After The War

The Glade

Now
Kyla

Lily and Tyler stormed towards me. Their attacks were still horrible and I dodged them too easily. Even after hours of training there was hardly any improvement. Both of them were exhausted from dragging corpses all day and attacking me the rest of the time. I could tell that they could barely stand. But they did.

And even though I could see that Lily was already thinking about giving up, Tyler wasn't. He reminded me a lot of Jeremy, when we first met.

"Again", I told them.

Until now I really only had taught them how to hold a knife. There was no use in telling them how to use it, if they couldn't even get near enough to touch me.

They were advancing now. This time their attack seemed more coordinated. Lily was coming from one side, Tyler from the other. As they struck out I dodged, but instead of giving up Tyler pursued me a second time. I dodged. This time Lily attacked.

They were taking turns and even though I still could avert being hit I was just the tiniest bit proud that they had started to work together instead of individually.

I caught a glimpse of Jeremy, inside the bus, grinning.

Of course he would. I was sure he was thinking about how we had trained together a few years back. I wondered if he remembered how annoying he had been. Probably not.

I dodged Lily again and this time she fell to the ground. Immediately Tyler rushed over and helped her up.

"And your dead", I said.
"What?", Tyler asked shocked.

"You never ever help your partner in a fight. If, say, Jeremy got hurt and fell down, like Lily just did, would I go and help him?"
"Of course", Lily answered. "He's your friend."

"No, I wouldn't", I said. "The moment you're not concentrating on the fight you'll get killed."
"That's really cold", Lily answered.

Did she have to complain about everything I said? Who of us had years of experience? As proud as I had been now I was just as annoyed. Why was I teaching them anything anyway? Should they just go and see how they survived without us alone in the woods. I was still entertaining the thought of just killing them myself.

Only Jeremy's glare from inside kept me from pronouncing any of my thoughts out loud.

"No, it isn't", I said, not holding any of my annoyance back.
"I don't get it", she answered. "How could you not help your friend if he got hurt?"

I let out a deep, resigned sigh. This girl was getting on my nerves.

As much as I couldn't understand why I hadn't killed them both the first time I'd seen them, as much did I have no idea why I was putting up with them now.

"Alright", I said. "Let's play it through! Because you're both little and weak I will use this stick."

I bent down to pick up a short branch, in that moment Lily's knife came flying towards me. I grabbed her wrist.

I couldn't keep the little smile from appearing on my face.
The annoyance faded.
"Did you plan on me picking up the stick or did you just see anopening?", I asked not letting go of Lily's hand.
She started stammering nonsense and the smile turned into a grin.
"Either way, nice try", I told her and let go. Pouty she let her hand fall back.

"Fine", I said and twirled the branch in my hand. Without warning I pretended to stab Tyler's waist.
"Pretend to be hit", I told him. He held his hands over the point where the wood had touched him and went down groaning. He used a bit much effort on the sound effects but over all he did an acceptable job.