Breathe!

High up in the sky the moon stood there in all its glory. Its light beaming on two individuals treading through the snow, one shorter than the other.

This was Shin and his family member.

'How is he moving so fast? Is he walking?' Shin asked himself watching his teacher walk through the thick snow easily and swiftly as if he was running.

No matter how fast Shin ran he was never able to catch up, it brought back memories.

While Shin was in thought he didn't notice that they were going higher up the mountain.

Sometime later his teacher stopped moving and turned towards him. "Run back down the mountain"

'Run down the mountain? You're telling that to a kid who's coughed up blood and no medical treatment..' Shin scanned his surroundings and noticed they were extremely high up the mountain, if this was before he might have been able to do it but in his shape it was close to impossible.

While Shin looked around his teacher had already unsheathed his sword and was sprinting towards him.

Feeling something was off when a chill went down his spine he jumped out of the way, an attack inches away from him swooped by. "Don't make me repeat myself, I said run to the bottom of the mountain, you have until sunrise"

"Why?" Shin's legs were aching from the trip up the mountain and now he had to run back down.

"Didn't I tell you not to make me repeat myself?" He started walking towards Shin preparing his sword for another swing.

"Damnit!" Shin turned around and began to run as fast as he could down the mountain, this was new territory for Shin, he's never been so far up the mountain his entire life.

Immediately after sprinting away Shin felt some intent aiming towards his legs. So with difficulty he jumped, only to hit a dead log that came out of nowhere that knocked the air out of his lungs and sent him rolling on the ground.

Along with his injuries from before he started coughing heavily and gasping for air, but no matter how many times he tried to breathe, the oxygen was almost none existent.

His head was spinning, he felt sick, and his lungs and throat felt as if they were being stabbed by millions of tiny needles. 'I can't breathe!'

His vision began to darken as he looked up into the night sky. 'Is this really how I'm going to die?'

As if on cue he remembered something his teacher had told him earlier, Breathing, he didn't know what it exactly meant since the explanation was quite vague but he assumed breathing was a key.

Shin quickly began to calm himself, his breathing rate slowing down, and finally, he was able to breathe once more.

He quickly hopped back onto his feet and ran with everything he had, trying his best to keep the flow with his breathing.

As he ran and hopped around the slashes that came after him, he felt as if his senses were sharpening. The damage he was taking from his surroundings was becoming less and less.

After an unknown amount of time, Shin finally made it to the bottom of the mountain covered in dirt and panting heavily. "I did it.."

His teacher came a few seconds after him. "Congrats, I didn't expect you to get the hang of it so fast, but we're just getting started. Back up the mountain"

"..."