The God and the Shifter

Chapter 8

In one of the training rooms I placed my towel and bottle of water on a chair at the edge of the room

"So, what do you want to start with?" I asked awkwardly making my way to the middle of the room where Loki was.

"We shall start with some basic hand to hand combat" he replied and moved into a fighting stance position.

"Okay" but before the word was even out of my mouth he launched his first attack and went straight in for a right hand punch.

I wasn't fully ready but I managed to block it at the last second and stumbled a few paces back. He gave me a second to regain myself and I went in for my own attack and we continued.

After an hour of him wiping the floor with my ass he called time for a break. I felt battered and bruised but I knew he wasn't going anywhere near all out with me.

I collapsed on a mat at the edge of the room and took a big gulp of my water.

"You are indeed a formidable opponent, Lady Liz" he commented, barely out of breath.

"You're kidding, right?" I panted, wiping sweat from my face.

"No, im not....kidding" he tested the word and smiled when he liked it. "Do not forget I have more than a thousand years training on you. Have you had any training in weapons?"

"No, not really" and I took another gulp of water.

"Would you like me to teach you to fight with daggers?"

"Yeh, sure!" And he smiled at my enthusiasm and made his way back to the middle of the room.

Three target dummies appeared in front of us across the room when I made my way over to him and he handed me a dagger. It wasn't anything impressive at first glance but on closer inspection I saw that the blade's hilt was a dull gold metal and the blade itself had some sort of runed etched into it.

I passed it between my hands a few times to get an idea of the balance of it and nearly dropped it on the last pass. "Oops"

"Dear Odin, please be careful. Hold it like this" he said and took the dagger from me to show me how to hold it before passing it back.

"Like this?" I asked and copied what he showed me

"Yes, correct. Now, when throwing the blade, you need to release it at the right time like this" and he whirled to the right and threw another blade at the dummy that hit its mark through its head. "Now you try," he grinned.

I took up the stance Loki had before he moved and tried to copy. It wasn't a complete failure, I managed to hit the dummy...in the arm.

"Here, try this," he placed the dagger back in my hand, came behind me and wrapped his arm around mine and held my wrist. Heat rose to my cheeks at how close he was to me and his touch on my wrist. He swept our arms around and I released the dagger and this time it landed in the dummy's chest.

"Oh! Oh! I hit it!" I shouted with glee and jumped around, clapping my hands like a child.

Loki chuckled at my reaction "Yes you did, Lady Liz. Lets go again"

We continued to practice for another half an hour and by the time we finished I was mostly hitting the dummy in the correct place.

"Thank you, Loki!" I said as I jumped towards him and gave him a hug.

I felt his body stiffen at first but he relaxed after a few seconds and returned the hug, smiling.

"Kids, dinners ready!" Stark called from the door to the training room with a grin on his face.

Loki and I both jumped apart at Stark's voice and we both looked a little embarrassed. I collected my towel and bottle and we went to go eat.

"Liz, you're coming on the next mission with us tomorrow" Cap said when we were all sitting at the table with our food.

"Really?!" I asked excitedly

"Yeh, you've been training long enough with us to not be a liability in the field. We won't throw you straight in the deep end but it's time you got some real experience so get a good night's rest tonight" he smiled at me, happy to see me so excited to finally be able to join them.

I smiled down at my plate but I caught a glimpse of Loki out the side of my vision and he looked displeased but didn't say anything.