Braves

Zain smiled at his pupil as he pretended to nonchalantly step out of the transformation and went right into fighting form at the punching bag. Zain knew the effort involved in that little trick, and how many years it had taken the boy to master. He raised his eyebrow as he approached the young man, “What’re you trying t’be cool fer? I told ya ain’t no one watching ya.”

Eric looked up and smiled, “And I told you, that double negative means everyone’s watching me, in which case, I better not disappoint.” The big man put his arm around the boy and threw him to the ground in a long since traditional greeting for the two; no one even bothered to glance their way, long since accustomed the exchange. Eric jumped up lithely and landed a punch to the older mans’ shoulder, Zain threw a wide left that was caught and turned into embrace. .

Zain pat the boy on the back warmly making the hold crushing. “How ya doin’, kid?” He asked, affectionately batting Eric on the head.

Eric swatted his hand away finally looking serious, “I need to talk to you, Zain.”

Zain looked surprised and nodded, waving for Eric to follow him. Zain led him passed the arena; where he trained his combat skills to perfection as a child, easily excelling above his fellow students and gaining him notice from the Elders. Passed the training circle where each student went through The Trial until their body took the form of their souls. Where he first transformed into the owl, a foreshadowing of future leadership and wisdom; more common types of braves were cats, dogs, or lesser non-predatory birds. Rarer were the greater prey animals such as wolves, bears, large cats, and birds of prey. As he walked by he wondered what Gwen would be, would she be a cunning cat, a loyal dog? Or one of the greater prey animals? He doubted she would be anything lesser like a rat, rabbit, or small bird.

Stop thinking about her. Eric chastised himself.

Finally they reached the meditation grounds where hardly anyone ever spent time; most Braves were interested in the more physical aspect of training and rarely focused on the mental. Zain turned and looked at Eric expectantly.

“Ok, so a lot’s been going on. Let me just get it all out at once…” Eric took a deep breath to calm himself. “First of all; I just pissed Ana off, she went on and on about Gwen and I lost my temper with her. Second; Gwen pretty much hates me now, she’ll never talk to me again, and I’m most likely gonna fail this mission. Logan is going to kill me, and there are Raider’s all over Gwen.” Eric finished, looking a little green and took several more deep breaths to calm himself.

Zain crossed his arms and took a deep breath in order to think. “Well, kid… Ya sure know how ta mix things up, huh? Whatcha doin’ pissin’ that bitch off for and the princess ta boot!! Ya know Logan’s got it hard for her, and this bein’ your first mission. It don’t look good, Eric.” Zain considered Eric for a moment before nodding his head, “Ya fucked the pooch on this one, kid. Ya need ta apologize to the young lady, and watch yer back for knives. All ya can do at this point. You could start by trainin’ yer ass off, before ya lose it.” Zain pounded Eric on the shoulder and walked off, leaving Eric alone on the grounds. The old veteran shouted over his shoulder, “Why don’t ya meditate on it?” Laughing he disappeared from sight.

Eric sighed and dropped cross-legged on the grounds, why not? No one ever made things worse by meditating. With that thought in mind, Eric closed his eyes and focused on emptying his mind. He was never very good at this, being one of the Braves that didn’t think much of the mental aspect of training. But he found he was having a more than normal level of difficulty finding his inner peace. He was constantly confronted by piercing brown eyes that screamed ‘just like my father’ at him.

“Dammit!” he shouted, what the hell was up with that girl that he couldn’t get her out of his mind? He couldn’t even close his eyes now without seeing hers. I actually did make things worse by meditating! What the fuck? Eric gave up and got slowly up to his feet, cursing Gwen for trapping him like this.

Eric wandered the grounds of his childhood home, remembering the good and bad. He walked by the sleeping barracks recalling how he used to be scared of sleeping alone after his parents died. He had been so convinced he would wake up and discover everyone gone, it was the nightmare that kept him up at night even to this day.

He smiled as he played back how uncomfortable Zain had been trying to share a cot with a 4 year old crying ball of legs and teeth. How the old man scavenged a second cot to squeeze in his small sleeping chambers just so he could get a decent night’s sleep. Eric reminisced about how Zain would awkwardly comfort the child when he would wake up screaming every night. He recalled the only time he’d seen the old goat cry; how it’d been a month after his parents’ deaths and Eric finally spoke to tell Zain what he kept dreaming about that scared him so much, it was then that Zain seemed to really take an interest in his training.

