The Seventh Knight

Collecting Strays

Quell

Outer Rim

8 months later

Saskia beamed as she dodged Ap'lek's fists. She moved quicker than she had ever expected she would have years ago, chained to a bed or the ground for the Pykes. He had yet to land a punch in the five minutes they've been sparring. A personal record for her.

Ap'lek was sneaky, and the pair of them enjoyed keeping the other on their toes with strikes. Saskia faked a heel to his chest and instead slid between his opened legs and used the force to launch herself from the ground to his back. She squeezed his head with her thighs and brought an elbow down to the top of his head, but he managed to snatch her wrists in his hand before she made impact. Instead of throwing her over his shoulder, which she was prepared for, he pivoted on his heel and used his own body weight to fall to the ground, crushing her under him. She groaned at the impact, and he rolled out and quickly straddled her waist, his hand crushed her throat.

She simply smiled up at him, her hand wrapped around his wrist. "Well Angel?" he asked, "do you yield?"

Ap'lek felt a small tingle in the back of his skull and in the next second he was flipped onto his own back, Saskia straddled his waist, his hands were pinned above his head with the force and her elbow rested dangerously on his jugular.

She smirked down at him triumphant and Ap'lek groaned, "Yield," He bit out.

She laughed joyously and removed the force hold she had on his hands but hadn't moved from his waist yet. Ap'lek looked up at the girl amazed, hands rested on her knees around him.

"How did you learn how to do that?" he asked her.

"I couldn't sleep so I practiced," she shrugged. Trudgen approached the pair and she finally stood from Ap'lek offering him a hand to stand up.

"Why can't you sleep?" Ap'lek asked her, taking her hand and raising to his feet.

Saskia avoided his gaze and Trudgen's arm wrapped around her waist as she tried to step away without answering. "Angel?" Ap'lek asked again.

"It's nothing, Ap'lek," she insisted, a sharp bite in her tone, her demeanor changing in a blink of an eye and the two men looked at each other before agreeing to drop it.

Ren entered the gym like area then, they had mats laid out along with a few different sets of weight equipment. They had hijacked the large building they now lived in from a small batch of bounty hunters. Slaughtering them and taking the house for themselves, luckily it came with several rooms, a fully functioning kitchen and a gym.

****

"Master?" Saskia asked late one evening. It had been 2 years since she joined Ren that day, almost a year since she found Ap'lek and Trudgen, and she grew stronger by the day, more sure of herself, smarter, happier. Both of the other knights had gone to bed already, and Saskia sat with Ren in the common area. Her knees tucked under her chin on the couch, surrounded by pillows, usually how she was left when the knights went off to bed. The two boys insisted on touching her when they could, hands on her knees or arms wrapped around her shoulders. She enjoyed it, they could all feel their shadows wrapping together, a tangled net of power and it was intoxicating to them all. She gazed at Ren, across the accent table to the other couch.

"Yes, little one?" he asked her, looking up from the book he was reading.

"Do you ever worry about death?" she asked, "The death of the knights?"

Her eyes dropped and she continued to think, Ren could feel a cold presence wash over her, images of his death, Ap'lek and Trudgen's emerged from her imagination.