~*.*Disciples of the Keyblade*.*~
Title: Balance
Rating: K+
Warnings: Another half-formed swear word, or two.
Characters: Aqua, Terra, Ventus, Master Eraqus
Summary: If balance was so important, why did one need the motivation of a poisonous insect? Pre-BBS.
Special Notes: Okay, here's a quick chapter for you all! This was a request from my little sister who goes by the name Emerald online. She said to do something "funny with balancing".
For Dani-Chan, as always!
~***~
Ventus raised his eyebrows in a rather disbelieving fashion, hands on his hips, sunlight warming his skin. Master Eraqus could not be serious.
"We're practicing…balancing?" Terra snorted skeptically.
Aqua, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. "Well, it's not like balancing isn't useful. Poise and stability is very important when fighting, after all, isn't it?"
"It's an important aspect in general," agreed Eraqus with a pleased smile in the magic-caster's direction. Terra scowled.
Pretending to ignore the concerned looks from his friends, Ventus nodded. "Let's get right to it, then. Where're we training, Master?"
Ven had only recently recovered from his shocking fainting spell a few weeks before. Aqua and Terra had been so concerned for him that they spent every free moment that they could with the blonde apprentice, and even though they barely knew him, they spoke to him whilst he was unconscious. Their anxious murmurs had been enough to call him from whatever senseless abyss he had drifted off into, and now he was actually officially beginning his training.
They told him his eyes had once been a black-blue void. Now they were as bright as the summery sky overhead, and the boy found it easy to move on since he had no memories from his past to cling to.
"You all right?" Aqua worriedly poked his shoulder as Eraqus set off down the winding garden paths, heading down towards the hiking trails.
Shaking himself, Ven nodded. Apprehension fluttered down into his heart, delicate as a butterfly, and roosted there. I hope I can do this. "Sure, sure."
Terra shrugged his broad shoulders, motioning for the others to follow him. Ven couldn't resist staring around at the Land of Departure, marveling at the constant, warm beauty of it all. Eraqus's home-world was definitely a place worth fighting for, a place worth living in.
Asking questions was never a problem with Ventus, and he folded a hand over his heart. He felt strangely light, like something had been missing and it had been replaced with some foreign substance not quite heavy enough. "Hey, Aqua?"
She was walking beside him, probably worried that he'd keel over at any second. Terra kept glancing behind him when he thought Ven wasn't looking. "Yes?"
"Are there any more Keybearers?"
Aqua's expression turned pensive, but it was Terra whom answered. "Yeah, there are. There's not a lot, but there's at least one or two more."
"Why're there so few?"
"Dunno," Terra responded.
Clearing her throat, Aqua politely supplied the answer. "There was a huge war, Ven, quite a while ago."
"Ages and ages?"
"Ages and ages. Most Keyblade Wielders died in that battle, fighting over some magnificent power. The Keyblade hasn't Chosen anyone since, and only those that survived managed to pass on their gift."
"So...at one point, the Keyblade just appeared to someone without the ceremony?"
"That's right, or so legend says. I haven't studied into it. The history books for the Keyblade War are hard to find."
Ven hummed, letting himself sink into his thoughts as his feet instinctively trailed after Terra. He had a Keyblade, as Eraqus and the others had found out he could still summon a few days after he woke up. Who had given it to him? Or, had the Keyblade itself simply appeared to him and bestowed the Awakening upon him?
Eraqus led them down the side of one of the sloping mountain paths and when the road smoothed out to some degree, he raised one scarred hand for them to halt. He faced his beloved apprentices, his kind gaze resting upon each of them in turn. He folded his hands behind his back and began his lesson.
"Balance is a key addition to any Keybearer's arsenal. Without balance, one will topple over at the slightest disturbance. Being able to collect yourself and stabilize your body in any and all conditions is important, whether you be in the air, on the ground, or swimming in the waves. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Master," chirped the disciples, with Ven being just a bit behind. He was standing between Terra and Aqua, stiff and straight as was the respectful thing to do. A memory fluttered on the edges of his mind, but the blonde strove to ignore it.
