Chapter 2: Train Me
Leona woke at her usual ridiculously early time in the morning and went about cleaning herself and getting ready for the day. Instead of a dress, she wore something a bit more appropriate for the day; black leggings with sunflower print, a bright red skirt with little ladybugs sewn into the hem about the entire cloth and a yellow camisole. She tied her hair back tightly into a high ponytail and allowed the tendrils of her hair to still frame her face. She put on her boots, but these were black and leather and came up to her ankles.
With a bit a giddiness, she made her way a floor down from where she was and went directly to her parents' room. Their door was opened a crack; it meant that she could enter. Upon their king sized bed, Leona could tell that her father was still there and that her mother's side was empty. Already, she could hear the water on in the shower where her mother was getting ready for the day—a bathroom was attached to the room. In fact, she could see the door some distance away from the bed that took up the central area of the room. She took off her boots before jumping on the bed landing on her knees and legs. Her father was turned from her, his hair somewhat covering his face and in complete disarray behind him. She played with it for a little while twirling it betwixt her fingers until she sighed loudly so that he could hear her.
"Daddy, you promised me you would train me today." She only used "Daddy" when she really wanted something. She was forced to repeat herself a little louder when the other did not reply.
"Yes…I did say that…" he murmured, sleep clearly in his tone.
Leona waited for the other to do something more, but she was greeted with more silence—he'd probably fallen back to sleep. She glanced over at the digital clock near the bed—5:13am. She supposed she had three hours tops to wait before he would wake on his own considering how late they probably went to bed last night and how long her father usually slept. Bored one day, she had decided to spend a week observing when and how long her parents slept and Leona noted that her father slept far longer than her mother who needed on average two hours less to feel equally as revitalized in the morning. As for herself, her habits leaned more towards her mother.
"Daddy?" Leona asked despite herself.
"I'll…take that to her later…" he murmured tiredly.
Her eyebrows creased in confusion, but then decided that it most likely had nothing to do with her at all. She looked away in irritation. Three more hours it was. Just then, her mother stepped out of the bathroom with a white bathrobe tied securely around her.
"Leona," Raine said with a smile. "A bit early for you, isn't it? And you're all dressed up."
"Yep," Leona said with a nod. "Dad said he would train me today."
"Oh, I see and you thought you'd get an early start," she said with a laugh.
Leona gave the other a half-smile and then nodded.
"Now what have I told you about interrupting your dad's sleep?" her mother said sitting down on the edge of the bed.
Leona joined her there. "Well, you told me in so many words not to do it."
"You understand why, right?" her mother asked gently.
"Because…it is annoying?" Leona replied in a questioning tone.
"If that was all it was, then I'd have no issue whatsoever." Her mother looked away from her and began to look at the wall in front of them. "You see, humans require more sleep than you or I and from what I've read from countless books, getting a full night's rest has many benefits, one of them being having a longer life."
Then Leona knew exactly where her mother was going with this. She'd been told long ago that her mother was a half-elf and her father human. It was common knowledge to her early on. It was also common knowledge that half-elves lived much longer lives than humans. That was always something she'd chosen to ignore, she didn't want to think about it. But it was an uphill battle as far as ages went; her father had always been ten years older than her mother. She shook her head at the thought. She simply did not want to think about it. As her father said as she expressed her concern about it to him, "You can only live in the now." But that did not stop her mother from secretly worrying about it from time to time. It was little things that perhaps her father would not catch onto. For instance, never interrupting his sleep or waking him up too early. Of course, leave it up to her mother to bring up topics she'd rather not have to ponder over. Immediately she felt horrible. She'd only been thinking of herself and the training that she was promised.
"I'm sorry," Leona apologized, "I won't do it again."
"Oh, honey, don't take it so hard. Really, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I suppose I'm asking a lot from you. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it at all, but when you do, it should be for a good reason. If I'm not mistaken, you two have all day to train and it's still quite early in the morning."
Leona nodded slowly. It made sense logically, but she had been anticipating this day since the last training session with her father. They did these on a fairly constant basis, but that did not stop her from becoming excited about it each and every time.
"Now I'm going to start some breakfast since I'm already up."
Her mother's skills at cooking had improved according to her father, but after being introduced to her father's food, her mother's food paled in comparison. In fact, her food was always a miserable attempt at making something far grander, but it was still edible and her mother could be scary if she was pissed off so Leona made sure not to complain too much.
