The two figures stood in the tropical clearing. Both wore shorts and thin, small tops. The athletic teens did have some differences in their clothing though. The blonde near-human was barefoot and wore small training gauntlets. The Chiss wore wrappings on her feet and had longer, thicker gauntlets. The near-human was lighter and thinner in appearance, shorter. The chiss was stockier and had more mass to her. Both sweated from the Archais heat as they circled around each other, sizing each other up. They were sparring.
After a moment of trying to read each other, the Chiss darted forward, trying to charge in a mighty frontal attack. But the near-human swerved aside and kicked her ankle. As the Chiss staggered, the near-human aimed a kick for her back. But the Chiss easily recovered. She turned and grabbed her leg, pulling it in an attempt to off balance her. The smaller opponent fell.
The Chiss smirked is triumph, "Easy. Looks like I won this time, Elise."
Elise coughed from the cloud of dirt they kicked up. She pulled herself up, not bothering to brush herself off, "I was going easy on you."
Elise had been joking. The Chiss was not amused. She entered a battle ready stance once again. Bouncing lightly on her feet, fists raised before her face. "Then don't."
Elise sighed, placing a hand on her hip, "So blunt, Mevia..."
Mevia frowned. "This isn't some game. This is training. I thought my older sister would know that."
"Of course I know that!" Elise retorted as she entered a similar stance to Mevia's, "I just also like teasing my lil sis once in a while."
The two started circling each other once again. Squaring each other off, they bounced lightly on their feet, reading each other's postures and changing stances. Eventually, Mevia was the one to make the first move again, aiming a flurry of heavy kicks at her chest. Elise rapidly blocked, digging her feet into the ground to balance herself against Mevia's heavy strength. Elise jumped back as Mevia leapt in with a punch. The air whooshed in response to the heavy blows, causing Elise's hair to ruffle. Mevia aimed a roundhouse kick, but Elise rolled over and aimed a sweeping kick at her feet. Mevia jumped and aimed a kick to the face. Elise's eyes widened as she barely rolled away. Practice matches outlaw facial attacks! I thought that was a given!
Elise jumped up, ducking away from another Mevia heavy punch. Mevia was putting way too much weight into her blows, lacking proper balance. Elise aimed a couple quick hits at her chest, landing them all, and ducked away. She swerved out and back in again. She blocked another kick and pushed it aside as her flat hand rapidly hit her thighs. She pulled away. Mevia used the momentum for another roundhouse, but didn't even aim right. She was off balance again as well. Elise finally aimed a final kick to her back, knocking her onto the ground.
As Mevia sputtered, Elise wiped the sweat from her forehead. "You're strong, y'know that? You're powerful. But you don't balance enough. Your footwork is fine, but you hit too hard and let yourself get sloppy."
As Mevia panted on the ground, black hair covering her face, Elise continued. "And I apologize for not clarifying sparring rules before we started, but you did aim for my face. Usually, it is a rule not to aim for the face in pra-"
"Shut up!" Mevia turned to look at her, red eyes alight like an angry forge. She rose to her feet, growling, "You're not my boss or my mom! Don't tell me what to do!"
She turned her heel, scuffing dirt up as she stalked away.
The outburst... scared Elise. She should have known. She knew Mevia had some anger issues. But the outburst still had caught her off guard. Her heart pounded in the training yard. Mevia had a sketchy past, compared to her. Elise was born into her family, but Mevia had suffered previous young traumas before being adopted in as a Foundling. Elise sighed, placing her hand on her heart. Surely, Mevia held no hard feelings towards her. She was just taking out some stress on her... right?
Elise turned a trudged towards the stone where she left her pack. She sat down and pulled out her Medallion Chains out of her pack. She brushed a finger along one of the medallions. Mevia was one of her inspirations for joining the Novanian Shamans. She wanted to help people like her. Scared, angry, suffering. She wanted to save them. She reached back and pulled her tied back hair down. As the wind blew the blonde strands around, Elise looked up to the sky. How could she be a shaman when she had not seen the red flags of anger in her own sister?
