Red as the Dawn

Chapter 6

"Cal, Mare's going to fall again!" Maggie's shrill, disinterested cry echoed around the boiler room, her voice stretching out the syllable in Cal's name. She was sitting underneath me, her neck craned upward to watch me try and pull myself up one more time. The bar I was gripping was slick with sweat and my fingers were slipping steadily, even though my knuckles were turning white while I gripped it. My arms shook with exertion, and my core was on fire from curling my body around the bar when I pulled myself up.

"One...more," I grunted as I weakly tried to pull my chin over the bar. Maggie sighed, exasperated, below me and shouted to Cal again, "she's going to break her neck!"

My chin barely made it to the bar, and I craned it slowly to try and put it above the bar only for my fingers to slip from around the bar completely. I screamed in fear as I fell the eight feet to the makeshift mat on the floor. I landed in the dusty and rotting blankets, stirring up dust mots everywhere. I coughed as some of them entered my throat and waving my hand around my face to try and brush the rest away, I managed to direct a few of them into my eyes. Next to me, Maggie stated simply, "that was two more than yesterday, not that those two weren't impressive."

I opened my watering eyes to glare at her, and was rewarded for my troubles with a smile that could have melted the ice around even Elara's heart. I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes and then bushed the rest of the sweaty strands away, before I stumbled out of my saving grace and brushed myself off.

Coming around the corner belatedly, like he normally did, was Cal. Wiping his hands on a new rag that I had brought him, he took in Maggie's giggling state and then looked at me, his eyes widened and he bit his lip to stifle what looked a lot like a laugh.

"What?" I commanded, my eyes scanning myself for anything that was remotely funny. He walked over and handed me the rag to wipe myself off. "It's nothing, you just, you just have something on your face."

I snatched the rag from him and wiping it across my face, I pulled it away to reveal a heavy dusting of white powder and what looked like bug legs. I screeched and threw the rag on the ground which only made Maggie laugh harder, and Cal snicker. I glared at the both of them and then shouted, "that's not funny at all you two, stop laughing."

Maggie rocked back and forth in her sitting position, her giggles turning into snorts. Cal's eye snapped to her and I paused from reprimanding him for coming too late, to stare at her. She shoved her fist in her mouth but the sound wouldn't stop, and it only became louder as she tried to breathe. Eventually she burst out laughing at her own laugh and the snorts turned into desperate cries as she tried to catch her breath. Eventually her giggles subsided and looking from me to Cal as she inquired, "what? It's just a laugh."

We shared a confused look and when I turned back around to look at her, she was running off to get the next step in my training. I groaned as she brought the makeshift weight vest around the corner. I took it in my already shaking arms and with Cal's help, shouldered it. Coming in at a good twenty pounds, the vest had become the bane of my existence and was similar to hell. Wrapping the string around my middle, Cal stated casually, "a good mile run should be good today."

"We ran two yesterday, going soft on me today?" I teased him as he wrapped around to the front of me and yanked the cord so tight that it pulled me a little closer to him. He smiled down at me and whispered, "I can always make you run until your legs give out from underneath you."

My face grew bright red, and I mumbled, "that's hardly necessary." The space between us was filled with heat and with a cheeky grin that was starting to appear more and more on his features, Cal stepped back and stated, "fine, a mile, and three tomorrow to make up for today."