The Lazy Life Of Raine

Suvivor (10)

Echo arrived to her first day as a trainer for the teenagers late by 10 minutes.  The other trainer, Mikel only looked at Echo once, his eye quickly grazing over the Alpha’s Mate Marks on her neck and kept his mouth shut.  

He greeted her with a quick bow, with his eyes on the ground, before turning back to yell at the teens.  

“No slacking, or I’ll make the whole group do another 100 pushups!”  

The teens groaned out in annoyance and pain as they did a series of workouts.  100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 jumping jacks, 100 lunges, 100 squats, 50 right punches, 50 left punches, 50 left kicks, 50 right kicks.  Rinse and repeat, for the next hour.

After their warm up, they paired up and practiced their hand on hand combat.  While some preferred to keep to one fighting style, there were many who preferred to spar with mix martial arts.  Those who did, Echo kept her eyes on them closely. They were more aggressive, which made them more reckless and more prone to hurt one another.  

Little Gi, being the runt of the teens, had a partner that didn’t have a mean bone to her body.  She only came to train and fight because it was required, but she hated hurting others.

Echo stopped by them and watched them spar half-heartedly.  Little Gi didn’t want to hurt Bree either, so he only acted with slow movements.  

“Stop.”  Echo said as she sighed heavily.  “Why are you two not sparring properly?”  

Gi couldn’t meet Echo’s eyes as his ears quickly turned pink.  

“What’s your name?”  Echo asked the young girl.  

“My name is Bree, Luna.” Bree answered.  

“Just call me Echo.  No need to call me Luna.”  Echo told her. “Why are you not sparring properly?”  

“I… I don’t like fighting.”  Bree confessed.

“I understand that you don’t like fighting.  However, in these dark days, knowing how to properly fight means the difference between death and survival.”  Echo told her. “Knowing how to protect your friends and family, means their life and death as well. Say one day you are put on security, you see a horde of zombies or a group of rogues.  Your teammates has to know that they can rely on you to hold your own. It only takes one hesitation, one misstep, one chance, for the rest of your teammates to get hurt because you couldn’t kill a zombie, fight a rogue, or protect yourself.  If your teammate is constantly protecting you, you will become dead weight to them and be the cause of their injury or death.”

Bree could only look down at her feet and nod her head.  

“I know you would rather be doing something else, but I’m pretty sure several of us here would rather be doing something else also.  Most people, human or werewolf, aren’t meant to fight or kill. But this world is no longer the world we know. And to survive these dark days, we have to help protect one another, help up lift one another, and help each other to survive.”  Echo told her. “Spar back, as if it’s your last chance for survival. Only with skills, determination, and practice, will you survive. Now try again. And this time, fight like you mean it.”

Bree held tight fits by her side, but nodded her head.  She brought up her hands to her chest and glared at Gi.

“Don’t hold back, Gi, even if she is a girl.” Echo told him.  

With a determined look, Gi took a step back and held his fighting stance as well.  Within a second, the two of them began fighting for real. Their speed and strength was faster than a human. However, Echo’s eyes could still see through their moves.