Child Soldier

Chapter 11; Brothers

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Within Tommy's four obsidian walls the wind blew quietly, swaying the leaves on the trees and brushing through the grass blades. It caressed Tommy's bare torso and face where he lay against the ground. The boy's legs hung submerged in the water of a small pond he'd dug out for himself several days prior.

Tommy watched the clouds as they slowly drifted by in the light blue sky above him. It was a pretty day with perfect weather. Not too hot and not too cold. He'd washed himself up in the pond after having finished another round of sparring, and was now resting in just shorts.

"Your posture is shit," Dream had told Tommy the first day of training. Tommy could hear Dream's voice clear in his head as he thought back on it, mulling over the memories.

"You need to steady yourself. Like that you'll fall too easy, your knees will buckle," Dream had been circling Tommy, observing his stance. When he told Tommy the last bit, he kicked down on the boy's calve. Just as Dream said, his knees buckled and he fell. He was able to catch himself on his sword as he thrust it into the ground but still angrily looked back at the man.

"What the hell!" Tommy shouted. Dream smirked at him.

"I told you," Dream said knowingly.

It was a series of corrections.

Working on strengthening his body and mind. He needed to learn to be patient. Learning to calculate his next moves and predicting the opponents.

"You rush in hoping for the best. Swinging without a thought," Dream told Tommy, after the boy had gotten a sharp kick to the chest when having attempted to lunge at Dream. Tommy was on the ground breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his brow.

How much he'd just love to punch that smug smile off Dream's face right then.

"You need to think, Tommy, not just throw your weapon around," Dream approached the boy and reached a hand down, helping Tommy back up to his feet. "Let's go again."

That day had been long and hard, but by the end of it Tommy felt like he was really learning and it wasn't all just an excuse for Dream to beat the crap out of him. Surprisingly actually, Dream had hit him very little during their sparring. The times that he did, Tommy could tell Dream was holding back his strength and not hitting any harder than necessary.

After they finished- Tommy not managing to even get a scratch on Dream- the man had Tommy remove his armor.

"Do I really have to?" Tommy had complained with a frustrated groan and Dream nodded.

"If you ever win you'll get to keep it," Dream told him with a chuckle. Tommy let out an even louder groan at that.

"But- but why?" Tommy looked down at his gear and weapon lying in the hole in front of him. He took a step away when Dream placed his arm in front of him, easing him back so the recoil of the TNT wouldn't knock Tommy off his feet.

"Tommy. There will be a day when losing a battle will mean losing everything," Dream told him. The fuse on the explosive lit and then tossed into the hole. Tommy covered his ears and winced, looking away as a loud 'Boom!' reverberated through the ground beneath them.

Tommy pulled himself away from the memories and squinted up at the sky above himself where he lay. The sun had begun to peek out from behind the passing clouds and the blond boy shut his eyes, letting the feeling of the wind relax him again.

Between the training and farming that Tommy had begun to work on; the boy had been working hard on finding some diamonds. Which felt nearly impossible. At one point in his search he'd managed to find the bottom of the obsidian box, which had thrown him into a panic.