Drekablóð Rising:Fire(Book 1)

Chapter 2 {Ignatius}

After rushing to put on his training uniform and smoothing down his hair, he ran all the way to the training hall.
When he made it he was out of breath, his hands resting on his knees.
"Ignatius, how nice of you to finally join us." His training instructor's voice reached his ears. "Did you finally decide to crawl out of bed?"
Ignatius looked up at Ignacio, fearing the angry look in his one russet eye. He knew he was in deep, deep trouble for being late, even though it wasn't his fault.
   "I'm sorry for being so late, sir." He said, bowing his head in order to try and gain some forgiveness. "But," he continued much quieter, "if you don't mind, I would like to explain to you why I'm always late, and I believe Prince Surya would like to join us on that matter."
   "Oh?"
   Ignatius looked up at the head of the King's Guard.
   "Yes, sir, Prince Surya is a witness to why I was late today. I think he would like to tell you all about it, and so would I about all the other times I have been late to training." He told Ignacio, trying not to look at his eye with the long, white scar running through it.
   Rumor had it that Ignacio got it from a sword fight with one of the warlords. That had been the only know occasion when someone had ever wounded and scarred Ignacio, the best swordsman in all of The Fire Lands.
   "Hmm. Fine. I'll listen to your...explanation. Now, go practice your swordsmanship, you need to work on it." Ignacio told him, and waved him away.
   Ignatius walked over to the sparring ring, ignoring all the looks from his fellow peers, especially Haco, Flint, and Enya.
   Dread and anger filled him as he stepped into the ring. Enya was standing there waiting for an opponent brave enough to face her.
   When you first looked at Enya, she looked like a delicate angel, but she was the exact opposite. She was practically satan reincarnated. Her burnt orange hair and eyes always reminded him of fire every time he looked at her.
   "Ignatius, are you going to spar with me?" She asked in her honeyed voice. He knew better than to trust that voice. It always meant she was about it make his life an even worse hell than what it already was.
   But he had no choice. Ignacio would make him fight her no matter what, even if he strongly disliked it.
   He sighed, and picked up a blunted sword from the rack, and got into a battle stance.
   On the other side of the ring, Enya did likewise. A smile dancing on her face.
   Neither of them moved a muscle, both waiting for the other to make the first move.
   He knew that Enya was left handed and wouldn't be able to defend her left inside as well as her right side. He could easily slip his sword in between the gap of her left arm and body without interference from her sword, if he could get a clean shot. Which would mean he would need a—
   He cut off his train of thought as Enya came rushing at him in impatience.
   He jumped to the side and rolled to avoid the slicing of her blade.
   Enya swung at him again, and he caught it on his sword this time. He wasn't going to let her think he was afraid of her when she should be the one afraid of him. He wasn't going to hold back today. He needed to burn off his anger and frustration, and who better to take it out on than the conniving demon in front of him.
   Ignatius shoved Enya back with his blade, and took up the offensive, causing Enya to now go on the defensive as he slashed and jabbed at her with his sword.
   He touched her once on the thigh and twice on the shoulders, all were going to bruise. One never, ever left training without half a dozen or more bruises. Ignacio believed pain was the best teacher.
   Enya grew angry, and struck back, nicking him on the hip and smacking his forearm with the flat of her blade.
   He retaliated with more strikes of his own.
   They went on like this, both of them twisting and turning in the ring, watching at sparks flew from every strike of their swords.
   He saw that everyone else stopped what they were doing and came to watch them.
   Soon everything just became a blur of movement, his sword, Enya, everything. He felt like he was no longer in control and he had just gone on autopilot or something, like this was natural for him.
   He could see Enya struggling to keep up with the slashes of his sword. He could see the glistening beads of sweat rolling down her face. Funny. He didn't feel any sweat rolling down his face. He felt like he could go on and on and never stop.
   Then everything did come to a stop when his sword struck Enya on the side and sent her to ground, gasping for air.
   He stopped, and looked down at her, feeling no sympathy for what he did. He felt nothing. It was like someone turned off his emotions.
   "Hey! Ignatius! What was all that about? Huh?" Haco suddenly appeared in front of him, giving him a shove. "You knocked her down and don't even have the decency to help her up or even check up on her. What's wrong with you?" Haco growled at him, anger burning in his orange eyes flecked with gold.
   "She would have done the same." He said bluntly, not caring about Haco's feelings for Enya. If only he knew the truth about that wretch.
   In a blink of an eye, Haco had punched him.
   Wiping away the blood, he turned his head to look at Haco.
   "You think that hurt? Let me show you how it's really done." He said, and punched Haco so hard in the face that you could hear the snap of his nose.
   Haco stumbled back in pain as he clutched his bleeding nose and swore up a storm of cuss words.
   "Hey, no one hits Haco but me." Flint said, laying a hand on Ignatius's shoulder.
   Ignatius elbowed him in the stomach and turned on his heel and kneed him the stomach and smashed Flint's face against his knee before letting him fall to the ground with a bleeding nose as well.
   He glared at the three of them in anger. They were the ones responsible for all of his misery. It felt so good to finally make them pay.
   Someone else laid a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to punch them, but his fist was caught by Ignacio.
   "Don't even think about it." Ignacio snarled at him, and shoved his hand away. "My office. Now."