Part 2 of this arc is here. This one won't be as long as the last one, but will still be longer than the first 3 chapters. This part is also the most emotional and intense part of this arc, due to character actions involved, with a satisfying end to this chapter. But enough talking, let's get into it!
Chapter 5: Training to be a Princess
The guppies had a good night's sleep, so much in fact that they all woke up late to the dojo. Molly and Gil were sleeping well. Bubble Puppy woke up first and looked at the clock. Seeing that they were late, he licked Gil awake as fast as he could.
"OK boy I'm up! Ugh, what time is it?" Gil said, being very tired. The time was 10:02 AM. They were supposed to be there by 9:30 AM.
"Oh no! We're late! Wake up Molly!" Gil said to his sleepy friend, who was very tired. She yawned with messy hair.
"(yawn) What time is it Gilly, it's so early. We're supposed to be there by 9:30" Molly said.
"Molly, it's 10:02. We overslept" Gil replied.
"What?! Then what are we waiting for? Come on!" Molly said in a hurry. They all got their clothes on, showered and cleaned themselves. They also got the others up, who were also sleepy. They all went to eat breakfast and then arrived at the dojo.
"This place reminds me of training dojo's back in Japan" Oona said.
"Yeah, it kinda does now that you bring it up now" Zooli said as they entered the building. When the got in, a young guppy with black hair, blue tail and dojo uniform greeted them.
"Welcome guppies. I take it your here by Lady Snowa?" the lady asked them.
"Yes, we are. Who are you?" Molly asked.
"I am Mentor Attica, and I'm so happy to finally meet you guys!" Attica said happily.
"She seems nice" Deema whispered.
"Anyway, I will be training the 6 of you to survive in this land, by training in martial arts, movement, and intelligence," Attica told them.
"So who's going to be training me?" Molly asked when an old female guppy appeared.
"Oh, this is mentor Glacia. She will be specifically training Molly to help her learn her powers more" said Attica.
"Molly, it is nice to meet you, I hope you do well with your training, as I will not be if you fail" Glacia said in a serious tone.
"She doesn't seem nice at all" Deema whispered. Zooli nodded her head.
"We will begin after your friends finish their training, so wait here now" Glacia said as the others went into their room. Molly held Bubble Puppy while Gil was gone.
"I don't like the way Glacia is treating Molly right now" Gil said.
"Don't worry, this isn't the first time" Attica said.
"It isn't?" Gil asked.
"Yeah. Glacia is known as a very serious person, and will do anything to bring the fullest potential out of someone, and can discipline them very well or very bad depending on how good they do. I worry for Molly, as she isn't very good at using some of her spells, but now let's get to training" Attica explained.
A couple hours went by. Bubble Puppy was sleeping in Molly's arms. She was looking at Glacia.
"Excuse me, Ms. Glacia"
"Mentor Glacia"
"Ahem, Mentor Glacia. Do you think I can pass the training?" Molly asked.
"We will see. I will test you and train you like you've never been trained before"
Molly gulped at this. The others came out of the room, looking better than they were before.
"Hey guys! You all look great! Even Nonny looks like he's ready!" Molly complemented her friends.
"I have to say, I'm very impressed with all of you, especially you Oona. Have you done something like this before?" Attica asked her.
"Well, I finished my martial arts training when I was 8, so I may have some experience with this kind of training" Oona said while blushing.
"Enough of this. Molly, come with me. It is your turn to train, so you can master your powers" Glacia said. Molly looked back at her friends.
"You got this Molly. Just try your best" Gil told her.
"OK, I will" she said, hugging him.
In the training room, Molly was wearing a dojo outfit that was the color of snow, with a ponytail in her hair and belt. Glacia was ready to train her.
"You can do this Molly!" Gil shouted
"Yeah! You've got this!" Deema shouted louder. They were watching from the stands.
"Your first spell to learn is to lift yourself up into the air with your wind. You will do this by jumping in the air, and focusing your power into one big wind burst" Glacia told her. "Like this". She jumped in the air and blasted wind on the ground, sending her higher in the air, and then moving herself with the wind, amazing everyone. Molly gulped. "If you want to be able to defeat him, this is one you must learn" Glacia said.
Molly took a deep breath, and focused. She got into position, jumped in the air, blasted wind, but didn't go higher, falling to the ground. She was sad it didn't work.
"Well, first time for everything I guess. I'll get it next time" Molly said. But Glacia didn't take it so well.
"I can't believe this. I hear so many good things about you, and you fail the first time" Glacia said rudely.
"Rude!" Deema said.
"But it's my first time trying, so I'm gonna fail most of the time. I'm trying my best here Glacia" Molly said to her.
"Mentor Glacia" she said, getting more upset.
"Ugh, Mentor Glacia, I'm trying my best here" Molly said to her.
