I entered the room behind Diane and looked around in curiosity. There was a slightly padded floor in the middle of the room and a shelf with some padded weapons. A large guy in a blue uniform waited, the silver border on his blue badge showed that he was a Guard Group Leader.
Rick was beside me watching with a relaxed expression as Ace, Diane and the Guard started putting on padding and picking up the practice swords and daggers. Rick spoke quietly, "We have done some training with you as to what you are supposed to do if Diane gets into a fight, but you two really need to practice together with actual fighters."
I nodded. I was still excited, although I was also pretty nervous. Ace waved us over, "Laura, I am going to get you to curl up on the floor and pretend you have an injured leg. Rick will be nearby to help you. Diane is going to be fighting against the two of us while giving you various hand signals. If it involves small movements, follow the signal. For the other signals, tell Rick what you think they are. They will look different since Diane will have weapons in both hands. Any questions?"
I shook my head and walked over to Diane to lie on my side and curl up on the floor. I kept an eye on Diane. Her eyes were brighter than usual and her body language had shifted slightly. She didn't seem to be trying to hide her abilities as hard as she normally did. That was odd. It was as if it was just the two of us outside of the fence in the middle of the forest.
Diane stood right beside me and watched the two men approach with sharp eyes. I noticed her muscles shift and tense slightly. Her hands tightened slightly on both her sword and dagger. Her eyes also brightened marginally. I was familiar enough with her to know that she was not impressed with their slow threatening approach.
The two split up and Diane gave me a hand signal. I realized that the hand signals I knew so well weren't nearly so easily distinguished with the weapons in Diane's hands. It took me a second or two to work out the signal and scoot to the left a bit as she had requested. This was going to be much harder than I originally thought.
They closed in and Diane dropped into a fighting crouch with her weapons at ready. My heart sped up, although I wasn't sure whether it was from excitement or nervousness. Ace darted in and Diane blocked his sword with her dagger before slapping her sword against his leg. I blinked in astonishment. I had never seen anyone move as fast as Diane and Ace had just moved.
I squeaked as I noticed the big Guard coming up behind me. My alarm had been in vain though, even before I made the noise Diane had already skipped over my form to slash her sword at his legs. He jumped back out of her range. She didn't stop her swing and dropped into a deeper crouch as she swung her sword over me – causing Ace to jump backwards. I hadn't even noticed him sneaking up.
I remained on the floor and kept my eyes on Diane. The thudding impacts of various weapons reverberated through the air as Diane spun around my form to keep both Ace and the Guard Group Leader at bay. Their speed was phenomenal.
All three were lightning quick and I simply couldn't keep track of where all of the weapons were. I had no idea how Diane was managing to block them and get some strikes of her own in. Despite the Guard's larger size, Diane had no problem pushing him backwards.
I was having problems tracking Diane's hands to watch for signals. Most I managed to get, but Rick had to help me with some. After a bit, I got the hang of how she held her weapons and how it altered the signal.
Well, I had wanted Diane to stand guard over me and now she was. The other two were trying to get close to tap the floor beside me, but Diane kept both at a distance. I started to relax and enjoy myself. It was a very intense training, but it was still just training so it was fun. Rick looked quite amused as he kept out of their way, but the other three didn't look like they were having that much fun.
A couple of hours later Ace called for a break. Ace and the Guard were sweating and breathing heavily at this point. Diane was breathing heavier than normal, but not nearly as badly as the other two.
Ace and the Guard went over to a bench with some water bottles and sat down. The Guard groaned as he tried to stretch out his one leg, "I am never accepting your invitation for a workout as long as that child is on the floor. What were you thinking?"
Both probably had several good bruises under their padding. Diane got through their defense a lot more than they got through hers. Each blow she had landed made a clap of noise against their padding – and there had been lots of those.
Ace shrugged and winced at the movement, "It seemed like a good plan at the time."
The Guard shook his head, "Never again. She is like a grizzly bear guarding a cub."
I found it hilarious that they compared Diane to a large furry animal. I giggled and rolled over onto my stomach. Diane was standing in front of me with her arms relaxed by her sides. She had been very protective though, just like a mother bear. Those two hadn't even come close to me the entire time.
