Miraculous Order Series: The Secret Battles of the First Box

Chapter 12: Positions Everyone!

Giaguara hit the dummy more fiercely, releasing a ridiculous amount of stress. She grunted as the dummy kept falling and rising. The harder the hit, the louder her grunt. At some point it was clear that she had lost all control. Maybe it was the anger in her eyes, perhaps the aggressive stance she took or even how loud the echoes of her kicks boomed in the temple walls. The training room noise was silenced by the voice of the Zebra Guardian.

"That will be more than enough." Zebra said.

Giaguara did as she was told almost immediately. Her huffs and the sweat that fell above her mask indicated that she was tired.

"You have overused your power. This is your limit." the master informed.

"For now." the apprentice challenged.

"We are not here to test beyond your limits just yet. We are here to help you master until your limit."

Lila nodded, letting her kwami leave the charm. Yaguara gave a huge yawn and with drowsy eyes it pleaded for food.

"Yes master." Lila answered, hanging over a packet of chips to the starving creature. Her master sat and Lila, as she was expected to do, followed.

"You have to control your emotions, even under the influence of the Jaguar. It can give you the strength of not giving up but make sure to not make this your doom."

Lila nodded once more, hoping to absorb the information her master gave her.

"For now, let's practice meditation. You are young and your emotions will be more extreme than us adults." Zebra said. "Control your impulses, and you will control the miraculous."

Lila breathed in as she had been taught. She preferred to count dots, black dots against white. Numbers were too much like class, something that was not relaxing albeit important. Two dots... three dots...

The wind rustled through the temple and played with her long auburn hair. It passed her white mask, tied from the back of her head. The pale uniform, one most martial arts students are familiar with, let very little air vent through and touch her skin. So then the undying wind felt her face. As she opened her mouth for breath, the wind entered and with it the life of the mountains. The animals, the rocks, the clouds, it was all living through the wind. Lila smiled, connected once more to the Earth - to the elements. As she breathed, so too entered passion. It was foreign to the climate and it was most definitely from her kwami.

"Even outside of the suit, you are still connected to your kwamis and they to you. You must connect one to another. Tell me, my apprentice, what is the jaguar's truth?" the voice of her master calmly said, swaying with the wind.

"It is a warrior of the jungle. It has passion - anger." The words ringed true through Lila's body, her eyes still closed.

"Emotions tied too much to war. No, there is something else."

Lial felt puzzled but thought about it again. The word was just at the tip of her tongue, she had heard her master say it once.

"Determination."

Lila could not see the smile of her master nor the pearly white teeth that matched her robes.

"That is the truth about this miraculous. And about you."

Lila Rossi beamed at those words. Her master had called her stubborn but determined, and she to herself a liar, but adaptive. This was her truth. 

Stepping out from memory lane, Lila found herself in her dark bedroom. Yaguara and Kinyo were arguing audibly from their box. The apprentice looked in a puzzled way at the red panda miraculous, the bracelet on her wrist.