Smoke And Steel

• Six - The Land of Gods and Monsters •

Avery

I went for a quick spin before going to Gun's, going through a quiet path in the woods that I’d found when I first bought by bike.

I pulled into the shabby parking lot behind the gym which was, if I was being nice, run down. I mean, like, it was really run down. The corrugated iron walls were rusted and the most of the windows were cracked or boarded up. There were weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement and the grass desperately needed a mow. The faded hand-painted sign above the doors announced what this haphazard place was. I walked up to the large double doors, the only thing that wasn't broken on the building and pushed them open. I was greeted by Gunnolf Randall, Gun for short, the owner of the gym.

Gun was a short man with arms as thick as tree trunks and a heart just as big. He looked menacing, what with his auburn hair cropped close to his skull and the scar that ran from his hairline and stopped half way down his cheek, though he was one of the nicest people I'd ever met and he was like a father to me. I could see his badass angel wing tattoos peeking out the sleeves of his shirt, I'd always envied them. 

"How ya been, my boy? Haven't seen ya round lately" He asked in his thick Southern Accent, clapping me on the back.

"Same old, same old. You know how it is in the Steel household"

"That I do, Avery. Well anyway, Conall's working out the back if ya wanna see him" 

"Okay, thanks Gun"

I made my way out the back to see Gun's son Conall. He, like me, was also 17 but he'd left school shortly after his 16th birthday. He’d had trouble dealing with some anger issues and decided he was better off working for his dad than wasting his time at a school he hated. I would leave school but I can’t stand to be away from the familiar hustle and bustle of people.

Conall had red hair like his father but that was where the similarities stopped. He wore his hair long, and in shoulder-length dreadlocks. He had his mother's tan skin and dark brown eyes and he was 6 ft. He was lean, but muscular and I knew he could hold his own in a fight.

When I walked into the small backroom and saw Conall with his head on the desk and his eyes closed, drool slipping out of the corner of his mouth, I thought it would be funny to give him a bit of a wake up. I grabbed a heavy, hardcover book off of the shelf and let it fall open. I crept across the room with the book and placed it closed to his ear. I quickly snapped the book shut so it made a loud clapping sound right next to his ear. Conall leaped so high in the air he left the spindly office chair he was sitting in.

"Arghhh!" he yelled with a surprised look on his face. When he saw what had caused the noise he yelled out "I'm gonna get you Steel!" and proceeded to chase me through the maze of punching bags and mats that were the gym.

"Gotta catch me first, Connie" I yelled back, taking off in the opposite direction.

He chased me for a few minutes before he finally caught me, tackling me onto one of the mats. He was straddling me, pinning me with his elbow pressed against my chest and punched my arm with all of the force he could muster.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, rubbing my sore bicep.

"You deserve it" he laughed, helping me up off of the mats.

"What's going on here? Ya little trouble makers" Gun joked, walking up to us

"Your son's a scaredy cat" I said at the same time Conall said "It's all Avery"

Gun just shook his head and said, pointing into the far corner of the gym, "There's a bag free over there if either of you want it" and walked away to talk to a brute who just walked in.