River Horse

Chapter Fourteen

I KNOW, I KNOW, I AM A HORRIBLE WRITER WHO ALMOST NEVER UPDATES AND ALWAYS LEAVES HUGE CLIFF HANGERS

I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG

PLEASE FORGIVE ME

One of the reasons it took so long is because I'm writing another book at the same time aaaaand I'm rewriting this one XD

Anyway, here's the loooooooong awaited fourteenth chapter. I hope you all enjoy!!!

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ALICIA

Those elf trainees put up one hell of a fight.

I wiped a trickle of blood of blood away from my nose, grinning in fierce exhilaration. It had been a while since I had faced off against a worthy opponent.

The young elf I was facing off against had dark skin and black hair cropped close to his skull. His startlingly green eyes shone with excitement as we dropped back into our stances. He was fast and strong, but he did not have the agility that I did.

We had been taking turns sparring with the thirty or so trainees for about two hours now. I had fought ten so far, and won each time. But every single one had put up a good fight.

The area outside the barracks consisted of a large square area of flattened, hard-packed dirt. Off to one side was a fenced off area with shooting targets, lance targets, and various other objects used to train with weapons.

The Elvish trainees were all lined up against one side, dressed in identical dark-green tunics and thick brown leggings, all without padding. If you hit the dirt, you hit it hard. On the other side stood the kelpies. They were all communicating silently with each other, most likely assessing the fight taking place. I had blocked myself from the mental conversation in order to avoid distracting myself.

The elf and I circled each other, our movements wary. Suddenly, I saw a flicker in his eyes, and braced myself. A split second later he was charging at me with incredible speed.

I spun, dodging out of the way. As he passed me, my fist slammed into his back and sent him flying forward. I winced as a muscle in my shoulder was pulled. Ignoring the pain, I used my momentum to fling myself at the elf, slamming my knees into his back. He crashed into the ground with a yelp. He would definitely have some bruises.

He twisted around and grabbed my leg before pulling himself on top of me. He grimly struggled to keep me pinned, but I slid one of my legs around one of his and managed to get my hand under his shoulder. I pushed up on his shoulder and used his legs to anchor mine and keep myself balanced as I rolled him over so I was on top. I slapped his face hard, making a loud crack. He paused, momentarily stunned. I leapt off him and grabbed the front of his tunic, hoisting him upright and holding my other fist a few inches away from his nose.

"Well-fought," he panted. "I concede." I released him and reached up to massage my shoulder as I turned and walked back to the group of kelpies.

"You're pretty good," one of the males, Joltin, commented.

"Thanks," I replied. Kye handed me a towel moistened with cold water and I wiped the sweat off my face.

They're probably going easy on you because you're a girl, Beau remarked, speaking mentally so the elves couldn't hear. He was Kye's older brother, but had none of his sibling's cheerful demeanor.

Joselyn snorted. From what we've seen, she needs to go easy on them, she chuckled. There was unanimous agreement among them, and I felt my face heat up slightly.