by M E Wolf
This trail was in worse shape than the first, but the noises of the forest were more peaceful and it was not long before she reached the second flag. The second flag pointed to the right. She headed in that direction and picked up her pace as she heard a noise behind her. Panic and fear gave her the strength that she needed to run faster. Something brushed passed her arm as she continued to run full speed ahead.
When it no longer touched her arm, she could feel a slight sting where it had touched her arm. Ignoring it, she continued to run forcing her legs to move beyond their ability and strength to move. Alexandra was running faster than she ever did or could before. As she got to the top of a hill she could see the third flag far ahead, just passed what seemed to be a small pond.
She found that running down the hill was harder and more tiring than running up it. She had to exert more control in her running so as not to go tumbling down the hill. A few times she nearly lost her balance and twisted her ankle in the process of staying on her feet. From that point on she could feel the swelling begin to take place and she soon could only walk limply along the trail.
After about a half hour of walking she came to the edge of the pond. Immediately the memory of the pond that she had spent a few months swimming in came to mind and she knew that this pond was far smaller than that one. Knowing that she would have to swim across the pond, she took off her leather-training outfit and stuffed it in the large sack that she had on her. Naked once again except for her sword belt and sword for protection, she fastened one end of a piece of rope to the sack and the other end to her belt.
Pausing for a moment to catch her breath and let a cool breeze pass over her body, she took in her surroundings and then plunged into the pond. The ice-cold water hit her like an angry hive of bees after you have stolen their honey. She swam with the sack trailing behind her and hoped that it would not be snagged on anything that lay hidden beneath the water’s surface. The rhythm of her arms was steady as she swam to the other side of the pond.
Once on land she pulled the sack out of the water and put her training outfit back on, refastened her belt and sword and slowly walked towards the third flag. The third flag pointed to the left and so she went down the trail to the left of the one she was currently on. Her ankle was getting worse, but the idea of being a slave if she happened to fail this training was disheartening and just the thought of it was more painful than her sore ankle. Deep in thought she almost did not notice a large animal of sorts cross in front of her.
Looking to her left she could vaguely see the silhouette of a large beast knocking trees down as it went. As if it had eyes in the back of its head, it stopped and turned its head just enough to get a glimpse of her looking at him. Alexandra stiffened while it looked at her as though it could see through her. She did not move forward until the beast had turned and continued on its way.
Long after she could not hear the beast making the crashing noises through the forest, Alexandra began to run along the trail despite the agonizing pain in her ankle. Her hopes were renewed when she spotted the fourth flag. Not stopping as she came close enough to the fourth flag to see what direction it wanted her to go in, she turned left and continued to run. The pain in her ankle was long forgotten as she quickened her pace along the trail in hopes to get out of the forest before something decided to attack her.
She jumped over twisted roots in her way along the trail, she winced at the pain that landing on the foot with the sore ankle had caused her and continued to run as fast as she could. At times she thought that something was watching her, but brushed it off as though it was her imagination playing tricks on her mind. Something came out of the forest behind her, but when she looked there was nothing there.
Alexandra could have sworn that something had grabbed her right thigh, but when she looked down nothing was there. She wanted to cry, but instead kept running. Alexandra was drenched with sweat that made her training outfit stick to her body like honey to a piece of bread. Every inch of movement caused the coarse leather of her outfit to scrape along her skin, which made running more difficult.
If she had any baby fat left from her early years, the next six months would definitely rid her of it in no time. Just as the fifth and final flag came into view, it began to rain. It started as a light drizzle, then went to a moderate shower and once Alexandra was close enough to the flag to see which direction was next it began to pour. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and then turned right.
The new and final trail was quickly filling up with water from the rain, but she continued to run. Alexandra picked up speed as she ran the last stretch to get out of the enchanted forest. In the distance she could see Jentus waiting for her outside the boundaries of the forest.
CHAPTER FORTY SIX
“You made it. Now we must continue with your basic hand-to-hand combat training. What is wrong?” Jentus asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Continue? What do you mean continue? How long have I been in the forest? It seemed like a really long time in the forest.” Alexandra said bewildered.
“Time in the Enchanted Forest is different than it is here. You could be in there for a year or more and an hour would be all that passes here. It is for that reason that we use it. It maximizes the hour time that we can afford on running.
“This way you get many days training for only one hour of actual time. Now, let’s get to basic training. I trust that you did not have to fight anything in there. I, myself, don’t use it anymore because I happen to run into something every time that I go.
“I have been through it over a thousand times already, but the last time I went through I was nearly killed by a beast. I barely was able to flee with my life.” Jentus said while blankly staring at something unseen in the Enchanted Forest. When Alexandra noticed this he turned his attention back to her.
