Rakon said quietly, trying not to trigger the pain in his head, “If he knocked me out, what happened to you? Did you give him your money?” He hoped that wasn’t the case, but he couldn’t imagine any other way Loch hadn’t gotten seriously hurt.
“Give him my money?” Loch scoffed at him, “You think so lowly of me? I would never give in to a bully, especially one as pompous as that. How dare you suggest something like that.”
“No, I didn’t mean that, I just thought-”
“Thought what?” interjected Loch, “that I am too weak or incapable of defending myself?”
Rakon didn’t want to say anything, but that was exactly what he was thinking. He couldn’t imagine how Loch would have been able to scare off the boys.
Loch continued in a matter of fact tone. “In case you were wondering, by the time that boy knocked you senseless I had already finished with my two giants. I was just wondering how you would fare against him.”
“What?” Rakon spluttered, ignoring his pain. “Why didn’t you do something then?”
“Oh I did! I gave you a chance to prove yourself, and if that failed then at the very least I gave you a chance to learn how to take a punch. And I must say, you did that spectacularly.” Loch chuckled.
Rakon was confused at how Loch might have been able to defend himself, he was just an old man. Nevertheless, he decided to humor Loch. He had been good to Rakon, and who knows, maybe Loch would be able to help him out in some way. The boys did leave and it didn’t seem as if Loch had been roughed up in any way, so maybe Loch knew a trick or two that Rakon could learn.
“Well thank you for giving me the chance to learn such a valuable lesson,” he said dryly, “maybe you could show me how you were able to get those guys to leave you alone sometime. As you’ve seen I’m very good at learning.”
Loch laughed at that, “That you are my boy, that you are.” He stood up and clapped his hands, causing Rakon to wince. “I'll tell you what. Obviously you don’t believe me, no no don’t try to deny it. I’m old, not stupid you know. I’ll give you thirty minutes to recover or so, that should be enough time to get you on your feet. Come on outside and try to land a punch on an old guy like me, and if you do then I’ll teach you how to not get hit so hard. How does that sound?”
Rakon replied hesitantly, “Sure, that sounds great to me. I’ll just, come out when I’m ready then.”
Loch chuckled one last time, “Oh, take all the time you need.” With that he exited the small room.
Rakon didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t know much about humans, but Loch looked well past his prime. He tried to compare what he knew about humans to dragons. If a much older dragon challenged him, he would probably be worried. As dragons get older, they usually get stronger. Even the ones that were ancient were incredibly powerful. They did get slower however, and in this case that’s what was important. Loch just told him to hit him, that should be easy even if Rakon wasn’t very strong.
He sat up and slowly got his bearings. He felt weak still, but that was fading quickly. He sipped some water and as he started to walk around he was able to focus much better. His head still hurt, but he felt like he could handle a few minutes outside with Loch. It shouldn’t take long to just land one hit on him.
Shielding his eyes against the sun, he found Loch weeding his garden again. “I’m ready for our lesson,” he called out as he walked over to him.
“Took you long enough,” grumbled Loch as Rakon walked over. “I wasn’t sure if you were ever going to make it out here. Well, come on then, what are you waiting for, go on and hit me.” Loch stood up with his hands held loosely by his sides.
Rakon stepped up to him nervously. He didn’t want to hurt him, Loch had been so nice to him. Especially after he got caught trying to steal Loch’s clothes. Rakon decided he would be gentle about it. He leaned forward and hit him gently on the shoulder. That’s what he tried to do at least, but Loch’s shoulder wasn’t there. It seemed as if Rakon had just missed him. So he tried again. Twice more, Rakon threw a couple light punches, but each time Loch just barely slipped out of the way.
“Come on now, surely you can do better than that. I’m just an old man.” Loch said grinning evilly.
Rakon let loose an animal-like growl and attacked with a fury. Punch after punch he threw, each one faster than the last. Each time Loch seemed to slip out of the way. Eventually Rakon grew so frustrated he shouted. With a yell he stomped his foot on the ground and twin columns of earth shot up from the ground and pinned Loch’s arms to his sides. He was trapped. Rakon triumphantly stepped forward and threw a strong right hook at Loch, and missed.
“What?!” Rakon exclaimed incredulously. He growled again in frustration and whirled around to face Loch who was grinning at him, with mud dripping from his hands. In the instant it took for Rakon to pull his fist back, Loch had drawn water up through the ground and turned the earth that was trapping him into mud, freeing him easily.
Rakon grew more frustrated, but he also grew more tired. He tried other tactics while he still had strength. Tapping into the earth he put up walls around Loch, trying to keep him contained long enough to punch him. Loch stayed still for a few moments and let Rakon try to hit him. Instead of dodging, he deflected the blows with ease, pushing them to either side of him or even blocking them entirely.
Eventually Rakon slipped and fell, completely exhausted. The walls he created came crumbling down, and he lay on the ground breathing hard. He had been fighting with Loch for what seemed like forever and hadn’t managed to land one hit, he had never been this embarrassed in his life.
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Loch’s face came into view as he leaned over Rakon’s prone figure. Chuckling once again he said “You just keep on swinging, that’s remarkable.” Rakon mumbled something unintelligible from the ground in response.
“What was that?” Loch said leaning closer, “Speak up now.”
Rakon’s eyes snapped open as he felt Loch lean in closer, and his fist shot out quick as lighting.
Loch reared back quickly, but not quick enough. Rakon’s fist grazed Loch’s shoulder as he spun away. Loch looked at Rakon, shocked. And then he turned his head around hiding his smile and shook his head.
