A Crown of Clouds

Chapter 19

"Again!" Cretan said as he readied himself with his sticks, I peeled my sore bruised body off the ground where he had just knocked me to. This was our fourth day of training, hours upon hours of punching, drills, running, picking up weighted balls, which Cretan had explained were magic - becoming heavier as you became stronger. Reading your muscles like a book and pushing you like a trainer. I'd learnt so much  and the more I learned the less I felt like I knew. Cretan had said I was finally making progress... although he said I lacked drive and focus, to which I lazily answered with an eye roll, "I've never heard that before." Yet this time sitting on the floor I felt completely drained, and not just physically - the sore muscles simply added to my building emotions each day. I'd learnt so much about my father from Cretan, so much that it made it harder to not miss him... to miss my mother, to be overwhelmed with sadness at the way they ended, the way my mother's life ended.

I propped myself up on one hand, letting out a groan from the pain in my back, "Cretan, I can't..." my legs felt as though they were stuck to the ground and I was panting so hard for air and barely getting my words out. For the first time since we'd started four days ago, Cretan put both bamboo sticks in one hand, extending his spare hand towards me. I grabbed onto his leathery hands as he yanked me swiftly to my feet, "that was a real fall, you can have a second," I wondered what all the other falls where I may have nearly broken something were if this was my only real fall.

Cretan leaned against the wall as I tried my best to regain some breath. "You are stronger than you think Hal... I just need to find a reason for you to try." His usual smirk of mischief was gone. "Tell me Hal... anybody you... hate?" I searched my thoughts for faces I'd known, faces I could punch... there were people who irked me, no one I could punch willingly, I shrugged.  "What if someone had done something really horrible to you... wait..." he said, widening his eyes with both caution and question. I was about to ask what evil concoction he was planning, yet thought I'd save my breath for whatever he was stirring up, Cretan almost looked excited now. He looked me dead in the eye and spoke a few words, snapping his fingers over his head...in an instant, his face was covered by the shadow of a black hood that draped to the floor.

My shoulders flinched back immediately; the sight repulsing. "How about now Miss Hal?" Cretan said as he pulled his bamboo sticks up to his face. I could feel my heart beating wildly, I knew it was Cretan under that mask, yet all I could picture was being frozen outside, helpless... watching her die. I harnessed my heartbeat and breathed...unable to move, Cretan inched closer, no doubt waiting for my reaction, he was in front of me now, he lunged at me, hitting me on the shoulder with his stick, I didn't... couldn't raise my own to defend myself. I had to close my eyes to shut out the images of my mother and the hooded man. When I opened them, Cretan was lunging one last time, the bamboo thudding with my bare shoulder, only this time, it violently jolted me out of my stupor. Cretan turned to walk away, "too soon perhaps," he muttered. It was almost like being electrocuted, which I'd done more times than I cared to admit in my first year of study. My sticks whipped up from where they'd been dangling in my hands next to my hips, now in a cross in front of my face, Cretan would pick up the sense in a second that I was ready, and this time I wouldn't be frozen, I'd never be caught helpless again.

All I could hear was the beating of bamboo sticks, I took a blow to my rib, then my forearm. It was like my anger had blocked out the pain each time I looked up at that hood as dark as night. I pictured my mother, held up and unable to breathe... she was the reason I was here, and I was the reason she was dead. If I could have done something, could have walked in to help, she might be alive... the sticks kept colliding, I ducked a swing from Cretan, punching back up and knocking his stick out of his left hand with the stick in my right hand. I didn't stop, wouldn't stop, Cretan was caught off guard. I sliced across the ribs, causing him to be winded, raising my leg, I kicked him in the stomach where he stood hurled over.  The kick sent him down to the ground, I pounced with my sticks crossing them to make an apex over his neck where he lay on the floor. The hood flicked back from Cretan's face as he fell to the floor, seeing his face shook me from my red rage.