~*.*Disciples of the Keyblade*.*~
Title: Strength
Rating: K+ for safety.
Warnings: Very small amount of blood, just a scrape.
Characters: Master Eraqus, Ventus, Aqua, Terra
Summary: Who knew that shifting a boulder without magic would be this difficult? Pre-BBS.
~***~
Terra heaved a sigh that caused his hair to ruffle, glancing around. He was sitting on the flat top of a wall, one leg drawn up to his chest, chin resting on his knee. He tapped his fingers against the stone, humming a song whose words he had forgotten. The sun was drenching the Land of Departure in golden rays of gleaming light, turning the yellow chains that connected the castle to the twin mountain peaks into strips of pure tawny fire.
"Where's the Master?" Aqua said by his side, leaning against the wall with her azure gaze wandering everywhere. "It's not like him to be late."
Ventus refused to stay still, and instead he was walking along the thin wall with his hands outstretched, turning around every time he reached Terra and heading back down. "I don't know. Did he oversleep?"
"Eraqus? Oversleep?" Terra scoffed. "I doubt it. He's got something planned for us. As if the waterfall wasn't bad enough."
"That's not true," Aqua protested, earning an eye roll from her friend. "He's probably just setting up our latest training exercise."
The eldest apprentice shrugged, drumming a pattern into the stone with one hand. "If that's the case, then where is he? Or our apparent 'training exercise'?"
"Don't be so impatient Terra!" Ven chided with a grin, flopping down beside him with a clink of his metal shoes. "I bet he's ready right about now."
On cue, there was a loud rumbling from the hillside to their right. Turning their heads, the Keyblade Disciples spotted a huge boulder. It burst out of the thin grouping of trees and headed straight for the trio. Scrambling out of the way, Terra kicked off of the wall and actually jumped over the large jagged stone. He landed lightly, twisting around and checking to see if the others were okay. Ven had somehow moved faster than anyone else and was already more than enough feet away. Aqua had cart wheeled to the side—Show off, Terra thought with a grin—and she was staring at the big rock with an expression of shock.
It reached the low wall and tilted ominously towards the edge, as if it was about to tumble down the slope past the barricade. Instead it gave a final groan and thumped down onto the ground. The clatter of footsteps reached their ears and the apprentices turned as one to see Master Eraqus descending the hillside from which the boulder had originated. He dusted his hands off and smiled at his pupils.
"Good morning," he greeted as if nothing had happened.
Ventus gasped, "Did you move that thing, Master?"
Eraqus nodded with a bright twinkle in his dark eyes. Stroking his chin, the Keyblade Master tapped the grand stone that was almost the size of Terra. It was full of rough rivulets and uneven surfaces, broken bits and tattered sections that seemed ready to drop off. The cracks were littered with moss and ivy that had been torn from their original positions in the earth, and they hung limply from the sides of the boulder.
"Now," began Eraqus. "I want all three of you to move this pebble back to its original perch. Up there." He pointed to a hillock that rose out of the more uneven surfaces of a low mountain, or maybe it was only a high hill. To Terra, it was still quite a distance.
"Really?" Ven sounded amazed.
"That's not all. You can't use magic."
Aqua's face paled. Terra knew she drew much of her strength from her prowess in magic, in which she was unrivaled. He himself was the strongest physically of the three protégés—he could handle it. Possibly.
Eraqus indicated the "pebble" with a languid wave of his hand. "Ventus, I want you to move the stone from its current resting place to the foot of the hill. Then I want Aqua to take it halfway up until it is resting beside that birch tree." He pointed to a white barked tree that jutted out of the grassy rubble. "Terra will then take it the rest of the way."
Terra watched the landscape with interest. Technically, Ventus had it easier than any of them. He only had to move the massive rock up a gentle slope until it was at the base of the tall mound. Aqua would have it rougher, but he himself had it hardest. The hill would become more mountainous the farther up he took it. He grimaced.
Eraqus sat cross-legged a few ruler lengths from the boulder. "Begin."
