Chapter 6: The First Session
I was waiting at the beach, with my duffle bag, and a small fire pit set up, so that I could cook my breakfast.
Cera was right where I told her to meet me when the sun came up (Luckily, I don't need a lot of sleep), so I started training her. "Okay, Cera," I told her, "If you're going to learn to fight. It's going to take a lot of work."
"Work I'm willing to put in, Yuri." She said, "I want to be the best fighter I can."
'Something tells me that there's more of a reason than that,' I thought. I had noticed the look on her face after I bludgeoned that Sharptooth into retreating. While yes, it was a look of surprise at first, it quickly turned to her looking at her friends, and then back to me with a smile on her face.
Well, regardless of the reason, I planned to keep my promise, since she kept her end of the bargain.
The first half hour of training was just teaching her the basic punch and kick. I taught her a basic jab, cross, and low kick, and she picked up on the techniques quickly. The only reason it took a half hour was because I was showing her how to use these techniques in battle. As the sun was already up, I figured it was about time she went back. She needed to eat after all.
"Hey," she asked, after she noticed I sat back down on the beach, "Aren't you coming back to the valley?"
"Nah, I'll be back later. I gotta get some fish for breakfast."
"You aren't a leaf eater?" She asked, suddenly a bit concerned. So I explained, "No I can eat plants, but I've only found a few types that I can eat in this world." It was the truth. I found a few different fruits and vegetables near this beach, and luckily, they all weren't poisonous, and they were also edible. This made it easy for me to be able to have a balanced diet in this world.
"So you're like Ruby," she said, and I shrugged, but said "Yeah, kind of." Cera simply said, "Cool. Well, I'll leave you to it. Same time tomorrow?"
"Yeah sure," I said casually.
"Great, because I really do want to become the bes-"
"Is that really the reason you want to learn to fight," I asked, in a slightly smug way, "Or is it something else?" And I could tell by the fact that she was looking at the ground shyly, that it was clearly something else. "Well," she then said "I do have a different reason."
"Well," I told her calmly "I will continue training you if you tell me the real reason. If I am going to mentor you in the fighting arts, I want honesty between you and me."
"Okay, okay. You caught me. The real reason I want to learn to fight is... I want to be able to protect my friends as best I can."
Hearing this, was most certainly something that I didn't expect, but most certainly respected. "Go ahead and laugh," she said "It might seem a bit silly to you."
"No," I responded, still waiting to see if I could catch something, "In fact, I find it very noble."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I believe that protecting yourself and those you care about is the most honorable use of the fighting arts. Hearing that you want to protect your friends... It has increased my level of respect for you."
Hearing this be said made her smile a bit, as she said, "Well, they're my best friends, and I wouldn't want to see them hurt. Littlefoot especially." I could tell from the first moment that I had met the group that Littlefoot and Cera likely had a thing for eachother. But I figured now wasn't the best time to bring that up.
"Well, see you when you get back," Cera said, "I'll make up an excuse so that Ali doesn't worry about you." And while I could tell she was joking, it still irritated me a slight bit. I was going to retort, but I got a bite at the end of my makeshift fishing rod. Pulling in a large fish (looking similar to Cod), I started the fire, and gutted it. I only took off a decent sized chunk of the fish, and threw the rest into the fire. It may be a waste of good fish, but I don't want to gross any dinosaurs out with a gutted fish at this beach.
Grabbing a vegetable reminiscent of a potato, I cooked it in a big bowl of water (because I just happened to have a ceramic bowl in my duffle bag). The end result was basically a prehistoric version of 'Fish and Chips'.
Anyway, after breakfast, I was thinking about Cera's dig at me earlier. The fact of the matter was that I did like Ali as a friend. She was a pretty cool girl, but I've only known her a couple of days. I would like to get to know her better though...
Oh well. This world is still taking some getting used to.
Here this chapter is here, and it is showing Yuri's Moral Code a bit. It is actually similar to mine, but since Yuri Arshavin is based off of me, no surprise there.