Nend Ardhon Chronicles - Complete

Chapter 6 – Gymnastics

After recess at Byia’s school, she followed Guyi to the Gym for her first Gymnastics class. She was anxious because every single one of her classmates was so much bigger than her that if she had to do any activity with or against them it was going to be hard for her.

When she looked around at her classmates, she didn’t see Lodon Lunn, but the yellow-scale female, Nayima Fiet, entered the gym right after Guyi and whispered as she was passing by. “You framed Lodon, Baby Byia, but I am not so easy to get rid of. I will teach you not to mess with me; just wait and see.”

Byia frowned and clenched her fists, getting ready for the worst. Guyi noticed her stiffness and warned her. “Relax; she is not worth it. As big as she is, I bet she won’t even give you a fair fight. Let her be. Come, let’s find a place to sit and hear the Teacher.”

While they were waiting for the Teacher, Byia noticed Nayima Fiet whispering with the girls next to her while glancing in her direction.

The Teacher arrived, a big and muscular male who stared at them all with a big smile. “Hello, youngsters! It was so nice of you to join me in this Gym! So, I already looked at the list with your names, and I think everyone is here, minus one rude brat who got three days of suspension right on his first day! His partner in crime cried her eyes out and threw the guilt of what happened to the poor stupid. I think this will be a splendid class, as soon as I bend your stupid pride and spoiled upbringing, that is. For starters, let’s try a little game of tag, shall we? I want to evaluate your speed. So, who will be the first target… I mean, the first to run away from everyone else? Hehehe!”

Nayima Fiet raised her right arm. “What about Byia Calla? She is small; I bet she will be fast, and everyone else will have a lot of work to catch her!”

She then whispered to the girls next to her, “One or two broken bones shall teach her, right?”

Guyi disguised a smile, and Byia remained completely serious. The Teacher looked at her and asked, “You are Byia Calla, I suppose? Do you mind going first?”

Byia stared back at him, completely serious. “I guess. For how long I must escape and what will be my prize?”

“Prize? What do you mean by that?”

Byia pointed at her classmates. “The Teacher expects me to escape all these big Water-Dragons, risking my life in the process and not receiving some kind of prize? That doesn’t seem fair.”

“What? You are only going to do a game of tag; I don’t see how it can be considered life-threatening. Oh, I understand; you are too small to survive a strong bump from one of them. Okay, if you can escape for fifteen minutes, I will give you a prize. What do you want?”

Byia pointed at Nayima Fiet. “An unarmed fighting practice against her. I must show my classmates that it’s a bad idea to underestimate me.”

Nayima Fiet muffled laughter, and she almost jumped with excitement. “I think it’s an excellent idea, Teacher! That is, if one of us does not catch her!”

“Okay, I can agree with that, if that yellow girl doesn’t mind.”

That was Guyi’s limit. He exploded in never-ending laughter, with everyone looking at him, puzzled. The Teacher frowned and asked, “Why are you laughing? Care to explain to the rest of us what you find so funny?”

Guyi made a huge effort to stop and answered, “Hahaha! You are all going for a nice surprise! She totally got you, Nayima Fiet! This is going to be so funny!”

The Teacher tilted his head and spoke. “I don’t understand the joke about it. You are also going to try to catch her.”

Guyi slowly shook his head. “No, I will pass. It will be a waste of time. I could never catch her, ever since we were two Tides-old. I wish everyone good luck because you are going to need it! I suppose it will be a proper game of tag, with Byia using Magic to help her and everyone else can’t use any. She is so going to win this!”

Everyone turned to face Byia and saw her stretching her limbs and tail while beginning to glow, getting ready for the next fifteen minutes, where she would use her speed and Magic to escape her classmates. She lowered her body and twisted her tail like a screw, sticking it against the ground.

The Teacher disguised a smile because he realized that the little female was not going to be easy prey for the others. He raised his right arm and said, “Everyone! Get ready! Go!”

Byia immediately released a powerful light around her, blinding everyone for a few seconds before disappearing. Guyi had his eyes closed as soon as the Teacher raised his arm, and he was now smiling at the blinded classmates. “One for Byia! Go get her, everyone. What are you all waiting for?”

When Nayima Fiet could focus her sight again, she saw Byia seated on the ground in front of the Teacher, with a weird smile on her face. Nayima lost her composure and swam straight at her, calling out to the others, “Let’s go get that brat!”

Byia remained completely still until the last moment, and when Nayima’s claws were about to get her, Byia rolled to the left, and Nayima crashed against the Teacher’s legs, who had a hard time keeping his balance.

