#epifanio

“It’s just ‘cause it’s warm in here, and I have to hold still. I’ll feel better once I move around a bit.” His face still flaming, Sol marched toward the punching bags. To his embarrassment, Lucifel stood and followed him, holding out a water bottle.

“Remember to keep hydrated. Since you need to move around, maybe you could teach Candela how to roll like you promised last week,” he said.

Sol jerked a shoulder as if he were annoyed, but actually he didn’t mind helping Candela with her training. He was only a few years older than her, but teaching her how to do stuff made him feel important. “Fine. C’mere, Kittykat!”

Candela was sitting close to where Sol had been, absently scratching her ear. At Sol’s call, her eyes opened and blinked once, slowly. “What is it?” she asked, getting up and padding over on legs that had finally started to lose their baby stubbyness and get some real length.

Sol slung a sweaty arm over her shoulders and led her over to the mats. “I promised to teach you how to roll, didn’t I? Let’s do it.”

Her face brightened in a smile. “Really? Yay!”

Satisfied, Lucifel moved off to supervise Pele and Epifanio while Sol and Candela worked together to pull mats off the stack and set them up in an open area away from where their older brothers were training. Now that his body was in motion, Sol found it easier to put the stifling heat out of his mind as he showed Candela the steps. She mimicked him, somewhat clumsily, but he thought with pride that it was a good start.

But within ten minutes, Candela’s full lips settled into full-on pout-mode, leaving Sol thinking ‘Uh oh.’

“What’s the matter Kittykat?” he asked, unwittingly mirroring Lucifel’s posture as he crouched in front of her when she sat on the mat in a sulky pile.

“I’m not doing it right,” she grumbled, pout still firmly in place. Her arms were crossed over her chest in childish temper, and she refused to look at him.

“You’re doing fine, Kittykat.”

“But I’m not doing it like you.”

“I’ve had more practice. You’ll get it. Just keep trying. Okay? Come on!” He took her hands and gave them a gentle tug, but she refused to budge.

“Don’t wanna.”

Sol leaned back, at a loss. Candela was very shy when out in public, but at home among family she was very stubborn and spoiled. And she was frustrated.

Sol opted for a different tactic. He poked her in the side, making her twitch. Then he poked her again, and again, until she had to uncross her arms to swat at his hands. “Awww, is widdle baby Candela frustrated?” he drawled. “Maybe she’s not ready to train with the big boys, huh? Maybe she needs to wait with Mommy?”

As expected, her small face screwed up with outrage, and she attempted to hit him with a fist. Even at six years old, Candela was a strong child, so Sol made sure the blow didn’t land. Laughing, he shifted away. “C’mon, Kittykat, show me you can do it.”

“No.” She glared at him, then scooted around on her butt until her back was to him.

Huh. Usually mocking her worked. Her pride would kick in, and then she’d just have to prove that she could do whatever Sol said she couldn’t.

Before Sol could think of something else to get her motivated, Epifanio swooped in.

“What’s going on here?” Epifanio asked, scooping an arm around Candela’s stomach and scooping her up as she squealed so that she hung upside-down with her back against his chest. Her arms dangled limply for a moment before she reached up to grab his forearm for added security. “You guys loafing around? Huh? Don’t you know it’s time to traaaaaain?” he drew the last word out as he spun in three rapid circles.

Candela squealed again, then burst into involuntary laughter. “Nooooo, Epifanio! Put me down!”

“Nuh-uh. Slackers gotta face their big bro.” Keeping his head well away from Candela’s kicking feet, Epifanio began to do squats while keeping his grip on his sister. “See? The rest of us are working hard!”

Still laughing, Candela held out her hands to where Lucifel and Pele were boxing. “Lucifel!” she cried. “Lucifel, help! Epifanio’s being mean!”

Lucifel and Pele dropped their fists and stepped away from each other. Lucifel came over to see what the matter was as Pele looked on.

He grabbed Candela under the arms and swung her upright as Epifanio’s hands fell away. “Hey, sweetheart. What’s going on?”

“Candela’s sulking,” Epifanio said. “So I made her laugh.”

“Oh? That doesn’t sound like being mean to me. Hm?” With a few bounding steps Lucifel reached the stack of training mats and dumped Candela onto it. She bounced on impact, giggling uncontrollably. She rolled off the mats and landed on her hands and knees on the floor before raising to a kneeling position, a huge grin on her face.

“You guys are the worst,” she declared. “The worst!”

She yelped and ran as Epifanio dove for her. “No! Lucifel, stop him!” she laughed as he chased her around the cave.

“Come on, you two, time to settle down,” Lucifel said, clapping his hands sharply to get their attention. The big grin on his face took away from his teacher voice. “Now that you’ve got your blood moving, you can go back to meditation.”

Sol and Candela both groaned. Epifanio took advantage of Candela’s distraction to scoop her up and cart her to the meditation circle, where he dumped her on the floor. “You heard the man. Get to it, pipsqueak.” Leaving her there, he jogged over to take Lucifel’s place as Pele’s sparring partner.

Lucifel clapped a hand on Sol’s shoulder, the corners of his eyes still creased from laughter. “You too, Sol. You especially need your meditation. Temper your hotheadedness a bit,” he said.

Sol rolled his eyes but dropped down next to Candela, who had closed her eyes and was scrunching up her face in concentration. That was so not the way meditation worked that Sol couldn’t resist poking her. Her eyes flew open and she poked him back, viciously, in the side. She had pointy little fingers, and Sol had to bite back a laugh to keep from drawing his older brothers’ attention back to them and getting the whole thing started again.

“I hate meditating,” Candela confided in him once they’d settled down again and were pretending to try to meditate. Instead they were watching Lucifel referee the match between Pele and Epifanio. “It’s boring. I have too many thoughts.”

“Me too, Kittykat.”

“I wanna play.”

“I know, but we have to do our work first.” Part of being the older sibling, Sol had learned, was being the responsible one and enforcing the rules. It sucked.

Abandoning pretense, Candela leaned forward to brace her elbows on her knees as they watched Pele be defeated and Lucifel take his place. As he took his first swing at Epifanio, Sol couldn’t help but admire his form.

“Lucifel’s so cool,” Candela said.

“Yeah, yeah he is. But don’t tell him I said so.” Sol punctuated this warning with another poke, which Candela returned. A brief poke war ensued, which subsided when Pele sent them a warning look over his shoulder.

“But he is the coolest,” Candela said once they were both pretending to meditate again. “And Mom says he’s next in line to bond with Moltres. That means he’ll be someone really important, right?”

“Yep. He’ll take over as head of Team Valor in Opal City. It’s a very important position. That’s why he trains as hard as he does.”

“I’m glad. Lucifel deserves to be somebody cool and important. Then everyone will see how awesome he is.”

“Yep. He’s looking this way! Quick, pretend to meditate!”