"Well you clearly aren't trying hard enough, try again, but focus more on your task" Glacia told her. Molly took another deep breath, jumped and tried again, but to no avail. She frowned.
"Whatever, you clearly can't do this, next challenge" Glacia said angrily. Molly just frowned and look back at her friends.
"Glacia isn't being very nice to Molly" Goby said. "I hope she changes her attitude"
"Well she is trying to train her to her fullest, so maybe she's doing this to motivate her more, but she could be a little less mean to her" Nonny replied.
"I don't know Nonny, this usually isn't the best way to train people" Goby said back to him.
"Your next challenge is to summon larger, more powerful ice shards, and use them to hit the targets with precision," Glacia said. "Allow me to demonstrate". She clenched her fists and summoned larger ice shards than what Molly has, and then directed them to the targets, hitting all bullseyes. Molly tried to recreate it, clenched her fist, but only got slightly larger ones than what she normally had, but when she threw them at the targets, they shattered when they made contact.
"Man, I thought I had that. Well at least they were larger than normal, right?" Molly told Glacia.
"Yes, but that wasn't enough, not even close to the right amount. If you want to defeat Pyros, you have to get stronger by focusing more" Glacia said.
"Mentor Glacia, I am focusing on this. I am trying to do this. Don't you think you're taking this a little bit too over the top?" Molly asked her.
"Over the top? How dare you say that to me! I am trying to help you get stronger, by making you know what your task is: Defeating Pyros! Now do you want to get stronger to beat him?" She asked.
"Yes, I do, but-"
"Then try again, and do it right this time, or else!" Glacia yelled, making Molly flinch.
"OK. maybe she is getting a bit too rude towards her" Nonny said.
"We have to do something. I don't think Molly can take much more of this" Gil said.
"I'm sorry, but no one can interfere with the training. It has to be just the two of them" Attica sadly explained.
"But Glacia isn't acting so nice to Molly, I think she's the reason she's failing" Gil told her. Attica sighed.
"Yeah, she's always been like this" Attica said.
"She has?" asked Deema.
"Sadly yes. Glacia has always wanted the best out of her students, so she always resorted to scolding her students each time they failed. It always ended up the same, with each student leaving because of her attitude, but she fails to realize this fact. I'm afraid the same might happen to Molly" Attica explained.
"Don't worry, Molly never gives up! She's going to keep trying until she succeeds. I'm sure she'll be fine, I hope at least" Gil said with concern.
Molly just couldn't seem to do it, failing each time she does, which was aggravating Glacia.
"I can't take this anymore!" Glacia yelled.
"Molly, if you want to succeed, you have to be able to do this. You have to only think about defeating Pyros, and nothing else, or else you will fail everytime. Understand?" Glacia explained to her.
"Yes, Mentor Glacia" Molly sadly said.
"Good, we're going to the next spell. Onward!" Glacia said as they moved to the next room.
"(Glacia doesn't seem very nice to me…But I'll keep trying to please her!)" Molly said to herself.
The next room had snow everywhere, with platforms on the floor. "What's in this room?" Molly asked.
"Your next challenge is to be able to build and create things with the snow, to be able to protect yourself and others from attacks, like this" Glacia said. She waved her arms around, creating the snow into a shield and mirror. "If you can do this, I will be happy. But if not, there will be consequences" Glacia said in a tone that scared Molly.
"But what if I can't do it the first time? Can I at least have some more attempts at doing this?" Molly asked her mentor.
"Fine, you can have more than 1 attempt. Not like it would matter with your pass record, but let's see if that'll change" Glacia said to her.
"Past record, blah blah" Molly mumbled.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Glacia yelled
"Nothing!" Molly said.
"Oh boy, this doesn't look good at all" Zooli said.
"I know Zooli, I think it's starting to get to her now, which can only mean bad things will happen" Oona said worriedly.
Molly took a very deep breath, thought of what she wanted to create, and waved her arms around. It was creating something, which she was starting to notice, but then it stopped, falling to the ground, which made her upset.
"But…but I was doing so well. I thought I would do it" Molly said as she started to tear up a bit. She tried again, but failed, and again and again.
"That's enough dear. You obviously cannot do this, which is disappointing for an Ice Princess, as I've trained every single one, and they've been able to do that after they left me" Glacia said.
"(Yeah I wonder why)" Molly mumbled.
"What did you just say?!" Glacia shouted. Molly didn't say anything. she was starting to get angry.
"Forget this, on to the final task. Let's see if you can do this. If you can't, then you can't be an Ice Princess" Glacia said with anger. They moved on.
"I don't like the sound of this guys" Goby said with concern. "I think she's starting to get mad"
"Do you think she'll give up?" Oona said.
"To be honest Oona, I really don't know now" Gil said. Even he was unsure of Molly now.