"We can't help him?" Aqua inquired, her gaze hovering protectively on Ven's form as he circled the stone.
"No, Aqua," their master said with a gentle smile. "He must do this alone."
Terra and Aqua retreated a good distance back so Ventus could work unbothered. He continued to walk around the rock a few times before he braced his feet against the wall and pressed his back against the boulder's bumpy surface. The muscles in his body stood out as he strained, and to Terra's surprise the stone began to shift. There was considerable strength in that lean body after all.
He whipped around at the last moment so that he was facing the rock and he dug his shoes into the ground, pressing his shoulder against the large obstruction. He heaved, gasping, light sky blue eyes gleaming with determination. He made steady progress with the stone, occasionally readjusting his grip so he could roll it easier. Terra and Aqua were speechless as the youngest apprentice made his steady way forward, ignoring the various scrapes that he accumulated. He tried to keep a majority of the pressure on his shoulder-guard, so that the metal armor could take the weight. Four times he slipped and the stone almost rolled backwards, but with a small grunt he kept moving forward.
Unfortunately, unlike Terra and Aqua, he had forsaken the idea of wearing fingerless gloves. There were soon a collection of bleeding scrapes on his hands and blisters, leaving faint pink smudges on the rock where it was the roughest. He made painstakingly slow progress, but at long last the young Keyblader reached the foot of the hill. He sagged forward, hands on his knees, gasping in air. He brushed a limp strand of golden hair from his eyes and grinned triumphantly at his friends.
"No need to worry Aqua," he managed to say between his heaving breaths. "I can push a little pebble."
Aqua smiled. "I should have known better." She replaced Ventus's position by the rock and studied the stone silently. Seconds turned into minutes whereas she only tapped its surface in places, watching the stormy gray structure with interest.
Terra coughed and earned a glare from Eraqus, but the eldest apprentice was impatient. The longer she delayed, the later the day got, and he was not looking forward to pushing a stone up a mountain when the sun was at its peak.
At long last Aqua grinned. She hooked her fingers underneath the stone and shoved it upwards, starting to scale the hill.
"It took you that long to figure that out?" Terra called.
"She knows what she's doing," Ven said calmly by his side, though he looked just as confused.
Aqua suddenly shifted her rhythm, bracing her armored shoulder against the rock and placing her feet on a stone that jutted out of the landscape. She steadily climbed the steep hillside, kicking off of trees, rising knolls, and basically anything else that could hold her weight. It caused her to easily ascend the slope with startling speed, using the momentum from each kick to force the boulder higher and higher.
Terra was taken aback, and Eraqus gave a small chuckle. Ven was too busy cheering Aqua on to do anything else.
Reaching the crooked birch tree that barely clung to the mountainous hill, Aqua carefully maneuvered the boulder so that its bulk rested against a fallen log, which dealt with the possible issue of it cascading back down the side. She turned with a flourish and bowed before making her way nimbly back down. She came to a stop a foot from Terra and said with a teasing smile, "You next."
"Show. Off." He answered with a grin to lighten his words. Inside, his heart knotted itself up in agitation. Why did she always have to show off? It was understandable if she was the oldest apprentice, but she was younger than him!
Shaking his head, Terra decided he'd just have to equal that somehow. He stalked across the field and starting making his way up the slope, seeing the areas of flattened vegetation where Aqua and Eraqus had maneuvered the boulder up and down the hillside. He rolled his shoulders, shaking his head, trying to think of a way to move the stone. Ventus had, in all reality, used brute strength. Aqua had found some way to lighten the load to make up for her lesser strength. What would he do?
Well, he was the strongest of the trio of apprentices. He could work with that somehow.
Terra decided to do what the others had done, that is, he examined the rock. He saw that its front was actually considerably smoother than the back. It would be uneven while rolling, and outright lifting it would almost be impossible. Regardless, just to see its weight, he encircled the stone in his arms and strained his muscles in an effort to pick up it. Strangely, the boulder's weight was unbalanced, not from the roughness of one side either. It was, in fact, lighter…like some portions of it were hollow, as if cavities had formed in the rock.
