Hodnes laik kwelnes (Love is weakness)

"Tighter, cleaner, stronger!"

(1357 words)

I swung at Artigas with all my might, my hand connected with his arm and he laughed.

"What?" I asked

"You can do better than that. Why aren't you putting in one hundred percent Rowan? I know you can hit harder than that! Now hit me!" Artigas screamed.

I exhaled and rolled my shoulders back, I lowered my stance and stepped forward and jabbed my hand into Artigas abdomen. He doubled over in pain and wheezed. I jumped up and went to pat his back when I was flipped onto my back.

"Never stop fighting even when your opponent is weak." He noted.

I nodded and got to my feet. I brushed myself off and hollered as I ran forward and rammed my body into Artigas. He fell backwards and I fell on him and pinned his arms down.

"How was that?" I panted heavily.

He didn't say anything but there was something new in his eyes that I just couldn't catch onto but it made me uneasy. He nodded and shifted under my weight on him and I got up. I stuck my hand out and helped him up.

"Alright, Again! This time use your hands, were fighting not wrestling!" He exclaimed.

I narrowed my eyes and zoned everything out. I focused on the beat of my heart and struck, I lunged forward and my fists found their way to his weakest spots. My blows were constant and he wasn't giving up. He was one step ahead of my moves.

"Tighter, cleaner, stronger!" He chanted.

My pace quickened and my blows were growing stronger by the second.

One punch.

Two punches.

He quickly swung and hooked my jaw and lip with his hand. But I didn't stop, I felt so much power and strength at that moment.

Three punches.

He was down.

His face and neck was red and his chest was moving up and down rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. His lip and nose were bleeding a little bit and he looked at me and smiled. He pointed at my face and I reached up to my lip and touched my fingers to it. I looked at my fingers to see the crimson blood perched on my pale skin. I chuckled and wiped my hand on my pants. He sat up and spit out some blood.

"You good?" I said.

He laughed, "Just about, damn, no one has ever used that much force on me. I think you are getting better Rowan. And I mean by a lot, you've only been training a week and you get everything. I'm impressed, and Nyko will be too. A few more days then you battle someone. It's going to be a test to show Nyko and my family that you actually belong as one of us, Trikru."

I smiled at the words he had spoken.

"So we're done for today then?" I breathed out.

He nodded.

"Alright well I'm going to clean up then practice with my club and knife and bow and arrow. You know, gotta get skilled and all." I said.

"You know you don't have to know that many skills to be a good warrior." He commented.

"You're right, but I don't want to be a good warrior. I want to be the best." I said truthfully. He smiled and headed for the village and I trailed behind him.

By the time we got back from training it was lunch in Artigas' family's house so I sat down and quickly ate the large scrumptious lunch they had prepared for me and him. We all exchanged our stories from the past week and had a good time. Finally I thought it was time to go practice so I went to my room and grabbed my bag and put in my knives and my club and bow. I grabbed some arrows and stuck them in there as well. I hoisted the bag onto my shoulder and walked into the den. 

"I'll be back at sundown." I told his mother.

"But you'll miss dinner!" She exclaimed.

I smiled, she was always trying to get me to eat. She's been such a wonderful woman since I've arrived.

"I think I will be okay, but if you feel the need to, you can leave a plate out for me and I'll eat it when I come back." I said

She grinned big and nodded her head. 
 

I made my way into the vast forest that surrounded the village. I went to a different spot from where Artigas and I train. I just wanted a change of scenery, you can't get too familiar with places. I dropped my bag on the ground and kneeled down took out my knives. I spread them out on the ground and looked at the array of them. I had two big ones for hunting and skinning animals. Then I had a dagger for combat and the others were smaller, for throwing at objects with precision. I practiced my precision throwing first because that's what I was most excited about. I lined up some old tin cans I had put large red X's on, onto a fallen tree. I stepped back far enough for me to barely see the line of cans. Then I started up, the knives glided out of my hand with great speed and went soaring through the sky. One by one the amount of knives that I had in my hand had decreased quickly. Finally I was out of weapons and took off running to see how my aim was.

Five out of the eight cans were hit, the hits weren't too far from the X's but it wasn't dead on. The other three cans weren't even hit at all and my knives were stuck in a log behind the tree. I sighed defeated and decided to pick up my club. I didn't really know how to start swinging since Artigas had only taught me body combat and not weapon combat. I kind of just guessed on what to do from seeing the others fight with staffs for practice. Waving my club around for a few seconds my mind wandered off.It had only been a little over a week since I left the drop ship. How were the people from the drop ship? Were they safe? Did they all kill each other?  Where was Bellamy? That last thought made me swell with rage. I grunted and swung my club around and fought with the air. Each step I took my club dominated the air. With one final hit I threw my club down and dropped to my knees with exhaustion. I panted and grasped the ground beneath me. I wiped the beads of sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. I slowly got up and staggered when I finally stood. 

I looked out to the horizon to see the sun about to set. Should I even attempt to do archery at this moment in time? I'm so tired...my eyelids drooped but my mind was bouncing with thought. I trudged over to my bag and put my club, knives, and my cans up. I grabbed my bow and arrows and placed pieces of cloth onto the tree branches. Walking about ten feet away from the tree I brought the bow up and my fingers tightened around the grip. I pulled the string with my index finger back to the side of my nose. I closed one of my eyes and pin pointed the first piece of cloth. I exhaled and released, the arrow went flying towards the cloth and pierced through the lower portion of it. I was filled with giddy as it was my first time ever trying this skill. I had only ever read about it in the books that we had on The Ark. The sky was at the end of its venture with filling the sky with light and stars began to shine. I gathered up all my gear and headed towards home. Today was probably the most tiring day of my entire life, but it was worth so much to me.