The Strange Life Of Felix Grant

Chapter 28: First Lesson

"I've always wanted to see you practice. You talk about it like it's the best thing in the world." Sierra says smiling at me. "So I'll go a round, but go easy on me ok."

"I can teach you if you like." I say going over to the foils, and picking up the same one I had used on Alex. Sierra picks a foil similar to mine, just a bit smaller.

"Can you really fence?" Claire asks pointing to a foil of a rapier.

"Yes, but I don't like rapiers, they're too light."

"What does it matter when you can dance around and cut people to ribbons before they can react?" Josh asks shrugging.

"The only real way to damage to someone with a rapier is to stab them, and if you're that close you kind of take away from the dancing." I say going to the middle of the room, and wait for Sierra. She stands across from me, and mimics my stance. I shake my head and tell her how to stand, and how to move from the position. "I'm just going to block ok, you just try to hit me."

"Ok." She says and hits me in the back as I turn around. I look at her and smile.

"Good you can capitalize when an opponent shows weakness." I say settling into my ready stance. I motion with my off hand, and she lunges at me stabbing at my chest. Her jump takes her a little further, and faster than I had anticipated, so I have to spin just to avoid it. As her feet touch the ground she pivots, to keep me in sight, and we settle opposite where we started.

"That was awesome." Danny says looking back and forth between Sierra and I.

We stare at each other unblinking, and she steps forward with a light familiar step and jabs forward. I parry it to the side, and she whips it towards my shins. I step back, and she spins a full circle from the force of her swing.

"Don't put too much into any one strike, you never know when that's going to happen." I say stepping forward, and pushing her chest with a finger.

She stumbles back, but settles into the same crouch before lunging again. This time I'm ready, so I slide my foil on the bottom side of hers, and flick my wrist upwards. Her sword arm moves above her head and I catch her with my off arm. I spin her and release causing her to go sprawling into the floor. If it had been any girl but Sierra, I would have checked on her, but I'd seen her get plowed into by jocks twice her size and she was the one standing at the end of it.

She springs back to her feet, and rushes at me swinging at my chest. I step back, and spin around her as she gets ready for another strike.

"Hold still." She hisses turning on me.

She stabs at my leg, and as I prepare to block it, she flicks her wrist and slashes at my exposed chest. I lean back, barely avoiding the attack. I flick my wrist and catch the back of her calf with my foil. She yelps in surprise, and hops backwards settling into her ready stance.

"Didn't like that trick I take it?" She asks smiling at me.

"I was very happy about it, it shows you have some talent for this." I say settling into my ready stance. "Though this doesn't seem like your first time using a sword."

"I'm not going to lie to you, this isn't the first time I've been down here." Sierra says smirking. I give her a quizzical stare, and she continues. "I came over one day when you were at work, and your mom answered the door. We got to talking, and eventually I asked if you were telling the truth about the basement dojo. She brought me down here and we spared for almost an hour."

"I thought I saw some of my mom's tampering in your stride." I say smirking.

She lunges at me this time taking a slight step before doing so, and slams her sword down on mine. She starts a series of slashes that I block or back away from. After four slashes I step inside her guard as she prepares for an over handed blow, and press my foil against the front of her body. She stops looking at me like I had fallen from space.