Her Royal Madness

Her Royal Madness Part 20

"Don't be scared of your brother. Remember, the more aggressive he is, the easier it is to use his size and weight against him. Try it again boy, and don't hold back this time. You won't be able to hurt her." 

Henry didn't give me time to think about it. He rushed at me, driving his fist into my stomach. I wasn't there anymore. Rolling onto my back with my legs tucked in, I grabbed Henry's wrist with both hands. I pulled down on his wrist and pushed his midsection up with my feet. I continued to roll backwards, flipping myself up and landing on Henry's chest. Hey! It worked! 

We had started the morning with a physical workout. Henry, Martin, and Nicholas joined in for that. We began with a warm up and stretching, followed by intense calisthenics. Then Juna introduced us to unarmed combat. 

Henry was skeptical about this at first. 

"What's the point?" he said. "With all this high tech stuff you've got - ray guns, rocket ships, mind control and tele-psycho-kineses, or whatever, isn't fighting by hand a little, uh, low tech?" 

"Any mechanical device can fail," Juna said, "and weapons eventually run out of ammunition. If you remember the day we met, there are counter-measures against psychokinesis. But as long as I have my hands and feet, I'm still deadly. Here, let me demonstrate." 

She tossed a knife to each of the boys. 

"Now try to attack me, any or all three of you, anytime you're ready." 

They had a quick huddle, with Henry whispering and gesturing furiously. They moved into position, Martin and Nicholas staying in front of her and Henry circling around behind her. Juna seemed completely relaxed, barely paying attention to them. 

"NOW!" Henry shouted as he lunged the knife at her. Nicholas attacked down low from the right. Martin attacked up high from the left. 

I'm not sure what happened next. There was a blur of activity. Then - THUD! 

Henry, Martin and Nicholas were tangled in a heap on the floor. Juna was standing over them with all three knives in her hand and a smile on her face. 

"I'll show you how to do that later, Maddie," she said. "After you've learned some basic techniques." 

All four of us were eager students the rest of the morning. Henry, of course, would never admit it, but we were all exhausted by lunchtime. After lunch, Juna and I left the boys to practice what they had learned and continue to work out. 

We sat down facing each other in a small room. The lights were dimmed and everything was quiet. 

"We're going to slow things down a bit now, Maddie," she said, "and give your brain a workout instead. Are you ready to start?" 

"I guess so. What do I do?" 

"Relax and clear your mind. You should always be calm when you are learning a new skill. Later you'll learn to function under stress and with distractions." 

I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing and listening to my heart beat. 

Juna lightly grasped my hands and spoke quietly. "Maddie, I'm going to enter your mind now and establish a rapport with you. You may feel uncomfortable at first, but there's nothing to fear." 

UNCOMFORTABLE?!? Getting your teeth pulled out with a pair of pliers is uncomfortable. This was a nightmare! Did you ever have that dream where you're in school, in front of everybody, and you suddenly realize that you're completely naked? Whatever you do, you can't cover yourself up. This was worse than that. 

As soon as I felt Juna's presence in my head, my innermost thoughts were exposed. Trying to hide them only brought them out in front and made things worse. I was helpless. There was nothing I could do.