Children of the Elements: Prey to Him

Chapter One: Training for Gold

Chapter One: Training for Gold

Chris slammed into the wall with a crash as Ash finished him off with a full-blown kick to the chest. He slid down onto the ground, and shook his head a little. Ash smiled. Finally, she'd proven that she could beat him with a little bit of intelligence. She stood, leaning on her practice fighting staff casually as she watched him clamber to his feet a couple of metres from her.

He rubbed the back of his head, making his blonde hair stick up in every different direction. "You do know that I'm not really attacking you?"

Ash nodded. "Sure."

"So you don't have to be so rough." He took his time to walk over to her, picking up his practicing staff from the floor in front of her.

Ash only shrugged. "Well otherwise you would've beaten me anyway and then I'd be where you are." She smiled a little. "And I'm not a loser, Chris." As she span her staff around in her hand, she noticed her sweatband around her wrist had slipped, starting to reveal the beginning of her nightmares to the world.

Eva burst through the hall's door behind her and Ash's heart jumped. She instantly pulled the sweatband up to the top of her wrist, covering her scars before she turned to smile at Eva.

The area which they were working in was an open space. It looked similar to a gym, but was more concealed and less available to the public. After Georgea had found out that the four of them were going to stop the chemicals spreading around other places, her famous father had provided the four of them with their own private working space. They trained most days to stop themselves from getting bored. Well, most of them did.

"Sorry I'm late" Eva panted as she flung her bag onto the coat stand and ripped off her denim jacket. "How long have you two been here?"

"About 10 minutes. Don't worry, you're not that late" Ash said, as Chris walked up to her and kissed Eva gently on the cheek.

Eva smiled at Chris's welcome, before looking around. "Is Nathan not here?"

Ash shook her head. Chris's face was swept with darkness. "He's not been here for the past two weeks. He clearly doesn't care."

"He probably doesn't. It'll be him who suffers in the long run" Eva said spitefully. "Not us."

Chris gave Ash an anxious glance. "He hasn't been at home much either."

Ash bit her lip a little. Nathan had been acting strange ever since they'd come back to Georgea's house. The four of them had decided to start training to get better at fighting for when they go after Craig, but since then, Nathan hadn't turned up to any session after the first, and every time they'd returned he'd been out. He was constantly going places by himself, coming back in the dead of night when he thought no-one was awake. But Ash was awake. She knew he didn't get back until stupid times in the morning, and he'd be bashed up. She would confront him, but he'd been so skittish lately that they'd drifted apart, secretly upsetting her considerably.

"Is Josh here yet?" Eva changed the subject, opening the door to the staff room and peeking inside.

"Not yet" Chris answered before Ash could. "We're all early anyway that it doesn't really matter." He walked up behind Eva and hugged her, kissing her neck a little. They had broken their 'secret' dating to Georgea a week or so previously, and because of that, they were much more confident with PDA around everyone. Even Chris had become showier about the fact that he had a girlfriend. It was surprising as well as sweet that Eva could bring out that side of him, even though Ash was a little jealous. Since Nathan had been pulling away, she felt alone and in want of male company. She'd convinced herself that she didn't need a man: she was perfectly fine by herself, but she wanted someone who wasn't annoying, which was a tendency held by most girls, to hang around with. Georgea's son Ryan was almost right, but he was far too normal and not nearly as reckless as Nathan, even though he tended to drink half the time.