Fox Magic

Chapter 17

Twister's pov

"Wake up, rise and shine!" the voice woke me from a deep sleep.

I opened my eyes and saw Swiftheart standing right beside us, staring down with bright eyes. The sun was was just beginning to rise. I yawned and stretched my legs. Aurora was just beginning to wake up, too, but Blaze was still snoring. As Aurora began grooming herself again, I bit Blaze's ear to wake him up.

"Go away," he mumbled sleepily.

"Wake up, lazy, the sun's already rising," I told him.

He responded by covering his face with his tail.

"You better get moving," Swiftheart said, "that hound is getting pretty close."

I've never seen Blaze move so fast as he jumped up with his tail and the fur down his back all puffed up. He looked around with his eyes wide open. Swiftheart laughed at him. So did Aurora and I.

"That's not funny!" he growled at us.

"Then why are we still laughing?" Swiftheart chuckled.

"Probably because it is funny," I couldn't help but tease, "you should've got up."

Blaze snarled, then pounced on me. I rolled on my back and kicked him. He tried to bite my ear, but Swiftheart grabbed him gently by the scruff and pulled him off of me.

"Can't I at least try to teach you, first," he sighed.

I stood and shook the dust off my pelt. Aurora had meanwhile finished her grooming and was ready to go when Swiftheart motioned for us to follow him.

We followed Swiftheart to the training ground. As soon as we got there, Swiftheart got straight to the point. He seemed pretty excited to have someone to teach.

"The first thing I'm going to teach you is how to counter your opponent's attack," Swiftheart started, "who would like to be my opponent?"

After a minute, Swiftheart said, "Thank you for volunteering, Twister!"

Surprised, I looked around and realized Blaze and Aurora had backed up. I sighed and stepped forward.

"Attack me," Swiftheart said simply.

I stared at the maned wolf, considering the best method of attack. He's so big, there's no way I could possibly knock him down. I suppose I could-

"Hurry up already, we don't have all day," Blaze said impatiently.

I ignored him and continued analyzing. When I thought I had a good strategy, I crouched down, ready to pounce. Just as I'm readying my jump, Blaze pounces on me from behind and tackles me to the ground. I turned and bit his leg. He yipped and pulled my ear. Swiftheart grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him off of me again.

"Blaze, you need to be more patient and wait your turn. You can learn a lot by watching others. And Twister, you need to be a bit faster. In a real fight, your opponent isn't going to sit there and wait for you to think out what you're going to do. Both of your lives could depend on it," Swiftheart explained with a bit more patience then I could've had in his position, "Let's try this again, Twister. This time don't even think, just trust your instincts."

As hard as it was for me, I did as Swiftheart said and let my mind go blank. I crouched down and pounced as high as I could and landed right on top of Swiftheart. As soon as I landed, he rolled over, grabbing me and flinging me to the ground along the way. When I got up and looked at him, he was standing and snarling at me, ready to attack.

He stopped snarling and said, "Nice try, kid."

"That looks easy, let me try!" Blaze said.

"Ok, let me tell you how-" Swiftheart started.