All For Not - Wednesday

Page 6

Our first class was bothersome to say the least.

Walking inside I stayed back as the doors closed behind us. Wednesday walked straight forward and slowly I did as well, my eyes however stayed in one place and my course veered to the left. Taking a seat on the bench as the fights resumed I crossed my legs, "Thing."

The shivered tap on the floor had me tilting my head to look down at him, "I thought you were helping cousin Itt for the next few weeks," a series of taps and movements led me to making a sigh of sorts, "I see, well then I'll leave you to it," I stood leaving him relieved and waving at my back. "Coach, Coach, she tripped me." My eyes turned to the boy who hit the ground as I walked over, "it was a clean strike, Rowan."

Wednesday was watching intently beside the people talking, "maybe if you whined less and practiced more, you wouldn't suck. Seriously, Coach, when am I gonna get real competition? Anyone else want to challenge me?" Walking up to Wednesday I watched as she stepped forward at the question, "I do."

"Oh, you must be the two psychopaths they let in." I stood still next to my sister, the girl Bianca had a look of ridicule on her face, "you must be the self-appointed Queen Bee. Interesting thing about bees. Pull out their stingers, they drop dead."

There was a chorus of 'oohs' from around us, other fencing partners stopping their spar to see what exactly was going on and going to happen, "Rowan doesn't need you to come to his defense. He's not helpless, he's lazy." My eyes darted to the boy before I looked back to see that Thing was gone, hiding himself better, hopefully well enough. "Are we doing this or not?"

"En garde."

I watched disinterestedly as the 'duel' began and Wednesday got Bianca in the chest, "Point to Wednesday." The match was seemingly ending quite quickly and I was left bored, "the score is even." Until Bianca hit a mark and I blinked in mild interest on how Wednesday would handle the situation, "that first point was clearly beginner's luck." She caught my eye for a mere moment before I nodded and she turned back towards her target, "let's finish this." I watched as she walked towards the instructor and spoke, "for the final point, I would like to invoke a military challenge. No masks. No tips." Another chorus of 'oohs' popped up before she finished, "winner draws first blood."

"It's your decision, Bianca." She looked displeased, especially when her eyes darted to me, "let's see if you bleed in black and white." It wasn't as fast as the first strikes but it ended with a swift move from Bianca, and with my sister reaching up to her temple to find blood coating her finger tips, "your face finally got that splash of color it so desperately needed." A nemesis has been found it seems, or at least a new challenge for fresh blood.

"Let me guess you wanna lose too?" I flicked my eyes over to the 'queen' herself, "me?" She scoffed and nodded like it was an obvious thing, everyone watched particularly interested, "I didn't realize that a supposed queen of-" I looked her up and down, "-whatever you deem yourself to rule over would have such a wish for death." Her face scrunched up in confusion or something else, "excuse me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Standing straight, I corrected the millimeter of slouch in my stance and without stepping forward I turned my attention elsewhere, "Instructor?" The man looked towards me with his chin pointed up, our eyes met for an instance and I spoke up, no wavering tone in my voice, "is to the death an option?" The girl scoffed as he answered slowly, "no, it isn't..." I huffed and looked at Wednesday feeling complete boredom, "I'll try not to hit any arteries, although," looking back at the blue-ish silver eyes I dropped my head guard onto the floor, "that might be hard for me."

"Oh yeah?" Her question was merely rhetorical as she smiled looking around, "how's that? Hmm, what are you so bad you can't actually fence?" I sighed, "first and foremost, if you want to speak to me," I narrowed my eyes, "make your words comprehensible." Walking around her and catching Wednesday's sword as she tossed it to me, I prepared, and finished my words, "third, more precisely, I only strike for death."

"Miss Feathertail, please, strike without killing intent," I nodded at the instructor before speaking with a sneer, "First blood, or are you ready for tips, Bianca..." The way I said her name had her getting into position and sneering back at me, "What kind of name is Feathertail huh." It wasn't a question but I answered anyway, "it's a name that would immensely terrify you, if only you knew the meaning of it." It took a scoff and an 'en garde' before we took our stances and then struck.

Our blades clashed once and then I maneuvered mine to curl around hers, disarming her in a swift turn with a second strike leaving me halfway perched on the ground, my leg sticking out straight behind me as I sat in a low crouch on my toes. My sword was straight, lined with blood as we were back to back. It was silent as I stood up, "Miss Feathertail wins."

Looking at my sister I turned around to face Bianca as she turned to me, hand on her neck, "it seems my instincts took control after all, at least it's not too deep, your highness."

She looked furious as her eyes darted around, "no need to be mad Bianca, I simply returned the motion, you should be so lucky, in any other case you would be missing your head." I turned away swiftly and looked to my sister, her forehead red with her own blood, she turned and began to walk with me following. I could hear Rowan being told to leave as well. In passing Xavier he looked down at me, our eyes catching for a moment before I continued on my path, turning forward, eyes on the back of my sister's head.