Snow Princess

Chapter 22: Dark and Colorful woods

               My mind was racing as I saw what laid in front of me. What was I going to do with human punching bags? I looked at Eros and then back to the people, if they could even be considered that. Their bodies were deformed and they weren’t even that good looking. I tilted my head to the side and still never found a placement to make my mind change otherwise.

                  “Oh don’t look at the buds like that,” Eros told me as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “And don’t worry if you think they are ugly, you’re going to be kicking their bodies and faces anyway.”

                  “Kicking?” I asked stupidly. What was I, two? Did I not know what kicking was?

                  “Yes, you're going to be practicing your kicks. I want to see control when you kick and that’s what we’re going to practice. At first, we're going to start off with your low kicks. We’re going to slow it down, and then move on with faster ones. Do you think you can handle this for now?”

                  Slow and low kicks…were those hard? I never really practiced something like that in my life. I guess it was because I didn’t need to fight anyone. “I, uh I guess I can?”

                  “Say it with conviction. I want you to practice your confidence too. You need to be confident in yourself in every aspect,” he said kindly. If he hadn’t said it the way he did, I would have thought that he was super demanding, which Eros did look, but really wasn’t that bad of a guy.

                  “Yes sir,” I said.

                  “Go on, try again.”      

                  I cleared my throat. I wasn’t really confident in myself like he wanted me to be, but I could try and fake it, right? It couldn’t hurt. “Yes I can do this? sir.” I was surprised at how it didn’t sound like the last time.

                  “Good, that’s much better. Now come on, I’ll show you how it’s done on a dummy and you follow. I really like how you and Roman had helped each other before so I want you to do the same with me.”

                  I gave him a slight gesture with my head to tell him I understood. I walked over to one of the dummies and stood facing him. It wasn’t as chilly out as most days were, but this was the night we were talking about. I had just put on a light sweater over a tank top, some black jeans, and black combat boots. I felt they were needed for training. But it seemed like it was summer in the clothes that I was wearing, which was odd.

                  Eros looked at me with authority, which kind of got me scared. He noticed that I had stiffened and relaxed his gaze. “I’m not trying to scare you, but I sometimes get into this zone where I become the teacher and you're the student.”

                  I just looked at him funny. I thought he was the teacher and I was the student.

                  “I know it doesn’t make sense. I like to be friendly with my students, but when it comes to combat, you have to switch into stealth mode. Put your hands up and let your feet bounce like so.”

                  I copied his movements.

                  “No, you’re not relaxed enough. Just because you’re about to hit something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have relaxed muscles. When the impact comes, your muscles will do the job that you think you should be doing,” he said that and then came to me and fixed my back so that it was straight. After, he took my arms and jiggled it as if it would loosen up like that. “Come on, don’t get all stiff, and loosen up.” I tried but somehow I was failing. Eros stopped trying to fix my posture and looked me dead in the eye. “Is something stressing you? Your body doesn’t seem to want to relax.”