Leona put back on her boots and went out to the garden to check on how it was doing. The very first thing she checked were the tulips. They had fared well through the night; the moisture was sufficiently eliminated much to her relief. It brought a brief smile to her face. She began to look at the other varieties as well, checking the soil and making sure they required nothing more from her. She watered a few of them; the sun had been sweltering yesterday as her father had mentioned and not all the plants there were like the tulips.
Eventually, her mother found her and brought her in for breakfast which wasn't as tragic as her mind had anticipated. Then again, her mother had decided not to try anything too complicated. They ate in peaceful silence for a short while.
"What are you going to do today?" Leona asked her mother.
"Well, I do have a massive stack of papers I have to grade today. Essays I have to read through. It'll be a nice full day for me, but" her mother continued in a brighter tone, "It's not often your father has time off so perhaps we could do something together later on if you two don't tire each other out too much."
"The beach?" Leona asked.
"Perhaps, but don't get your hopes up just yet. I'll need to finish my work first."
"I understand," she said pleasantly. But her hopes were up nonetheless.
Her mother usually did her work in the den downstairs and following breakfast she did just this. In fact, she did have large stacks of paper with her and Leona cringed at the prospects. She wondered how her mother had the patience. Leona, after breakfast, went out to the courtyard behind the house and began setting up the area. She took out a mat for herself and began her stretching exercises just as he had instructed her to do before. She did this for thirty minutes and then took out the weights. Thirty pounds was the max weight she could handle, but she started out five pounds lighter so that she wouldn't tire herself out too quickly. Then she began her usual arm curls and then after this a couple of other ways to work out her arms with weights, one of them required her to stretch her arm behind her back while holding the dumbbell—it was her favorite. With dumbbells in her clasped hands, she practiced striking forth into the air. She remembered her father kneeling there holding arm pads as she struck them as hard as she could. Somehow she felt as if her punches were like feathers against the large man, but he always encouraged her, he always told her that she was doing well. If she hadn't known her father so well, she would have thought such comments as belittling her. When she had on her greaves and kicked at the pad with all her might, he remained unflinching. She wanted to surprise him one day with her strength.
When she watched her father as he demonstrated what she should do next or remind her what it was she was doing wrong, she felt like a small child being shown something she could never achieve. The air seemed to still for an instant as one of his earthshattering kicks whipped through the air. His purpose wasn't to show off. In fact, he wouldn't even begin to become serious until he was training on his own and she had sat down to watch. He would always slow things down for her benefit when she was training with him and she understood that she had quite a long ways before mastering anything. One day, she wanted to best her father, it was that wish that kept her determined as she struck the air again and again with more and more ferocity. She hadn't realized how much time had passed until her father made himself known. How long had he been there watching?
"I see you've started without me," he said clearly amused. "Your passion is quite impressive. I think you could have continued on for an eternity and not feel the slightest bit tired."
"Oh, sorry. I bet it's nothing you couldn't do better."
"Don't apologize. I remember when I was your age, this was the only thing I looked forward to doing; it was a nice break from all my torturous studies. These days I don't have nearly the same kind of stamina I had in the past."
Had her father just admitted to her being better at something than he? It wasn't much of a surprise, she thought, after a moment. Stamina was one thing, strength was another. She had to wait for her father to warm-up as well before they could actually start the more serious part.
The first thing he wanted to see was how much she had retained from their last lesson. Placing on his arms the same pads from before, she carefully thought about which move she would do first. She started bouncing on her toes, loosening her feet and held her arms up protectively just as her father had taught her. She held up her right leg and steadied her movement as she prepared herself. Then she whipped out her leg like a viper and struck the pad from the side. The impact struck gold and she could clearly see a look of surprise on his face. It made her grin despite herself. She tried for a punch now and she felt the pad vibrate under the impact, her father stumbled back a little from it. Before she could strike again, he told her very quickly to wait a minute. Her smile was broad now.
"You've improved in leaps and bounds," her father said with a smile of his own. "These pads will no longer be sufficient," he said unstrapping them from his arm.
It was then that Leona noticed that she had actually forced some of the cushion out of the pad.
"Oh, are you alright?" Leona asked the other.
"Well, it'll certainly leave a bruise, but you don't have to worry about it. I think it's time we moved up to the dummies."
Eventually, her father had out the dummies she had seen in the shed. She had no idea she'd ever require such a thing for training, but now it seemed she did.
