Diabolique winced as she found her body tumbling onto the cold stone floor. She could swear her bones crunched as she landed hard.
"AGAIN!"
She huffed, slowly getting to her feet as she looked up at the glaring guard standing over her. In the shadows Tolan stood, ramrod straight, anger seething from his eyes as he stared at the guard with cold eyes.
Karl stood far from them allowing the shadows to consume his body in what little cover they gave.
He watched as Diabolique stood looking up at the guard as he threw what seemed like a long stick. It was a quarter-staff at just below the child's height.
"Defend yourself!" the guard exclaimed as he once again went to strike the child.
Tolan stood helpless, watching the young girl attempt to defend her-self against the tall brutish male, weaving in and out, ducking and swinging at the man. A lucky strike had the guard screaming as the quarter-staff struck him in the privates. With a silent scream he went down to his knees, clutching his genitals before falling onto his face.
Diabolique stood, breathing raggedly as she supported her weight with the quarter-staff. Bruises and cuts littered her body, the intense 'training' that Karl had begun with the child seemed to have had a negative effect, Karl thought.
"Child?"
Tolan spoke softly as Diabolique fell to one knee, wincing in pain.
"Hurts," she muttered before coughing harshly. Droplets of blood splattered onto the floor, causing Tolan to hurry to her side.
"I warned you Karl! Look at her, your so-called 'training' has done this!" Tolan hissed in anger as he rested his palm on the child's back, only to cause Diabolique to cry out in pain.
"She must learn! She has no choice! One way or another, the child will learn to defend herself!" Karl bellowed sharply, only to watch as the child cried in tears of pain. Her body felt like one huge bruise and all she wanted to do was sleep!
"Then let us train her, leave her teaching to us! Your way will only kill her," Tolan argued as he watched the poor child try not to collapse into his waiting hands. Karl stood, thinking it over as he watched the two, for there was a choice. If the child died whist working for the 'group' then it would be upon the slaves' heads, though on the other hand he wished the child would look up to himself for guidance, though all hopes for that seemed to have been lost in the mere three hours that had passed. Thanks to the 'training', the child would never look up to him again. With a silent sigh he looked over to the two.
"So be it, you know what she must learn. Get to it." And with that Karl turned sharply, leaving Tolan, Diabolique and the guard still clutching his groin in pure pain on the floor.
"W-what t-train-ning?" Diabolique stuttered slightly as she winced.
Her ribs protested sharply to the slightest movement.
"That's another story for when your better," Tolan muttered as he stood up and picked up the young child, resting her on his hip and striding out of the large, empty room, except for the male still on the ground cradling his groin.
"How is she?" Mia asked as she sat on one of the chairs next to the head of Diabolique's bed. The child lay asleep after taking as many healing draughts, medical scans and bandages as her body could handle. Tullan had accepted all medical skills that came with each race that came to the planet. Tolan sighed as he sat back, looking at the woman sat beside him.
"She's healing, but she'll need to sleep for the next two days and take it easy for at least a week," he muttered, glancing at the sleeping child.
"Karl was wrong; she's not like the others that have come before her." Mia shook her head sadly as she ran her hand through the child's soft brown hair, only to watch in silence as the child, even though she was asleep, leaned into the touch.
"Aye, she's younger..." He paused before sighing heavily. It was now or never. "Karl has agreed for us to teach her the ways of the negotiators that came before her."
Mia sat in silence as she continued to run her hand though the child's hair.
"I gathered as much..." she spoke softly as she pondered her next words. "I shall speak with the others, we know where Karl went wrong with his so-called teachings with the others, and therefore we shall not fail." She spoke firmly, though more to convince herself. It seemed.
Tolan nodded silently as he sat back and began to plot and plans the child's schooling, for to him it was not training but schooling. Though her schooling would be different to what she was used to, this schooling would teach her that life hurt, death was inevitable, and sometimes you had to cause pain to live.
But also that a sharp, cunning, and a diplomatic mind with a fast body could save your life and convince the devils themselves to smile and hand the child the universe if she asked.