Mia's POV
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"Mia," I hear a voice call from behind me. I just closed my door and am about to head to my lesson for today, which is supposedly going to be about other weapons, like swords and knives. I turn to see the Queen's second in command, Andor, striding briskly towards me.
"Morning Andor," I reply. I don't know Andor all that well, but from my encounters with him he seems pretty nice. He slows to a stop in front of me, his long hair gleaming in the early morning light shining through the windows.
"Just thought I would let you know that Knox will be training you today."
"Oh," I reply, unexpected excitement tugging at my gut despite obviously enjoying having Elanil teach me. El is great, but apparently Knox is one of the best.
"What's up with Elanil?"
"She's on an order from the Queen. They also decided Knox would be best to teach you today, since he's better with whatever you're doing." He pauses, turning as if to go, before swiveling back to face me.
"What are you learning now..?"
"Weapons," I reply with a smile. "El taught me about archery, so I guess Knox is going to teach me about knives and other weapons."
Andor nods, wishes me luck in practice and disappears around a corner. Ok, cool. Change of plans. I grab my transport stone out of my pocket, dropping it and picturing the training center.
When I materialize next to the weapons Knox is waiting, looking perfect as ever. It still gives me petty anger at how perfect elves look all the time. I wish I always looked that perfect. He's leaning against the wall, idly flipping a knife and catching it over and over.
"Morning," I call, causing him to snap out of whatever thought he was lost in. He catches the knife and slips it into a leather sheath on his leg. Today he's not wearing a tunic, just a loose, dark brown shirt and black pants. I take note of how he's wearing his knives. The leather arm cuffs he's wearing have little slits that are holding small knives, and the sheath with a leather strap wrapping around his leg. I also notice knife hilts sticking out from the tops of his boots.
"Good morning. Taking stock of my weapons?"
I look up to his face, realizing he probably saw me looking. Of course he did.
"Yeah," I reply. Knox nods.
"Good habit to get into. Now, first step is choosing a weapon. Usually each elf has a special weapon that- I don't know, speaks to them."
"Oh yeah, El told me about that." I remember back to the night at the restaurant when Elanil showed me her sword. "What's yours?"
Knox puts his hand behind him, probably to grab something from a sheath on his back, like I saw that one guy at the restaurant have. When he pulls his hand out he's holding a long knife, more like a small sword. My mouth drops open once again. It has a dark wooden handle with gold on the end of the hilt. the blade itself is about a foot long, gleaming silver and a bit curved, with elvish words I can't read carved in a swirling, grand cursive into to the blade.
"That's gorgeous. What's carved into the blade?"
Knox flips the sword over to look at it. "Ah, it says 'He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.' It's ancient elvish, an old quote."
"Wow," I drawl. "So deep."
"Yeah," Knox chuckles. Then he looks at me curiously. "You can't read it yet?"
I look up at him with a puzzled expression and shake my head. "Why would I be able to read it?"
"I've heard that halfbloods grow the ability to read and speak elvish as they do the ability to fight or walk on snow."
I shrug. "I guess it hasn't happened yet."
Knox nods, then seems to remember we're supposed to be practicing.
"Okay, now take your pick." He gestures to the wall of weapons.
I walk up, scanning the swords and knives and axes sitting on little spokes sticking out of the wall. None of them 'speak to me.' But, to be fair, I'm not sure what that is supposed to feel like. I run my hands over some of the sword hilts, not interested for some reason.
A shine catches my eye, and I look over to one of the swords. It's blocking something. I don't know how I know this, but I do. Wait- Duh, this must be the thing speaking to me! Whatever 'thing' entails. It's not a voice in my head, but more like I know something, like I've known for years, a knowledge that has been in the back of my brain and something just brought it back to the front.
Eagerly I pick up the thick sword and place it elsewhere, gasping when I see the knife propped up behind it. It has a brown wooden hilt covered in a thin leather layer, carved with intricate designs. The blade itself isn't that long, maybe only half a foot; but the blade is opal, glowing with a chromatic, translucent shine. It looks too pretty to touch, yet I can tell as I pick it up how strong it is.
"This is definitely it," I breathe, smiling. It's so pretty. I turn to Knox, who's nodding, his eyes far away in thought.
"Hmm," he hums.
"What?"
"It's just interesting. That was your father's weapon."
Part of me isn't all that surprised. If I'm so like him, enough that I gained his skill of combat, it makes sense I'd be drawn to the same weapon. Still, it's a little jarring.
I turn the weapon in my hand, running my thumb along the flat of the blade. As I think more about it, a small smile grows on my face. Being here, learning things my dad learned, makes me feel more connected to him than I ever have. I look back up at Knox.
