The Death Breathers

Chapter VI

A couple of days pass, and Sparrow has told me to practice lifting myself up and down on the ladder ropes.

I think it must be for upper body strengthening. I'll need it, she says.

It's now Tuesday, and Sparrow introduces me to one of the other birds.

He's got jet black hair, and narrow eyebrows.

"This is Raven," she says. "He'll be teaching you the next part of your training."

The she leaves, and he speaks to me.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey."

"So, I'll be teaching you one of the most important parts of your training."

I don't know what it'll be, but it'll be good. Hopefully.

"I'll be teaching you..."

I brace myself for something great.

"Boxing."

My eyes widen.

"Ah, hell yeah! I get to punch stuff!"

He laughs. "It's not quite as simple as that. We'll be teaching you - no, I'll be teaching you to defend yourself against the dark forces."

"Oh, cool."

He grabs one of those punching bags, and hooks it up to the ceiling.

He hands me some gloves and I put them on.

He nods at me. I guess that's the sign I can start.

I punch it once, with little force.

"Oh, you can do WAY better than that!" he says. "Try again, but much harder."

So I punch it again, with more force. And again, even harder.

And again and again and again until my arms hurt.

()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()

After we finish for the day, Jay invites me to his nest.

"Hey," I say as I go in.

"Hey."

We sit in awkward silence for a bit.

"Sparrow and Raven tell me you're doing really well with your training," he says.

"Oh, me? You must have the wrong person."

He laughs. "I mean it. You're really good."

He looks me in the eyes.

I look back.

Sky blue.

He then coughs awkwardly.

"So, why did you want to talk to me?" I say.

"Oh, I just want to get to know the new girl. There's so much we don't know about each other," he says.

"Yeah, I guess."

"We should do a fun game, one of those get-to-know games."

"Uh, yeah, okay." I say.

"So... pick three things about yourself, and tell me. I'll start."

He thinks for a moment, then opens his mouth to talk.

"So, number one. I am vegetarian. Number two, I love girls who are geeky and nerdy, because I am too. Number three..."

I look at him.

"Uh... I dunno, what's something...?" he says, fading off.

He looks up, and into my eyes again.

His pupils are almost as big as his irises. He's got nice eyelashes too, long, and black...

"Oh, I know. I love the band Fall Out Boy!"

I smile. "That's pretty much me too! But I guess I should do three different things."

"Yeah, if you want."

"Ok, number one. I love things with galaxy patterns on them. Number two..." I was actually stuck for ideas.

"I'm an art kid..."

He raises his eyebrows in a ooh-very-nice way.

"Number three... oh, I don't know. It's kind of hard, y'know, just on-the-spot answers."

"I'm sorry," he says. He smiles.

"I should get back, it's almost curfew..." I say.

"No, stay. It's ok."

We sit in silence for a moment.

"Um, I think I'm teaching you in a few weeks," he says. "Teaching you the most important skill."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you. But it'll take lots of time getting it perfect, I can tell you that."

"It better be worthwhile then," I say.

"Oh, it will be."