The final room had snow everywhere again, but with a parkour like platforms everywhere.
"Your final task is to summon ice pillars to walk upon to reach the platforms, like this" Glacia said before demonstrating. She jumped onto the first platform, jumped again and moved her arm up, summoning an ice pillar for her to walk on. She repeated these, reaching the end. "What you have to do is focus on how tall you want the pillar to be, then summon it. If you're supposed to be the next Ice Princess, you better be able to do this if you want to defeat Pyros" Glacia said, pressuring her to succeed.
Molly took another breath, jumped on, jumped again, and successfully summoned the first pillar! She was excited that she did it.
"I-I did it! I really did it!" Molly exclaimed. The others cheered for her.
"Way to go Molly!"
"You go girl!"
Molly looked back at her friend, so happy that they supported her, so she kept doing well until she got to the last one, where she looked at Glacia, and didn't summon the pillar, falling to the ground on her back.
"Molly!" the others shouted.
"Ow, my back! It hurts" Molly said, groaning in pain. Glacia didn't seem phased one bit.
"You know what, it's over. You clearly can't complete these, even with different attempts. How can you be the Ice Princess if you can't complete these attempts, you'll never succeed at defeating Pyros and become Ice Princess." Glacia scolded her. But that sentence had done it to Molly.
"You know what Glacia?" Molly said in a furious tone.
"What? What is it lady, what are you gonna do-"
"ENOUGH!" Molly screamed as loud as she could, launching an ice wave across, hittin Glacia and some people. Molly was crying to the point that she started breaking down in tears.
"You are not my mentor! You are a horrible person! (sniff) And you made me hurt some of my friends in the process!" Molly yelled at her.
"Uck, how dare you speak to me like that-"
"SHUT UP! Do you want to know why your students really left?" Molly said.
"And why is that?"
"Because you can't clearly train them right! You treat them horribly, and hurt them emotionally! You're a horrible person" Molly yelled at her with rage.
"That attitude. With that, how can you ever save your family? The Ice Princess is a failure." Glacia said with disgust.
That broke Molly. She just stood there for a couple seconds and broke down. The others just stood there.
"Wow, that was harsh, too harsh" Deema said.
"Yeah, that was unnecessary," Goby said.
Molly just cried and cried and ran out the building with no thought at all, even throwing down her belt. The others just stared at Glacia.
"What? She couldn't handle this, so she had to leave" Glacia said.
"I've had enough of this!" someone said.
"Who said that?" Glacia asked.
"Me! I've had it with your nonsense Glacia!" It was Oona, and she wasn't happy.
"Why are you like this Glacia? Why do you treat people like this?" Oona asked.
"This is how you train them. With discipline and words like this. It helps them get more determined" Glacia said.
"No it isn't. That's not what a mentor does. A mentor helps his or her student, telling them what they did wrong, always supports them, and teaches them in a way that will help them. I get it, being the Ice Princess is a tough job, but that doesn't mean you give them harsh training. That's why they left, because you don't know what a mentor really is" Oona explained.
"She's right Glacia. You can't just treat them horribly and expect them to do better. You have to let them know what they're doing wrong, and support them to the end" Zooli said. "I would know, cause all of them helped me fit in with them when I joined the school. They helped me fit in better" She explained.
"But how will they know when to stand up and be fierce?" Glacia asked.
"Master" Attica came up.
"Attica?" she said.
"You're not realizing the point here. You have to be nice to Molly. You have to help her, be there for her, and support her during the training. Discipline won't change anything, but showing her the ropes will make a change. That's how I've been doing it, and how I trained them," Attica explained. "Didn't your trainer teach you that?" she asked. Glacia then realized her mistake.
"Oh my, you guys are right. What have I done?" she said, tearing up. "I should've been more supportive towards her. I should've been nicer, and actually helped her. I feel like a jerk" she said with guilt. "Kids, I'm sorry for hurting her, I really am" Glacia said.
"It's okay Glacia, but you don't need to apologize to us, you need to apologize to Molly" Gil said.
"Where even is she?" Goby asked.
"She ran out there, I'll go get her" Deema said, running out.
"Wait, Deema! Don't you think it's better if-" Gil was interrupted.
"Don't worry, I got this" she said with confidence.
Molly was crying on the seat outside, thinking about her friends and family back home.
"Molly?" Deema went up to her. She turned around, but then looked back.
"Molly, I understand you're upset, but it's okay. We're here for you, everything's going to be okay" Deema comforted her.
"How would you (sniff) if someone said something like that to you?" Molly asked her.
"I would feel bad, but I would stand up for myself. We told Glacia what she was doing wrong and-" Deema said before being interrupted.
"I learned my mistake" it was Glacia, who was standing behind her.
"What do you want?" Molly said angrily.
