Reliving a Lost Past

11. Kolbey Rezlin

Rome continued training me each day. In the morning, we started off by doing quick stretches and then we moved into more blocks. It felt more like karate, but karate was a test of supervised skill, not brutal strength.

There were days when we started as early as five and we even had evening trainings that lasted till around midnight; the night trainings were so tiring that I could have fallen asleep standing up, but Rome always had a water hose handy to wake me up, and always threatened to dump ice water on me if I didn’t get up in the morning. His intensions were good, though.

It was hard for me keep up and I would most likely expect some more bruises each night, but I tried hard and eventually worked up some more strength. There was no way I would ever outweigh Rome or even come close to his strength, but learning how to fight would sure surprise any one of those guys out there who think they are going to mess with one of us.

I eventually got the hang of blocking kicks and hits one after another to the point where Rome could mix in tackles that I had to avoid and come back with other hits. By the look of Rome’s face, I could tell he was surprised but pleased with the progress I had made.

I started enjoying the time I spent lying on the couch, because I might have been getting better at all this wrestling stuff, but if you think for one second that I was never sore, you must be crazy! I was able to kick Wes and Axel on the floor so I could spread out, but Rome came up to me and shook my shoulders.

“No Rome, go away. I don’t want to do any more training. I’m so tired and sore.” I whined at him hoping he would show some mercy but he said, “I just want to give you something that I forgot to on your birthday.” He reached in his pocket and held out a closed fist. I grabbed his hand and opened it.

He was holding a silver and black chain necklace with a dragon breathing fiery jewels. “The necklace in the store! How did you get it?” Danny spoke up and said accusingly, “Yeah Rome, how did you get that?”