Aisline didn’t want to turn to watch where he walked, because she knew that she would find numerous pairs of eyes checking her out. So, she kept facing forwards and focused on where Kayleigh was standing, still smiling softly at her.
“How did this happen?” A male voice asked. Aisline recognised that voice for some reason and couldn’t help but turn around to see who it belonged to. - The boy from the medical wing.
Quickly turning back before he could catch her eye, she laced her hands in her lap and closed her eyes.
Jackson couldn’t believe it. This was totally unheard of. Not that he was questioning Master Warrior Kelton or anything like that. He wasn’t as bloody stupid as Denver. But a female warrior? Stranger things had happened. Or they hadn’t actually. But, with the death of a Matris leader, anything was possible. Evidently.
“That’s a good question to ask, Jackson.” Kelton turned to glare again at Denver, “As you are all very aware, after the death of Augustine, our previous leader, there was an influx of male warriors, and our ranks flourished.
“This time, after the death of our beloved Bartholomew, we did expect something along those lines to happen again. As of yet, we haven’t heard anything about any mature males receiving the mark. But Aisline did. She is the first female warrior of the race in our entire history, and we are not sure if she is the last. We must be prepared for other females. Hell, anybody else could be coming to us with the mark.
“This is an uncertain time.”
There was silence among the other trainee warriors. They were in shock at this turn of events. Sure, Jackson had seen the girl twice now, and both times he had noticed the mark. Who wouldn’t after all? He had just assumed that there would be another explanation for it. There was no way he had ever thought that she had been gifted with a warrior mark.
“Right. So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, we’ll make a start on today’s lesson.” Kelton said firmly as he strode across the room.
Aisline couldn’t believe the amount of relief that coursed through her soul now that the introduction part was over and done with. Obviously, things weren’t going to be totally normal so soon, after all, this wasn’t normal for any of them. And what was normal about her sparring with a bunch of wannabe warriors? Nothing, that’s what. But at least it was a start. At least they could all get stuck in now. The longer that she stood out like a sore thumb, the worse it would be. She was glad that Warrior Kelton hadn’t dragged it out any longer than was necessary.
She wasn’t sure whether she was looking forward to this or not. She’d read up on the basics of fighting; how to stand; how to correctly make a fist, but for real? This wasn’t going to be a breeze. It had all looked pretty good when she’d been practising in front of the mirror, but going up against a real live person was a whole other deal.
“Any questions? No. Good. Time to pair up. Find a partner and get your pads on. We‘ve got training to do.”
Aisline held her breath. Pairing up? Surely, all these guys would partner up with someone that they already knew, that they were friends with. It was always the same. It was like going in to a new school, the new kid was left standing there like a lemon. She was going to be the odd one out, again.
Great.
Worse still, Warrior Kelton would probably take pity on her and offer to partner her for the sparring session. Which was also the last thing she needed. Combat training with the teacher? Awesome. Everyone would see that he was going easy on her and that would push her further away from them. She couldn’t seem to win, no matter what she did.
“Minimal contact. This is purely to show us your fighting instincts, and if you have managed to pick up anything from the pre-grad group. That is the only formal training that any of you have really had up until now, so we just want to see what you’re made of. Aisline, obviously, the guys have had a few more days’ advantage over you, but that’s all they’ve got.”
Ash did appreciate him saying it in that way for it showed that he had faith in her to hold her own against these guys, and that the only thing they had was a couple more days training on her. That was it. They were equals. She just hoped that she didn’t show herself, and Kelton, up.
The rest of them started to mill around, but Aisline was frozen to her chair.
“So, do you fight like a man?” A voice from behind her said, dripping in ill humour.
She recognised that arrogant tone even before she turned around. Denver. Just what she needed.
The class clown. The smart ass. In a way, she would have preferred it if she hadn’t of been partnered with anyone. Even Warrior Kelton taking pity on her and showing her up for the girl that she was might be better than having to deal with this fuckwit.
Turning to look at him, Ash squared her shoulders and smiled sweetly, and said, “We’ll find out, won’t we?”
Denver grinned at her as he passed her some guards that had been supplied by Kayleigh.
Well, this was going to be interesting. She already had a damn good idea that he’d bend the rules of minimal-contact combat sparring just to try and make her look weak. She had to prepare herself for the worst. Whatever he had up his sleeve, she had to make sure that she was one step ahead of him.
With a quick flick of her wrist, she neatly bound up her hair in a braid and twisted it, securing it with a couple of pins from her pocket. She could see Kayleigh laughing out of the corner of her eye and she turned to beam a triumphant grin at her. That had been more successful than she had hoped for. At least this time she hadn’t spiked any of the pins into her scalp.
Glancing around at the others, she saw them all eyeing her curiously and she knew that none of them weren’t going to be putting much effort into their own sparring session, not when they could see what a spectacle she could make of herself. Hell that was much too fun to miss out on.
Awesome. She had herself an audience. Probably to witness her falling on her ass, courtesy of the village idiot, Denver. Great.