Rakon slowly sat up, his heart racing. He had done it. Yes he probably looked ridiculous as he tried to touch Loch, and he was breathing much harder than the old man, but he had done it.
“So, will you teach me now?” Rakon said hesitantly. He wasn’t sure how Loch would react to the trickery that he had used.
Loch turned back to face Rakon, a stern look on his face. “You were clearly outmatched and resorted to a dirty trick to win.” A wry grin slowly appeared on his face. “For that I congratulate you on learning lesson one. When you are fighting for your life, do whatever it takes to win. Rest up for today, your body needs it. We start at first light tomorrow.”
—--
Rakon woke up feeling achy and sore. His mind was still reeling from his last couple days. Somehow Loch was some kind of master fighter. He was suddenly glad he didn’t try to run off or fight Loch for those boots the first time met him, he probably would have gotten himself killed. The light peeking through a window told Rakon it was time to get up and see how bad learning from Loch was going to be. Hurriedly getting dressed, Rakon rushed outside to greet his tutor. He was surprised to see Loch dancing with his walking stick. Well obviously not dancing, but it seemed like it. He was spinning and lunging, his body was everywhere at once, but very controlled. Rakon watched, very interested, until Loch came to a pause and turned to face Rakon.
“Come on, come on, we haven’t got all day.”
Rakon had a feeling that Loch didn’t exactly like mornings, he was always grumpy when he first woke up. Holding back a few choice words that quickly came to mind, Rakon stepped in front of Loch.
“I’m ready to start.”
Loch let out a quick laugh and said “No you’re not, but I like the enthusiasm. We are first going to start with putting your body through the patterns. It’s like what you just saw me doing, but you will do it without a staff and it will be very slow for you at first. This will help you gain coordination as well as prepare your body for the different moves I will teach you when we actually fight.”
Rakon was only slightly disappointed, but he didn’t let it show. He thought they were going to do more of what they did yesterday, that Loch would teach him how to actually fight instead of just taunting him. He trusted Loch however, and decided to do things his way.
Loch first led him through very simple steps. Just moving your feet one way, then the other. Adding hand motions came next and things still felt relatively easy.
“No!” Loch said suddenly, interrupting Rakon’s thoughts. “This isn’t some kind of routine dance I’m having you do. When you put your arms up like so,” he said demonstrating what Rakon was just doing, “you have to imagine you are blocking an enemy attack. And when you do this,” he suddenly lunged forward and his hand was like a knife to Rakon’s face, holding deadly still. “Here you must act as if you are attacking an enemy.”
Rakon swallowed nervously, and nodded. He went back to the patterns, but this time with more care. He put more energy into each attack and block. Loch didn’t say anything after that, so Rakon hoped he was pleased.
The sun was steadily rising, and by the time Loch was ready for breakfast Rakon was drenched in sweat. He had practiced one pattern of many until Loch was pleased with the results.
“I’ll have you do this every morning when you wake up before we get to your training. It won’t be too long before you get to more advanced sets, but for now we need to make sure you master the fundamentals.”
Rakon hesitated, then replied, “I thought you were just going to teach me how to fight, so that I don’t get beat up again like I did before?” It sounded like he was going to be here forever, especially at the speed he was learning things. Loch was doing things very slowly, and Rakon wasn’t sure if he wanted to sit here forever. Emberheart was going to find out that he ran off eventually. It wouldn’t be a huge problem, Rakon was well past the age that most dragons left to find their own territory.
Loch sighed slowly, “Let me tell you a story. In a kingdom much like ours, there was a young lad that wanted to be the greatest fighter that ever lived. He begged and begged his father to train him and help him accomplish his dreams. The father hesitated, fearing it was too much for his son. However, after much consideration, the father relented and began to train his son. The only condition was that they do not try anything larger than daggers and knives. The father knew the limitations of his son, and wanted to teach him the right way, rather than the fast way.
After only a few days of this training, the son got bored. He begged his father to allow him to try out some of the larger weapons, the more exciting ones. His father told him no, he knew how dangerous swords could be and was waiting for his son to learn the basics.”
“So what did the son do?” Rakon asked, slightly intrigued.
“He went out the next day by himself to practice with a sword he stole from his father’s room. As he left his house he tripped and fell on it, and he died. The end.”
“What? Just like that?” exclaimed Rakon incredulously.
“Do you see the point of this story now? Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”
Rakon started to speak, then stopped and shook his head.
“Well, at least you have the sense to shut up when you don’t know. Basically you are the boy in this story. If you try to do something that you are not ready for, you will die, understood?”
“I’m going to end up killing myself if I try something too difficult, is that it?” Rakon questioned, a little puzzled.
“Yes and no, just let me explain. Remember when you were fighting, or trying to fight the other boy that was here? Well, did you notice that he didn’t start using his element until you used yours? I don’t know where you are from, and I’m sure I never will,” he added pointedly, “but here during a fight you don’t use your element unless you are confident you are going to win.”
Rakon thought back to when he was fighting the bully. He realized Loch was right. They were only using their fists until Rakon panicked and started using earth. That was when the other boy started using fire and things really got dangerous. Rakon shuddered and touched his face where he got burned. He never wanted that to happen again.
Loch could tell that the things he was saying were making an impact. He nodded and spoke slower, as if speaking to a child. “So we do things my way, and you learn things one at a time. This way you stay alive, and might actually become somebody that can fight. Deal?”
Rakon didn’t want to be here forever, but in all honesty he didn’t have much else to do. If he wanted to explore the world of humans, he might as well be able to protect himself. He thought back to the fight again, he never wanted to be scared like that ever again. He promised himself that if he ever ran into that boy again, he wouldn’t be the one with the injuries.