Survival

“Okay, so a technique that we’ve noticed the humans do frequently is this,” Tobias explained, moving his blade to perform the specific attack. It moved upwards, then suddenly sliced down and forwards, which could lead to a lethal jab in the torso region of the opponent. “So, my favourite move is blocking that, and flicking the knife out of their hand.”

“Fair enough. How do you do it?” I wondered.

“Guess. Analyse the movement and think how you’d attempt to prevent it yourself,” Tobias challenged me as he repositioned himself. He repeated the move a few times and I carefully watched, trying to spot any sort of weak moment that I could possibly take advantage of. It was tricky to notice anything. The blade being moved up high deceives you and makes you prepare for an attack from that angle, but then the next thing you know it has changed direction and is moving very fast.

“I don’t know but… I don’t think it would be wise to try and block it once it’s changed direction. It seems to be moving far too quickly to defend without hurting yourself or failing,” I answered.

“Uh… Partly right…” Tobias said. “You’re correct because once that final movement has started, it’s pretty dangerous to try and stop. However, if you attack right at the start, when the blade has just changed direction and is speeding up, it’s the perfect time to stop it.”

“How is that?” I questioned with a frown. Tobias performed the manoeuvre once more, then started it in slow motion.

“You can’t move now,” he said as his hand moved to the upwards stage. “Naturally, your mind will always be preparing for that heightened attack. Also, trying anything then leaves yourself open in other ways, and you might get kicked or punched with their free limbs.”

“Okay, I can see that…” I muttered. Tobias then shifted to the transition phase.

“Here you can see that the opponent is changing their strategy. You realise they’re doing this move, so you can strike straight away. This is the weak spot. Their wrists are different to ours, a lot weaker because they’re a bit more flexible. So during the angle change, you can whack the blade, strain the wrist, usually make them drop their weapon, prevent the attack and give yourself the advantage in the fight,” Tobias finished, giving a rather triumphant smile afterwards. That was very interesting. I wondered how long it had taken for him, or someone else, to come up with the defence strategy for the common human technique. A drop of water hit my head and I looked up to see clouds. It was starting to rain.

“Well, should we head inside and continue this another day?” I suggested.

“What, are you afraid of getting your hair wet or something?” he asked with a little laugh. I rolled my eyes and the tease.

“No, I just didn’t think you guys trained in the rain,” I replied, feeling another few drops hit me.

“Some training we can’t do in the rain, and sometimes we do call it quits if we’ve had a good day of practicing already. But we can keep going. I have to push you because you’re behind the rest of us,” Tobias answered seriously. Adara’s group was landing behind us and putting their weapons down underneath shelter on the island before flying back to their spaceship. For some reason, I wasn’t even jealous. It didn’t matter to me that I was standing in an increasingly heavy and increasingly cold shower of large raindrops. I was training, and that was so important. “So, let’s keep going.”

“Alright, teach me the technique,” I agreed with a small nod.

“Okay, so your opponent’s hand will be up around here to start with, right?” Tobias said, holding one of his hands in the general area as he moved closer to me. “So you will be in your battle stance…”

“Right,” I muttered as I positioned myself accordingly.

“And you need to move quickly from there, up in this sweeping kind of motion like this…” Tobias explained, grabbing my hand gently and pushing it in the defending movement. Our blades slowly touched, signalling the end of the process. Toby let go of my wrist and I realised just how warm his gentle touch had been in the rain. “Let’s practice that, just slowly to start with. Then we’ll speed up and then I’ll teach you another one.” I smiled and nodded, preparing myself to try it.

We practiced for probably an hour in the rain, with Toby showing me how to attack or defend, and me attempting to do my best to master the movements. Some were quite tricky, and much more complex sequences of movements that Otto had never taught me. The more I thought about it, the more I realised Otto wasn’t much of a fighter. Loukas was more skilled than him, and Tobias trumped them both. It was such an honour to have him training me personally, and without any others to interfere either. Just me and him, one on one, and I knew I was making a lot of progress. It ended sooner than I wanted, with Tobias claiming we would become sick if we didn’t go inside soon, so we did. Completely soaked, we flew back to our spaceship and parted ways, heading to opposite floors because that’s where our bedrooms were. There, I took a warm shower to heat myself back up, then spent the time leading up to dinner preening my feathers as some were now out of place. Feeling a bit sleepy, I trudged downstairs to the dining room and stood in line patiently. When I was finally getting my food, Tobias suddenly was at my side, roughly pushing past Sylus who was next to me, trying to squeeze in.

“Uh, Marion will get a male’s sized meal now. Thanks,” he told the cook that was serving me food. With a charming smile from Tobias, the cook nodded her agreement and then shovelled an extra large spoonful of potatoes onto my plate.

“Thank you,” I breathed, rather shocked he had done that. I guess it hadn’t really sunken in yet that I was officially training.

“Don’t worry about it. Enjoy your meal,” Toby replied. He left the line after giving a quick grin to Sylus and headed back to his seat. I shuffled down to the next cook to receive some meat.

“I heard your training went well today,” Sylus said as he was handed two protein drinks.

“It did. I’m really glad it did, as well,” I smiled, moving along to receive my two drinks as well. Warriors needed extra protein, because protein built muscle. It was already such a crucial part of our diet because of our strong wings, but even more so when you were fighting.

“You should come and join us,” Sylus offered as we reached the end of the line, just grabbing some cutlery before we went to find a seat.

“Really? Me sit with you and Tobias and… everyone else?” I stammered, too shocked to think properly, let alone get words out correctly. Sylus chuckled lightly, seemingly understanding my surprise.

“Yeah, why not? You’re one of us now, aren’t you?” he replied. Sylus then gestured his head in the direction of Tobias’ table as he picked up his heavy tray of food. “Come on!” I grinned back at the fellow warrior, then followed him to the table. Sylus and I sat together, just a few Kasiens away from Tobias who grinned when he saw me joining everyone. I could feel others watching me as well, but I didn’t care. Hell, I was being accepted for who I was. It was the best thing in the world, and no one could bring me down.