“I think that I was followed, something scratched my arm and something grabbed my thigh. I saw a big beast, but it was content with knocking down trees. Other than that everything was fine.” Alexandra said as a lone tear fell from her left eye.
“As long as nothing attacks you, you should be fine. There are a lot of primary things you must know about hand-to-hand combat. First, you must learn how to block when someone attacks you. The reason for starting with this is because it is the key to your survival.
“We will begin with a basic lesson of how to block hand strikes and elbow strikes. Moving out of the way we will cover later, but right now we will just cover the simple blocks. Out there ...”
Jentus made an all encompassing arc with his hand signifying the rest of the world, and then continued to speak,
“You will encounter many different styles of fighting, each one with a different focus. Here, you will learn the L’art’o style of fighting. It will be impossible to master it by the end of these six months, but at least you will have enough groundwork to know it well.
“My purpose is to teach you to defend yourself and fight if you have to. If you make it to assassin training, they are good enough to train you master skills in the L’art’o style. I am only qualified enough to be accomplished at it and will never be trained to master it.
“Blocking requires you to intercept the attackers thrust or for simplicity’s sake intercept the attackers oncoming fist with either your fist, hand, arm or elbow. I think that you get what I am saying.
“Now, for a demonstration of what I am saying I will throw my right fist at the left side of your face. Be ready to block it.”
Jentus said as he released his fist, and struck Alexandra square in the left side of her jaw.
Alexandra landed hard on the ground and looked up at Jentus while she rubbed her jaw with her left hand,
“Why did you do that? I was not ready and do not know how to block anything.”
“I am going to teach you how to block. It is that I just wanted to show you what would happen if you failed to block a strike. Only that if you failed to block a strike from someone who was really
attacking you, you would not survive.
“A lesson learned the hard way is a skill gained. Alexandra, you must think of your survival. Blocking a shot is the key point of your survival. Now, let’s get to work.
“When I punch with my right hand, you block with your left forearm when the punch is directed to the left side of your body and you block with your right forearm when the punch is directed to the right side of your body. The same goes for when I punch with my left hand.
“To start we will focus on a closed fist block instead of the more advanced open-handed block. A closed fist in the L’art’o style is made by slowly bending your four fingers until they come in contact with the meaty part of the thumb.
“Once they are secure, place your thumb across the second digit of the first three fingers leaving the smallest finger by itself. You block a strike by knocking it away from you. It is always good not to over extend your block because doing so will leave you vulnerable to attack.
“If the attack is frontal, meaning your opponent is going to hit you in the face, chest, solar plexus, abdominal cavity, the pelvic region or anywhere else in the front of your body then your effective blocking range would be from the top of your head to just above your knees, and from your left shoulder to your right shoulder.
“Anywhere else will just make you too vulnerable. If the attacker attacks either your left side or your right side anywhere on your body, you must pivot on the balls of your feet to turn the side attack into a frontal attack.
“This is done so that you can block efficiently with the least effort. If the attacker attacks your left side, you are to pivot on the ball of your right foot bringing your left foot and left shoulder back while bringing up your left arm for an outside block.
“If the attacker attacks your right side, you are to pivot on the ball of your left foot bringing your right foot and right shoulder back while bringing up your right arm for an outside block. When you block with your forearm, your forearm and your opponent’s forearm will lock momentarily as you brush the attack away from you.
“I will make many thrusts at you with my closed fists and you must block each in turn. If you do not block them, they will hit you. For the purposes of these first two weeks I will not hit you my hardest, but hard enough to hurt you. After the first two weeks, I will be hitting as hard as I can.
“Everyone trains people relatively the same ages or not too far apart for this reason. Or in our cases your youth is pitted against my wisdom and experience. We know what we are doing. It is time to begin blocking my attacks now that you know the theory behind the basic blocking techniques.”
Jentus went into a standing position that seemed weird to Alexandra. She had never seen anyone stand so awkwardly before. His legs were bent slightly with his left side closest to her. To her it seemed that he was trying to be as small of a target as he could be.
His hands were up high enough to cover his face, closed into fists in the manner of the L’art’o style. The rest of his arms and elbows blocked the vital areas of his torso from a clear strike from an opponent. Alexandra knew that it was only a matter of time before Jentus started throwing punches at her. She hoped that she would remember enough to block all that he had planned for her.
“I will start slow giving you time to block and gradually pick up my tempo. When I do speed up you will have to concentrate very deeply on knocking away my attacks.”
He threw a right towards her right shoulder and she barely blocked it with an outside block. Her right forearm hurt from the impact of their colliding arms. Trying not to give her time to recover from the first blow, he threw a left that she almost did not brush aside with her left forearm.
Remembering what Jentus had said about not letting herself become open for attack, she brought her right arm back to a ready position. At least she assumed having your forearm in a vertical orientation so that it hovered in front of your chest being in the ready position. Jentus stepped back and leaped towards her.
