They Do Exist

They Do Exist (18)

We were in the middle of practice, Cooper and I, doing the usual run throughs. 

“Alright, now that you have warmed up, I’m going to show you the four moves, but you have to execute them perfectly for them to be effective.” I nodded taking this in.

“Okay, have you heard of the human chant, Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes?”

I gave him a bizarre look.  “Uhm yea,  The Wiggles used to sing it all the time on TV.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “The Wiggles?”

I rolled my eyes.  “Don’t ask.”

So he didn’t, “Well first you start with the head, it’s the most tender point of a person’s defense in a fight. If you can render them confused, you immediately have the upper advantage.” I nodded.

“First, you ram the temples—heads.  Then you grab the arm and swing it backwards, into a painful position—shoulders.  Then very quickly you need to follow with kicking the back of their knee to make them fall to the floor—knees.  Lastly, toes.  Once they’ve fallen onto their stomach, you put one foot on their calf and the other you swing and kick the side of their foot to break it.  This will render them unable to pursue you or chase you, if they can even get up at all.”

“Er, okay.” I took this in. This shouldn’t be hard to remember, just like the song.  Head, shoulders, knees and toes. Okay, yeah. I got this.

“Okay?” Cooper asked.

“Okay.” I replied cheerfully, I had total and utter confidence in myself.  Finally! Something in the elverin realm that had something to do with the human realm. Piece of cake.

“Alright. Good.  Now attack me.”

“WHAT!?” I yelled at Cooper.

“You heard me, attack me.” He replied with a hint of sarcasm.

“NO! I might hurt you!”

Cooper rolled his eyes.  “Layla, you can’t keep letting your human conscience keep putting you in danger, if I was really a bad guy, you’d probably be dead right now.”

“Cooper, if you were really a bad guy, I would have already done it! But you’re Cooper! Like a big soft teddy bear!  I already shot an arrow through Gabe’s arm; I’m not rendering you unconscious and broken!”

“Layla, toughen up.  I’ll be fine. I doubt you could hurt me at all, which is why I’m worried.  Just stop being such a girl and beat me up!”

If this had been any other situation I might have laughed at that, but I couldn’t.  I couldn’t hurt Cooper.

“Cooper, I can’t hurt you.”

“But I can!” Alana walked up smirking.

I just stared in confusion.  “Come now Layla, any chance we get to beat up on big-headed, testosterone- filled males, we must take for advantage!” She walked up with complete confidence and poised herself in front of Cooper. Cooper looked at Alana with a stone cold face, and I could see beads of nervousness drip down his face and neck.

A pain tinged within me, if only I could be as confident as Alana.

Within a few seconds everything happened so fast, Alana swept into action, hitting the temples hard.  Cooper shook his head immediately trying to rid himself of the dizziness, but she wasn’t going to let him recover. She pulled his arm back into a painful, awkward position, and then she kicked the back of his knee— a blow so hard the huge muscular Cooper was left helpless on the ground. Then she ruthlessly held his calf down and kicked the ever living godliness out of his foot. A loud uncomfortable cracking noise echoed in the training room and Cooper yelped.