Side Chapter 12.5

The boy moved around the space with agility similar to a hunting panther. It was quick, strategic, and overall moved with the intent to capture what he was aiming for. When the thing was finally in his grasp, he lifted the hammer that was slightly bigger than him and he slammed it down.

The thing, or the Energy Sphere, made a sound similar to air escaping before breaking into many pieces and those tiny pieces rushed into the awaiting boy, who sighed as his body instantly became warm and energetic.

Already attaining why he came to the dark zone for, he awakens from his meditation and squinted his eyes from the incoming sun rays. Even though he's been in the space for a few weeks whenever he exited out of the meditation, the difference of lighting always causes him to squint as he has not adjusted yet.

"Let's get started?" A questioned asked out, but immediately the event already started without the boy's answer.

Ignis, already familiar with the woman's tactics, braced himself steadily as an invisible pressure pushed down against him. It was his fifth time experiencing it, and the feeling of being pushed to the ground by something he could not touch still made Ignis uneasy.

He grabbed his hammer that lay beside him and used it to help him sit up. The pressure was around the weight of two cases of 35 water bottles. At first it was one case, but now it seemed that Alene has doubled it after barely getting used to the weight of the last few spars.

However, the boy didn't complain. Instead, he pushed himself off his hammer and rolled to dodge an incoming attack. He was quick to stand up and swing, meeting head on with an incoming fist.

Using the hammer as leverage, he pushed himself up and kicked the core of the woman with both feet. The woman staggered a bit; however, it was enough for Ignis to meet the ground once more and separate himself from the stronger opponent.

Instead of attacking, he focused more on dodging and weaving around the hand grabs, the kicks, the punches, and even the body slams. The woman in front of him was slowly going faster and the Ignis's minimal experience of dodging was catching up to him.

Right before he could push himself back to create some space, the woman fell backwards. Catching her weight with both hands, her feet kicked out from underneath her, and like a cannon, her feet slammed against the hammer's handle, which crashed into the boy holding it.

Both child and hammer toppled over and rolled across the plain of dirt. Ignis stood up, but it was too late as he was grabbed and put into a chokehold.

"I win?" The woman asked in his ear; however, the boy ignored the question and continue to struggle to get out of the slowly tightening hold. After countless struggles, the ability to breathe was becoming more prominent and memories were beginning to flood in. He tapped the arm wrapped around his throat, and he was finally let go.

He took a deep inhale of air, touching his neck that stung a bit. "Well, you're getting better at moving and dodging, but what about attacking?" The woman asked.

Ignis looked up at Alene, who was looking down at him and with some small thought, he communicated to her, "I'm not strong enough to attack you yet."

"Well, that is to be expected, but are you going to train to dodge your encounters your whole life? Because I will be the first one to say that plan will not work in any of the ten dimensions in that crazy world." Alene said straightforwardly.

Ignis sighed as even he knew that wouldn't work, but what else could he do? His experience with fighting involved just classic punches, body slams, and occasional hair pulling, much to his sister's hype and his brothers's furrowed brows.

Now he's expected to fight life to death, and each strike was meant to finish the other person's life. It was hard to get into that mentality. Again.

"Can you teach me something I can use, then? If you don't mind," Ignis asked, completely discarding the small headache forming from the thoughts, and Alene hummed in thought.

She squinted her eyes for a bit before it widens as a move came to mind and a smile spread on her face as she said, "Actually, I have a perfect move for you. It even ties in into your dodging pati."

Ignis huffed at her joking manner while he took a seat, placing the hammer by his side. He touched the ground underneath him while the woman stood there in thought. His hand grazed the ground and his headache slowly dispersed as he felt some vibrations causing him to close his eyes and fully immerse himself into the surroundings.

He's been placing his Storage Energy in his sight and hearing, but sometimes he will place a little into touch, which also went to his other sense, perception. It was still not very strong, but it did allow him to have these brief moments.

These insignificant moments where he is one with the surroundings.

Of course, it didn't last long as Alene yelled for him to wake up and watch her. Sighing, he opened his eyes and looked over at the woman who has her hands on her waist and was mugging him.

Ignis signed a "sorry." One word, Alene has learned over the course of teaching the boy, as he had to apologize a lot.

Grumbling under her breath, Alene spoke out, "I'm going to teach you one of my multipurpose moves of the dance, so listen up."

Ignis nodded his head, causing her to breathe out, "Good, because next time you fight me, and you're only dodging me, I'm going to have the Teuilas toss you around like a ball on a beach." As if hearing her, the red flowers waved happily to the sitting boy.

