I woke up inside our room. Mom and grandpa sat next to the bed, she wasn't happy from what I saw. "Does it still hurt?", she asked. The tears swelled up in my eyes again. Although my back hurt, I was more worried about my promise to mom. I promised her and didn't do as she asked. Mom hugged me lightly and said, "I'm not angry anymore, alright? Don't cry sweetie". I didn't say anything, but hugged her back instead. It was my fault, I overestimated myself and thought nothing of the obstacle. I was overconfident and that made me fail. "I'm… sorry…", I said.
Mom kissed my forehead, "Your thinking was not flawed, you simply underestimated the obstacle… Mommy is still proud of you. You gave it your best, I couldn't ask for more". I nodded and asked about the contest. "You still worry about that?", she replied with a smile. "I made a friend, and I'm worried about her…", I said. "You mean that Shade? I'm not sure, but I think she already performed. The contest is about to end or ended already", mom replied. I asked mom if we could check. I wanted to know if Dawn won in the end. At first she told me to stay in bed, but then agreed after a bit of pleading.
Just as we were about to leave, someone knocked on the doors. "Come in", mom invited. To my surprise, it was Tara and Dawn. Their parents were there too, and they apologised to mom for disturbing us. "It's fine, you two can chat with Anna. We will give you some space", mom said, grabbed grandpa and left the room. "Are you alright? That flame burned your backside quite a bit. If not for your mom, I don't know what would happen", Tara said. I nodded, "I knew mom was strong, but not like this. She really is amazing". "What happened exactly?", Dawn asked. I explained to her what my plans were during that obstacle, and how I underestimated it. She nodded, "I took my time on it as well. After all, Shades are scared of fire". That was another thing I never heard about before, but it made sense. Dawn looked out of sorts after the second course. Fire Formations were present over there too. "So did you win? Where is the pet?", I asked.
She smiled but shook her head, "I didn't win. I'm sure you can guess who won in that case". "So it was that guy? Whatever, I hope the pet is rubbish then", I replied. "He actually gloated about it on the stage. So everyone got to see what it was. He really is arrogant", Tara added. "Heh, so what was it?", I asked. "The creature is called Feathered Raptor. I guess it will fit him, since they look so similar", Dawn replied. I wasn't sure what she meant, so Tara elaborated. In simple terms, Feathered Raptor was a creature similar to Lizards. They had scales and tails just like them, though they didn't walk upright. Their bodies were positioned horizontally, while their legs were somewhere in the middle. With scales and feather pale orange in colour, the creature stood out on the stage like a sore thumb. Tara also said it had razor sharp teeth and claws, this was demonstrated by the new owner. 'What a show off', I thought after hearing what happened.
Those creatures were very fast, and hunting was their domain. Dawn told me something even more interesting. "Those creatures cannot be found in the North. That Feathered Raptor was traded in with the Endrosian Empire. It should be one of a kind in the North, although it isn't in the Endrosian Empire", she explained. "I see why you said they are a match… Whatever, I wouldn't want such a pet anyway", I said. We talked a bit more, before mom returned to the room. "Slate and others are already here, so we should be leaving soon". I nodded but then asked, "Mom… Can Tara and Dawn visit us?… Or can we visit them later?". She looked at my friends and replied, "Sure, they can visit us. I will tell your parents where to find our house. You can visit Anna anytime you want". I smiled and looked at my friends. "You guys promise me to visit one day, alright?", I said. Both of them nodded, and agreed to visit me someday. I bid them farewell and left with mom and grandpa.
Mom made sure my back was well protected during the journey back home. I could still feel pain, but I was happy nonetheless. The whole trip was great. I made a few friends, tried very hard during a contest and even saw some great performances. I regretted none of it. Slate and others ran at a slower pace due to my injury, but we were not in a rush. Mom checked up on me very often, and changed the bandages when necessary. "I've seen a lot of your shortcomings during the contest. We should work on fixing them", mom said one night. "What do you mean?", I asked unsure. "Your balance is poor, so is your strength. You are creative which is a good thing, but that alone will not help you much. Some of those kids could simply evade, or rush through the obstacles. You don't seem to fear heights though, which is a surprise", she said. Mother began evaluating me, and telling me what I could've done differently. 'Mom is either trying to tell me I should improve, or this is punishment for not listening to her…', I thought.
She also mentioned something about a "fun" exercise, and I should look forward to that. I didn't buy that lie, but there was no escaping. It took us over a week, before we returned back home. Nothing really changed, even though we were gone for almost a month. The next day, Slate and others went back home, and my daily life resumed. Mom actually allowed my wound to heal properly, before I did any training. I only had to study the Runes, and listen to grandpa when he showed off Splat's new abilities. There were no new abilities, he just called them that.
The time slowly passed, and mom's friends came back to fetch grandpa. They didn't stay though, as they wanted to return home already. Grandpa usually focused on his pet, but when it came to saying goodbye, he cried and didn't want to go. "Grandpa, you could've spent more time with me, but you chose that slime over there. Stop crying and complaining, it's your own fault", I said. Others laughed at grandpa, and pointed out how a little girl put him down. I was a bit sad grandpa would leave though. Although he focused a lot on his slime friend, he was around and I saw him everyday. Our lives would become a bit more empty without him.
Once they left, mother took my training much more seriously. "We will address your balance first. I have a perfect exercise for you as well", she said and took me to the back of our house. "Mom… What is this exactly?", I asked at the sight in front of me. There were around twenty wooden poles stuck in the ground. Moreover, all of them varied in height. The poles were spaced differently too. "You will walk atop these poles", mom said. I looked at her, then back at the poles. "Stop joking mom, there is no way I can walk atop these", I replied with a chuckle. She wasn't joking though. Mom jumped atop the first pole, and simply moved from one to the other. Her balance was perfect. She didn't even hesitate, like she was walking on the ground.
"It's not impossible, you just need time to learn how to do it", she said after jumping off of the poles. '... Maybe it's possible for you, mom', I thought. No matter what, that was my new exercise. The fact that there were no pits around, made me feel a bit better about that new training. A few tries later, I experienced how difficult it was. Jumping onto the first pole was easy, moving onto the second pole was on a different level. "This is so difficult…", I complained after falling a few times. "No one said it was easy. Your lack of balance was really evident during the contest. If you don't improve it, nothing will ever change", mom said. I knew that better than anyone else, but it didn't change the difficulty though.
'I guess Runes were difficult at the beginning too. I learned them gradually, so what's stopping me from learning this?', I asked myself. I didn't want to be looked down upon, I wanted to be as strong as mom.