When I came home that evening it was already pretty late and my parents had gone asleep, so I just quietly went asleep as well with nothing else to do.
When I woke up it was Saturday 8:30 in the morning and the lights shone in through my window on my tired eyes, I had gotten bags under my eyes. This was due to being unable to properly sleep, I had been too excited, but also a bit afraid, afraid that martial arts weren't something for me. The two boys had made a great impact on me that day and I felt like I would enjoy their company. That made it so that I really wanted it to work.
I quickly ate breakfast and started walking to the dojo after getting the stuff I would need for the training.
When I was almost there I heard a voice from behind that startled me a bit "Oh, Hey! So you came." it was Alvin "Ah, my bad. Did I startle you?" he walked up to me with a smile on his face and apologized. I turned my head away and faintly blushed, it was a bit embarrassing being scared like that. "It's fine, you just scared me a little, " I said in a quiet, almost inaudible voice.
After that, we went together to the dojo. Neither of us said a word the entire rest of the way until Alvin finally broke the silence as we were about to enter "You should smile more, you look better that way, you know?" he became beet red and then quickly ran inside leaving me there stunned.
After a few seconds, Dan came there and gave me a light smile "Come in, and sorry if he has bothered you too much." he waved for me to follow him. I quickly walked inside and closed the gate behind me, when I came in it was the first time for me seeing something like that there was an arena at the left side of the front yard and on the right, there were a lot of poles sacks and similar things. There were also racks with different kinds of training weapons next to the house that the middle consisted of on the right side. The house was painted in red, brown, and black and it looked rather old, but it also had a strange vibe to it that almost made it look fearsome.
Dan began his explanation looking at the arena "Here on the left is the sparring arena where you can spar against other people, you just have to be careful as to not hurt your opponents to badly." He then looked to his right and continued "Here, on the right side we have a training area, you can use it if you want to practice alone and just want to have a dummy to test out your techniques on. I usually use it to vent when I feel frustrated." He then looked at me "How much martial arts have you done before?"
Although I was a bit stunned because of Alvin's comment and the new environment I could still think straight this time "I've never really done any martial arts before." you could hear that I was nervous, my voice had a slight tremble in it and I looked a bit uncomfortable.
Alvin, who had come back during Dan's explanation after getting a wooden sword from one of the racks, put his hand on my shoulder "Don't worry, I can teach you the basics if you want me to."
Dan then looked at Alvin with an annoyed expression and took hold of the wrist of Alvin's hand that held me on the shoulder and started dragging him away into the house.
After they came back Alvin was missing his previous wooden sword had a discouraged look on his face while Dan walked up to me "Alvin and I will have a sparing match to let you see how martial arts work a bit and then I can teach you some basic techniques that you can practice." Dan then went to the arena where Alvin was already standing "We will start the fight when you say you're ready." he then stood in front of Alvin with his legs spread apart, the side of his body facing Alvin, his hands and arms forming a guard to protect his upper body and his eyes staring intently at what seemed to be only an opponent in that situation. Alvin was in a similar pose and his discouraged look was gone. They both looked like beasts in a stalemate ready to attack at any time.
"Umm... O-Okay! I-I'm ready!" As soon as the tho boys heard those words they quickly dashed toward each other. In that dash, Alvin put most of the strength in his back leg and did a fast kick with his front leg in a stab motion aiming for the head of Dan with the sole of his foot.
Dan however quickly used the arm guarding his head in order to parry the fast kick, and at the same time as he parried the kick, he charged back his arm to throw a punch towards Alvin's chest. Alvin quickly made a cross-guard out of his arms and the punch hit him throwing him a bit backward. Dan made use of this and his back leg shot forward aiming for the leg of Alvin.
Alvin was caught off guard by that kick as he had yet to get his other leg down properly after his kick and began falling to the floor, yet he managed to shoot out his hand and grab the collar of Dan's robe and used the whole weight of his falling body to throw Dan to the floor with him.
He managed to get Dan with him and when they were halfway down to the ground Alvin retracted the arm that held Dan dragging Dan further towards him at the same time as he threw a punch with his other arm aiming for Dan's face making the two different forces move toward each other with even higher force.
Dan then shot out his hand taking hold around the wrist of the arm holding his collar and began spinning his body at the same time that he pushed Alvin's arm so that it would get in the way of the punch coming his way. While he spun his body he also used his other arm and the momentum from the spin to elbow Alvin in the back.
When the elbow hit Alvin he flew toward the ground and he was forced to let go of the collar or his shoulder would be twisted. As soon as he fell on the ground Dan was already on top of him holding his neck.
"I win again Alvin." Dan said, mocking him. Then he let Alvin go and helped him up. "Come on! It's so annoying!" Alvin screamed into the air with fire in his eyes as he got up.
I was just standing there, utterly stunned, It had all gone so fast that I couldn't keep up at all. I became really excited, I felt like I had finally found the thing that I could enjoy, I felt like I wanted to be able to do the kind of things that they just did and a spark was born within me that became an ambition that I had never had before.
Then Dan walked toward me and when he reached me he said "This is martial arts, though I suggest you start with the basics first." he chuckled a bit and continued "Let's go to the training area.".
He then led me to a pole covered in a soft, but still sturdy material. Then he took a similar stance as before but he appeared in a much more relaxed and not as tense. "Let's start with a normal punch. It's important to have a sturdy base so that you can use all of the force in your body to power the punch. For example, having straight legs would make it impossible for you to channel all the power of your body into the punch as they are not able to exert any force in that position. Stand over here in the same pose as me." he started looking at my stance after I had taken it and began to adjust it little by little until he felt like it was good enough. "Now for the punch, drag back your whole arm and place it on your waist with the pulse pointing upwards, then you have to use the power, all the way from your feet, then pushing it through your waist, further into your shoulder and then..." *pow* he punched forward and his robe made a very satisfying sound as it fluttered in the air "lead the power until it comes to your fist, and finally force that power to go through your opponent. Remember to rotate your fist, or you won't get any power in it at all." he then stood up straight and looked at me, as if approving of something he made a quick nod, "Now it's your turn, punch the pole as hard as you can."
I tried to do what he had described and shown me before and punched forward at the pole. *thud* I had hit the pole and it shook a tiny bit. I felt my hand sting a bit as well, it hurt quite a bit hitting the pole, although it wasn't something I couldn't handle.
"Nice! That was quite good for a first try," Dan complimented me "although I think it would be best if you start training your body a bit as it is the base of martial arts, you could hurt yourself if you aren't careful enough and have a weak body. You might want to make a schedule for it, I can help you with that if you want" he had realized that my body was not yet very suitable for martial arts, it was way too weak and I needed to build up my strength before doing more martial arts.
Although my fist hurt a bit it felt really good to punch the pole, it was as if it calmed my emotions letting me feel free for once. "I'd appreciate it." I really wanted to grow stronger and determination started to flow through my mind. He helped me make a training regime that I could follow, even a diet was included. After that was done we did some more basic training exercises, mostly focused around building up my strength, but also a bit of balance training.
During that time Alvin was mostly training with the wooden sword by himself only sometimes taking a look over in my direction. I didn't think anything special about it and didn't worry too much.
During the time I spent there some more disciples of the dojo came and introduced themselves to me after learning they might have a new junior, the disciples had varying ages but most who came were around the age of 25 or so. After they had introduced themselves though they started to focus on their martial arts.
I came back home again around lunchtime which for me was somewhere between 1 and 2 o'clock. After I made myself a meal I went to bed to have a rest. I had never felt like I felt that day before, I felt as if martial arts was my savior.