Fighting for Change

3. An Unexpected Turn of Events

The army compound had a small area designated for combat training, set up with cloth dummies on wooden stands. There were several different sets of various shapes and sizes, providing crude approximations of the Kybry hosts encountered so far on the battlefield. Lily stood amidst these now, muscles tensed and short of breath; three forms lay massacred, either sagging against their bonds or piled in a heap of dismembered pieces. Lily sheathed her twin daggers with practiced precision, one on a belt on either side. Without hesitation she set to work repairing the mannequins.

Some simpler peoples may have denounced the method through which Lily did her repairs as magic, but it was much the same process as healing herself or others. Though that too may have been declared witchcraft throughout most of Earth's history. She merely passed her hands over every gash and tear in the rough fabric, fingers dancing nimbly over the ragged edges, and they were good as new. Much easier than people. Like many of her particular talents, Lily had no idea how it worked, only how to use it. She speculated that it might be some kind of reversal of the fabric's time stream or something like that. But maybe she just watched too many movies as a kid.

The expression on her face was anything but serene. It could have been any of the harsher emotions: frustration, contempt, ire, animosity. Her hands fluttered unwaveringly over the dummy's wounds. She gruffly affixed them back on their stands once they had been fully restored.

Lily slowly unsheathed her knives and stood with her arms by her side, letting out a long, low breath. She then sprang into action, leaping toward the target directly in front of her, dispatching it with a single deadly slice. In the same motion she twisted and etched a ragged 'X' on the chest of another. To add a bit of flair Lily threw in a block against an imaginary counter. She lashed out with her dagger, liberating the dummy's head from its body with a ferocious growl that struck fear into the heart of any creature that heard it.

At that moment she sensed someone approaching. With battle-honed speed she decided it was a man, most likely not a threat, given that she was still on base. He was far enough away the he would likely be able to see her fairly clearly, but not close enough to speak or do any other action worthy of her valuable attention. Lily elected to ignore the looming figure.

All this information was processed in an instant, not even taking long enough to warrant pause. Without hesitation she threw a powerful kick behind her, stopping a hypothetical charge from the remaining mannequin. Lily brought her foot down on a fictional instep, then pivoted and slashed at the dummy. Stuffing spilled out on the dirt is gruesome heaps.

Unsatisfied with the condition of her victim, Lily hauled back an fell into her opponent with a cogent thrust kick to the sternum. She allowed a small smile of satisfaction to creep across her features. The dummy's wooden supports let out a loud CRACK of protest. Lily opted to end the scuffle with a solid grunt and a fierce jab through the dummy's heart.

With all targets now disabled, Lily deigned to turn her attention to the nearing man. She refused to look at him, instead reaching out with her mind. On a whim, she used her mind's eye to judge wind and distance. She then spun on a dime, turning on another fictional attacker behind her and loosing the dagger from her nimble fingers. It whizzed past the person, now clearly revealed to be The General, and stuck firmly in the neck of a Hrothni dummy 20 feet away. There it stayed,gently wobbling back and forth from the force of the impact.

Lily grimaced in dismay, as though she had missed her intended target. Otherwise she payed her visitor no heed, instead turning her attentions once more to the disabled mannequins around her, with a slightly more caring and delicate touch than before. She didn't want to seem too eager to know her fate. She also secretly dreaded the answer.