Ignis's mind instantly went to a volleyball and how hard they hit the sand, making him scrunch his face while he paid mind to watch the woman in front of him in rapt attention as she begins to start the demonstration.

Alene spread her legs to shoulder length, and both hands were palm flat on her chest in the shape of an arrow facing upwards. Her eyes were closed as her right hand slid from her body towards the right while her left foot slid across the ground to the left.

They both went their respected ways to the maximum length, until they circled around the opposite way until they met the other limb, in which the arm and leg both went straight back, until they were once again in their original position.

Then the other limbs began doing the same movement. The movements were slow, clearly meant that way so the boy watching her could fully examine her. Her arms were fluid as they unwinded and rewinded, never faltering to continue the next movement.

Her feet were always kept to the ground. One foot that stayed stationary was pointed, while the other was always kept straight, as they also pointed like they were drawing lines on the ground underneath. Her body twisted ever so slightly, but she mainly stayed steady and straightforward.

Slowly, all the limbs returned to their original positions, and she opened her eyes to breathe out before looking at the child, who looked at her with curiosity and confusion.

"You have questions." Alene said as she walked up to the boy and squatted in front of him. Waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

"I don't understand how that's a defensive move or how that's exactly supposed to attack someone with." Ignis expressed with furrowed brows and squinted eyes, showing apparent confusion.

Alene grinned before standing up. "Attack me."

"What?"

"You don't understand how it works, so attack me to see," Alene said, backing up enough that there was a good enough space for the boy to utilize, before getting into stance.

Ignis grabbing his hammer did what she instructed, stood up and instantly sprinted to her and attacked her midsection in a side swing, however the left arm reached out and using the hammer's already momentum redirected to somewhere else.

The action didn't move the woman's body at all and she returned to her former original stance. Intrigued with what he just saw, Ignis directed a slam attack towards the woman's feet.

He saw the foot move back into the circle, fully escaping the attack, but at the same time the foot; he thought would always be stationary moved, and using the foot that circled towards the back, she used it as a pedestal to hold most of her weight as the free foot redirected the hammer that was on the ground and pushed it to the side.

The push caused Ignis to stumble, caught off guard as he was still studying the movements. Regaining his stability, he commented, "Redirection."

"Yep." Alene said as she stood back normally. "The movement I showed isn't really meant to be something you use just like that, but a way to get your body familiar with moving fluidly and for you to familiarize yourself with the length of your body. Plus, this is only the first part. The second part is where the attacking comes in."

Ignis made a face at that which caused the woman to laugh.

"Now then." She said tugging the boy up, "Show me what you got little Afi." She cast a wide grin, her eyes twinkling as she watched the boy look at her hesitantly before jangly doing the movement.

The first thought that came to her head was a newborn calf standing for the first time. Especially when she watches Ignis having to move both opposite limbs in different directions while keeping balance.

She smiled but didn't say anything. The more she watched, the more memories from her home appeared in her head. The boy's image in front of her slowly started to overlap with an older girl who looked to be around ten.

Alene watched as the girl huff trying to attain the gracefulness one would need for Siva. While an older woman, their mother, was by her side swatting at the young girl with any mistake she saw.

They stood on a beach; waves were crashing on the sand and rocks and the variety of trees rustled as the wind blew through their branches and leaves. Hearing laughter, she looked to the side and watched as two groups of older teens of both genders kicked around a leather ball. Their smiles were wide and tanned skin shined under the sun.

By their side in the shade were older adults and the young children who ate while chatting, sometimes calling out whenever they saw one of the teens make a complex move. One kid who was sitting on the ground playing with a tiny crab along with the others looked over at Alene and smiled, waving his tiny hand at her, which she reciprocated.

A loud smack sounded out, causing Alene to look back at her mother and sister as the two now looked at one another with the same mug face.

"Stop hitting me with the leaf, Tina! Don't you see I'm trying my best over here? It's not my fault that this dance is much harder than convincing Laulu to give me some of his Half Moon Pies!" The young girl complained however their mother looks at her expressionless before hitting her with the palm leaf again causing the girl to dramatically yell out in pain.

"You and I both know that your brother will fight wars before giving up his desert. Nice try though." Their mom said seriously with an eye roll and as if wanting to prove her point. The brother in question, Laulu, came out snacking on Suafa'i.

All three people looked over at the person of the opposite gender, showcasing their relativeness as they all stared at him with the same look of disapproval.

Laulu, who was enjoying his snack his Le Tina made him, felt a shiver down his back and when he looked over, he saw his Tina, his baby sister and older sister all looking at him with an already familiar look.

