Children of the Zodiacs

three

Kai

'Kai.'
She can faintly hear someone calling her.
'Kai!' This time louder.
She opens her eyes and looks around. Water surrounds her forming small waves, but big enough to crash over her head. She bobs up and down the water, her legs frantically searching for solid ground.
Kai lifts her face up out of the water, greedily sucking in air along with salty water. The sky is a deep grey, and she can feel droplets of water hitting her eyes and sliding down the side of her face.

'Kai!' A deep voice echos, loud enough to be heard over the top of the roaring thunder and the crashing waves.
She looks up to find a tall man on the deck staring down at her with a cold expression. Her father.

Kai opens her mouth to cry for help but instead gulps a ton of water.
'Kai, you must swim to me.' Her father says unbudgingly.
Kai moves her legs and arms, desperately trying to swim towards him but she cannot win against the waves as it pushes her further away.

'Kai!' His commanding voices rings in her ear. 'You cannot be weak. You must swim to me or you will drown and will be forever remembered as a failure like your grandfather.'

Kai can no longer move her legs and her body becomes a dead weight. Slowly sinking, she looks back at her father one last time before her head is fully submerged and plummets into the sea of darkness.

                                             🐈‍⬛

Kai's eyes fling open and she bolts upright. She gasps for air as tears and sweat trails down her face. She looks around expecting to find herself under a blanket of water only to realize that she is back on her worn down mattress. She sighs with relief and collapses back down, breathing heavily, the nightmare still lingering.

She lays there for a moment waiting for her frantic heart to slow down. This is not the first time she has had this dream and certainly will not be the last. No matter how many times she wills herself to forget, her mind constantly drags her back to the past.

Eventually, she heaves her heavy legs out of bed and gets into her training clothes. She pulls her long thick hair up into a high ponytail and pins up the small strands of hair that has escaped. Knowing it would not do her any good to be late she hurries out of the house and breaks into a run to the small grass area next to the stream where her father is waiting for her. When catching sight of his back, she slows her pace to a walk.

'You took your time,' her father says without facing her.

A glint of silver catches Kai's eye and as she walks closer, she notices the knife in his palm.
She gulps; she had hoped that this time she could leave training without any cuts and bruises, but life doesn't always go as planned.

Her father turns around to face her and the same dark, empty eyes she had seen in her dream bores into her. She waits, expecting to be given some form of a weapon, but he just stands there showing no sign of doing so.
She sighs, remembering what he had told her the last time she had to fight without a weapon. 'When the time comes you will be empty handed when your enemy attacks you.'

Kai brings one leg forward and bends them slightly into a fighting stance. She lifts both her fists up to her face and waits for her father to make the first move.
When he does, she steps sideways, dodging the sharp blade as it narrowly misses her face. Before he can pull his hand back, she moves her left leg a step backwards and shifts her body to face his arm, interlocking it with hers then bending it.
As he loses his grip on the knife, dropping it onto the ground, she kicks it away from him, winning her the satisfaction of knowing that the fight is now fair.
But she is too focused on the knife that she does not realize the leg he has raised, coming up to kick her, until a second too late.
She tries to step away but is not fast enough as his foot connects to her stomach kicking her with such force, she feels the air leaving her, knocking her off her feet and onto the muddy patches of grass.
She lets out a groan before scrambling back onto her feet, ready for another attack, but he is already on to his next move. His knuckle makes contact with her jaw and she tastes the bitter iron in her mouth but this time she knows better than to let that distract her.
Before his fist reaches her face for the second time, she slides in towards him and ducks, falling onto her knees, and ramming her shoulder onto the side of his leg, hugging it with her thin arms and putting all her weight onto it.
To her delight, he loses his balance and falls onto his back with a thud.

She waits, expecting him to get back up and keep fighting but instead he lays there with his eyes closed, his lips slightly curved up.
'Go to work', Kai's father says after minutes of silence, 'We will finish early today.'
Kai hesitates, catching her breath, feeling unsure and a little nervous of his behaviour. She is never let off early and usually trains for hours on end, leaving her exhausted and bruised all over.
But she nods and hastily walks away, before he could change his mind.

                                             🐈‍⬛

Sweaty and sore, she quickly rinses her body before changing into her loose pants and a worn-out shirt.
As she fixes her hair, she glances at her reflection in the mirror.
Thick, dark waves pulled back from her face; a tense expression embedded in her hazel eyes.
She tries relaxing her face, curling her lips slightly upwards.
She stares at her reflection for a moment then snorts at her poor attempt, knowing that she is fooling no one.