"Punishment!" the boys cried out pitifully. "After listening quietly for all this while?" Khay added.
"Tawa … For us… that was punishment." Trilith let out a sigh of defeat. "Please let us go. We promise not to be late again."
"Hooh…!" she exclaimed. "You want to get off that easy? Not today boys. Now off you go. That much should be enough for the two of you. Who knows, you'd be doing us all a favor and who knows; you might even get a feel for it, helping us all and even yourselves. Lilith" She called out. "Make sure these two get there."
She got out of her seat and proceeded to leaving the class with them. "And Lilith…" She turned to Tawa's call. "The Owls Meditating Chamber."
"Yes, Madam Tawa."
At the academy's 7th training room, Lilith dropped them off and bid them a happy meditation session with an expression that said quite otherwise.
"Lilith that girl, she didn't even say a word to us, all the way here." Khay cried out.
"She's probably disappointed in us."
"Ahhh! But…" He sighed, out of words.
"My sister will come around, don't worry."
"True, she always does! Come to think of it." he turned his attention to the owl training room. "This place is quite big. Compared to the other training rooms."
"Our least favorite training room." Trilith's posture lowered. They found themselves standing in the stretch of the training room. The Owls Meditating Chamber. It was notorious for its deafening silence, as it served as the room for calmly collecting ones thoughts and self. Among that, it also served other purposes like sparring with partners, showing off new moves they wouldn't want anyone to know off; covert activities. The training chamber; despite its somber nature was built with one of the most sturdy woods in all of Vavel which made it highly resistant to damage.
But above all of these, it was mainly created for meditating, it had a wooden floor-like pattern that invoked a calm yet deafening feeling. Built to aid in concentration of one's mind and gathering zhin, the Odum-Owl tree was that which was used for the interior and wall lining. With its special ability of absorbing sound from the outside and inside, it served as one of the silent places in the academy, so silent that if a pin or a penny was to be dropped, not a sound could be heard by those in and to even talk about those outside. A true torture to most students in the academy.
"The others are way bigger and fun to be in." Khay said.
"No kidding! And as much as I hate to say it… Let's get down to business."
The boys sat on their legs, crossed and their hands supporting their upper weight as they stared at the roof. After a while Trilith broke the silence.
"But indeed, Tawa's ability is awesome."
"Tril…! You … you were listening?"
"Of course I was."
"Even after all the noise? You surprise even me sometimes." Khay leisurely sighed.
"Well…don't be surprised but our level of thinking is the same."
"Oh is that so?" Khay leisurely questioned. "I bet u didn't even listen at all."
"Are you trying to say I'm dumb or something?" Trilith grinned and grabbed Khay by the collar of his attire and began shaking him. But Khay looked like he couldn't be bothered to change his mind or give a care, his poker face gave it all away.
"Tsk!" Trilith let him down softly. "Fine." He said; defeated. "We'll decide who's smarter with meditation."
"Oh yeah… we can totally do that!" Trilith burst out.
"Tsk" Khay scoffed. "Getting cocky just because you paid attention once, there is only one rule here. The first person to break concentration loses. It's that simple."
"Oh it's on!"
The Mischievous Duo assumed a meditative stance that they each comfortable. Khay had his palm on his thighs while his buttocks rested on the soles of his feet and the upper part of his body pressured unto his thigh via his stretched arm and palm that rested on his thighs.
Trilith on the other hand had managed to cross his legs above each other with each touching his thighs and his hand had formed into fists and they met each other at his chest.
5 minutes of silence had passed and both boys were yet to utter a word or make any needless movements. 2 minutes … Khay's left upper cheek twitched and so did Trilith's left eyebrow. 10 more seconds had passed, both of their faces began pulsing and twitching all over, and yet they both held on as hard as they could, each unwilling to lose to the other, 5 seconds after, veins began surfacing from their foreheads. Suddenly, they both flipped out of their meditative poses and sprawled on the floor, bursting out their exhaustion and gasping as if they'd been deprived of air all this while.
"Aahhh! This is impossible!" Khay cried out first.
