A/N: Hello! I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY! I HAVE BEEN SUPER SLACK! Please forgive meeeee! I was caught up with reading Death Note fanfiction... And before that, watching Death Note... And before THAT, uhhhhhh... sleeping :P
Now, I thank you faithful reviewers! Your reviews make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! ^^ I have been suffering from a dilemma, I'm not sure if anyone else has this problem, but I randomly get the most AMAZING ideas for a story, then with the intention of writing it down, I forget it. IT IS SO ANNOYING! Arg, anyway, I have kept you from reading this chapter for quite some time (or not, if you haven't read this, which you wouldn't know I knew because you hadn't), did the brackets confuse you? Ok, good. As always, review please! And enjoy the chappie!
Oh yeah... I don't own Ranger's Apprentice, but I do enjoy torturing Gilan. Hehehe... :3
Lost In Reality
Chapter 10: Cat Fights
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn! Another morning! I woke up and looked over to the empty sleeping bag on the floor next to me. It had seemed that Alyss had gotten up. Groaning, I flopped out of bed, and not even bothering to brush my hair, stumbled downstairs in search of breakfast. I walked over to the kitchen to see Gilan making himself lunch. Wait a minute... LUNCH?
Ok, so I over slept. Shoot me. Still though, he looked up at my presence and grinned.
"Hey Sarina! We sent Alyss back to your room a while ago, we thought you were dead or something!" He said, still grinning.
"I gotta get 'm breakfsst..." I mumbled back. I was so tired that morning. Er, afternoon. He looked at me, amused, and walked off with his tuna sandwich. My eyes widened as I saw what he was eating. "Gilan..." I said quickly, "You might want to eat that in two seconds... Like, now."
"Why?"
"Oh no... Oh no... It has smelt it!"
"What has smelt what?" He asked, dumbfounded.
My eyes darkened. "... The cat..." I said evilly, pointing in mock horror at Casper, sitting behind Gilan, giving off his best Puss in Boots eyes, and saying the most adorable little thing I have ever known any animal to ever do EVER. He meowed. Yes that's right. He made the same noise that every other cat on the planet did. But for some reason (probably the Puss in Boots eyes) it seemed cuter this time. You know why? Because I knew deep down inside he was EVIL! No, it was not the Puss in Boots eyes after all. Gilan shook his head in wonder and walked off to eat his food.
Casper followed. Gilan took a bite out of his tuna sandwich, and I decided that breakfast, no, lunch could wait until later. I sat down next to him and picked up Casper. He tried to squirm out of my grip, but he couldn't, FOR I WAS TOO STRONG FOR AN OVERWEIGHT, OLD CAT!
"Mrauw?" He begged Gilan, twisting out of my grip and landing at Gilan's feet.
"What's up kitty? Want some tuna?" Mistake number 1. Offer tuna to the cat.
He pulled a chunk of tuna out of his sandwich and fed it to Casper, who gobbled it up and licked his chops greedily. Mistake number 2. Actually give the cat tuna.
He smiled at petted Casper's head. Mistake number 3. Reward the cat for being greedy. Oh, he was in for it now.
I stared at Casper, with the you-do-realise-that-you're-getting-it-later look. He eyed me confidently, and let out a yawn. N'awwwww... I can't stay mad at him! I can only glare at him as he watches Gilan eating his food, plotting some evil plan to get more tuna. I looked at the sandwich again, and grimaced.
"G-Gilan... You did remember to drain the tuna before you put it onto the bread, right?"
"Huh? Drain it? What are you talking about?" He asked.
I face palmed, looking at the sloppy bread that was falling apart with tuna juice. "As in, you drain the tuna before you put it on the bread so that the bread doesn't fall apart and taste really gross and tuna oil-y."
He looked down at the sandwich again. "Right... Forgot about that..."
"You mean you didn't even notice?"
"Uhhh... Not exactly, no..."
Face palm.
Gilan finished off the disintegrating, oily sandwich, and went to wash his hands and put the plate in the dishwasher. Casper followed. He walked over to the lounge room. Casper followed. He sat down on the couch next to Will and Horace and watched TV. Casper plodded over and jumped up onto the couch, placing himself rather contently on Gilan's lap. I sighed. It begins...
I got myself lunch of crumpets and cheese, then went upstairs and changed into a dark green shirt with a cartoon bird on it, and light grey cargos. I then brushed my hair which had been sticking up at all possible angles until it sat straight and behaved itself. Heading back downstairs, I noticed a faint tingling in the back of my throat. Getting a glass of water, I took a gulp, hoping it would go away. No such luck. It just hurt even more.
I went to the lounge room and sat down on the floor. "Where is Alyss and Halt?" I asked Will. He slowly drew his attention away from The Simpsons before answering.
"I think they are out the back somewhere."
"Cool, thanks." I said, walking out of the room and upstairs once more. Shoes helped if I wanted to go outside. Generally. Depends on the circumstances. I plodded back downstairs and out the back door. Halt was up a tree, Ranger cloak on, throwing knives at another tree, before swinging to a new branch and sitting atop it to shoot a few arrows at another tree. Seriously, those trees were practically made of holes. And because of the constant bombardment, they all had sticky red sap oozing out of the holes, as if they were bleeding. Alyss was sitting in the middle of the backyard reading a book. She was wearing a light blue tank top and pink shorts. She looked up, and I noticed she had burnt shoulders.
