Chapter Eighteen: The Spar

Penny awoke in her room where Ember had moved her after passing out on the floor. She no longer felt pain in her ribs, but she had level of pain in her face. " Of course I would land on my face" Penny thought to herself as she sat up on her bed, stretching, and breathing a sigh of relief.

After standing to her feet, Penny made her way out of room and down the hall to Embers room again. Before she could knock on the door, she heard Embers voice downstairs along with Lysette's.

" Oh, look who is awake" Lysette smiles, sitting at the kitchen counter eating some type of meat that Penny recognized as the food she had cooked before they left the last cabin. Ember is drinking some tea which is overflowed with sugar.

" Well, looks like it really did work" Penny smiled as she took a seat across from the two.

" Well I guess we can add that to the resume of things you can do " Lysette said proudly as she took a bite of the meat.

" Well it is not perfected yet but it's a good start. Ember helped" Penny glanced over at Ember who smiled back. " I only suggested it would be cool if you could do it. Other than that, I had nothing to do with it" Ember took a sip from her cup, trying her best to not spill the contents.

" Well, now that I am doing a bit better. I was hoping that I could maybe train with..Ember " Penny looked to Ember her nearly spit out her sugary drink.

" I'm sorry, what? " Ember questioned, surprised that Penny would suggest something like that.

" I want to train with you. It's not going to be aggressive or anything. You agreed to help me and I want to help you " Penny was excited to learn Penny's ability to analyze and this would be her way of repaying.

" I don't know..I'm not really - " Ember tried to back out, but was stopped when Penny took her hand and dragged her out of the house, to the front of the cabin and prepared a stance.

" I don't know what I'm doing.." Ember reasoned.

" All you have to do, is charge at me" Penny explained, her excitement was intoxicating to Ember who tried her best to ready herself. " Alright, but I'm not going to beat you. I don't know what I'm doing.." Ember sighed as she ran towards Penny, awkwardly, not making a full sprint and more of a light jog.

" No" Penny exclaimed. " I said charge at me...not take a brisk jog in my direction" Penny motioned for Ember to go back to her original place and encouraged her to start again.

Lysette had now come outside and watched from the front porch, the sight of the two girls left Lysette with quite an entertaining spectacle.

" Just charge" Penny demmanded as Ember, this time, ran at Penny with full force and at full speed. Penny easily dodged the attack, which made Ember stumble as she threw her weight to Penny, having her crash hard on the ground.

" I told you that I'm not going to be able to keep up with you! " Ember maintained as she rose back to her feet.

" Just come at me again" Penny replied as she prepared herself for the next attack. Ember took another running stance, and then ran, again at full speed towards Penny who dodged the charge, however this time, Ember rolled through, landing back on her feet and charged again. Penny, not expecting this maneuver, was tackled to the ground by Ember.

" Well, that happened" Penny laughed which made Ember laugh as well. " I can't believe I actually got you" Ember squeaked as she climbed off of Penny and extended her hand, offering to help her to her feet. Penny accepted and took Ember's hand and rose back to her feet.

" See! You are capable of more than you thought" Penny smiled as she flipped her leg around and tripped Ember, sending her crashing to the ground. " But the battle isn't over" Penny had Been a little surprised at Embers competence in battle. Could she have been holding back? " That was messed up" Ember mumbled as she slide her body around, sliding her legs between Penny's, tripping her down to the ground. Ember shot back up to her feet and immediatly went back into her fighting stance which was similar to some form of an armatur martial artist that almost looked comical.

" Hm" Penny reared her foot back, hoping to connect it with Ember who jumped back, dodging the attack. " I'm not falling for that" Ember smirked as Penny arose to her feet and charged at Ember, not allowing her to have the last bit of offense.

Ember dodged this attack with Ease, now realizing that if the worst Penny could do in the moment was charge, this fight would be relatively easy.

" Are you taking it easy on me? " Ember asked, not being quite sure of Penny's failed efforts.

" No.." Penny growled back in frustration as she knelt down, placing her hands on the ground, shifting the ground beneath Ember's feet. At first, Ember had not noticed until her feet began sinking into the ground. Though once she realized what was happening, she proceeded to back away, avoiding the trap.

" Oh, using powers now? Yeah, cause that is fair" Ember laughs as she runs and dodges the shifting ground that trailed behind her now. " Well, I just wanna see how you counter this" Penny confessed as she pressed her hands harder against the ground, which increased the speed of the trail now following Ember. The trail, resembling something being under the ground and leaving mounds of dirt, was concerning to Ember but she was confident that she could outrun it.

The time it was taking to remove Ember from the fight was beginning to make Penny impatient. With all of her strength, which forces the ground trail to move even faster, now riding off the heels of Ember who was growing increasingly concerned. " What are you going to do? " Penny asked confidently as Ember changed her direction and began running directly towards Penny who was not expecting this. Before she could remove her hands from the ground, Ember had jumped in the air, and over Penny as the trail followed behind her, crashing into Penny which threw Penny hard to the ground.

" That was brilliant" Lysette began applauding as Ember did her best to catch her breath from the chase she just had to endure. " She used her own power against you" Lysette remarked as she stepped out onto the training area and walked over to Penny, extending her hand out to help her. Penny accepted and once back to her feet, she turned her attention to Ember. " I'll admit, I didn't exactly think that through" Penny laughed as she walked over and patted her hand down on Embers shoulder.

" Well Survival is what I'm good at" Ember giggled.

" Now, which one of you two want to fight me? " Lysette joked which left Penny and Ember silent for the first few seconds.

" How about we both take you on? " Ember suggested which Penny seemed to agree with based on her nodding. Lysette shrugged and backed away before taking her place on the other side of the training area.