Fir and Keo faced each other under the spirit tree, each motionless and holding a fighting stance.
Suddenly, Fir threw a front-kick at Keo's abdomen, to which Keo blocked with both forearms.
Keo backed off. That was just Fir testing the water.
Fir kicked again, Keo blocked again, but this time he countered with a backhanded strike directly at Fir's face.
Fir then swiftly deflected the strike with his wrist, following-up immediately with a straight-punch towards Keo's chest.
Keo backed off for a second time, and the two were still yet again, attempting to read each other's next move.
As always, Fir was the more aggressive. He started poking his fingers towards his opponent's eyes, forcing Keo to block each attempt.
On the third poke, Fir hooked Keo's blocking arm aside, then stepped in and attempted to punch him in the nose with the same arm.
Keo deflected the punch with his other hand before slamming his first hand onto Fir's chest, stepping in, and sweeping his leg, knocking Fir onto his back.
Now staring up at Keo, Fir quickly let loose a windmill of three kicks to Keo's chest, pushing him away and giving Fir the space to kick himself back up onto his hooves.
Fir then lunged forward, before suddenly ducking to throw a spinning leg-sweep. Keo dodged this by simply jumping up and letting Fir's leg pass under him.
But then Fir raised himself onto one paw and unleashed a flurry of round-kicks toward Keo's head.
Predictably, Keo blocked them all by raising one knee up to his elbow, creating a solid bar of defense.
But in doing so, he was now only on one hoof, just as planned.
Fir wrapped his tail around that leg, tripping Keo while pulling himself in.
Fir continued the onslaught, getting back up on one hoof while side-kicking Keo in the face with the other as he was still falling down.
As Keo was recoiling from this, Fir charged, but Keo stood upright just in time to meet him.
He deflected Fir's first flying punch, throwing his own straight-punch in return.
Fir deflected this too, proceeding to successfully strike Keo with four rapid straight-punches of his own, two to the chest, one to the neck, and the last one landing squarely on his cheek.
But as Keo recoiled again, this time he returned the favor with a hard-hitting spin kick. Fir, not seeing it coming, caught it directly to his chest.
The two backed off from each other once again, then raised their paws at each other as they returned back to their fighting stances.
After a moment, Fir suddenly let down his arms and stood up normally. He walked a few paces around Keo, never once breaking eye-contact, before wiping his nose with his thumb and lowering himself back down into a fighting stance.
This time, his arms were out but down, not covering his face. His hooves were wide for stability.
In response, Keo decided to loosen up as well, lowering his own fists to his side and standing upright before beginning to hop back and forth from one hoof to the other.
The two couldn't help smiling at each other in that moment, before Keo suddenly rushed at Fir.
Fir deflected several kicks and punches before throwing an elbow-strike of his own at Keo's face.
It was blocked of course, but not without Keo compromising his stomach; Fir took the opportunity to make space between him and Keo by pushing him away with a side-kick.
Finally, Fir jumped at Keo, catching an arm between his legs and bringing both of them down onto their backs!
Fir held Keo down in an armbar, both legs across his opponent's chest and neck.
"Looks like I win!" said Fir.
"Not...so...FAST!" said Keo, before swinging a hoof all the way around to kick Fir in the face.
He then used his larger body mass to force himself over Fir, eventually pulling him into a chokehold.
"Looks like the tables have turned!" said Keo.
"No fair!...You're so much...bigger...than I am!" said Fir, struggling with every word.
Fir finally tapped out, ending the sparring session.
"Good work you two!" said an Elder spirit from some distance away, practicing his technique on a tree-like wooden dummy. "It's a real treat to watch, let me tell you!"
Said tree-stump was worn and indented from years of use, but it still got the job done for the old master.
"Come on," said Keo. "Let's heal."
Fir and Keo then placed their foreheads together and placed their left paws onto each other's heads.
In a flash of green, any bruises and broken bones became a distant memory.
"You are our most skilled fighter Fir, no doubt," said the Elder. "But you must have more control of your mind; calm yourself! You own it, not the other way around."
"Well, when you call me the best, that gets kinda difficult," Fir responded.
The old spirit guardian gave the wooden dummy one last solid hit before stepping away from it and approaching Fir.
"Don't forget: the best warriors are the ones who stay humble," he said with his paws crossed in front of him.
"Master Hito, why even learn paw-to-paw combat? It's not like we can use this against howlers, you know?"
"What I teach you isn't always about fight practicality: see this mainly as a tool to develop your potential."
What does that even mean? Fir thought to himself.
Hito could see the confusion on his face, so he continued to explain.
"Let me rephrase," he started. "Self-improvement is a never-ending journey. You figured out how to surmount the rather difficult task of learning and mastering this style, now you must begin to realize that everything you do in your life is just like that. Everything in life is a puzzle that can be solved!"
"Paw-to-paw is meant to teach us how to think?" Keo chimed in. "Instead of what to think?"
"Exactly! Now, with anything, you can start asking yourself: how am I approaching this wrong? What can I do to make it better? Etcetera, etcetera. Does that make sense?"
"I see what you mean by humility," said Fir. "That's not gunna be easy."
"It never is. You're young; youth tends to make one arrogant, but now you have the tools to navigate this time in your life!"
Fir sighed.
"I suppose," he said.
Suddenly, the Elder looked past both of them.
"Ah, it appears your third-wheel has finally arrived!" he said.
Fir and Keo looked behind themselves to see Mint walking downhill out of the woods towards them.
"Why don't you three catch up?" said the old spirit before walking away. "Then we can discuss whatever it is that involves those severed fangs of yours!"
The other two spirit guardians nodded in response, before running over to their sibling.
I hope they aren't too suspicious. thought Mint.
"So Keo," she said once they were within earshot. "What did the Elders say?"
"We haven't spoken to them yet," said Keo. "We were waiting for you."
Crap.
"You know everyone who was present has to report to them, right?"
"Where were you for the past two hours?" asked Fir.
What do I say? What do I say?!
"Her clan was a lot farther away than I thought," she lied. "I just assumed you guys knew that and went on without me."
Perhaps shifting the blame on them would work?
"Huh, you have a point," said Keo. "We've never visited a shard merchant clan before, so I guess we wouldn't know how far away they are."
Mint breathed an internal sigh of relief. She wasn't ready to break the news to them just yet.
Could her discovery mean that spirit trees are the reason decay even exists? That by the time a spirit tree dies, the land is too dependent on it to take care of itself?
Is there a point when the land can never heal itself again?
Permanent decay...because of her kind?! The young spirit nearly shuddered at the thought.
She kept composed though, as best she could anyway, as the last thing they needed to hear was that.
Especially not before a meeting with the Elders.
"That's actually crazy," Keo continued. "That they come this far just to sell shards to us!"
"We're too important not to make the trek," said Fir. "Without us, they'd likely all be dead!"
"Heh, heh...yeah," said Mint, barely hiding her disagreement.
"Well come on, then," said Keo. "We shouldn't keep the Elders waiting!"
...
Author's Note: Hito is based off of an OC drawn by omegapainter on DeviantArt; he is the first of five Elders that will be making an appearance in this story! ALSO, huge props to anyone who can name the martial art styles used in the opening fight scene! ;)