The Hanging Tree

Chapter Six

Run.

He traced the word in the dirt.

I copied the hand sign he did and he nodded, holding out a thumbs up.

He'd been teaching me basic sign language for a little over a half hour as we sat at the camouflage station, trying to blend our bodies in with the various settings.

He signed something else, too long to be a single word, and I raised a brow. "What does that mean?"

He traced the words out between us.

Help, I am being coerced into tap dancing by angry rabbits.

You're right," I said, nodding. "That is essential to know."

He grinned at me and signed another word.

Menstruation.

"And I think that's our cue to move on," I said, hopping up and dusting my knees off.

He got to his feet, standing next to me with a very pleased expression on his face.

He signed something and this time, I recognized it.

Where?

Ultimately, we decided to move onto something with weapons, a field in which we were both pretty lacking.

I avoided the knives, like Levi and Kiva had encouraged, along with any station where the Careers were hovering.

"Have you done this before?" One of the instructors asked me after I'd accidentally punched her in the face during hand-to-hand combat at the sparring station.

I'd gotten in one-too-many fights at school and Kota and I would often wrestle when were younger but I didn't know what I was doing - I was just good at avoiding being hit.

"Not really," I answered honestly.

"Well, you have a good swing," She told me, readjusting her position. "But your posture is completely off. You need to balance your defense and offense - you're trying to play both at once."

In truth, I'd just gotten really angry that she was trying so hard to hit me and got lucky.

I nodded, following her instructions on how to stand, what to guard, and what to aim for.

When we started again, she was able to knock out from under me in a single, swift motion and I landed on my back with a loud groan.

I looked longingly toward the knives station before getting back up.

After over an hour of getting knocked down and dragging myself back up again, I realized that I should just stick to running. 

"You don't give up, I'll give you that," She said before starting forward again. 

I was quick enough to avoid her blows but only for so long and, when a hard one got my jaw, I ducked to avoid to follow-up and, remembering what she'd taught me, used my leg to bring her down. 

I couldn't help but grin.

I moved to knot tying while I waited for Cole to finish up at the ropes course so we could head to the edible insects station. 

I was tying half knots, my mind drifting to thoughts of Mieka and Kota and Cassia and the rest of my family - what were they doing now, what did they think about the chariots? How was my mother, had the medicine helped at all? - when someone dropped down beside me. 

"I know that we're supposed to head over to the digestible bugs," I told Cold as I added another knot to the string of ones I'd already made, holding it around my hands with a stupid grin. "But I'm a little tied up at the moment - oh!"