Warrior's Beginning

Malik (image by Lloyd Smith)

Malik paces about, only imagining what his destiny has in store for him. The simple, yet familiar power of the training area quickened his heart rate. Malik just can’t take his mind off of the future. His anxiety is overwhelming him as he contemplates just how remarkable of a warrior his father is. “How is it possible to surpass the best?” he asked to himself. The thought was uncomfortable, and he held up a quivering paw as the fear of failure set in.

Narrowing his eyes and snarling, Malik set his mind to the training dummy once more. He had been trained to deal with fear, to embrace it, to use it. Unconsciously Malik’s pace increased very abruptly as he let the fear soak through him, harnessing the power that it gave him and turning it into anger at his own frailty instead. He refused to let his body bow to the fear in his mind.

Time lost meaning as he thrashed away, settling into the familiar rhythm: strike, strike, feint, lunge. With his mind eased for the time being, he focused on his training dummy and drifted into a state of complete awareness. The dull practice sword hanging on the wall was quickly taken into hand with a swift motion. As he unceasingly struck the dummy, thoughtsabout fighting ran through his head.

“This isn’t bad, but my true enemies will fight back,”he said aloud, stepping back for a moment to regain his breath. Lunging in again, he immediately pretended to start dodging blows and blocking attacks. His breathing became shallower.The air flowed through his body like there was no resistance as he continued the dance of death. After repeating the dodges and attacks for a moderate period of time, an indication of fatigue slowly dripped off of his muscular, young body. His energy was draining at an increasing rate as he leapt around the dummy. The training that he had been practicing was the “chre”, the offensive movements that flow with defense. The chre had knocked on his heartbeat until it was too much to handle.

Stepping away from the dummy again, yet keeping his guard up, Malik paused to regain his breath. He cautiously circled his target,slowing his breathing and centring his body once again. A glint in the window caught his eye, and he looked outside with surprise at the lengthening shadows. With the realisation that he had been training for eight hours solid, his limbs suddenly felt like lead and the thick atmosphere of the planet enclosed around him like a prison. His tortured lungs began to feel like they were gasping at water instead of air. Forcing the pain of his exertion from his mind, he made his way back to the resting quarters.

He came to rest on his bed. Closing his mind, he concentrated on getting his breathing back under control as he sat on the coarse surface of his blanket. Malik jumped up off of his bed in haste when he heard thundering footsteps growing louder. As his father approached, Malik only became more nervous and found it difficult to contain himself.

Jursik came near his son with a confident and prideful smile, which turned to a frown as he noted his son’s heavy breathing. Malik’s mind fluttered around as he watched his father silently. Jursik’s sternface regarded his son coolly before speaking.

“Son, you must be ready for whatever challenge lies before you.”

“But father, the challenge is living up to the likes of you.” Malik managed to respond after a long pause which hung between them. Jursik’s eyes softened at the worry he saw reflected in his son’s eyes.

“Malik, your worries should not reside on this path. Everyone carves his own story and will lead his people to glory in his own way. You will do great things that won’t just follow my footsteps, but make them seem meaningless.”

“You really believe that I will become a great warrior like you?”

“You must stay confident.You are far stronger than you know.” Jursik said without hesitation. “For now, just know you are a warrior and that with hard work and training, life will fall into place the way that it should.”

Malik bowed his head unable to reply, though he could feel the warmth of confidence restoring some feeling to his aching limbs. He felt a paw on his head.He looked up at his father once more and saw that the man was smiling down at him. Realising his lapse, Jursik’s lips tightened quickly into his regular stern look.With a nod to his son he turned and left.

Malik lay down to rest for the night without a worry on his mind, and entertained thoughts of a great new beginning.

The next morning, Malik awoke ready to begin his journey. He walked into the meal room to find his morning briais seeming to bellow out his name. A large rat filled his fishbone plate along with a perfect sized cup of fruit juices.

“Are you prepared for the challenges that await you?” Jursik asked as he entered the large meal room.

“Yes father, I will try to make you proud.” Malik replied, sucking the last of the rat’s blood from his claws as he rose from his place.

After they finished their briais, they walked to the exit of the house. The council leaders had prepared the challenge course for all of the young Maratasen to prove their will, intelligence and strength.

Throughout the course, council members stood to monitor how the children did, and to assess the ability of each. Jursik and Malik walked silently to the start. There was no voice in the wind and no sounds to be heard. It was a moment of calm before the storm. Finally, the two neared the course. As they approached the course, Malik turned to his father.

“Will this course be hard?”

“Obviously,” Jursik snorted with surprise at the question. With a glance at his son, he eased his tone a little and added, “I know you Malik, and I know you are capable of this and much more than what happens today. Now go and prove to the world that you are a great warrior.”

(by Cameron Ames)