"Hi Sarina, what's the matter?" She asked.
I sighed. "You do know you're sunburnt right? You can't just sit out here in the peak of day in summer no less and not get sunburnt. I'm surprised the book didn't catch on fire!"
"Really? I'm fine. Didn't even notice it."
"Well, you're going to turn into a fried egg, seriously. Sit in the shade or something."
She thought about it before nodding and moving to the shaded veranda of Halt's cabin. My dad had very kindly filled Halt's room in said cabin full of gardening tools. Forget the fact that there is a gigantic cabin in our backyard. He doesn't care. He just has a shed now. Honestly!
I went back inside and dragged the boys out to practise. Will and Horace decided to practise hand to hand fighting, while I challenged Gilan to a fight. Not a real fight, just to see how good my hand to hand fighting was in his terms.
We stood in the middle of the yard, ready to fight, when Horace next to us started laughing. He was sitting on Will's back, who was struggling, saying things like "no fair! You're bigger than me!" It was all rather amusing.
I stepped forward, as did Gilan, and he said "Attack me with all the strength and drive you got. For real, don't hold back." As much as I would have liked to jump in and beat him up to prove him I was better, I instead jumped in and threw a rather wonkelated kick at him, which he dodged, before grabbing my ankle and lifting it up, putting me off balance. I fell on my butt, and he helped me up. "You see, you have to work on your balance a little more as you kick. If you lean too far back to try and put more power into it, then I only have to bump your foot and you fall over. Have another go!" He said cheerfully.
I tried another kick, aiming for his side. I stepped forward with my left foot before swinging my right leg around and losing my balance again, falling over. He didn't even do anything that time! I scowled and got up, trying for a punch instead. I ducked down low and tried for a punch just below his ribcage. He caught my hand, and tugged on my arm, bringing me stumbling forward as he dodged my falling over. Will, who was behind him at the time, helpfully caught me and sent me stumbling back over to Gilan. It was then that Will got tackled by Horace for not paying attention, and was sat on again.
"See, that time, the punch itself wasn't all that bad, but the way you position your thumb, and how you position your arm before you throw it could lead to injury and I can anticipate your moves." He said. "If you clench your fist, your thumb has to be underneath your fingers, because if it is at the side, it sticks out. So depending on how hard you hit, in a real fight, there is the potential to break your thumb." He put his own hand in the way I was clenching it, and slowly hit his other hand with it, demonstrating how it would snap backwards with any force. He showed me the correct way, before instructing me on how to hold my arm before the punch.
"Again, if you put all the thrust into the punch, and rear it back before punching, you can tear the muscles in your shoulder blades. That, and I can clearly tell you are about to punch me, and anticipate it. What you need to do, is use these muscles right here," he pointed to his triceps, "and suddenly lash out with heaps of power. It takes practise, but it can be done. Try it."
I made sure I held my hand correctly and threw a punch at the air. I tried to put heaps of force into it, but it just felt like I was trying to tear my own arm off. I grinned sheepishly – it was better than the last punch, but I only realised just then how much practise I needed before I could do any real fighting.
"Another thing I noticed, is that you don't make any noise as you throw a punch or kick." He said.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, a puzzled expression on my face.
"Well, you get more force, if you release the built up energy as you hit something. Throw a kick at me, but don't make any noise." I did as he told me to, trying to get my balance in check. It went askew at the last moment and my knee bent slightly. "See? Now try screaming as you kick." I looked at him, before trying it out anyways. I half-heartedly threw a kick with a faint 'hah'. He raised an eyebrow and said rather loudly, "HAH! Not 'hah'" he said 'hah' in a high pitched, girly voice. That annoyed me. I scowled again, before really throwing the best kick I had, with the loudest 'HAH!' I could manage. Suprisingly, I was able to feel the kick fly a lot steadier, and it had a lot more power. Smiling to myself, I aimed a kick at Gilan, who caught it, but made a little 'oof' noise. "Jeeze, you can kick hard if you want to! Good work!"
"Thank you, your Gilany-ness." I said sarcastically.
"Gilany-ness?" He said, confused.
"Yes. You have lots of Gilany-ness. YOU ARE OVERFLOWING WITH GILANY-NESS!" I laughed, suddenly hyper. And when I went hyper, I'll tell you now, I can fight a damn bit better. I grinned wildly, the sudden energy surging through me.
I threw two kicks at him, one high, one low, aimed a punch at his face (which thankfully he managed to dodge – I don't know what I would do if I actually hit him in the face) and then swung my hand at his side, under his ribs, which struck home. I jumped back in surprise, I hadn't thought I would really hit him. He chuckled. "Good, you're getting better! What just happened with the change of heart?" He asked, rubbing his side a bit.
"I went hyper! Er... Are you ok?" I asked, looking sceptically at his side.
"Seriously, I expected you to hit me at some stage, I can be a punching bag if need be. Come on, attack me!"
