Avery ran through the streets of Corinth, trying to suck in as much air possible. Her breath made white clouds around her and on the colder mornings froze to her eyelashes. Despite the chill her brow glinted with sweat and her short hair was pulled back into a queue behind a band of cloth that kept her ears warm. She had witnessed winter gradually descend upon the city through her daily walks that had become daily runs.
Shortly after the Fire Festival Arctos had arrived at Ember Place and announced that he would personally oversee Avery's self-defence training. She was ready each morning and worked through the fitness exercises steadily.
Arctos would often join Avery for the run, changing the route to include more hills or obstacles while the heart was pumping. Sometimes it was endurance training over a long distance, other times he had her running up and down the stairs to the mountain apartments.
That day they were finishing their run with a sprint up the hill to the Spark. They raced past the main gate and around the corner to the guard's entrance and training ring. Arctos easily sprinted past the human but skidded to a stop on the icy street when he came upon a supply wagon jammed across the tunnel. He tried to push past the workers to get through to the ring.
Avery arrived a few steps behind and quickly diverted course. She deftly jumped from crate to crate, the boxes able to support her light weight, and then threw her feet out and slid under the bottom of the wagon, grinning at Arctos on her way by. She rolled to her feet and sprinted into the training ring, skidding to a stop at the sight of faunids and sapiens practicing hand-to-hand combat.
"What's going on?" Avery asked as Arctos caught up.
"New recruits. With all the activity heating up in the territory, Hayden has been poaching some of my best city guards as officers with the forces. I'm running another intake to fill out the ranks."
He watched the sapiens spar with a critical eye, apparently unimpressed with their skills. The guards were working on basic disarmament and self-defence, repeatedly blocking attacks and incapacitating their partners.
"I thought it might a good time for you to learn some fighting skills, Half Pint," Arctos added as he wove across the training arena to a clear space.
Avery's eyes lit up and she followed the captain of the guard. "Will we learn faunid combat techniques or something that humans can actually do? Ooh, I've never understood how the Cretean swing kick actually works. I would always just fall on my face."
Arctos stopped mid-stride and gave her a funny look.
She blushed and bit her lip. "I read about it..." she mumbled.
The Ursid shook his head and grumbled, "Books. Learning how to fight from a book. What's next?" He set his canteen of water down by the wall and stepped up close to Avery.
"The first thing you need to know is how to get some distance between you and your attacker. See how that male there uses his elbow to jab the other in the stomach?"
Arctos reached around Avery's torso but she gasped and pushed away, bringing her arms up to her chest.
"It's fine, you won't hurt me," he reassured.
He moved to grab her again but Avery stepped back, panting her anxiety grew.
"It's perfectly safe. I'll show you what to do."
She swallowed and looked at the other males sparring then back at Arctos, her brows pinched. He was half-Ursid, tall, barrel-chested, built like a warrior. His closely trimmed brown hair and beard were so different from the male at the Cabin, but her skin prickled at his nearness. His maleness.
Avery couldn't step close to him. Too close. She couldn't be that close to him without smelling male. Without suffocating.
She moved further back. "Maybe we should focus on exercises some more. Core strength, you know? It's the foundation..."
Arctos dropped his hands as understanding dawned on him. Avery crossed her arms like she could shield her body from his stare. He looked away, his jaw clenching as he remembered why she didn't want him too close.
He looked back at her and nodded. "Alright. Some more strength building today. You'll never be stronger than a sapien. But you can be as strong as possible for a human. And then we'll learn some tricks that don't rely on strength, but on quick thinking, which seems to be your forte."
Her body sagged in relief. Arctos walked over to chalkboard on the wall and wrote out the exercises.
***************
Arctos accommodated Avery's need for personal space by first teaching her to kick and punch pads. If ever he brushed by her or tried to adjust her stance she would recoil from his touch. It was involuntarily, like years of conditioning had ingrained that reaction into her muscle memory. She tried to cover up it up by pretending to have an itch or needing to adjust her clothing. It was awkward for both of them but Arctos soon learned to demonstrate and have her recreate the motion.
"Stand with your feet at twelve and five and then use your core muscles to add weight to the punch. Your arms are weaker than your larger muscles, so back them up with the snap."
Avery took up the stance and slowly practiced bringing her fist around. Off to the side she could hear the clashing of metal as Niamh and Roedin sparred with their blades. Arctos held up the pads and instructed Avery to hit them square on. She wound up and snapped her fist out, landing it solidly on the pad with all her might. Arctos barely felt it.
Avery grimaced and looked down at her knuckles. "Ow." She looked up at him and winced. "I don't think that was right."
"You need to straighten out your wrist to absorb the impact. See how it's crooked?" He tried pointing it out but Avery didn't really see the issue. "You need to keep it flat."
She tried again but this time clutched her wrist and gasped after the impact, shaking it out in frustration. Roedin and Niamh had paused in their fight and were watching her while they took a water break. Avery squared her shoulders and resumed the stance.
"Wait! I see it!" Roedin interrupted. He moved over to Avery. "Go through it in slow motion."
Avery slowly brought her fist across as though punching the pad.