"All this quiet… makes me uneasy, it's like we're right in the middle of the bottom of the ocean. And I can't help but hold my breathe somewhere along the line. Ahhhh, I want to crawl out of my skin"
"I know the feeling all too well Tril." Khay said sounding defeated and catching his breath. The duo sighed in sync.
"I don't want to do this anymore." Trilith sighed as he gazed up at the ceiling.
"You said it partner…" Khay responded. "I don't know what they were thinking when they made this. No wonder people ran out of here crying and screaming."
"Yeah, I thought they were just rumors too but now, I sort of do understand."
The boys managed to get themselves up off the floor and seated. They stared into the distance ahead.
"No wonder these guys were left here."
"See, what I actually heard was, it was petitioned. The student body made complains and now I know why they added these training dummies."
The Owls Meditating chamber was notorious for its deafening silence. The only thing that relieved people of their sedatephobia [fear of utter silence]. About 15 meters ahead and to what was the farthest end of the training room, in 5 rows and 5 columns; were dummy models that were put there to give a not-so-alone feeling to the students and anyone who ventured into the training room.
"Beyond reckless!" Trilith screamed.
"Tril…" Khay sighed. "Let's duel."
"Hmm… I like the idea as much as you do, but what if we get caught… I mean Tawa did tell us to meditate." Trilith cautioned.
"I know. But come on… all we are doing is getting bored, wasting time. I mean it's not like we didn't try."
"Deck it! I don't care if she put a Ruin on us, let's do this. Heavens know we could use the exercise; all this sitting has made my shoulders stiff." He swirled his right arm at the shoulder joint and it crackled.
They both got on their feet, sighing. "As always." Trilith signaled.
They both turned around, as if they'd timed themselves, and started walking away from each other step by step and like cowboys in a duel they turned around at the same time. They had managed to put about 8 meters between. Now set at their respective positions, they began to stretch out their tensed up bodies then assumed their respective fighting poses. A split second after the two had assumed their pose; they accelerated at each other closing the gap in the blink of an eye.
The two were in the air, and a hairs length away from connecting their fists with each other.
Khay's right fist had already aimed for Trilith's head. He blocked with his left arm, saving his head but the pressure from the blow held Trilith in place as he continued to block, resisting Khay's punch. Immediately, Trilith countered with his right, throwing a right hook aimed at Khay's head.
Seeing through this move, Khay immediately parried with his left arm, directing the force of Trilith's attack to his right and downwards in the process. He smirked and quickly grabbed unto the parried arm with his left. Khay's attention came back to his right arm that was still being resisted then it danced up Trilith's block and came swinging down his skull. Trilith smirked and scoffed.
The two came landing on the training room floor with a heavy thudding and cracking sound. Yet the floor boards were intact.
Trilith had managed an overhead block with his left in time as they came landing and they refused to break stance. Their clothes cried under the collision and ongoing force. Still in a deadlock, and seemingly doing nothing but holding a pose to anyone that would have stumbled upon them; muscles could be heard tensing as Khay still forced down pressure on his attack and yet all the while, Trilith was trying to release his dominant hand from Khay's grasp and still keep up the block with the other.
The floor boards cracked suddenly. Khay turned his gaze to the crack and Trilith didn't hesitate to use the opportunity. He pushed Khay back and parrying at the same time, breaking free from his hold. The force of Trilith's defensive attack threw Khay off balance and sent him stumbling backwards a few meters and trying to gain his footing. Immediately, Trilith saw another opening and was not going to let it go to waste. It was his chance to land a solid hit. With the recoil of the force he had freed himself with; he sprung upwards and rested both his left and right arms at his sides.
Channeling the strength in his legs and force in his arms that laid at his sides into the shoulders, he jerked back his right arm as the muscles could be heard crying from the intensity he strengthened himself with. Then simultaneously stretched forth his left arm; channeling all his muscle strength from his left into his right as it tensed and crackled more. He thrust forward his right fist and in the wake of the sonic boom, was sent dashing forward as if catapulted and covered the distance between him and Khay in a short instance.