Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

08

With me barely keeping myself level in the air, and my brother trying his best to get his anger under control, the match devolved in us both focusing on our own problems for a while - at least until I managed to set myself down on the ground again without landing on my face.

My brother immediately spat some resin at me, which stuck my right forehoof to the ground. I stared between it and him as he made his attack on me again, and moved my other hooves to prepare for his impact. As he hit me, I could feel the pull of the resin on my right forehoof, and I simply spun around a little - as much as the joints in my stuck foreleg would allow me.

My brother skidded to a stop behind me while I pulled myself back together, and turned to face me with a confused look on his face.

I moved to stare at him with a smirk. "Did you forget what our teachers told us in the other room already? This stuff is like cement; it hardens and sticks stuff together. Obviously I'm not going to get out of this ring any time soon now," I chided him.

"That's what I was going to say," our current tutor remarked calmly. "What this does mean is that sister has a harder time evading your attacks now. Don't stop attacking her just because she can't flutter away."

I gave her a quick sarcastic "thank you for that," before I spun around my forehoof again to evade my brother's next assault. While he was skidding to a stop, I tapped the resin covering my right forehoof with my left to see if I could chip away at it. It was doable if I had the time in-between his attacks.

"If I remember right; spitting softer resin on it won't do anything. Spittle is water, right?" I asked of the Changeling to the side, and she gave a nod.

"Correct, but do you have hours to let it work its way through that block?" she asked in return.

I jumped aside as much as I could as my brother came too close for comfort again, and continued tapping at the resin with my free hoof.

"Of course you could get out of it far easier if you knew how to use your magic," our tutor remarked casually, her horn lighting up with a green glow. "It's a shame you'll have to get to the next room over to learn that."

I danced around my brother's next attack, hearing him pant from excertion.

"Well, obviously!" I called back with my own anger flaring up. "And you're not going to tell me how to blast this resin off my leg while I'm here, are you?"

Sister grinned in my direction, but then brother spat another blob of resin my way, and the only way I could evade it was to roll over on my back, pulling my leg in an awkward position as a result.

Pain shot through my limb as I rolled over, and I gasped out from the ferocity of it!

"Hold!" sister called out quickly, a green glow enveloping me to both stand me upright and release me from the resin. My right forehoof was sticking out at an odd angle from the rest of my leg, and I dared not put any weight on it.

"Matron!" the Changeling tutor called out, using her magic to free my brother's wings from their resin prison on the side.

Another Changeling came rushing up to our ring, and used her own magic to pull my right foreleg up. She spat some soft resin on my leg, used her magic to snap my hoof back in its proper place, and then spat hardening resin around it and the softer resin until I was wearing a mockup of a cast.

It all happened within but a moment, but the other Hatchlings had stopped their own fights to come have a look at what was going on in our ring before it was over. The 'Matron' released my hoof and told me to set it on the ground, and I carefully did as instructed. The resin cast caught most of my weight, but I did feel a small shoot of pain go up through it nonetheless.

"It's not broken, but she'll have to keep her weight off it for a day or two," the Matron told our tutor sister, and I hung my head a bit.

"Well, this fight is obviously over," sister sighed, then addressed the group of onlookers. "Go back to your own, will you?"

As the group dispersed, my brother walked up to my side and gave a careful nuzzle at my shoulder. "Hey, I didn't mean to break anything... Are you okay?"

I gave a slow nod at his question. "Yeah, but I guess I'm fulfilling this whole idea of us being weaker than the rest here, aren't I?"

Sister punched me in the chest at that, and I stumbled back a bit on, mostly, three hooves, looking up at her in surprise!

"Hey, you can take a beating without dropping down and crying like a newborn babe. You're a lot tougher than I gave you credit for," she decided, giving me a wink. "Your brother, on the other hoof, still has to prove himself. Go have a seat next to the ring here. Matron coated your hoof, so all you can do is wait for it to heal."

Matron gave a nod to that. "Let's sit a little away from the ring. Knowing sister, brother has a tough fight ahead of him."

"What? H...hey!" Brother protested as Matron and I made our way out of the ring. Each step with my cast leg made me wince, so I opted to put as little weight on it for as little time as possible, making it to the edge of the ring with some effort.

"Oh, don't whine; I'll take it easy on you," sister chuckled, waiting for me to get out of the danger zone before taking position on one side of the ring. "Come on, kid; shove me out."

