DRAGON PEARL - The training

"We'll start with physical training, so you can warm up. Ren, you can take over," and with that Tomen stepped back.
Ren rubbed his face, he was not excited about this. He predicted, that Monik will be completely impossible and he didn’t have the nerves for it, because he was constantly tormented by his thoughts about the fate of his brother and the eastern tribes.
"Ok, go run around that building and I will try to come up with a training plan,” he said finally.
Instead of running, Monik began with stretching.
"What are you doing?" Ren looked at her, slightly shocked, when she started to lean forward, in her functional tight leggings, right in front of him. Her flexibility caught his eye and for a moment, he completely forgot, what did he asked.
"Well, I have to stretch a bit, otherwise I will be sore tomorrow," she said, while pushing her weight to a nearby tree. Once she felt ready, she ran to the dojo.

Thanks to her jogging trainings with Lucy, she possessed the appropriate clothes for this activity, but their training usually turned to a gossiping walk. Therefore, she hardly approached the bridge, she felt tingling in her side. She tried to keep a regular speed until the guys saw her, but behind the dojo, she switch to walk, while gasping for breath.
"You call this a run?!" yelled Ren, when he appeared in front of her from nowhere.
How the hell, did he get here? she thought, and immediately began to run again.

And that was just the beginning... Then, Ren ordered her, to show him some techniques from karate, that she knew. So Monik showcased her kicks to different sides, a pair of combined techniques together with some punches and blocks. Long enough, Ren only commanded her and always wanted to see something else, without expressing his thoughts about her abilities. Although, he was not very happy and he thought for sure, that she would not survive in his world. But since she knew the techniques, he decided to try her reflexes.

He suddenly attacked her and to his surprise, she blocked his punch. But Monik enjoyed the moment too early, because she fail to register his subsequent kick to the kidneys and he kicked her right to her back. Moniks fatigue met with anger and without further thinking, she headed a strike to Ren’s head. He only avoided her attack with a teasing smile. To provoke Monik even more, he put his hands behind his back and let her furiously attack, while he was only dodging.
"Was it enough?" he asked haughtily, when Monik stopped to catch her breath. She was really tired, her strikes at the end were weak and uncoordinated, but she didn’t intend to give up until she hits that bastard!
So she started the next series of attacks, but after a little while, her muscles were completely exhausted and she fell to the ground.
"Now I understand, why you stopped going to karate," whispered Ren, "you didn’t want to embarrass yourself anymore." His words cut into a very sensitive topic and awaken unpleasant memories in Monik.

Ren was about to leave, but as he heard movement behind him, he turned back to the girl, thus avoiding a strike to stomach. With her back foot, she tried to kick Ren, who was not only forced to use both his hands to block it, but he had to step back.
Then he saw that Monik's eyes were playing with bright green color and he briefly looked at Tomen, who happily nodded. The moment he looked away, Monik made a one hundred and eighty degrees turn into a crouch and kicked him off balance. Ren hit the ground hard and now she was standing over him.

She heard Tomen’s applause: "Excellent Ren, I knew you can do it."
"What ?!" Monik didn’t understand.
"I should have provoked you, to woke up the Green dragon’s power in you," told her Ren from the ground. He thought, that she will be cool with that - he was just following Tomen’s instructions, who told him what will hurt her the most. But Monik was controlled by anger and the Green dragon’s power began to boil in her. She grabbed Ren by his T-shirt and pulled him up.
"You asshole," she hissed through her teeth. "Well, just so you know, I left, because I was tired of being always the second! At every stinking competition, I was defeated by my father's stellar student and by every defeat, I dropped in his eyes. It didn’t matter, how hard I tried! I was not embarrassing myself and although I came out of practice, I will certainly not let you offend me, even though it's part of your sick game!" And she threw him back on the ground.
She looked at Tomen with an expression full of hate and she went to the dojo, where she jumped over the rivulet. In that moment, she cross into the other dimension and she angrily walked away from park Folimanka.

