16
The next morning, John woke up. One good thing from the night before's antics was that Sherlock had actually gone to sleep afterwards and was still asleep now. The doctor unwrapped himself from the elf's spindly limbs and walked out of the bedroom with a still limp. Morrisa chuckled when she saw him and he blushed.
We weren't too loud, were we? He asked.
No. No where near as bad as before. I doubt any humans below us heard you. She replied. John sighed in relief.
Ok, I'm going out for a bit. If Sherlock wakes up, I won't be long. He projected before taking the steps down two at a time. When he reached the bottom, his limp had all but vanished, thank God for that, and he began to wander over to the training arena.
Once he got there, he was surprised to note that he wasn't the only person there. The young man from before was busy hacking a manikin to pieces. John chuckled and the young man turned to him. He waved and walked over.
'What's so funny?' He huffed.
'I know that look.' John replied. 'It's the look of someone who wants to beat a certain elf named Sherlock Holmes. What's your name, by the way?' The young man looked at him with an expression somewhere between annoyed and amazed.
'I'm Kian. He answered. 'And I'm only here to get better.' John smiled and stepped on to the field.
'It's ok cutting a manikin to pieces but that won't really help you on the battle field. You need to watch you opponents movements. You don't have the speed or the strength when you battle an elf so you need to have the tactics.' John said, picking up a staff and taking up a stance. Kian put the blade down and picked up another staff, obviously unused to carrying such a weapon.
'Using a staff helps you to hone in the skill of observation.' John said in a calming voice. 'You need to know what your opponent is going to do before he does it. So you must watch.' Kian lunged and John swiped the staff away before lunging himself and knocking the young man to the floor.
'Sherlock is better with the bow and arrow. He's skilled at long range attacks. It is important to know such a thing when trying to defeat him. It changes the whole way he looks at the battle.' The doctor said as he offered his hand to the man on the floor. 'I don't like fighting at all. Which means that when I fight I try to end it as quickly as possible with as little pain as possible. Those are my battle tactics in a nutshell.' John smiled.
'Giving hints to the enemy. That's not a very good battle tactic.' Sherlock called from the fence he sat on. The doctor grinned.
'Oh, come on Shirley, he's not the enemy. It was a friendly fight.' The elf sniffed and walked over, pulling his partner into him and leaning forward slightly.
'There's no such thing as a friendly fight.' He said using low tones in John's ear before nibbling on the lobe.
'Sherlock!' The blond dragon rider yelped, pushing him away. Sherlock winked,
'Just staking my claim.' The elf said innocently before he walked off, hips swaying slightly. John blushed and coughed.
'Sorry about him. He can be such a child at times.' He said to Kian. The young man grinned.
'I bet he can.' He murmured to himself. John chuckled.
'I guess I'd better follow him before he does something stupid.' The doctor sighed, picking up his staff and placing it with the others. Kian nodded.
'Of course. Thank you John Dragonrider.' He said, putting his staff back as well and turning to the people who seemed to have started to appear in the training arena.