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Chapter 18

Karigan pulled me along a ridiculous amount of hallways and staircases. It would have taken me hours to find the training room, but it took Karigan only minutes. We stood in front the only door that was in a three-foot long hallway.

"You ready for this? If you're as violent as I think you are, you're going to love it," Karigan said when we reached the door.

"Yeah, I'm ready. And I'm pretty violent," I replied.

"Yep, I knew it," she laughed, and opened the door.

I was too amazed to laugh with Karigan, because when I saw the training room, I was in shock. The first thing you see when you walk in is a large (LARGE) room with no furniture and blue mats in the middle of the room. There were multiple dummies backed-up against the far wall, and racks full of every type of weapon imaginable filled the wall. My violent needs were going to be met in this room.

"So how do you like it?" Karigan noticed my astounded face.

"I don't like it." I saw her face fall. "I love it!" She brightened again.

"I knew you'd like it. Come on, I'll help you pick your weapon of choice. Mine personally is throwing knives," she said, walking into the room.

"Throwing knives? Oh my gosh, I've always wanted to learn how to throw knives!" I exclaimed, following behind her.

"Then I'll be your perfect teacher if that's what you want to do. I'm actually pretty good at it," Karigan replied.

"OH! That's why Jareth said he'll buy you a new set of knives if you'd watch me. I thought he meant kitchen knives," I told her.

She laughed. "Now, you need to pick you knife. I recommend that you pick a lighter one to start with, so you can build up your accuracy. It's easier to throw lighter knives," Karigan explained, now standing in front of a hefty rack composed entirely throwing knives, with me standing next to her.

I had no idea where to start. "Umm…can you pick for me?"

She laughed again. "Sure. I understand your confusion. I had no idea which knife to pick when I started out. How about a lithium knife?"

"I guess," I answered.

"Okay. I'm going to show you how to throw it, and then you mimic my actions," Karigan said, going to stand about fifteen feet from one of the dummies. She held her arm back, and let the knife fly. It turned gracefully in mid-air before it struck the dummy, square in the chest. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. There was no way I could do that.

"You ready to give it a shot?" she asked me.

"I don't think so," I said.

"Yes you are. Here." She retrieved the knife from the dummy and handed it to me. I grabbed it from her and stared at it, as if it were something I've never seen before. "Go on, throw it," she encouraged.

I drew my arm back and threw the knife clumsily. Its blade hit the dummy's chest and fell to the floor with a dull thud.

"God, I suck," I said to myself.

"No you don't. You just need practice. And the good thing is you have really good aim," Karigan said appraisingly

"Thanks, I guess," I replied.

She fetched the knife from the floor and handed it to me again.

"It's all in the wrist. You have to flick it at a certain moment to get it to spin in the air and hit your target, blade first. Okay, when I say throw, throw the knife, and flick you wrist," Karigan instructed.

I took a deep breath and said, "Alright." I drew my arm back and waited for her response.

"Throw!" I threw the knife, and made sure that I flicked my wrist. This time, the knife hit the dummy in the shoulder…blade first.

"I did it!" I squealed, grabbing Karigan's hands and jumping up and down.

"You did it! You're a natural!" she exclaimed.

I stopped jumping and said, "Alright, I'm going to do it again," with a large grin on my face. I walked over to the dummy and pulled the knife from its chest. I repositioned myself next to Karigan and threw the knife. I hit the dummy in the heart, and the blade stuck.

"I really am a natural!" I said, turning to Karigan.

"I think you're better than I am." I expected there to be jealously in her eyes, but there wasn't, only admiration.

"Thanks to you," I smiled.

She smiled back, and at that moment, I knew I just made a true friend

We spent the entire day in the training room throwing knives and learning about each other. I learned that she met Marcelle when she was just five years old and he was seven, and they were best friends ever since. They married two-hundred years ago (they were both relatively Blake's age. In fact, so was everyone else in Jareth's household). Her favorite color was emerald-green, her favorite food was pasta, and she loved reading. Turns out, we had a great deal in common.

We were laughing at a dumb joke about Harry Potter when she looked at the time.

"Holy crap! It's six! Jareth should be home any minute! We have to get you out of those clothes, and I don't think Jareth will be very happy that I'm teaching you how to throw knives!" she yelled, grabbing my hand and running out of the training room.

"Why won't he be happy?" I yelled in response as we were running.

"He doesn't like the idea of having a dangerous pet." We reached her bedroom, and she threw open her door. "Quick, give me the clothes!"
I stripped in record time, and threw the clothes at her hastily. She threw them in the laundry basket and grabbed my hand again. "Come on, we have to get to the library! We'll act like we've been in there all day!" she said hurriedly, and dashed out of the bedroom. I closed the door behind us, and we made a beeline to the library.

I had no time to marvel at the library's beauty and magnificence before Karigan threw a book at me. "Act like you're reading!" She plopped down on a bean bag with her own book, and I dropped on to one next to her.

Not a minute later, the door opened an d Jareth walked in.

"Hey, girls," he greeted.

"Hi," we both said nonchalantly, trying to not make our lack of breath from running apparent.

"Karigan has Misery been behaving?" he asked.

"Yeah, she's been fine. We've just been reading all day," Karigan tried to suppress her grin at her lie, and I tried my best to conceal mine.

"Okay, I'm going to go change…" he said slowly and suspiciously.

"Alright, then," Karigan said.

As soon as the door closed behind Jareth, we both started laughing as hard as we could.