Loonatics: United

The Wrath of Tenebrous

Episode 133: The finding

The crickets sung tenderly, the stars covered the sky. Some torches had been lit around the perimeter of the village. "What are we gonna do?" Ace inquired as they walked down a sloping path, opposite to the one they took the day before.

"You'll see." Kufai said with a straight tone. They reached a wooded place, the trees were tall and leafy, they walked over a path set with stones, the thick leaves of the trees darkened the ambient, creating a tall ceiling over them. They walked for a couple of minutes, Ace started to see an old building at the distance.

"Is that a temple?" Ace inquired.

"Indeed." Kufai responded. "It's abandoned, we don't have ceremonies there anymore. It has a nice training room, though."

Ace widened his eyes and glared at Kufai. "So, you mean we're training today? You will teach me?"

Kufai chuckled. "Patience, Bunny."

After some more calm steps, they arrived at the temple's facade. The structure looked old, it had lots of carved figures and symbols over its brown surface. Kufai approached the doors and began to open them, the hinges screeched loudly. Ace tried to step in afterwards, but Kufai stopped him from doing so, grasping his arm. Ace glanced at him with confusion. "What?"

"Do the signal." Kufai touched his forehead then his chest and then looked at Ace, waiting for him to do it as well.

"Oh, okay." Ace mimicked Kufai's action, touching his forehead and his chest afterwards, keeping his gaze in Kufai's eyes.

Kufai nodded and gestured at the temple's inside. "Follow me." He got in the temple, followed by Ace.

The inside of the place marveled Ace, the tiles on the ceiling depicted ancient events, people and symbols. A golden triangle was located right at the center of the temple's bottom, which got Ace's complete attention. He stood a few meters before it, just looking at it. Kufai opened a door that was at the left side of the temple's bottom. He looked at Ace over his shoulder. "Over here, boy." His voice echoed in the temple.

Ace blinked a couple of times, then shook his head briefly. "Oh, sure." He walked towards him, still glaring at the golden symbol. They entered a narrow hallway, the ceiling almost touched their heads. Ace sneezed by the great amount of dust that was there.

They exited the hallway, arriving at a big room, where long vines hung from the gray, rocky ceiling. There was moss on the walls, the ancient gray bricks were collocated asymmetrically. There were torches distributed around the place, Kufai lit each one of them with the help of a lighter. Kufai opened his bag and took out a set of white clothes just as the ones he wore, then he approached Ace and handed them to him. "Put them on." He turned and walked away from him, taking off his sandals afterwards.

"Ah…yeah, sure." Ace took off his bodysuit then put on the clothes, studying how he looked on them afterwards. "Comfy." He expressed.

"My ancestors used these to train before battle." Kufai approached him again. He did the signal, then Ace did the same. "They represent purity and wisdom."

Ace rubbed the cloth of one of the sleeves. "Nice." He glared at Kufai with an eyebrow raised. "So, we're like, sparring or something?"

"Yes." Kufai adopted a battle position. "A warrior deserves the training of a warrior."

"Uhm, I'm not sure if I want to, well, fight you." Ace expressed.

"Well, you have no choice now." Kufai threw a punch at his face.

"Ungh!" Ace groaned, then got kicked in the stomach, falling to the ground.

"Get up!" Kufai exclaimed.

Ace gasped then frowned and got onto his feet, throwing a punch towards Kufai's belly. He blocked it and then Ace threw another punch, but Kufai moved his fist away with a quick leg movement. Ace tried to tackle him but Kufai dodged him, he then kicked Ace's side, making him groan. Kufai jumped and hit his upper back with his elbow. "Gah!" Ace got on one knee. Before Kufai could throw another punch, Ace slid his leg, hitting Kufai's legs and making him fall. Ace stood up and approached him quickly then Kufai kicked his face with both feet. "Argh!" Ace covered his bleeding nose. Kufai got onto his feet in a blink then attacked Ace again, punching him on the snout three times, making him fall to the ground strongly. Ace groaned while his nose bled.

Kufai walked towards him, standing by him, shaking his head while looking into his eyes of defeat and pain. "This will take time."

"H…how?" Ace gasped by the pain and began to straighten his back slowly while cleaning the blood on his snout and nose.

"Many years of…" Kufai got thoughtful and glared down while clenching his fist. "Suffering." He took a deep breath then exhaled slowly, relaxing his fist. "Are you willing to do this, bunny?"

Ace got onto his feet, rubbing his side. "I…I do." He gasped.