Alexandra did not know what was happening because Jentus only covered blocks with her. It was like everything was in slow motion, she could see and feel his movement and hoped she could pinpoint how, where or when he would strike. Alexandra was almost mesmerized by the flexibility, strength and cunning of this man as he flew through the air at an alarming speed.
She watched as he brought up his knees and shot his left foot downward like a spear. His other leg was brought around to the left in a sweeping motion. It was then that she realized, were she to do nothing, his right foot would hit the left side of her face.
Remembering what Jentus had said about those attacking from the side, she pivoted on the ball of her right foot bringing her left leg and left shoulder back. Following these things, she brought up her left arm and successfully blocked the kick sending Jentus on his backside. Expecting him to be slowed down a bit Alexandra momentarily let down her guard and barely blocked a double kick to her pelvic area with both hands bending back one of the fingers on her left hand.
She blocked a barrage of punches and kicks as Jentus began to increase the tempo of his attacks and bombard her with almost more than she could handle. It was now that she did not have any time to think, but just enough time to respond. One mistake would let him passed her guard, but she continued to block everything that he threw at her.
It was getting to the point where she knew where he would hit next and was timing everything just enough to avoid being hit. She figured that he must have thrown at least twenty punches and ten kicks. Surprised at her aptitude in defending herself, Alexandra began to get sloppy and let some slide and come as close as an inch away from hitting her.
Jentus must have picked up on this because he almost immediately doubled the speed and accuracy of his attacks. He also varied the timing of each punch and kick in order to prevent her from locking onto any specific rhythm. It was hard for her to keep up, but she did. Occasionally his strikes would graze her face, nose, chin, neck, chest, shoulders and ribs only to cause minimal damage to a few layers of tissue.
Not long after receiving these punches and kicks, a pale yellow discoloration was evident in a few areas not covered by her training outfit. She obviously was not blocking enough. The barrage of punches and kicks continued for a few hours. For every ten punches and kicks Alexandra blocked, three would graze her body and at least one she took full on. She figured that she had blocked over a couple hundred, been grazed by about sixty and been hit full on by at least twenty punches and kicks.
Being sore and tired she started to miss blocking twice as many hits and eventually got so tired and sore that she started to get hit by every third punch or kick. The blocking session ended with Jentus kicking her feet out from under her and Alexandra landing on the ground flat on her back.
Alexandra stayed on her back and stared up at Jentus. She wondered why he was smiling the way that he was, maybe it was because she had failed so miserably at blocking his last few shots. Even though he helped her to her feet, she was still puzzled at his apparent demeanor.
CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN
Once she had recovered her balance, Jentus began to speak.
“I am satisfied with your performance with your first try at blocking. Don’t worry about the last half hour of the training I know that you were tired. We will have you blocking in your sleep by the time the six months are over. In the last two hours I have been hitting you with all that I had and I am surprised that you were able to block most of my best moves.
“You are the first student that I have had that could block my kicks and that pleases me greatly, even though they were done at a very small fraction of my skill. Now, we must do your meditation training. To start we will focus on simple breathing exercises and then move onto getting you to the calming state. Okay, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
“Good. Now, let’s go over to where I have two mats that we can lie on while we meditate. Get comfortable so that you can relax without moving. Once we start an
d through the whole meditation process, we will not move. Continue the breathing gradually slowing down your breathing and eventually breathing in and out through your nose.
“At this point you should feel really relaxed and content. Now imagine heat flowing through your entire body and still maintain the breathing continuing to slow it down. By this time you should not feel your flesh. The point of this is to get as deep as you can and get deeper and deeper the more that you do this. Follow what I have told you and when you come out of meditation we will eat.
“If you come out of meditation before I do, you will have to wait. At no time should you disturb my meditation, because it is a gradual process to get back out of meditation. The deeper you go into your meditation the more preparation you will need to come out of meditation.”
Alexandra continued her breathing gradually slowing it down to a point where a casual observer would not be able to tell whether she was breathing or not. She felt her body being drawn into the earth and her body felt tingly all over. It was like a bunch of sparkles were dancing upon her skin. These sparkles went away as an infernal heat that threatened to sear the flesh off of her bones replaced them.
She had never felt such heat before, not even in the hot afternoon sun that beaded down upon her. Today the sun was high and hotter than usual, but was like a cool winter breeze compared to the fire within her. She could feel the stickiness of the sweat that soaked the leather of her training outfit continuously seeping out of her pores ridding her of all contaminants in her blood.
It reminded her of when she used to stand beneath the falls of her village, the water beading off of her like oil on water. To her it was unbelievable that she was regaining lost energy and beginning to be refreshed. It was also strange that her healing ability was back of all times and she was now feeling as though all of her bruises were going away. The meditation was making her feel stronger and surer of herself.