Earth Bound [On hold until I have internet]

A Surprise Visit

 Present day

 Ami took the weapon in her hands and examined every last detail of the Bo staff; it was entirely black and had gold designs engraved into its surface. She smiled to herself and stood opposite of the training dummy. She had been training ever since she was old enough to wield her first weapon and knew everything there was to this intricate piece of weaponry. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. Always be one with your weapon, it is an extension of your body and your mind, as one, you can do anything. That is what Master Don always told her, after all.

 Ami placed her hands directly in the center of the staff and began to swing it to either side of her petite body. Left… right… Left again. She did this until she gained enough momentum to sway her body with each stoke before striking out with enough force to rip through the training dummy; one strike to the chest and another to the side of the head. If her opponent were a real person, they would be either unconscious or dead (the latter was what she was aiming for). A buzzer rang once, adding yet another point of victory to her score: 38 to 0. “Master Don, I don’t see why I must train every day. These dummies are way below my level of fighting. Give me a challenge.”

Master Don smiled at his pupil while shaking his head, “Anastasia, my dear, you need to learn patience. Hasn’t seven years of schooling taught you this?” On her home planet of Cattius, children learn to be able to defend themselves at the young age of ten, due to the constant threat of being attacked by any of the surrounding hostile planets.

Ami snorted before shaking her head. “Patience is only necessary for live battle, Master. I need something that will test me or I’ll never get better.” She watched him as he stroked his blond beard considering his options. She waited patiently in the ring below as he jumped from his platform and into the arena next to her. Master Don walked over to the table full of weapons and picked up the remaining Bo staff.

 Slowly, he turned around and stood in a fighting stance with his dominant foot pointed toward her and the other toward the wall. Ami smiled to herself and took position in the same stance facing her master. “You think you can handle this old man?” He said, his light brown eyes dancing with excitement. “You’re hardly old, Master, you are only 43.” With that the assault began and Ami had to dodge blow after blow for quite a few minutes until she finally found an opening to make her attack.

 While his staff had swept to knock her hand away from her weapon, she danced to the left and swept her staff toward his feet and then quickly changed direction to hit a pressure point in his side. Master Don gasped and fell on one knee, obviously caught off guard by her sudden change in direction. To her amazement, he quickly recovered and struck her on the side she mistakenly left unguarded, making the wind in her lungs exit her body, which ultimately left her winded.

While Ami tried to catch her breath, Master Don struck again and again until she was weaponless and forced to forfeit. “Good match, Anastasia. Maybe next time I’ll let you win.” With that, he placed his Bo staff back onto the table of weapons and walked away from the arena, signaling the end of practice. As she began to walk away she heard one single person clapping.

Confused, she turned around only to see her sister sitting in the bleachers with a hint of a smirk on her face. When did she fly in from her home planet? “Nice job being beaten by The Don, Ami.” Raven said, her Hazel eyes shining with amusement as she jokingly mocked her little sister. “Oh, shut it, Raven, I’d like to see you take him on.” Raven laughed before gracefully flying to her sister’s side, “Maybe I will, who knows, I might even be the first to beat The Don in over twenty years.” Ami rolled her eyes at her sister and hovered beside her on their walk back to her palace. “Yeah, you keep dreaming on that one.”