"This is my first snack of the day." The 15-year-old said quickly before anyone of them could say anything.

"The first snack of the day or the first snack since the sun been up?" Their mother said swiftly, with narrowed eyes.

The boy froze before laughing hesitantly before taking off, holding the bowl of sweet coconut goodness in a protective grip. However, the older woman already knew her son like the back of her hand, thus she took off her sandal and launched it, accurately hitting the target's ankles and he came crashing down.

Both sisters hissed at the collapse before bursting out laughing. They watched as their mom walked calmly over to the boy, who was now playing dead on the ground.

The older woman grabbed the tiny bowl of dessert, slipped back on her sandal before walking away, causing the dead to come back to life as Laulu stood up quickly and chased his mother, trying to make deals and bargains.

Watching this in amusement, Alene looked over at her younger sister, who was still laughing. She watched the younger girl, who still had baby fat in her face and had her hair tied in a low bun with pink Teuilas inserted throughout it.

She giggled before looking over at Alene and gave her older sister a weird and confused look. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, looking up at the older girl up and down with her brown eyes.

"Like what?" Alene asked softly.

The younger hum before saying, "Like you just found a hog. You know Tama is still looking for one for you, but it's like they know and have been hiding from him and the other warriors." The 10-year-old giggled before saying, "Cunning, oversized pigs."

Alene laughed before nodding her head. "Well, in a way, you're right. Just reliving the time before that happened."

The young girl looked at her confused before asking, "Before what happens?" Alene didn't say anything as she smiled, causing the girl to scoff. "I hate when you don't say what you're thinking, but say so many other things. It's a poor trait."

Alene grinned at that and nodded her head under the watch of the young girl, who was slowly disappearing with the environment and people around them. Until finally Alene was right back in the clearing in the middle of Teuilas with a confused Ignis standing in front of her.

Alene blinked her eyes softly, trying to ditch the effects of being taken in the past. She smiles widely after gaining her standing as she asked, "Why you stop?"

The boy looked at her with his brown eyes and slowly a soft monotone echo voice sounded in her head, "I asked you a question and you didn't respond."

Alene made a silent oh before nodding her head and waving her hand to repeat what he had asked.

Ignis didn't take it to mind of the woman not listening to him as he said what he had previously had. "Am I doing good? I feel like I got the hang of it."

Alene raised a brow at this before telling the child to show her. Ignis, wasting no time, got in position before doing the movement. A couple times he stalled a bit but quickly he adjusted and the next rounds were smooth and slow.

Alene, watching, looked at the boy while thoughts ran through her head, but instead of sharing them, she instead smiled and complimented, "It looks good. Continue to practice it before trying it with the hammer. When your two hands switch off, fluidly pass the hammer to the other hand."

Ignis nodded before continuing to do the movements while in Alene's head a non-gender specific voice ranged out, "He is perfect." Alene blinked before shaking her head with a smile on her face.

"You finally got your perfect child. I hope you don't ruin him like you did in the past." She said full of scorn, but the voice didn't seem to take it to heart as it vibrated in her mind.

"He's not like the rest of you."

"Yet you brought me here to teach him." Alene countered.

The voice hummed but didn't say anything. Slowly, Alene felt the presence disappear, but before it could fully go, it sighed sadly. "His life here will know no rest."

When the presence finally disappeared, Alene's face twisted a bit before looking at the boy, who was now doing the movement with the hammer. She can see why the presence likes the boy so much. Not like her or the ones before her. Ignis fully has the mindset of going home and his speed of progress was displaying it.

She didn't know if it would change later in the future, but for right now, that was the boy's only goal, much to the presence's happiness and encouragement.

At first Alene didn't really care for the boy, fully focusing on just doing what the presence wanted her to do. To teach him the basics, but the more that time goes by, the more of a sense of bitterness swelled in her.

She didn't hate Ignis. No, she didn't hate him at all. Nor did she dislike him. In fact, she liked him very much. However, the feeling of pushing him and wanting to see him break and see what he would do to rebuild himself, if he even tries to rebuild himself, was something that was slowly becoming a great interest to her.

Would he go mad? Go senile? Would he become like the one before her and depend on somebody from this world to regain his bearing?

Or maybe he will be like her and become paranoid about all those around him?

"Alene?" The voice penetrated her thoughts, and Alene looked down at the boy who now stood in front of her, his height barley touching her knee caps. "Can you teach me the other part?" He asked, looking at her with big brown eyes.

Alene's heart jumped, and she smiled big, "Yeah, I can I show you."

When that day came, she couldn't wait.