Shaking out her limbs like she saw some of the others doing, Ash spent a few minutes warming up. She readied herself as Kelton shouted ‘Spar!’ and before she could even make an attempt to defend herself, Denver leaped forward and smacked her with a blow to the stomach that sucked the wind out of her and sent her sprawling on her backside.
What a great way to start. On her bum. No contact, my ass, she thought.
Sucking in a great big gulp of air, Ash pushed herself back up on to her feet and turned to face Denver, who was still smirking. She could feel the blush start to creep its way over her cheeks. This really wasn’t how she wanted to make an impression on the others. And, Denver knew exactly what he was doing, the asshole.
“What the hell was that all about?”
“What’s up? We’re supposed to be sparring, aren’t we?”
Aisline could feel her blood start to boil at the condescending tone of his voice. Setting her spine in steel, she bent ready for the next attack. Bring it on.
“So, you gonna quit yet, sugar?” he asked.
This was the first real time that she had ever fought anyone in her life. She had always begged her parents to let her attend some kind of martial arts training, but it wasn’t deemed a very feminine pursuit, so she was denied. And she was really cursing them for it now. She wasn’t prepared. She was clueless. Those few hours with those useless books wouldn’t help her much now.
Acting on gut instinct, she bent her legs a little and spread her stance a little wider. Centring her weight, she started to bounce on the balls of her feet, trying to make for a moving target, hoping that it would make it a little more difficult for Denver to get the drop on her.
Denver leaped forward again and as she tried to dodge out of the way, he swept at her feet and once again she slumped to the mat in a heap. The laughter that followed the move was even more infuriating. Was he only doing this to humiliate her? Was he just trying to prove that she was a little girl in his big man’s world? Well, she’d show him.
J
umping up with way more enthusiasm than she felt, she grinned at him, showing plenty of teeth and menace.
“Come on, then. You take your best shot.” and she crouched back into her own fighting stance.
She really dreaded what she looked like - sweaty, hair all over the place, clothes in disarray. But now was not the time to think about that. She had to show this dude that she wasn’t weak and couldn’t be pushed around. That she couldn’t be beaten that easily. She would not be broken.
“Really? I’ve been going easy on you so far, but seeing as you think you can handle it, here we go!”
Man, she really hated this guy with a passion.
As he moved towards her, instinct told her that he was going to try and sweep her feet out from under her again, hoping to send her back to the mat. So she quickly side stepped and leaped out of the way at the same time, twisting her body so that she kept facing towards him before lunging forward herself and aimed a belting blow to the side of his face. Two can play that game, she thought to herself and grinned broadly.
Somehow, by some way of a miracle, she connected, and despite the foam protective head gear that he was wearing, she managed to hit him squarely on his cheek bone.
Denver flung himself to the floor and started rolling around, howling in pain. All she could think when she looked down at him was that he looked like a toddler having a temper tantrum in the supermarket. His theatrics were way over the top.
Aisline looked down at him with a triumphant grin, “What were you saying?” she smirked.
Kelton had to bite back an eruption of laughter when he saw the new girl set Denver firmly on his ass. He had been about to step in and call time, but Kayleigh had laid a hand on his arm to hold him back and keep him in his place. Shaking her head at him she knew that Aisline had this.
This was supposed to be minimal combat sparring, purely for practice. But, Denver being his cocky usual self and was somehow wanting to prove that by beating up on a girl, it made him look like more of a man. Kelton let him get away with two foul shots as he wanted to see what Aisline would do about it, and he’d seen the anger and determination in her eyes.
It had been difficult for both Kelton and Kayleigh to stand by and watch Denver playing so dirty, but they trusted Aisline to get the better of him. As they would have with any of the male warriors. Neither of them had wanted to jump in too soon, hoping that Ash would be able to hold her own, which she had.
And when she had finally thumped him with a belter of a blow, a perfect punch to the face that was hard enough to send him to the mat, he’d had no choice but to step in before it got out of hand, as he would have done with any of the male trainee’s.
“Warrior Kelton! Did you see that?” Denver whined from his place on the floor, where he was still writhing in agony and clutching his face.
“I sure did. Well done, Aisline.” Kelton wanted to laugh out loud, but contained himself. He knew that wasn’t quite what Denver had meant.
“Sir! She hit me! It’s supposed to be minimal contact!”
Kelton looked back at him and then over at Aisline, who was standing defiantly with her hands on her hips.
“That was a good strategic manoeuvre, Aisline. And Denver, you sure are a fine one to point out that combat training is minimal contact. Those two previous moves of yours were prime examples of what you shouldn’t do when you are in training. Or should we get Marius in here to refresh your memory about combat code of conduct?”
Denver glared up at him as much as he dared, hating to be reminded of the other time when he’d been shown up in sparring practice.
“Right, time to change about. Denver, you’re over here with me.” Kelton looked at him, willing him to protest, which he didn’t. “The rest of you, change about. Jackson, you’re over here with Aisline. As soon as you are ready, Spar!”