When she passed through, Tomen was happily smiling, eyeing the place, where she disappeared.
"Excellent, she is really talented. She is listening to the dragon, without even realising it. Did you see, how beautifully she crossed back into her world?"
"And was it worth it? Now she will not want to come back... "muttered Ren, while dusting himself.
"You have to go after have her."
"Me? But she is mad at me and the Green dragon’s power is boiling in her - I'm not crazy.”
"Are you afraid?" teased him Tomen.

Ren went after Monik very unwillingly, but he caught up with her, before she left the park.
"Monik wait!" he shouted after her, but she ignored him. "Moni," he said softly and he grabbed her arm. "Come on, come back, I did not mean it that way..."
First, Monik’s face showed anger, but after a while she sighed exhaustedly and sat down on a nearby bench.
"I left, so I will not stay just the second one. I started to pay attention in school and I managed to get this far, to Charles University in Prague... And do you know, what was the first thing, that my father told me? That I'm not good enough, to finish this school. I realized, that for my father, nothing will be good enough. I thought, that it does not bother me anymore, that I stopped trying to prove him wrong... I guess, I was wrong.”

"Although, Ren didn’t fully understand what Charles University meant to her, he understood the essence of Monik’s words and he sat down next to her on the bench.
"I know, what it's like to be unappreciated by someone, you care about," he said quietly and Monik looked up.
Ren looked ahead and after a while he said: "Since childhood, I live in the shadow of my younger brother, heir to the Green dragon’s power. Although, he has not shown any talent in fight and he was always chasing women, he was the favorite one, the chosen one... and he did not have to lift a finger. I become the best fighter in my village, I went to the Gaa temple and passed the training. Despite all this, I could become only my brother's right hand... I stayed in his shadow,” Ren suddenly realized, that he confided in Monik more, than he wanted and quickly jumped to his feet.  
"If I teached my incapable brother to fight, I will manage to teach you too... and I will not use tricks to awaken the dragon’s power, you will manage even without it," and he reached for her hand.
Monika grinned at him, gave him her hand and he pulled her up. The bright green color faded from her eyes and they went back to the other dimension.

When they got through, Tomen happily jumped off the dojo’s stairs.
"I hope, that you are not mad at me," the boy looked at Monik with guilt in his eyes, "I just wanted you to know, how to tap into the dragon’s power that is in you."
"Oh, don’t worry, I can reach it... I only need to think of you, "she said pretending to be angry and her eyes flashed with bright green color.
Tomen dry swallowed and Ren heartily laughed, he liked that Monik intimidated a Bai. Monik heard his laugh for the first time - she was surprised, but she liked it.
"That's great," said the boy uncertainly. "Thus, we can embark on the second phase of training. The Green dragon is able to control the vital energy of everything, that does not have a mind of its own."
“Yes, Ren already mentioned this to me, but what exactly does that mean?”
"Take this rivulet, for its stream, no life energy is needed, so you would not be able to manipulate it. But trees are living, breathing..." he walked over to her, took her hand and dragged to the nearest tree. "Put your hand on the trunk, close your eyes and feel its energy."
Monika obeyed him, trying to listen, to feel something... but it didn’t work. Instead, a picture of large white eyes popped into her head and in shock, she pulled her hand away.
"What happened?" asked Tomen, when he saw her frightened face.
"I don’t know, I saw something," and she put her hand back on the tree.

Monik’s mind find itself in the middle of a dark nothingness.
Hello? she called into the space, but the sound didn’t spread, it only echoed in one place. She looked down, because she thought, that she saw something flash underneath. She squated and knocked on the floor - it was made of glass. She knocked again and the blackness beneath the floor rippled like water. She stared into nothingness of those waves and after a while, she saw those white eyes again - they belong to the Green dragon, who stared at her from the other side.    

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