I sat down where Matron instructed me to, and she looked my leg over again in case she missed something while the fight between brother and sister started in earnest.

From the get go it was clear the fight was heavily in favor of sister. Brother's inexperience was a stark contrast to sister's agile movements. Where brother made a grand spectacle of himself, moving all over the place, sister only moved when she had to evade him. Most of the time she just stood watching brother tire himself out.

Had I made use of my wings in both attack and defense, sister's lay calmly against her chitin plating. Had she used her magic before to show off, get rid of our resin, and pull me off the floor after I awkwardly pulled my muscles where they had not wanted to go, now she was using it to juggle a couple of hard resin balls she'd spat out in front of her.

Brother was letting his emotions get the better of him at this display of utter indifference toward him. She was teasing him and he fell for the bait without a chance to fight it. Before long he was firing resin at her while trying to ram her, but sister had little problems evading them with a well-aimed spat of resin herself where she could not move out of the way quickly enough otherwise.

Soon enough brother ended up standing at the edge of the ring, panting heavily, clearly exhausted from the ordeal. At this point sister finally moved herself; walking up to him and just using a single hoof to push him over. He rolled out of the ring as a result, and remained resting on the floor where he landed - utterly spent.

"The trick to fighting someone who can only attack is to let them tire themselves out," sister remarked, using her magic to clean the ring and surrounding area of all the resin that was sprayed about. "Use their emotions against them; You get far too riled up, little brother. You can't think when you're angry and make mistakes as a result."

Brother made no effort to protest, but I did feel the need to speak up. "But what if you're well-matched, like brother and me? We have about the same build and stamina, from the looks of things. If I hadn't sprained my ankle... wait, I did sprain my ankle, right? This is my ankle?" I wondered, turning to Matron who gave a nod.

"Yes, it's your ankle, and yes you did sprain it," she agreed.

"Okay, well, so, if I had not sprained my ankle, I could have chipped away at the resin and brother would have had to deal with me flying about again as before. We would have tired each other out without really getting much of a successful attack in, right?" I continued.

Sister walked on over, using her magic to lift brother off the ground and deposit him on the ground near me. "You were both too eager to push each other out to think much of tactics there," she stated.

"While little brother here seems to think everything can be solved by spitting resin and ramming things with his head, you focused too much on trying to learn how to fly while in a battle," sister pointed out. "Both are bad decisions on your end, and I'm going to have to have you do the fight over again once your ankle has had time to heal."

"Wait," brother started, pushing himself up to a sitting position, but sister shook her head.

"No, I've made up my mind; I want to see you two get a fair fight in before you go on to learn magic and flying," sister decided. "Go get some rest in, go over what you've already learned, and come back in a few days when you're both ready to spar again. Matron will take you to the common room and I'll be over once we're done here."

"I can't help but feel like I've just proven the other Changelings right about us being weaker than the rest of you," I sighed, to which sister snorted.

"Don't make me punch you again, little sister," she scoffed. "Ignore the rest. It's more of an in-joke than anything. It helps you try to prove yourself, doesn't it?"

"I guess so; I do want to prove you guys wrong," I agreed.

"Don't tell the rest I told you this, but we're actually pretty excited about this whole thing, right Matron?" sister trusted to us.

Matron gave a nod in return. "Oh, yes; it's only been a short while now since we received visitors from the other world, and to have you come into our Hive to strengthen it is a big deal. I've even heard rumours our Queen is thinking of ways to take over the ponylands again, but that's still very hush-hush."

Sister coughed uneasily at that. "Hush-hush does mean we can't exactly talk about it, Matron."

"Ah, right," Matron realized, looking away.

"I think I can speak for most of us ex-humans when I can say this is all very overwhelming for the lot of us," I suggested, to which brother gave an agreeing hum.

"Well, you have two days of respite to get used to it before I'll have to retest you and toss you over to the magic teachers," sister chuckled. "Come to me if you have any questions, alright?"

I gave her a nod. "Sure, just as long as you won't punch me for saying stupid things."

"I can't promise that," sister laughed. "Go with Matron, you both. I'll see you again in a little bit and we can chat more openly then."

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Hmmm. Not a strong fighter, the subtle tactics may be better for her, intelligence should be the focus.