TRAINING

The goblin continued to study and copy the images in the cave until he finally came to an understanding of them. The more he learned, the better his body became. He was now able to run faster than before his fall into the cave for most of the day. Training his stamina and strength to make sure he was able to follow the movements of the images accurately. One meal each day, each with a different effect on his body and mind. Some meals allowed him to stay up longer while others gave him the energy to focus better.

During the day he would exercise, stretch and do breathing sessions to help the time pass. At night he would study the walls as much as possible and copy the movements as shown. One night, he was able to follow a line of moves from the wall to completion. In the morning he chose to try it for practice to memorize it all day. Over and over, until he could do the movement from the heart and pick up the pace with it; until the sun set that night and left him in the dark again. He practiced and practiced until he noticed the move he was trying out was gone from the wall. The goblin panics and runs to the wall. The images were completely gone.

Did I learn it to completion? … Maybe I can try more to mix it with the others I'm learning.

The goblin starts learning a new line of images with this thought in mind. When he understood the idea behind each move, it didn't take him long to memorize the movement. The next morning the movement was gone. He continued to learn more movements and practiced the old to make sure he didn't forget them; until they were engraved into his body.

He did this until most of the movements were gone. It took him a long time to memorize them. The few that were left left him puzzled. They seemed to require something, but he didn't understand what. He decides to continue practicing what he knows for now.

Many days pass this way; the goblin ate the food given, practiced the movements he learned and continued his breathing. One day the offering only consisted of one large ball. One big enough to confuse for a large pearl. He didn't know what to do with it so he left it alone for a few days. The large ball hadn't moved since, for many days after and the goblin was now too hungry to do anything since the offerings stopped. He had no choice but to eat what he was given. So he does. It was very bitter and he couldn't bite into it at all. Despite how soft and malleable it seemed in his hands he couldn't make it any easier to swallow. He takes a deep breath and holds his nose to eat the ball in one gulp. The bitter taste was quickly overpowered by a shot of pain that awakened a sense of uncontrollable fear inside him. One he felt the moment he was thrown into the hole; an absolute fear of death.

The goblin screams, flails, and scratches at his body until he bled. Every scratch was instantly healed painfully as if something was replacing his skin. Finally, the goblin couldn't take the pain anymore and chose to slam his head into the floor over and over until he passed out from the bloodlose.

The goblin wakes again and finds himself on the platform when he remembers being on the floor. His head gets filled with a sharp pain that makes him dizzy. He tumbles off the platform and lays down until the migrain passes. He looks over the platform and scans the room. It was dark everywhere. It was night.

How long was I out for…?

"UGHR!"

The goblin started to feel an uncomfortable burning come from every part of his body that made him start to sweat as if he were in a desert. The goblin starts to pant heavily to catch his breath as he walks around the platform to see the glowing images on the wall. It was still the same, but the images were actually moving in the same way he practiced them. Including the breathing images that had the strange flow in it. The flow suddenly looked like the shape of a dragon with its wings open ready to fly away. The image suddenly attacks him and scares him onto the floor, forcing him to come back to his senses. Everything stopped moving except for the flow on the meditating body.

The flow on the body was now red and circulating through the body like blood in the shape of a dragon. The heat he felt in his body suddenly started to move similarly but it was inconsistent and painful.

… Do I make the pain follow that path? With my breathing?

The goblin looks around the platform and sees nothing in the room. He decides to sit on the platform and tries to control the pain's direction. It was difficult to understand but he managed to find a way to breathe through the pain and make it move the way it should to some extent. Many days and nights passed him by as he did this. He continued to breathe through the pain, slowly guiding it through the passages in his body when he felt it start to fill his lower stomach and pass through his abdomen to fill his chest next. He lets them fill then allows it to flow to his head. As soon as he feels his head fill he takes a deep breath and exhales the pain out of his system as a deep red, thick, fiery smoke that escapes him and surrounds him until he feels the smoke at the tip of every nail. He takes another deep breath and the smoke rushes through his fingers and toes, through each joint in his body until everything connects with a smooth flow circulating his body.

The pain was gone and replaced with a burning feeling that gave him an unnatural feeling of aggressive rage. He continued to breathe through it until he could calm down again. The flow finally cools inside him as he feels something else enter his body through the tips of his nails. He lets it enter and it cools his body all the way through and helps him calm down better. He was finally able to open his eyes to the sun filling the cave around him and the fresh smell of food. The goblin decides to rest for a while before eating and takes a nap.