Grinning, I attacked him again, working on my kicks, mostly. I am a kicker, kicking is my strength. I have next to no upper body strength (I need to work on that...) so I wasn't as good with punching.
I realised that everybody else had stopped what they were doing – even Halt – to watch how I was going. Will and Horace were both grinning, giving me a thumbs up. Halt looked grim (what else?) and Alyss was reading her book in the shade, keeping half an eye out for me. It was hard trying to fight Gilan because he was so tall compared to me! I had to reach up to get to his face, I would never have a hope of kicking him in the head unless I did one of those crazy anime moves where people jump up 2 meters in the air and land a perfect kick in somebody's face. Seriously! I can only kick to his shoulder, and even then, I usually fall over.
I was aware once again, of the prickling in my throat becoming stronger as the day went on.
We had practised for a good 2 hours, and I was officially OUT of hyper mode, and ready to collapse. And collapse I did. On the floor. In the middle of the lounge room. I was covered in dirt, and had sore legs and arms and, well, sore everything. I had bruises, a scratch or two, and nobody was even fighting back. Gilan (my human punch bag) walked in with a chuckle, seemingly unscathed. He handed me a glass of cold water. I took it happily, sitting on the floor, sculling it, before getting a brain freeze.
"Thanks for training me, Gilan. So, how did I do?"
"You went very well! Considering you have never been in a real fight or taken any lessons before, you did very well."
"I learnt a bit from my big brother before he moved out..." I said, sheepishly.
"Well you still did well, so deal with it." He said, perfectly cheerfully. I waved my arm at him feebly before heading upstairs for a much needed shower.
Washed and refreshed, I went back downstairs, in a fresh set of clothing that wasn't sweaty and dirty, hair still wet. Looking at my watch, I saw it was only 3:00pm. I sighed, picking up my plushy frog from the table, where I had left it earlier. I walked into the lounge room, and, feeling lucky, suddenly threw the frog at Gilan's head, screaming "FROG ATTACK!" it feebly bounced off the side of his head and landed on Casper, who was woken from his slumber on Gilan's lap. He turned his head around like an owl, staring at me with lifeless eyes. I chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of my head.
"Please... Get this cat off of me!" He said, suddenly, scaring me out of my thoughts. "He has been following me EVERYWHERE! The constant 'Meow? Meoooow?' is driving me BONKERS!" he said, clearly frustrated. I laughed, seriously, cracked up.
"Ahhh, looks like you learned your lesson, eh Gilan?" I said, a wide grin on my face. "That's what you get for giving him tuna!" I noticed my throat was still hurting, a little more so when I spoke or swallowed.
Gilan scowled at me, before pointing to the Casper, who yawned in response and stretched his paws out, digging his claws into Gilan's leg. He stifled a squeak. I knew what it felt like. Happy cats + human leg = happy cat digging claws into human leg. The worst thing was that Casper was totally oblivious that it actually hurt being clawed. He looked at me with sleepy eyes. I decided to give him the punishment he hated most. I walked over, picked him up, and cradling him like a small child, rocked him about making noise like 'N'AWWWWWW YOU'RE JUST SO CUUUUTE!' and he usually freaked out. He never bit or scratched me, but he freaked out and squirmed out of my arms, running off to sulk with his food bowl. I chuckled. As did Gilan, who was also rather surprised to find that that was how you got rid of the cat.
Eventually, mum and dad got back from work to find us all in a heated game of Snap! I had lost ages ago, along with Alyss, and we were watching the Rangers with their freaky ninja skills swipe up every single card in the blink of an eye. Will was coming first, Halt second, Gilan last. He kept getting distracted, glancing at the sleeping cat across the room, throwing evil glares at him.
They left us to our card games and eventually we had dinner. Nachos. Yum. My throat didn't like it as much though, the sauce was spicy, and it stung. It was hurting a bit more since the fight. I decided not to let my parents know that I had been fighting all afternoon.
Afterwards, we played more cards, and I sat down in bed and read my book while the others took turns showering. I had already showered, so I was fine. Soon, Alyss came in, and sat down on her sleeping bag. She was wearing light pink pyjamas that we bought at the market. I was wearing an old shirt and pair of pyjama pants that I had adopted as my pyjamas. Yeah, yeah, I know. Lazy.
Anyway, we went to bed soon after, and this time, I requested Alyss to actually wake me up this time.
Also, I lied, there was no surprise. I just wanted you to FEEL THE SUSPENSE!
A/N: Wahhh, longest chapter yet! Nearly 3000 words! That doesn't include the authors notes, by the way, with the authors notes it is over 3000. Kyaaa, again, very sorry for being so slack, I am going to have to really crank up the brain power to do the homework I was... Erm... Supposed to do today... Meaning, I'll most likely pop back on Fanfiction and read... Then get in trouble tomorrow... Meh, I don't care. ANYWAY! The fight was inspired by my friend in real life (yes, we have fake fights – it is fun!) who has just joined FanFiction, and her name is... Wolfiwill! Yaaaay! Ok, moment over, I should get off the computer now, my brain is DEAD.
Frogata, over and out!