Kadian

The Great Flash

Regardless of how often it happened over the course of the next month, the villagers found it concerning when Kadian returned from the forest full of cuts and bruises. Mohassen had worked with many up and coming young men in the past, but most didn't return looking as Kadian did.

"I know what I am doing. Trust that I am not hurting her," he told anyone who questioned the state of Kadian's body. Mohassen himself was actually quite pleased with the way things were going- Kadian was picking up things much more rapidly than he would have ever imagined. She absorbed everything she was shown and told, and learned how to properly execute techniques in a short amount of time after the first two weeks of training.

That did not stop Elder Zee from growing wary. "Listen child, I never knew da boy to be abusive, but if he's beating on you, you need to tell me!" After an excruciating hour, Kadian assured her that he wasn't.

In fact, Kadian was hurting herself. Most of her injuries could have been easily prevented. People assumed that every nick and gash came from Mohassen, but a lot of them came from the risks that Kadian would often take during training. She held off on asking questions during their sessions, but that didn't stop her from thinking 'What if?'

Instead of asking Mohassen "What happens if I try to move to the left instead of the right?", she would do so purposely. Or, instead of trying to imagine how to recover from a particular blow, she'd purposely allow herself to get hit until she found an efficient way to come back from it. When she trained, she always had real life in mind, and as Mohassen had said, things in real life are often unexpected. Because of this, she was not discouraged when she came home battered at the end of the day, but proud. The only thing that bothered her was walking all the way to the hotel for a shower at the end of everyday. The walk only lasted fifteen minutes, but felt grueling after running around the woods all day.

"Why don't you just wash yourself like everyone else does? We do not go to the hotel, and we are clean. It is almost offensive- people have started to talk about you," Mohassen told Kadian one evening before she had a chance to head off reserve.

The villagers talking about her didn't surprise her, but the word 'offensive' caught her attention.

"I...I don't know. It's not at all personal. I'm just not comfortable with it, honest to God," Kadian admitted.

She knew how the villagers bathed- first they gathered a basket of water from the lake (no one bathed in the lake because it was the water source.) Then, they dragged the basket down to the far, far right side of the lake for privacy, and stripped. They would strip down, submerge themselves in their basket of water, and lather up with soap they had brought. Afterwards, they would take the basket to the pond, which was on the far, far left side of the lake, and empty the water into it.

The method itself was not problematic (besides being far too tedious for Kadian), but the nudity was. It made sense, because Kadian didn't know anyone who bathed with their clothes on, but it was something she was used to doing behind closed doors. Kadian's skin managed to turn beet red when she had first walked by a woman casually cleaning herself in the pond. She nodded and smiled at Kadian, but Kadian stood there mortified before fleeing. It happened several more times before Kadian decided to take an altogether different route that avoided the pond whenever she roamed the woods.

Mohassen accepted Kadian's explanation. "It is because Americans shower in their bathrooms, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's exactly why. I know it's normal to do it outside here, but I wouldn't feel right."

"Are you afraid?"

Kadian shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't say afraid, but...maybe I would, actually."