Rated T for Violence, please read at your discretion
Chapter 5
Leona was staring off into space, quite happily actually, when she felt a hand grip her head and thrust her face down into her food with a splat.
Wild laughter followed, easily identifiable as Astraia's. Leona picked her face out and wiped some of the oil from her eyes and knit her brows together as Astraia's boisterous laugh continued.
Her face flushed bright red with embarrassment when she turned to her instructor, clutching a fork in her hand.
"This isn't funny! I'll stab your eyeballs out!" Leona threatened, though it rang empty. She was sure Astraia could beat her in seconds. "Stop it!"
But despite her protests Astraia laughed all the harder, clutching her stomach as she sat down.
"Gotcha!" She exclaimed between fits.
"It's not funny!" Leona cried again, feeling the food and oils of it all clinging to her face. It felt disgusting and even when Astraia handed her a handkerchief, she was snickering like a little girl. Leona snatched it and quickly wiped her face, tossing it back into her instructor's lap.
It was these moments that Leona thought that she should be the instructor and not Astraia. Since three years ago, when she'd first started training, the pranks never did seem to end. Sometimes it would be days before Astraia would jump out at her, other times it would be weeks or months later when she was pushed into the quiet river in the cave.
Astraia had told her that all she was doing was to get her to 'loosen up' but with the Rite in six years, she wished her instructor would be a tad more serious.
Kharon was no help either. The two sometimes conspired against her since, apparently, Pantheon was no fun to scare. The first, formal, prank was when Astraia and Kharon had jumped out to scare her. She had screamed and then promptly stormed off with the two instructors calling after her between violent fits of laughter.
Leona had tried to not react but the more she tried to ignore them the more they would up their tricks. There was no way she could win. Nothing seemed to work.
Her instructor ruffled her hair and Leona roughly shrugged her hand away. "Go away!" Leona whined, exasperated, "It's not funny!"
"Oh, it's plenty funny." Astraia chuckled and nudged her. "You'll see, one day."
Leona had sworn to herself that she would get Astraia back, one day; she just had to think of something. Something clever that she would never see coming, she told herself. But so far all of her ruses had been found out quite early even when she was in the stages of planning it.
Leona picked at the remainder of her food and irritably replied, "Yeah, well. I hope it comes soon." Lately, she had been losing her fights in the ring. Knocked out once, almost broke her arm a second time, and the third time she had to be put into emergency care because the girl had punched her so hard. Astraia was scared she would have died right there on the spot.
She wasn't there to see it, but she heard that Astraia had a 'talk' with her opponent's instructor after. She was told by Kharon that it had been a mess.
Astraia smiled and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "No need to get your feathers all ruffled up. It's just a bit of fun. Don't worry too much."
She took in a deep breath. If there was one thing Leona hated, it was losing. She had imagined that her opponents had left the ring with a smug grin on their faces. She would wipe them off one day, and when that day came she was not going to go easy on them.
Leona's jaw tensed and when she looked at Astraia she was smiling. It wasn't as wide so she knew her instructor wasn't laughing at her anymore. She rubbed Leona's back comfortingly.
"It's been a tough three weeks, I know. But you can't win all of them. You lose sometimes, and it's not so bad, if you learn from your mistakes. Don't worry; we'll get through this losing streak."
"Why does Jagen have to be a prick every time I lose? It's like he expects me to lose!" Leona blurted. "I hate it!"
Astraia chuckled, "He's like that, don't mind him." She paused, looking a little horrified. "Wait, did you say 'prick'? Who taught you that word?"
Leona shrugged and replied, "Heard it. It's not a swear word, Pantheon told me Kharon uses it all the time."
Her instructor's look seemed to darken as she looked at Leona. "You are not to use that word again. I'll have to have a little talk with Kharon and Pantheon." Astraia punched a fist into her hand and then sighed. "I don't want you swearing at the age of ten."
"Why? All the other kids are doing it." Leona crossed her arms rather defiantly.
Astraia raised a brow. "If the other kids decided that one day they were going to jump off Mount Targon, are you going to do that too?" Leona shook her head slowly, and Astraia nodded approvingly. "See? So no swearing until you're at least fifteen."
The rule seemed ridiculous, but she didn't argue.
"I'm going to train with Pantheon for a bit." Leona told her as she finished up the remainder of her dinner. Astraia pressed her lips together and gave her a small frown. Her instructor hadn't been too thrilled when she had found out that Leona was helping another trainee.
But she couldn't argue that she had been slightly improving slightly in the fighting ring. So Astraia let her be.
"Be careful that you don't teach him everything," Astraia warned her as she started in on her food. Leona nodded absently and then darted off.
As Leona skipped towards the entrance of the cave she couldn't help but to notice something on her left. An instructor stood towering over a young trainee yelling something about him being tired of losing constantly. The boy was in tears but it didn't stop the instructor from hitting him.
Leona watched and chewed on her lip as the boy wailed. She stopped, stared for a while. Her stomach twisted like a dishcloth being wrung. It wasn't something she was unfamiliar with but it still bothered her. She had to do something, right?
