Timeless

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

             Ri's side ached something fierce, the wound raw and angry. She wished she had her burn ointment that her great grandmother had given her. At least then the swelling might not be so bad. But she would not complain, and definitely not in front of Shaw or his men. She had trained with them all morning, well, kind of. The Logan warrior's training consisted mostly of strength exercises and power attacks and the like. Even Shaw, who Ri was fairly certain only allowed her to stay in an attempt to prove to her that she did not belong, recognized that she would never be able to fight the way they did, so training with them really did not serve a purpose. He "allowed" her to work alongside them instead of directly with them, warning that if he found her slacking off any, if she was not working as hard as the rest of them, she would be punished.

Ri had been grateful for the time. Everyone had laughed at her as she had stretched, and Shaw had almost "punished" her there and then. Until she had fallen back onto her hands, while keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground, then done a couple of push-ups on her knuckles with her entire body above her head. She could only manage five, it had taken her several years to learn to do even that much, but it had shut them up pretty darn quick. A few twisting stretches and the few contortions she could pull off and she could practically hear their jaws hitting the ground. She ignored them as she went to work on one of their straw and burlap dummies, systematically slicing it to shreds.

It seemed Shaw got more and more curious as the dummy disintegrated. He had one of his youngest trainees spar with her, a wiry boy, a little shorter than her and no older than her brother. The kid was cocky, tried to go easy on her. Idiot landed on his back in the first five seconds. The second round was no better. The boy was determined to prove he wasn't weak enough to be beaten by a girl, so he didn't hold back, but he was angry and embarrassed, not to mention inexperienced, which made him sloppy. Better, but still too easy to be of interest.

Next up was a bigger guy, somewhere in his early to mid-twenties. More experienced, but still stupid enough to baby her. His second try was no better than the kid's.

"My turn," Darrach declared, shoving a few of the men aside as he stepped into the circle they had made around her. The man was huge, a giant, a mountain. But even giants could trip over their egos, and Ri saw Darrach's stretched out before him like a line stretched between two trees.

"Fine by me," Ri smirked, and she saw Darrach's anger flare behind his eyes. His hands clenched along with his jaw as he readied himself. Ri stayed loose and relaxed, watching him. He favored his left leg, a bit of scarring told her he'd taken a bad blow to his knee, not enough to do serious damage, but enough to weaken it. His height was something to consider as well. He towered above everyone, which means he would be used to swinging low. And he braced himself, probably because his opponents attempted to knock him over more often than not. But with his legs spread like that . . .

Darrach moved first, fist raised high and aimed down, just like she had anticipated. Ri sprinted forward, fell to her knees, and slid between his legs, spread wide even when charging. It took him a second to process that she'd disappeared, another second to realize what had happened. More than enough time for Ri to rise to her feet and kick Darrach's legs out from behind, forcing him down onto his knees. Ri placed her left hand on the back of his head and grabbed his jaw with her right, pulling his head around until just before it was too late. Until she was very close to snapping his neck. Both she and Darrach froze. The yard went silent, no one dared breathe. Ri eased the pressure off of Darrach's neck, then released him and stepped back. Darrach muttered a very unflattering name in Gaelic, there were a few scattered coughs, but no one spoke.

They were staring at her, they all were. Everyone was staring, again. Ri nodded to Shaw out of respect and walked away, across the yard and out the front gate. From there she turned and ran, along the castle wall and all the way around. And again, and again, and again until the noonday sun beat down on her back, her side swelled and seared with pain, and the smell of food from the kitchen made her realize that she hadn't eaten since . . . was it really only yesterday that she and her siblings had found themselves here?