"Okay, I'm ready. Let's start."
-
After finding me another identical knife and sheaths for them- mine strap to my thighs- Knox starts to teach me how to hold the blade, then basic jabs and blocks. Despite my lack of any knowledge in the weapons arena, I'm catching on quickly. Also, let me just express how scary it is. I'm fighting someone with a long, sharp knife that could easily kill me. Even though I know Knox's control would never lead to any serious injury, it's still scary as hell to be blocking stabs from a knife, to see the gleam of the sunlight reflecting off of a perfectly sharpened blade. No matter how long I fight, I have a feeling the adrenaline will never fade. Every jab or slice Knox makes towards me makes my heart jump into my throat.
"Nice," Knox praises as I swiftly block a jab from him. Obviously he's barely trying, but still going hard enough to make me work. The blade is heavier than I thought, and my arms are already a bit tired. But I refuse to let my fatigue show.
"So when did you start training with weapons?" I ask as I do a combination of the basic jabs and slices I learned.
"Ummm... Probably around 5 or 6 years old," Knox replies, blocking my moves so easily it looks like he might yawn if he was tired enough. I almost laugh at how effortless it is for him.
"Wow, that's young."
Knox shrugs. "Yeah, well, maybe for you. Not for us."
"Ohhh my god," I breathe as the tip of one of Knox's swords comes within an inch of my cheek. "This is so scary."
"You'll get used to it," he replies, shrugging, "but don't let your fear deter you from fighting well. That's usually the biggest block for fighters."
"Hey Knox!"
I recognize the voice as Halion, but I keep jabbing away at Knox anyway.
"Hey," Knox replies, keeping his fighting stance towards me. He turns his face to Halion to greet him, yet he still blocks every single one of my slashes and jabs. Even though he's not even facing me. Not going to lie, it's pretty infuriating. He's parrying and blocking my moves with one hand, one knife, his head turned to talk to Halion. Like it's just a walk in the park. He easily knocks down my knife as I go for a jab again. After a minute I let my weapon drop, huffing in frustration. Halion turns from Knox to face me.
"Hey, Mia!"
"Hi."
He must see my frustration, because he laughs and waves his hand at me in a 'don't worry about it' gesture.
"Oh, trust me. I know how annoying fighting Knox can be. Don't get too mad, he's been training like a maniac since he was little."
I huff a laugh and nod, slipping my blades back into their sheaths to stretch my fingers out. They are all red, and I can feel my muscles aching as I extend my fingers.
Ouch.
-
After an hour of basic skills I finally catch on more, and even though Knox barely has to put in any effort I can tell I'm getting better. After a bit of going over combinations and how to use my knives with other fighting skills, Knox suggests we spar.
"I can't promise I won't cut you a bit, but it'll never be that bad."
"Whatever," I reply, shrugging. From my archery lessons with El I've learned a thing about pain. I now understand why characters in books keep fighting, even if they're in pain. Not because they want to, but because they have to if they don't want to die. Duh. And they're really into the cause they're fighting for. I mean, I'd much rather fight through the pain of a cut- even though my eyes watered and I definitely almost cried- than stop and have an arrow stick in my leg instead.
Knox nods, heading over to a combat mat. Once we're both set up we start fighting. Of course Knox is probably only going at 10% of what he can do, but I'm glad. I know if he wanted to he could take me down in one strike.
Combining all the new things I learned earlier is hard, not very smooth. At least not for now. But Knox continues to encourage me, telling me what I'm doing good or what I should be doing that I'm not.
After about half an hour of sparring with a few breaks, I'm tired but still ready to keep at it. Of course, Knox looks like he hasn't even batted one of his long eyelashes.
"Will I ever get less tired?" I ask rhetorically as we start up again after a small break.
"Yeah," he replies, stepping forward and slashing at me, which I barely block by knocking his blade down with mine. "But you're still half human, you will always have some human in you. You'll get better stamina with practice and time, but you'll never quite be at the level of full blooded elves."
I nod, barely a bob of my head as I use all of my concentration to not get cut. Keeping one hand up to shield myself I go to stab at Knox, knowing that he'll block it, so no need to worry about hurting him. But instead of blocking my blade he grabs my wrist, knocking the knife from my hand and just barely nicking my arm with his blade. I know he meant to nick me, to show me that if it was a real battle I probably would've lost an arm. Or worse.
"You keep doing the same combinations. Try combining things you haven't yet."
This Knox, I've learned, is a little different than normal Knox. He's a little more serious, less playful. But then again, El was the same way, and I'm glad he's pushing me. I can handle it.
