Among Monsters and Men

Chapter 2: Tough Life

Mercy woke up by a fanfare that resounded through the camp, as if something played poorly on a trumpet. She quickly pulled on his new clothes, a sand-coloured tank top and a pair of army green shorts. Chevy was already out of the tent and gone. She had to go zigzag between boxes and people and felt generally lost.

”This way newbie”, said a girl behind her. She turned around and saw Esmeralda standing there with an amused, cat-like smile. She held the two-meter-long rods in one hand. ”Bellamy asked me to train you." Mercy nodded. "Come along." Mercy followed her toward the stone beach.

The beach was empty and the wind was mild and the water calm. They stood facing each other and Esmeralda grinned at her.

"We should practice blocking and defence", she said and grinned.

"You are going to attack me and I'll protect myself?" Asked Mercy a tad skeptical.

"Exactly." She did not really like the idea of not getting to attack. She felt a tad defenceless. Esmeralda cast one rod to her. Esmeralda stood across from her with her legs firmly apart and the rod in battle position .

"Rule no. 1 when it comes to close combat is to never lose control of yourself ”, said Esmeralda and twirled the wand between her fingers. "Rule no. 2: stay on your feet all the time and rule no. 3: hold eye contact with your opponent."

"Sounds easy", murmured Mercy sarcastic but she stood ready .

Esmeralda struck a blow against her and in pure reaction, Mercy blocked with her rod before Esmeralda’s could hit her. They struck against each other without touching the other. Mercy began to get the hang of it all after just over half an hour of constant training. Just when she thought she could make Esmeralda drop her balance and maybe win,  she lost her own balance and Esmie got the upper hand. She struck a blow against Mercy's legs and knocked her to the ground.

”Good job, Newbie”, Esmeralda said and held out her hand towards Mercy. ”I’m Esmie by the way.”

”Mercy”, she said and shook the other girls hand.

They walked back towards the camp and Mercy noticed that half of the people were gone. ”Where is everyone?”

”Out hunting I believe”, Esmie said and took a right turn around one of the tents.

In a matter of seconds the empty camp was swarming with people. With Logan in the lead, came the hunting troop in to the camp. Mercy could see Bellamy and Miles carrying something on a stretcher made of sticks and a dirty fabric. First she thought it was some kind of animal they had killed, but the others looked to worried for it to be any kind of prey. Esmie ran over to them with Mercy not far behind. She was right, it wasn’t an animal, it was one of the twins. It was Ethan.

”Put him down here”, Esmeralda said as they went in to on of the bigger tents. Mercy had, on Esmeralda’s orders, followed her inside. The tent was built different from the others. The abode tents were rectangular but the medical and the gathering tent where circular. Small tables with medical equipment, like bandage, ointments, herbs and plants were set by the walls and a solid stretcher stood in the centre of the tent. Bellamy and Miles laid Ethan down on the solid stretcher and ordered everyone to leave the tent. Mercy was about to leave when Bellamy, who stood in the doorway, put out a hand to stop her. First she looked town at his bloody hand, she caught herself hoping it was Ethan’s and not his blood, and the up at his, almost angry, face.

”I want you to stay here and help Esmie with Ethan.” She looked doubtfully at him. ”That's an order”, he growled and with that he left. But she did believe he had said something more, something that sounded like ”he’s more afraid than you are”, but maybe she just had imagined it.