PÁTHOS: Pride vs Dignity

Borya

Disclaimer: The protagonist of this chapter does not define itself as male or female, pronouns for them will be "they", "them", "their", "it", and "it's".

That's all, enjoy your read!!!

Borya Vinogradov was a pretty simple person. Born in Russia, they had a somewhat decent life—ignoring the issues its politicians brought, that is. It was born into a rather large family, four brothers and two sisters. Its father was a vain man, always trying to have more than another.

This wouldn't be much of a problem if Borya's father—an ex-Spetsnaz (special op) of the Russian army—hadn't forced his ideals onto his children. He was strict with them. He beat them. He even had them fight each other.

"Only the strong survive in this house!" Borya's father would yell. "In this house we are proud! We are strong! Just like me! Just like our military! Our country!"

This oddly caused Borya to inherit it's drunken father's strong narcissism. And Borya had no problem expressing their ever-growing pride.

"Hey, Borya! Focus on the fight!" Borya's coach, Sampson, yelled.

Sampson was a now-retired Muay Thai expert who began his teachings in America. He used to go around the world coaching some of the best fighters known to man. Borya has been learning under him for four years now.

"Excuse me, Sammy," Borya looked up and got into a stance. "I got a little distracted."

"It's alright, you've become quite the fighter. You should just focus on the match. I don't know why you still train under this retired old man, honestly."

"You're the best there is. And I'm much too great to be taught by anyone else."

"There you go again, always complementing others based on your own greatness." Sampson said with a tired smile.

"Well, I've earned my status as greatest, have I not?"

Sampson laughed, "just because you're leagues better than the pros at training, doesn't mean you're the best fighter in the ring."

Borya scoffed, "Sure thing Sammy, that makes total sense."

Borya was sparring with Sampson in preparation for an upcoming MMA meet. It had perfected it's skill in Muay Thai and kickboxing so that they could one day completely obliterate the competition. It lifted it's fists to continue the mock round.

Unfortunately, after that round, Borya had tripped on his sweat. See, Sampson had bought a warehouse and essentially rebuilt it into an interesting amalgamation of a dojo and a house. He decided it would be cool and nostalgic to have an elevated training mat in the middle of the building, so that's what he built.

It was like many of the MMA platforms you see in tournaments. There was only one problem, there weren't any guard rails. There was nothing to stop anyone from falling off the four foot tall platform. And sadly, Borya fell...hard.

It landed on its ankle, thoroughly breaking his foot.  The snap and crunch of bone one hardwood floor was blood curling. Borya screamed in pain and anger. That's when the realization came through Borya's mind, Oh no, I won't make it to the tournament.

This can't be, no! Borya was furious. Out of all days it was today, two weeks away from the tournament. Borya knew they wouldn't be able to heal in time.
Borya Vinogradov, defeated by a measly, pathetic four-foot fall.

"Dammit!" Borya screamed. To put it lightly, Borya's pride was beyond wounded.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. We need to get that thing healed." Sam said, looking for something to tie up the broken ankle.

"Hey, so I found a ankle brace, so we can get you to the hospital-" Sampson had dropped the brace. "B-Borya?"

Borya slowly turned to look down at Sampson. It was surprised to see that not only had the broken ankle healed, but that they had magically grown three inches taller.

Hello, Borya Vinogradov