At the tender age of 5 Eric started his training to follow in Zain’s footsteps as a Warrior Brave. Eric imagined a world in which he had the influence and power to change the way the laws were enforced and perhaps be able to change the laws themselves. He remembered how his father would talk about how the laws were unnecessarily harsh and how they would only cause conflict, the same conflict that took his parents from him.

Eric lowered his head walking away from the barracks and away from his memories, he would much rather think about his current predicament with that girl. He had two options; either he kept bumbling around like an idiot and got himself killed, or he could just tell her everything and hope she took it well enough not to kill him. Either way he was going to die, at least the latter left him a chance to live. He decided he would wash his hands of the issue, why be secretive and mysterious about it? It would all end the same way regardless. Eric hardened his resolve and tried to seek out his mentor. It was no surprise that he found the old Warrior in the combat circles monitoring a bout between two newly phased pups. Eric leaned against the building behind him keeping himself slightly out of view while he observed the two wolf pups growl viciously tear at each other’s hides.

Eric controlled his flinch when he heard the smaller of the two let out a yelp while the larger pounced on its back and ripped harshly into the shoulder blade drawing a spurt of blood and continued yelps and squeals of pain from the defeated pup. Eric watched on fueling his ambition to change the way his world worked, children that age should not be trained to such extremes just because they happen to be predator species Braves. Eric turned his head pushing aside memories of his own training, confusing images filled with joy and pain.

He schooled his expression into one of positive appraisal as he walked up to his mentor and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, hands clasped smartly behind his back. “Looks like you have natural here, Zain.” Eric glanced and was appalled to be able to read the disgust on his good friends face. “Zain, appearance!” Eric hissed under his breath, brushing his shoulder against the older man. He observed nervously as the man who taught him how to conceal his true emotions slowly struggled to control his own.

Soon the mask of detached boredom fell upon his teachers face as he addressed the pups, “Marin, good job. Remember this is only practice though, learning to control your strength is infinitely more impressive than throwing your weight around. Joshua, you are smaller which should mean you are faster; use that to your advantage. You must prove yourselves stronger, faster, and more cunning than your enemy at all times. Weakness and doubt will kill you.” Zain’s voice was its usual gruff tenor, but Eric could see the strain in his eyes. Eric brushed against him once more and motioned with his head to enter Zain’s chambers. “Joshua, see the medic and run laps once you’re done. Marin, I want you to go to the skills quad and focus on the puzzles. You will both be released in 3 hours. Dismissed.”

Eric led the way to the makeshift office and closed the door behind Zain and made sure no one was listening in through a connection. Once he was confident they were free to speak he started, “Don’t you think you were a little harsh on Joshua?” Eric leaned against the edge of the cot and kept his expressions at bay, there may be no one listening but they could still be watching. As much as he loved his home, he knew it was not safe to speak or act freely here.

“The kid needs te toughen up, ya know how rough that prick Jared can git with the little ‘uns. The kid won’t survive if I go soft on ‘im.” Zain slipped back into his roughened speech now that he was alone with Eric. Zain let out a frustrated sigh, “So, did the meditation help any?” he gave Eric a searching gaze while he waited for his protégés response.

Eric frowned and shook his head, “The meditation made it worse, just gave me time to see how bad I fucked up. But I did come to a decision afterwards; I want your take on it.” Eric leaned forward and moved closer to Zain to hide his mouth from prying eyes. “I’ve decided I’m going to tell Gwen who she is and bring her here so Logan can deal with her, I’m finished with this bureaucratic bullshit about taking it slowly and being cautious.” Eric moved away again keeping an intent eye on his mentors reaction.

Slowly Zain nodded his head, “I trust ya, kid. If that’s what yer instincts are sayin’ is the right thing to do, then do it. I ain’t gon’ stop ya.” Zain reached out for Eric and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, “Make sure ya think this out all the way before ya do anythin’ though. If it goes wrong, that’s all she wrote. Don’t matter who yer parents were or how much potential ya got. It will be over.” Zain gave his shoulder a tight squeeze and moved away. “Get outta here, boy. You got shit to do.”

Eric nodded and rushed out of the room, the very real threat to his life had his skin twitching. Though he had to admit the excitement of finally getting this over with had something to do with the urgency of the phase as well; he wanted to see how Gwen would react about who she was and he was anxious to see what she species she was. His eagerness and apprehension carried him through the darkness toward Gwen’s ever strengthening bond.