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Chapter 26

"Ash!" I hear Stone cry, but he doesn't have time to pull out his swords, because I demonstrate my 'skill' on the poor thing.
It's humanoid, but unnaturally thin, and with semi-translucent green skin that lets me see the unpleasant array of pulsing clear organs inside of it.
The creature grasps my long brown hair in a slippery hand, and yanks on it, screeching and baring it's fangs. I cry out impulsively, but I've already reacted.
It happens in a second. Everything moves in slow motion. I jab my elbow upwards, hitting the thing hard in the chest, winding it. Then I force my body sideways, rolling, knocking the creature to the side of me onto the ground as well.
I don't pause, and keep rolling, snapping out my right leg at the knee in an instant, and cracking my shin hard across it's hips. As it yelps in pain, I roll back over and throw my feet under me, whirling to face it, and flinging out my left foot as it attempts to stand, catching it right under the knee.
I hear a loud snap, but I mercilessly dart it, and chop my hand down on it's shoulder, hoping the pressure point is there. It is, and the Beast suddenly crumples, and topples off the edge of the path, right off the mountain, falling hundreds of feet to the forest below.
I stand, panting for a moment, my arm still frozen where it had hit the creature's shoulder, before dropping it, shaking my head to clear the sudden rush of adrenaline. I turn, and Stone is staring, arms hanging limp at his sides, jaw gaping.
After a while, he tries to close his mouth, but opens it again, unable to find sound.
"What?" I say, wondering what he's staring at.
"Y-What? That was-That was-" He searches for the word.
"Amazing?" I offer.
"Freaky." He corrects, looking thoroughly unsettled.
I never really thought much about my bare-handed fighting. My mother taught me while I was growing up, as self-survival, all the pressure points in the human- and inhuman- body, all the vulnerabilities.
"Self-protection." I shrug, really quite pleased I had finally impressed him. I turn, and continue on up the path as if nothing had happened.
"Self protection?" He mouths soundlessly in disbelief, hurrying to catch up with me.
"That- That's the skill." He says, suddenly certain.
"What skill?" I frown.
"The-the skill!? You know, when you said you had one talent, and you wouldn't tell me? That's it!" He cries triumphantly. How did we go from 'stay away from me' to this, again?
"Oh, yeah, I guess..." I say. Actually, I had been about to say I made an excellent Macarue root tea, but that worked too.
"You said you were just like all of the others! But that's incredible! You could be, like, a spy! I bet the rebels will need someone like you, someone to... to kill the-the Rulers..." He finishes with a mutter, and suddenly his eyes are sad and closed again, and he turns away, leaping just in time over a large rock.
"Why do you keep doing that?" I say finally, after a couple minutes, unable to stand it anymore.
"Doing what?" He says quietly, suddenly somber.
"You know..."
"No, obviously I don't." But he says it like he's just stalling. Suddenly he reaches out, and lifts me up and over a deep crevice I almost walked right into.
"Y-You're still doing it." I say, not quite sure how to describe it.
"Still doing what?"
"Being all, you know. You keep getting all gloomy, and then your eyes close up-" I begin, but he cuts it.
"My eyes close up?" He says incredulously I blush, realizing how stupid that sounded, but it's how I think of it.
"Yeah. No-"
"What the heck does that mean?" He snorts, but his eyes are still cold. Why hadn't I just said 'cold'? That makes so much more sense!
"You close yourself up, you try to avoid me, you-you" I say, stumbling over my words in annoyance- And suddenly he's kissing me again. My God, man, make up your mind!
He pulls away quickly, and his eyes are still sad, but less, you know, closed.
"What happened to 'stay away from me'?" I say, trying to act unimpressed, but my face is probably bright red.
"I didn't say anything about me coming to you." He says quietly, but as I look into his eyes, they grow cold and closed again, and he turns away again, hurdling over a fallen log that blocks him from my view.
I stand where I am for a moment, running my finger over my lips distractedly, still dazed. All I can think is- Stone is crazy. Does he want me to stay away from him? 'Cause kissing me three times isn't the way to show it, effectively at least.
"Wait," I leap over the four foot log without trouble, and find he hasn't moved on. "Since when do you control me?"
"Since now." He says, unfazed, without glancing at me, and turning to start the hike again.
"Oh, and how is that?" I say stubbornly, running to catch up with him, and turning to backpedal, so he can't leave my sight.
"I've got swords." He shrugs, trying to push past me, but I push back.
"I know where your pressure points are." I counter, as he falls back, staring at my feet.
"Swords beat pressure points," He mutters.
"And you're really going to stab me?"
Suddenly Stone stops in his tracks, eyes wide, and still staring at the ground. I stop too, staring at him in disbelief. He raises his hands to the opposite elbow, and sits like that for a couple seconds, not blinking.
"Um, Stone?"
His head jerks up, but he still won't meet my eyes.
"We should get moving. We sleep at dawn." He murmurs, and shoves past me, leaving me to stare after him incredulously. I shall never understand.