Rebellion

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18~

He chuckled as he lead me over to the display of weapons. “This seems to be your favorite weapon of choice,”

I shrugged. He handed me the same blade I used last time, and took down his own. We walked over to the training mats, and he turned to stand in front of me. “Okay. What do you remember?”

“That fencing is 80% footwork. I remember the position, and how to hold my weapon,”

“Good, so you’ve remembered everything I’ve told you ,” I nodded, and he continued. “Good. So, stand in position, and I want you to do footwork back and forth. I’ll tell you when to stop,”

I did as he told me, and my grip tightened on the handle as I stepped forward. I tried to not watch my feet, for that would cause me to lose balance, so I simply stared ahead. As I continued, I got more comfortable with the movement, and went faster. Callum seemed pleased with my footwork, for he was smiling.

“Okay, you can stop now. You did an excellent job. The one thing I must comment on was the distance between your feet. You need to make sure it stays the same as you move forward and back,” He got into position to demonstrate, and stepped forward twice and backwards twice. I watched the way he moved closely, trying to absorb as much as I could at once. There was so much thinking involved with fencing, and I realized that must be why I enjoy it so much.  As I watched his feet, I saw that the distance did always stay the same. His upper body as well, was relaxed and in perfect position. He looked at me. “Now you try,”

I got into position and stepped forward. I made sure that I was relaxed, and not at all tense, and that seemed to make things easier and caused my movement to flow more. I changed my weight to the balls of my feet, and I noticed a lot freer movement, and I bounced on my toes and I moved forwards and back. I glanced back at Callum and saw him smiling at me.

“You’ve got it. Perfect,” he said. I couldn’t help but blush, the pride he had for me in his blue-grey irises was overwhelming, and something I was not used to.  “Okay,” he said, standing in front of my, his weapon held up, pointed at my chest. “We’re going to learn some basic movements now. Hold your weapon like mine-that’s it, good! Okay, now I am going to beat your blade, like this,” he took the middle part of his blade and hit it against my own. My blade was pushed away from him, completely off target, and leaving myself exposed. “As you can see, this movement is extremely useful and quite quick to master. Now, you try,”

I tried to copy his way of beating the blade, but I failed miserably. I ended up completely bashing his blade, and causing him to lose balance. I sighed, frustrated at my failure. He said nothing, and quickly got into position again, gesturing for me to try once more. I did, making sure my shoulders were relaxed, and my hand wasn’t tense. I beat his blade again, and succeeded. Callum smiled.

“Alright. I think that’s enough for now. Would you like to take a break?” 

“Sure, my hand is quite cramped,”

“That usually happens the first couple times you fence. You get used to it though. Here, I’ll take your weapon and put it away for you,”

“Thank you,”

He smiled before taking my weapon from my hands and placing it on a rack on the wall. He then lead me out of the training room, taking my hand gently in his. My cheeks grew warm from this small gesture, and my grip tightened on his hand. I didn’t want to let go.

We reached the pit in no time at all, and saw that is was quite empty. I saw Zane running towards us from the corner of my eye. He reached us in a matter of seconds, out of breath. “Callum. There’s been…Demons…spotted not far from base…we’re getting the troops ready…we need you at military headquarters…”