BLOODLESS

Chapter Six

The Training

By the time Matilda and I packed up, it would've been around four in the afternoon, and we were all wondering aimlessly in the forest.
We were silent while walking, mainly because there was nothing to talk about.

My mind began to wonder, and everything felt foggy for a while, but I suddenly realised that Matilda and I have a lot in common, even if we hated each other earlier. I would rather Logan die next rather than Matilda and I, but I came to the conclusion that it was just better to hope that no one else would be dying.

We came to a clearing in the forest, which looked more natural than manmade, so we decided to take a break and regain our thoughts. It surprisingly helped a bit.

The problem is, all of my worries came flooding back.

"Okay, so I came on this road of torture to unite monsters and humans, right? So... How exactly are we going to do that?" even through my foggy, manic mind, curiosity shone through like a shining star.

"Well," started Logan,"there's something we have to understand before we even start doing that!" he explained.

"And that is...?"

"There are thousands of people and monsters that do not want to be associated with each other whatsoever, so as you can see, they will fight for their beliefs, just like us. They'll kill to make sure that it is impossible to be united with each other, which is somewhat problematic. I guess we'll have to follow their lead by stooping to their level... And killing them before they kill us."

Matilda and I stared at him, wide eyed, but Matilda soon nodded, composing herself as she recalled some information about our mission. What was I expecting, though? A simple handshake and signed document? Yeah, right.

"But... how strong are they, exactly?" I asked, "The people, yeah sure, they're easy to kill, for us, anyway. But... monsters? They must be more advanced since the SkyBreak, right? So... are you sure that they're even killable?"

Matilda and Logan looked at each other, visibly worried. Matilda's ginger hair blew in the wind, but her head and facial features didn't move an inch. Logan's blond hair was shaking slightly in the wind, which happened because he was trembling in fear.

We all slowly stood up simultaneously, lost in thought.

"We... honestly don't know... but, we are almost certain that there is one type of monster... one with unimaginable power. It may even be on par with the SkyBreak Demon himself," Matilda said, all colour from her face gone.

Logan began to walk away, who knows what he was thinking? Luckily, I saw out of the corner of my eye.

Whipping around, I grabbed the back of his hair and yanked him next to me, with him whacking my arm, probably trying to stop the pain. Probably. He had a lot of reasons to slap my arm by then.

I still didn't let go, so I decided to give Logan's hair a sharp pull, and then push him onto the ground, letting go of his hair.

I then bobbed down to his level on the ground and slapped his arm. Hard.

"Payback," I whispered, only to give him a menacing smile. Then I got back up and brushed my knees off.

"Well I guess that means we need to train to kill, right? Hey... Matilda, can I have your knife for a minute?" I asked, whilst stepping forward with a hand out, as if I was demanding to have the knife.

Shrugging, she replied. "Yeah, sure," Matilda quickly got the knife out of the coat that she was holding and slammed it onto my hand. While it was on its side, of course.

Before thanking her, I sprinted towards a tree while looking straight up at the sky. I threw the knife directly into a flying owl's eye at lightning speed with all my might. There was a short spurt of blood as it went through its head and out the other end. The owl quickly dropped out of the sky, its corpse sagging and twisting as it fell.

Matilda and Logan looked at the motionless, blood-stained owl and then looked at me. "Dinner. Is. Served," I said, beaming.

The thing is, we didn't realise three things:

You need fire to cook and eat meat.
Lots of owls are endangered, which would also mean killing an endangered one would probably be illegal. Although, it's not like we had been following any laws in the first place.
We would be eating anything that the owl ate, which would probably be bad for our health.

I was just going to pick up and eat the owl myself, but I soon realised that it should be cooked.
So, naturally, I began to start a fire. Or, at least, I attempted to.

I ran around collecting dead leaves and little twigs to use for the fire. Then I got a big branch and began rubbing it.

Yup, I didn't know the first thing about starting a fire without matches.

Luckily, Matilda saw and effortlessly pulled out some flint and steel from the back pocket of her black skinny jeans, which were also severely ripped.

Unlike her black t-shirt, the skinny jeans were stained from water, blood, sweat and sand. The thread was torn and little strings of thread kept on falling off.

After a few tries, I made a blazing fire and hung the owl above it by putting it through a stick and holding it above.

While I was cooking the owl, Logan and Matilda said that they were going to train against each other.

"I won't use my weapons if you don't use your powers. That way, this is a test of brute force!" said Matilda.

Logan nodded, and the battle began.

Matilda was the first to make a move, as she charged straight for Logan the second he nodded. She grabbed his wrist with one hand, and pushed her forearm on his, which made him bend down against his own will. Struggling, Logan jumped and stuck out his legs, hoping to kick Matilda, but she swiftly moved out of the way. While moving, she accidentally let go of Logan's hand, setting him free. Just as he was going to land onto the hard ground, he put his arms out and as he landed on his hands, neatly doing a reverse cartwheel and landing perfectly.

Logan started to run in the direction where Matilda was standing, but she got behind him in one big step and punched him directly on the back of his head, which made him fall flat on his face. That single punch ended the whole fight.

"HAHA! I won and you lost!" Chanted Matilda as she danced around Logan.

"Yeah, yeah, but I bet I could beat Olivia," said Logan as he brushed off his knees and got up quickly.

"Oh? I'm way better than you. You shouldn't even attempt to fight me, you'll be begging for mercy," I said while scowling and simultaneously handing the stick with the owl on it to Matilda, who quickly went to hold it over the fire.

Logan laughed. "Yeah right! Tell you what, how about we both battle right here, right now!"

I shrugged. "Sounds good."

Smirking, he started to boast, "Haha, oh, you have no idea what you got yourself into... I'll bea-"

Luckily, he never finished. It was because I kicked him in the stomach.

"HEY! I WASN'T EVEN READY!" said Logan angrily.

"Well, for someone so amazing, you should know to always be ready," I simply gave him a "what did you expect'?" look.

Furious, Logan began to charge at me, which seemed to be his way of doing things. I slowly stepped out of his way and put my arms to the side of me, as if I was welcoming him into my house, or doing jazz hands. He banged his head on the tree behind me and slumped down against it, in clear pain.

"Jeez, do you even use your brain to fight? You're about as mindless as the roast chicken my mum makes on Christmas!" I sighed, and then patted his back, "Too easy! Well, big guy, that's gonna leave a bump."

"I give up," he said, obviously on the verge of tears. I nodded, not bragging because I would never dare to stoop to his level, and we both walked back to Matilda and ate a dinner of cooked owl together. It was the first happy night we had had in a long, long, time.