"Alright, show me what else you know," her father encouraged her.
Then she went back to work on the dummies and though her kicks and punches were no longer to be trifled with, the dummies seemed invincible against her strikes. It bothered her a little but she soon got over it as her father congratulated her on how much she now knew. Now she was ready to learn some combinations, he told her. It would require her to put all her knowledge to the test. He showed her the first one slowly and she began on this. Immediately, she found it difficult to think of everything she had to do before doing it. It wasn't just one move at a time, it was three of them at once in succession.
"While thinking is not a bad thing during a fight, sometimes it can hinder you if you second guess yourself. You know these moves like the back of your hand. You've proven that to me. All you have to do is simply let it flow."
But that was easier said than done as she tried to perform the combination of attacks. Something was throwing her off, but she didn't know what.
"Start slow," her father suggested. "You don't have to be fast on your first attempts. You have to allow your body to grow used to the feeling."
Leona took a deep breath and struck upward with her fist, a sideways kick with her right foot, and a spinning kick with left foot. Slowly…I don't have to do it quickly. The last move would always throw her off a bit. The momentum from the last move had to flow into her last move to give it sufficient power. Finally at snail pace she was able to move her body through the set of moves and gradually she grew a little faster on each attempt. It was becoming familiar to her.
"Make sure you keep yourself balanced," her father said as she nearly tripped over herself on her attempt to move even faster still.
She slowed down once again. The last thing she wanted to do was twist her ankle as she spun on her toes to pull off the last move. She paused after a while when she felt as if she was getting nowhere. She looked at father then who'd been watching her patiently.
"Could you just…show me what it looks like when it's quicker?" she asked to her father in a tone that was nearly pleading.
"And what purpose would that serve? You know what to do and when you're able to, you'll feel it for yourself."
Leona sighed exasperatedly.
"Take a break, we've been at it for a few hours," her father told her.
He always said such things when it seemed like she was getting frustrated which is why she tried to hide such things from her father. She wanted to continue! Frustrated or not. But her father had given her an order so she simply followed it without argument. She made her way back to the house and stepped through the sliding glass door. Now that she was able to notice, she did feel quite thirsty and—she wiped a hand across her forehead—a bit sweaty. She quickly went into the kitchen to grab herself a glass of cold water and then rushed back to the area right in front of the glass doors. She sat down quietly on the thickly carpeted floor sipping the rejuvenating water and watched her father work.
He had his own exercise regime that he had yet to disclose to her. The dummies were out and it seemed to encourage her father to do things a little differently. His attacks would simply flow, but she noticed something odd as her father continued to pound on the dummies—he never used his hands. Was he saving it for something? Had she hurt his forearm worse than what he was letting on? She thought it was quite odd especially since he adopted the same stance as her. His fists seemed in excess of. It was not that he never used his fists since he had to demonstrate to her, but when he was on his own, they seemed off-limits. She wondered if she should ask why, but after a while of watching she thought better of it. There must have been some practical reason as to why and he had yet to teach her such things.
Eventually, she strolled back outside after he took a breather from his pounding session (one that seemed far more intense than what she was capable of). When she attempted the routine once again, she surprised even herself. It was as if her legs had a mind of their own. In fact, when she felt as if she had sufficiently had it down, she repeated the entire thing a couple more times. She was smiling from ear to ear which drew a smile from her father as well.
"Taking a break every now and then is essential as well," her father said. "Sometimes our minds get too caught up in the details and we hinder ourselves without even knowing it."
"So I should take way more breaks. Got it."
"Well, everyone works differently," he said with a grin, "Whenever you feel the need to stop for a while, do so."
"I see," she said evenly.
Since Leona had finally mastered the first combination of attacks he had showed her, they begin on another and the rest of the day was like this. She was worried she was going to take just as long with the second and third new sets as she had with the first one, but after the third one, she began to learn quicker. The idea of combining moves that she already knew was beginning to make since to her in her mind. The dummies were attacked relentlessly that day. The first half of their training taking up roughly seven hours was as usual far more intensive than the second half in which they took things slow and returned to lifting weights and stretching, but going through what was done before as reiteration. She told her father about plans to go to the beach that day and thought they should save their strength all of which was quite fine with him. As far as outings went, they were far in between for their family, but they still made an effort to have them. It was very rare that she had an entire day to train with her father and that on that same day her mother was available as well.