For the next fifteen minutes, everyone tried to catch Byia without success. She would either evade one classmate and make them crash against each other, blind them with her Magic or use Magic to push her to gain even more speed and escape at the last second.

When the time ended, Byia was near the ceiling of the Gym, looking down at her exhausted classmates. The Teacher called her out to join him and smiled at his students. “Now that was fun, right? You are still up for the unarmed practice, Byia? You don’t need a rest?”

“What for? I am not tired. I normally do this for an entire day against my brother and Guyi. This was just a warm-up. I don’t know if Nayima Fiet is ready or not, because she seems beaten and about to die.”

Nayima was indeed tired, having a hard time remaining standing. She took a few deep breaths and gave the Teacher her best fake smile. “I am up for it, Teacher. If Baby Byia is not tired, it would be rude of me to say I am.”

The Teacher frowned. “That is a very rude nickname to call someone who totally obliterated the entire class. I think you may need to lower your head a little; it’s too big for my taste. Byia, go to that place. You, the yellow one, go there. Begin when ready.”

Byia made her usual stance, with her body lowered and her tail twisted, stuck to the ground, and her frontal claws pointing forward.

She called out to Nayima with an inscrutable face. “Come to me, Nayima; this won’t take long.”

“No, it won’t, Baby Byia. I will give you an excellent lesson!”

Nayima rushed in Byia’s direction, and she used her tail to jump to the left while grabbing Nayima’s left paw.

With a gentle push to the ground, Nayima crashed her face on the ground, Byia placed one front paw on the back of Nayima’s neck, pulling Nayima’s left arm back with her left paw, using her right leg to pull Nayima’s right leg back, and her tail wrapping Nayima’s tail, pulling it back as well.

Byia kept pulling Nayima’s arm, leg, and tail, making her scream in pain. She then whispered in Nayima’s left ear, “I am not a scared female, you moron. I will hurt you a lot if you dare to go against me again.”

Nayima rolled over, and Byia pretended to not have time to get away and pulled back Nayima’s limbs. The sound of bones cracking filled the gym, with Nayima screaming her lungs out.

Byia let her go and pretended to be surprised while looking at the Teacher. “I wasn’t expecting that she would try to move! Better to call out the School’s Healer, right?”

The Teacher ordered one student to go get the Healer while staring puzzled at the innocent look on Byia’s face.

Guyi pretended to be worried and went to Nayima and her friends who were around her and whispered, “You girls need to be very careful from now on. Byia sees you all as targets now, and she will take you down one by one if needed. She had plenty of time to prevent Nayima from breaking her bones, but she did it on purpose. Think very well about your next action, Nayima Fiet, because if she doesn’t get you, I will.”

Guyi quickly swam to Byia and faked a worried look on his face, leaving behind the screaming and crying Nayima Fiet and a dumbfounded group of young females. He placed one paw on Byia’s left shoulder and spoke, “Don’t worry, Byia, that wasn’t your fault. Everyone saw that if Nayima gave up, that wouldn’t happen. She made the wrong move in that inescapable position, and that kind of happened.”

Byia nodded with a pretended worried look towards her opponent, and the Teacher disguised a smile. He bent down and asked, “That was a good move you made there, little one. Who taught you how to fight like that?”

“My dad did, Sergge Calla. I… I mean, I should have avoided this; my dad would scold me so much if he heard about what just happened…”

“Sergge Calla, the famous Explorer that disappeared during a rescuing mission some Tides ago? That Sergge Calla?”

Byia nodded, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Yes, it was him. I promised him that I wouldn’t misuse his teachings, but…”

The Teacher continued whispering, “I understand; I was once the smallest male in my class, and I was also bullied and threatened a lot. I will let this slide just this time, but don’t turn this into a habit. There is a very thin line between a victim and a bully. You don’t want to become a bully, right?”

Byia strongly shook her head. “Never, Teacher. You can rest assured.”

“Good girl. Now, put on your best worried face. We can’t let anyone find out you did this on purpose, can we?”

Byia made a serious face. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Teacher. It was clearly an accident.”

“Right… Hehehe! Okay, leave everything to me; I will cover your back, just this once.”

When the School’s Healer arrived and was already healing Nayima Fiet, the Teacher explained what happened, with the students saying that it was all a freaky accident and that it was Nayima’s fault for not giving up. Byia was too small, and she didn’t have the strength or the speed to let go of Nayima before the bones broke.

The Healer took one glance at Byia and whispered to the Gymnastics Teacher, “She can’t be as weak as she seems, or she couldn’t break all these bones. Have her under a close watch, will you?”

The Teacher frowned and whispered back, “I don’t understand what you are saying; everyone saw that it was clearly an accident.”

“Yeah, right…”