Cicily, Our Last Hope

Chapter 10: The Story of the Future

So Cicily thought, long and hard. She thought about who to trust, who to abandon, and what to do. It was in this thinking that she planned the way things were meant to be.

She would stay, and she would feign trust. But she would never, ever trust anybody outside of those three people she actually cared about. One, herself. You can always trust yourself. Two, her mother. Her mother wasn't there, but she wanted to lengthen the list, and so her mother was there in spirit. Three, Taisie. Taisie may be a little annoying, and a little hyper, and a little... Little. But she was like a sister to Cicily. 

So with the pretend-trust, she would listen.

"Sis! You've been given an assignment!"

Taisie rushed over with a piece of parchment, some official orders scratched into it. "Dear Miss Cicily," it read, "In order to make your appearance as the symbol of this war, you must be strong and knowledged. You will be given special treatment. You will be fed more food. But you will also train harder. Your first training session begins today. As soon as you receive this message, head to the edge of town for stamina building."

So she headed to the edge of town, surprised to find a young man instead of Imara. "I'm going to be your trainer," the boy said in a southern accent. His red scales were chipped around his neck, and he noticed me eying the wound. He chuckled, "I had a run in with a dark one. Lovely little battle that turned out to be. You should see the other guy."

"I don't think I want to," Cicily replied with a little giggle which she stifled instantly.

"Aw, don't be ashamed, I think giggling is the most macho thing," he assured, "But now to match that macho giggle, we need to get started. First we're going to stretch."

She was shown a way to stretch my wings that relieved some of the tension. Next, she was given laps. First, she ran. Then, she flew. She repeated the cycle one more time and then was exhausted.

"Don't worry about that. You're just starting out, it'll get better with the muscle you gain. Practice makes perfect. Be back after lunch for some combat training, and bring a friend."

She found Taisie at lunch. "Hey, do you wanna come to combat training with me?"

"Of course, obviously, I would love to! Sis, I wonder what that means. I mean, why you need to bring someone. Usually the trainer works against you in small group training. Oh, well."

"I don't know, and I don't really care. I just want this all to happen already," Cicily confessed. "I want to visit my mom."

"Your... Mom." Taisie sounded less enthused than usual.

"Let's change the subject. Lunch is almost over, time for combat!" Cicily tried to act a little hyper to cheer up her friend. She pulled her by her arm back to the meeting place.

"Ah, Cicily, you remembered to bring a friend. And Taisie, too! She's one of the best, let me tell you. Even for adult classes. This kid sure has got some fire running through her veins." He heated up his hands playfully.

"Very funny, Hot-head. I'm too cool to be firey." Taisie teased back.

"Chums, are you? We should get to work, should we not, Mr...?"

"I'm Tut. And yes, we should. So what I'm going to teach you now is some hand-to-hand. You have elemental powers, but you may not use them. We'll worry about weaknesses later. Taisie, square up."

Taisie raised her hands in front of her, "Who am I fighting?"

Tut shrugged, "You pick."

Taisie faced Tut.

"Okay, so we need to go a little slow-motion here. Simple movements only, no advanced stuff and no powers. Cicily, watch me."

Cicily watched as they sparred for a bit, and Tut finally knocked Taisie over with a simple flying kick. Easy enough, she thought. But it was a lot harder in action, when she fought Tut. Still, after a couple hours and just before the sun went down, Tut went down. 

"You fight better when you're tired," he pointed out.

"I fight better when there's a reason for me to want to fight. Can I go back to my room now?"

He chuckled and nodded, and she went back to her little room and passed out almost instantly.