I circle quickly to the other side of Knox, close to where my knife is on the ground. He follows me like a lion stalking a mouse. As quickly as I can I look back and crouch down to grab my knife. Instead of standing I roll, coming up with a kick that knocks one of Knox's knifes out of his hand.
"Ooh, nice," he says, smiling appraisingly.
I smile back- I'm getting better.
Knox slowly starts using more effort as I get better, pushing me even harder. I get a few more cuts, but my adrenaline has numbed most of the pain.
Hair flying behind me, I swing my knives in a pattern I learned this morning, weaving them in and out of each other before coming out with a lash. Knox brings his knives up to meet mine, the clang resounding through the training center. I let out a puff of exertion, but spin away and keep going. Knox does a move I barely catch up with, and before I know it one of my knives is out of my hand. At lighting speed I grab his wrist and knock one of his knives out of his hand. He uses his remaining knife to knock my last one out of my hand. I kick one of my feet up, knocking his last one out of his. I smile proudly to myself. Even though I lost both of my weapons, I managed to make Knox lose both of his as well.
We should be done sparring, or at least pick our knives back up, but Knox raises his fists instead.
"I thought we were just doing weapons," I say, trying not to sound whiny. Knox smirks.
"Your body is a weapon too, technically, and you haven't sparred regularly in a bit."
With that he sends a punch to my gut that lands, causing me to stumble back. I take a second to catch my breath before I lunge at him, flipping over him at the last second. Yes, I can now flip over people's heads. It's pretty freaking awesome.
When I land I expect a clear shot at his back, but he's facing me, a knowing smile on his face. I roll my eyes before kicking up as hard as I can. Knox blows out a breath in effort as he uses both hands to grab my ankle, stopping the kick. Anger slithers into my gut- why can't I just land one punch? One kick?
Please try harder Mia. For my sanity.
Then I remember something El taught me. It's a hard move, but I decide to try it anyway. I twist before Knox can let go of my leg, causing his arms to twist as well. I don't know how, but somehow his arm gets tangled trying to let go of my leg, and I try to take him down. It's probably my fault that we both end up falling.
The back of my head smacks against the mat, the wind knocking out of me. The now nonexistent wind is knocked out of me again as something heavy lands on me with a grunt.
"Ow," I grumble, opening my eyes, which were squeezed shut in pain. Knox's face is about an inch from mine, a look of surprise- and maybe respect..? Pride?- flashing across his features. His hands are on either side of my head to keep some of his weight off of me, and his hair is hanging down in a curtain around us.
"You're heavy for an elf who can walk on snow," I wheeze, still trying to get air back into my lungs after the fall.
"Hey," He says in mock offence, his warm breath fanning over my face. My adrenaline kicks up a notch. Knox looks down at me for about a millisecond, giving me a millisecond to admire how- How does his face just... Glow like that? His gaze is intense, and it feels like a whole minute that we just stay there, but in the blink of an eye he's smoothly rolling off me and popping up to his feet.
"Sorry," he apologizes, holding out a hand for me. I grab it and he pulls me to my feet, his grip surprisingly strong.
"No, that was probably my fault," I laugh, putting my hands on my hips and wincing a little as I breathe in. Knox laughs, bending down to scoop his weapons off the floor and slip them into the sheath on his back. "No, that was good, you took me down. Usually people who are just starting out can't do that. That counts as a good practice in my book."
"You weren't even trying that hard," I muse. Knox smiles at me, and my stomach twists with the same feeling as if he had just missed me with the slash of a blade. I flick my eyes to the ground, swallowing.
"True, but I did try hard enough to have you put up a good fight. And you did put up a good one." He glances up, looking at the sky through the ceiling made of windows. "Lesson's over by the way."
"Oh. Wait, did you just read the time from the sky...?" I ask, bewildered.
"Yes," Knox replies simply. "We learn how to read the time by sun before by clocks. I can teach you someday if you'd like."
I nod eagerly, thinking how cool that would be.
"Hey guys!" I look over Knox's shoulder to see Halion jogging up to us. He stops next to Knox, looking at him then me.
"Wanna eat lunch with us Mia?"
I think for a moment, deciding that El is probably still on business.
"Sure! Where are we going?"
"How about just the dining hall at the palace? Fine with you, Knox?"
Knox shrugs with a nod. "Sure."
"Great! Flint is meeting us there."
Before I can ask who Flint is Halion takes my hand, Knox grabs Halion's shoulder, and Halion throws down a green stone. We disappear in a cloud of smoke.
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Who doesn't love a good training scene. And what's a good training scene without some tensionnnnn😌
I love this chap, and love you all!!
-Avery<3