The cave is now dyed in red light from the afternoon sun. The goblin wakes up and sees the food is still fresh and warm. He eats and decides to meditate to recall the feeling from before. His body started to circulate a fiery path through it, but it wasn't as aggressive as before. He lets the warmth continue to flow with his breathing until it gets dark. Once night came, the goblin stood and looked at the last images on the wall. The movements on the wall were now in red. For some reason he knew he could learn them better now, so he practiced until he got them right. He still didn't seem to understand what he was meant to do until he got frustrated with the same movements over and over and decided to stop for a while.

The following night, the goblin tries the movements again with more energy. At some point, he started to show signs of advancing in his knowledge. His kicks and punches started to shoot puffs of fiery smoke. When he finally notices this change, he starts to make more heavy and aggressive moves. The harder he hit, the stronger the smoke came out. He starts to think of what he wanted to fight. The first thought that came to mind was the goblin horde that beat him, abused him, and threw him away into this dark, lonesome hole. The horde appears before his eyes and he starts to feel enraged and pained from the betrayal he felt within.

The goblin fights the horde back and one by one, they fall and crumble into nothing. Each strike was a blazing smoke that destroyed everything in his way. Stronger, faster, harder, each strike destroying his foes one by one until he makes it to the leader, the strongest of the horde. He takes no time to hesitate in attacking them, but unlike the others, this one fought back. Using what he learned in the cave he dodges and blocks the attacks of the leader, struggling to keep up with their moves, his anger clouding his judgment and forcing him to step away from them after taking a beating. He finally catches his breath and looks at the leader, frustrated that his actions weren't enough. The leader laughs at him and taunts him to continue.

The goblin stares at the leader for a long time, until he realizes that being angry about the leader wasn't helping, but it was fueling his new power. He closes his eyes and breaths for a while to circulate the warmth before going back into the fight. He was now calmer and more focused on the fight rather than the leader he saw. They fought for many days and nights without rest until the goblin finally reached his limit, but he refused to stop until he knew what he needed to do. How he should learn to control his power. He lets anger take over and the power surges inside him letting him run wild, but if he's calm, he can control the fight. He needed the anger to increase his power, but the collection to use it properly.

The goblin stops fighting for a while to think while the leader simply taunts him into annoyance. The annoyance started to fuel the power in flickers, giving him an idea. Instead of trying to control the anger with calmness, he chose to let the anger take his nature as a goblin. He was smart, cunning, deceitful, and from what he was once told, uncaring and cruel. He lets himself get annoyed, but doesn't do anything and only stares at the taunting leader. The leader finally stops taunting him and rushes him out of nowhere. The goblin takes the chance to counter the attack with his own and without holding back, without anger, without care for what he intended to do, he sends an elbow into the center of the leaders shoulders, cracking the body in one of its weak points.

The leader tumbles back and stands, now weakened from the goblins first direct attack. The goblins face was unchanged and eerily calm. The goblin attacks the leader with a rush and the leader blocks as if expecting his next move, but the goblin feigns the attack and uses a different movement on them, forcing them to trip as he grapples their legs and forces them to bend in a way that was unnatural for anyone. He destroys the leader's legs and mercilessly attacks the back again, stomping on them until every part of the leader is a pile of rubble and dust. The fight was over. The goblin was calm. His training finally ended as the sun rose over the skylight of the cave.

The goblin looks to the sky and sees a shadow of a large body with wings sore through the skylight above. The goblin wanted out of the cave. He looked around and saw nothing left to learn. A few bells, a staff, and a scimitar placed on a pile of clothing and light leather armor were all left on the platform in the cave. He puts everything on so naturally that it makes him nervous. The goblin looks around the cave once more before focusing his new power on his back to make a smoky red set of wings that allows him to jump high into the air and out of the cave. He nearly trips and falls back in but he catches himself and steps away from the hole. The wings instantly vanish and sucks the energy out of him, making him fall back and lay on the ground to rest. He could tell he wouldn't be using that ability often, since it takes a lot out of him. He could feel the soft grass under his back. The window brushing past his ears and tickling his nose. The warmth of the sunlight beating down on his skin like a warm blanket.

… I'm out… I'm free… I'm free…

The goblin stays in the grass and falls asleep in the sun for a while, basking in the light until the day becomes night.