Survival

The next day I ate breakfast alone. Tobias was ignoring me and staying close to his male friends and Brienne was sitting with her parents. Otto was engrossed in deep conversation with Adara and Loukas, so I had assumed he didn’t want to be disturbed. Every time a male from my group walked past me looking for a seat, I received either a glare or no acknowledgement whatsoever. I couldn’t get over how invisible I was to them, and if it wasn’t invisible, it was hated. They all despised me for what seemed like petty reasons. It made me wish that I hadn’t grown up on the spaceship that I had. If I had only been on the same one as Otto, I would have such a different life. I’d be accepted by my own kind. With a frown, I ate the berries, the last thing on my plate, which only reminded me of the absence of my friend and the lack of friends overall. Slowly, one by one, I popped them in my mouth, wondering what I was going to do today. Maybe more sewing clothes for the children. Perhaps there was something that needed a good cleaning. That was all I was good for apparently… A hand graced my shoulder, making me jump a little.

“Meet me 500 metres south of the spaceship once you’re done,” Otto’s voice whispered near my ear. I glanced up at him as my mouth started to form the beginning of a question, but he was already walking away from me. Why did he want to see me, and if he needed privacy, why couldn’t it just be in my room again? I became too intrigued by the mystery, so quickly swallowed down the fruit and headed outside. I walked the distance, keeping my wings retracted behind me so they didn’t get caught on the rather dense bush that was behind the spacecraft. I walked away from the beach, counting my steps so I would know when I was approximately 500 metres away. But I didn’t need to. I entered a clearing sooner than I had expected, and Otto, Adara and Loukas were all there waiting for me.

“What’s going on?” I asked. I heard the hesitation in my voice, even though I had tried to hide it. Otto just smiled his gentle smile and took a few steps towards me.

“We wanted to talk to you about yesterday’s incidence, about fighting,” he said simply. “There’s something within you, Marion, a fire that a lot of warriors lack. I think you can harness it and become a great fighter.”

“But I can’t. Tobias won’t let me, I thought we’d already been through that,” I argued.

“That’s why we’re here. We want to train you in secret,” Loukas informed me.

“You do?” I stammered. This couldn’t be happening… It must be a dream!

“Yes. Males aren’t the only ones who can fight. We’ve had many battles that have proved that female warriors are a great asset,” Adara piped up. “Your leader may not know this now, but it might be too late once he realises. You need to be prepared now.”

“Exactly. You never know when you might be needed in a fight, so you have to know precisely what you’re doing,” Otto said.

“I’m… I’m so grateful… Thank you. Really, thank you!” I managed to say as I smiled widely.

“Don’t think it’ll be easy,” Loukas smirked as he crossed his arms. The movement exaggerated his bulky arms, reminding me that I would be fighting against males who were bigger and stronger than me. It would definitely be a challenge.

“We won’t go easy on you,” Adara added.

“Good. I need to make up for the time I’ve lost,” I replied, trying to remain calm. Inside I was a bumbling excited wreck. It was such a massive opportunity.

“We were thinking that one of us would meet you here throughout the day and train you. We are the leaders of our group so can be trusted, and have the most knowledge and skills. Of course you’ll still need to find time to do other tasks that are required of you from your own group, and lie to your friends and leader. No one can know about this,” Otto said sternly. I nodded, completely understanding. It would be easy to lie to Tobias, since I did it all the time. Little white lies never hurt anyone anyway…

“I get it; it’ll be tough on me. But I need to do this,” I told them, partially pleading. I watched as they all exchanged glances, and then Otto turned to face me again.

“Well then, let’s begin, shall we?” he suggested. I grinned and nodded, very eager to get started. Loukas walked over to a large tree and picked up a dark brown bag.

“This is where we’ll store our training weapons. It’s pretty camouflaged,” he said as he picked out some knives. After he passed them to Otto, he turned to face me and his leader. “I will go and keep an eye on Tobias and the other warriors. I’ll learn information about the gun as well, and relay it.”

“Good. See you later,” Otto nodded, dismissing Loukas. The blonde male and his white wings disappeared into the dense forest in the direction of the spaceship as Otto handed me and Adara a knife each, keeping one for himself. “First lesson, basic defence skills. Watch me and Adara in general combat. Let’s pretend I’m the attacker.” I took a few steps backwards and watched both of them fall back into a fighting stance. Then Otto moved forward, and both of them performed some elegant moves with the dulled blades. I kept my eyes mainly on Adara and was very impressed with how smoothly she moved. Her body was constantly at a distance from the offending knife and her hand could always shift to strongly block the attack. They finished once Adara knocked the knife out of Otto’s hand.

“It’s very refreshing to see a female do that,” I admitted, earning a grin from Adara.

“We’re lighter than males, so we can move faster and more gracefully. This is a much easier task for a female,” she said before beckoning for me to come forward. I stood next to her and did my best to mimic her stance. My knees were bent, torso angled away from Otto and his weapon, my own weapon extended in my dominant hand, and my wings tucked behind me, but tense enough to attempt to take flight if needed.

“Good positioning,” Otto commented as he retrieved his knife. “Be agile and quick on your feet. Let’s see how you do without any pointers.” I readied myself and angled my wrist in what I thought was a good position to start off in. It was how I had seen Tobias teach a younger male, so was how I always held my blades. Otto came forward and I moved my arm, managing to block his attack. He came back a lot quicker than I expected and almost caught me off guard. My wrist twisted to try to block, and Otto picked up on this. With a forceful flicking motion, he was able to apply pressure to my strangely positioned wrist, causing me to drop my weapon. I smiled and froze because it was over. He had won, and if this had been a life or death battle, I would have been a goner.

“There’s a lot to be learned,” Adara remarked and I nodded at her. She was right. I was useless. No wonder Tobias didn’t want me there in battle…