Fins: A New Beginning

Chapter Twelve

      The next morning, I was woken by Kaito.
      "Your majesty, time to get up. You have another lesson today, and breakfast is ready." Kaito kindly stated. I sat up and put on the tunic Bagerah asked me to wear. It was lightweight, and made out of some kind of oceanic leather. Kaito escorted me down to Bagerah's hut.
    "Good morning boy." She greeted me. Her voice sounded raspier than usual. "Today, you'll be learning the proper swordsman technique with the help of Kaito." Kaito turned to me.
       "I picked up a few things from the soldiers during my time as an armor boy." Kaito said as he drew his sword. Kaito's sword looked uniform with the rest of the guards in the palace. "His Majesty, your father, gave me this sword when he appointed me to your advisor. Apparently, he had heard about my swordsmanship." He said with a grin. Kaito took his stance at the left end of the room, and I took to the right.
       "On my signal, Kaito is going to charge at you. You must dodge his attack and counter it." Bagerah commanded. She held up her hand and swung it down. Before I could react, Kaito had me pinned to the ground with his sword hovering above my throat.
       "Your majesty, you were supposed to dodge me." Kaito chuckled.
       "Kaito, you can just call me Dimitri. You don't have to be so formal all the time." I replied. He pulled the sword away and offered me his arm. "When you did you get so fast?"
       "Like I said," Kaito started. "I picked up a lot from the soldiers back when I was an armor boy. I always wanted to be a soldier, so I trained for it. Then you came along and needed some guidence." He paced his hand on my shoulder.
       "Okay boys, lets run it again." Bagerah beckoned us to our sides. Again, she lifted her arm up and swung it down. This time, I dodged Kaito's swing, but I wasn't fast enough to dodge another attack.  He hit me in the back with the butt of his sword, hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I fell to the ground and Kaito grabbed me from behind and put me in a light chokehold.
      "Better, but I got you again." Kaito released me from his grasp. "I think we should get you moving faster. Seems to me you still aren't used to having a tail, and you're too slow and clumsy."
       "Thanks Kaito, I really appreciate that." I said, feeling defeated.
       "Fine," Bagerah chimed in, "let's take him to training sector one. It's back to the basics."
       Kaito added on to her statement, "Normally, training sector one is used to teach children how to maintain their equilibrium with their tails, but I guess we will have to make an exception for you, since you've been living on land your whole life." I don't know if that was an insult, or if he was being genuine.
       We made or way to the training sector. Bagerah, Kaito and I spent the rest of the afternoon training, and I think I've gotten pretty good at balancing myself and the sword underwater. Bagerah thinks that I'm no where near perfect, and she's probably right, but she could at least give me credit for improvement.

Authors note: Man it has been a WHILE since I updated this story. Have this for funsies ig.