I traced a finger over Diane's ankle with another giggle. I could touch her, but they couldn't get through her to touch me. I had much more leeway and privileges than they did. It made me feel special.
Ace sighed tiredly as he looked over at me, "We give up. Laura can you please stand up so Diane puts those weapons down before she causes more damage?"
I bounced up to my feet and gave Diane a hug. She chuckled as she returned the hug. Rick looked smug and amused. Diane put her weapons down on the floor and stretched before wandering over to the bench to grab a water. She took a long drink before sitting beside the Guard Group Leader, "I say we blame Ace for this one."
The big Guard snorted, "I already am blaming him. I haven't had this many bruises since I was in my twenties."
Ace snickered and winced at the pain caused by his ribs. I sat down beside Diane and took a drink from my water bottle as well. I was thirsty even if I hadn't really been doing anything. Rick was grinning widely from where he stood in front of us. The Guard raised his eyebrow with a sigh at Rick's amusement.
Rick laughed at him, "I am so glad that I was just advising Laura from a distance and not attempting to get near her."
The Guard groaned again at the reminder. Rick was having far too much fun at his expense. Rick chuckled, "I advise a hot shower and a bottle of horse liniment before heading for an early bedtime."
The Guard regarded Rick with an ironic expression, "You would not be in such a good mood if I added a few bruises to your hide."
Rick stood up grinning, "You would have to catch me first, which, by the way, isn't that likely at this particular moment. I shall take this as my leave. Take care walking back lest you make a target of yourself. At this point Laura would have a good shot at taking you down."
He waved and walked out the door. I grinned silently, there was no way a child like me could ever hope to take on a huge and heavily muscled Guard Group Leader.
The Guard sighed, "Well, I plan to take his advice and go find a hot shower." He stood up slowly and started heading out.
Ace watched him go and turned to look at Diane with a faintly accusing expression, "Did you have to be quite so rough on us?"
Diane found his reaction funny and chuckled, "You two are supposed to be fully trained. I was supposed to guard Laura and I did. It wasn't my fault that you didn't dodge my blows better."
I grinned. It was quite funny that she got to hit her trainers in the disguise of practice. It was even more amusing because she clearly had the upper hand. Although I had kind of expected that from her.
He shook his head, "Well, I think it is safe to say that if two people tried to get at Laura while you were beside her that they would swiftly regret their decision. Unless they manage to take you completely by surprise, which isn't likely considering how aware you are of what is going on around you. Looks like your observation skills as a Forager are coming in quite handy."
Diane nodded slowly, "I am glad to hear that. Sorry about the bruises by the way, I just couldn't seem to slow down enough to pull my blows as much as I normally do."
She did seem kind of sorry, but not terribly sad that she had left bruises. I got the feeling that he should have expected them and that they both got bruises in this kind of training. I didn't like bruises, so I had no desire to do that kind of training.
He started to shrug, but thought better of it, "That was partially my fault. I knew you were protective of her and I wanted to use that to help both you and her train together as a team. It didn't quite cross my mind that having only two people fighting against you instead of the usual four was going to earn me an impressive set of bruises. I should have clued in from Rick's expression when I suggested it."
I grinned, Rick had indeed expected this and had looked quite forward to seeing Ace taken down a peg or two. Diane found it funny too, "He was eager to see you get beat up?"
He winced, "He seemed to enjoy it way too much."
Diane snickered, "I seem to recall someone else enjoying my bruises way too much at the beginning of my training."
Ace laughed before wincing and trying to control it, "No clue what you are talking about."
Diane shook her head, "Well, I need a shower before we go to supper. I guess that I won't be seeing you tonight?"
He quickly shook his head, "Not tonight, I am going to go and see if the nurses are willing to part with some salve for these bruises before trying to relax and recover."
Diane chuckled and stood up. I bounced to my feet as well. We all walked together until we parted at the nursing area. Ace limped towards an eager Nancy who was at the front desk watching his slow progress while Diane and I headed for the showers.