Eyeing the path before him, Terra saw he could easily copy Aqua's technique of pushing off of objects, or he could even do what Ventus had done and simply roll the boulder. There were some animal trails that had smoothed out a few portions of the vegetation so that it wasn't quite so thick.
However…his stubborn pride stopped him from doing either one of those things. Terra felt an idea spark in his head as soon as he tested the rock's weight again. He couldn't pick up the stone by itself—or even if he dared to try, it would be awfully heavy. He'd be tired out after only a few feet. No, he was certain he could simply carry it if it was only half its mass…
He grinned. Turning around, Terra called out as loud as he could, "Master Eraqus?"
"Yes, Terra?"
From his current view point, Terra could espy Ven and Aqua, along with his master, seated together. Ventus was standing up and perched on the tip of his toes as he tried to see what Terra was up to.
"What are we not allowed to do again?"
Eraqus frowned. "You cannot use magic, and cannot gain help from the others. That is all."
"All right. Are you sure?"
When his master nodded, Terra smirked hugely and brought out his Keyblade. With a powerful slash, he severed the stone in half as cleanly as if he had been chopping butter.
Aqua realized his plan and he saw the flash of her teeth as she smiled, and Ven was applauding, laughing. Eraqus gave a small smile but said nothing.
Terra hooked a portion of the rock under one arm and stood up, testing its weight. He could easily carry it; he had lifted much heavier things before. He made his way up the slope, careful not to put his foot anywhere that could possibly unbalance him. The last thing he needed was for Aqua to see him tumbling in an undignified heap down a mountain.
The crest of the high hill was mostly empty, save for a moist dirt circle where the boulder had rested previously. Terra dropped the severed rock unceremoniously and clapped his hands together to rid them of dust. He slid back down the slope and retrieved the last piece, feeling worn out but triumphant. The sun was scorching him from above, and he favored the shadows of the trees. Placing down the last large shard, he wiped his forehead and allowed himself another grin.
Terra rested briefly before walking casually back down the hillside. He sauntered over to his friends and said with a hint of smugness, "Did I pass?"
Eraqus stood as his apprentices arranged themselves into a line. "You all passed. You all met my expectations, and even surpassed them. Very well done, all three of you. Especially you, Terra. I chose that boulder with the hollow, collapsed holes of the stone in mind. It would have been easier for all of you, especially Ventus, if you had slashed it like Terra had done."
Seeing the other two, whose faces were slightly crestfallen, their master laughed. "You did it your own way, and it was quite good. Ventus, I never knew you were so strong. I underestimated you. And Aqua, you saved yourself from quite a tiresome predicament. That was clever, but then again, you always were."
His apprentices' confidences properly restored and boosted, their master indicated the castle. "Go. Rest for a while. You're dismissed. We'll do something less strenuous later on, perhaps with magic."
Aqua perked up considerably—she was always into magic, Terra recalled—and she walked away with Terra and Ventus in tow.
"You're not making lunch," Terra said immediately before Ven could speak.
"Hey, why not?" The youngest protégé objected.
Aqua said gently, "Well, the last time…the castle was sort of…"
"It was filled with smoke." Terra growled with a playful shove. "Let Aqua cook. Girls are good at that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She replied with an expression of mock irritation.
"Nothing. Girls are good at cooking and boys aren't." Terra decided it was safer to say that than to rouse Aqua's wrath.
She gave him a suspicious look but departed anyway, and Terra kept his expression of a satisfied cat the whole day.
~***~
All right, next one will probably be more humorous, if not shorter. Also, it will be Ven's POV.
As you can see, they are indeed learning something, but it's not very interesting, is it? I'll try to be more creative later on, or you can tell me your imaginative ideas.
Still dedicated to Dani-Chan, because she's awesome, yes?
Drop a review, if you please! Thanks to all the reviewers and people that put this on favorites and story alerts, I didn't think these dull oneshots would be so popular. Thanks a ton!