"Are you coming or not? Why are you so angry?" Pantheon's voice tore her out of her thoughts. She turned to face him, realizing her eyebrows were knit tightly together. He turned and looked where she had been looking and blinked.
Did he see what she saw? Was he horrified as she was? Leona stared at his face, studying him for a moment. But when he looked back at her, his face was unchanged. She couldn't help but feel something like disbelief and disappointment. She should have known that he wouldn't see what was wrong.
"Are we going or not?"
Leona paused, turned away from the wailing boy and left. An action she felt her stomach tighten at as she heard the crying boy shrieking, as he was being beaten like she had been on her first day.
But she followed, drowning the sounds of the boy out of her head. He was doing that for a reason, Leona tried to convince herself. But it was as convincing as telling herself that the dirt around her was made of gold.
She chewed on her lip and followed Pantheon outside into the cold. Three years later her skin had toughened considerably. The whipping snow didn't seem too bad on mild days and standing out in the cold wasn't so bad anymore.
"Theron said he and his instructor have things to do so he won't be coming today." Pantheon said and then asked, "So, what do you want to do today?"
The question didn't seem to make much sense. It was his turn to teach her something today, it didn't matter what she wanted to do. So, Leona shrugged and reflected the question back at him. Pantheon shrugged, bored.
"Kharon didn't really teach me anything new today. We just sparred."
Leona had a grin stretched on her face. "Did he beat you up?"
Pantheon huffed and frowned at the question. His brow knit tightly together when he replied, "What do you think? He's bigger than me, and he's older." He crossed his arms, unknowingly showing her a bruise on his arm, no doubt from his session with his instructor.
It didn't look too good. It was an off green with flecks and splotches of purple and blue. Leona had to imagine what kind of punch gave Pantheon that injury. It was scary to think that one day Pantheon would be able to inflict that kind of damage on her.
"Fine," Leona said lamely and then suggested, "Why don't we spar then?"
Pantheon gave another shrug and then offered a smug, toothy grin. "Don't cry when you get a bloody nose."
Leona stared at him and then rolled her eyes, holding a finger at him. "One time!" she exclaimed, recalling the time she was knocked to the floor. It had been hard and she couldn't help the tears. "It's not going to happen again!"
Her friend snorted. "We'll see about that."
She couldn't really help it when she stomped her foot, something Astraia found absolutely hilarious for no reason. "I'm going to make you cry!"
"We'll also see about that." Pantheon barked a laugh as Leona charged forward at him, swinging.
Pantheon ducked, low, scooping her one leg up. She felt her feet lift from the ground and in a panic she clutched onto him but he threw her onto the ground. Her fingers lost their grip and she felt her back slam into the snow.
Air escaped her lungs all in one breath as she wheezed and hissed. Leona grunted, scrambling to get up but he straddled her chest and lifted his fist. Her mind raced, panic filling her gut. She was unsure what to do, how to do it. All she could think about was the pain that would follow and then then nasty bruise that would inevitably appear.
She moved her head over to dodge the punch, though she still felt his knuckles skimming her. The next punch came faster as it plowed into her face. Leona grunted, hissed and shoved his fist aside and then lifted her forearms to protect her face, like Pantheon had taught her to.
Pain erupted on her arms every time a fist came out and all she could think of how she could move out of this position in a manner that wouldn't get her punched. After a few moments Pantheon stopped.
Panting, he asked her, "Why aren't you moving?"
Leona moved her numbed arms. "That hurt!" She massaged her face and then moved to rub her arms.
Pantheon smirked, "Did you think it wasn't going to?" He looked at his scarred hands and as Leona looked at them she frowned and sat up. They were slightly bruised with small cuts littering over his knuckles. It looked painful and Leona didn't doubt that it was.
"Did Astraia teach you how to get up?"
She had, but Leona had found the move complicated with too many parts to it. It required so much thought, she didn't know how she was going to manage to link her arms, get her foot into position, change arm positions, bridge her opposite leg up and then turn her opponent over. It was too much movement and she couldn't think during fights.
Astraia had reassured her that sooner or later the move would come as second nature but Leona wasn't so sure. She thought for a moment and then slowly moved as Astraia had taught her.
"Like this…" She raised herself, linked her arms around his waist and pulled him down. She bent her right knee, and pointed at it. "Over yours…" She hesitated as she moved her right arm over his shoulder, unsure if this was what she was supposed to do and then bridged up her leg.
"Your other leg come up, slam it down after. And this arm comes up to help turn." Her instruction seemed more like a question but it was correct because, with trouble, she turned him over.
Panthen looked up at her and crossed his arms. "That seems easy enough to do." He sat up and shrugged.
"We'll see how easy it will be once you have fists raining down on your face." Leona retorted with a furrowed brow. Sure, during practice it was easy, but during an actual fight, it wouldn't go so well.
"Just ignore it," he said, shrugging his shoulders as he stood. Leona did the same and as he uncrossed his arms, she crossed hers. "The pain, I mean, not the punch."
Ignore it? She could laugh. Pain was in her face, there was no way she could 'ignore' it. Not when the one swinging the punches was a girl or boy significantly larger than her.