"Good. This exercise is very simple. Terra, will you come here, please?"
Terra groaned, because Eraqus was smiling. The elder protégé had a joke, that if the Master was smiling, he had something peculiar planned for the day. Regardless, he stepped forward and bowed low from the waist.
Gesturing to the mountain ledge behind him, Eraqus nodded once. "Stand here."
Hopping up onto the thin ridge that was just barely wide enough for him to rest on, the brown-haired warrior fought back a grimace. He was forced to stretch his arms out to keep himself level and even. On the other side, Ven saw, if he raised himself on the tips of his toes, a hill that sloped sharply downward with a small azure pond at the bottom. It was covered with various scree and tiny shattered rock fragments that promised plenty of scrapes for any unfortunate Keybearer that toppled down. At the same time, there was nothing there that would cause a serious injury, and it wasn't long or harsh enough to induce broken bones.
It was just the right size to guarantee an unpleasant trip, but that was all.
"Now, Terra, Aqua, and Ven. I want you all to stay here for as long as you can. If one of you falls, you must return to the top and simply wait for the others to do the same. Easy enough, correct?" Eraqus raised his eyebrows, waiting for a reply.
"Yes, Master," chorused the trio. Aqua and Ven joined Terra on the precarious shelf, and the youngest and newest apprentice couldn't help but wonder about the odd shapes of the mountains here.
It's almost like they were specifically made just to train us Keybearers. There isn't a place here that doesn't hold some kind of educational value!
Eraqus studied their poses for a minute, and after adjusting one of Ven's arms so it was slightly lower, he nodded his satisfaction. "Return to the Castle after all three of you has finished. If you're all back before in three minutes, I'm going to assume you purposely failed the lesson, and we'll do this every day before dawn, no matter what the weather."
Terra, Aqua, and Ven gulped and dipped their heads in response, afraid to nod in case the motion upset their balance.
The sun's angle brought a splash of sunlight down on Aqua's silver shoulder-guards, or, he guessed, really her arm-guards. Only he and Terra actually had armor on their shoulders. The resulting gleam of light made his eyes hurt, and he averted his gaze from her, instead staring up at the cloudless sky above.
"This is cruel and unusual punishment," Terra complained after a stretch of time had passed without incident. Ven half-wished someone would fall just so something interesting would happen, but he wouldn't do it himself. He was determined to weather out this lesson, to prove that he didn't need to be treated any differently than the others.
Because, some part of him disagreed with the idea that he was inexperienced. His heart said he had had training from somewhere before.
"It's not cruel, but certainly unusual. It's also building endurance, I suppose." Aqua mused, letting her arms fall to her side. Ven realized she had planted her feet firmly, and thus was in no danger of falling.
Ven blinked as a sudden cool breeze shot from behind him and almost made him fall. He flailed his arms to alter his balance, gasping in shock. Aqua and Terra hurriedly adjusted their stability, and the blue-haired Keybearer scowled, turning her head to look at the blonde.
At first, he thought she was mad at him, but that wasn't the case. "Ven, did you feel that?"
"How did we not?" Terra scoffed.
"No, did you feel that?" Aqua insisted.
Tilting his head, Ven queried, "What, besides the wind?"
"That wasn't a normal wind. I sensed magic, sort of like an Aero…"
"Huh, really? I didn't."
Terra shrugged. "I thought I picked something up, but it's hard to tell."
Aqua suddenly stiffened in horror. "Oh my God, Terra, don't move."
Ven's eyes widened as he beheld what was innocently perching on Terra's head. It was a small iridescent green bug, sort of like a dragonfly, but fatter. It fluttered its translucent veined wings and buzzed loudly. It sounded loud in the abrupt silence.
"What is it?" Terra's voice was strained as he held himself still.
"I think it's a…Ven, have you heard of Viridian Stingers?" Aqua asked quietly.
