“If there are no rules against it,” Matt replied as he sat down and watched the rest of the Dragons make their way up the wall, “then it’s not cheating.”
“He has a point,” David agreed.
“Who has a point?” Tyler grunted as he pulled himself up beside Matt.
“Never mind,” David replied.
“Never mind what?” Cass asked as Tyler helped her up.
“Who cares?” Elizabeth groaned as she pulled herself up onto the wall, “Ooh, what are we doing up here so early in the morning?? And whose bright idea was it to have a family meeting thirty meters up in the air??”
David grinned in sympathy, “Sorry, Elizabeth. I forgot you don’t like heights.”
“So can I blame you for this?”
“Sorry, Destiny’s your target.”
“Good luck on that,” Amy laughed as she pulled herself up between Kathryn and David. “I’ve had better luck catching ghosts than that bird.”
“You catch ghosts?” Cass looked at her doubtfully.
“Ghosts?” Natalie shrieked as her head came into view. “What about ghosts?”
Lindsey’s head followed Natalie’s feet as she echoed Natalie’s cry, “Who’s seen a ghost?”
“Amy, you handle this,” David laughed.
As Amy proceeded to explain to the two girls that there were really no such things as ghosts or spirits and that she had merely been using it as an illustration, Luke’s head popped up next to David. “Hey, scoot down make some room!”
Everyone who was perched on the wall cautiously shuffled over a meter or so.
“Wow, nice view!”
“We’ve covered that already,” Kathryn told him.
Leia and Daniel appeared next, followed by Rachel with Jenna bringing up the rear. The fourteen sat in contented silence as the sun rose, appreciating the quiet and peace of the early morning. Each grateful for their own reasons.
Finally Luke asked, “What’s on the agenda today, O Great Leader?”
“Getting down for one,” he began resisting the sudden urge to look down. “And sparring.”
“That should be fun,” Tyler said.
“The sparring or getting down?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’ll help you down Elizabeth,” Kathryn offered.
“How?”
“I’ll wrap a vine around you and lower you to the ground.”
Elizabeth looked terrified at the idea. “Lower me to the ground? Um…I think I’ll take my chances on the arrows.”
“It’s not that bad,” David assured her. “She used it to haul me up this morning—
“And you claim I cheated!” Matt exclaimed.
Thirty minutes later they were all on the ground and the breaching arrows had been plucked from the stone.
“Now what?” Matt asked brightly, shifting lightly from foot to foot in eager anticipation of what might occur next.
“Can we eat?” Tyler groused.
“Great idea!” Matt dashed into the house, pulling a startled Cass with him, before David could reply.
Half of the remaining Dragons turned to David in anticipation. Shaking his head in amusement, David laughed. “Well he is right. It is a good idea.”
A moment later Cass poked her head out the door and yelled out for Daniel to fetch a ham hock from the smoke house.
Matt and Cass cooked up a delicious breakfast and the group enjoyed a rare family breakfast filled with friendliness and ease, without any false pretenses or stress.
“Here’s the plan,” David began after all the dishes had been cleared. “It’s been brought to my attention that, while we’ve all learned to work with our shift members, we are having a much harder time working with anyone else. It’s time to rectify that.”
“By one mass training day?” Tyler asked doubtfully.
David shook his head. “Not one, but seven. We’re taking the week off to train.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Are you sure the Council will approve? They frown on families taking such a long absence from the people.”
“I’ve already written my intent to them and they have responded favorably,” David assured her. He didn’t feel it would be wise to admit to her that he would have done it with or without their permission.
“So what’s up first?”
“We spar. Everyone get your training weapons.”
A little while later, David led the way to the sparring ground and watched as his teammates formed a circle around him.
Daniel, Luke, and Natalie set up the training weapons trestle and each Guardian set down their weapons until they each held their sword and a pair of daggers. He motioned Kathryn to join him in the center. She did, looking slightly apprehensive.
Jenna must have been feeling similarly because she asked, “Kathryn, are you sure you’re strong enough for a full week of training?”
“You did clear me for a full return to duties.”
“For
light
duties,” Jenna clarified.
“Training is light. Besides, it’s David I’m worried about. I don’t want to break him.”
David sent her a mock glare. “Thank you for your concern. Okay. Kathryn, you and I have never fought each other. We’re going to today.” He turned and looked at the rest of his family. “Matt,” he singled out their cook who couldn’t quite keep still. “Who haven’t you fought yet?”
Matt looked around. “I’ve trained with most everybody here,” he finally admitted.
David felt some surprise when the rest of the group voiced the same opinion. “So are Kathryn and I the only pair who haven’t sparred?”
“Go get the dessert, Matt,” Luke laughed. “This should be good.”
Kathryn pointed her sword at him. “You’re next.”
“Excuse me while I start running now.”
David rolled his eyes.
What have I gotten myself into?
“Well pair up with someone you haven’t sparred with…or who you don’t usually spar with. I want everyone to do the same. I want you to fight three times and then find someone else until you’ve fought everyone.”
After the initial confusion of finding someone they hadn’t sparred with in a while and finding someone who wasn’t already paired up with someone else, the Dragons were ready.
David held his sword at the ready and was surprised when Kathryn dropped her sword and grabbed her knives.
Matt chuckled from behind him. “I hope you enjoy eating grass.”
Ignoring his friend, David lunged forward and prepared for a vicious cut across the abdomen.
Suddenly, Kathryn was beside him, close enough to touch, and his blade was swiping empty air. The impact of her practice weapon hitting his Cirin armor knocked the breath from his lungs. An instant later her hilt slammed into his hand, which opened reflexively, and his sword dropped from his hand. A powerful backhand swing caught him once in the chest and he dropped like a stone.