"Easy for you to say." She muttered.
"Doesn't even matter for you, you're fast so you can just dodge," he paused, "most of the time."
Leona scowled. "I'm fast, I'm not that fast." She sighed and then motioned at him. "Let's go again."
The two got into position across from each other again. She took deep breaths; panic was not her friend. Three years and she still had trouble grasping the concept. Pantheon seemed like his head was always level, but she told herself she wasn't jealous.
Pantheon was the first to throw a punch this time. Leona, being as quick as she was, shoved it away from her face, grabbing his arm to drag him onto the ground. He staggered but quickly found his balance. His free hand came back, fisted and swinging.
"So why were you so mad back there?" he asked. The question caught her off guard and she barely had time to skirt back, his knuckle just grazing her chin.
Pantheon turned, with a round house kick. Leona squared her shoulders and dug her feet into the snow. When his leg hit her side she grunted, feeling pain spike into her side. She felt her foot shift but she squeezed her toes tightly and gripped onto his leg.
"What are you talking about?" Her voice was strained, her body still screaming at her in pain. Leona pushed the pain from her mind and yanked him off balance.
He fell and as she went to mount his chest he ripped his leg from her grip and snapped it into her gut. Leona doubled forward, clutching her stomach.
"When I came to get you," he grunted. "You were mad about something."
Was he really talking to her now? He never did like talking while they were sparring. Maybe he was trying to distract her; she had to focus. She knit her brow together as he quickly got back onto his feet. She held up her fists and he swung again.
Leona dodged quickly as she slapped his next fist away from her. She didn't answer right away, but after a moment she paused and lowered her fist. Pantheon arched his brow and lowered his as well.
She casually pointed in the direction of the cave. "That kid, his instructor was yelling at him," Leona told him, unsure if he would agree with her about the situation. Maybe he was as bothered as she was but was scared of saying something, or he was just ignoring on purpose because it was bothering him too-
"So?"
The statement caught her off guard and it made her stomach drop. But at the same time, she hadn't really expected any less from Pantheon. It still hurt to see her friend so indifferent about the whole situation. The kid was screaming and wailing and Leona could only feel sympathy for him.
She narrowed her eyes and snapped, "What do you mean 'so'?"
A certain look of smugness passed through Pantheon's face as he shrugged. "It just means that the kid is weak; if he's crying that loudly then he's just being a shame to the Rakkor." He smirked and then continued with a laugh, "it's a good thing his instructor is beating him as hard as he is."
Pantheon didn't wait for her response, just threw the next punch at her. Leona grunted, feeling the punch slam into her face. She staggered back and charged forward with a flurry of punches.
He was right, Astraia was right. They had to prepare for the Rite in six years; no one had the time to cry like that because they were going to be pitted against each other. They needed to be at their best. They needed to know how to take pain, they needed to know how to fight, take down, and ultimately kill.
Leona ducked low as her partner charged at her. She launched herself up, hooking her arm around his waist. With all her strength she threw him down onto the ground. Pantheon quickly recovered, too quick for it this time, and swiped his foot on the ground.
"Was that all you were mad about? I thought it was something Kharon might have done again." He laughed lightly.
She tried to get up and found Pantheon kicking her into the floor. Along with the pain she felt the contents of her stomach trying to reach her mouth. She heaved in air and held up her hand to stop Pantheon from his onslaught. She raced over to the side of the cliff and then it all came out.
Instantly, she grabbed her hair out of the way as she gagged a few times. Her body lurched forward feeling her throat sear. The pain of the kick raced through her body each time her stomach tightened to present the ground with a new batch of vomit.
Leona wiped the edges of her lips and then washed her arm and mouth with the snow. She coughed a few times. She was unsure what she wanted to say. "It's all wrong." She mumbled through gritted teeth.
When she turned Pantheon was looking at her expectantly. "Are you alright?" Pantheon slightly leaned in, "I didn't hear you."
Leona couldn't help feeling anger bubbling in her gut. She had to do something, but there was nothing she could do. What was she supposed to do?
Astraia had kept telling her that she had to focus on her own training instead of that of others. But how could she when all she could see was that little girl from three years ago, and that kid from inside the cave. If somebody had beaten Theron or Pantheon like that she would be absolutely furious. She would have stepped in and beaten the living daylights out of them.
But then again, Theron and Pantheon weren't ones to cry when they were in pain.
"Are we still sparing?" Pantheon looked at her with a questioning look. Pantheon was right, the kid was weak and he needed more training. The instructors knew what they were doing, and all she could do was focus on her training. After all, in six years the kid would be dead and none of this would matter.
The thought turned into knots in her stomach. This was all wrong and she could feel it, but why didn't anyone else?
"Focus on your own battles, you'll be fine." Pantheon said like he had somehow read her mind. She knitted her eyebrows together and threw the first punch.
Author's note
Hello! I'm alive and I apologize for not updating any sooner! School started and then I had work! Whew, it's been a hard month but hopefully I've settled into a good writing/working schedule :)
I'm planning to update once a month, at least? We have to see what happens. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please review and like!
xxxSC
