MATE AND HIS LOVER 2

#19 Volleyball

People are right: once you get it out of your system, it does feel better.

All that crying, followed by a good night's sleep, made me let go of my miserable mood.

Nara and Jenny persuade me to go to the beach in the day. The only times I've been to the beach so far were at night, and we all stayed on the land around a fire each time.

I haven't yet hung out at the beach during daytime. I wear my black two-piece and a black mesh cover up on top of it.

As my friends and I settle in on the beach chairs, I notice Irene. She's standing and talking to her friends in a red bikini.

The jealousy is instant.

One of the reasons why it's so hard to digest the thought of Leon and Irene together, even when Leon claims he likes me, is that somewhere in the corner of my mind I doubt that Irene is a better match for Leon.

I may have my power, my title, even good looks (thanks to my beautiful mother) but I can never have that muscular figure that screams strength – the one Irene has.

With clothes on, my friends and I pretty much match the frames of the she-wolves of Red Peak. But now, in our half-naked state... the difference between us is crystal clear.

The werewolf girls, including Sabrina, have toned bodies – as if they workout every day. However, it isn't the result of any exercise.

I know that because Sabrina is as lazy as me. Any chance she gets, she bunks her training. 

Out of us three, Nara is the one who looks closest to as toned as the female werewolves, and that's because Nara works out regularly.

Jenny and I, on the other hand, are very much on the thinner side, which is not something that would've bothered me if it weren't for all the she-wolves in their bikinis I'm looking at in the beach, especially Irene.

Any longer I look at them girls, and it would be akin to checking them out, so I turn my attention back to the book I brought with me to read.

I'm almost halfway through it when I hear Jenny call my name. She, Nara, and Sabrina have started playing volleyball with some of the girls.

Jenny gestures me to come. "Enough with that book. Come play with us. We're one person short."

After stuffing my book back into my bag, I take off my cover up and head for the volleyball court.

Few minutes into the game, I can tell the girls playing against us are pretty good at it. However, it probably got to do with their inhuman strength as werewolves and not their skills. If they had the same level of skills as me and my friends, then they would be winning now, not us.

Witches and wizards may not have the strong muscles to show it but we train as hard, if not harder, than the other races in combat. Instead of focusing on physical strength, we focus on three other things:

First – Agility. There's a saying among werewolves, it's not the wolf that charges first that matters but the one standing last. And that maybe true for them but for witches, she who attacks first, wins.

You should be first at everything. First to act. First to think. First to move. The witch that casts the first spell in a fight will have an upper hand. In fact, if she casted the right spell, then she would've already won.

Second –  Aim. It's the hardest skill to master. Aiming is a matter of life or death in a fight. A powerful witch can cast a powerful spell, but if she missed her target, her powers are as good as nothing. A lowly witch might cast a meagre spell, but if it hits the right mark, her opponent falls.