Still Not Enough
Pow. Pow.
My fist kept colliding with the dummy.
Nothing was changing.
It felt as though all my work was for nothing. No matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I trained—I was not improving. Not even a little.
All I did was run.
Agile didn't trust me to perform a single mission without being guided.
I didn't mind her commands.
I really didn't.
But sometimes, I just wanted to be trusted to do things on my own without being guided through everything.
I had that control in Ma-Oktava. Not anymore, though. Ma-Oktava was gone. My eyes fluttered shut, recalling Saktak*.
The simmering heat against my arms lingered as if I stood on the surface of Ma-Oktava.
My eyes snapped open. It felt like I was back there. It was all gone. All of Ma-Oktava.
Pow!
My fist landed firmly against the dummy. How did Agile do it?
How did she move like that? With agility? How did she handle weapons like that?
It was almost unfair. Even Aureolo moved like her.
It was just me who had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Whether on missions or in the arena.
Wham!
My fist collided with the rice-filled dummy, punching a hole.
The claws weren't helping me here. They were a burden. Tania filed them down a lot when I insisted—I didn't want to be left behind in training.
Toxic made a comment about humans filing down a rhinoceros' horn. Rhinoceroses were animals that inhabited Earth—I learned that.
I wanted to see them. Agile promised she would take me to a 'zoo'. Zoos sounded… disgusting. Keeping other species in enclosure. Agile also hated them, but not as much as Aureolo.
Ping.
My ears perked when I heard a message alert on my arena-issued device.
I picked it up.
A message from Agile about a Yellow** mission.
Brone F0B.
Finally… a chance to prove myself to Agile.
⋆⋆⋆
Txetia Glossary
Saktak (Saak-taahk) — One of the 8 active volcanos on Valconalla. Responsible for the death of Ougine
Notes:
Threat Level Yellow means "Escalating"