She felt strangely energetic after they called it quits outside much to her father's amusement. She felt as if she could run a marathon, such was her usual feelings after long high intensity work-out sessions. She was practically bouncing on her feet. They both took their respective showers and Leona being the first one finished went first to check on her mother. To her delight, she found her mother enjoying an old paperback novel sitting on the couch with her legs curled up beneath her.
"So you're done?" Leona asked to her mother.
Her mother looked up with a smile, "Yes I am, in record time. Looks like you're done as well."
Leona was pretty excited about the prospects of the day. The moment was made complete when her father approached them as well with his partially dried hair in an obvious good mood. Between the three of them, there probably wouldn't be anyone jumping up shouting "Family outing time—woot!" None of their personalities lent to such wanton outbursts, but it was indeed what they were all feeling.
/
Leona was joined in the cool ocean water by her parents. She wore a full swimsuit with a pink and white slanted striped design. Her mother wore a similar style of swimsuit, but it was a bright red and there was a miniskirt attached to it as well. Her father wore blue trunks. Not that she got to see him very much—he was always submerging himself underwater and leaping up to scare the living daylights out of her. His antics very easily drew laughter from her usually reserved mother, but they were in rare moods that day.
They had a large beach ball that Leona had managed to blow up all by herself and they bunted it around (with little skill) to the next person. Whenever her father disappeared from his position she almost knew what was coming but he still managed to startle her every time. At the very least, she was rewarded in the end when her father did it to her mother out of the clear blue and Leona had never seen someone so furious and frightened at the same time. Ever since that incident, her mother tried with surprising fervor to bunt the beach ball straight into his face. At some point, she eventually swam over and bounced it fiercely off of his face—it was a very catchable pass. Tiring of the ball passing game, they simply began a splash war with each other. There was no clear objective and it made no sense whatsoever. All Leona knew was that she was having fun and she was laughing more than she had that entire week—so were her parents.
After they tired themselves out, they spent the rest of the time lying on reclined beach chairs in the dying sun.
"That was quite amazing, Raine." her father said to her mother. His head was turned her way.
Leona laid between her two soaking parents.
"What do you mean?" she asked with one eyebrow raised.
"The way you acted out there no one would ever guess that you used to be—
Her mother sighed exasperatedly at him, "Must you bring it up."
"Bring what up?" Leona asked curiously.
"See?" her mother said in irritation. "You tell her the story."
Her father was looking at her now. "Your mother used to be terrified of the water. A tragedy occurred when she was much younger involving water and ever since then, she couldn't stand even to ride in a boat."
"So, what changed?" Leona asked mystified. She glanced over at her mother whose eyes now were trained to the darkening skies.
"You," her father said singularly. This drew a confused look from her. Then he continued. "Remember when you were five and you demanded that I taught you how to fight—you were quite stubborn about it."
"Yeah, I remember. Not my finest moments."
"I told you, you were too young yet in reality it was that age that I began my lessons as well. At the time, I didn't think I was able to. I couldn't bring myself to teaching you properly. It involved fists and I felt I could not use them even to train you. You loved the water when you were younger and whenever I had the chance I would take you to the beach, but your mother would never come along. So around that time when you were five, I asked your mother to accompany us into the water. It took her a long while to finally say 'yes', but there was a condition attached—I had to train you to the utmost of my ability. I don't want to go into full detail, but slowly we began to conquer our fears and misgivings for your benefit. I think without you, there would not have been any motivation whatsoever to change."
Leona let his words sink in. She'd known already, but in that moment she was reminded of just how much her parents loved her. It was inexplicable, it was unconditional, and it was eternal.
"When I watched you out there by yourself…" Leona began slowly as she thought back to when they'd been training before. "You still didn't use them—your fists."
"Well," her father began.
"It's a work in progress," her mother finished for him. "I still haven't learned to swim, but as long as the water is shallow enough, I can handle being in it. But it helps when everyone else is having fun—I don't think as much about it."
"If you'd seen how she was before, you'd be amazed at her progress now," her father said to her. "Today was certainly a good day."
"Yeah," Leona agreed as she turned her head to look at the sky as well. They all were at this point. "I wish we could do it again one day," Leona said distantly.
"I believe it's quite likely that we will," her mother said with confidence that made her smile.
Then she would continue to look forward to it. On days when she felt the loneliest, she would think of times like these when they were all together and completely content.