"Molly, you don't have to forgive me, but I want you to know that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I was acting like this to you. I shouldn't have been that way towards you. It's just that the Ice Princess was a big job and I thought that it would require hard training. But I was wrong. If you come back, I'll treat you right, I'll help you, and I won't be rude to you, I promise. But I am sorry for this. So you can come back if you want to" Glacia explained to Molly. She just hugged Glacia, crying.
"Glacia, I forgive you. I'll come back" Molly said with tears. Glacia just hugged back.
"Well then, let's get to it then!" Glacia exclaimed.
A few hours passed, and the others were waiting for Molly and Glacia to finish their new and improved training.
"I hope they did okay this time. She seemed to be better" Oona said.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens" Nonny replied.
Then Glacia came out of the door, with a smile on her face. "I present to you, the Ice Princess Molly, fully trained!" she exclaimed. Molly then came out, with new clothes too, symbolizing her complete training.
"So did anything happen?" Gil asked. Molly gave a smile. She moved her arms around, creating snow shields and large ice shards, which she moved around. She also blasted herself into the air with much stronger wind, and created large pillars of ice to stand upon. She finished by jumping down and using the wind to land on her tail, and bowed.
The other guppies were astonished by Molly's performance, with open jaws and everything.
"Wow Molly, that's so cool!" Goby exclaimed.
"Cool? That was awesome! So cool that you can do that now!" Deema shouted.
"Aw thanks guys. Now that Glacia was helping me, I was able to learn it in no time! But that's not all I learned. Check this out!" Molly said. She held her arms up, and summoned a sword made of ice and held it in her hand.
"You got a sword Molly?! That's awesome!" Zooli said, amazed by the sight of it.
"And best of all, it can't melt by any sort of heat. It was actually the main weapon of the last Ice Queen" Molly said.
"Which is why it belongs to you Molly" Glacia said to her as she turned around. "That sword is the primary weapon of the Ice Queen. She told me to give it to you to help you in your journey. Take good care of it Molly" Glacia explained.
"I will, Master Glacia" Molly said. She bowed to her mentor.
"And speaking of journey, all of you, come here, as I have something to say" Glacia told them all. They all came together. "All of you will have to leave town temporarily to go to temples around the land. These are trials that will help your friendship grow stronger with each other, and will help Molly learn new powers. Each has a theme, with there being 7 in total. Tell me once you have completed 6 of them, as I will host the 7th trial" Glacia explained to the kids.
"Each temple has a theme that has to do with us?" Molly asked herself.
"Don't worry Molly, we'll get through it, together" Gil told her. The others gave her smiles and grins.
"You're right guys, but now (yawn) I'm pretty tired. I think I need a nap" Molly said, tired from all the training.
"Okay Molly, you can go back and rest. We can go prepare for you. You've earned it" Gil told her.
"Thanks Gilly" Molly said. She went back to the hotel, only thinking of one thing:
"Hang on Mia, I will save you, I promise" she thought to herself.
Authors Notes
So this chapter took a long time to make. It was the hardest chapter to do so far due to describing how the training goes, but it also serves as a way of showing that even Molly has a breaking point, and how a mentor should really be. This chapter also came out late due to it being my brother's birthday, so I was spending the day with him. For now, I'll answer reviews:
PrimroseRaspberry: Molly fighting her own sister would be scary, but also really unfair due to age and size comparison, so that won't be happening unfortunately, or will it? You'll just have to wait and see what happens.
ReaderandWriter9000: Yes, it was nice to have a break chapter after all the intensity from the first 3 chapters, while also providing a bit of lore in there too. Just wanted to say thanks for the help with this story, it really helps a lot.
Thanks for tuning into this chapter. The next one will be the day the guppies leave for the first temple. And for clarification, each time they complete a temple, they will come back to the village for a break before leaving again. But now, you know what time it is!
Post Chapter
We see a figure swimming up a mountain, with some weapons in hand. She looks like she has found her target.
"Molly has been spotted in the village of BlizzardTucky sir" Alana said.
"Dammit! Of all places, why there?! She'll probably have been fully healed by now!" Pyros said.
"Whatever, you're lucky your powers aren't weakened by the mountain, and that you're stronger than her, just get the job done, or else you'll lose Taco Tuesday's Alana sweetie" Pyros said to her.
"Of course sir, I won't let you down" Alana said, swimming towards BlizzardTucky.
"I know you won't fail me, O very sweet, daughter of mine" Pyros said.
"Hey, meanie! Leave my sister alone!" Mia said in a cage.
"Mia, why don't you understand? Your sister is the only threat against me. You'll be fine without her. And you will, whether you like it or not. And don't worry, you probably won't fight her, I'm normally not that crazy" Pyros said. "But you will help me understand her more, due to similarities, and so I can eliminate her, without going after her, in more, medical ways" Pyros said, evilly laughing.