“How did you do that?” He asked between gulps of air, he still hadn’t regained his breath from her initial strike.
“Practice.” She held out her hand and helped him up.
This time, he attacked more cautiously…a tactic which didn’t end up doing him any good. She blocked his side thrust with ease and spun out of range. He strode forward with a devastating downward strike—
She parried upward, bringing one of her knives up and around her head, and smoothly began a strike at his ear. As he moved to block, her other knife whipped down and caught him across the thigh, distracting him enough to get her ear strike in. A sudden jerk of her foot around his ankle and he was sitting on the grass again.
He rubbed his stinging ear, grateful that she had at least slowed down the momentum of her weapon at the last second to a sharp tap instead of a killing blow. He could no longer doubt Matt’s earlier words.
Kathryn was good.
Really good.
Her hand appeared in his line of vision and he gracefully accepted.
This time he would wait for her to strike first. She didn’t disappoint him. She lunged at him, a powerful downward strike which he evaded. He aimed a side strike at her that she easily parried. Then she reached over his hilt to cover his hand with her own and yanked towards her, David stumbled forward, and felt his sword forced from his grasp as she twisted to the right, leaving him an arm lock.
“I surrender!”
She released him immediately and he retrieved his sword. “Where did you learn to fight like that?” He asked in disbelief. The ease and swiftness with which she had disarmed him was frightening, even for a Guardian.
“Same place you did, at school.”
Before David could continue his line of questioning, Tyler came up and claimed Kathryn for his next partner.
Putting his questions aside, David focused on his new partner, Daniel. His technique was subtler than Kathryn's but no less devastating, just in a different way. Carefully David mapped out his plan. Daniel was nowhere near as powerful as David when it came to brute strength, but he had an agile-ness to his fighting style that reminded David of a wolf.
Suddenly, Daniel smiled.
"What?" David asked cautiously.
His opponent shook his head. "Nothing. Are you ready?"
In answer, David lunged at him, but to his surprise, Daniel was already moving and deftly avoided his strike, landing one of his own. Astonished, David studied Daniel carefully. The younger man had moved as fast as Kathryn had...and with the same effectiveness and ease. Suspicious David ran through all of his memories of watching Daniel fight. Before he could even go through half of them, Daniel attacked with a high strike aimed at David's temple. David blocked but Daniel used the momentum from the collision to bounce his blade off of David's and whip it around for a strike at his midsection.
Moving to the right, David brought his own sword down in a sweeping block, moving their swords over their heads and to the left. Daniel brought up his elbow in a strike at David's nose. David ducked and, balancing on one leg, struck out at one of Daniel's legs. Amazingly, Daniel moved aside and brought his elbow down on David's shoulder. David let the elbow hit and then used the added momentum to roll out of Daniel's reach. Deciding that finesse was not going to win him this battle, David abandoned all subtlety and attacked with all of his energy.
Impressively, Daniel managed to block all of his moves and David disengaged, moving back a few feet. "How did you get this good?" He panted. "You didn't fight like this before."
Daniel grinned at him. "You make it easy."
I make it easy?
David pondered his words. As if lightning had struck him, Daniel's words suddenly made sense. "You're reading my mind." It wasn't a question.
Daniel's grin widened. "I really remind you of a wolf?"
David shook his head in disbelief. "Alright, you’ve made your point. So teach me, how do I fight a mind reader?"
Daniel paused a moment, finally he said, "By emptying your mind."
David frowned. "How?"
For a minute that actually seemed to stump Daniel. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "Ask Kathryn, I can't glean anything from her mind when I fight her."
"Of course you can't," David muttered. Seeing that Tyler was waiting, David released Daniel as his partner and sought out Amy.
From the moment they began to spar he could see Kathryn's influence over her fighting. Like Kathryn, Amy fought with a single minded determination that David found disconcerting. Kathryn must have drilled Amy in speed and reflex drills because she was faster than he had expected. However, unlike Kathryn, Amy fought with a fiery ferocity that was exactly opposite of Kathryn's icy intensity. Amy came at him like a whirlwind, her sword flashing whereas Kathryn came at him like a predator who had cut off all avenues of escape. He wasn't sure which technique scared him more.
After two more radians of continuous sparing, David finally called a halt.
"Finally!" Matt groaned as he sank to the ground and rubbed his sore forearms. "I thought you'd have us sparring all day."
Natalie laughed. "Come on, Matt. It isn't that bad!"
He glared at her. "This from the girl who's started using her knives rather than her sword."
Natalie shrugged. "They're lighter and faster," she said with a wicked gleam in her eye.
David looked at Kathryn. "You're a bad influence, you know that right?"
Before she could answer, Matt spoke up mournfully. "Has anyone seen Lacey? I haven't been able to find her for the last two days.”
One by one all of the Dragons voiced negative answers. "Where is she?" Matt groaned. "I'm worried sick!"
Destiny swooped down and landed on the grass beside him.
Matt eyed her apprehensively. "You wouldn't."
Destiny stared back at him.
Matt's expression became sorrowful. "You couldn't!"
Destiny opened her beak and belched.
"She did!" Natalie chirped cheerfully.
"Kathryn, I'm going to kill your bird."
"Before the feathers start flying," Jenna spoke up. "You might want to eat lunch first."
The redhead eyed Destiny with malicious intent. "You're right," he agreed. "She's easier to catch when she's full." He led the group back to the house and together, he and Cass, served lunch, which consisted of cold sandwiches, fruit, and cold water. Matt picked up and tilted a large stein. As he took a long swallow of his drink, Matt became aware that there was something big moving in his mouth.