Kerrin's Hunt

Chapter 6: Scissors, Knives, And Everything Nice

            After the dishes had been cleared, and the leftovers piled into a Tupperware and placed in the fridge, the adults were still not awake, and the group of teens took it upon themselves to do some basic training. They dragged her down to the basement, and showed her into a room referred to as the Practice Room. According to Elm, this was where they “Perfected their established methods of violence and tried different ones.” In the corner of the rather large room, there was a small table and two chairs. Ember sat in one, and Nikola directed Kat to the rack of various weapons, including knives, one or two swords, some hypodermic needles, and... some scissors.

    “Odd variety here.” Kat remarked.

“Yeah, guns are too loud so our choices here are rather limited.” Elm said.

     “That would make sense.” Kat replied.

“So basically what you’re down here for is to try out some weapons to evaluate what you’re good with, however, there are other choices that are even more unconventional than scissors; please see Xander’s favored cigarette lighter and homemade spray-on lighter fluid or Mikayla’s poisons.” Ember explained.

“Oh cool, so like what do I start with, and what are the targets?” Kat asked.

“Good question, Kat. We can’t spar with you, because we’d get killed or severely injured, and I don’t see Henry or Phil anywhere.” Nikola said.

       “Who are Henry and Phil?” Kat asked.

    “They are the dummies we use. Xander, what did you do with them?” Elm said, giving a look to Xander.

“Look up, idiot. They’re where they always are.” Xander snarked.

             Elm looked up. Kat followed his gaze to a one sorry-looking crumpled pile of a dummy in a Freddy Krueger  mask and Stetson, and another was a rather posh looking styrofoam dummy in a striped shirt with his bandana-covered head perched on the rafter next to the one where the dummies were strewn.

“That would be them.” Elm said.

     “At least I didn’t char them again…”  He offered. Elm did not look amused.

“Well, here we can start. Kat, take a look at a few of the ropes and chains dangling from the ceiling beams, bit uneven, but you could still probably use them to get up high enough with the right amount of force. These ropes and chains hold when Cate or Minerva have a go at them, and since Cate is pretty much pure muscle, you should be alright.” Mikayla said.

      Kat scanned the room, gazing at the chains and ropes. Elm still stood below where Philip and Henry were, looking at her in a way as if to question how such a small child could accomplish a feat like this. That did it, she had no training, but where she lacked in skills, she made up for in determination.

        She narrowed her eyes, and walked to the opposite end of the room and looked at all of them, the one closest to the beam would take a small jump, but luckily she had always been good at climbing things, so everything should be relatively easy. She walked to the rope, did a small hop, and worked her way up, using the few knots at footholds and grips. In hardly any time at all she was perched at the top, legs twisted around the penultimate knot, hooking her into place, hands holding her torso up. With one arm she managed to take a few swings and get Phil’s head and body, along with Henry down.

“Thanks.” Nikola said.

        “Not bad for an 11 year old, as I still can’t pull that off.” Elm said.

     “Thank you.” Kat replied, realizing the “taunt” was probably to motivate her anyway.

“Alright, anyhow, I think you should start with the knives personally, So take those two black-handled ones over there and toss them at Phil’s head, which will be placed over at Ember’s table. Ember, get up.” Nikola said.  

    Ember got up, and moved back she got down two black handled knives and handed them to Kat.

      “I don’t know, I’m more used to throwing things besides knives, but if you insist, I guess I’ll give it a shot.” Kat didn’t know how to feel about this. She tried anyway.

    She threw one, and it gained a nice little spin, and missed horribly.  

“Well, we’re obviously done here. And I’d rather stop before I stab anyone.” Kat said.

    “Here, give her the scissors; those fly a bit better and are less likely to hit a demon in the face with a handle.” Nikola said, taking the knife away as Ember went back to the weapons rack and retrieved a pair of scissors.

       Ember handed them to Kat, and gave her some tips.

        “Okay, Kat, so, the way it worked for me was to hold it so the larger grip is to your right, and hold the smaller grip with your index finger hooked around it, your other three fingers clenched like a fist on the other side of the ring, with your thumb sort of in between the handles. So I recommend you do that.” Ember explained.

    Kat mimicked what Ember had told her to do.

“Yes, like that.  Okay, now, next if you want to throw or just get the blades apart, then you move the thumb up a tad bit, and flick your wrist downward,” Ember continued.

        Kat flicked her wrist. The blade spun out rather nicely.  

“Good, good, now to get the blades to snap back together you just flick your wrist back upwards, but it might also take a small jerk of your arm.”

    Kat did what Ember had explained, and the pair of scissors snapped together with a satisfying sniickt sound.

        “Great! You’re a natural. Alright, enough dilly-dallying, let’s do it for real this time. Just aim at Phil’s head and you’re good.” Ember piped cheerfully.

   Kat positioned her scissors and flicked the blades out; then aimed quickly and threw. This time she hit the target dead on.

    “That was great, Kat! Imagine how well you’ll do once we start training you for real! However, you might make a better scout…” Elm exclaimed. Mikayla hit him.

        “Oh for the love of Raetap, isn’t it a bit early to be talking about her hunting skills? Christ’s sake she hasn’t even learnt a lick of history. And we haven’t even gotten her settled in yet!” Mikayla practically yelled at the boy, who was now leaning away with a look of extreme discomfort upon his face.

      “Mikayla’s right, Elm, and it’s daytime. We could probably head up through the fire escape and have the place ransacked and wiped clean before the hoards ever got a chance to move in.” Xander butted in quickly, as if expecting the conversation to lead to violence soon.

    “Good idea, Xander. Let’s go get a hold of Cate, have Minerva get the floor plan, and head out!” Nikola exclaimed.