I run and hear Ronnie rustle in the tree tops behind me. I grumble to myself think of how stupid I was to bring her along with me. She should be doing this on her own. I shouldn’t be saving her butt every second. If Jama, however, sees me fail he might kick me and Ronnie out of the deal in training us. Ronnie is a pain in the ass but she’s my sister. I turn my head up and see her leaping to another tree branch. I can’t help but smile. Ever since she was little she always had the ability to hop trees like a squirrel. Guess that’s why she’s more suited for defense fighting than combat.
Ronnie was never really . . . strong or muscular, but she is nimble and agile. She had fast reflexes and never really fights someone unless she absolutely has to. I am more on the strong side of the family, along with Blake and Jason.
I push my feet harder hearing the fresh snow crunch under my feet. I hold a sword in my hand now ready to swing it anytime.
“Kimberley!” I roll my eyes and stop looking up. Ronnie slide down from the tree puffing, bending over trying to catch her breath. “Can-can we please stop?”
I open my mouth to protest and yell at her when I feel my own body ask for a rest. I sigh, “Sure we can stop.”
Ronnie didn’t need to be told twice. She just flops down in the snow. “Thank You.” She sighs happily. I smirk taking a seat next to her. I look up in the sky. The sun is past its highest peak, must be about three. That means we’ve been out here for at least two hours! I groan and fall back in the snow with Ronnie. “When is Jama going to ring that stupid bell!?”
“Who knows?” Ronnie answers. “Maybe he doesn’t even care.” Then she sits up paranoid. “What if just left us out here to die and is just playing with us, like you tease a dog when you make it do tricks for a treat. What if he’s making us do tricks but we don’t get a treat!?”
I sit up slowly and stare at her. “Have you been inhaling too much snow? Now I know we just met Jama, but he would never do that.”
Now Ronnie pounces to her feet. “How do you know? He could be lying to us, he could be just using us for something.” Then her face drains of anger and into shock, “Kimberley he could be a Union!”
“If he was a Union, he would have killed us by now.” I say. Ronnie is silent for a moment then shrugs in approval. “I guess.”
I turn away seeing another hologram. I’m about to take my bow but then realize, Ronnie hasn’t killed many. I sigh and see her looking at the hologram as well. “Ronnie.” I whisper. She turns her eyes towards me and I gesture my head over to the hologram dummy. She looks at it then back at me pointing to herself making sure she knew what I meant. I grin and nod.
Ronnie’s face lights up and takes out one of her weapons. A whip. She sneakily moves towards the hologram. I duck behind a rock watching her every move. She’s doing well so far. At the last second she leaps up in a tree. I feel all the pride in my body just die. She gave up, I think to myself. She just plainly gave up. I grunt but then watch as a whip flies out from the tree branch and wrap around the holograms neck. It doesn’t have time to react when Ronnie jumps back down pulling the hologram upward. I hear a snap and the hologram disappears.
Ronnie snaps the whip once then puts it back in her belt. She walks back to me pretending to be all that was nothing, about her accomplishment but on the inside I can tell she was jumping for joy. Then she does start jumping up and down. “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe that worked!” She screams. I slap my hand over her mouth again remembering her to shut up.
“Yeah, that was pretty impressive.” I say. “You finally learned the hanging trick.” I already learned that move from Logan when I was about her age. She wasn’t old enough yet, guess she is now.
“Yeah, never used it on a hologram dummy before, only a manikin. That felt so cool!”
“Shut up!” I hiss. She settles down and blushes. I shake my head smiling. “We should probably get moving.” I say before she can scream again.
We walk for few minutes looking around no holograms seemed to be in sight. “Where’d they all go?” I ask confused.
“It’s funny.” Ronnie says walking up next me. “Every time we’re on the ground they seem to be hiding.”
I halt. It hits me like a lightning bolt. “Oh my God how could I have been so stupid!?”
“What?” Ronnie asks me. She didn’t get it.
I look up again. I turn around a sure enough I see little bright yellow patches in the trees. “Ronnie how come we haven’t we seen more than seven holograms.”
“Because they’re just hard to find?” She says.
“No, because they know our every move they know what we’re going to do next. Ronnie, we aren’t hunting them. They’re hunting us.”
Sure enough after I said those words the holograms leaped out from the tree tops. All of them gleaming at us. I rip out my sword and a knife. Ronnie takes out a knife and her whip. There was less than before but still enough to fight.
“Ready Ronnie?” I ask her. My body is trembling, waiting to fight. I am ready to attack.
“Ready.” She answers. I don’t wait to say go, I just leap out. The holograms mimic us. I swing my sword and hit another. The metal swords clash together in swipes and pounds. Jama has made these holograms good fighters. They seemed better than the ones at the Lodge.