"It's there. You need to twist it--no, not that way. To the side." He paused to look Avery straight in the eye. "I can show you, just the elbow and wrist, if you want. One word and I'll let go."
Several beats passed and Roedin and Avery didn't break eye contact. Niamh and Arctos held their breaths. Then, ever so slightly, she nodded. Roedin took her forearm and hand and turned it over to the correct position. He let go and stepped back. Arctos' head didn't move but his eyes swiveled between the pair. Slowly she pulled back and went through the motion again. Roedin reached over and made one small adjustment. She repeated with the correction.
"Thank you," was all she could bring herself to say.
Roedin nodded and returned to where Niamh waited with their swords.
Avery landed thirty punches correctly before Arctos called her off, praising her good work. She nodded and relaxed her stance. Then she bit her lip and switched sides, placing her feet at twelve and seven instead. She took a deep breath and looked up at Arctos with painfully serious eyes. But there was also a glimmer of something else. Trust. Not blind trust but weighted and carefully considered trust.
"Can you fix the left side, please?" she asked with a slight waver in her voice.
For once Arctos issued no jokes, no teasing, or flippant comment. He slowly reached out and turned Avery's wrist to the correct position. When he stepped back she exhaled and nodded.
Though she couldn't muster a smile, the softness in her eyes said enough. "Thank you."
In the end it was Niamh who stepped in to assist with training Avery. She gladly used it as an excuse to get out of her meetings and enjoyed watching the human progress. They started with building the simple defensive moves. Avery became more comfortable with the quick contact and was more relaxed standing close to the others. As long as she was comfortable a friendly shove on the shoulder, a hand up from the ground, or pat on the back no longer made her wince and pull back.
One crisp afternoon the males were watching Niamh and Avery practice when Hayden wandered into the arena.
"This is looking good. Why am I not surprised she was able to pick it up so quickly?" Hayden said with a smile.
"It's not been without challenges," Arctos said through gritted teeth. "I want her to practice on a male -- on a more likely attacker. Niamh is very good but she's still smaller than most males. Plus, Avery needs to learn to keep her mind clear, not let panic take over."
But Arctos was most impressed on how she picked up the correct sequences and styles, quickly applying the practice to simulations. Her punches were weak but accurate and he only needed to correct her once for her to adapt quickly.
"It's because she has read every book on fighting styles there is, and she has a memory like a vault," Roedin explained. "But reading about techniques and executing them are two different things. She told me that her goal was to land just one blow on that bastard."
Arctos scowled at the thought of how the male had preyed on the human girl. "I don't know that she'll get the chance if I ever get my hands on him."
"Get in line," Roedin growled.
Avery spun low on her feet and swept out Niamh's knee causing the sapien to lose balance and step back. She leapt up and stretched forward with a jab, just barely catching Niamh's cheek. It caused no harm whatsoever but the beta prime stopped and grinned at Avery. It was close.
****************
Hayden assigned the drawing room at Ember Place, with its big windows and extensive library, as Avery's workshop. He set up accounts in the shops for her to buy supplies and see if she could bring to life any of the sketches she laid out in her books. The first thing she created were a set of lighters like those she had used at the Cabin. Mixing certain minerals and grinding the powder, she dipped the ends of sticks into the gelatinous mixture and let it dry.
"Are you ready for this? Avery show them," Roedin said excitedly.
Avery felt a warmth creep up her face at his unrestrained praise and struck the stick on a stone from the chimney so that a flame burst into life. She grinned over at Hayden who stared at it in shock.
"It's not Niamh's fire magic, but it's handy on a cold night!" she explained.
Avery would putter away in the workshop through the night, completely losing track of time. The first to rise might find her asleep with her head on a book as though trying to absorb the information through osmosis.
One day Hayden brought in a Pantheri male with a sharp eye but grizzled features. He had clearly seen many battles for his tail had been cut short, one leg was missing entirely, and his hands and face were marred with scars. He sniffed at Avery like she might be carrying a disease and squinted at her through his only remaining eye.
"What is the meaning of this, Alpha Prime? You drag me out of the mountains and into this stinking city so that I can waste my time with a mortal? A female, no less!" he spat.
"Careful, Leo. You only get one chance to make a first impression," Hayden cautioned the warrior. "Avery, this is Leo, the weapons master for the Corinthian forces."
Avery stared down the grumpy male and lifted her chin.
"Leo, this is Avery, the alpha pack's... alchemist."
Avery's head snapped over to Hayden but other than that she did not give away that he just made up the title.
"Leo, Avery has some interesting ideas to reinforce the steel of the short swords for the infantry. I'd appreciate if you would hear her out."
"What could a female possible know about weaponry? I won't stand here and be lectured to by a child –"
"It was a chulian blade, wasn't it?" Avery interrupted.
"What? How dare you!"
"A chulian blade severed your leg. I can tell because those blades leave signatory teeth marks by their gashes. They're particularly horrific because the teeth are actually spikes of hemlock that have been fused with the steel."
"I will not listen to this!"
Avery didn't back down. "What if I told you I could do the same with the straight blade?"
That stopped the faunid's blubbering and he looked from Hayden to Avery and back again.
Hayden backed out of the room. "I'll leave you two to it."