The Myth that Became Real

Chapter 13

"Now I'm not going to make you run, we'll be doing that later. But tell me, do you have any fighting or defense experience?" Liam asked suddenly becoming serious.

I shifted from foot to foot and stared at the mat. "Nope." I already knew what was coming and I tried making myself as small as possible yet I knew it was pointless because he could see me just fine, there was nothing else around me that could hide me. Yes, I would actually like to learn how to fight to protect myself but I was dreading practicing with him.

"I figured that, so I decided we were going to start with some basics for now. Can you make a fist?" Liam asked.

Well, there was no time like the present to put everything behind me and try not to hate this too much. Resisting was futile. I also at least knew some things before we started too which I was proud to show off. I curled my hands into fist but left my thumbs on the outside because I knew I had a better chance of breaking my thumbs if they were on the inside.

"Good, now let's see your stance. Since you're right handed put your left foot in front." I did as he instructed and moved so my feet were about a shoulder width apart and my left foot in front of my right. "Okay, now raise your arms like you're about to punch me which I know you want to do."

I raised my arms in a defense but offense position in the air, at least I thought it was. "Okay," Liam said slowly and looked me up and down, "bend your knees so you have more balance and tighten your core. Don't slouch. Good. Follow me."

He strode to a nearby punching bag and I scrambled to catch up with his long strides. Well, it was going better than I expected already. It actually wasn't that bad, for now.

He decided he was going to wrap my fist up in the cloth most people put on when punching a bag. He wouldn't let me do it because I "couldn't do it right." Darn him. When he was done, he stepped back and ordered, "punch the bag."

I did. "Again," he said. I hit the bag once more. "Again." I hit it with more force. "Keep going till I say to stop." I did as I told, imagining his face was the bag. "Tighten your core," he yelled out a few times. I tried to adjust but it apparently wasn't good enough because I his hands wrap around my sides and straightened me out. "Like this," he said behind me. "Now punch the bag a few more times then we'll move on to kicks."

I groaned but did as told. He finally stopped me to tell me how to kick. "Okay, that's good. Now when you kick, always kick with your back leg, you get more force that way. And the best area to kick are the weak spots, on the legs, it's behind the knees or the side of their thigh right here." He demonstrated by pointing to the area on his leg where it was weak. "We'll learn other types of kicks later but for now let's see a kick."

I kicked the bag and it seemed to live up to his standards because he didn't say anything. He just had me keep going until he decided he wanted me to do both and then he later added elbows in the training too.

"You're doing well for a beginner," Liam said under his breath in the middle of one of my rounds. We were moving onto more difficult moves now instead of just the basics.

"What? Was that a compliment I hear? No criticism I'm not learning fast enough?"

He rolled his eyes, "you're doing fine. You're just picking this up faster than a lot of other people. Sometimes it would take some people weeks before they got to this level. We've only been doing this for a couple of hours."

"Thank you," I guess training wasn't so bad. But then again, I've mostly done the hitting and kicking on a punching bag and haven't been knocked flat on my butt yet by him.

"Anyways, everything you're learning is for when you're in a situation and you can't get out of it. You're not learning this to attack people but to defend yourself. Even if you're in a safe place, it is good to know how to fight just in case. Now I think it is time to move away from the punching bag and to the mat."

Oh Jiminey Cricket, now my butt was going to be handed to me. I followed him to the mat and stopped in the middle where he told me but he kept walking. "What are you doing?"

"I think it's time for a little game of dodge ball, don't you?" he threw over his shoulder.

"Dodge ball, what does dodge ball have anything to do with training?"

"Well for one," he answered slowly, "it's fun. And two, you have to 'dodge' the ball." He picked up a bag of balls and dumped the contents out. "Let's play." He picked up a ball and threw it at me. The breath went out of me. There was no way I could have avoided that, it was too fast.

"What the fudge man! How am I suppose to dodge that? And how is playing dodge ball suppose to help?"

"It is suppose to help gather information at faster speeds and react to them. You'll get better, it's in your blood. Now keep dodging." He threw more at me and I probably became the worst dodger in history. There were points I came close to missing the ball, but I never did. The balls were moving too fast.

"Come on!" He yelled as he continued to throw one after the other.

"This isn't helping!" I yelled back at him.

"Yes it is, now keep doing it."

An inhuman growl escaped my throat. It was more cat like, like a jaguar. My eyes focused on the next ball as it came in slow motion. I leaned to the left and easily avoided it. I did the same with the next several crouching down, jumping, and doing some ninja and gymnastic moves I've never done before. I growled again once the balls stopped coming in a challenge.

"You see, I knew you could do it," Liam commented across the floor. I prowled toward him. I watched as his smile disappeared and his eyes turned to golden slits. He shook his head and they disappeared once he looked at me again. "Snap out of it Skylar."

I prowled closer ignoring his words. He took a step back while his eyes flickered between gold and normal. I didn't let that stop me though, I continued to gain distance while he continued to step back looking like he barely had control to not do that.

He growled and raced to the other side of the gym. He faced the wall. I prowled toward him again. When he turned around to face me, his eyes were normal once more and he said, "snap out of it Skylar or you're going to do more training and this time it won't be as nice."

That stopped me in my tracks and my eyes seemed to widen and take more in, I didn't even realize I had focused on only one thing. I shook my head confused, what in the world just happened?

"The animal inside you was taking over," Liam answered voicing my thoughts. Oops, did I say that out loud? "Your eyes turned gold and cat like. You let her take over. That is another thing we should work on by the way, controlling the animal inside you so it doesn't completely take over. You need to stay in control while yet accessing the animal. You may be one in the same but if you're not careful you could act more animal with less human thoughts. It won't be easy to get back in control."

I sighed, frustrated and aching. I did not want to loose my mind like that again but I also couldn't help but wonder if there was anything Liam was leaving out because it didn't seem like the whole truth. "Fine, but can we be done for the day? I'm hungry and tired and we've been doing this for a long a time. Can we continue tomorrow or something?"

"Yes we can," Liam said. "Now come on, it's a five minute run back to the house."

"Wait, five minutes! But it took us an hour to get here!" I yelled exasperated.

The prick grinned cheekily, "I know, we just took the long way."

"I'm going to kill you," I yelled.

"Not if you can't catch me!" He singsonged and raced out the door. I wasn't far behind him.

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Here's the next chapter! What do you think and what just happened? Do you think there's something more going on or is what Liam said is everything? What will happen next? Until next time! And leave suggestions on what you want to happen next! I'm kind of authors blocked for the next chapter so I would love to see what your ideas are for what you want to happen.

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