Soon the hologram loses balance which gives me the opportunity to strike at his chest. He disappears in an instant. But another one steps in his place. I growl. This one has a club. I switch my knife and just use my sword. The hologram swings the club around aiming for my head. I duck just in time and kick my leg out tripping him to the ground. I pounce up. But am tackled by another hologram. He pins me to the ground holding my arms down while the other hologram takes his club and raises it ready to hit me across the head.
I surprise it though by kicking my legs up into the holograms chest. It stuns him and gives me a chance to take my body and roll over crossing my arms. Holograms may be strong but they are so dumb. I stand up while the hologram still holding my arms. I then start spinning and the hologram hits a tree causing it to disappear.
I feel another one coming up behind me. I growl and wait till the last second to stab it. Then I look over and see Ronnie whip one with her leather weapon. As it disappears she doesn’t have time to react to the one coming up behind her. I grab my bow and load it with an arrow. I quickly aim and shoot the target before it can reach Ronnie. It disappears.
I hear another one come behind me but I don’t react fast enough and feel its arm wrap around my neck, choking me.
I kick and try to scream but the hologram has its arm wrapped around just enough, it can’t kill me I remember, but it can let me go unconscious. I push against the hologram but that makes it squeeze me a little harder. My vision starts to go blurry and I start seeing black specks everywhere.
Suddenly the hologram releases me and I fall face first in the snow, the cold feeling good against my sweaty body. I catch my breath and let myself regain my vision before pushing myself up to see Ronnie fighting off one hologram. I hiss and finish it off for her by decapitating it with my sword.
I look over my shoulder at her. She seems a little surprised to see me, but all I say is, “Who’s saving who here?” She grins but then it fades as she dodges another blow from a sword. She wields back her whip and slashes it on the hologram. It flinches and falls to the ground. Ronnie then takes out a knife and stabs it while it lay unconscious.
I turn around seeing another hologram charge at me. I grip my sword harder than swing it. Suddenly, once I slash the holograms head off, all the others around us start vanishing. Soon Ronnie and I are left alone looking around confused. I stand still breathing in and out trying to comprehend what just happened. Then I hear the whistle. Ronnie and I both snap our heads around searching for the noise. She walks over to me, still keeping her eyes alert.
Then we hear the static of the speaker and a voice comes on. “The training is over for today, come back.” Jama says. Then the speaker shuts off. Ronnie and I are silent for a minute then turn to each other. Then I grin slowly and she does the same thing. I wrap my arm around her putting my sword back in it’s sheathe. Then we walk back, together.
Once we put the weapons back we head up the stairs to the mansion. We both kick off our boots we enter then brush off the snow from our pants and take off our coats. We both notice Jama standing in the middle of the living room next to the fire. He glares at us. I look back at him not afraid of what he will do or what he has to say. I stare back at him while walking around the side of the coach and sitting straight across from him. The only thing that separates us is the coffee table. He has his hands behind his back and his feet spread shoulder width apart.
I hunch over my legs resting my elbows on my knees still looking up at Jama. Ronnie scurries next to me flopping down on the couch exhausted.
I turn my head looking at her. She lifts her head up looking at Jama. She waves her hand once then flops it back down next to her. She then groans and flops her head back.
“I have surveyed you throughout your training,” Jama starts looking from me to Ronnie. “You both work well together. Ronnie, although, you might need some help on working alone, you do have the potential to.” She gives him a steady thumbs up saying, “Great.” Lazily. She then slaps her hand back down on the couch.
Jama shifts his eyes towards me. I turn my eyes upward not smiling, curling my lip. For whatever he has to say to me, won’t hurt me one way or the other.
“Kimberley, you can fight alone, yes I was very impressed with that, and you fight well with other people.” I seem to sit a little straighter at that compliment. “But, the problem with you is you can fight with people but you can’t cooperate with them.”
“I couldn’t cooperate with Ronnie, because she doesn’t pull her weight and fight. I had to save her butt almost ten times.” I state my argument.
I expect Jama to yell at me or even kick me out, but instead he just smiles. He even chuckles once. I am taken aback by this. What was so funny?
“Well, I guess that just gives you extra practice.” He says smiling. I open my mouth to protest, but against what? It did give me extra practice, but it’s just tiring. It’s not even practice it’s like teaching to somebody who doesn’t understand it.
“Now I have made my decision whether or not to keep you or not.” Ronnie snaps her head for this and leans forward resting her hands on her knees. I let my arms fall to my sides and sit up straight, not hunched over my knees. Ronnie and I perk up watching him curiously.
“I have watched you both and am very excited to see what else you have in store for me to see. I have decides to keep you around for another month.”
Ronnie grins excitedly and jumps up running to hug him. “Thank You! You won’t be disappointed Jama.” She says stepping away from him. He just puts a hand on her shoulder grinning at her, “I know I won’t.”
I don’t say anything. Bit inside I feel a huge amount of stress release from my shoulders. I sigh and stand up. Jama turns his eyes towards me. They are calming, subtle. I didn’t notice before they are bright blue. I realize at that moment Jama won’t hurt us.