The Woods Curse

Training

Still feeling pretty pleased with myself I waked back into the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea with far too much sweetener in it, with the amount of sugar I consumed combined with the general lack of exercise it was a miracle how slim I was. Warm mug in hand I trudged up stairs to my bedroom and changed into some jeans and a hoodie, basically what I wear regardless of whether I am out of the house or on it. The day went by fairly dully consisting mainly of me doing junk on the internet, sitting with my family for dinner and then going back to watching stupid YouTube videos. Me and Alice had both agreed not to talk about the woods or me being a 'lycanthrope' as she calls it, apparently the official name for a werewolf is that and although I really don't like being called 'lycanthrope' she does it purely to wind me up. This was in case my parents decided to go snooping through my messages and caught on to anything. 

For dinner my mum had made steak and she looked at me slightly add when I asked if she could give it to me a bit more raw than the others, it was barely even cooked when I ate it but it somehow tasted better than any steak I had ever had in my life, and I had to stop myself from going all yellow eyed at the dinner table. 'That would be awkward' I thought as I wiped my chin and sat back a little in my chair. No time for questions, I quickly excused myself and escaped back to the relative safety of my bed covers. It took a while for me to sleep though, even just lying there in the shadowy silence I had so much energy it was unbelievable! At about 4 am I drifted off but at exactly 7 am, no alarm clock involved, I woke up again fully refreshed. 'I gotta talk to Anna about this' I thought and without any breakfast or delay I pulled on some random clothes, my boots and rushed out of the house with a quick explanation to my parents. 

I sprinted the whole way there, not completely sure why but it only took a minute, and use my powers to catch Anna's scent. This time I slowed myself down and took my time winding through the trees following the invisible trail, the smell reminded me a bit of vanilla and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on 'It'll come to me eventually' I thought. After about 2 minutes of trudging along I picked up the sound of grunting, this was coupled with noises suggesting dirt being kicked up, heavy breathing and the distinct thud of something hitting the ground with force. A fight?! I started rapidly chasing the sounds which is where Anna's scent was also leading me! I picked up the speed, faster and faster hoping she was Ok.

I crashed through a bush at full pelt and dived at the attacker who was aiming his fist at her face, I planted my hands on his shoulders so that all of my force was directed at him. He smacked into the earth and tumbled backward with me holding on and refusing to let go, this ended with him flat on his back and me pinning him with barred fangs ready to rip his throat out. "Richard!?" I mumbled in disbelief, 'What is this?!'

Richard was squirming and trying to get an arm free to push me off, black hair all over the place and his grey T-shirt torn at the bottom and stained with dirt. "Look we were just sparring, can you get off me!?" He said half annoyed and half scared. I got off him and started apologizing over and over again saying how I thought there was an actual fight. Anna wasn't angry at all and, from the looks of it, was barely containing her laughter although she did say that she was grateful for my concern. They both explained that a couple of times a week, partly to kill time and blow off any steam, they exercise together and then have sparring sessions. Jacob had completely refused to do any fighting what so ever because he said "There is a really big chance someone is going to get hurt, besides I might lose control"

They invited me to join them for a couple of fights and, despite not being in very good gear for athletic stuff, I agreed happily. I watched them 2 fight it out for a bit and studied some of their moves and what they did most frequently hoping I could maybe use it against them. Anna's style was definitely more about being a slick dodger and tacking open opportunities for either multiple small attacks or one larger attack, her wing had almost fully healed so she was using those slightly to pull herself up and out of the way of Richards attacks to her legs. As I watched, I saw that her keen eyes picked up ever slightest twitch of a muscle but that she didn't use her legs enough and used her wings a little too much. 

I switched my attention to Richard, both of their styles were very refined and smooth but his consisted more of speed and putting the pressure on, constantly attacking every time Anna dodged and twisting his body and remarkable ways in an attempt to catch her off guard. He used his legs a lot and had a thing for trying to catch Anna's body with his foot, 'if during our fight I could step away from his kicks and grab his ankle I could pull him off balance' I thought, it was possible. He was fast and had good balance, but concentrated too much on his speed meaning he was unfocused and it was easy to catch him out. So far Anna had one 2 fights and Richard had won 3, then suddenly Anna turned to me and said "Alright, your turn" and got into a fighting stance completely ready to take me on. The problem was that I didn't know if I was ready to take her on...