The name rang a faint bell in the farthest corners of his dark memories. "Uh, kinda. Are they…they're poisonous, right?"
"Extremely. They're not fatal, but if Terra gets stung by the one on his head, it'll probably paralyze him for a day or so."
"Ouch. Okay, it'll have to leave eventually." Ven said with a shrug, trying to hide his amusement from the petrified warrior in front of Aqua.
Terra growled, "Shi—"
"Keep your mouth shut if you're just going to swear. Calm down. It's not that bad," Aqua soothed him.
"Easy for you to say! You don't have a fu—freaking poisonous bug on your head!" Terra hissed at her without even looking.
Ven hesitantly stepped off of the mountain ledge, ignoring Aqua's surprised murmur, and he bent down to pick up a stick. The blonde's mind was working swiftly, and he inched towards Terra, gently laying the tip of the branch next to the Viridian Stinger. It buzzed lazily for a few seconds before shuffling onto the edge. Slowly, and very carefully, he moved backwards and turned, placing the branch a safe distance from any of the disciples, on the far side of the mountain path. He placed his hands in the air as if showing he wasn't wielding a weapon, edging away from the venomous insect.
Only after there was a decent distance between himself and the bug did Ven hop back onto the rocky cliff-edge, smiling from ear to ear.
"Thank God," Terra breathed, flashing a relieved grin towards Ven. "You just saved me from a potentially dangerous situation."
"You weren't in any fatal danger," Aqua disagreed, but all the same she laughed and beamed at Ventus.
Ventus folded his arms behind his head and let them rest there, completely satisfied. "Hey, it was noth—"
The magical wind blew again, and this time he detected the arcane pulse underneath it. With a startled yelp of surprise, he lost his balance and dropped out into empty air. He shut his eyes tight, preparing to adjust his body into a roll to reduce the pain, waiting for the heartbeat it would take for him to hit the ground and begin a painful descent.
He didn't plummet.
Shocked, he opened his eyes and saw Terra had lunged forward and caught him, and Aqua had her hands on his chest, digging her metal shoes into the ground to stop all of them from falling. He saw the muscles standing out in both of their arms.
"Does that count as failing the lesson?" Ven joked weakly as he scrambled against the cliff-side hauling himself up safely. Aqua and Terra pivoted on the outcrop to face him.
"Well…" Aqua shrugged. "You can try to stand here again and hope the Master didn't see…"
"Eraqus sees everything," Terra huffed. "He'll give Ven some long spiel about not getting over confident with victory, so as to not fall off of ridges."
Ven grimaced, but decided that that was okay. Look, he had already learned something in only a few hours! He lay back in the grass then, laughing.
"What's so funny?" Aqua asked, honestly curious.
"Well, even if I fell first, you two will have to sit here until you both fall. How long will that take?"
Aqua and Terra exchanged stunned expressions, and then Terra peered over the ledge.
"I wonder if I've been standing here long enough to pass," the brown-haired warrior remarked.
"If the Master sees everything, he'll see you purposely fall," Aqua warned.
"Is the leap worth the drop?" Ven mused aloud.
"Probably not. Would you catch me, Aqua?" Terra teased.
"Tch, no." Her expression became mockingly horrified.
"What if I grabbed you as I fell?"
"Well, I'd have to throw you in the water and freeze the pond over your head."
"You're assuming you could even pick me up."
And thus the Keybearers passed the time, and as Ven listened and added a comment now and then that never failed to get his friends to chuckle, he thought this was one lesson he didn't mind having had messed up.
After a few minutes of banter, he rejoined them on the cliff, though of course Ventus didn't have to.
~***~
This is a very far back one-shot in my little "timeline", amongst the first, if not the first.
I know I owe people requests, but I didn't have time to write something long today, and I was glad for my little sister's idea. It was fun and short to write, and it gave you guys an update.
A running gag of mine is Terra's half-formed swear words, but since it's pretty OOC, I plan on cutting back on it from now on.
Reviews are welcome, and thanks to everyone that has so far.