Four Elements (on hold)

Chapter 7 - Skills

Chapter 7

A week passed without further incident. Keira wiped the sweat off her forehead as the treadmill slowed down and came to a stop. Draping a towel around her neck she took a look deep drink of water. She sat for a minute on the yoga ball, retying her shoes and catching her breath. Music blared loudly from the four speakers in their home gym and the air conditioner was on full blast. It was a large enough soundproofed room sporting the usual treadmill, weights and other pieces of equipment. Putting her water and towel aside she pulled off the second t-shirt she was wearing leaving the tight top underneath, it was sweaty and she needed to move.

"Change playlist; Workout 2." She said to the music unit on the wall while wrapping up her hands. A moment of silence before her favourite alternative rock song started to play and Keira grinned to herself, letting the music energize her. She moved over to where the punching bag hung from the re-enforced hook in the concrete ceiling, and started with her regular routine of jabs, punches and kicks.

"Volume down." A voice commanded from the other side of the room.

Keira spun around instantly annoyed, she hated it when people interrupted her while she was in-the-zone.

"What the hell Blake!"

The culprit stood grinning with his hands on his hips. Clearly he must've gone jogging because his shirt was stained with sweaty circles. "Oh come on K; let's see how you do when the bag punches back."

Keira thought about his offer for a moment. She hasn't trained with Blake for a while, usually the girls train together and so do the guys. She examined him while he wrapped his hands. "Rules?"

His grin got bigger. "No face, I need to look pretty for my trip next week."

"And no biting! I know your dirty tricks. Okay hang on a second." She walked over to her water bottle and awkwardly picked it up with wrapped hands and took a cool drink.

"Volume Up!" She yelled and took a defensive stance towards the still grinning Blake; fully intending to wipe it from his face.

At first it was friendly punches, thrown to test the other's reflexes. Blake was much stronger than Keira, but Keira was fast. Blake landed a hit to Keira's side and that settled it. IT WAS ON!

Keira scored a couple of well-placed kicks but Blake soon had her on her back. She flipped back onto her feet and retaliated by knocking him off centre and finishing it with a kick to the back of his knee, making him fall to his knees. Seconds later he missed one jab but landed another. Blake grinned at her while jumping up and down as she rubbed the spot he had bruised.

They circled each other when Blake attempted to surprise her with a kick, but she had been waiting for it. Grabbing his foot she slammed him into the padded floor. A curse escaped him as he rolled over and onto his feet. This time it was Keira's turn to grin.

The fighting continued with a few surprises, Keira attempted to put the weights between them while she took a moment to catch her breath. She has been in the gym for almost two hours and started to get really tired; Blake clearly had more stamina.

He jumped clear over the weights and she landed a kick before running away. He caught up quickly though and swiped her feet from underneath her and she landed flat on her back. Within seconds he had her pinned. Their faces were inches apart and Keira was still trying to get her breath back.

He stared into her ice-blue eyes. "I win." He grinned and licked the tip of her nose.

"Yuck!" She squirmed, pushed him off her and wiped her face with the back of her hand.