As soon as the feeling of space warping ended, Luna was torn between wanting to vomit and wanting to throttle the weirdo who she could only recall as the War God. The last ti she had ’seen’ him, he had made a clone of her and made her fight it.
Only the Gods above knew what he had in store for her now.
"What the fuck was all that about?!" she snarled angrily like a rabbid animal. Above all else, the one thing she would not tolerate was soone hurting her family and even if Leo was a SIngularity, he was her family and nothing was going to change that.
However, after the mont of disorentation passed, she blinked against the harsh sunlight pouring down. The light reflected off the water and disoriented her again with the sudden change. Waves lapped rhythmically against the shore, their crash and retreat oddly calming, though her stomach still twisted from the shift. White sand stretched in both directions, and the air was warm, heavy with the scent of salt.
The War God only chuckled, his broad shoulders shaking with mirth as if she had just told the punchline to a joke. His expression was open and far too relaxed for soone staring down her fury. He lowered himself into the sand with a satisfied sigh, planting his hands behind him and stretching his legs out.
"You need to sit down," he said simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You’re coiled so tight I can practically hear the stress grinding your teeth together. Training isn’t just about breaking your body against an opponent. Sotis the real work is letting it all go."
Luna stared at him, caught off guard. His tone carried none of the booming authority she expected. Instead, it had the easy confidence of soone fresh out of a workout, basking in the sun and proud of the burn.
She narrowed her eyes. "You drag all the way here... to tell to sit?"
"Exactly." He grinned, tilting his head back toward the sky. "Take a seat, listen to the waves. Trust , it’s harder than you think."
The sheer absurdity of it left her montarily speechless.
Luna’s fists clenched and unclenched, her whole body itching to lash out, to move, to fight. Yet the longer she stood there, the more the sound of the waves word its way into her. The rhythm was steady, patient, and infuriatingly calm.
She shook her head hard, trying to resist it. "You think I ca here to lounge around? I want to get stronger. I want to fight."
The War God laughed again, louder this ti, slapping his thigh as if she had just proved his point. "And you will. But right now you would shatter under your own tension. Look at you, girl. You’re shaking, not from weakness but from how tightly you hold yourself together. That’s no way to build power."
Luna growled, but there was a crack in her defiance. His words dug deeper than she wanted to admit. She thought of Leo, of the others, of the way she always felt she had to be the wall that nothing could break through. If she faltered, what then?
The War God shifted, turning his grin on her again. "You think strength is only in your fists? You want to protect your family, don’t you? Then you need to learn to rest, to breathe, to let yourself recover. Otherwise, you will burn out long before you ever face the true battles waiting for you."
His words settled over her like the sun itself, heavy and unrelenting. Luna bit her lip, her eyes darting to the sand at her feet. For once she had no sharp retort.
Finally, with a muttered curse, she dropped down into the sand a few paces away from him, arms crossed tight over her chest. "Fine. But only for a minute."
"That’s the spirit," he said cheerfully, leaning back again as though he had won so grand contest. "Now, just listen. The ocean has more to teach than any sparring match."
Luna sat stiffly, refusing to relax, yet the longer she stared at the horizon, the more the constant push and pull of the tide began to seep into her bones.
Luna shifted slightly, trying to convince herself that she was only observing, that she was still ready to spring up and attack at a mont’s notice. The warmth of the sun pressed against her back and the gentle hiss of the waves filled the spaces between her thoughts. She could feel the sand shifting beneath her, soft and pliant, grounding her in a way that made her tense muscles twitch involuntarily.
The War God watched her with a lazy smile, his gaze following the motion of the tide as though it were a ga he had played countless tis. "Most people never notice how the water moves," he said, his voice calm and light. "They rush through life thinking everything must be earned with force. The ocean doesn’t fight. It shapes. It adapts. It recovers. That is strength too."
Luna frowned, her arms still crossed, her teeth grinding together. "I’m not an ocean," she muttered, the words sharper than she ant.
"No," he said, chuckling softly. "You’re a human. But even humans can learn to flow if they try. Watch it, listen to it. Feel the pull, not just around you but under you. The world moves in ways you cannot always control, but you can always respond."
Her eyes lingered on the water, watching the sunlight scatter across the ripples. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, her shoulders eased. The rigid line of her jaw softened. She realized she was no longer fighting against the scene, no longer bracing herself against every sound or movent. Instead, she was part of the rhythm, small but connected, her pulse finding a pace that matched the tide.
The War God shifted slightly, letting his grin widen. "There it is. You can fight all you want, but first you have to learn not to fight everything."
Luna drew in a slow, deliberate breath, letting the salt air fill her lungs. For the first ti since the sudden warp of space and the chaos of battle, she felt the tension in her body begin to unravel. Her legs stretched out in front of her, her hands resting lightly on the warm sand.
She looked over at him, still grinning like it was all the simplest thing in the world. Her chest rose and fell more evenly, and a quiet thought passed through her mind. Maybe he was right. Maybe this was training too.
The waves kept rolling in, and Luna let herself watch, really watch, letting the lesson sink in quietly beneath the sun.
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