Jackson felt like crawling under a rock. The last thing he wanted to do was spar with the new girl. But, there was no way that he could defy a direct order from a Master Warrior. She just had something about her that he couldn’t get out of his head. The way she moved, the way she held herself, her confidence. And, she was exactly what he didn’t need right now. He was here to train to be the best that he could be and this new distraction wasn’t welcome. Trying to clear his mind of lust and to focus only on combat, he ambled his way over.
Aisline stood waiting for him and Jackson nodded politely when he reached her. By mutual silent consent, they ignored their earlier awkward encounter and dove straight into sparring. Crouching down into fighting mode, they started to circle each other. Jackson had to get things started or they were just going to spin around in circles, so he threw a punch that would have sent her flying if he hadn’t of been keeping to the rules and pulling his punches. His knuckles barely brushed her shoulder, and they moved on with the fight.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that she had some stamina and spark in her eyes. Jackson was concerned that Denver may have knocked her confidence, but clearly this girl just powered through.
Skipping to the side, Aisline kicked out and her foot brushed the top of his shoulder. Standing up suddenly, she was shocked how well that move had worked and couldn’t help but do a little victory dance. That was a move worthy of a Van Damme film or something. It was a goddamn miracle she had managed to pull it off without falling on her backside. This warrior business was awesome!
Jackson couldn’t help but stop what he was doing when she started to dance on the spot. That move truly was worthy of celebration, especially seeing as she had had no formal training, and it tickled him to see her so ecstatic. The joy on her face made him chuckle.
With grins still firmly on their faces, they started to circle one another on the mats. They kept on sparring for quite a while longer, as soon as they had stopped laughing and got serious again, trading blows that would have incapacitated an enemy in the field, making a spectacular dance and show out of their lethal moves until Kelton called time.
Breathing heavily, they both straightened up and laughed as they shook hands, knackered after the intense work out that they’d given each other. Kelton had done them a major favour in partnering them up - they’d worked past their awkward introduction in a physical manner and now they could move on.
Turning around to face the others, they were shocked to find that they had an audience.
“Your concentration was intense.” Kelton said, nodding proudly at the pair of them. Both Aisline and Jackson hoped that that meant that they had done well. After all, sure, they’d been giving it all with the sparring, but they’d been having a lot of fun at the same time.
Denver was off on the side lines, holding on to the wall with one hand, and holding his side with the other. He had a stitch that was about to split him in half. Warrior Kelton had sure worked him over. Ash couldn’t stop herself from grinning over at him, pleased to see the jumped up idiot in some pain. After the stunt he’d pulled with her, he’d deserved everything that Kelton had dished out to him.
“That was quite a show you put on. Well done. Some excellent moves, Jackson. Can you both stay behind for a moment? The rest of you are dismissed. Go and enjoy some lunch. Remember, hit the showers first.”
At the mention of showers, Aisline suddenly looked concerned. Where was she supposed to freshen up? That thought hadn’t even crossed her mind in the rush of sorting everything out, and Kayleigh hadn’t mentioned it either. Surely, not with the rest of the guys? That idea wasn’t even remotely funny. And there was no way in the world that she was going to walk about stinking for the rest of the day. What was that about lunch? It was dinner time already? Where had all the time gone? It felt like she and Jackson had only been sparring for a short amount of time. It had really flown by.
The rest of the guys started piling out, clapping Jackson on the back and high fiving Aisline as they went. Ash was beaming inside. They were already starting to accept her as one of them. The sparring session must have been good. They seemed impressed with her perfor
mance and they were showing her due respect. The feelings that were flowing through her were electric gold right now.
Once the room had cleared, Kelton and Kayleigh walked over to Jackson and Ash.
“Well done, both of you. That was an excellent start to your training. You both have incredible skills that are going to be formidable in the field. Well done.” Warrior Kelton looked like a proud parent as he smiled down at the pair of them, “Jackson, you go get yourself showered and ready for your lesson after dinner. Aisline? You go with Kayleigh.” And he turned to tidy away the equipment they’d been using.
Aisline was sipping from her water bottle as they walked, trying to calm down her breathing and excitement. It was such a rush, just being here.
“You were amazing out there, you know. I thought that we might have been in for a little bit of drama when we saw Denver volunteer to be your partner, but you didn’t let him phase you or intimidate you in the slightest. And you and Jackson? Wow! That was an amazing partnership. You should be very proud of yourself. I know that Kelton and I are both extremely proud of how you handled your first session.” Kayleigh grinned at her.
Aisline sipped on her water and grinned. This was the best day ever and the best start to her training that she could have hoped for. She had gotten the better of the class idiot, Denver, and put him on his ass, and she and the cute guy, Jackson, were now formally acquainted - bonus!
“I know that it’s a bit of a walk and everything but, after training, if you go back to your room to shower, I think that that would be the best solution for now. I’ll send a note to the rest of your professors to let them know that you may be a couple of minutes late after your physical training sessions. It won’t be a problem.” They were due to have a historical lecture this afternoon. The training at the academy was all round, not only driving them to physical peak perfection, but also training their minds. Everything from tactical training, to the history of the races to meditation techniques were included in their busy schedules. Ash was looking forward to every aspect of her training.
The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel Page 17