Kufai looked at him and nodded. "It's all for today. I´ll take you with Zaji, she'll cure you." He began to walk towards the hallway. "Come on, we'll continue tomorrow."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "What? Is this it?"

"For today, yes." Kufai replied. "Brick by brick, Bunny."

They returned to the village, the sun was barely coming out, the moon and some stars were still showing up in the sky. Kufai took him to Zaji´s. He knocked the door. "Same hour tomorrow, Ace."

"Okay." Ace gasped a bit by the pain on his side. "What will I do all day?"

Kufai placed a hand on his shoulder while smirking at him. "Rest, heal." He winked at him. "Spend some time with your friends, with your girl."

Ace chuckled briefly. "I will."

Zaji opened the door. "My king." She bowed her head at him.

"Zaji". Kufai patted Ace´s back gently. "First day of training." He chuckled. "You know what to do."

Zaji helped Ace get inside. "He'll be like new."

"Thank you." Kufai bowed his head. "I'll see you later, Ace." He walked away from Zaji's house.

Zaji closed the door. "This way, handsome." She carefully led him into a room that was at the bottom of the large hallway. It was dimly lighted by a blue led light on the ceiling. There was a large, white mat on the floor. "Hand me that." Ace gave her his bodysuit as he had been carrying it, then she set it aside. "May I?" Zaji grasped the sleeves of his blood stained white shirt.

"Oh, yes." Ace raised his arms, groaning a bit.

Zaji took off his shirt carefully. "Oh my…" She looked at Ace's bruised torso. "Okay, just lay down there."

"Mhm." Ace gasped while Zaji helped him lay over the mat. He was looking into the ceiling, dark, with the dim blue light at the center.

"Kufai can be a bit rough." Zaji was taking out some healing material from a drawer. "It's his style."

"Yeah, very rough." Ace replied.

Zaji knelt down next to Ace, holding a wooden bowl with a blue gel in it. She got two fingers in the substance, then took out a generous quantity of the gel. "This might hurt a bit." Zaji put her fingers on Ace's wounded snout, starting to spread the gel gently on it.

Ace gasped. "Yeah, it hurts indeed." He was smelling the scent of the gel, fresh and sweet. "Smells good though."

Zaji chuckled. "It's a special recipe." She put some gel on his nose, rubbing it gently.

"He knows how to throw a punch." Ace groaned.

"He's a warrior." Zaji took more gel with her hand and started to spread it over Ace's torso.

"Ungh." Ace expressed.

"Easy." Zaji gently rubbed the gel over his wounds.

"It burns." Ace gasped.

"I know, I know." Zaji said. "Just breathe in and out. Relax."

Ace did as she just told him, enjoying the sweet scent of the gel that healed his body. He closed his eyes, keeping the image of the blue light over him, one that slowly turned into a white sun glowing in a dark valley, where Ace was sitting down, looking at the sun, his eyes didn't hurt, the sense of wonder grew as the seconds passed, his heart felt relieved and in peace.

Strength comes from weakness, my boy.

His ear twitched when hearing that deep, soothing voice.

Ace let out a chuckle of disbelief. "I don't think that's how it works."

Fall.

Ace raised an eyebrow, looking at the sun with intrigue. "What? What does that mean?"

Trust.

"Uhm, okay. I guess." Ace lowered down his gaze, thinking on what he had just heard. The sun vanished all of a sudden, making Ace look into the dark sky with confusion.

Ace opened his eyes slowly, blinking a couple of times before rubbing his eyes. "Huh?" He was laying on a bed, next to a window that let all the brightness and heat of the sun get through. "Hello?" He looked at himself, he was now wearing a clean white shirt, similar to the one he was wearing before. "What the…?" He touched his face and side gently, feeling no pain. Someone knocked the door of the room. "Uhm, come in?"

Zaji entered the room, glancing at Ace with a smile. "Hey, sleepy. Feeling better now?"

"I…yeah, I think so." Ace smiled at her, raising an eyebrow. "How?"

Zaji chuckled. "Years of practice. Centuries of knowledge." She gestured at the table at his side. "There's your, uhm, uniform." Ace's bodysuit laid over the table, folded.

"Oh, thanks." Ace glanced at her. "Thanks, really." He studied the looks of his clothes. "You know what? These clothes are quite comfy." He yawned and stretched. "I guess I'll keep them on for now."

Zaji chuckled. "As you wish." She gestured at the room's outside. "I prepared some soup, you want some?"