ATN: THE ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY

FIRST DAY OF TRAINING

Well, after all that ceremonial presentations, we had a rather quiet day in the palace. The five of us gathered in Riya's room, tried on our armors, swung our new found weapons, prank called Tina, then called her up to bring her to the room, welcomed her in a fun Chatterjee Chill evening. If you don't know what CC evening is, it is what we call the evening in which we choose to do nothing but do different shenanigans. It was so fun, Hiya suggested prank calling Olympus. "Let's prank call the King of Olympus. Who's that?" she said.

"Zeus." I said.

"Oh no," Tina said, "if you don't want lightning bolts burning you down, please don't."

So, that was all for the night's fun. Then, it was nine pm, and we came to the dining hall for dinner. We were given those magical plates that Tina talked about. I was sitting beside Riya tonight, who took the seat beside Tina. I asked for some rice with fish curry and was instantly provided with that. Dadai asked for a Mughlai parantha. All in all, we asked for some Indian delicacies and had a magical dinner time. Later, we left for our room to sleep.

The next morning, the five of us got ready in battle uniform and appeared in the training field to train. I felt quite fresh having done my bit of yoga in the morning. We were enthusiastic about our first day in training. And for all of that, Tina, on the very first sight, took away our armor discs and weapons, and asked us to jog around the field for ten minutes. What a let down!

After ten minutes of visits to Hades, we sat down. Abhro was gasping. Dadai wasn't, since he was used to the gym. Riya and Hiya weren't in much good condition. And me? Well, I would like to say that the yoga made me gasp less, but no. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Sword holding newbies, come forth." Tina called, "Others, wait for your turn."

I sat down with my sisters to see newbies to fight the best warrior in Atlantis. Abhro stepped up first. Tina gave him a wooden dummy sword. "Abhro, bottom hand strong, top hand loose." she instructed, "Remember, swing with your strong hand. Which is that?"

"Right one, Tina didi." He said. I liked the fact that Abhro addressed Tina as an elder sister. Tina smiled at that too.

But that was it. Despite all the instructions, Abhro got obliterated in front of Tina. I saw a Tina completely different from the one we were hanging out with last night. She was wearing a bandanna on her head. She was fast, aggressive, strong, literally the perfect child of a war god. After Abhro got tired, Tina asked him to rest and practice. Dadai was next.

Dadai started okay. The quick reflexes of Tina was outmatching him, but he held on. Tina swung her dummy sword towards Dadai's belly, but Dadai matched her pace, and blocked it. Then, he took a step back. As Tina came again, Dadai slid down, hit Tina's right hand with his dummy sword, making Tina drop hers. Tina smiled, congratulated Dadai, and then went berserk in the fight. Never again, could Dadai slide past her.

"We are done with swords. Mr. Knife, come on."

This was my happy moment. I was fighting against a person whose face confused my mind. And the person I had seen in the last hour confused me even more. But I knew, if I were to impress her, I better give her a fight.

To my luck, I didn't have to fight her one on one. Tina gave me a dummy knife. She used a Latino demigod guy, named Juan, as a target, to teach me stealth skills. I had sneak up from behind, hold him by the neck, and have him at knife point. I did this four times, and never could Juan, who later said that he was a son of Hermes, the messenger god of travelers, guess when or from where I was coming. Tina's face was filled with glee. She shook my hand, and said, "Well done, newbie."

Next was Riya's turn. "Now," Tina said to her, "I'm not exactly the expert in using tridents like your grandpa, but I can use a spear pretty well. How different could it be?"

"Well, Tina, this is three spears."

"Yeah, we start with one." Riya was given a dummy spear. In the fight, her condition was the best out of all us in a one on one against Tina. She broke two of Tina's dummy spears, and pinned her to the ground once. Otherwise, Tina got her quite a few times. Every time Riya got better of Tina, the other demigods clapped. That seemed normal. Tina getting better of a newbie was common. The reverse was a sight as rare as FC Barcelona losing to a Spanish second division team.

For Hiya's practice, we went to the archery range. Tina gave Hiya a quiver full of arrows, and her bow. Rahul, the son of Hephaestus, said that he had started working on Hiya's arrows in the forge. "Now, Hiya. Your strong hand?"

"Right one, Tina didi." Again, I was liking how my younger cousins had already made Tina their elder sister.

"Now, look at the target from the corner of your left eye. Then close it. Look at the target with your right eye. Knock an arrow in the bowstring. Left leg ahead, right leg back. Pull the string with your right arm, and shoot." Hiya followed her, and my word, our little sister was a natural. She hit the target from eight of the ten arrows she fired. 

Finally after an hour more, we were all done with training, and we headed for our rooms to get ready for lunch. I was talking to Rahul when suddenly, Tina screamed. She was running in the directions opposite to the palace. And behind her, at some distance, was a creature. I pulled my knife out and properly looked at the creature. Then, I put my knife back in.

The creature was a hound dog. Sure, it was big and had its fangs out, but it was still just a dog. I had always had my way with dogs. I had calmed so many dogs by looking at them eye to eye, that if I had fifty rupees for doing that everytime, I could afford a PlayStation. So, I acted quickly. I ran too. I caught up with Tina in seconds, and asked her, "What did you do?"

"Nothing. I-I didn't see it there. I stepped on its tail." she said.

"Well, its a he."

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

Around me, the other demigods were looking at us like running from a dog was a stupid thing. I stopped and turned towards the dog, and held Tina by her hand. "Stop running. You are making it worse."

The dog was getting closer to us. Tina stopped, but stayed behind me, and said, "I am terrified of dogs. I know I'm a leader, and I'm supposed to be brave, but..."

"But, you are a human. You can be afraid of things too. I get it." I said. Then, I looked at the dog, eye to eye. The dog stopped, gave me confusing look, barked, growled, and then sat down.  Slowly, he came close to me. As he did, Tina grasped my shoulder. I knelt down, and patted the dog. He wagged his tail, and licked my hand. I looked at Tina, and said, "Come on. You can pat him too, he's harmless." Very slowly, Tina knelt down and patted him. The dog licked her hands too.

I looked upwards, and everyone was smiling. Tina was smiling beside me, too. But, Dadai was looking at me curiously. "What's wrong, Dadai?" I asked.

"Dogs. Sacred animals to Hecate. No wonder you have a way with dogs since childhood." He said. I got his point. Dogs were sacred to Mom. And, so many times I had calmed dogs down, I had never realized that this was something I got from her. At that moment, I wanted to see her so bad.

We returned back to our rooms. Riya was laughing at how scared Tina got. I shushed her. Tina had thanked me later, and then said, "I am taking Riya to see supernatural creatures in the Atlantean forests one day. Join us." I happily agreed. She asked me to bring my knife for safety, and left.