The Shattered Plains (Aphrika #1)

Chapter 5

Splash ran over to the training cave. He was late today and he needed to get there in a hurry. He entered the massive cave and saw Bero was pacing impatiently around while Sunny, the dik-dik was prancing around excitedly while Dust was laying on the floor looking up at the roof.

"Hi," Splash mewed. "Sorry I'm late."

"Hey Splash," Bero greeted him.

"What are you going to teach us today?" Sunny asked.

"So..." Splash began. "When you're being attacked and you're wounded, what is your first instinct?"

They looked at each other and finally Bero answered. "To fight back with everything you've got."

"Yep," Splash nodded his head. "But I've figured something out. If you pretend that you're too wounded or weak to fight, they think that you are weak. Then you suddenly attack them when they aren't expecting it."

The three other animals looked at each other for a few minutes.

Sunny stepped forwards. "That's a good idea!"

Bero seemed hesitant to use it. "I'm not sure it will help." he growled. "I think it would make it easier to kill us."

"No, because they will be a little confused. That's when you attack." Splash explained.

Dust looked at Splash and nodded. "I think that's a good trick. The only thing is we can't really try it out on each other because we will know it's fake."

"We can try it on Thye." Splash mewed.

"Ok, I'll go get him." Bero leapt away to find Thye. Bero came back to the small group with Thye following him.

"So, what's going on?" He asked. "Bero just told me to come. He didn't explain why."

"Umm..." Splash started. "We want to try a new move on you."

"Oh," Thye barked. "Of course, I don't mind."

"Splash, why don't you fight him?" Dust asked.

"Ok, I will." Splash mewed.

Thye and Splash faced each other. Splash bunched his muscles and leapt at Thye. thye dodged easily and swiped his paw at Splash. Splash fell over at the force of his paw and lay there helplessly while Thye towered above him. He put his paw on Splash's chest. Not hard enough to hurt him but not to light so Splash could get away. Splash fell limp and Thye looked around at the other animals. While he was distracted Splash suddenly sprung into action. He bit Thye's paw and he yelped in surprise.

Splash jumped back onto his paws and jumped on top of Thye. He balanced on top of Thye until he rolled over and squashed him.

"Ok, I surrender." Splash mewed.

"Alright young cat." Thye barked. "That was a cool idea with you pretending you couldn't fight."

"Thanks," Splash nodded his head.

"Attack!" An animal shouted. Thye looked over to the source of the noise and a look of pure shock overcame his face.